God tier, nothing more I can say. This amount of work of this quality in this timeframe... whatever system you've got is working for you, that's for sure...!
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Guilds n Glory Original Soundtracks's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #4 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Quality | #5 | 4.433 | 4.433 |
| Impression | #28 | 3.733 | 3.733 |
| Overall | #38 | 3.747 | 3.747 |
| Creativity | #66 | 3.567 | 3.567 |
| Correlation to theme | #124 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
Ranked from 30 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
— Overview —
For the OST Composing Jam: Crunchtime, I explored a notion that I have been pondering for a while:
“Given my composing style, would I be able to compose and orchestrate a 2-minutes piece in under 3 hours?”
To find the answer, I set myself a challenge to compose 4 pieces, each around 2 minutes, and the total time spent (including mixing as well) must not exceed 10 hours.
The following is the outcome of it. Please lend me your thoughts on what you think of the pieces. Any jarring improvements that you think I should definitely make given more time?
— About the Game —
Initially, I imagined the theme “Two Worlds” as a black and white world a la “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”. However, as I have been fascinated with the metaverses recently, I decided to interpret the theme more towards “Spiderman metaverse”.
I have always wanted to make a fantasy action game around the concept of Guild Wars, where a guild of knights would wage war against a guild of wizards, rangers, etc.
I have a small prototype done years ago, titled “Guilds ‘n Glory”, and it was cast aside because life duty took over. Doing the music pieces for this jam definitely has reawakened my desire to continue my prototype and develop it into something that people can play, and hopefully release on itch.io someday.
These pieces would, I like to believe, suitably accompany the game and give it emotion and tell a better story for a game that would otherwise remain “just another action battle game”.
— Main Theme —
This piece is for the game theme. I’m hoping the melodic leitmotiv is memorable and hummable, that the mere humming of the tune would remind players, “aha that is Guilds ‘n Glory”. Whilst I spent 2 hours to compose the other pieces, I grew a bit more ambitious with the orchestration of this one and ended spending 4 hours on it. I hope the complexity of the arrangement and orchestration shows a par of the effort I have put in for this piece :)
Total time spent: 4 hours
DAW: Logic Pro X
Libraries:
- BBC Symphonic Orchestra (free version)
- EastWest Symphonic Orchestra
- Northern Film Orchestra
- London Symphonic Orchestra
- Spitfire Abbey Road One
- 8DIO Lacrimosa Choir
- DK Gentle Grand Piano
— Assassins Theme —
This is the Assassins Guild theme music. You’ll possibly hear this theme and its melodic leitmotif anytime during the game where you have chosen to play as the Assassins Guild.
Total time spent: 2 hours
DAW: Logic Pro X
Libraries:
- BBC Symphonic Orchestra (free version)
- EastWest Symphonic Orchestra
- EastWest Silk Orchestra
- Spitfire Abbey Road One
- Koto Nation
- Ventus Winds Sakuhachi
— Barbarians Theme —
This is the Barbarians Guild theme music. You’ll possibly hear this theme and its melodic leitmotif anytime during the game where you have chosen to play as the Barbarians Guild.
Total time spent: 2 hours
DAW: Logic Pro X
Libraries:
- BBC Symphonic Orchestra (free version)
- EastWest Symphonic Orchestra
- Spitfire Abbey Road One
- Ilya Efimov Uilleann Pipes
- Ceremona Quartet Stradivari Violin
— Wizards Theme —
This is the Wizards Guild theme music. You’ll possibly hear this theme and its melodic leitmotif anytime during the game where you have chosen to play as the Wizards Guild.
Total time spent: 2 hours
DAW: Logic Pro X
Libraries:
- BBC Symphonic Orchestra (free version)
- EastWest Symphonic Orchestra
- London Symphonic Orchestra
- Spitfire Abbey Road One
Artist comment:
Hope you like these soundtracks. Thanks for listening and please do lend me your thoughts on what you think of this piece.
Theme:
Two Worlds
Picture theme
How does it fit the theme?
Initially, I imagined the theme “Two Worlds” as a black and white world a la “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”. However, as I have been fascinated with the metaverses recently, I decided to interpret the theme more towards “Spiderman metaverse”.
I have always wanted to make a fantasy action game around the concept of Guild Wars, where a guild of knights would wage war against a guild of wizards, rangers, etc.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/anthony-tambrin/main-theme?in=anthony-tambrin/sets/guilds-n-glory&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
https://soundcloud.com/anthony-tambrin/assassins-theme?in=anthony-tambrin/sets/guilds-n-glory&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
https://soundcloud.com/anthony-tambrin/barbarians-theme?in=anthony-tambrin/sets/guilds-n-glory&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
https://soundcloud.com/anthony-tambrin/wizards-theme?in=anthony-tambrin/sets/guilds-n-glory&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Comments
Thank you for listening and for your comments! I particularly enjoyed doing Knights Theme, but that's just because I did it after the jam, within 3 hours (I had 1 more hour if compared to the other themes, less pressure haha), so consequently it's not part of the submission. Thank you for your comment!! :)
I've completed another track for the Knights Theme. Please feel free to check it out and let me know what you think:
https://soundcloud.com/anthony-tambrin/knights-theme?in=anthony-tambrin/sets/gui...
