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A jam submission

HomunculipseView game page

A top-down pixel art adventure game with turn-based battling and shadow capture.
Submitted by ryan (@_PowellR), JeRaquel, lagmaister, jfo-ucdavis — 7 hours, 37 minutes before the deadline
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Homunculipse's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#1964.5004.500
Cleverness#2824.0004.000
Artistic Style#3284.5004.500
Playability#7193.5003.500

Ranked from 2 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

  • This has to be a perfect entry. You've done all the things you need to make a game playable for those who are just getting into it. I'll be honest, I didn't even get through combat. I was just so blown away by everything you did correctly up to that point. I was 100% sold. Congrats. You're a master at your craft. The ONE thing I thought would be helpful was a 10% buff to movement speed, but that comes down to *my* preferences. So, if you ignored it, you'd still have a perfect game. Great job.
  • I really enjoyed the game, especially the turnbase-style battles, which were a highlight for me. However, the long loading times between each zone were a bit frustrating, and I wish the interface was cleaner for a smoother experience.

Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes

Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes

Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes

Tell us about your game!
Homunculipse is a turn based, monster catching rpg in which you steal the shadows of creatures
and objects you discover in the overworld. Each shadow you battle has unique offensive
abilities. These abilities can be combined in your homunculus to cause resonance. Resonance allows you to capture stronger enemies with compound types. Capture the shadows and uncover the story via lore books.

GDD Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N9bWXRd0NEw5DOOzXUuAzGlvofRLb-Do/view

Extra Notes
GDD Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N9bWXRd0NEw5DOOzXUuAzGlvofRLb-Do/view
Written Tutorial for referring back to is now in the description of the game. :D

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Comments

Viewing comments 19 to 1 of 39 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+1)

Best doggo battle art I have seen in any game ;) 

The game has so much cool visual flair, love the equip screen and battle interface (I like to think the main character is lugging that big table around everywhere too)

Interesting capture system with tons of skills, you are always unlocking new stuff so it stays fresh. Also game has a lot of content for a 2 week jam, props!

I agree with other comments that being able to change skills anywhere would be better, thanks for the running button tho.
Personally I'd allow clicking (or maybe double clicking) elements too instead of only dragging.

Overall very good and quite unique!

Developer

Thank you for your thoughts, I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Hi! I really enjoyed playing your game. Here are some of my notes:

+ The overworld is aesthetically pleasing and nostalgic
+ The music doesn't feel repetitive and the transition between the overworld and battle version is cool
+ I LOVE the design of the shadows! Also, the background effects in the battles and the pause menu looks nice.
+ The simple-looking combat system is intuitive and at the same time allows for different strategies and combos.
+ The reagent system incentivizes the player to use a variety of different skills as opposed to just spamming one single skill if they want to capture the shadows.

- The Obelisk (pretty much everyone else has said it, I think it should be repurposed for a special mechanic or a less frequent action)
- Movement speed could be higher, both walking and sprinting.
- The automatic movement during the tutorials felt clunky. It may feel better if the enemy quickly jumped onto the player instead.
- The battle trigger hitbox sometimes felt clunky, especially with the dogs and the cat.
- The close button for skills book in battle blends with the background. I don't know if it was just me, but I had to look for it every time. Maybe adding an outline to the button could fix it.

Extra Notes:
* In my first run I assumed that the damage amount only matters for defeating the shadow not capturing it. This made me stuck on the dog battle and unable to progress. Although, I don't know if I missed the explanation of that in the tutorial.

Overall, it was a great experience! Also, dog jumpscare :D

Developer

Thank you so much for playing, and the detailed feedback! This is helpful

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

The shadow designs were always great fun to discover, it immediately gave each combat encounter such unique character - sniffing pup is a certified good boi. The alchemy system definitely took some getting used to, but the thorough tutorial really helped ease the steep learning curve! Really impressed by how much you managed to develop in such a short span, definitely one of the ones I've played for the longest this time around; great work by the whole team! 💚

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for the kind words. BTW you can pet the dog with E after you capture or defeat it :D

Submitted

⚠️ GOTJ contender alert ⚠️

Submitted(+1)

Yo why does Mom got beef with the worms 😭

I really like the direction of the game. 

The usage of skills was a bit difficult to understand at first. I definitely needed someone to guide me through it a bit more thoroughly. I wasn't sure how to obtain the fish with just the worm and tree. I ended up smacking it to death ~5 times before realizing I was missing something.


Other than that, I really enjoyed the game!

Developer

I think there's something wrong with them...

Submitted(+1)

Great game. The sprites and music are awesome. The forced movement for the tutorials were a little annoying. The inability to see an opponent’s element before engaging, and not being able to swap your skills without the obelisk makes strategizing a little annoying. It would be nice if you could see an enemy’s element above them on the map. And I wish we were given the option to rearrange skills before every combat starts. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. The little main character guy is cute!

Developer

thank you for the feedback! that is actually a solid idea for the map, especially for creatures you have already encountered at least.

Submitted(+1)

Major earthbound vibes, and I've never even played earthbound.
+ It's like pokemon, but you're putting all of them through a juicer first
+ Lots of interesting abilities to play with
+ There's a surprising amount of world here to explore
- Interacting with a book at the same time an enemy contacts you puts you in a glitched sleepwalking state where enemies don't aggro on you, and any level transition will blackscreen your game.
- The very cool combat system requires a very uncool amount of clicking
- Yes, I absolutely have something I want to do other than look at the obelisk. You're not my real dad

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the feedback! You were able to characterize that bug very well, and it is helpful haha.

