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A jam submission

Patient Zero OSTView project page

Made for OST Composing Jam #7
Submitted by VannaDeltaFox — 12 seconds before the deadline
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Patient Zero OST's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#144.3164.316
Impression#843.8903.890
Quality#1113.9343.934
Overall#1223.7933.793
Composition#2303.6033.603
Correlation to theme#4273.2213.221

Ranked from 136 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • The choice of textures here is definitely interesting, and incorporating non-musical elements (like the speaking) definitely lends this submission a very unique feeling! I appreciated that you felt the need to mix it up frequently while not departing too far from your overall style and tone. Along those lines, I would encourage you to think about structure a little more on a per-track basis. What story does each one tell? At times I felt that you were leading me in a particular direction and then choosing to move in a new one that felt like it didn’t “fit”. You seem like you have a really unique perspective from the perspective of tone and the sonic palette, but it needs to move from point A to point B a little bit more sensibly and in a way that your audience can follow somewhat more easily I think. I will confess that I find the connection to the theme to be the biggest weakness of the submission insofar as the overall tone that it achieves is, in my mind, seems only tenuously connected to the theme. While I appreciate the attempt to connect it to the theme in the description, I just can’t get away from the overall more personal feel of "inside my world" and the more whimsical feel of the image, which I think this struggles to realistically meet. In the future, I think it would be better to fit your submissions to the theme rather than trying to let your statement fit the theme to your music, if that makes any sense. Overall it seems to me like you have some cool ideas about incorporating really neat electronic textures and I think your grasp on how the ambient feelings of your music affect the listener are strong (the described setting for your music does feel as if it matches the tone you are setting in the music). Additionally, I really appreciate that you have a lot of ideas to share— there’s not a lot of dwelling on one idea for too long. I think the biggest challenge for this entry is just that it is fairly incongruent with the theme, as the chosen style and tone are quite a departure from what I’m getting from both the text and the image prompts. I look forward to hearing you do more cool stuff in the future with electronic textures!

Description
A set of songs for an FPS game, made specifically for OST Composing Jam #7

Style: relatively old first-person shooter

You are a soldier whose world is on the verge of destruction by a race of mutants who have arrived from a recently destroyed world. You were sent through the portal with the goal of destroying “Patient Zero” - the child who was the first to be infected with the virus, and which gives rise to mutants and monsters.
But will you be able to destroy patient zero? And will this stop the takeover of your home planet?
...and who started the destruction of the worlds?

The genre... is changing.
Main emphasis on rock and industrial
I tried to make it in the style of old shooter soundtracks

My main inspirations:
Quake (Thanks to Trent Reznor!), Half Life, Doom and other shooters)

1 - Intro. Nothing interesting
2 - Abandoned Village
3 - OST caves
4 - Sewers
5 - Small battle theme in the sewers
6 - Sewer Boss - A huge underwater snake that makes strange noises
7 - Intro to the Industrial zone. Ride on a small train near the factories
8 - Theme of clashes on factory premises
9 - Theme "roofs". Climbing to the top of scaffolding and giant industrial buildings
10 - The boss is a huge mutant raven. Queen's "child"
11 - Respite
12 - Chase. The hero runs away from a revived crow through the city's ports
13 - Subway theme. Lights are turning off everywhere
14 - Relaxing in the Queen's Archives
15 - Battle of the Queen's Archives, where freezing devices are everywhere
16 - The theme of the battle in the abandoned temple
17 - The hero makes his way to the foot of the main techno-temple
18 - Battles inside the Techno Temple
19 - Final boss - The girl who was infected with the virus and gained control over the mutants
20 - Monologue from the unknown "New King"

Message from the artist
Thank you all so much for your comments and criticism! Being new to music and with little experience (only ~4 months), I'm very happy with your feedback! I'll take any advice. Thank you all!
Oh... yes... of course...
Be happy!

Theme

Inside my world
Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
My interpretation is this:
The main character went inside a world where there is a “patient zero” on a planet recently plunged into chaos. “Patient Zero” is a little girl who was the first to be infected with a virus that turns living organisms into aggressive mutants. But these mutants have a collective mind! And they all obey the very first infected - a little girl
“Inside my world” means the invasion of the protagonist, a soldier, into an alien world in order to destroy the “zero patient” before the armies of mutants destroy the protagonist’s home world.

