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Please Don't Wake Up Dead's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #55 | 3.623 | 3.800 |
| Impression | #95 | 3.337 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #103 | 3.232 | 3.390 |
| Correlation to theme | #106 | 3.051 | 3.200 |
| Quality | #108 | 3.051 | 3.200 |
| Composition | #113 | 3.099 | 3.250 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
This soundtrack has a runtime of 13 minutes and 30 seconds, and it was made in FL Studio.
I chose both the word and picture themes as my theme :)
Just like in my first jam, my mind went a bit grim when making up the story. Only this time the theme kinda supports that idea XD
For the story, I thought up that the main character has a very bizarre syndrome, causing their dreams to be deadly. They have to fight the monsters to live through the night.
Their name is Aisling Svoboda, and they relive the same nightmare every day. There is one monster, the one you see in the picture, that has never been beaten; Aisling always loses. This everydayness causes her to be deathly scared of going to sleep, and I tried to convey that feeling in the lyrics of the main theme!
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The first track, Insidious Sleepinesses, serves as the title screen theme! It features singing inspired by Tom Waits, but it didn't end up sounding too good XD
The second track, "Another Loss, at Least I'm Alive," would play right after pressing start, probably during a cutscene. This cutscene would take place right after Aisling wakes up, with the title of the track most certainly being what's going through their head at the moment!
The third track, De Trop Gloaming, serves as the theme that plays as the sun sets, right before Aisling gets home, making them awfully worried about what's to come!
The fourth track, Hopefully I Wake Up Again, is quite short because it serves as the sound effect that plays while Aisling is going to sleep, not knowing what awaits them on the other side. Or at least hoping they don't know!
The fifth track, Saunter Through The Dream Plain, is probably the strangest one. That's because it serves as the ambience that plays while Aisling is dreaming!
The sixth track, No More Ephialtes, or abbreviated as NME, serves as the boss theme of my imagined game, playing before and while fighting the monster!
And last but not least, A Good Dream at Last, which serves as the ending song of my imagined game, playing after you've beaten the monster and escaped your nightmare!
Message from the artist
If you have time, I'd love for you to check out the Itch page for this soundtrack; I think it looks really cool XD
You can also find the lyrics to the title screen theme there, if you're interested!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
The main character is trying to escape their dreams, or better said, gain freedom. The first six tracks play before their freedom, and the last one after being freed.
The picture theme mostly set the mood for the story and soundtrack, with the main character trying to become free.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/wejaru/sets/please-dont-wake-up-dead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqyY8QiSLLA
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any project
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Comments
Hey! Why shouldn't I wake up dead? It's not fair!
Insidious Sleepinesses - 0_0. First of all, you did what I wanted to do in my post - add full-fledged singing... And, damn, it came out creepy! (Why does this track remind me of Dr. Steel?). Anyway - a great start!
Another Loss, at Least I'm Alive - organ... sea... air... earth... Feels like I woke up dead.
De Trop Gloaming - Yeah, I'm definitely dead
Hopefully I Wake Up Again - Ah... no... not dead...
Saunter Through The Dream Plain - SHIT. MADNESS? AAAAH! I'M GOING TO DIE NOW! I'M SCARED HELP AAAAAAA!!
No More Ephialtes - Okay... this time I'll be without Ephialtes. And yes, this track is fire! I can just imagine performing on stage in a space cat costume with this...
A Good Dream at Last - A creepy and at the same time quite calm track... But this percussion makes me think that I was just left to sleep on the seabed, lol.
Overall - good work! Experimental, atmospheric and terribly interesting at the same time!
P.S. Rarw... Awr... Rar... Rawr!
OH YEAH, DR. STEEL!!
I'm honestly surprised I haven't noticed that before; his music and singing were definitely a subconscious inspiration!
I even sang one of his songs after making mine XD
Thank you for such a generous review; I feel honored!
Your reaction when the theme was revealed actually kind of inspired the feel of my submission, funnily enough :D
Thank you once again for this review :)
P.S. >:3
Heh, you're welcome!
Good luck!
(one note — on your itchio project page, the SoundCloud set link leads to your submission for the palindrome jam instead)
i love the dark atmosphere posited by all of your tracks! i was pleasantly surprised that even "A Good Dream at Last" has a predominantly gritty mood to it. :0
i really enjoyed "Saunter Through The Dream Plain" — i think that would be my highlight as to how unsettling and dark the atmosphere of your videogame concept would be if i were to show someone this. i think a smidge of additional mixing would level things up even more, if you come back to this! overall, awesome job! makes me want to play some of the good ol' classic horror RPG Maker games...
OOF!
