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Soulkeeper's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Concept | #9 | 3.533 | 3.533 |
| Presentation | #31 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #32 | 2.817 | 2.817 |
| Enjoyment | #34 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
| Use of the Limitation | #65 | 1.933 | 1.933 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team members
Maax
Software used
Unity, LibreSprite, Audacity
Use of the limitation
It takes places in heaven, where everything already died. Therefore everythiing can die and did die.
Cookies eaten
None, instead only lots of gummibears
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Comments
The clouds are gorgeous! I really liked the background! Also, never have I ever thought about herding souls, very nice!
Some things I think that could be improved:
I really liked the way you went and the dogs were very cute. Congratulations!
Thank you for taking the time to write detailed feedback!
I would have loved to introduce the mechanics a level per level basis to ease the player into them, but I was unsure how to do that effectively. Therefore the one page in the menu. I'm not sure if splitting the mechanics to different sites would have helped, my guess is that would fell even more daunting then before, because you have multiply pages.
I didn't explicitly wrote in the introduction that the Souls had to be "pushed'' into the gate, that is true. I can see where this can lead to confusion.
Souls getting stuck was sadly somewhat common, I thought I had fixed it by allowing the Keeper and Dog to go a bit below the bounds of the souls, but likely I forgot that above.
Interesting bug you discovered with resetting the stages :D
That's very fun and cute game! I really like dog sound :D Cool gameplay, but I really need a shortcuts for other characters as it is in RTS games :)
Glad you enjoy the recording of myself barking :D. Will definitely have some keybindings next time
It's a very unique mix of the RTS movement mechanics and sheep-herding genre! I think it is frustrating due to a lack of polish (Souls getting stuck on the sides of the screen easily, but yeah we did only have 3 days to make these!), but it really has a lot of good things going on here. I think it could overall benefit from a slightly higher movement speed on the player units.
Once I realized that using patrol instead of ever leaving your units in place, I managed to get a lot more souls moving quickly! Also with the use of the approaching crescents movement pattern.
Also the movement in general was easy for me to pick up because I used to play some RTS, but it would have been a lot easier to herd them in if I had some of the other RTS features, like having my units assigned to the number keys for quick access. Players not familiar to the genre might benefit form having on-screen buttons for actions like patrolling as well.
Thank you for your feedback! I did wanted to have the Units on the 1 to 3 keys, but as so often things had to be cut :D
Good game, but complicated controls
Thanks for playing Soulkeeper.
What controls did you find complicated?
In the game we are the point from which the enemies run away, so it is impossible to lead several at once
That is true and definitely something I would improve upon if I would make it again. Thanks for your feedback :D
shepherding souls in heaven is a great concept. I feel like with some tuning it could be really fun; currently it induces Bennett Foddy levels of rage, which is a compliment!
I feel the same way. I wish I had tested my mechanics out more, that I would have seen how frustrating and rage inducing it can be :D
Thank you for playing and leaving feedback on my game
Souls are harder to herd than sheep.
A really cool concept! I enjoyed the mechanics of patrolling and waypoints, though the souls seem to ignore units that aren't moving, which was a little frustrating. The red clouds and the hell hounds added a lot to the gameplay loop as well!
There were a few souls that seemed to get stuck on the bottom of the screen; they could move horizontally, but never came up higher, even when two units boxed them in from either side. The clouds at the edges also sometimes obscured my units or the souls, which was unfortunate.
But really, overall, this is very good. Well done!
Thank you for you detailed feedback.
I like the concept too, but it feels flawed how I build it. Units push the Souls away in a circel around them, therefore it is hard to bring multiple Souls in the same direction. What do you think?
Souls gettimg stuck is indeed bad and poor visuals at the bottom should be improved too. In a perfect gane I could imagine clouds going opague when souls are under them
Yeah, I didn't notice that it was the circle effect that was making it difficult, but that makes sense. The hell hounds' away movement seemed a bit better in that regard; though they go all the way to the other side of the screen, which the souls should obviously not do.
But maybe a movement for a little bit in a straight line away from the unit, rather than just directly as the unit moves, pixel by pixel? That would allow the player to circle around them and push them all towards the same point maybe? I think you'd have to test out some different methods to see.
Another possibility could be to have a box collider that rotates with the unit's movement direction so that the flat edge is always facing the direction they're moving, and then using that as the thing that makes the souls move, so you have a larger area of effect for pushing?
Indeed some more testing is needed on that front. Most important as you said is to give the player a tool to more effectively herd the souls in the same direction and pushing them together in one direction. Thanks a lot for you input ;D
Maybe watching some real dogs herd some sheep would help too
such a calm game, cutie dogs. And surprisingly time flew by quickly.
Thank you for playing :D
Nice! Super calm I found myself becoming way too immersed tbh XD. The visuals are awesome! Love the cloudy environment!
Thank you for your feedback, glad you enjoyed it.
How did you find the duration of the levels?
It was a little too drawn out for me, but once I got the hang of it I learned to work more efficiently which made it exciting