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Description
Lux Devorata is basically my take on a late-90s PC/PS1 dark fantasy dungeon crawler soundtrack.
The idea is that you're exploring a forgotten world where the light has literally been devoured (hence Lux Devorata). You can't really rely on sight, so sound becomes part of how you navigate the world. The basic idea is almost like a crude form of echolocation: music, environmental sounds, echoes, and things moving around you help reveal the space and give you some idea of where you are and what might be nearby. So the soundtrack isn't just there in the background, sound is basically one of your senses.
The track itself isn't meant to be one piece that would literally play from beginning to end during gameplay. It's more like a condensed trip through the game. The opening is the main menu theme, big and bombastic, basically introducing the world before you even enter it. After that it drops into the kind of music you'd actually hear while exploring the dungeon: much quieter, more sparse and tense, with a lot more space around everything. From there it gradually turns into an encounter and then a boss fight, where I bring back a modified version of the main motif. The ending brings the main theme back one last time as a reprise.
I composed the whole thing entirely by ear. I still don't know much theory, so most of the process was basically following what sounded right and figuring out where the piece wanted to go section by section. The main motif came first, and I ended up reusing and changing it throughout the track rather than constantly coming up with completely new material.
The sound palette is pretty simple. Most of the instruments come from the TimGM6mb SoundFont, which gave me a lot of the older game soundtrack character I was looking for. I used a couple of Decent Sampler instruments for the boss section and some of the texture, plus a few processed environmental sounds here and there. Then I ran the everything through a CRT filter.
Made in FL Studio.
Message from the artist
It takes me a long time to mix/master and I was running out of time so, fair warning: the mix is dookie.
But I'm still proud of the composition itself
Thanks for listening <3
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
I took “Songs of a Forgotten World” pretty literally. Lux Devorata is set in a forgotten world where the light has been devoured, leaving most of it buried in darkness. The other part of the idea was that, because you can’t really rely on sight, sound becomes part of how you explore it. Music, echoes, environmental noise, and things moving around you act like a crude form of echolocation, so in a way the “songs” of the forgotten world are also how you experience and navigate it.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://youtu.be/k2rkG7iIW9E
Number of tracks1
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
For game jams only
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Comments
Forgot to ask, what type of CRT filter did you use?
It was the Cymatics CRT plugin, which was a pain to get, so fair warning.
Oh my, you just nailed the ambience. The soundtrack fits EXTREMELY well the story you depicted, and the composition is just so well written. I also loved that old game feeling, it added... something. I don't know what but it is very cool. I would have loved to be able to listen to more so that I can go deeper into the world you created, but that's just me being hungry for good music.
Amazing job. I'm really glad I could listen to your submission
There's a lot of sunshine and hopefulness in many submissions due to the picture this jam chose as theme, but you went full retro dark fantasy. I love your take on the theme, it still fits and is oozing with character. I don't think I played games with this type of soundtrack before, but it does remind me of classic cinema.
Composition is also well done despite you admitting to not having much music theory knowledge, think you have a very good intuitive sense of music. I hear your warning about the mix but it sounds kinda cool despite being a little muddy, it feels like the mix is struggling to contain the overwhelming darkness. If you told me this was a finished product I would believe it. Great work, one of the most memorable entries this jam.
You made my day with this review. Seriously, I really appreciate you letting me know. To have that kind of impact is as good as winning the jam. Thank you <3
I think you nailed the 90's adventure game theme! The melodies are memorable but could do with some embellishing to keep them interesting.
Feedback on composition as promised : Good theme, its memorable I like the arrangement with the arps to embellish and complete the theme even though they are hard to hear (but you know you said your mix needs some work). The break at around 1 minute is good and the transition to 1:25 is nice but you have enough space to try a second melody there and not only playing the two empty chords waiting for something to happen, you builded up with the choir which is nice but not enough, you'll need more instrumentation to get me going. Overall the theme is nice but I think its too much present, repetition is great in music but there is also a threshold not too exaggerate and at the end I got tired of it, a real second theme or counter theme at some point a second phrase to get out of it and then bring it back would help a lot. Before big transitions also a classic cymbal swell is always welcomed.
CRT filter was a good choice and fits this soundtrack!
This track is incredibly unique, i love the texture of the sounds. It reminds of SJSM a bit. I love this track. My only issue is the mixing.
This track is incredibly unique, i love the texture of the sounds. It reminds of SJSM a bit. I love this track. My only issue is the mixing.
Mysterious vibes, reminds me a lot of Castlevania music and early Western RPGs . Could do with better mixing/mastering. I like how by itself the track tells a complete story! A solid work!