itch.io

Best feedback I've ever seen, thank you very much! :)

Hey, JamesMiller13! Glad you had fun with our game and found the movement mechanics enjoyable! Just to offer some clarification, the black square that occasionally covers most of the arena is a bugged art asset that doesn't properly render in the current build. You can imagine that a large pool of lava forms around the eye, making it dangerous to approach. If you want to survive and make it to the other bosses, I'd recommend hugging the edge of the arena and eventually the attack will end, allowing you to continue your onslaught. Either way, thank you very much for your feedback! :)

Yes, if I would be allowed to, then I would love to! :)

Thank you! :)

When I click on the link to join the discord, I'm told the invite is invalid. I would really like to find a team to collaborate with, as I am a music composer/producer. I would appreciate some assistance! :)

Hey, nerdwellrounded! I'm the music composer of the project, and I wanted to thank you for your feedback!

I'm glad you enjoyed the movement and that the learning curve felt natural! The black square on the screen is indeed an incomplete asset we couldn't finish before the deadline, you can imagine a pool of lava around the eye boss. If you want to avoid it, just hug the edges of the screen and the black void will fade soon enough. The laser telegraph was also something that I agree needed more work, though I'm ultimately happy that we submitted a finished build at all. I'm also really touched you enjoyed the music! Thank you once again for your feedback, take care! :)

Hello, everyone! I am a young music composer/producer looking to expand my portfolio through participating in game jams. I have some really emotional music that I'm looking to use as part of a greater project, and I'd be happy to let it be used by any teams in this jam as long as I am credited appropriately as the composer. If you're interested, please reach out with a reply. Thank you! :)

Also, for any moderators who may be reading this, I'd like to disclose that I am 17 years old. With that being said, I would appreciate the opportunity to have my music be used, even if I'm not credited as a team member and am ineligible for any prizes. Would this be possible?

I appreciate your thoughts! I did actually finish the mastering after submission, I'll likely edit the page with an updated player after the jam has concluded. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece's composition, though! :)

I'm so happy you enjoyed it! :)

Oooh, I love the dreamy aquatic vibe you captured! All the instruments blended together well, and worked in tandem with the sound design to transport me into that watery world you created. The production is simple, though I think it's to the benefit of the wonderful composition that really leaned into the ambiance and melted into the background, allowing for near total immersion. I don't have much to critique, except that the piece cut off a *tiny* bit abruptly. It's normally not a problem that I tend to focus on, but with ambient pieces such as this, it does unfortunately remind my brain that much quicker that I am not living in an aquatic paradise...and that sucks. That aside, great job! :)

I really like the orchestration on this track, and I think you did an excellent job producing it with the tools you had available! My one primary nitpick is that the staccato and pizzicato strings were a bit too strong in the mix and somewhat took away from the atmosphere of the background rather than supporting it. I would recommend quieting them a bit and adding a bit of reverb, and as letina suggested, adding some variety to the quantization to create a more natural feeling. With that being said, I think the vibe you captured ultimately resonates very well with the theme and the vision you were trying to achieve, A great job, and I look forward to your future works! :)

Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed! :)

Super happy you enjoyed my narrative take on the theme! I definitely agree that the mixing wasn't my best with this submission, I hope I'll be able to improve it for the next jam! :)

Happy you enjoyed it! I tried to make good use of a central motif, glad you caught it! :)

Glad you enjoyed it! I'm rather proud of that piece! :D

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

If you're working on bullet hells, I have experience. Reach out if this ever becomes real ;-)
Also this piece is godlike! :D

Might as well throw my hat in the ring. Would love some extra feedback if you haven't already! :D https://itch.io/jam/ost-composing-jam-7/rate/2831296

For this jam, I wanted to use a lot of my new instruments and sounds in the Komplete 14 Collector's Edition, specifically their solo string quartet, action drums, and BEAUTIFUL plucked nylon guitar. I use Ableton Live 11 Suite and made roughly one track per day. My composition process was mostly the same for each track:

