RPG Village Theme

Hello wonderful composers,

A friend of mine has started working on an rpg game and asked me to come up with some soundtrack ideas. 

This one is for one of the villages (if you hadn't already guessed from the title). The village is meant to be a small peaceful one but with a Subtle sense of isolation and struggle, so I tried to reflect this in the music. It's just one play through here, but it would loop in-game.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or criticisms!

The melody is beautiful. The restful atmosphere fits the idea of a village. However, I do not recognize much of the 'isolation and struggle.'

The mood stays the same throughout the piece and in my opinion the music could be a little bit darker.

I love the simplicity. Regarding chord progression, orchestration and dynamics. It is relaxed. If this were not a loop, I would say that the music is too repetetive and it needs more variation, but it is fine if you use in in the form of loops.

Well done! Are you allowed to already share the name of the game?

Maarten

Thanks Maarten!

Yeah, perhaps 'Quiet' would have been a better wording over isolation on reflection. The village itself isn't really isolated, it's just not very busy. I was trying to provide a sense of 'day to day' struggle like the people were just 'plodding along' with the tempo and rhythmic stabs. 

I was going to put a low piano drone in as well to make it a little darker but I decided against it. Maybe I'll add it in and see how it sounds.

Currently it's called 'The Winds of Nova' but that might change I believe. It's a one man development team right now too so may take a fair while to see any kind of fruition (if it actually does). I enjoy the challenge/practice all the same though! 

Very nice...  the picture is perfect with the music..  a sense of Xmas too.. I'd say you did an excellent job of filling the criteria..

This composition is just really good. I love the feel to it. it really shows the village. I like how there is not a lot of bass. this is a common mistake when people want to make a simple village/ peaceful track. bass makes a track fat, and this track doesn't really need that. well done!

3 points though:

1 - it's really slow. maybe make it a bit faster.

2 - make the bells instead of 1/4 notes to 1/8 notes (maybe even 1/16). it'll make it more interesting to listen to. (and it will boost the Christmas feel! )

3 - you layered the strings with the lead instrument. maybe split the string section up and make up a second melody or harmony for the strings to make it more appealing. maybe some long legato notes or a completely new melody.

the mixing is good. I think this is as good as ready to be integrated into an RPG game!

1 idea:

- maybe some pizzicato?

best of regards!

Apologies for replying so late.

Thanks Peter!

Some interesting ideas, I'll definitely try them out. I actually like the idea of adding some pizzicato.

I toyed with the idea of doing something more with the strings actually, but thought it would be safer to go the simpler route and build on it more later if needed than doing something more complicated and having to deconstruct it if it didn't work. I may well revisit the idea though.

Thanks again to everyone for the amazing feedback!

In my opinion, I think the bass and percussion is a little bit too repetitive. I like how the percussive rhythm subtly, unnoticeably changed from 1:20, but maybe I'd do it a little bit earlier?