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Maddy - OST Composing Jam CRUNCHTIME 4's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #29 | 3.671 | 3.850 |
| Quality | #30 | 3.814 | 4.000 |
| Creativity | #45 | 3.719 | 3.900 |
| Overall | #47 | 3.633 | 3.810 |
| Impression | #76 | 3.480 | 3.650 |
| Composition | #77 | 3.480 | 3.650 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
2D pixel-art survival horror.
A young girl (Maddy), along with her sister (Sam), is trapped in a facility where she is being experimented on by a group looking to harness her innate psychic abilities. One day, a catastrophic event puts the facility in lockdown and the staff in panic, leaving her an opportunity to find her sister and escape. It won’t be easy, however, as she is not the only person, or “thing”, that has been trapped here…
I used mainly two synthesisers: The Minimoog and the Korg MS20.
The Minimoog was primarily used for anything related to Maddy, the protagonist. These sounds are typically more calming and peaceful than the other sounds present, but with little a tinge of instability (the Minimoog is perfect for this).
The Korg was used for scoring the enemies and the environment. It's dark and brooding, particularly in contrast to the Minimoog. You can thank the Korg for the deep bass sounds particularly present in "Malformation".
I also used a plugin called Pharlight for most of the atmos. It's a hybrid vocal plugin with some very creative sounds. I imagined the facility that the game takes place in, and how so many had been put through horrible things, along with the overall theme of psychic powers. I think of these "vocals" as those people... or perhaps their victims?
This was all done in Ableton Live.
Theme
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://youtu.be/O_XJIuOp8qA?si=3dYxFqNbb5akgwJV
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
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Comments
Oh... Time for long posts! I respect you!
Maddy's Theme is a drone, mixed with "fireflies" and a barely audible bass synthesizer, which seems to be there, but it is not... Magic?
The Facility IS A WONDERFUL START. How did you do... How did you do that? It's terribly cool, atmospheric, and I'm hard...
Safe Room is a feeling of a mixture of something safe, but because I need some kind of dome behind which I see sharks, I realize that it's NOT safe here, or I don't have long to rejoice.
The Chambers - Bitcrush Growls? I LOVE IT! May I ask where you got these animal sounds? Samples? Did you write it down yourself? Because it sounds awfully cool.
Malformation - BASS. That damn BASS. I really like this rapidly increasing and then subsiding fuzz synthesizer...
Freedom - It sounds like an old console screensaver... Or it reminds me of the times when, as a child, I sat in front of the TV in the evening and looked at the screen.
It was very, VERY good. Dude, you've got the most amazing sound design.
P.S. Rawr
i think it's been a while since i've seen some 2D pixel art survival horror games, specifically i'm imagining the ones with low pixel resolution with the soundtrack that you've composed. overall, amazing work, and nice job getting so many tracks crafted to sketch out the plot of your videogame concept!! ^-^
it wasn't until "Malformation" that i really started sensing the grave danger that would be present in the game. the more minimal vibes remind me more of a stealth section, specifically, like you have to avoid the monstrous entity no matter what. other than that, the gritty, melancholy vibes are carried throughout the tracks — even "Freedom" has a tinge of sadness to it despite it being the resolution of the story. very well composed!
Props for managing to get 14 minutes of audio out in only just a 48 hour period, that's crazy work!
Maddy's Theme has some really nice voicings and patches going. There's some tension building as the waves kind of fall in and out of phase with one another. The subtle delay does wonders for the higher notes ringing out, adding some needed virtual "space" to the mix.
Meanwhile, The Facility has an absolutely gorgeous and obscenely oppressive opening. I love the choice of pad/sound-design here - it sounds pained and stretched beyond what it can handle. Some really nice subtle bass movement to keep the low end from growing stale. This just drenched in ambience - perfect underscore for a horror setting.
Safe Room definitely has some RE vibes to it; appropriately dipped in all kinds of space and time effects to keep the output washing around. The filtered and reverberated drums are great for creating ambience, and the higher-tones sustaining and bleeding over one another does a great job of creating relief and tension simultaneously. Captures that relief of finding a safe room, but the dread of having to leave it perfectly.
The Chambers reminds me of The Facility, but the extensive use of the stereo-field in this really makes it shine. Creepy kind of creaking and "sksksk" sounds on top of the panned percussion really brings out a uncomfortable vibe in this. The kind of track you don't want to listen to for long in game because it is just laden with tension.
We start to venture into a more typical direction with Malformation - hearing some more defined notes and percussion. Loving the strong kick offset with the more subtle percussion. Once again there are some beautifully eerie pads washing around the stereo-field - I particularly like the one that has a soft tremolo on it. Can't not mention the bass here - it's peaking in just the right away with the filter cut-off opening up just enough to really give it a nearly organic vibe. This track works well in a horror context, but it also reminds me of something I might hear in Axiom Verge, which had a fantastic soundtrack.
Ending with Freedom, this track is decidedly the much needed release of tension at the game's end. Loving the subtle motion in these voices, quivering a little after all the action. This harkens back a lot to the types of voicings in Maddy's Theme, so I dig the callback.
All in all, great work - this is genuinely a fantastic submission. Locks into the necessary genre immediately and really sells the vibes and atmosphere.
It was great and you didn't lie about that Korg bass! I don't have much to say other than that, and the fact that I wish you had a bit more time to slot in something between malformation and freedom. I feel like there's a ton of tension in malformation, but it's a slow, heavy tension so it didn't feel resolved when I got to freedom, it's like it's missing the impactful "fight" for freedom (no worries, I'm in the same boat). But that should tell you how much I enjoyed it!
Immediately a very strong opening with Maddy's Theme, those textures and melodically dissonant synths work PERFECT for setting the mood of a creepy experimental facility. Only real notes would be to consider cycling through some more synths to keep it fresh.
Fabulous atmosphere for The Facility and The Chamber, no notes. Stereo field is clean, textures are great, and that low bass is perfectly placed.
Malformation is a great step-up in thematic intensity, the drums add a lot especially with how ambient the rest of the OST is.
Overall really great ambient set that totally fits the vibe you described. Loved all the sound design choices.
Nice ambience, gives that dark feel for sure
It does feel really atmospheric overall in this OST, i can for sure see this inside a game.
using 2 different synths to represent a hopeful side and a dreadful side made listening to the tracks much more interesting!
malformation was my favorite
Great work! Great vibes!
This was really nice, I don't really have many particular notes, but I really enjoyed Malfomation. The bass for that one was really good. Overall you nailed the survival horror ambience, and I can definitely see this in games like rainworld too! Nice job!
Thank you! I'm glad you think I nailed the survival horror aspect. I was listening to some OG Resident Evil 2 music when coming up with ideas so that was definitely the goal.
I've never actually heard of Rainworld. I guess I'll have to check it out now :)
I loved the ambience you created with your music, it give me the same vibes as the game "Inside" you 100% created the feeling of a survival horror that was amazing. Good Work :)
Thank you! I've actually never played Inside, but that game did spring to mind when I was imagining the concept for this submission. Funny how that works. Perhaps I should add it to the backlog.