I appreciate the kind words

Submitted(+1)

Given that this was made in 2 weeks is really impressive! The enemy sprites during combat looked amazing. The combat was creative, and I was often racking my brain on what combo I should do to capture an enemy. I often killed the snail rather than capturing it with salt. 

Overall, really solid game!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the combat

Submitted(+1)

First of all, this game is impressive for a jam. It is an ambitious turn based rpg with really interesting mechanics. I really like how you implemented transmutation into the battle system, it is a really cool take on the theme. The presentation is quite unique too, I found it really charming and it reminds me to Earthbound. However, I got stuck after battling the fish and I could not progress further no matter what I did. I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if this is a bug. Either way, this was a really cool game and I hope this becomes a full game in the future.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

hey there! yes the snail is a bit of a gate :D the trick is the snail is salt, so you need to combine Earth and Water moves in order to damage its capture bar. If you don't you will defeat it before it is captured, and progress is gated by whether you have captured the snail :D


thank you SO much for the kind words though

(+1)

Very nice graphics and atmosphere:)) 

Developer

Thank you very much! I am glad you liked it.

Submitted(+1)

Art  and UI is supreme! the pause menu is something out of this world! I personally don't like this genre but and I don't like to read texts in the game I wish there was an options to skip or just displayer the text right away instead of waiting for the animation to finish, all in all really polished game for 2 weeks! amazing work

Developer

Thank you very much for you feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed our game even not being your kind of genre, and leaving us your kind words. We really appreciate it!

Submitted(+1)

There is so much to this! It's incredible for a 14 day time limit. Only thing I can say is the first tutorial could have more interaction and maybe less text just given to you, but I'm even reaching on that honestly. It was incredibly well done.

I love Pong being on the TV screen! Really great job on this!

Developer

Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game and the "hidden" references. We will definitely review how mechanics are introduced.

Submitted(+1)

Great job! It was a really fun twist on the monster catcher genre. I will definitely be back to play further into the game.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much! I am glad you enjoy :D

Submitted(+1)

Nice work!  You guys got a lot done in such a short amount of time.  The overall pacing and progression felt pretty good.  I would have preferred to have more than one skill available early game since having the stick as the only option was a little tedious.  Great job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! I agree the intro sequence could definitely be improved.

Submitted(+1)

Really love the art style!

Combining turn-based combat and alchemy deck building/collecting is a fresh and fun concept.

Also, the designs of opponents are fun (I really loved worm haha)

Feedback:

I think the first tutorial could be more step-by-step, with actions in-between parts of the tutorial.

(ex: Explain drag & drop element, let player do it, and then explain AP, etc / take damage, and then explain HP etc etc)

Other than that, I think you have a solid game! I'd love to see more of it in the future :3

Developer(+1)

thank you so much for playing :D

Submitted(+1)

Really cool game, nice art style, tonnes of detail!

Developer

Thank you! I'm glad you appreciate our effort!

Submitted(+1)

Crazy impressive how much you managed to create in just 2 weeks! 

The alchemy system is deep and innovates on the fairly generic JRPG battle system in a really fun way. The setting is cute and the pixel art is really impressive. The game has a ton of opportunity to build and flesh itself out.

The tutorial is a little too much information all at once and I agree with a lot of the points Sturfall made about it being unclear that you need to capture and equip abilities before you can use them. It'd be nice if things were introduced a little more step by step rather than all at once. For example we didn't need to know about the combinations in the first fight with the worm... because we only had the stick. After that send them to the obelisk, show them how to equip things and then a second tutorial fight using combos. I also think the sprint button should either be toggleable or just on all the time, is there any reason to walk?

Overall this game is insanely polished for a 2 week game jam with interesting systems and mechanics that could really be built upon for a first release. It has elements of Earthbound and Pokemon that are instantly recognisable to players while still being unique and new.

Looking forward to seeing this fleshed out for a full release or playing whatever you build next. Great work!

Developer

thanks for playing! I appreciate the kind words

Submitted(+1)

the concept for this game is really neat! combining the orbs in battle really feels like alchemy, and I love the designs of the enemies' shadows. having the music transition fluidly between the overworld and battle is a nice touch, and the art is great as well!

unfortunately I think I am not smart enough for this game. I didn't retain any of the info from the battle tutorial, so it took a while for me to realize: 1) that I could only use sticks at the beginning and no other element combo (I was trying to combine water and air to make mercury on the blob because the paper said water + air = mercury, I didn't realize that meant something else), 2) that I had to go to the obelisk to get new attacks, and 3) that I had to capture enemies by using the same type on them (I know 'resonance' got brought up multiple times but I didn't think about how that translated to battle mechanics until I was beating up fish with branches over and over to no avail). I looked at your GDD and the systems in this game seem really complex and interesting, but I wasn't able to pick up on much by just playing (the lore books were helpful, but again I didn't get that they were trying to tell me what to do until I literally couldn't progress any other way).

super impressive game once I eventually understood it though!

Developer(+1)

thank you so much for playing! I appreciate the detailed feedback

Submitted(+1)

Kudos on getting so many systems to work! And with a decent level of polish to boot. Quite an achievement.

Developer

Thank you so much

(+2)

Can pet dogs, best game deserves all the prizes

Developer

<3

Viewing comments 19 to 1 of 39 · Previous page · First page