Celeste: Strawberry Jam

Between 2021-2023 I was one of over 50 composers around the world to make music for Celeste: Strawberry Jam, a massive community modding project for the game Celeste that adds 111 new levels to the game.

I composed three tracks:

Impeded

Track 15 of the Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST vol. 4
featuring Judith Kim – violin
for the map Summit Down-Side by Linj, found in the Expert Lobby
In Summit Down-Side, you must climb up a steep cliff filled with wind and springs that push you back down to the bottom. This track has 5 different loops, each one more intense than the last. As you climb higher, the later loops are triggered, and if you fall it returns to the less intense loops, so as the stakes get higher the music gets more dramatic! Huge thanks to Judith for her incredible performance on this track!
Watch a playthrough of Summit Down-Side

Shattersong

Track 11 of the Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST vol. 5
for the map Shattersong by Hydro0 and others, found in the Grandmaster Lobby
This map features cassette blocks that turn on and off following asymmetrical time signatures (7/8, 10/8, and 13/8). You must make sure to count the subdivisions as you play in order to time various moves throughout the map. What made this track very interesting to compose is that the rhythmic layer is synchronized in-game to the cassette blocks (using a program called FMOD) while the ambient sustained layer underneath is not, so they are on separate loops that do not line up, so in every playthrough the song sounds slightly different. I had to write the track so that no matter where you were in the ambience loop, the rhythmic loop would still sound good underneath it. Fun times! Huge thanks to:
Hydro0 for making the map
Vexatos for his insane coding work making these asymmetrical time signature cassettes work in game
All the other people who worked on Shattersong!
Watch a playthrough of Shattersong

Shatter the Pantheon!

Track 23 of the Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST vol. 5
for the last room of the Passionfruit Pantheon, the final challenge in the Grandmaster Lobby
The central premise of this track is a 3 : 5 cassette block polyrhythm (blocks that turn on and off to the beat). The first section introduces the slower 3-beat blocks, then the next section introduces the 5-beat blocks, and then, after a big swell, we arrive at the combined 3 : 5 polyrhythm with both sets of blocks going at once. The track also contains a long ambience loop that modulates between keys and is not synchronized with either of the two polyrhythmic cassette rhythms (since those are controlled by the in game blocks). However, I needed to make sure that the cassette rhythms changed with the intensity and key of the ambience loop, so in-game there are four independent cassette loops that are moved between when the ambience loop changes but are still independently desynced from the ambience loop. It’s a really fun time. And that’s not even talking about the ending, which is a music-synced bird fling, badeline orb, and dash sequence to the main Strawberry Jam theme, culminating in a big triumphant chord as you finally beat the map.
Huge thanks to:
Hydro0 for the polyrhythm concept
Vexatos for his insane coding work making these polyrhythmic cassettes work in game
Xplosives and Ecl1psed for making the gameplay for the room where this track appears
Valkyria for her incredible vision for this map bringing everything together, and for spending hundreds of hours assembling and decorating it.
Watch a playthrough of the Passionfruit Pantheon

For additional information or questions, contact Aidan.