Скачать или смотреть Elengard: Ascension - RPG Fantasy Soundtrack by Nate Weiner: 11th Place in Indie Game Music Contest

This is my entry for 2024 Indie Game Music Contest for the game Elengard: Ascension. (Finished 11th place)

This music is not part of the original game, but instead of my original music for the contest, which has you provide your own take on the game.

Elengard: Ascension is a medieval fantasy RPG focusing on combat and on giving high freedom to create unique builds and combos, allowing your character to become super powerful. The story involves many mysteries about yourself and your curse, and the awakening of your inner power, culminating in your ascension. You can find a demo of the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/20...

--

Here is how I approached the music for the game: My entry includes four tracks that respond to gameplay events, time and location changes.

There are two “Explore” tracks that feature during open-world exploration. Within this video, there is one for dusk/sunset and a different one for nighttime.

When the player enters a small village, it transitions to “Small Town”, featuring a solo performer whose music emanates from the inn, with volume and effects adapting based on player position relative to the inn.

The most complex adaptation occurs in “Night Combat”, which implements a momentum-based system reflecting the game’s theme of growing power. The battle music dynamically response to combat performance through several states, which are meant to make the player feel like they are improving and becoming more god-like. After the game detects a momentum trigger, it cues up the next phrase to use the appropriate loop.

Approach loop when enemies detect the player
Initial combat for basic combat (1 simple enemy, no hits yet)
Enemy Momentum when the player’s health drops, multiple enemies appear
Player Momentum triggered after the player lands more attacks and successfully blocks and dodges and are calculated to be turning the battle around
Return to Explore - Night after victory

The battle system takes into account player/enemy health, enemy count, and combat performance (hits taken vs. successful dodges/blocks) to determine which section plays, reinforcing the feeling growing power through the music.

-

00:00 : Explore - Dusk
01:12 : Small Town
01:31 : Night Explore and Combat