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Battlecry (Time Gears )'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition quality | #5 | 4.267 | 4.267 |
| Match to the brief | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #6 | 3.947 | 3.947 |
| Overall enjoyment | #7 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Production quality | #8 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Memorability | #12 | 3.467 | 3.467 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Time Gears is a game about human's vanity and rebellion. The industrial age did bring so much advanced technologies.. and also reinforced the inequalities. Poors are getting poorer, riches are richer...
Until one day, a soldier, mind wounded by the war and regretting the actions of the past, begins to manipulate time with is watch. Even if the player wins, the end is bitter. War did so much damages and the players quickly realise that, like the soldier of this story, they were manipulated. Beloved characters died and cities burned, the end is not happy. But, at least, the fight is over.
I tried to represent the whole story through the song ; The begining of the world, humanity, industrial age and, little by little, corruption... And rebellion, people getting together to fight... and die on the battlefield. Each section is a part of the story.
I did wanted to stay as organic as possible to contrast the subject and the industrial tone of the story so I used my mic a lot for the begining of the track. I put some machinery and mecanical sounds as an intro then added layers of reel voice sounds. Then, less conventional instruments like the lyre or metal scraps hit together to have a sort of a regular machinery hit then, for the battle moment, an orchestre followed then by a chords slightl changing and the choir representing the loss of the loved ones.
I did a lot of mistakes in my mix, I was at a point where my ears fatigued and I became frustrated. I hope you will excuse the lack of structure in the sounds and the overall gain of certain things, breaking your ears was not what I attended to do. My experience is still very new and I need to learn so much things but it was a fun experience.
I would love to have the advices of you all, it would help me a lot !
Thank you for listening !
URL to Streaming Service
https://linktr.ee/FarFaida
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Comments
Easily one of the best in this jam !
Great atmosphere, I was imagining it being in a video game as it was well produced ! The choirs are great, it adds a softness, but it's also very harsh, there's this hopelessness that I felt without being screamed to my ear, I just sensed it and that's very good ! Love the bit from 0:57 to 1:00, the fact that we can hear a little melody coming out after a more ambiance phase before makes this part unique and outstands it. Love the build up at 1:25 announced by the timpani, then the melody with the strings, then continued by the choir is gorgeous ! The choir at 1:43 is also mesmerizing and it reminds me of "Ready The Ships" from HTTYD by John Powell.
Also that E at 1:54 is memorable, it feels off, but in a good way because it feels human, there is despair in this note and eventually, it fits with the song !
Congratulations for creating this piece of work !
Hey, I've just listened to your track!
I simply loved it. The atmosphere is incredible, and the musical ideas and symbolism come across very clearly. The mix sounds great to me, so I don't really understand why you're not satisfied with it.
I also think you have a strong grasp of harmony and orchestration. I especially loved the choir parts, and I found myself wondering which plugin or VST you used for them.
The only thing I could point out is that the piece ends a little too early for my taste. I would have loved to hear an even bigger final climax, perhaps extended with a strong horn melody or another memorable statement of the main theme.
Overall, I really loved your submission.
Good luck with the rest of the voting period!
You are leading very nicely into the more foreful section of the track. The harmonies are great (especially love how your choir is breaking out of the established harmonic structure) and the instrument choices are awesome.
My one recommendation would be to revisit the rhythm starting around 2:00 - you are leading into the end of the track, but the mid metallic rhythm sounds like it prepares the listener for a new high energy section.
You made it a tough challenge to try and find something in your piece to be not 100% happy with. Just a fantastic composition all around.
(Submission 12/29 - "Battlecry" by FarFaida)
:D
What an absolutely atmospheric track, wow! You have an incredible sense of layering and composition, and I just felt like I was right along with the song the entire time!
Also, the voluming was incredible and lush so I don't know how loud you're listening to the song (or its just the fatigue). One thing I could suggest would be to lower the mids or increase the low end as it tends to overwhelm the bass area.
Thanks FarFaida for creating such a story with your music!
Thank you so much for your advice ! I know it could be very bad ear fatigue (I'm not used to be on a track with time pressure like that so I think my brain fried or something haha). I think that I prefered the track before the mix so the frustration build up little by little, I just need to learn how to deal with that feeling. But I totally agree on the mids and lows, I will be more cautious on that matter for the next time.
Your track is amazing and I'm indredibly glad to have been on the same jam as so muck talented and kind people like you, all thanks to you !
Of course :)
An incredible atmosphere you have created here, I don't feel that the mix is as bad/fatiguing as you make it out to be, how loud are you listening to it?? maybe some more low low end energy could help combat the mids a bit, as that, to me, sound like the problem you might be hearing, but well done.
Thank you so much ! Yeah I think that I was just very tired haha, it makes me feel a liitle bit better to know that it is not as bad as I thought. I also think that the mids are way to present so this is really good advice, thank you ! I'm always so scared to let the lows taking too much space in my mixes -it is something that I did a lot when I started- so I guess I'm too self-conscious about it now haha. You did an amazing job with your guitar on your track, it was very nice and refreshing to hear some acoustic instrument ! Good job to you too !
thank you, I also have the problem of adding too much low end, you are not alone there
The depth in this track is absolutely stunning. The way you layered things especially in only 4 days is crazy! Well done.
Thank you so much for your very kind words ! If only I had more time and energy, I would have done a lot of things very differently but the ear fatigue was very strong at some point so I just gave up haha. But it was fun to do, I hope you enjoyed the jam too. Thanks again and also : you did great on your project, well done ! 🧙♂️
Thank you very much! Hope to see you in another one.
Hope to see you in another one too ! I'm sure our paths will cross again haha