Thanks for telling me about the links on my project page! The same thing happened to me in the Palindrome Jam; for some reason the text changes but the hyperlink doesn't.
I've fixed it now, but it probably would've stayed that way if you hadn't told me!
On another note, thank you for your review! :D
A little bit of additional mixing would absolutely improve the tracks; I do agree with you about that!
But once again, thank you :)
no worries!! maybe it's just because i was very prudent on checking everything for all the submissions KLJSDLGKJS which is. well. i'm either very detail-oriented or goldfish-brained, no in-between :P
Quite the amount work for just 48 hours!
I think you got the horror feel great in these, but so its not too dark.
Felt that the vocals could've been a bit more clear in the title screen theme, but the haziness sort of works in the context of the nightmare/dream setting too.
You should be proud to get all this done in such a sort time, good stuff!
Thank you for this review! :)
I agree about the vocals; that's one thing I'm not very good at XD
Funnily enough, they're actually the last thing I recorded for this soundtrack, but the lyrics were one of the first things I worked on!
Thank you once again :D
Cool game idea! The Main Theme really captured that drowsy anxious feeling when you're trying hard not to fall asleep, I get that with sleep paralysis sometimes. Really nice use of atmospheric stings and effects! Adds a lot to the dreamy / Nightmare palette. I really like the feel of A Good Dream At Last, it has a sort of finality to it that feels like you worked hard to reach it, I'm not sure how to explain it. The drums in that track are really solid. Kinda sound like a heartbeat.
Ooh, I've actually never had sleep paralysis before! Thanks for sharing your experience!
I agree about the feeling of A Good Dream At Last; I actually ruminated about it a few days ago, and that helped me describe the feeling as essentially getting a new life. Aisling has probably been living with this life for years, and now finally she's free!
While feeling the freedom, there are also a lot of unknowns ahead, and Aisling is going to have to get used to this new life!
At least that's what I think of the track!
Thank you for this review! :D
this is quite a unique and interesting OST, I'm digging it!
Saunter Through The Dream Plain really has that weird dreamy ambient feel
NME (clever name there) Has a bit of Splatoon 2 octo expansion OST vibes if u know it which is fire.
I personally really like Please Don't Wake Up Dead.
Another sub with 7 songs is pretty sick to see too, i think quantity is pretty valuable to get the game world built up.
I'm sorry for the late reply; my computer stopped working on Tuesday, but thank you for your review! :D
I just had a listen to the Octo Expansion OST, and I must say, NME does indeed have similar vibes!
Thank you! ' v '
Some interesting textures at play in some of these tracks! I like how distinct each one is and how they serve their intended purpose. The string layering in the orchestral tracks is well done - plenty of motion and nice use of the stereo field. The deeper into the album I got, the more it began to remind me of the early PS1 title "40 Winks" - has some similar vibes at times!
I liked how different No More Ephialtes was - having such a synth driven track in the pool definitely helped to add some energy and forward motion. Following that up with A Good Dream at Last is really nice as this piece is fairly pensive and a nice way to see out the album as a whole.
Good work! This made for an interesting listen. Best of luck. :)
Thank you so much for your review, Synlyfe!
Just like the two comments under you, I haven't actually ever heard of this game before! 😅
But after giving a quick listen to its soundtrack – I must say, I can definitely see the vision!
Thanks for sharing a great soundtrack with me; I love hidden gems like these :D
Best of luck as well! You deserve it :)
Nice vibes! Feels like it could be in Katana Zero!
Thanks!!
I've actually never heard of this game before, and after listening to the soundtrack, I'm not quite sure if mine would fit!
But thank you for your rating, I appreciate it :)
There's a dream-like quality throughout all these tracks that, while I've never played the game, is exactly what I imagine Yume Nikki to sound like. It sounds like that's the general vibe you were going for too, which you absolutely nailed. Great job!
Thank you! :)
I haven't played Yume Nikki before either; I've only ever seen the main character before!
I actually didn't know the name of the game or what it was about, so I'd like to thank you for telling me about it :D
Really good one, even without playing a game I can feel the ambience you want to create and it works very well !
Thank you so much! :D
A very neat atmosphere and theme that fits the chosen theme decently well!
Sometime the mix was a little rough on the ears. Especially during Saunter. The effects became too much for me and detracted from my listening experience. And it other places, some things were too loud compared to others causing things to be out of balance.
None of these issues were really present in A good dream at last which was the best track IMO.
Thank you for the review! :D
I do get the issues with the mix! Since the last jam I've been trying out a new mixing technique, and sometimes it works out nicely, and at other times it blows the mix up XD
It was kind of intentional during Saunter since the effects are supposed to evoke a nightmarish atmosphere, but it is indeed too loud.
Once again, thank you :)