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Where the Old Dreams Live's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Impression | #13 | 4.310 | 4.310 |
| Quality | #21 | 4.241 | 4.241 |
| Composition | #24 | 4.207 | 4.207 |
| Overall | #24 | 4.076 | 4.076 |
| Storytelling | #37 | 3.793 | 3.793 |
| Creativity | #45 | 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 Premise:
Day by day, a quiet unease settles over the protagonist... a sense that something key has slipped away, though they can't name what. As night falls and they drift into sleep, they awaken within a dreamworld stitched together from fragments of their past: familiar faces, cherished objects, half-remembered vistas, all rendered so familiar, yet so strange. Guided by whispered song, they journey deeper into this world, and with each memory un-forgotten, a little more of themselves comes back into focus. Piece by piece, they begin to remember what made life worth living.
A Song to Remember:
This piece serves as the game's ending theme, played as the protagonist begins to awaken, with the dreamworld and its song reminding them that what they need to move forward has always been within them all along.
Lyrics:
Drifting through these days,
Searching for light, that seems now fading
The vibrant shades of song, that once shone through pass into memory
Longing for those days,
Reaching for dreams, that burned so hot, I couldn't hold on to them all
Yet the shards that fell now sing to me to recall
(Intermezzo)
Through the tides and the winds
Towards the light of coming dawn
Our dreams of the past keep shining in our hearts
So we sing, and we dance
Close our eyes and see the world that lives on inside
Thanks for listening!
Message from the artist
Only had like 6 hours to work on this jam, so just 1 piece for this time. I usually write songs in japanese, but decided to give english a try for this submission. Hope you enjoyed it!
The art is Evening Contemplation by Alphonse Mucha
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
When I read the theme and saw the image, I immediately thought of how the world looked so different back when I was a child. There was so much wonder, color, and anything seemed possible, any dream achievable. Yet as we grow up, some of us might've lost sight of that wonderful world we once saw so easily. It becomes a forgotten world. In my piece, I tried to capture that world of dreams we all once had, and imagined this piece as the song of said world, calling for us, speaking to us, reminding us that the world still holds all that wonder and joy, just as long as we're willing to look for it.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/bodotheserf/a-song-to-remember
Number of tracks1
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
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Comments
this is a wonderful composition!!! the instrumentation here is gorgeous, and i love the chord progressions and arpeggiations you add here. the use of the vocaloid is a wonderful touch as well. overall, this track is just so wonderful to listen to. thanks for sharing!
it's beautiful!! great job. love the chord changes and the singing
This is crazy for 6 hours. The piano is so pretty. The vocals are so so good! Absolutely magical. Before I even read your description I was thinking "credits theme" so you nailed the feel! Great work with the panning, nice percussion too.
OMG WHAT A SONG. I will always highly appreciate vocal submissions since I know how hard they are to make right from firsthand experience. You did an excellent job creating a beautifully dynamic song with great moments. This song belongs in an anime or some shit this is such a banger!
So beautiful! I like how the writing choices in each section have this forward momentum that naturally falls into the next section. The mix is so great—there is a sense of fullness due to the reverbs and ambience, yet everything still finds their own space in the mix to shine clearly through. To my ear, there is something muddy about the mix with the starting vocals and with the guitar during the climax, but they are very minor for me in comparison to what the mix achieved overall, which I would describe as velvety or rich rather than muddy. Incredible work, I wish I could hear more!
Oh wow this is high level stuff! is that you singing or a vocaloid? It sounds amazing. Great job!
Thanks so much for your comment! The singing is a plugin called SynthV, I switched over to it from vocaloid since it sounds a lot more natural!
Unbelievable—you made this in six hours?? And is this your singing too? Simply phenomenal work. The mixing is highly impressive, and perfectly matches the vibe of the story (cool idea, by the way!)
This is highly polished, and really captures the ethereal vibe. I sure hope you can find some more time for the next jam—I would love to see what you could do with more than six hours. Still, I hope you are impressed and proud of yourself—this is quite a well-done track. Good job, and keep writing!
Thank you so much for your kind words! The voice is a plugin called SynthV, I wish I could sing like that haha
Just... gorgeous. The soundscape you created in the background is just wonderful and accompagny that beautiful voice really perfectly.
And the result is stunning. Really, it was a wonderful piece. I would love to listen to more of your art.
Hats off to you.
Thanks so much! Glad you liked the piece, I was trying a few new things so I’m super happy to hear it sounded good!
Such a lovely piece ! I Imagine it being played along with the credits of the game and getting very emotional and nostalgic about the experiences I went through... superb potential closer to a game about gathering fragments of the past to go on with light and love.
How did you make the voice ? Is it someone singing, yourself some other technique ? It sounds really good, as the whole song !
Super work, thanks for sharing I glad you could participate !
Thanks so much Peluche! The voice is SynthV, I switched over from Vocaloid because it has a much more natural timbre, I’m glad to hear it sounded good!
IT'S YOU!!!!!!!!! i already knew this would blow my mind away before i even clicked play and I WAS RIGHT!!!
the high pitched synths/glockenspiel-esque instruments just further elevates this dreamlike state even i got lost in, the vocals are absolutely gorgeous throughout especially during moments where they would pan around which AUGHH I LOVE THAT SM!!!! one thing i do want to add is that i would've loved to hear more of the choir harmonizations present around the former half of the track to be added to the climax of the track, i think that would make the track burst even more with emotion than it already is!
other than that FANTASTIC WORK!!!!!!
Thanks so much for your comment! That’s a great point, yeah I could see the choir working really well there to make the climax even more powerful! Thanks for the feedback!
