Okay, this game was good. Very good. I will say right off the bat, if it was a full game and not a demo, it would have likely been my favorite to win this whole thing. 

This is a game I would love to make. The feel of it, the look of it, the style of puzzles. I absolutely LOVED every second.

Every puzzle was very clever. It never felt like a chore. Fun, creative, smooth, The music change per form was so well done. Seriously. Fantastic job on the music in this whole game. I love the skeleton versions.

A quirky ghost like fellow who befriends the main who is morally ambiguous... Reminds me of my own characters in a certain Ghostly game I made. o:

My gripes with the game come at the end. There is a certain point where you get a weapon. Look, RPG Maker is a very powerful and amazing tool, but it's almost never wise to attempt action elements. I did it all just fine, but the smoothness of the rest of the game was sacrificed when you had to time the scythe attacks. I would have just had the enemies auto die from them. I don't think we can make a game fight as smoothly as Zelda on this engine, but everything else was so well done and hid the limitations of the engine perfectly.

I would have loved for this to have been about 20 minutes longer and just finish the game, instead of it being a demo. A lot of the charm of IGMC games is the feeling of completion in a short time, And if the game did well, then you remake it or make a sequel that's longer.

Either way, I will absolutely play the finished version of this. Happily. It was a total delight. Very very professional quality. It's the type of game that makes me want to make games. Great job and good luck!

Hi Thund! I just finished playing Soul's Spectrum & had to share my thoughts. This was so good! I felt like I was playing a AAA game because everything was well polished and put together. 

- I thought your world-building was awesome! I loved being in Nora's shoes and not having too much info thrown at us in the beginning  -- we don't really know much about what to do or where to go at the beginning (like Nora) but the situation and mechanics become more and more clear through trial and error

-I liked that the characters had different things to say when we talked to them instead of the same initial dialogue

- The music choice was spot on! The songs made me feel raring to solve those puzzles!

- I had so much fun with the death loop mechanic (especially blipping around as the Anima, so cute!) 

- Cool shake effect when you roll as human Nora and knock into things. I would love to hear a little satisfying Pokemon-esque bump sound effect there xD

- I might have missed where it said Nora could swim lol I was rolling into the trees at the beginning of the forest to try and bust my way to the other side

It's easy to see you put a lot of dedication and love into your project. Can't wait to see more from you! 

This game is really wonderful! I loved the dark atmosphere of this prison and the innovative mechanic behind the gameplay! 

Everything is so polished, the graphic is really rpg-like and the mapping is very good, never too full or too empty, with a careful attention for the puzzle logics.

The guards gave me a good scare, I really prefer staying dead! XD

I believed this was a fantasy setting, so I was caught off guard seeing it's somehow mixed with modern days, but it didn't affect the gameplay.

The mysterious friend that helps us is really nice, it's reactions gives a nice living feel, pun intended!

What else can I say? Many compliments!

Very well polished art and lighting design. However, into 5 minutes of playing the game, we became a God and accidentally enabled no-clip. Really cute game however needs more interest throughout.  

It has taken me ages in order to leave you a comment because I absolutely ADORE your entry. It is so well-polished and cohesive. The art, music (with the freaking CHANGES!! by character), the pop-up text for the instructions, and the story all work together so well to guide the player to the end.

Amazing entry -- I can't wait to see more!

Soul's Spectrum

by Thund

Hey there Thund, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I'm Drifty and I was asked to judge your game in round one of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.

Interesting bit of meta gameplay going on here with the multiple 'deaths' thing.

I like the save reminder.

Good level design. I'm not a huge fan of puzzles but this has been very designed well.

I got stuck for awhile on the water, it *should* go without saying that humans can swim... I just uh, forgot. It all made sense when I backtracked and got the candle to become human and than swam across though.

It got even more fun when you gave us the Scythe. 

I was a little confused with that last scene, but it wasn't a bad ending.

I enjoyed the game mechanics and level design. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next project.

-Drifty

This was incredibly charming! I loved the graphics and I loved the mechanic of changing forms. I do think the beginning moved a little slow for me especially since I already figured I'd need to change forms to get through things, but as a whole, you definitely have a good game going here! Would love to play a full game like this!

This game was awesome. I especially liked how you designed your starting tutorial, it was action learning at its finest!

Streamed this yesterday with the dev present, but leaving this here for posterity:

• +The graphics are cute and there’s clearly a good amount polish, so even in their simplicity they work very well.
• +I like the text display, it’s very simple an elegant. My only suggestion there would be to change the display of the protagonist’s text from italics to maybe a different color.
• +The concept of forms having different skills was intuitive, with maybe the exception of the swimming function.
• +The sound is cute, especially the Kyuun of the ghost skill.
• +The MUSIC CHANGES WITH YOUR FORM OH THATS ADORABLE! The others were ok but the skeleton’s xylophone steals the show.
• -It’s a bummer it's only a demo. The cliffhanger honestly surprised me.
• -The English needs a bit of a cleanup, but understandable since not first language of the dev. It wasn’t super noticeably, just a few niggles here and there. 

Overall a very solid entry. Brief, easy enough puzzle that doesn’t frustrate you, cute presentation. My worst complaint is that it’s a demo.

Unfortunately for Mac it doesn't work, and I know Mac users who play RPG Maker games are a minority, but that's a real shame.

Loved the concept of having different abilites based on how dead you are.  The prison map levels I thought are really well designed and I quite enjoyed working out how to progress. Art and presentation are excellent too!

The simple, but beautiful palette means that I find it easy to see key interactable areas. It's quite pleasing to the eye. Nice use of lighting and it's - more importantly - not overused. Love the intro, easing us into the controls and how to play with the various mechanics. There's a degree of polish on this short experience that had me wanting more. 

So far one of the best entries of the jam! The gameplay is engaging and clever, the graphics and the atmosphere are really cool, and I'm intrigued with the story. My only complaints are the position of the characters' names in the dialogue box (I had some problems recognizing who's talking, but it's a minor issue) and the bonemerang animation's speed (a bit too slow). Maybe you could give a specific color for each character who's speaking?

Really really reeeeeally good!

A side note: I'm sure you're completing this game (Because you HAVE TO complete this game XD) so I think that maybe you could introduce the many stages one at a time, with a slower pace without bringing the different skills all at once? It's just an advice, feel free to ignore it.

I honestly really enjoyed this one. I thought the mechanics for this puzzle was incredibly unique and it fits the theme sooooo well! 

I also really liked how the puzzles made me think about which character I needed to be and kinda forced me to plan ahead. 

You did a really great job with this one. The art, the design, the mechanics, everything flowed so well! 

If you get a chance, please feel free to play my entries. I developed Framework and Legends Untamed but if you had to choose, FrameWork is better as that is the one I spent more time on.  

I like the mechanics. I admit that I thought I could change the type of character with the press of a button, but I was surprised by the system where you can switch between them. A bit disappointing on the outside because I was expecting more difficulties than prison. I have seen however that it is in development, so I am confident that it is only a demonstration part. Well done.

Failure is progress! :D I really like this game and I am convinced this will one of the best games in the IGMC. Found some passability bugs here and there when dashing, but for the rest I can’t find so much errors. Keep up the absolutely great work!

This game is surprisingly well made, from its dark eerie atmosphere to its music/soundtrack and the conveyance of the story with minimal dialogue allows the game to pace itself well enough. The gameplay aspect is also fascinating, with the mechanic of actually requiring you to die in order to solve puzzles since certain actions can only be done in certain forms.

I commend you for making an interesting entry to the jam. The package is cohesively well thought out and the cliffhanger definitely leaves you wanting more. Keep up the good work.