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Only As Good As The Last Day's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #70 | 3.768 | 3.768 |
| Overall | #87 | 3.668 | 3.668 |
| Composition | #93 | 3.695 | 3.695 |
| Impression | #93 | 3.610 | 3.610 |
| Quality | #99 | 3.695 | 3.695 |
| Storytelling | #100 | 3.573 | 3.573 |
Ranked from 82 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Only As Good As The Last Day
“The last day of any vacation is the most important when it comes to forming memories. If you have a good final day, the trip is a success in your mind. If you have a bad last day, was the trip even any good?”
I’m sure many reading this know the feeling. A week long vacation with tons of fun and happy moments, only for the last day to be riddled with issues that ruin the entire experience in your mind.
Do you remember that cool picture you took? Or do you remember how sick you got on the drive home?
SONG 1: Today is NOT a good day
STORY SECTION 1:
“This is the worst vacation EVER!”
Viktor is on his last day of summer vacation, 1 more night before he goes back to school, and it is the worst. day. ever.
On vacation with his family, Viktor is visiting the boardwalk. Games and rides aplenty, but none of that matters because today is the last day of his trip.
The past few days were fun sure; He played lots of games and rode tons of rides. Swimming and eating until he tired himself out, but none of that matters now.
Viktor couldn’t sleep well last night. The only food for breakfast was his least favorite cereal. His last pair of shorts are uncomfortable and chafe. And to top it all off, a hefty stub of his toe on the bed frame created the perfect storm for a very um-perfect day.
Tired, hungry, uncomfy, and in pain. Viktor’s last day of vacation sucks and he knows it. He is not happy and preemptively decides that today is gonna be terrible before it’s hardly started.
There are lots of fun things planned for the day, but none of it can make up for the fact that Viktor has already decided that today is NOT a good day.
GAMEPLAY SECTION 1:
This is a QTE sections.
The players goal is to avoid obstacles as Viktor makes his way towards the boardwalk. You will be avoiding bird droppings, spilled ice cream, and other such hazards in order to prevent Viktor’s day from becoming any worse.
SONG 2: Waxing Fun, Waning Sun
STORY SECTION 2:
They headed to the boardwalk again that afternoon despite the angst that Viktor was emanating. He clearly did not want to be there but he couldn’t just wallow in self-pity in the hotel room.
Viktor had already played all the games and rode all the rides. Why couldn’t they just go home early so he could be alone?
Despite what Viktor is thinking, it’s not true that he has ridden every ride. There is one that he has yet to approach. The Ferris wheel.
That death machine is the last thing Viktor wanted to think about on this day. A crippling fear of heights and watching scary movies had turned him off of Ferris wheels for life he thought.
Unfortunately for him, the Ferris wheel is the main attraction and the family would not leave until they rode it.
Waiting in line for something he didn’t want to do. Another reason this is the worst vacation ever.
He sits down on the ride. Shaking and mixture of fear and anger. He clenched his eyes shut, just waiting for it to be over.
The wheel started moving and he reconfirmed in his head that this is the worst day ever.
He reached the peak and his eyes opened.
The ocean was beautiful. Sparkling in the sun as it began its descent.
Despite this highlight, Viktor still had his pride and he couldn’t get the disaster of a morning out of his head. Today was still a bad day in his mind and it would take more than that to alter his perception.
GAMEPLAY SECTION 2:
This acts as more of a life-sim section. The players goal is to attend to Viktor’s needs as they arise. Things such as getting him a meal or getting to the ride he wants in time.
His happiness meter will fall slowly and get a boost when one of his needs is met.
His anger meter will also slowly fall and will jump up if needs are failed to be met.
The section ends when his anger meter has finally reached zero.
SONG 3: The Best Last Day
STORY SECTION 3:
Despite the terrible start of his day, despite his pride clouding his attitude, despite every obstacle in his path, Viktor reluctantly admits that this is a good day.
He is having more fun today than he did any previous day on his vacation. Winning prizes, playing games, riding rides.
After some time, his cynical attitude began to wash away and in its place, pure unabashed whimsy took its place.
The sun began to set on Viktor’s last day of summer, yet despite this fact, Viktor wasn’t at all disappointed.
A vacation is only as good as its last day, so this must be the best vacation ever.
