I think this fits retropunk, it's very 80's synth, in fact, that first keyboard sound I was expecting it to jump scare me into "having a wonderful christmas time"! But the melody departs from 80's and gives it a more future feel. I don't hear noir at all. I think it would fit a busy future cityscape, or would go well with a pacy puzzle game (e.g. shapez/beltmatic).
I don't know if the broken bass/drum pattern part quite works, maybe a little too broken for the style. But it does add some interest in wondering where the timing lies, and the drums actually come in faster than you think they would. Something about the snare bothers me with whether it gels with the other instruments - I wonder if it needed to be more drum machine-sounding, or has a little overdrive to stop it sounding so clean. Maybe in some places it could do with a little more reverb on the keyboards, give it a more floaty feel?
Play soundtrack
Cyberpunk Airwaves's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall - Is this game fun and great in all aspects? | #5 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
| Theme - how well do the game make use of the theme? | #7 | 1.333 | 1.333 |
| How retropunk is the game (style, gameplay, aestethics and so on)? | #7 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
| Overall | #7 | 2.222 | 2.222 |
Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Thanks for the comment.
Well the noir I guess I missed completely.
I made the drums like that on purpose, didn't want to have the regular 4/4 up down beat.
I don't really like putting much reverb on keyboards unless I'm trying to make it sound huge, this was not that kind of a track.
Overdrive on the drums would make it take up more frequencies that I want to leave to synth, so I don't have problems with phase when widening the whole mix.
Hope this explains my thoughts.
Once again thank you for taking the time to comment, always happy to hear others thoughts on my work!
Submitting a soundtrack for a game jam is a bold move in a way, and it is hard to rate it in the same context as other submissions, but I will at least give some comments.
To me, the music is a blend between synthwave and the classic arcade/console game soundtrack of japanese origins.
Synthwave have in some sense turned into modern retro cyberpunk music, so in that aspect it fits the jam, but to me it is a bit too "up-beat" to fit the cyber noir theme of the jam.
In my mind, I see it really fit some kind of cyberpunk themed racing game, more in the line of Mirror's Edge (i.e. not the dark and gloomy cyberpunk) than Blade Runner. Given that it is a really nice track to listen to.
Rating music is extreme subjective. And in a game, I would have many parameters to think about; not here. On top, some of the rating questions don't apply at all but I try to interpret them for sound only.
I like the melody line but I think the accords get repetitive too fast. It would be interesting to have another version without them. In my opinion they are too much "on the nose" and undermine the flow of the melody.
Is this retropunk? The synthwave is there but I miss the 80s drive in it.
And the theme? Cyber yes, noir less. I do not have the impression there's Noir anywhere in it.
So it's a valid music for a range of Cyberpunk but not especially retro or noir ones, in my opinion.
So it's a short track, like a showcase of what can be done in a short amount of time.
My idea behind the few repetitive chords is - You hear them, they enhance atmosphere and that's it. It's repetitive, you know whats coming, you focus on the game. Music is still here and doing its thing but not stealing attention during game play.
That is my general idea behind repetitive music. Again it's just a quick showcase, even with this idea of repetitive, depending on the game I like to make longer loops so it doesn't get "old" so fast.
Generally ideal loop shouldn't be under 02:30 for me, depends on the person.
On the Noir point I can't say anything back. Music will always be partly subjective and someone will hear it the way I hear it and find my idea, someone won't. That will never change and that's okay because it's the reason for more diverse genres and sub genres.
Thank you for your opinion and for taking the time to comment.
I'd be happy if you liked it more, maybe another track :')
Have a great one Captain Perl!
(Also excuse my english, not my first language)
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.