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A jam submission

Fleur and the secret gardenView project page

Submitted by EinelTheFox — 2 days, 5 hours before the deadline
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Play soundtrack

Fleur and the secret garden's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Correlation to Theme#24.6844.684
Composing Quality#54.4744.474
Listenability#84.2114.211
Overall#114.1374.137
Execution#124.0534.053
Uniqueness#293.2633.263

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Link to Streaming Service
https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/13MxJgiBTXpQ6uoKNvPj34?si=OoK98JKPTSCh4xOq4HaT5Q

Description
This is my contribution of the Impressions Composing Jam Mystery edition.
I’ve imagined the game “Fleur and the Secret Garden” where the protagonist Fleur, a little dreamy girl, meets the chaotic witch Zwiebel, who rules the secret garden. The game is thought as something like Hades or Garden of witches, with a top down view and hand drawn 2D sprites.
For the Jam I took the first Leitmotiv and the hard mode. If you are interested in listening to the looping versions of the song, download the Loops.Zip

SONGS:
Fleur's Theme Length: 01:28 Loop: Bar 0 (00:00) – Bar 34 (01:23)
A little theme that shows the gentle and uplifting nature of the main character Fleur.

The Garden's Secret Length: 01:05 Loop: Bar 0 (00:00) – Bar 21 (01:05)
This was the first song of this project and captures the atmosphere of the garden and also sets the mood for the rest of the songs, since it got somewhat of a Hollow Knight vibe.

The Court of Flowers Length: 01:17 Loop: Bar 3 (00:05) – Bar 27 (01:07)
This is one potential boss theme. It is styled after a string sextet with 2 Violins, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Double Bass and 1 Harp.

Zwiebel the Witch Length: 01:10 Loop: Bar 3 (00:03) – Bar 38 (00:53)
This is the theme of the antagonist of the game Zwiebel. It captures her silly and chaotic nature.

Total time: 05:00 minutes

Pick your mode!

Hard Mode!

Which Motif did you use?

One (6/8)

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Fantastic job with the instrumentation (and instrument choice)! Nothing sounds super out of place. I especially dig the harps in The Garden's Secret cuz the velocities are exactly what they needed to be. Court of Flowers is excitable too, the only thing I would add is that I feel you could de-quantize the staccatos on the bass/cello a bit more and mess with some velocities to get them more natural, but that's just sound-wise. The instrumentation is still great!

Submitted(+1)

Really liked Zwiebel the witch! Kinda made we wonder how a more bluesy version of it, like Jesters of the moon from FF9 would sound, since you have the same kind of little phrase ending/figure at 0:38 that Uematsu uses on that 😁

Cant really give any critique since everything sounded and felt great, so good job!

Submitted(+1)

Really nice composition! Definitely getting Hollow Knight vibes for sure. The inclusion of photography is really cool!

 Court of Flowers is my favorite track

Submitted(+1)

I can honestly see the reason for all the positivity.

The music is orchestral but it's not overdoing the orchestral moments.

The music reminded me of LittleBigPlanet but fused with Minecraft minus literally all the electronic aspects.

It's nice, I liked it.

Submitted(+1)

A lot has already been said, so I won't add much, except that all the tracks took me on a journey through their video game landscapes, and I really love 'Zwiebel the Witch' **Looks for her wig** :D Great work!

Submitted(+1)

I think you have amazing clarity in your tracks that I usually don't hear in a lot of in others, and myself, lol, that's present here. There are details I can clearly hear and pick out because of it; it's very soothing and satisfying to the ears.

The court of flowers is amazing, by far my favorite track. Lots of variety and very much a fitting boss battle theme. 

HostSubmitted(+1)

I love the whimsical style of this.

I feel like what I would say is the biggest constructive feedback I have is that I hear a lot of little places where you could do slightly more interesting things with how you get there, and the overall result would hit a lot harder without having to worry about adding structural complexity.

I.e. in Zwiebel the Witch, 0:19-0:23, my hear wants to hear that little progression end in a major third (forming a major chord in first inversion, instead of the minor chord in third inversion that you have). I'd have to test this to be sure my ear isn't playing tricks on me, but it was one of those parts where it felt like it gets to the same spot but there could be a more elegant way of getting there.

