Root

Travel from the disappointing present to the good old day

2023

What Are These For

These tracks are for the GGJ 2023. The theme is ROOTS.

My team has made a 2D puzzle game for it. It's about a girl who is tired of her current life. She tries to find happiness in her hometown.

There are three chapters in the game:

Chapter 1: The girl is happy and carefree in her childhood.
Chapter 2: She wakes up and realizes that her happy life is just a dream. She feels disappointed.
Chapter 2: She travels back to her hometown (or, in other words, the 'root') to find her happiness.

So, there are three tracks in the game, one for each:

Dream Of The Past: Based on the design, it should be a calm and warm sound. Just to show the young lady's happiness.
Uncertain Future: It's a sad sound, but not painful. Just a little disappointed in the present life.
Back To Village: Since she has not been back to the village for a long time, the building just reminds her of the old happy days. To express a strong nostalgia for the past.

Dream Of The Past is simple:

Pads and drones are used to create the overall feeling. A doublebass is added later to make it rich.
Harp and warm piano are used for the melody.
I had a hard time finding a way to add contract in different sections before introducing the melody in the middle of the track.

Deciding how sad it is becomes the most important part in Uncertain Future:

The very first version consisted of a lot of minor chords and some diminished chords. It was too much. We just went back and forth to find the balance.
At the very beginning there are also a lot of bass in the track. It could make it feel heavy, but the designer insisted it's too much. So we took them all out.
Later in the track, horns, oboes and cellos are added to make a contract. I tried a lot to make them soft to fit the feeling.

Here is the game designer's reference image:

Reference Image

Back To Village is a short one:

The third chapter should only be a minute or two long. It shouldn't be more than that.
Feeling is the key. There are some Sus4 chords. Just to express the strong nostalgia for the past.
Took me a whole day to make.

Here is the game designer's reference image:

Reference Image

Because I make music just for fun. Whoever comes here is free to use my music in their project as long as they give me credit.