Play snail
snarky snail, music, and me (OST Composing Jam 8)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Storytelling | #5 | 4.393 | 4.393 |
| Creativity | #17 | 4.286 | 4.286 |
| Overall | #21 | 4.150 | 4.150 |
| Impression | #28 | 4.071 | 4.071 |
| Quality | #31 | 4.179 | 4.179 |
| Composition | #80 | 3.821 | 3.821 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
"What's so special about me that I could save the fish kingdom?" - the girl
"Nah, you aren't special or anything, we just don't have fingers." - the wise snail spirit
The concept of "snarky snail, music, and me" is a narrative-focused, casual puzzle game with some exploration elements. The vibe is inspired by Assemble with Care and Coffee Talk. It has a simple, cozy art style, tactile puzzles, exploration of the fish kingdom, and dialogues between many goofy characters. I'm not exactly a deep guy, so I'll leave it to you to imagine some kind of wise life lesson the girl has learned from her adventure.
1.) the sun is gone, but my pain stays
The girl was down on her luck, with many things going wrong in her life. She came to sulk at the docks. She saw weird flickering lights in the distance (signaled by the cool sound effect part :D) and decided to explore.
2.) i met a wise snail spirit, he told me a lot of snail puns
Turns out the source of all that magical hooblah was a wise snail spirit, and he was loaded full of snail puns. The snail spirit noticed the girl had fingers and asked her to aid the fish kingdom. (I know snail is not a fish. Still, I like and want to keep the snail.)
"Unlike me, the fish kingdom is hard to find since it doesn't leave a glistening tail." - the wise snail spirit
"What?" - the girl
3.) helping an old hermit crab organize her snail magic books
The name is self-explanatory; the girl helped an old hermit crab arrange her books. She got the task done at lightning speed using her dextrous human fingers. Actually, I don't even think crabs are fish. This lore is falling apart as I type.
"If I did it, it'd have been going at a snail's pace." - the wise snail spirit
"I'm starting to think you aren't actually that wise." - the girl
4.) fishes dont have fingers so they want me to play the guitar to save their kingdom
For some reason, the fish kingdom would fall apart unless music was played. Fun fact: fish don't possess fingers. So none of the residents were able to play the Telecaster stuck in the coral. The fish have just left it there to worship. The girl didn't even know how to play guitar that well; she tried her best with some basic chords in the F Major key.
"You snailed it!" - the wise snail spirit
"Ugh." - the girl
5.) baring my heart out beneath the stars
The girl vented about her life issues to the wise snail spirit. The snail uncharacteristically gave sound advice. Perhaps he was wise after all.
"You gotta shell-ebrate the small victories." - the wise snail spirit
6.) no matter how far you go, i’ll always be there for you
It was finally time to play music and begin the ritual. The girl was able to save the fish kingdom by channelling her emotions through her playing. She was getting kind of sad when she learned she had to leave and would never see the talking snails and fishes again.
Message from the artist
In my restless dreams, I see that snail. Lil' Snarky.
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
The girl and the dock in the picture inspired an adventure which I then wrote music about. The whole event takes place in one summer night. The theme evoked an aquatic vibe and also a serene feeling of sorting out your thoughts by being alone at the docks. My first thought when I saw the image was "she's probably sorting out some stuff in her head."
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUaSW0EVZs0
Number of tracks6
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
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Comments
The opening was kind of mesmerizing, I got lost with in my thoughts with the visualizer (awesome bonus!). It made me feel like in Minecraft somehow, I mean the music is different but I had the same sense of wonder, space and quiet amazement... special piece I dig it.
Haha that floating snail is hilarous, love your video !!! I really liked the developpement of this 2nd song towards the end, it must get intense snail pun wise ^^
I like your titles, you don't need description, and it's goofy cute.
The guitar arriving when the character is actually starting doing something for the fish kingdom gets a sweet epic vibe, nicely done with the rest of the ost :)
Loved the ending, it connects with the beginning in it's mood but it gets emotional like if your heart beat faster and faster. But then it return to that nostalgic cosy vibe, to explode one last time with a close up on our character, the wise snail, and the gone singing sun... and the fact that the music doesn't resolve remind me that the sun is gone...
Edit : I didn't read the song description and let my interpretation go (wise song titles ^^). I was not on the same page but in the end I lived a story so that's a good news ! Well done !
This is 10/10 storytelling. You should put wise snail spirit sayings on t-shirts. I'd buy it.
You really snailed it on this one. Nice work!
my favorite thing about this ost is that you manage to find multiple vibes/emotional spaces throughout the ost. it's really dynamic; sometimes it's wistful, sometimes it's funky, sometimes it's meditative. this dynamism is something i associate with really good games (and art in general), and i think that it helps the whole thing to be much more emotionally impactful. great work. thanks for sharing :)
It's nice, sweet, and simple. At first, I kinda wanna crush the snail under my feet, but upon listening to the songs, I have changed my mind. Now I wanna crush the snail under my guitar. "fishes dont have fingers so they want me to play the guitar to save their kingdom" is my fave, I really dig the melody :3
I love the visual animation as well, it's actually crazy with how you were able to pull all of these off in less than two weeks. Props for that!
Also, this is peak cinema btw:
"You snailed it!" - the wise snail spirit
"Ugh." - the girl
i getcha the snail spirit can be annoying.
This submission goes so far beyond just music since the youtube has that low-poly presentation, and then secondly the strong lexical skills in the presentation of the project concept. And then when we get to the music itself it -also- rocks for content quality. So I just gave it maximum marks on all the categories.
Extremely pleased.
Gave you an itch follow, if you like the thing(s) on my page(s), consider doing the same.