• Turn on your computer, breathe (write that down), and open your DAW
• Decide on a direction/vibe for the piece
• Look for an instrument to load into the first track
• Mess around for 2 hours until I have a chord progression
• Load a viola/violin into the second track and come up with a melody
• Put some ocean wave sounds over everything
• ***BASIC LOOP COMPLETE***
• Duplicate the section, load and compose 1-3 new instrument parts to add DYNAMIC VARIATION
• Repeat the prior step a few times until the song is of appropriate length
• ***SONG DRAFT COMPLETE***
• Add some variation in the structuring, like a buildup or a delayed resolution
• Add EFFECTS to the tracks, such as reverb, reverb, or alternatively, reverb
  
• Make sure that everything feels cohesive with what you've already written, and that it's solid in general
• Do some MIXING (adjust gain levels,  and pray the VSTs do the rest)
• Do some MASTERING (run Ozone 11 on the master, laugh since it thought you wrote a rock piece, and set it to cinematic)
• Do some QUALITY CONTROL (actually make sure the piece sounds good enough to show to hundreds of people and potentially some industry professionals who you would love to be in their position one day and would desperately love to earn their feedback)
• ***FINAL SONG COMPLETE***
• Wait a few days
• Develop self-doubts
• Post your song to the discord server and beg for feedback
• Get mostly positive feedback
• Tell yourself that you need to do way more with the time you have
• ...change literally one thing
• Rerun Ozone 11 and submit the master before you can change your mind
• ***FINAL SONG COMPLETE, FOR REAL***

This is a very scuffed and lighthearted take on my composition process, but it's honestly not that far off. I always start with a solid loop and continue to add instruments to create a bunch of dynamic levels that would hopefully phase between each other as the track evolves inside of a video game. I leaned into my strengths with this jam, all while utilizing my infinite new Kontakt libraries and instruments. Overall, I'm happy with what I've been able to accomplish. If you're interested in rating my project, please check it out here, I'd love to hear your feedback! :D

This is one of the most coherent soundtracks I have heard in this jam. Well composed, but restrained and quiet in its presentation. The curated instruments are beautiful together, though I do think the tracks feel a little too similar overall, and I wish it went in some more different directions both compositionally and with regards to production, as I'm confident you could have maintained that central cohesion so integral to the OST. Overall a great submission, and definitely fits the vision you were aiming for.

Solid submission, the vibes are there and they are strong! The compositions are enjoyable but could use way more variety, and the production was good but there's definitely room for improvement. In particular, I really enjoyed "Delivery!" and "Treacherous Space". I also liked your story as displayed on your itch.io page. Good job! :D

Wow, this level of detail in such a short time is an unfathomable feat, yet it's one you accomplished perfectly. The quality of the music is really strong, both compositionally and in production quality. But the real amazing feat here is how you weaved these tracks into a meaningful story through your descriptions and well-produced video. Some of my favorite tracks were "Their World" and "Fight for Whom". Amazing job! :D

This is some great ambiance, really loved the sounds you used and your overall production. It feels so effortlessly simplistic and fades into the background like a perfect score should. I echo some criticisms mentioned in other comments, but overall I enjoyed just listening to this in the background. Would love to see a game use this score, as you've permitted.

What a fun submission! Quality is on point, and I loved the creativity in your compositions. The first track was elegant and thoughtful, and I got lost in the melodies paired with the ambient guitar and keys. The Owl Encounter started off ominous and creepy with excellent use of string techniques, only to subvert my expectations with a whimsy latter half. I wasn't expecting the final track to be a creative machine-heavy boss theme that still kept my immersion through the presence of those delicate strings, perfectly meshing together with the synths and foley. Gotta give credit where credit's due, I don't have anything to criticize. Amazing job. :D

The vibes are immaculate here, what an ominous vibe you've managed to capture with your compositions. You use pizzicato strings and atmospheric instruments to such an effective degree, creating a true aura of sneakiness and scariness, perfectly aligning with your cover art. Great job! :D

Dreamy and sweet, but the master is very quiet.

