FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD41 → Soul Sword

Soul Sword

By raiyumi

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1084.0066
Fun2163.7566
Innovation9262.9365
Theme9702.9865
Graphics184.6268
Audio354.1966
Humor7382.6255
Mood1013.9663

Comments

hkoisumi 2018-04-24 00:30

Freaking amazing! Excelent work, wanna check ours too??

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/hype-time

cmlsc 2018-04-24 01:21

@HKoisumi can you stop copy-pasting that comment everywhere?

cmlsc 2018-04-24 02:19

I loved it. The graphics and audio are amazing. Unfortunately I had to stop after getting the hammerhead with ~250 gold(or whatever the currency was, I forgot).

Now for the constructive criticism...

The main thing I'd like to point out is the lack of abilities(or rather, ways to interact with the world, specifically in combat). Running around and pressing S got a little repetitive. You may have been going for a more simplistic game, which is usually a good idea for Ludum Dares.

A few things that bugged me while I was playing:

1. Items could fly off the map if you killed something near the wall.

2. It wasn't clear I was supposed to click when I was trying to sell stuff.

3. The melee skulls' heads would sometimes go under the rocks even when lower on the screen than them.

This is a very well polished game for what it is. Amazing work!

P.S. I used to use Graphicsgale, beepbox.co, and SFXR. ^-^

raiyumi 2018-04-24 16:09

@cmlsc Thanks! Yeah, definitely. Also the last 3 weapons have some 'projectile' attacks to make combat more interesting.. although, I probably should've done something for the hammerhead. Anyways, thanks for playing!

cmlsc 2018-04-24 16:14

@raiyumi I’ll try and check that out when I get a chance.

royoyo 2018-04-24 16:32

Really like pixel art and Music!! It took me some time to figure out selling mechanics.

But overall it's solid entry.

those-30-ninjas 2018-04-24 18:43

Love the art, great pallet and great effects (really like the spawn/teleport one) Check out our entry if you get a chance. :) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/mulligun

prodigalson 2018-04-24 19:19

Really nice graphics and the animations are on point. I enjoyed the fluid and responsive controls. I'm not too familiar with the concept of a shopkeeper game nor have a played many dungeon crawlers but it was fun. Nicely done

spacemonkey 2018-04-24 20:56

I just started the game and I feel immersed already. Nice ambiant track, simple yet effective graphics, even the camera smooth the fitting the feel of the scene. The character's animation is very fluid.

Combat is very effective, the camera shake feels awesome, the slashes too. Aaaaand there is a rogue like mechanic haha, good job ! It reminds me a little bit of Enter the Gungeon. 5/5

hermeses 2018-04-24 21:04

I love the art style, it reminds me a little of games like “Hiper Light drifter”. It gets a little frustrating not having a dash or something when you have enemies surrounding you, also when killing enemies they fly outside the wall and you can’t get the loot xD It’s entertaining and it hooks you if you want to get all the weapons xD Amazing game!

travis-w-hendrix 2018-04-24 21:11

It took me a minute to figure about what this game is about (reading the directions helped), but I really enjoyed it once I did! Interesting concept, smooth gameplay, and the art is wonderful.

I'd be neat if people still bought your goods while you were in the dungeon, but still an excellent LDJ entry.

ithildin 2018-04-24 22:22

Loving it so far.

Graphics and sound/music look amazingly polished, and gameplay is quite solid as well. I liked the choice you have to make between returning to base or risking your loot by venturing forward. That part and the idle mechanics reminded me a bit of Nongünz.

I had some issues at the beginning when I picked the first bones, because they didn't appear anywhere else and the coins counter wouldn't change. At first I thought it was a bug, and a bit later I realised why it wasn't. :sweat_smile: Perhaps some less similar-looking graphics could help, or some clearer feedback.

I also got the "loot outside the level boundaries" bug.

Still, despite these relatively minor issues, I've really enjoyed the game. Congrats!

fil089 2018-04-24 22:36

Well damn, if it isn't @Raiyumi at it again. An overall solid "Souls Clone" with a shopkeeping twist.

The beautiful pixelart with the comfy music that is already registered mark of this guy makes for a cozy feeling dungeon crawler with a very relaxed vibe.

Good thing that if you risk and lose in the dungeon you lose all the money you collected so far, making for the justifyable interwine of genres although I wished you had diferent opportunities towards the dungeon decent for selling the loot, rather then the get-in-get-out-sellstuff-repeat thingy to play off of the tension of losing what you already have.