Cheers!
--D
main website:
https://exedexes1.com/
the sun is gone, but my pain stays: Nice atmosphere and then some nice guitars come in. Like that blippy sound later in.
i met a wise snail spirit, he told me a lot of snail puns: epiano and bass :) and that silly lil synth. Love the vibes here, made me smile. That synth later in is really cool, what's it from (or how did you make it?) Cool chords.
helping an old hermit crab organize her snail magic books: Love the rhythm. I really adore your synth choices.
fishes dont have fingers so they want me to play the guitar to save their kingdom: I love these track titles so much lol. This song feels like it's for an emotional ad in a good way lol. For five dollars you can save these fingerless fish
baring my heart out beneath the stars: Cool groove, love that sound that's layered with the snare (or is it the snare itself lol).
no matter how far you go, i’ll always be there for you: Very cool outro with the guitars. Love those ringing synths. Love the reverb type on the snare.
Your stuff is always so high quality. Loved the animations. Great work as always!
If you're meaning the solo, it's from Magical8BitPlug! Set it to monophonic and arpeggiate when multiple notes are pressed. It's the square wave at 25% I think.
You create such an excellent soundworld for exploring watery realms.
The harmonic progression in the sun is gone, but my pain stays stirs up a nostalgia. I can imagine the girl escaping to a secret place for a good sulk. I do like those otherworldly sound effects.
The straightforward harmony and melody capture that cozy atmosphere, and then you add some nice twists and spice to that. I dig those funky rhythms and chromatic lines in helping an old hermit crab organize her snail magic books.
You’ve got some fun and quirky titles that summon so many cute and wacky images.
Your last track does such a good job of wrapping everything up. I love the intimate opening and how you revisit that idea. Thanks for such a fun adventure.
The production is very strong here. The drums and the overall mix and production sound so clean and professional. Also I love that wah wah sounding bass at "i met a wise spirit". The pad at the "hermit crab" one that appears out of nowhere is genuinely gorgeous. Also side note it's just so nice to see the effort you put in at the youtube video those little animations are so cool and original.
The snail spirit thanks you.
Definitely one of my favorite submissions in this jam. I was wondering what program you used to make the 3D art since I've been trying to learn low polyish modeling for a while now! The audio visualizer in the background is such a nice touch on top of the music being really great. Baring my heart out and helping an old hermit crab were my favorite :))
Thank you! I use good'ol Blender. For just working inside the program, I think it's great, but can be a bit of pain exporting to Unity.
I followed Crashsune's tutorial all the way through, and for textures, aidencantcode has a thorough video for ps1 style.
This is a really cool funky project with lots of variety and personality. I think all the tracks were technically competent, but your first two tracks I think set up something that your later tracks don't quite deliver on. I was kinda hoping I'd get some of that funky, quirky flavor in some of the lower energy tracks, but I don't think it quite got there (though I think it was almost there in the last track). That said, all your write ups and sound choices showed lots of creativity, and I think you did a great job overall.
ALSO your YouTube video is awesome. Really really cool 3D work. Very nice compliment to your music
Thank you! Yeah, I imagined a chill, low-key story overall, and then the snail theme became quite an outlier.
The creativity of the project is great. This was a fun listen and the titles were equally fun.
The music definitely fit the aesthetic of the narrative and the playfulness was very clear. The mix was great and the instrumentation was super fun. Great production. Overall; solid. :)
👍👍👍
Woah the video’s got animation too!
This was a very fun listen. The instrumentation really fit the aquatic… punny snail? theme you were going for. I loved the synth solo in “I Met a wise snail spirit”, very funky! Nice work.
The snail spirit worked hard on that solo, he said he appreciates your appreciation of his dextrous playing.
That was so so good SHEEEESH, loved the power and emotion in the last one!
I def spent the most time on the last one thank you!
Wow this was fantastic and had great variety. From funky, to a little attitude, to passionate and serious, to epic and fun, with some great track titles. I really enjoyed listening, thanks :)
I aimed for variety. 😩
I like this submission! There is good variety in the tracks yet it stays coherent with the theme.
🙏🙏🙏
"Nah, you aren't special or anything, we just don't have fingers." - the wise snail spirit. This is genius hahaha love it !
☝️☝️☝️
With a music video too?!? Great submission and so much music to enjoy! Fun theme, good tunes! I especially liked fishes don't have fingers and the ending theme! Fantastic work!
The fish kingdom appreciates it!
The video you had to go along with the music matched the music perfectly. I liked how varied it was and the story it told. even with just the music and a general idea of what was gonna happen, I could understand the story.
Thank you, I wanted to try focusing on narrative for this one.
Love the sense of humor, had me laughing! The songs fit the story well, very playful/quirky vibes. Awesome job, I had fun going through everything
I'm quirky like that
You got me giggling at the description already so I'm excited to listen.
Ooh I adore the swimmy, ponderous vibes of the sun is gone, and the morph into the almost sonar-y vibes of it's second half really feels cool. Big water level vibes.
Let's goooo that's some dang fine videogame sidekick music. I wanna be buds with this snail. Feels appropriately quirky and I really dig that solo.
I can feel the coffe talk inspiration, things feel real nice and easy to listen to for a long time if needed to. I had to keep rewinding to write my thoughts cause I was getting happily lost.
You play that guitar, finger-havin' girl ;-;7
Gosh the final piece. Really nice story's end feelings. Built wonderfully, reminded me of the celeste soundtrack in some places.
I really enjoyed the whole soundtrack, antennae me would enjoy it ten times as much.
finger-havin' girl did a great job in the recording booth.