These sounds have my attention in an iron grip and refuse to let go, I like how you use these overlapping electronic sounds and synth patterns to surround the user with layers of music to listen to. My mind bounces from analyzing the pads to riding the synth arpeggios up and down. Overall, a solid submission! :)

The ambiance is stunningly immersive. The piano is beautiful, the atmospheric strings are so dreamy, and I could listen to these loops for hours on end. Great job! :D

I really enjoyed this soundtrack! The instrumentation feels very whimsy but still manages to keep me immersed and entertained. I loved the guitar present throughout the OST, and while I do think some tracks overstayed their welcome, I nonetheless enjoyed and can confidently say this deserves more ratings. Great job! :D

Damn, this is a vibe. I adore the foley in these tracks, blending computer beeps with ocean waves. The dreamy ambient pads in Power On let the foley wash over me like waves, the guitars in Booting Up were pleasant and lulled me into a sense of comfort, only to turn to slight discomfort in the face of /dev/null. But nothing could have prepared me for the intensity that was the second half of In My World. Freed My Memory was a solid ending. Overall, great sampling and composition! :D

Wow, what a beautiful OST! I agree with what others say about MIDI-like piano, but otherwise, these orchestrations had me completely immersed in the world from the very first track. Most of the instruments sound great, and the production is solid as a whole, but the actual composition work is great. I love this! :D

This is incredibly creative, I really like your varied orchestration and overall quality! You took me to a lot of different places. Great job with your submission! :D

Damn, this orchestration is great. The quality of the instruments is stunning, and the mixing was overall very solid. I really loved Trials, Be Strong for Me, and Overcome in particular, I definitely feel the inspiration from Ori and the Blind Forest (which is great, because I ALSO LOVE ORI). Overall, great job! :D

Wow, this is nice. Minus some distortion here and there, the vibes and composition are great, there are some very experimental practices here that keep me on my toes, like the arpeggios and ambience in the second track, but overall it's a great listen. Good job! :D

This is it. This is the one. I'm kind of at a loss for words, the beauty and artistry on display are phenomenal, with incredible composition, orchestration, and production. I feel truly immersed in the world you've created when I listen, and it inspires me to strive for such potent emotion and quality in my music. Just like rahsaan.lacey, this is my front-runner for the jam. Incredible job! :D

Those strings are beautiful! BEAUTIFUL, I SAY! That orchestration is great overall, with little to critique. The climax at 1:17 is epic as can be, and I really love that there wasn't too much percussion, but it was rather used to occasionally and subtly support the rest of the instruments. It does clip out with the cut-off cello at the very end, feels unintentional. Otherwise, phenominal job! :D

This submission caught me off guard with how it grabbed my attention. I enjoyed listening to how the first piece evolved from the intro's calm ambience giving way to a lovely hybrid-orchestral buildup, all with these beautiful vocals over it. Then the second piece came with more intense and electronic sounds, but still keeping that orchestral core and those vocals. While the mixing and sound curation could use some work, the creativity and composition are very nice and overall I like the submission. Great job! :D

Wow, there's so much variation here! The composition and production are so beautifully immersive and effortlessly transport me into the world you've crafted. I have very little to criticize, so I'll try and go into detail about what I loved. First of all, the guitars heavily present throughout this OST were a very pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of your third track, Past Life. Face Your Fear was a jaw-dropping head-bopping boss track. Overall, an absolutely incredible submission that just might deserve to stand in the Top 20. Great job! :D

Short and sweet: that's what this submission is to me. The atmospheric elements get me immersed in the flow of the tracks, and the chiptune synths for the melodic components are incredibly charming. I wish the tracks transitioned between each other more easily, even if just through fade-outs. Overall though, you nailed the theme wonderfully. Great job! :D