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The Faithless Sanctuary — Impressions Season 4: Worldbuilding's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Vibe/Atmosphere | #1 | 4.667 | 4.667 |
| Execution | #1 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Incorporation of Theme | #1 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Uniqueness/Originality | #1 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Overall | #1 | 4.278 | 4.278 |
| Cohesion | #1 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Storytelling/History | #2 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
For this music jam, I created some ambient orchestral tracks inspired by a post-apocalyptic world where a chemical agent has made the outside environment nearly uninhabitable. The story follows a young survivor who takes refuge inside a cathedral, only to discover that the people living within it have developed a rigid social hierarchy based around survival, control, and access to safety. The cathedral becomes a society of its own, with the dangers of the outside world shaping how its inhabitants live and how those in power maintain control.
The tracks were composed with a cinematic approach, following the protagonist's journey from the aftermath of the war, through his experiences within the cathedral, and eventually toward his final and impactful decision. I wanted the music to reflect both the bleakness of the environment and the increasingly oppressive atmosphere of the society that formed within it, showing how the need for survival can ultimately create its own form of suffering.
Alongside the music, I created several drawings to accompany specific scenes and moments from the story, helping visualize the world and its characters. I also included a PDF containing the script, allowing the music, artwork, and writing to work together as different parts of the same narrative.
**LINK TO STREAMING SITE 4 MUSIC:** https://youtu.be/W6SalSxcLr8
^^
**The images and text have to be downloaded tho**
In the future, I'd like to come back to this with more drawings and VO stuff!
Demonstrate that this is your own work
See the uploaded screenshots
Discord Tag
Simishcj
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Comments
Right off the bat, the idea of a chemical weapon that causes people to just forget where they came from is a powerful, terrifying image. Really unique as far as I can tell.
Really amazing art, beautiful, haunting story.
I'm amazed, honestly. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to see, to see something new and fresh and interesting!
Really great work, and thank you truly for submitting to this jam.
Extremely sad and beautiful entry. Lots of things to comment about your project, which I found very moving and with plenty of details to make it deep and immersive. The story was easy to follow and the theatrical usage of the narrator and protagonist voices was a very creative choice which worked very well to depict your world. I first listened to the music while watching the images, then a second time while reading the story, and a third time listening to the music only while thinking about the three acts of your story, when I enjoyed it the most, having all the pieces click together. I will comment my impressions about the music:
Bounty:
Tragic and with great sound design for the first melody, which feels like a dying voice slowly falling into the despair of a consumed world. The string swells capture the drama without being cheesy, and the piano enters at the right time for keeping it dynamic.
Classification:
Feeling the dark "joke" of the uplifting beginning, reflecting the fake condition of the cathedral as a functioning society when in reality everything is a lie.
Feast:
The beginning with the brass and that kind of guitar coupling repeating a leit motif is great, with the build-up to the choirs and percussion. The piano notes as the last spark of hope, already wandering and sadly vanishing away.
Regarding the story, I found it flowing very well, I connected with the main character and felt the world came alive with the descriptions and was plausible. There was only one part which felt off, and it was something that I kept asking myself while I read: how do these people survive if they cannot leave the cathedral? What do they eat? And, well, I did not have to wait long for the answer to that question to arrive.
Overall, awesome work in all fronts. I did not say anything about the art, but you already know it is great (and if you don't, you should), and the way you added those elements of blood, the names on the wall, the last name... I found it a very creative way of making the viewer "choose" what to see and move through the story. For now, this is clearly my favorite entry from the ones I reviewed, and in any case it will remain in my memory as an unforgettable artistic experience.
Thank you for the review! I was worried it would be too many words andimages. Originally, I would've had VO work done to accompany the story with on-screen text, but some things fell through with that. I plan to put this all together cohesively in the future with more tracks and align them with the images (probably will make more drawings as well)!
Yay, more drawings, please! Yeah, while the fragmentation of the assets gives some sense of mystery and discovery (you don't really know what you will find at the next image) it is also true that it might generate some friction at the beginnig and affect the experience as one has to sort through everything. Looking forward to experiencing the next iteration! I am now even thinking this could be just a chapter of a longer story: the character might somehow survive, there might be places where the Mist has already vanished and there's more people living... A world of possibilities.
Pretty dark story 😁
The ending kinda got me wondering if the people inside the Cathedral were also doomed to die now? Since the protagonist opened the door and the filtration system had failed.
On the music side the vibe was great, though like Grunt. mentioned, having some more diversity in the instrumentation/arrangement between the 3 tracks would've helped the make them more distinct from each other and really highlight those spots of the story.
Maybe something like having the chimes only play on the end of the final feast track, to signal that the protagonist had decided to end the suffering and release himself by opening the door? Or something of the sort like that might help make them illustrate the story beats more.
But that said, the story was was great and really gave a sense of the world and the ad-hoc society that formed after the fallout, that + the illustration and music made a for a great moody read which I really enjoyed.
Good work as always!
Some really nice sounds in these pieces! I'm not a visual artist at all but I really enjoy your visual work and certainly wish I could do some of what you can in that department. The images correspond with the music very well and create a very effective vibe.
NGL I too love some apocalyptic fumes from time to time.
I was actually quite surprised with the musical direction you went with, as I don't always imagine a cinematic orchestration would fit, but I quite like the contrast between it and the artwork. It's like our protagonist is very aware of the chaos and rubble around them but still searches for the beauty in this new world.
If I had to choose a favorite I'd say I'm especially fond of the first track. There's this feeling of delicateness to it that's really pleasant to my ears, like this world is barely strung together. Very interesting stuff. I'm also quite a fan of this artstyle, it's feels like if Darkest Dungeon was done in what almost looks like water colors (idk I'm not an artist lol).
I think if I had to give any feedback here, I'd say that I would've liked a touch more diversity, both in tone as well as orchestration. IMO having one piece that, for example, contained a fair amount of percussive elements or had some darker/dissonant harmonic movement I think could've provided a touch more information about your world. Not to sound like I don't like the other tracks you've submitted (on the contrary I loved what you did here!), but I think it covers a palette of sounds/tone that I think was already well established in the first piece IMO. Hopefully that makes sense.
Thanks for sharing what you've made, and keep up the good work :)