Very beautiful piece, it was a very pleasant listening experience !
The instrumentation, although quite simple, is pretty well chosen and fits the synth vocals nicely, it carries the emotions of your game's idea greatly.
Great work (and nice choice for the thumbnail also, Mucha is one of my favourites artists and it fits pretty accurately with your piece) !
Thanks so much for your comment! I recently discovered Mucha’s art at a museum and was blown away by his work. His style kinda inspired me to come up with this idea and music, happy to hear it seemed to work!
Such an awesome and unique submission! Really strong melody and accompaniment. Great pacing across the whole track. Any muddiness from the reverb wasn't an issue for me, it all felt quite well balanced to my ears. The harmony is really lovely and emotive, but never too dissonant for the reverb to stick out. If anything it meant each chord melted into each other in a really pleasing way. And when you then clipped the reverb at 2:45 it was so effective and perfect for that build up section. Great work, so glad you spent the time to give us something!
Thanks so much for your comment! I’m really glad you liked the piece!
Wow, what a dazzling reverb (what plugin is this?), the introduction is magically ethereal. For 6 hours of work this is incredible; what a beautiful vocal performance (you've got a great vibrato!) accompanied with a gorgeous harmony. I can give you some feedback on the mixing, but you might already know what you're doing and just be time constrained. I apologize if none of this is helpful.
-start advice that you may already know-
You used quite a generous amount of reverb, and the decay is set pretty high too. This sounds stunning during the sparser sections of the track, but it can become a double edged sword the denser the arrangement becomes. If you have any notes that can create dissonance with the next chord, the reverb tail will carry over and clash with it. There can also be a certain amount of muddiness in the lower mid range if too many sounds accumulate and go through the reverb. There are a number of solutions to this problem, use multiple of them to get the best results:
1. Use a highpass filter on the reverb to prevent low-mid buildup.
2. If you have notes in the lower mid range that clash with the next few notes or chords, it could be better to swap to more open voicings (push the more dissonant notes to the higher parts of the arrangement).
3. Put your reverb on a separate track, set it to 100% mix and add a compressor with sidechain after the reverb. Send the instruments audio to the compressor's sidechain signal. Adjust the threshold so that the compressor reduces the reverb volume when the mix gets denser.
-end advice that you may already know-
I think you captured the fleeting feeling of the dreamworld as a person wakes up from slumber. This is a very satisfying final track, it captures a hopeful sense of purpose gained from a long journey. Congratulations on your first English track, I think it turned out very well. I'm gladyou decided to join with so little time left, this is a great submission.
Thanks so much for the kind comment! The reverb is the free version of a plugin called Raum, I definitely recommend it. I super appreciate the tips for mixing, I’ll try out what you mentioned when I go back to polish the piece!
Um. You nailed it. Especially for only about 6 hours of work time. As far as criticism, the mix sounded muddied in some spots between the vocals and the accompaniment. But considering the brief time spent on the whole song, the mix overall is really well done.
Thanks so much! I appreciate the comment on the mix, I’m considering going back and polishing the piece a bit later so I’ll definitely look into it!
Six hours and this polished and detailed?! But how?!? But why?! What is life???? I have nothing but praise and appreciation for your track. I really like how you contrast each phrase and they feel new and like the next part of these emotions and realizations this character is discovery and processing. All 10s, very enjoyable!
Thanks so much for your kind comment! I’m really glad to hear that the story I wanted to convey came through!
The general musical arrangement is very embracing and the interplay between the voice and the orchestral atmosphere is simultaneously like a lullaby guiding us into another world. Really well done. Very dreamy and beautiful, thank you for sharing :)
Thanks so much for listening, I'm really glad the atmosphere I was going for came through!
The composition was really excellent. Friend of mine has been showing me japanese songs he was listening to, lately, and this one had a very simillar vibe to them. I loved the subtle way the song got more intense as time went on, no obvious drums or instruments. Just great horizontal developement.
The lyrics are pretty alright, but reading through them, I couldn't exactly relate to them very well... But the way they were sung was beauitiful enough to make me get it. I always think of voices as an additional instrument when making songs and this one was an extremely fitting one.
The way the intensity fades out near the end of the song, with only a few instruments playing, was done really well.... It might be due to the reverb, but the instrument choice was also amazing.
The accoustic guitar is a big stand out in this song. It's played in a very soft, graceful way.
I guess graceful is the way to put it with this song. Amazing stuff! Full stars across the boards!
Thanks so much for giving such an in-depth comment, I really appreciate it!
Yooooo vocal track!
Really impressive for 6 hours of work. The vocals and instrumentation sound great.
Thanks so much for your kind comment! I'm glad it sounded good to your ears, I didn't even get to do a mixing pass haha
You did this in 6 hours?! The quality of your compositions always impresses me. The highlights for me in this piece were the lyrics, but also the composition of the melody itself, and the piano accompaniment. While listening to this, I imagined parts of the original Kingdom Hearts game where the premise of things kind of seeming dreamlike seems to fit with your idea. Excellent work on this and thank you for sharing even just one of your compositions!
Hey Blue Lava! Thanks so much for your kind comment! Luckily, this time I had access to my setup + piano so I just barely managed to squeeze out one song on the morning of the deadline. Really looking forward to listening to your submission!
this is amazing
it sounds so melancholic and hopeful at the same time
im a sucker for any song in an ost that has vocals. is this your voice or some plugin you used? (might be a stupid question)
anyways good job
Thanks so much for your kind comment! I'm super glad the atmosphere I was going for came through. The voice is a plugin called SynthV, it's great, I wish I could sing like that haha. Thanks for listening!