snarky snail, music, and me (OST Composing Jam 8)

"snarky snail, music, and me" is a soundtrack for an imaginary game based on the themes provided in OST Composing Jam 8.

Music by NeatNeet

"What's so special about me that I could save the fish kingdom?"
- the girl
"Nah, you aren't special or anything, we just don't have fingers."
- the wise snail spirit

The concept of "snarky snail, music, and me" is a narrative-focused, casual puzzle game with some exploration elements. The vibe is inspired by Assemble with Care and Coffee Talk.  It has a simple, cozy art style, tactile puzzles, exploration of the fish kingdom, and dialogues between many goofy characters. I'm not exactly a deep guy, so I'll leave it to you to imagine some kind of wise life lesson the girl has learned from her adventure.

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1.) the sun is gone, but my pain stays
The girl was down on her luck, with many things going wrong in her life. She came to sulk at the docks. She saw weird flickering lights in the distance (signaled by the cool sound effect part :D) and decided to explore.

2.) i met a wise snail spirit, he told me a lot of snail puns
Turns out the source of all that magical hooblah was a wise snail spirit, and he was loaded full of snail puns. The snail spirit noticed the girl had fingers and asked her to aid the fish kingdom. (I know snail is not a fish. Still, I like and want to keep the snail.

"Unlike me, the fish kingdom is hard to find since it doesn't leave a glistening tail." - the wise snail spirit

"What?" - the girl

3.) helping an old hermit crab organize her snail magic books
The name is self-explanatory; the girl helped an old hermit crab arrange her books. She got the task done at lightning speed using her dextrous human fingers. Actually, I don't even think crabs are fish. This lore is falling apart as I type.

"If I did it, it'd have been going at a snail's pace." - the wise snail spirit

"I'm starting to think you aren't actually that wise." - the girl

4.) fishes dont have fingers so they want me to play the guitar to save their kingdom
For some reason, the fish kingdom would fall apart unless music was played. Fun fact: fish don't possess fingers. So none of the residents were able to play the Telecaster stuck in the coral. The fish have just left it there to worship. The girl didn't even know how to play guitar that well; she tried her best with some basic chords in the F Major key.

"You snailed it!" - the wise snail spirit

"Ugh." - the girl

5.) baring my heart out beneath the stars
The girl vented about her life issues to the wise snail spirit. The snail uncharacteristically gave sound advice. Perhaps he was wise after all.

"You gotta shell-ebrate the small victories." - the wise snail spirit

6.) no matter how far you go, i’ll always be there for you
It was finally time to play music and begin the ritual. The girl was able to save the fish kingdom by channelling her emotions through her playing. She was getting kind of sad when she learned she had to leave and would never see the talking snails and fishes again.

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Aside from the games listed above, this was also inspired by Snail's House's L'été and In Love With a Ghost's healing. Hence the "snail spirit".