GAMEPLAY SECTION 3:
This section would be filled with mini games. Carnival games. They would include games such as: Knock down the bottles, ring toss, and other carnival games. The better you do in the games, the more prizes you get to take home as a trophy collection. They would appear in the main menu depending on if you got the best prize for each different mini game.
INSTRUMENTS / VSTs USED:
Pianoteq:
Planet N (original Mix)
Toy Piano (a la piano)
Vintage Tines MKI (Punchy Chorus)
Uptight U4 (Back)
Electra-piano (RubberChorus)
Organteq:
Baroque Cathedral I - Solo
SWAM INSTRUMENTS:
SWAM Tuba Eb
SWAM Flugelhorn Eb
Pigments:
Analog Triple VCO
Twin Voice Lead
Albion One Orchestra:
Brass Mid
MiniSynth:
Keys Brass Buttons
Addictive Drums 2:
Fairfax Vol 2 - snares, kicks, toms, hi hat, ride cymbals, and crash cymbals
FL Studio Native SFX:
Reverse Cymbal Riser
Riser Laboratory
FPC 7 Kick
FPC Tamb
Goofy SFX (provided by others on discord):
Bluetooth
Ed, Edd n Eddy Sound Effects Compulation
Goofy Cartoon Sounds (Extended Version)
I like this new generation of music
SONG EXPLANATIONS:
My #1 goal in this OST is to make something fun and catchy to listen to. I prioritized making fun music over making a story. (Even though I made the story first)
The story is a loose base in which I made the music to fit 3 general themes of starting with angst, becoming more whimsical, and ending with maximum whimsy.
All songs share the same instruments to keep things consistent.
3 instruments I’ve labeled, “piano instruments”
3 I’ve labeled, “bass instruments”
4 I’ve labeled, “Melody instruments”
2 I’ve labeled, “chord instruments”
A percussion section and some other efffects such as risers and whatnot.
I drew all of my inspiration from the MAD RAT DEAD soundtrack and even tried to get my instruments to sound the same too (too ok results)
Song 1:
This song takes place during the bad part of our main characters day and as such has a different vibe than the other ones and has a darker tone overall.
It still isn’t completely dreary because the day isn’t actually all that bad, it’s just the characters emotions making it seem worse than it is.
This song highlights a Synth as the bass instrument as that one gives the darkest tone and the least whimsy compared to the others.
The main melodic instruments switch here is a bit of a harsher synth to give the song a harsher vibe.
This song has a clean loop and that’s not just for gameplay purposes. The song is supposed to represent a feeling of angst and anger as someone is having “the worst day ever”. This feeling doesn’t go away unless the person feeling it decides to move past it and as such lasts as long as they will it.
Song 2:
I wanted this song to be fast and fun while still retaining some darker sections to show the change from a bad day to a better day.
The bass pattern is a back and forth to maintain high energy and maintain the catchiness.
This song highlights the Piano as the bass instrument because it has a mix of a darker tone and a lighter tone with the higher notes forming the chords.
The main melodic instruments switch a round a lot in this song to represent the changing emotions of the protagonist as he starts to change his mood about the day he is having.
This is the only song of the 3 to have a clear and defined ending. This is because the song represents the transitional period between believing you’re having the worst day ever, to actually enjoying yourself. The song ends cleanly as the protagonist decides he will start having a good day.
Song 3:
This song had to be just pure unabashed whimsy and fun. It has echoes of the less fun morning but they are insignificant in the face of this much joy.
I asked for any goofy sound effects people had in the OST jam discord and used all of them that I got (I think) in some way during the song to add even more goofiness.
This is by far the most complex song I’ve ever made. The amount of accidentals and instruments all playing at the same time was a ton of fun to get working and it’s a marvel I finished it as fast as I did.
This song highlights the Tuba as the bass instrument since it has the most whimsy of the 3 bass instruments.
The main melodic instrument is a piano synth to give it a more fairground feel to match the vibe I wanted.
This song loops cleanly because even though the best day can’t last forever, the memories can. You can keep having the best day ever if you keep a good attitude even during difficult times.
Message from the artist
Composers Notes:
This is potentially the most complex set of songs I’ve ever made in terms of the sheer amount of instruments playing at the same time. Yes most of them are just playing the same thing, but trying to imitate synths by ear alone is hard and this was the best I could do.
