HARUKA

This project was created as part of "OST Composing Jam #7". 
Thank you to the organizers for the opportunity to participate, and to everyone who will take the time to listen to my work.
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The Game: 

Imagine the worlds from Hayao Miyazaki's anime, but in the form of a game. The main character, a girl named Haruka, finds herself in such a world.

The game will take her through several main locations (spirit forest, sea, mountains, cloud kingdom). In each location, she will have to complete several quests in order to pass on. 

The gameplay and graphics are similar to games like Genshin Impact and Sky: Children of the Light. 

The game is mostly linear.
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Music:

SoundCloud link: https://soundcloud.com/tommy_max_brian/sets/haruka?si=d3ebfd4331dd4bbea70d7bdcd6876a64&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

I was mostly inspired by anime`s and some game`s (Genshin Impact and Sky: Children of the Light) music. To make it sound more "japaneese", I used some traditional instruments, such as koto, taiko and flute.

1. "Haruka`s Waltz" 
The game has just begun. Haruka finds herself in a large flower meadow and explores the place. One of the main themes of the game sounds. 

2. "Dark Ceremony"
Night. Haruka enters the Forest of Spirits and witnesses a mysterious ceremony. The girl has to free a dragon that has become a prisoner of the spirits, without being seen by anyone. 

3.  "Catching Rabbits" 
At the edge of the forest, Haruka meets a rabbit mother whose rabbit children have run away. Haruka decides to help her catch and bring them back home. In a limited time the player has to collect all the rabbits :)

4. "Playful Waves"
After the forest, Haruka comes to the sea, where she has to learn how to swim and catch a big magical but harmful carp to go further. With the music, I tried to capture the waves of the sea as best as I could. Here I was inspired by the picture theme of the Jam. 

5. "Temple"
The girl's path lies through the mountains. She stumbles upon an abandoned temple where she needs to solve puzzles to find her way further. 

6. "Up To The Clouds"
Haruka climbs higher and higher and as the fog clears, the girl sees the Cloud Kingdom. The theme of clouds plays. 

7. "First Fly"
The girl's goal in the Cloud Kingdom is to learn to fly. I tried to write music that sounds like flying. 

8. "Escape To Reality"
Haruka realizes that she is being sucked into this world and needs to get out of it as soon as possible. The player needs to control the girl's flight to get back. This track accompanies this process. Here you can notice that the main themes of the different locations are played in reverse order, as we move towards the beginning of our journey. First the clouds theme is played, then, the sea. Here (planned cutscene) Haruka starts to fall, but at the last moment she is picked up by the dragon she saved in the forest and carried forward (the triumphant theme from the waltz sounds).  

9.  "Kakusei" ( eng. "Awakening" )
Haruka wakes up in a school classroom. Her teacher comes up to her and says (in Japanese):
- Haruka! Are you sleeping in class again? Wake up!
The girl realizes that it was all a dream, in which she was traveling through worlds from her fantasies. 

This is the end of the game.