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Souls of Ash's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Interpretation of the Secondary Theme | #152 | 3.783 | 3.783 |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #216 | 2.870 | 2.870 |
| Overall | #231 | 3.052 | 3.052 |
| Gameboy Soul | #233 | 3.217 | 3.217 |
| Graphics | #248 | 3.087 | 3.087 |
| Gameplay | #293 | 2.304 | 2.304 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game meet GBJam's theme?
Ghosts are spooky, background fits as well as the music. we tried to tie it all together into a fun progressive style game!
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Comments
great artwork and music on this game! they have a nice creepy vibe and hit that Game Boy vibe pretty well. i really like the concept for the game!
the player character and basic ghosts are real cute! nice animations on the sprites too! i also like the background in the first stage a lot. i agree with some others that the backgrounds are a little too busy and can make the sprites difficult to see. it might have helped to put an outline around the sprites just to separate them a bit from the bg.
i had fun playing, but i only got to stage 2. it’s kind of tough! i think i would have liked the attack to have just a little more range so you don’t have to get so close to enemies to shoot them. also it might have been nice to have ghosts wait a few seconds before moving when they appear to give the player a bit more chance to see them. not a big issue though. the biggest issue i think is that getting caught between ghosts is very difficult to escape from. a second of two of invulnerability and being able to move through the ghosts after being hit could help with that.
overall really nice job on this game!
thank you for the feedback! the ghosts having a delay in movement is a fantastic idea. will update that into the game after the voting period.
it is very difficult to escape i agree. i was going to add some knockback to the player when hit and make the player go through them. that didnt make it in cause it was kinda buggy so that what you got :) ill be fixing that up later and adding it as well. come on back and check it out when we get it further updated!
cool! someone else mentioned a dodge or dash move, and that could maybe help if you wanted to keep it so that the ghosts appear and move right away. it might add more tension and jump-scare moments that way. i think just as long as the player has a chance to get away if they’re quick it would be good.
knockback could be good too. it can get tricky with collisions for sure. i totally understand having to cut some things during the jam. we had some similar things with the gameplay on our game where things got cut because of time, and other things got adjusted based on some feedback we received but it ended up not being as good imo.
i’ll look for that post-jam update!
i tried playing again and got a bit further (level 3). i think i just had to get used to how the ghosts moved a bit. also i forgot you can jump! lol. i noticed by accident that you can stand on the ghosts which is pretty funny.
Thankyou for playing! we found it funny when the ghosts gang up on you and hug you, if you move around enough you can escape haha but maybe we should've tuned it down. I didn't add an outline to the sprites but maybe I should have I was kind of hoping the hard to see would be understood as it being dark out but maybe that was a bit unnecessary, the bg with the lights is definitely too busy to read well with the sprites!
yeah, that’s true it kind of works to not see them so well because it’s dark. helps make it spookier maybe. :)
That was alright! The character design is charming, and the concept is interesting.
The backgrounds are quite busy, and the mechanics are a bit janky.
Good work! Congratulations on the submission!
thankyou for playing!
Very cute little game! I like the spooky atmosphere, and love the main character's design - especially the small details added to the animation like the changing of expression when attacking, or the bouncy little idle, the blinking of the eyes, and the secondary motion of the hair buns when using the vacuum.
I do think though, as other commenters pointed out, that the background can get a bit too busy at times, which distracts from the charm of the spritework. It can also get very hard to parse the UI against particularly complex background textures, like so:
Which is a shame, because there's a lot to like about the sprites.
Gameplay-wise, I feel like there's some room for improvement. Very often it seems ghosts will just pop up right in the middle of the screen, damaging me with very little I can do about it. It feels less like a test of reflexes, and more like a "gotcha" from the game, which rarely feels good.
I also feel like the vacuuming mechanic is underexplored, to the point I wonder if it's needed. As it stands, it's just a clunkier/slower way to get collectibles which I could presumably simply get by walking through. If there was more of an integration of vacuuming with the combat mechanics (like in Luigi's Mansion, for instance), I feel like this would be greatly mitigated.
As for the "meta", I liked the idea spending ghost ashes on the upgrade screen. I can imagine this being highly strategic with choosing upgrades best suited for the mission I'm going for, in a more fleshed-out, non-jam version of this game!
I enjoyed a lot about this entry, and feel there's a lot of potential here should the team chose to keep developing the game. Nice going!
I wanted to add lots of detail and intentionally made outdoors ‘hard to see in the dark’ but I may have made the bgs too busy for people’s personal tastes. It’s my third pixel art project and first time using 4 colors, I think reviews could’ve also been nicer towards the gameplay. I appreciate the feedback, and you playing our game! We did our best and worked hard :)
Sorry if my review sounded harsh! It was not at all my intention.
I like to use jam entry reviews to directly "talk shop" dev to dev, so I might come across more blunt than I otherwise would if I were leaving a normal comment, or a steam review. Please do not take that, and the critiques I've made, as an indication that I did not enjoy your game.
I fully understand jams are hard, things end up less than complete, and that the dev team themselves are often well aware of most of the shortcomings. I am just trying to be honest and direct in my review, because I feel like there's a lot to like, and that there's stuff to refine, and I would love to play a refined version of this game.
Once again: props for the good work!
Oh my bad this wasn’t aimed at one person or you, in general just feels like this jam might be getting too much criticism and too little appreciation for little things(on a few games not just here), I get talking shop, just seeing a lot of people being very hard and frankly negative with their words when sharing their opinions and I’m not used to that and find it coming off a bit rude (not you, yours is fine! ) it creates an unwelcome atmosphere and I’ve done a few jams, just never felt this overly critical space before.
Nice game! I think the gameplay loop could use a few tweaks, like being able to move while attacking and maybe some kind of dodge. I am also unable to buy upgrades after I die, even though I am presented with the option.
Thankyou for playing! A dodge would be certainly interesting! Thankyou for your feedback!
dodge isnt really a good idea. thats not really how GB games were designed. we made a game that felt like a GB game not a modern addition.
i had it so you moved but it felt wrong and not GB like. so it was changed back.
if you were unable to buy you were probably using the wrong buttons or you simply didnt have enough dust. ive tested and had others test with no issues.
This is a game, I feel kinda mean but there isn't to much to say, the art and audio are great and the idea is nice but the gameplay is just very repetitive. again I want to state, there is a lot here that's good it's just the gameplay ends up dragging it all down to the grave with it. this is a solid entry but it definitely needs some work and I get it game jams are hard there is no hate to this game because of it's gameplay and again the art especially was done very well just think the gameplay hinders a lot of the fun. sorry for the overly negative feedback
Thankyou for your feedback!
Visually really striking, and also very cute and spooky. Love the little Ecto-1 car!
I think you're just a few gameplay and UI tweaks away from something really special.
Thankyou for your feedback!