Interpretation of the picture: the first locations are caves and sewers. The little girl is the main antagonist. The figure next to the girl is a mysterious man who accompanies the main character and speaks his monologue at the very end of the game

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/aleksej-kolosov-318295124/sets/patient-zero-full-ost

Number of tracks
20

Genre

Orchestral
Electronic
Rock/Metal
Ambient
Experimental
World/Ethnic
Synthwave/Retro

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY-NC)

Any non-commercial project

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Comments

Viewing comments 97 to 81 of 97 · Next page · Last page
Submitted

Really cool soundtrack. So creepy, got goosebumps from some track. My fav is probably Rock and Stalagmites, Cat and Mouse and Metro...

Submitted

How did you get this done?! I like the various effects you used here, very unique theme.

Submitted

Great works!!! Congratulations

Submitted

Very cool soundtrack! Really nailed the 90's fps vibe. Those boss fight tracks really bring the stank face out!

Submitted(+1)

Great work emulating the old school fps vibe. I love the use of bit crush effects and distortion throughout the soundtrack. This is really impressive for only making music for around 4 months and you should be very proud of it!

Developer

Heh, thanks!

I hope you liked the boss themes at least a little)

(+1)

I didn't play fps games too much in the past, but this definitely matches the vibe very well with the ones I have played. The Sound design was very fitting for the theme you presented, as it gave me that creepy feeling that something not normal was lurking somewhere nearby. 

Submitted(+1)

Beginning of Salvation: This is a really interesting track. Lots of creepy sounds setting the atmosphere for the game. I like the synth pulses showing what I’m assuming is the heart rate of the patient zero. The bit-crushed bass adds a lot of intensity to this track, putting me on edge while listening!

Horrible Village: The sound of this track is similar to Metroid Prime exploration areas with the dark ambient type of sound. I like the ambiguity of the bass/low synths which are indistinct but drive the somewhat soft intensity of the level.

Caves: The reverby droplet sounds work well to convey the cave vibes. I like your minimalistic approach with just having a simple beat, an ambient bass, a background drone, and sound effects, making this track really great for a dark and dank setting.

Sewers: I think that silence and space is a very powerful tool in video games and this track takes advantage of that to create a very mysterious and barren feel to this area. The beat with the sound effects is creative and kept me listening throughout!

Rock and Stalagmites: I think this is cool how you used the previous track as a base of sorts for this track and turned it into more of a hard rock track!

Underwater Serpent: The bass is such a groove! Wow the drums that come in give this track a nice battle intensity to it. I like the continuity of using the background pitched clanging noise which tells me we are in the same area as the previous tracks. I really like the part where the buzzy synths cut out and you use a cleaner bass to convey an idea before returning with the gritty bass.

Train: The use of guitar as a melody instrument changes the feel to more of a rusty industrial feel. Nice new area theme!

Among the Boxes: The industrial vibe hits hard in this track.I love it when industrial sounds are used in the beat of a track! I may borrow the idea to use steam release as a sort of cymbal hit sound.

Raising the Crow’s Nest: I like this beat because it feels like someone trying to be stealthy while scaling buildings. Using clanging metal sounds with the absence of cymbals is an interesting way to continue to highlight the industrial aspect of this area.

National Emblem: The industrial percussion again is drawing me in and captivating me. The bass lick you use is also really catchy. It’s interesting choice to use an organ with an industrial sound, but to me it seems to represent the raven boss of this track since it came in a bit in the previous track too! The tempo changes of this track are really creative to help change the pace and feel of the battle.

False Rest: The ambient bird sounds with the metallic pad feel relaxing here. The ominous feeling picks up again quickly though!

Cat and Mouse: I really like how this track was directly connected to the track preceding it. Wow the transition into the chase section is sudden, but works so well! The bass and drums work so well together to create the feeling of a 90s racing game (at least that’s what I associate this type of sound with!) I like the growth of this track and really like the brass part at the end!

