My Name Is Omar - Soundtrack

Soundtrack for the OST #7 Jam, I chose to follow the word prompt only and disregarded the image prompt. Also tried to name each track in a way so that the story told below is expanded on through track titles.

Genre = metroidvania, puzzle, platformer

Playlist with all the songs on youtube + DAW:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwJdHA5A3aMdJeduxeRV7frJeMRU_OCvv

*Spoilers btw for like the entire game*

Game World

Based on the prompt "Inside my world" the idea of a dystopian cyberpunk-esque city came to me. This city, constantly in a state of disarray caused by fighting between the government authority and a rebellion group, is incredibly advanced technologically yet access to this tech is mostly gated by powerful groups (as in gangs, government agencies, or otherwise wealthy groups).  Additionally, secrets are hidden everywhere throughout the city, ranging from small hidden caches to full-on hidden areas within the game.

Factions:

Governmental groups - Wealthiest in the city, and control everything relating to maintaining city operations, and crime.

Rebellious groups -Ranging from those fighting directly against the government for control of the city, organised syndicates, and gangs.

Purists - Those completely against body augmentations of any kind, hide outside the city in the forests and are responsible for building the secret areas within the game.

Story

The game follows the perspective of the titular character's sister, Marie, who is investigating the disappearance of Omar. Omar had decided to go on and uncover secrets and mysteries left behind in the city, and subsequentially vanished. Marie goes on to follow Omar's trail, finding video logs and other clues that are used to trace his location, and explores various parts of the city. Eventually she discovers Omar has been turned into an unrecognisable cybernetic monster by a purist group as a form of punishment. This forces Marie to fight Omar, and to finally lay him to rest.

Prompt Integration

I've integrated the word prompt through the creation of the different groups in the game, where each group will have a vastly different area representing their faction.

Through music, I chose to have a mainly piano/ orchestral oriented theme as this contrasts nicely with what many people generally associate with the cyberpunk genre. This creates an extra-musical narrative that further strengthens the clashing groups of the city whilst also expressing how, inside Marie's world, the only thing important to her is finding her lost brother. Additionally, the final boss fight against the now unrecongisable cyber-Omar switches from typical synthetic and electronic instrumentation to soft piano heard throughout the rest of the game to symbolise the vastly different world-views of Marie (symbolised through orchestral) and Omar (cyberpunk instruments) at that point.

Note on the cover art

The cover art is a physical cardboard creation on a wall made by my sister, with it's photo then taken. The shadows in the photo were modified in a way to have a soft shadow below the frame, and a hard one above to try and make it seem unnatural. The unnaturalness is supposed to be representative of Marie's nervousness to investigating Omar's disappearance. This is represented again through the actual art, where jagged spikes and messy patterns show the possible dangers that are surrounding the figure in the middle.

P.S There's also hidden message in a few of the tracks, I'll have it noted in the description on youtube which tracks have a hidden message + also the solution at the bottom (kinda sells the idea of being in a world with secrets hidden everywhere)

Where music plays

01 - Title/ menu

02 - City area, dystopian and is area after tutorial area

03 - House where Marie and Omar grew up, subarea of the suburbs section

04 - Forest area nearing the area with the final boss fight

05 - Purist/ cultist camp, final boss fight

----Stuff I didn't plan on doing but did anyway----

06 - Rootops area theme, above the city (loopable and adaptive with the drums)

Artwork: Bonk Bong

Music: Me