0:42 on that one has like a note that doesn't belong, and I think this is a good spot to point out something I've been noticing a lot more lately about harmony is that really there's a verticality that is appropriate or not appropriate for a given moment, with a necessary tension and release.

That tension and release is one powerful part of composing.

Overall though this is excellent work; I just wanted to try to give you something to work with to focus on, hence the long explanations.

Developer

Hey Kale, thank you very much for the feedback. I really need to test that and reference it with a piano. But you might be right. Especially Zwiebel was somewhat of an happy accident. I never really intended it to modulate in the way it does now. I kind of was inspired by your baroque take and thought it might be fitting for a witch and since I planned to use a string quartet in an other song, which is also pretty baroque.

You are also right on the little places in general. I should have weaved the parts better into each other and make them flow better. But honestly that would have taken me a lot more time ^^*. I really need to get my balance right with a full time job that feel sometimes just draining and my other hobbies. So I’m kind of happy where I even got in this short time frame. But you’re right, it should have gotten more attention and care in those parts.

HostSubmitted(+1)

yaaaa I also had time issues this time around.

I'm keeping all jams at 2+weeks/ 3+ weekends from now on.

Submitted(+1)

I'm going to take this as a sign that Silksong is releasing soon. You've gotta be on Team Cherry

Submitted(+2)

All right this one is superb BUT its just on the verge of greatnest, like the pedro pascal meme, "Your composition is good, but it could be better." The composition is fantastique, the minimalist arrangement is great too, lovely chord progression. The court of flowers with the spiccato is provavly my favourite but I feel like this one can be pushed even harder with lots of stuff going on with woodwinds, maybe even some brass, it feels like this is an arrangement for a small quartet but sound like it could be way bigger. Zwiebel the Witch is a very cool piece, my only point is when the melody at 0:30 comes up with the celesta (or something similar) the harpsichord notes and the strings behind are clashing a bit so the melody lost all its presence, you'll need to either double it with something else, play with some panning a bit more or some dynamic EQ to let it pass through at this very moment. Great work it sounds very nice too in the mix. Whats your strings library CSS ?

Developer

Thank you so much for this kind words and also for the advice. Maybe the minimalist approach was in some ways or parts a bit to much. I really wanted to cut the ensemble as small as possible, so Brass where cut right from the beginning. Also the Court of Flowers was supposed to work as an string quartet, but lacking some voices and oomph I kind of needed the extra bass and harp, so it got a sextet instead. I really need to learn to incorporate some other instruments more more subtle, so for example, like you said, the Court of Flowers would get some backing with other instruments but also keep its feeling of being mostly a string ensemble. I will try my best for coming projects and keep the advice in mind.

As for instruments: The strings are the Cremona quartet from Native Instruments (except for the bass of course) So they are all just solo instruments. Every other instrument is either from VSL Synchron line (like the woodwinds, harp and percussions) or from their Synchron-ized special editions (like the solo double bass, harpsichord and the recorder in Zwiebel).

Submitted(+1)

From what I've listened to so far, this is probably my favorite usage of the motif. It's extremely prominent through each track but you manage to work it in so clearly while having each track have its own identity that works on its own and even better in the context of the whole album! I got super strong Hollow Knight vibes both from the great orchestration and the catchy melodies.

Also amazing photos as usual :)

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful take on the theme! I really liked the straightforwardness of how you used the motif at first and then gradually switching it up, making it more subtle for each track. Each time it felt like it had matured somehow, in the same way as a player who's gradually getting to know the game's world. Your ost mirrored that feeling for me and really pulled me in, this would work great in a game!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Looking on how you all used or embedded the motif, I feel kind of dumb. I was taking the “use the motif in a dominant way” way to literally. Thinking now on it, it might be a bit on the nose. However, I’m really glad you liked it still.

Submitted(+1)

The music is very fitting to the story you created. Well done!

Deleted post
Developer (1 edit) (+1)

To be honest, when I stated my journey on orchestration Christopher Larkin was one of my favourite composers and a great inspiration. But back then I never managed to get anything sound like him. So I’m very much honoured to now get any resemblance or comparison.So thank you for those kind words.