Thank you for listening. I'm really glad you liked it! Tbh, after composing these tracks, it drained my energy. I'm still taking a break and finding it hard to go back and compose the remaining 3 more tracks that I was planning to do. Such is the cost of a sprint perhaps haha. Really appreciate your feedback.
4 years ago(+1)
Thank you for listening! I'm super glad that you think the orchestration works. Tbh, I'm a bit nervous since I felt really rushed. 2 hours is a great challenge, sure it's finished, but super unsure of its quality. Thanks for your words of encouragement.
Thank you for listening and for your comments!! :)
To be told that it reminds you of Yasunori Nishiki's work made my day. He's such an amazing composer. I'm not really adept at music theory, but I love the major chords, so I tend to listen to a lot of major-chord themed music. I guess that's how I became a bit familiar with this type of cheerful style. Thank you for your thoughtful observation :)
Thanks for listening and for the comment. I have to admit, limiting it to 2 hours per track only gave me barely enough time for orchestration and arrangement, but very inadequate window for mixing. That forced me to mix on the go, while orchestrating. I couldn’t really do any proper individual track mixing or even on bus level. The only thing I did after was to slap on a reverb on the stereo bus haha. But yeah I understand the limit now :)
Hopefully for what it’s worth, it shows my effort on everything minus the proper mix.
May I ask, do you have any specific track that you think is lacking if compared to the rest?
First of all, don't get me wrong, I think you did a great job at mixing, especially considering the short time frame. It's just that some instruments feel a little to unnatural to be believable.
I think the most glaring example are the bagpipes in the Barbarian's theme, where ironically I think the amount of dynamics you added to the track worked against your favour. Even though Uilleann pipes seem to allow for a little dynamics (not an expert!), usually bagpipes aren't a very dynamic instrument. Hearing them play crescendos and decrescendos in such a manner just doesn't feel very realistic.
EDIT: Another example is the brass fanfare at the end of the main theme. While I very much understand you didn't want it to be in focus too much, as a former trumpet player myself it just seems pretty unrealistic to me that brass players could play such a high fanfare without being about twice as loud as the rest of the orchestra combined. I'm exaggerating to make a point here, of course, but I hope you get the idea.
I truly agree! Thanks for pointing them out, especially the bagpipe. Honestly, I didn't know that they can't be played with much dynamics, as you can obviously tell now that I didn't do research (which I should have) on how Uilleann pipes are played and what they can do. Many thanks for pointing it out, I think after the Jam is over I will go back to remove the automations and polish it.
Same thing with the brass, yes I agree they should be much louder at the end. Given more time, I would replace it with proper brass swells patches rather than automating them. Thank you :)
I did start the other themes prior as I have weekend family commitments, however, I did upload to SoundCloud piano sketches so as not to forget my ideas on those themes, and started orchestrating when the jam starts, and just replaced the tracks in SoundCloud. It's just unfortunate it still says 5 days ago even though I only uploaded the sketch.
I got this idea from the guideline:
| Q: Can I use this jam to finish/submit an existing project I already started on? | A: No, it is required that all participants start from scratch for this jam. If you really want to start off from an existing project anyway, please make sure it is at least less than 30% finished as it wouldn’t be fair to other participants otherwise. |
To adhere to the 48 hours limit, I did set a challenge for myself as a test/experiment to spend a max of 10 hours composing the 4 tracks. I did the following:
- Assassins Theme (2 hours incl. mixing, 15 mins sketching upfront before the jam)
- Barbarians Theme (2 hours incl. mixing, 15 mins sketching upfront before the jam)
- Wizards Theme (2 hours incl. mixing, 15 mins sketching upfront before the jam)
- Main Theme (4 hours incl. mixing)
I hope that this is fair to all the other participants. I'd love all tracks to be considered for the rating, as I have poured as much effort as possible with the limited time I had during the weekend. However, I'll double-check with the jam organisers and get their thoughts :)
And thank you for your feedback :)
P.S.: Actually I'm planning to continue to write 3 more themes (for Knights, Priests, and Archers), but since the jam is over, I will do these after taking a short break from composing for a week. I'd like to continue the same challenge of 2 hours max for each track.
4 years ago(+1)
So the organiser came back to me with a green flag (phew 😅). I shouldn't have uploaded early and merely replaced, but I know next time.
In hindsight, starting early didn't really make much sense since I strayed from most of my sketches during orchestration due to the theme being revealed only after the jam starts. 😥
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