Play game
Soul Essence's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #28 | 3.944 | 3.944 |
| Originality | #28 | 3.611 | 3.611 |
| Overall | #37 | 3.175 | 3.175 |
| Fun | #39 | 3.056 | 3.056 |
| Audio | #40 | 3.056 | 3.056 |
| Graphics | #40 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Controls | #69 | 2.722 | 2.722 |
| Accessibility | #69 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.1.1
Wildcards Used
Carpe Noctem
Game Description
You play as Death, harvesting and protecting Soul Essence from the undead trying to get back into the mortal world
How does your game tie into the theme?
You harvest a crop call "Soul Essence"
Source(s)
N/A
Discord Username(s)
DominicDJC, jpdeclara, ZealousElk
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
2
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Beautiful combination of art, music, and programming to cultivate a style and atmosphere that makes me feel like Soul Essence would find a perfect home if Nintendo revived the NES and started soliciting 8-bit indie games for it. Very much feels like a cross between Stardew Valley and Zelda II with a Dark Souls aesthetic. What a collaboration; great job, friends!
Thank you so much!
I think this was a pretty good game. The concept was very cool and the execution was definitely there, especially for a game jam build.
I did not like that clicking a crop would harvest it, but then a second click would destroy the fertile ground. I feel like there should have been a second tool like a hammer or shovel or something to return the dirt to normal (I'm assuming the change was for traps and the like)
Also, I wish there was some sort of indication that the soul essence was ready to harvest, as I didn't expect it to only have a "planted" stage and a "grown" stage. Probably too much time playing Stardew Valley and the likes where there are multiple stages before harvest is ready.
But yeah the "Survivorlike" + Farming is a very cool concept and I think this is a great jam entry!
Hey, thanks for the feedback! The way the destruction was set up was in favor of clicking and holding. I created a sort of "breaklayer" system that had crops on a separate level from the rest of the tiles (traps, soil, walls, etc). So if you were to hold down on a crop, just moving your mouse over other crops would destroy those, but nothing else. If you were spam clicking, that definitely wouldn't have had an intended effect. And with the planting stages, I definitely think we could've used some explanations for a lot of things in the game. Sorry for the confusion, I'll definitely be taking all of your feedback into account with any updates!
I had tried to do the "click once and drag" harvest, but it wasn't working for me. Maybe because I was playing the HTML5 version? I've noticed some weirdness with some of the games published in that format.
And yeah, no problem! I've really enjoyed trying to give some constructive feedback to the other developers in this Jam.
Hmmm. I've had no issues with it on the HTML version. The destroy button is left click, are you right clicking instead? Are you trying to go outside the players range? You can see some harvesting throughout our gameplay trailer/demonstration, this was all recorded in the HTML version.
Any yes! Any feedback is good feedback, love to see it.
The design of the game is really interesting! A god of death doing farm work! Preventing the undead from returning to the real world reminds me of the movie R.I.P.D.
Excellent collaborative work!
Thank you the design was definitely a collaborative effort! We all chipped in for this to become what it is thank you for your feedback!
The game is so fun that I played it for like an hour. The controls were a bit confusing at first, it took me some time to harvest until I clicked by chance one of the empty squares and then tried it. The enemy hitboxes were a little big, and sometimes my attack didn't work so I got hit a lot at first. Then after creating a fortress I had nothing else to do, every enemy that came close just died (it was satisfying to watch, though).
It was fun trying the different turrets and traps, and waiting for the right merchant to come by. I feel like I was getting soul essence way too fast and the enemies were too slow, but that would be hard to balance for different players.
Thank you so much! We're very glad you enjoyed the game as much as you did. We tired to balance it with the limited time we had and there are definitively things we would change with more time but thank you for your kind words!
Great game! Possibly my favourite of the ones I have played so far. I can tell you put a lot of work into it, with many different systems and items. Some more enemies and enemy verity would be nice in the late game, but what's in the game so far work very well.
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed the game! And thank you for the feedback, we definitely had some big idea that we we're not able to include due to time constraints and more enemies was definitely one of them.
hmm I should come back to this, I was planting no problem, but think I lost the direction when it came to selling. Love the tile work, super jealous, I really want to learn some of the techniques you use here. Overall seems super interesting :D
Hey, thanks for the feedback! What part of the selling is getting you? Maybe I can try to help out. And with the techniques, anything in particular, maybe I can give you a few tips!