Metro in the City: This track has an interesting uplifting feel to it as the melody is mostly in the major key but there are dark borrowed notes that tell us that it isn’t quite supposed to be a happy song. The voice overs sound almost like conductors announcing something overhead over the intercom.

Rest Zone: This track conveys some interesting emotions through the chords you choose. The instrumentation is interesting and harmonically, I think this is your best track as it gives us some meandering implied chords that work surprisingly well given the refusal to stay in the same key.

Queen’s Archives: Really cool lead into this track from the previous track. Love that really heavy bass in this track!

Full Metal Tempo: The bass and drums alone drive this track forward and make it a really nice shooter track in what sounds like a fairly dangerous area. 

Green Stage: I really like the use of low bass drums. That voiceover is really creepy! There is a newfound intensity in this track that tells me we are nearing the final boss!

Chaotic Stage: Now we’re kicking it up a notch! Just when I think you can’t make it sound any more intense, your next track surprises me with something like this!

Patient Zero: I like the use of some traditional East Asian instrumentation which seems to be a nod toward the culture that we assume that patient zero comes from given her clothing. What a spectacular final boss theme! I’m very impressed with how much battle music you’ve created in this jam! It’s hard for me to finish even one battle track in such a short amount of time! Wow those screams and the glitching sounds at the end sounds so intense!

Monologue: Woah, this is so creepy… I’m going to have nightmares from this. But I can’t turn it off! What an ending! 

Overall: This is a lot of music and it’s very impressive that you were able to produce this much in just 10 days! When I listened to this, I imagined playing the game you imagined and I think this music achieves the goal of creating an atmosphere of darkness and anxious energy driving the motivation to complete a mission in the style of a first person shooter well. You also do a good job conveying your story, especially in the last few tracks. Your strength musically is certainly in writing percussion grooves and creating environmental atmospheres through sound design and instrument choices. My personal 6th category is “game readiness” and this OST scores very highly in that category for sure! Well done and thank you for sharing!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

20 tracks? You madman!

The sound design overall is perfect for that old school FPS vibe you were going for. Those industrial beats with strings and crunchy, distorted synths mesh really well. I loved all the bubble sounds in Caves and Sewers. Especially Caves, that  sounded like something thick and viscous was bubbling, like mud or lava. Train is another track that stood out to me, I liked the use of the steam engine hisses as a rhythmic element and using the banjo to give it an old school railroad feel but still surrounded by industrial sounds. I also like how Cat and Mouse turns into a full techno track

The loudness of these tracks were a little uneven. I found that I had to keep adjusting my volume lower as I got through the OST. For example, Patient Zero is quite a bit louder than the first boss song Underwater Serpent. While variation in dynamics throughout a song is good, and atmospheric tracks make sense to be a little quiter than boss tracks, they should have a consistent max volume so the listener doesn't have to adjust volume settings. All of the boss songs should be at the same max volume level.

The textures and sound design were great and made for a cohesive soundtrack where I could imagine each level as I listened, and the amount you were able to make is quite impressive. Great work!

Submitted(+1)

My dude just drops 20 tracks like it's nbd. Kudos just for that level of commitment in submitting that many completed tracks.

Love the chaos here. Things start off unsettling, then just completely lose control.  There is some pretty thick horror ambience here, and there are always just enough things happening to keep things interesting.

The wailing synth in track 3 is great. As for the crackling and popping sounds, I hate them. But in a good way. All you needed was a good "SNAP" in there somewhere and you would have had an entire box of Rice Krispies!

The sound design continues to be unsettling, at times slightly startling, in all the right ways. The panned delay on that rising synth on track 4 is a nice touch.

I'm assuming these battle and boss themes were supposed to be adaptive in nature and transition from the previous track. If not, they both would certainly serve great at that purpose. Love the crunch and straight up gnarliness of the guitars here. For the boss theme, the dissonance between the acoustic guitars and the ... whatever the hell else is going on is very well-crafted. The chords towards the end of this one change things up nicely.

In case you forgot you were in an industrial zone in track 9, Trent Reznor stops by and drops a few drum beats off to remind you.

