GBJAM 12

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A jam submission

Ember SoulsView game page

Devour souls to survive.

Submitted by femto (@j1susaki) — 5 hours, 44 minutes before the deadline

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Ember Souls's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Interpretation of the Secondary Theme	#153	3.778	3.778
Graphics	#233	3.222	3.222
Gameplay	#263	2.444	2.444
Overall	#286	2.678	2.678
Gameboy Soul	#304	2.778	2.778
Soundtrack/SFX	#342	1.167	1.167

Ranked from 18 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?
Ember Souls is a villain protagonist, souls-like 2d platformer action game where you play as a soul devourer driven by an insatiable hunger. Using a pixel physics-based attraction mechanic, you must consume souls to survive. Fail to feed, and you will be consumed by your own hunger.

Witness the inevitable cosmic doom from the chasm of the abyss, endlessly devouring souls in an unstoppable descent into darkness under the dead sky. Inspired by Cormac McCarthy-esque idea of primal evil, and Dark Souls.

Ember Souls satisfy the following GBJam constraints
- Primary theme: Gameboy
- Secondary theme: Spooky
- Resolution: 160px x 144px
- Palette: 4 colors
- Control: D-pad, A, B, Start, Select

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Comments

AlphaknighttSubmitted77 days ago

The scenery goes really hard! I am interested to see what's the plan moving forward, since you have a solid base here. What you have here is pretty good, well done!

Submitted

lorporlemSubmitted77 days ago

A very interesting concept and mechanic. Cool graphics but no sound was a pity.

Submitted

wbhwritesSubmitted79 days ago

Visually striking, for certain. I read into the other comments to see that this is more of a concept piece at this stage, so I'll limit my responses to that. The basic gameplay loop of snatching up souls does feel pretty good, the ticking clock of a dwindling health bar urging me to keep eating up all of the little people at my feet. I would love to see what context is eventually added. The eye in the sky is great, reminds me of Dark Souls 3. Best of luck with the updated version, and I'll keep an eye out for it!

Submitted

Apotheosis in Lunar Gold

HegerWorksSubmitted81 days ago

I really like what you've got going on here so far. Looking forward to what you do next with it. I love that you went with an abnormal colour palette as it works really well for the vibe, and the soul-harvesting mechanic is done really well. Keep at it!

Submitted

Hunted | Hunter

femtoDeveloper81 days ago

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you appreciated the ominous aesthetics with evil soul devouring mechanics.

Yes, currently I'm implementing what I left out due to the jam time constraint, but will update as soon as the rating event ends, taking this tech demo to a state of complete game.

CuurianSubmitted83 days ago

Love the graphics and the color palette, feels good sucking up the souls of those little things even though it seems like there's no clear objective at this state of the game, but has potential!

Submitted

femtoDeveloper81 days ago(+1)

Thank you for taking the time to play the game! I'm glad you took pleasure devouring souls of the one-eyed little creatures!

Yes, currently there is no objective, as it has no level design, enemy design, progression system, victory condition, to qualify as a complete game, but as soon as the updates becomes available, I will polish to leave the tech demo state.

Unfortunately for now, you just have to wait for the inexorable hunger to devour your own existence.

isthisthereallifeSubmitted83 days ago

Ominous! I like the particle effects, especially during the intro. Add some atmospheric music and develop it further!

Submitted

Dracula Must Die

femtoDeveloper81 days ago(+1)

Thank you for the compliments! Certainly! There are several polish I already implemented to leave the tech demo state, and will be more omnious as soon as the update is avaliable!

DafaliSubmitted85 days ago(+1)

It's an Interesting concept and you've got a good start here. The only critique I have at this stage is that it looks like the resolution is too high, there are some noticeable sub pixels happening with the eye movement, screen movement and left of the soul bar. Keep at it! Continue making, continue improving.

Submitted

Dracula Must Die

femtoDeveloper85 days ago(+1)

Thank you for the feedback, glad you find it interesting! Yes, you are correct, right in the details! haha;

For the particle rendering, I truncated the particle floating point position to the nearest grid position, to emulate and respect the pixel constraint, but did not applied neither to the character, nor to the eye rendering.

I implemented the pixel constraint to the character and eye, will experiment with the parameters.

I'll update after the Jam to increase the low-res representation coherence, together with more polish that I wanted to make, but could not due to the jam time constraint.

TaitoCodeSubmitted86 days ago

Very interesting mechanic also I loved the art style and color palette. Great Entry!

Submitted

femtoDeveloper86 days ago

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

CasePortmanSubmitted86 days ago

Absorbing those enemies is so satisfying and very smart decision to include a counter that goes over the maximum so no soul is wasted! I really love that palette too! Awesome job!

Submitted

femtoDeveloper86 days ago

Thanks for the compliment and spending your time to play the prototype! Glad you enjoyed devouring souls from the minions under the dead sky! Wanted to explore the gameplay more thoroughly in depth using the soul mechanics to design challenges, but the inevitable time constraint got us.

Rodrigo_dCGSubmitted88 days ago

Nice particle effect while absorbing the enemies holding B button (X on the keyboard), and I think it can be replicated on an actual gameboy.

The 4 selected colors fit the mood very well.

The giant eye monster in the background that opens and closes the eyelid is a very interesting and impressive effect.

Note to other players: if you walk all the way to the right, you'll find a cliff. avoid falling into it, as you'll have to wait until your health deploys until losing and being able to play again. There's a cliff to the left after walking a while too. Didn't try jumping into it but I guess the same would happen.

Submitted

The Eyeball House - GBJAM12 version

femtoDeveloper87 days ago(+1)

Thank you for the kind words!

Yes, the idea was to experiment with the concept of pixel physics engine, but due to the time limitation it became more of a tech demo than an actual game.

After the Jam, I'll do a proper level design, enemy design, combat design, and progression, with some music and sound effects.

The giant eye monster is a cute buddy that will help you devour more souls along the descent into the darkness.

Thank you kindly for the note too! I'll update the page and add as a known issue as soon as possible.