Testing Waters - Nightshade Nate by Nightshade Nate

About the songs - I have a personal project where I try and emulate what a Game's OST would sound like, with lore and all, so this kind of project isn't new to me, it was challenging and entertaining. nonetheless. I used the soundfonts from various games and 'SGM'. The games being Earthbound, Touhou and Undertale (although if you know Toby Fox's works, he uses those two games' .sf2's as well).

I spent some time thinking how I was going to compose for the theme. The image was the easiest to draw inspiration from as I saw the little girl as a protagonist and the bubble silhouette as her dead mother. The written theme was a bit off, though, but I used the concept in the boss track (more details on that one later).

This OST is composed (hah) of 5 tracks. It, as a whole, is named "Testing Waters", both because of the theme and because this is my first OST Jam, but each track has its own name internally, starting with Menu.

Testing Waters - Menu: I love creating that little jingle at the start, it instantly brings me back to simpler times booting up games on my PS2. It uses a simple melody with some counterpoint, although I didn't take the full course so it isn't 100% correct. It sets the mood on how I thought the theme would go, dark, gloomy and blue, reminding me of the deep ocean. It segways perfectly into the second song;

Testing Waters - Character: I'm very good at naming things. This theme plays at the start of the game, which starts in the past following the Girl's POV. The quick notes are the girl's little steps running around, and the second voice represents her (still alive) mother. This theme follows throughout the other songs as well. The song establishes a major variation to the 'Menu' leitmotif, which I associated to the girl's suffering (comical, I know). It's major, so she's not in any danger. (Plus I love the Cuica!) You'll notice that the songs don't really segway as nicely as the other one, so let's go back to a home chord with -

Testing Waters - Home: I love Earthbound's Mellow Piano. The song's being played by the Mother on her piano while the girl follows suit on the guitar later on. Everything's good and calm, for now. This song implements a new leitmotif to the game, being the Mother's leitmotif, it isn't used much, but I love it. It also uses a variation of the Menu motif on the final moments, just like

Testing Waters - Deep: This one's a doozy, it's supposed to be the moment where the Mother passes from drowning, somehow, and the girl watches it happen, unable to help her. This is where the player would separate from the Girl's pov and follow the true Protagonist character(s), who live in the present. The song's quite disturbing and dissonant, and uses a minor version of the Mother's motif. If left unchecked, deep dark feelings from the past will bubble up inside you, releasing a torrent of suffering.

Testing Waters - Past Mistakes: I didn't really know what to name this one, as I left it for last. It's played on the boss fight against the (now grown-up) Girl, who's the antagonist of the Game, for Lore reasons(TM) that I didn't plot out. It uses every motif created and variations, mostly the Menu motif, but it has a bridge where it plays Mother's motif with some changes. I thought that the girl had become a powerful lich to resurrect her mother using magic. She uses the unnatural powers of some deep forces beneath the waves to revive her mother dearest during the fight as a skeleton, which causes the funny skeleton instrument to appear and accompany the Girl as they used to in her childhood home. I also thought that sometimes in this section of the fight, the girl would pull the player beneath the waves, pulling him 'inside her world'.
It fades out both because there's nothing after it and cus it's supposed to be looped in an actual game.

I thought of at least composing a Credits song or a Victory Jingle maybe, but I ran out of time.