The second boss theme has a nice steady beat to it that is a welcome change from the unsteady ambience. The sound design continues to be top notch throughout the rest of the soundtrack, with the sudden change up (fake out?) in "False Rest" and subsequent transition into Cat and Mouse being a nice surprise.  I assume that Songbird the Crow couldn't fit onto the subway train, or it was just too weirded out by the vocals in track 13 to continue on.

I'm not falling for this again, there's no way there is an actual "Rest Zone" in this game.  Yep, there it is. 

I feel like this soundtrack is slowly gluing itself together as we get towards the end, with Full Metal Temple having quite a bit of structure compared to many of the previous tracks.  The strings in "Green Stage" are a nice surprise, and this soundtrack keeps managing to change things up despite it's length and volume.

Who is the boss of the techno temple? It's techno viking, isn't it?

Things are straight up organized chaos in "Patient Zero. " Along with carrying a much more prevalent and forward melody in some sections, it also seems to call back to many of the instruments and sounds used previously. The weight and dreadful energy in this track is powerful.

A+ sound design, A+ ambience crafting, A+ horror vibes. Thanks, I hated it.  (just kidding, nice job!)

Submitted(+1)

This is super impressive, just making 20 quality tracks in the amount of time we had and them all fitting the idea you went for.

Developer

Heh) Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

This is such fun! Awesome that you've created so many different tracks, it's a proper OST so you can imagine the entire game. The boss music is kick-ass! The Trent Reznor influence is totally there of course, and I can also hear Metroid Prime there too, and bits of House Of The Dead as well actually. Brilliant fun, thankyou!

Submitted(+1)

Didn't read the influences at first and already like 5 seconds into the first track, I'm like "wow, i love these Quake vibes" and sure enough Quake was on your list lol. Very cool! The 90's/2000's shooter genre will always be my fav! I was even getting Metroid Prime vibes kinda in parts of track 9 and 10. Awesome job!

Submitted(+1)

Nice OST! Im amazed your recorded so many tracks. Overall I get a spooky industrial vibe that reminds me of like a smoother / slightly less chaotic version of Cruelty Squad's soundtrack if that makes sense. 

Developer

Thanks! Heh... This is my second OST jam, and I'm still being compared to the Cruelty Squad)

Submitted(+1)

I like the later pieces (From Sound Cloud) like the Metro in the City.


Without reading the description, I was thinking of Zombie Apocalypse. Then as I read the description, it matches the sound of the song. ;)

Love it!

Submitted(+1)

I finally listened to the entire soundtrack 4 times and finally want to say....

Ok. But you could have done more.

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Beginning of Salvation, Horrible Village, Monologue - wow, they give the creepy feeling. If I was playing this game, I would unconsciously be turning my head back all the time to make sure there are no monsters behind me :) great atmosphere! 

Sewers (Ambient) - the voices are really scary, love the bubbles and the overall sound design here as well

Rock and Stalagmites - I like the guitars here, so cool :) Music speeding up in the Underwater Serpent is niiice :) 

Among the Boxes - the juicy kick here nice. National Emblem - great idea with the crows in the intro, developing of the music in this track keeps the listener's attention, nice work. 

Rest Zone indeed gives it a break and lets the player rest for a while before the next fights. The rest is not calm though since the music does not let the player forget what a dangerous world he/she is in :) I think this is a good idea to introduce such a track as a change

Chaotic Stage - I like it how you mix synths with strings here. This track is cool

My personal favorites are Underwater SerpentNational EmblemChaotic Stage, Rock and Stalagmites :)

This is insane how much efforts you put in the work; sound design is amazing, rock/metal and industrial vibe is really cool. All tracks are different but still they fit in the chosen theme and style. This is amazing how many details are there in each track. Mixture of genres is interesting. This is a unique and very creative soundtrack, and it would definitely fit the game you imagined :)

Developer

Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked it!

Submitted(+1)

The number of tracks you produced is impressive!!

I really enjoyed the ambient tracks, "Sewers" is definitely my favorite.

I just can't get over the screams, they gave me goosebumps xD amazing work ^_^

Developer

Heh, thanks)

Viewing comments 97 to 81 of 97 · Next page · Last page