I truly hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed theorizing and crafting it!
I truly love these OST jams. I’ve never felt more of a connection online than I do when I interact with everyone on the discord and the comments here. Recognizing names and seeing others recognize me is such a great feeling and it continues to make me so happy to make music.
Whether or not I win or lose, these jams teach me so much about how people make music and they inspire me to reach even higher than I thought possible.
When I started making music 3 years ago because I watched a Bugsnax AMV (not kidding that was my inspiration) I thought I was the GOAT and that my music was good enough to be in any game.
I made lots of music. 20 original songs, an imaginary Megaman ost, a theme for each Risk of Rain 2 survivor. I thought almost all of them were masterfully made and perfect as is.
And then I joined my first music jam. Redlines Monthly Composing Challenge.
I didn’t do terribly, but boy was I humbled by the feedback.
Ever since that day, I have tried to improve myself constantly as I make new music. Experimenting with new styles, doing more music jams, understanding how to mix properly.
That first music jam was a little under 2 years ago and my growth as a composer has skyrocketed since.
I am so grateful to this community for helping nurture my talents as I create and create and create.
I may have only been composing for a little over 3 years, but here’s hoping I can make that number skyrocket as well.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LISTENING AND READING!!!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
Explained in the Description section. Basically, the game takes place over the last day of summer and it goes from being a terrible day at the start to a fantastic day by the end thanks to all the fun things the protagonist does.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
Youtube:
Full OST:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6I6lTkAHOQ
Individual Songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J57Hlq8oMGg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATvUEtPytY4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz9MlM6crwI
SoundCloud:
Full OST:
https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/sets/only-as-good-as-the-last-day
Individual Songs:
https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/today-is-not-a-good-day-1
https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/waxing-fun-waning-sun-2
https://soundcloud.com/joseph-black-16953843/the-best-last-day-3
Number of tracks3
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any project
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Comments
Firstly wanted to say Jofes I appreciated the message you wrote, I agree it's great seeing so many composers and I enjoy constantly trying new styles/pushing myself and improving from doing these jams! Okay the music - you've done a fantastic job hitting the carinval type sound and it shows across your compositions and instrument choices. I think the final track encapsulates this the best. Also Waxing Fun, Waning Sun is a great song title haha
Thank you so much!
I'm glad you like the music and the song titles were pretty fun to make. Waxing Fun, Waning Sun was the first one I came up with because I really like the word Waxing
This is just amazing. If you made this in 1 week then I don't know what you'll do in a month!
Thank you!
Honestly I’ve always been fast at making music. Once I start a song it’s hard for me to stop. As such, I basically have practice making music fast which helps out in these jams since I’m used to the crunch because I enjoy it.
I think if I was given a whole month to make a song or OST I would finish in the first week anyways because I have no chill.
Today is NOT a Good Day: Mission accomplished for fun and catchy! I’ve spent time pondering what makes something “catchy” and I think there are several factors, many of which you do quite well, probably both intentionally and intuitively. One of the elements that caught my attention is your use of short melodic elements that are repeated almost verbatim over a changing tonic note. You do this in the sections at 1:09, and in a separate idea at 1:55. Another element that I noticed that seems like it comes quite intuitively for you is the rhythmic structure of your melodies where you emphasize heavy beats, but otherwise spend most of the line in syncopation.
Waxing Fun, Waning Sun: The polka-style bass is really fun in this track. Your percussion is also really well-made with some excellent fills over the fun deep dance-inducing four on the floor kicks. Out of all your tracks, this one is my favorite for several reasons. First, I think your melody, with repeats and variation, is the best written of all 3 tracks. Each time it is true to the first time through, but each time feels slightly different as it grows throughout the song. I also think that while the bass and percussion may be written simply, they are very strong parts for this song and make me want to dance. Love the key change too!
The Best Last Day: This track feels like it belongs alongside all the high-quality Mario Party soundtracks. The fair-like quality shines through on this one and the use of cartoon samples was creative to add to the clowny-ness of it. All three of these tracks are really fun to listen to so I maintain the statement at the beginning of my comment! Great work and thank you for taking the time to listen to and rate all of the submissions! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Blue Lava for the in depth analysis!
