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Foreign Winds's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall Uniqueness | #2 | 4.391 | 4.391 |
| Innovation | #2 | 4.087 | 4.087 |
| Composing Quality | #5 | 4.087 | 4.087 |
| Overall | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Execution | #8 | 3.957 | 3.957 |
| Listenability | #8 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Correlation to Theme | #23 | 3.478 | 3.478 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service
https://soundcloud.com/micerama/foreign-winds
Description
The painting and text prompt both inspired me to make a song that hits all the plot points of "the hero's journey" trope. This guy in the painting clearly has a story, and I thought trying to express that whole story through a single song could be a really cool idea!
It ended up being 8 minutes long and the size of the project file made it incredibly hard to work with so the mix is probably not the greatest, but also I wouldn't know because I've been listening to it so much that it's all blending together at this point lol. Next time I'm definitely gonna spread it out over multiple songs instead of one big mega song.
When composing I tried to have each instrument represent a character, like the Guzheng and Koto both being the protagonist (AKA the guy in the painting), the violin being the mentor, synth-y stuff being the various forces of evil, and the piano being some latent power like the force. It also goes through a decent amount of time signatures and tempos to try and sell the feeling of a journey across all kinds of lands. I have no idea how much any of this comes across in the music, but it was definitely a fun exercise!
Copying some of the project page, here's a little breakdown of each section and what I was going for:
0:00 - 0:37 Introduction: Introduced to the main character (Guzheng / Koto) and his humble village with his humble life. Calm, relaxing, nothing bad happens here.
0:37 - 1:39 Call to action: Something bad happens. Village is destroyed by a great evil. Protagonist is useless in this fight though the evil is driven away by a mysterious, new force (strings/piano).
1:39 - 2:45 Crossing the Threshold: The Mentor (violin) introduces itself and brings the protagonist out into a world that he's never seen before represented by a change to 3/4. He learns how to hone his blade and use his powers in order to take down the evil that destroyed his village.
2:45 - 4:08 The Abyss: There is an early encounter with the evil!!! Huge change in tempo (210BPM) and a shift to 7/4 because it's just so evil and foreign. The mentor manages to fight back the evil, but at the cost of his life.
4:08 - 5:57 Rebirth: This is the painting. The protagonist is now alone with nothing but his sword, shield, and snowshoes the mentor gave him. He thinks of his village, which gives him the strength to continue on. With his new awakening, he goes to fight the evil one last time.
5:57 - 7:50 The Final Encounter: A final fight against the evil with some callbacks to previous sections. The protagonist channels everything he knows, thinking of the mentor's dying moments for a final push.
7:50 - (end) The Return: The hero has defeated the evil and returns home to the village which has since been rebuilt. He sets down his sword, hangs up his shoes, and reflects on his journey.
Overall, incredibly fun storytelling challenge and very cool art!
Any and all feedback, especially constructive criticism, is very welcome!
Music is awesome
Stay cooking <3
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Comments
Bro chillout yes, certified jammer for sure.
This slaps! Great work.
This was cool to listen to, especially with all the instruments acting like a specific character.
Kinda reminded me of what Fire Emblem: Three Houses did at a certain part(won't elaborate cause spoilers lol), but you did a great job conveying a story here.
Great work!
Wow! This is really cool. Love the direction you took for the story. It really fit well. I don't mind it being eight minutes long but yah, that file must be huge now!! Wow. It is enjoyable. I like the Violin section a lot. Great work here.
Cheers!
One word: Cool.
Very interesting style mix up. Lots of subtle details and arrangement. Its very well composed too, Extremely creative like I said with the styles mixing up which are completely different on their own and you managed to do something great with it. Well done.
Talk about a hero's journey!
A lot of great concepts going on here! Love all the synchronous hits & cut aways! The use of your call back melodies, tied to specific instruments, make each section sound intentionally connected.
My only critique is that some melodies are not as strong; maybe the phrases should have moments to rest, or they could be doubled, etc.
Your electronic tones are sublime! Such good use of instrumentation and sound design. This is so much fun to listen to! I'm pumped to go on my own adventure now! It's like an eastern opera (electronic remix)!
I don't really have a good ear for mixing quality but like I swear there's no way this is bad mixing😭 For real though everything about this submission was awesome, I don't even know what to say, I feel like nothing in particular stood out to me because everything was perfect, it was unique, good quality, good composition, good storytelling, and it SLAPS so much. Nice work!
This IS peak bro 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
This is just awesome, i don't really have much else to say! It's a mindblowing journey!
Really takes one onto a journey! The different buildups and changes are golden and I can't even fathom how long this would have taken you. I tip my head for the ambition and GREAT realisation.
This sounds like a wildly ambitious and heartfelt project. Using musical elements like motifs, tempo shifts, and time signatures for storytelling - it's incredibly creative. The intention and effort behind it definitely shine through. Sounds like a journey worth taking!
7/4 IS EVIL . Lol, I love the direction you went with this very cool use of all the changes in the harmony and texture, your harmonic changes were very effective at telling the story you've written out. this is awesome Great work:))) also I love the intrumentation you used to represent your characters :)