Love the idea of a musical game where you explore different music in different settings. I did a similar thing but in a fantasy environment. I wish we could hear some of the music in the game's core gameplay and exploration, but it's nice that you hint at all sorts of ideas in your second track, a clever way to get past the time restrictions of the Jam.
Play soundtrack
Echoes of Unity's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Storytelling | #32 | 3.889 | 3.889 |
| Creativity | #36 | 3.926 | 3.926 |
| Composition | #37 | 3.963 | 3.963 |
| Quality | #37 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #45 | 3.881 | 3.881 |
| Impression | #73 | 3.630 | 3.630 |
Ranked from 27 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
"The Long Trek" is the title track in my hypothetical 3D adventure game, "Echoes of Unity", that represents the journey that Una is going to embark on, with all the wonder yet isolated tone of the game. "Our Home" is a track that would play during a cinematic cutscene where Una makes it to the festival of Zephania after her adventure to get there. Una, an 18-year-old girl who has lived in the Western world her entire life, makes it her mission to discover her past and heritage by going back to Zephania, the land of undying light and unity. As a flautist (someone who plays flute), she learns different melodies along the way through her encounters with different cultures. As she makes it back to Zephania, the Light Festival begins that night, as "Our Home" is played, representing some of the music that she has learned and her adventure.
I used a core symphonic group of piano, woodwinds, strings, percussion, and brass. For the cultural side, I used instruments like the er hu, bansuri, shamisen, tabla hand drums, and Balkan-Mongolian vocals. For structure, I used Dorian, minor, and pentatonic in the 1st half, then modulated to the relative major in the 2nd half to illustrate that tonal shift.
Message from the artist
Thank you for listening to my two tracks! I have not done a composing jam since 2023, so it's such a pleasure to be back. Here's hoping that I'll do more and maybe collaborate on more game jams.
Theme
Picture theme
How does it fit the theme?
What stood out with picture were the eclectic cultural outfits and diverse colors, alongside the mixed instruments (sitar, violin, etc.). Because of that, I wanted to convey a celebration of all music and culture with the cultural grooves, ethnic instrumentation, ethereal vocals, alongside the core Western Symphony. Additionally, the birds gave me a grand, fleeting feel, which inspired me to include nature sounds in the middle and use these grand, wondrous chords at the end. Lastly, the composition diversity of the picture inspired me to create an emotional arc of perseverance with the 1st half and celebration with the 2nd half, and finally ending with a sense of revival and wonder.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://andrew-nugooyeen.itch.io/andrew-nguyen-our-home
Number of tracks2
Genre
Orchestral
Ambient
World/Ethnic
Folk/Acoustic
Soundtrack use permission
Yes (CC BY)
Any project
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.