It's best to be well-rested when working on game jams, whether it's coding, making art, or composing the soundtrack. But even jammers with the best of intentions can run into trouble.

When falling asleep, sometimes counting sheep can turn from tranquility...

...to chaos!

And I just wanted a peaceful night's sleep! Maybe a bit of music will help. Ah! How about the soundtrack I made for our entry "Shleep"! What a coincidence, I just happen to have it here:

Most of the soundtrack is based off of a chord progression that lasts about a minute and a half, but it has many layers that come and go depending on what is happening in the game. To that end, the first three tracks of the OST are arranged in a seamless suite that somewhat mimic the way you may hear the progression while playing. So let's start at the beginning!

Track 1: "Dream Suite I - Good Boy"

Sometimes trying to go to sleep in silence can be unnerving, so our game gives you the option to add music as an upgrade when the restful quiet is a bit too peaceful. I wanted to start things off on a pleasant note, with some twinkling piano and a synth wash. As you count more and more sheep, other elements begin to be introduced, like a more rhythmic synth to start adding some energy, and then the most characteristic element of the whole OST, the lap steel guitar!

Unfortunately, I don't own (or really know how to play) a lap steel, but I have a nice sounding VST version that works well enough in a pinch. To me, the lap steel is one of the cornerstone instruments in country music, which I thought was a good fit for a game the starts to transition from sheep-countin' to sheep-wranglin'.

Track 2: "Dream Suite II - The Ballad of Mr. Scheer"

Track 2 picks up right where 1 leaves off. As mentioned before, the same chord progression and even some of the same elements are present, but new ones are brought in as others leave. In this track, I introduce the bass guitar and percussion, and begin to fade out the rhythmic chirping synth, and bring back in the piano to play a new part.

In-game, ideally these transitions are seamless and you won't notice much as you're playing, but the changes help direct the increasing energy of the game as more and more sheep appear, and new game mechanics and characters are introduced, like the titular Mr. Scheer. I won't spoil any of that here. You should play the game instead!

Track 3: "Dream Suite III - Wolf Nightmare"

Actually... I will spoil some of it, because unfortunately the title of track 3 is a bit of a giveaway. Suffice it to say, counting sheep isn't without its occasional challenges. When these setbacks appear, the music shifts to something a bit more sinister. The lap steel drops out and is replaced by some tense, tremolo violins. The percussion changes from a relatively basic groove to a more push-and-pull rhythm played on a cajon.

The bassline keeps its structure, but switches from major to a minor feel, complimenting the other elements of tension. Don't worry though, the nightmare doesn't last forever.

Track 4: "One Million Sheep"

There is a reason that game music composers are often brought on towards the end of the game development cycle. Mid-development, it can be difficult to know what the right musical vibe will be, as well as things like "how should this be implemented?" and "how long or short should this track be?". A lot of those questions can't be answered until the game is being polished and balanced. However, that time isn't a luxury you often have during a game jam...

Despite how complicated the music implementation is in "Shleep", we unfortunately weren't able to get to everything I had planned before the submission deadline arrived. At least as of writing this, track 4 isn't currently in the game. But the vision was for it was to gradually fade in to a sort of blissful haze as your sheep count goes ever higher and higher and you finally come close to falling asleep.

I'm hoping this one can be added in with a future post-jam build, because I quite like it! Despite its different tone than the previous 3 tracks, it actually follows the same chord progression and can be layered over top of the other tracks (making it easy to crossfade between them towards the end of the game.) Speaking of the end...

Track 5: "Golden Fleece"

Congrats! After many trials and many, many more sheep, you finally fell asleep. This is the track you hear once you've won. When I was first coming up with music ideas at the beginning of the jam, I offered a couple of choices to the team. They thought the first idea worked best for the gameplay.

But by the end of the jam, we needed another track to play over the final screen. Well... thankfully I already had a piece of music waiting to be polished up and used! Not much to say here, it uses some of the same elements of track 2, namely the electric bass and the lap steel, but this time over a lo-fi hip-hop beat. This one is pretty chill and a good way to close out the game.

So what do you think? Any questions about composing I didn't cover? I'd be happy to go into more detail.

But if your curiousity is sated, play and rate "Shleep" already!

(oh, and you can download the OST for free here :smirk:)