Man I love the concepts and the partterns and I think you did great in this game. But I had problems with how I felt playing it, the dash don't feel very tight, sometimes I feel like it doesn't go where I want it to go, I don't know if it's a issue with keyboard or not, but that isn't even the worst, it is when I manage to colect all tree orbs, aim and wait for the complete shot, and it comes out like a peashooter bullet traveling slower than a cripled turtle and doesn't even deals a lot of damaged. Shooting in this game, in the way it is, isn't just not rewarding, it's down right punishing, I lost count on how many times I did all this crap preparing a shot for the boss just to dodge it and hit me instead, But on the end of the day it might be just a massive skill issue on my side (It problably is)
Play game
Soul Torpor (Boss Rush Jam 2024)'s itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
BOSS DESIGN | #13 | 3.935 | 3.935 |
USE OF THEME | #15 | 4.043 | 4.043 |
Overall | #36 | 3.652 | 3.652 |
FUN | #37 | 3.609 | 3.609 |
CONTROLS | #39 | 3.565 | 3.565 |
SOUNDS / MUSIC | #89 | 3.326 | 3.326 |
ART / VISUALS | #119 | 3.435 | 3.435 |
Ranked from 46 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Game's take on the theme
Exchange affinity by dashing, exchange energy to shoot or heal, exchange boss souls or life for progress.
Did your team create the vast majority of art and music during the game jam?
Yes
Did your game use PlusMusic?
No
Did your game use Playroom?
No
Did your game use generative AI art?
Absolutely not.
Comments
Thanks for playing!
The game is not perfect by any means. There could be many more systems working in the background to help the player in invisible ways. A fully charged shot takes out 10% of boss health in 4/6 bosses that are in game, I think that is a fair amount. It could be flashier, I agree.
Patience and chip damage is also rewarded in the long run. Better to shoot 1st or 2nd charged bullet then none at all, if there's an opportunity.
The unusual mechanics with spheres and color change are perfect for the theme
Very fun gameplay mechanic and probally the most interesting take on the theme. I loved how it made me want to dash into the bullets of the same color and how i could chain together dashes due to the boss attacks design allowing me to do that. Very fun and the art is clear and simple.
Thanks for playing!
You have to unlearn dodging away from danger, to be able to dodge into it. It's a big ask, but if you get it, you'll have a fun time... I hope :)
P.S:
Very nice bosses and patterns in DEVOURING SUN. It was difficult at times, but if was fun to play through.
One of those games you die so much, that killing the bosses feels like a big achievement. Amazing game.
(I think messed it up with the game, i offered my lifes to see what happens, ended up having no health to the rest of bosses, i had to restart ;-;)
Take this review with a grain of salt because I suck at bullet hells and i struggled immensely with this game
Basically, I didnt know what the alter does so I gave it all my lives when i first saw it and couldnt beat any bosses with only 1 life left, so i played each one to see the attacks it has
THE GOOD:
- Great boss design, lots of fun bullet patterns
- Ridiculous amounts of content.... this is insane for a one month production
- Great music and sound design.... easy 5 star for that
- Innovative concept on the bullet hell genre
THE BAD:
- Ok... this is more of a personal gripe because I DESPISE THIS SPECIFIC THING... YOU HAD A BIG CHARGE ATTACK IN THE GAME, the 3 orb attack, AND YOU DIDNT BOTHER MAKING IT JUICY???? ARE YOU CRAZY???? YOU HAVE THAT MUCH GOOD SOUND DESIGN... YOU COULDVE AT LEAST MADE IT SOUND GOOD! you couldve at least made the projectile faster or smthing, but no, its the same projectile.... I hate that so much man... imo, big charged attacks mostly exist in video games to GIVE JUICE. They are literally the prime juice move... you have anticipation of charging it, and the huge payoff when you land the hit...
- The dash mechanic thing with the absorbing bullets is pretty poorly implemented... its quite hard to aim the dash on keyboard, and there shouldve been a longer "grace period" where you could gain power from orbs. I wouldve also liked a larger radius for the player to absorb orbs to deal with the aiming issue
- The player was just too slow... it took forever to get anywhere, and I found myself chasing bullets a lot to absorb them. It mightve been better to make the player
All in all, pretty good game lol... add an easy mode if you ever do a post jam update so i can beat the game
Thanks for taking the time to play it, even though sucking at bullet hells!
Not everyone can be a master of VFX, as yourself, so I'll definitely take the advice on the charge attack to heart for future games.
The dash is not perfect, true, but there is some depth to it if you take your time to experiment with it. I know it a big ask for most players, but it is what it is.
You won't get a difficulty select, but probably a bullet amount slider, so you can have a dynamic multiplier applied to the amount of bullets spawned (0.5-2.0)
last boss 2 life first try!
Anyways, the gameplay mechanics are very fun and unique. The boss fight are really cool too, there are so many different attack pattern for each boss. Its quite challenging, but if you are patient, all the attack are pretty easy to dodge. Also, the soundtrack and visual are nice.
Overall, really nice game!
You are an artist, and your medium is bullet hell patterns! Really cool attacks!
Thanks for playing the game, glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah, perspective camera and 3D might have not been the wisest choice in hindsight, but I was in too deep when I started to second guess it myself.
Will check out Mirage in the next ~24hrs, windows is giving me BS with the downloaded file, so I'll be dusting of my ol' linux laptop for it :)
Very nice game, I really like how you used the theme. Tricky some times to be in the correct affinity when colliding with the orbs, but after a bit you get the hang over it.
Great style. incredible boss designs, satisfying sound effects. It was difficult for me to consistently dodge into the orbs with this perspective, but that might've just been because I was using a mouse and keyboard.
This game is fantastic, the concept and design is amazing. Even though 3D games are hard to create to run in browser this game did it. Simple, fun and challenging. Nice difficulty curve, even though I entered the assasin the first time and got my but kicked. AWESOME WORK.
A solid game, good for steam too! hard to learn tho sadly ;-; nice game Deavid
It was fun, but tough expirience. I love the idea of being able to absorb enemy bullets by dashing and heal with the energy you gather. A little confusing mechanic at first ( f.e. black projectile: my character is white, so instinctively I wanted to dash into black projectiles, instead of white ones), but I quickly grew acustomed to it because I played EtG & Isaac a lot.
Graphics are simple, yet stylish. Attacks are readable. The only suggestions I would ask is difficulty selector: less tanky bosses and less projectile amount overall on bosses. Some people would be happy to see such option when it comes to projectile-heavy game like this one.
Solid game!
You played through the whole thing?!
It definitely has a learning curve to it. Not a fan of traditional difficulty modes, since you have no context on what easy, medium or hard means, when all you saw of the game is the title screen, but I get where your coming from, and agree that some assistance options should be available to the player so they can tailor their experience. Actually, a slider that controls the amount of bullet (between a certain multiplier like 0.5-2.0) would be an awesome thing.
Thanks you for the comment and feedback, can't wait to try out your entry during the coming days!
Cheers!
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