The Contortion OST

(Influenced by games)

Signalis, Undertale, OFF, Look Outside, Nine Sols

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(Game Concept)

2D top-down survival horror game like Look Outside

The game follows two ducks as they try find safety in a world where a cataclysmic event made the sun big and green, and the surface inhospitable. This event came to be known as the contortion.

On the surface the contortion gave inanimate objects the ability to act based on their own instincts, which usually ended in violence toward everything else which pretty much caused the extinction of the human race.

The ducks travel through various uninhabited human structures like sewers and docks as they try to make it to the spaceport in Antarctica.

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(The Tracks)

Almost all of the instruments used are from soundfonts because it made it easier to cooperate within the team (Since we'd both have the same library of instruments to use)

1. Sunshine in a bag

This is the track that is intended to play in the saferooms (or around them to help you locate them), also kind of serves as the title theme for the game. I wanted to make a comfortable, introspective track that would play all throughout the game and provide a sense of familiarity.

Influenced by: Die Toteninsel (Emptiness) - 1000 Eyes, Tom Schley

2. Just One Will Remain

This is the track that I imagine would play as the two ducks step outside and see the huge green sun warping the landscape. This is probably the most upbeat (not dark) track in the OST (with the exception of the shop theme).

Influenced by: Ballad of Warriors (Jiequan's Theme) - FFXX, Wrecking Ball, Taipei Male Choir, TTCat, Im Baek Hun

3. Learned Incompetence

This song is intended to play as the ducks wander through a deserted town. I didn't try to make it for a specific place while writing it but I think it kinda fits the abandoned town vibe.

Influenced by: nothing really...

4. An Unending Envy for the Moral

This track plays as you fight a boss in the sewers. I tried to create a song that was kind of unnerving but also still fun to listen to and ended up creating this. There are some really weird harmonies because I started off by writing the intro as ascending septuplet runs changing between D phrygian dominant and the whole tone scale. This is probably the track I'm most proud of and most of it was created by accident (accidentally did the quintuplet thing while trying to stretch out a drum sample).

Influenced by: no idea where this idea came from

5. Red Glow

Plays in a surface area with a prominent glowing red communications tower that has come "alive" in the contortion and has a searchlight mechanic where you have to avoid it in certain sections. Not a boss theme but more of an overworld theme that plays as you walk around.

Influenced by: Pepper Steak - Alias Conrad Coldwood

6. Some call it $3.99, some call it a billion

This track plays in the store that the ducks keep coming back to for supplies to help them descend Earth's layers. If i'm being honest this track is mainly included to pad for time since we barely made 20 minutes of music :/ (the title of the song is a line from Money by Bill Wurtz)

Influenced by: Pizza Deluxe - Post Elvis and Chameleon - Herbie Hancock

7. Another You

This song will play in an abandoned lab area, where mirrors line the walls (sort of a horror section) and as you look at your reflection it comes through and warps into a twisted clone of you that you have to fight.

Influenced by: Amalgam - Toby Fox

8. ...a burning candle, flickered upon the ocean's insanity

This track plays as the duck confront some kind of boss in the docks. To get the vibe of the docks i used the bells and a tuba with tons of effects for a foghorn because they're the kind of sounds I imagine you'd hear in the docks. This track went through the most revisions as I wrote it, e.g. it used to have a section in 7/8 (I'm glad that's gone). I got the title for the track off some random quotes site when I was looking for title inspiration.

Influenced by: nothing really again :(

9. With a Burst of Violet Blue

This first half of this track is intended to play when the ducks are exploring an abandoned submarine in a desperate attempt to find a way to get to the Antarctic spaceport. The second half plays when the ducks when the hull starts to leak and they must find a way to repair it before they sink (Unbeknownst to them the submarine has been affected by the contortion). I used about seven or so different drumkits in this song just to make to the drum break. I think this is my second favourite in the OST. (I got the name from the lyrics of The Mystery Of A Burning Fire by KNOWER)

Influenced by: I dunno (I feel like there's something that influenced this but i honestly cant remember)

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(notes)

We got nowhere near the 1 hour OST length, probably because we kind of forgot about the jam in the middle of the month. But at least we still submitted something :)

After about an hour of trying i luckily made a semi-alright cover image