I do think Today is NOT a good day is probably the catchiest of the 3 because of how I wrote the bass line. The other 2 are more of a polka bass while the first is a more rhythmic bass which I think makes the melody even catchier because of how groovy it is.
I'm so glad that you liked Waxing Fun, Waning Sun! That one is the longest and has a good amount of repeating ideas so I was worried that it might be repetitive to some. I know that 1 section plays twice and then a third time after the key change which I like but might come off as too repetitive.
Honestly the reason I even put sound effects in The Best Last Day was because my inspiration music from MAD RAT DEAD also uses sound effects in a very similar way. I listened to that song so much to get a feel of where to best use the SFX like it since I love that song a lot. It's called Gloucester carousel. If you listen to it, it will be extremely clear that I drew inspiration from it.
i really like how indepth you went with the compositions and the game concept! i personally dont find myself listening to this type of music but i found this playthrough enjoyable and fun! it does really sound like you had a fun time making each track on this project and i can tell you put in a lot of work with these fun uplifting melodies!
my favorite track would have to be: Today is NOT A Good Day, i really enjoyed the bassline on it!
Thank you!
I did have a lot of fun writing all the melodies. It's my favorite part. I usually do it last when I have all the bass and percussion in so I can just toy around with stuff until I find something I find catchy.
At first I was afraid the soundtrack to be too busy when reading you had tons of instruments playing the melody at the same time, but it was actually really well paced. Especially on Today is NOT a good day for example there are some instruments going under the main run and it's giving space and groove ! Well done :)
My favorites were the first and last track. The first one is very energetic and conveyed that anger despite being upbeat and playful, great track ! And that last one is so chaotic with it's extatic and goofy melodies !! A trademark of yours I guess :p
Thank you!
I love having the goofy catchy melodies. I feel like they are far less common and I want to give people some more variance in these jams.
Thank You!
All 3 tracks have a really great sense of groove to them. I liked listening to the percussion writing and how you put in all the fills to add detail and motion to the music.
Thank you!
Adding little percussion bits at the end of phrases is quite fun. Sometimes it happens by accident to where I copy paste notes and it just winds up working.
I'm sorry but 'Today is not a good day' is such a bop my mood would shift so fast, sorry Victor's day sucked but I couldn't relate :D Same for the other two songs: very nice compositions perfectly conveying the intended mood, 'the best last day' is pure fun - chaotic but clearly thought through. I also appreciate you taking the time to talk about each song in such detail, it was an interesting read as well!
Thank you so much!
I actually got a bit scared that you didn't like it when I read "I'm sorry but". Thank you for reading my novel of a description! It was quite fun to put together since I couldn't do anything else for the first few days!
oh oops I didn't mean for it to come off like that, I loved each song yes :)
I just loove the Waxing Fun, Waning Sun trck! Great job
Thank you!
I think that one is the underdog in terms of peoples favorites so it's nice to hear that it's still liked!
You certainly went above and beyond for the story, even tho I'd use all of them for platformers like on the PC in the 90's, it has that exact vibe
Thank you!
I had 4 days to brainstorm it before I got a chance to start writing hence it being much longer than what I would normally do.
This kind of bouncy bluesy vibe is exactly what I live for. Reminds me a lot of DS-era stuff, which I'm always extremely fond of. The transition over the 3 tracks is really impressive, like 1 and 3 probably could not be farther apart but Waxing Fun, Waning Sun manages to bridge that gap perfectly??? Super fun and memorable submission, and thank you for being such a beast rating everyone!
Thank you so much!
I'm glad the idea that Waxing fun waning sun acting as a bridge between the 2 read well to others. I knew going in that it needed to do that since the other 2 songs were so vastly different in tone whilst still retaining the fun energetic vibes I wanted.
I think having the Piano be the highlighted bass instrument like I said in the description is really what helped since it can be both menacing and goofy in the right contexts.
Solid music from a solid guy, good work as always Jofes! Good luck on your mission to rate each project!!!
Thank you!
I love the energy in these tracks. You craft those bluesy melodic lines so well, how one phrase leads so nicely to the next. Yes! Those sound effects add so much zany charter to The Best Last Day. I like the conversation you create between the two instruments in that opening section. When you veer over to the minor around 1.15 mark, so good. All those minor chords create this slightly creepy carnival feel, and is great contrast to the rest of the piece. Your soundtrack is infectious fun!
