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The Summer You Weren't There's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Storytelling | #3 | 4.414 | 4.414 |
| Quality | #7 | 4.517 | 4.517 |
| Creativity | #7 | 4.414 | 4.414 |
| Overall | #11 | 4.248 | 4.248 |
| Impression | #29 | 4.069 | 4.069 |
| Composition | #79 | 3.828 | 3.828 |
Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Game Description:
The Summer You Weren't There is a visual novel that centers itself around feelings of longing and heartache from missing a loved one who is away for a time.
Music Description:
For this EP, we chose to make a mixed-electronica soundtrack, blending between glitchy and natural textures as a way to bridge the conceptual gap between memories of the past and interactions of the present.
01 - Call Of The Waves: The MC is introduced to the player as she attempts to call her partner but is sent to voicemail. The MC wishes that her partner was with her instead of being overseas, waiting for her at the Pier which is where they shared significant memories
02 - The Long Drive Back: The MC begins the drive towards home from the Pier, and in the process, reminisces about several specific memories that were shared between them centered around the beach and the waves
03 - Making Sense Of Things: The MC has made it home but is unable to sleep, so she passes the time by channeling her sense of longing and heartache into her guitar playing. She hopes to be able to play for her partner when she comes back
04 - I Got This: The MC once again makes it back to the Pier, and though she wishes her partner was with her, she finds her own way to move forward
Software:
We used a variety of DAWs, VSTs, and other bits of software to create this. The non-exhaustive list includes: FL Studio, Ableton, Reaper, Bitwig, MuseScore, Pitchmap, LOVE, Valhalla Room, Valhalla Shimmer, Emergence, Disperser, Kontakt (various libraries), and more.
Process and Inspirations:
After seeing the text prompt and the picture theme, we decided on a mixture of natural and electronic elements. We tried to make our soundtracks diegetic to really drive home the immersion of our visual novel. As we worked through the jam, we were inspired by a few videos that we saw to move towards our final conceptual game idea, which really helped tie the entire EP together.
Message from the artist
We enjoyed making this and we hope you enjoy listening to this!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
We used both the picture theme and text prompt as inspiration. The female figure in the picture combined with the shading and the setting of the picture made us think of themes of longing and heartache especially with the way she positions herself as well as the way the lighting portrays a sense of loneliness. Additionally, we interpreted the text prompt as an extension of that longing and heartache, positioning "one summer night" as a wish that the MC has in order to be able to have her partner with her. We chose to revolve our visual novel around longing and heartache from missing someone as we felt like this was a subject matter that can relate to a lot of people, and what people often cherish is the interactions with other people. As such, we felt like this was a good conceptual fit for the wish that people may have to have "one summer night" and more to spend with their loved ones.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/uwutestagent/sets/the-summer-you-werent-there-ost-composing-jam-8-submission
Number of tracks4
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
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Comments
I love the sound design and ear candy in The Long Drive Back. But I Got This was the highlight track for me though—the sounds used in the build are interesting, and the drop is simultaneously filthy and emotionally gut wrenching. Really cool submission!
This was a really fun listen over the stream! Great work yall did here
The sound design in this is off the charts. I listened to this soundtrack a second time to try and pick apart all of the different sounds I was hearing. The build ups in the 2nd track were done brilliantly as well. Congrats on making such a stellar soundtrack with an effective story!
PEAK. Synths literally tickle my ears in a good way and the melody is so comforting and nice. And the story itself is quite emotional, the music helps feel it more.
The music is very pretty and well made! I like the way it swells almost endlessly it seems before falling back down again.
I think there is room however to use music instead of dialogue. The entire first "track" isn't really a song as much as it is a part of the story itself. I think some dialogue is ok, but I want to hear how you connect it to the music. Have the track play around with the cell phones call noise in a track. Use the buzz of the call as the tempo and beat. Things like that so it doesn't feel as segmented between story and music.
This is so beautiful!! you guys used every resource at your disposal to tell such a great story. Lovely composition!!
So you guys just created a whole complete project within a week huh, holy shit. It's so good, everything from the arrangements, instruments, VOICE ACTING?? fits so well. Definitely one of my favorites so far, I'll be returning to this one for sure!
I'M SO JEALOUS OF THIS SUBMISSION I HATE IT SO MUCH (I LOVE IT)!!!! It sounds mega professional, you can tell the creator has years of experience of making music, if not then it's definitely a talented one. Everything sounds so CLEAN it's actually insane. Things are well-put together without trying too hard. If someone tells me this is from an actual game, I'd definitely believe them.
The storytelling was great! I particularly enjoyed the guitar playing, simple yet very effective. I Got This was really cool too. Nice job.
Beautiful soundtrack overall, absolutely love the vibe of it all! Voice acting was great and really added to the experience, and I also love the cover art for this too, it reminds me of an old project I made before my rebrand. Def one of my fav projects so far, keep it up!
This one tugs on the heartstrings a lot. Its quiet and mostly unassuming, mixed incredibly well, with super cool textures put around that give it a great sense of atmosphere. The vocal effects are great too, it feels like the voicemail is coming from a phone sinking into the water. The future bass(?) ending felt really satisfying narratively, releasing all the built up tension you didn't realize was there up until that point. A part of me wishes there was a bit more textural stuff going on during the final drop just to break up the lead, maybe with some of the granulated watery things? That's just a personal preference though, this submission was incredible front to back!
Great and creative soundtrack. First one I've come across so far using spoken word. The Long Drive Back was my favorite, but I also love how I Got This just went all out. Nice work! :)
Sound design is amazing, the best I've heard so far !
this blends electronic and orchestral elements so beautifully !! it feels like memory and longing in sonic form. the textures are gorgeously immersive and emotionally rich. i got chills listening to ‘i got this’ at the end . just wow
This was crazy good! the quality here is top notch. The range of genres in your songs is super impressive, you two make a great duo. That last song (I Got This) is my favorite track, but honestly everything here is amazing
really nice compositions. very cool sound design, really engaging with tons of ear candy. nice to see at least one other bitwig user around here hahahaha. thanks for sharing :)
Wow this was amazing, my only piece of criticism is that I felt you guys were using dialog to tell the story a bit too much instead of trying to tell it through music, but don't let that detract from how well crafted this is! Very much a beautiful piece of art
This was such a great listen! I felt actually invested in the story, and I loved the use of dialogue and different SFX to create this entire world/soundscape! The songs complemented everything very well, and I have to say that the outro track was INSANE. Overall, great work!
The long drive back - Fantastic build up, I was seeing so many colours! Couldn't help but want the melodic theme to have a bit more time in the spotlight!
Making sense of things - Very nice composition, but parts are too busy to sell it as guitar for me, sounds like a very beautiful piano arrangement with a guitar sound, but guitar arrangements need to be alot simpler due to the limitations of the instrument. What you've written would require alot of quite big left hand stretches and very strong pima picking techniqe, but perhaps she's just being really humble in the recording! A minor point but I thought I'd share a unique perspective here. If the main character is a professional classical guitarist I'll shut up though haha
I got this - Wow that hits you hard! Not sure if it's what I was expecting for the last track but certainly evokes strong emotions and sounds incredible!
Visual novel gang! Everything on the technical/production end here is incredibly well done. The way you mesh electronic and acoustic sounds together is super seamless and fluid. I do feel like the voicemails cheapen the experience a little bit and the story would still be told effectively without them, but that might just be a me thing. Amazing work aside from that though!