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I Won't Go's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| General Impression | #1 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Adherence to theme | #1 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Quality | #1 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Creativity | #1 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Overall | #1 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Inclusion of fragment | #2 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many tracks did you submit?
5
Explain your hypothetical game concept & how you interpreted the theme!
An old bullet hell hero settles down to retire at a farm in a small town. By day, they grow their crops. By night, they fight their demons. In their worst moments they struggle to refuse the call, but in their better moments they know the call will never come for them again. What will it take to find peace?
The original lyrics for the theme started “I won’t go….” The song version got cut from the soundtrack, but the rhythms of refusal remain.
I used the repetitious and sometimes overwhelming nature of canons to evoke our retired hero’s mental state, from melancholy to nightmares to dissociation. Looking at the same theme by day or by night, from forward or backwards or upsidedown, sometimes getting stuck in loops and sometimes finding moments of clarity.
What genre is your soundtrack?
classical, chiptune, experimental, ambient
How did you incorporate a canon into your hypothetical soundtrack?
A Bittersweet Retirement: Introduces the "I Won't Go" canon theme. After playing the theme twice, the third time the canon is introduced with a delay of 2 measures and at an interval of a fourth below.
Bullet Hell Upside-Down Cake: Introduces the inverted theme, and then also later adds the theme at the 4th.
Dissociation Delamination: Experimental piano "canon" that plays the "I Won't Go" theme 9 times simultaneously, with each copy stretched an additional 5%, affecting both time and pitch.
Confronting What's Behind You: Uses the 2nd measure of the "I Won't Go" theme---the climax of 7 eight notes---as a motive in the retrograde. It is repeated every measure in one voice while other voices layer in a number of variations, starting with one a 6th up, coming in on the 4th eight note, and halved in time. It ends with a repeating combination of the motive and the motive a 7th down, coming in on the 7th eight note.
Anything else you'd like to add?
For jam convenience, all 5 tracks can be downloaded in one combined 7-minute mp3.
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Comments
Track 1 - Opening Ambiance: Really gorgeous, dark way of "setting the scene." Very effective, although perhaps could use more melodic content to make a tad less monotonous. The length feels about right, although perhaps it could be a tad shorter.
Track 2 - A Bittersweet Retirement: Really beautiful way of building on top of the first track! Feels very sad and melancholy. Very harmonically rich and satisfying. I think I can hear the canon but it would have been nice to see the full score.
Track 3 - Bullet Hell Upside-Down Cake: The change in texture from classical to chiptune feels a tad abrupt, but that's okay. Creative way of changing things up, and it definitely feels pretty disorienting.
Track 4 - Dissociation Delamination: Love the atonality you got going on here. Definitely not picking up on the canon aspect but I'll take your word! Haha. This is some John-Cage-type sh*t!
Track 5 - Confronting What's Behind You: Maybe I'm biased as a drummer, but I feel like this is missing a driving beat! I feel you're missing closure to an otherwise fantastic soundtrack.
Thank you for taking the time to write your impressions of each track! I had originally written a closing track, but it wasn't working like I wanted it to so I scrapped it.
The score for A Bittersweet Retirement is available as one of the downloads, and the canon is separated out into the top two voices, with the 2nd voice coming in at measure 21, if you're curious!
The switch to chiptune for Bullet Hell Upside-Down Cake fits the game idea (top-down farming sim during the day with bullet hell combat at night, right?) Dissociation Delamination is really neat, I was trying to think of a phasing canon type thing but couldn't pull it off.
I was insprired by Atomicrops, which is the best farming sim + bullet hell game I've played, and which has an incredible soundtrack in a style I haven't heard in any other game. I wish there were more games in this genre that explore the mechanics a little further and are a bit more cozy in their daytime cycle, so that's what I imagined.
I'm glad you mentioned Dissociation Delamination, I'm really proud of that one!