Thank you so much!
The tone shift is one of my favorite parts in the best last day, but my favorite part overall is when it starts getting light hearted again at 1:47. Those chords there took me the longest I think and it worked out so well in the end!
This was such a fun listen! It goes hard and doesn't relent. The cartoon sound effects are the cherries on top. Great job in pushing yourself and in executing this music so well.
Thank you!
"Doesn't relent" feels like a great descriptor of what I was going for by making it high energy the whole way through.
Nice work, you can clearly see what this OST is going for in terms of the fun/quirky character and it achieves that goal very well! I can see this working well in a lot of games.
Thanks a ton! I'm glad you liked it!
Its quality work here. I can always have some sort of anchoring bass line or chorded instrument, a syncopated melody, and comfortable counter melody throughout the songs. You did a good job managing all the various moving parts and hearing the slew of 'Funny Noises' handed by the community at the end was good fun.
I really would love to hear how you would manage more instruments. Throughout I felt like there was space for more shimmery/high end pieces like cymbals or auxiliary percussion, but I can also understand abstaining since that adds a whole other layer of complexity and one wouldnt want the music to get too busy.
I appreciated the written theme/guides to each song as I felt it helped me engage better with the music.
Overall, great work! I am looking forward to see how well this piece does!
Thank you so much!
This was actually the most instruments I've worked with at once I think! Normally though in my songs, each instrument will play their own thing. In this OST, many of the instruments play the same melody. I did this because I wanted a strong catchy melody that was rich with depth of sound which made the mixing more complex. As such, I was scared to add more than what I had.
Totally understandable! Great work and I respect your reservations for not overfilling the cup, as Im pretty confident its an issue I fell into.
I hope this reads as a positive, but this soundtrack actually brought me back to my long gone Homestuck days haha very fun songs for sure! I feel like your dynamics could use a little work, although in fairness the vibe you're going for definitely doesn't super need it. But I find it's almost always something nice to have in higher energy songs so the energy keeps reviving itself rather than fall into familiarity. This is something you would thinking changing the melodies or adding sound effects would do on their own, but in my opinion they more come through as sprinkles on top rather than a new flavor. That being said, it's still one, sweet OST. Great job!
Thank you!
Yeah I was kind of laser focused on the melodies themselves rather than the dynamics. I played with the dynamics a bit in each song but only to a minor extent and it was mostly just by having less instruments play at the same time overall.
For what it's worth, I was writing this while listening and I think your last song did a decent job with dynamics! I think I still would have liked to hear some more range in that regard, but it did show me that you probably already know what I was talking about, it just didn't come out in this project specifically haha thanks for the music!
Really liked the composition, although I feel like the choice of vsts could've been improved upon, still enjoyed greatly though, especially the cartoon sounds in the last song
Thanks!
So I was trying really hard to get it to sound like the music in MAD RAT DEAD just by ear and it was really difficult. I even emailed the composer for the game what VSTs he used a few weeks before the jam started since he had a list of all the VSTs he owns on his website but he never responded.
As such, I tried my best to replicate them but since there are a lot of synths it was really difficult. I think it turned out good but it wasn't as good as the soundtrack I drew inspiration from.
Can I ask which VSTs in particular you though felt out of place?
Ohhh, haven't listened to the Mad Rat Dead OST, I was mostly viewing it as the composition style not mixing with the instrument qualities but if that was your intention, then don't worry about my comment
I highly recommend the Mad Rat Dead OST it is my all time favorite. I still don't quite get how they make the music sound so deep and rich but trying to emulate its style I think brought me closer.
With more practice, I'm sure I'll be able to make even better pieces!
really impressive composition. a lot of the stuff i've heard is more ambient/downtempo directed and i really love uptempo music, so this really stood out. super bouncy and fun. thanks for sharing :)
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!
Congratulations on such great work!
Really enjoyed listening to this music from start to finish. I like the overall sound you achieved, and the catchy melodies.
My favorite was "Today is NOT a Good Day", as it reminded me ai times of Super Meat Boy and Crypt of the Necrodancer, it has that Danny Baranowsky vibe which I really love.
The production quality was great as well, with a clean and solid sound throughout.
Great job!
Thank you!
The synth bass in Today is NOT a good day I agree does remind me of Crypt of the Necrodancer.