Speaking of combat though... It needs something else. You start with a sword and the others are... "Upgrades with something else"? It doesn't help that the first upgrade is just a damage buff. But my biggest grip is that the game only has the attack, and nothing more for combat until you have been playing the game for about half an hour or so, and even then it's just the addition of projectiles for certain upgrades. And yes, having loot unreachable because dead enemies and loot itself doesn't have collision with the walls is also annoying.

But that's about all I have.

Presentation: Top-Notch. Gameplay: Eh... Theme: Solid.

Yep, that's another original Raiyumi for you folks.

raiyumi 2018-04-25 00:34

@spacemonkey @prodigalson Thanks! Glad you enjoy it!

@hermeses Thanks, will have to go back and fix that. I think that's the only enemy with no collisions on death.

@travis-w-hendrix I thought about the loot still selling, but wasn't sure.. actually I had an idea where you hire a worker so you can sell stuff outside.. but unfortunately no time.

raiyumi 2018-04-25 00:50

@ithildin Haha, yeah. Thanks. Never heard of Nongünz, I'll have to check it out.

@fil089 Thanks for the feedback. Game definitely could use more gameplay elements such as dash/npc buddies/powers/etc. and also wanted to do random generation within each room instead of just choosing a random room.. but not as familiar with that currently.

random-storykeeper 2018-04-25 02:13

The music is fantastic! It's got a really nice "dungeon RPG" feel, and I love the arps and chiptune sounds. The overall graphics are great as well - although I wish the character's sprite had a "back" animation when going up rather than looking like they are walking backwards. It just made it more difficult to tell when I was facing an enemy and fighting it due to this.

I wanted to keep playing because I love the mood overall. The gameplay itself, however, is all right. A lot of the time, I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over, with no real sense of progress being made. Even going through the different dungeons, a lot of them just felt the same even when they were randomized. Using and selling items was a bit confusing, but I think it had more to do with when I did collect those pickups, I thought they were souls. It would have been nice to have the items be like a different sprite that isn't so similar looking to the soul icon in the HUD so that it's more clear that this is what the player is picking up.

However, the game was quite intriguing for its overall mood. I'm still listening to your game's music in the background while I write this comment. It's just that good. :thumbsup:

raiyumi 2018-04-25 02:22

@random-storykeeper Awesome to hear. Glad the music is good.. actually got quite lucky since half the time my music sounds bad, haha.

Also yep, the dungeon creation isn't entirely 'random', but just choosing 2-3 rooms based on which room you're on(IE: you play 2 'level 1' rooms and next 2 'level 2 rooms'.. and later on it gets abit more varied. Unfortunately wasn't able to do 'proper' random generation in the time I had.

trickster511 2018-04-25 03:00

This game is AWESOME!! Still playing it! Gunna try to get all the weapons, but I would love to see more content from this, like buffs and maybe more items. Great job guys!

troll-tamer-games 2018-04-25 03:49

Really awesome game! Was a bit frusturated with the starting weapon but still had a blast delving through the levels and trying to get huge loots before getting a bit over my head and dying before I could keep it all. Nice dynamic of balancing risk-reward, adds a lot of depth to the more overt combat+shop mechanics.

robertohigor 2018-04-25 04:53

The shopping mecanic is addicting, but i think we shouldnt lose money while dying, only loot.

r2d48 2018-04-25 05:34

Nice sounds and graphics

eugene-myach 2018-04-25 06:31

This game is very nice, graphics and I'm a fan Сat Bird :) Overall, Great Job )

But sometimes my loot walked through walls, and when i take a loot, number in interface stay 0.

kensou 2018-04-25 06:46

This game is amazing. The flow is natural. One hour and i can't stop playing. Hyper Light Drifter like art, super soundtrack, catchy gameplay. I'm really amazed. GG Man

jcmonkey 2018-04-25 07:30

when i saw this game i was like omg its going to be great. then i pick it up and start playing and the controls feel super clunky to me. i would suggest a keyboard rebind system so we can change the keys, or maybe add in some type of controller support if thats possible. other then that, everything else is amazing, and feels good. nice job

cristhor98 2018-04-25 09:13

I'm very surprised with your game. The graphics, the gameplay, the music ... everything is incredible. Although I missed some button to defend myself or to make a dash when many enemies come, I hope you get a final version of the game

jonathan-lorenz 2018-04-25 09:31

I liked it but it didn't hook me that much. Good graphics and music tho.

timotheus-25 2018-04-25 10:26

it's so beautfil man!!! holy crap :heart_eyes:

tifu 2018-04-25 13:01

This is really great, a few annoying things present - loot getting stuck in walls, enemies spawning right on you, and I feel a dodge or something would be nice, and I'm a little unclear, but the final sword seems a lot less useful than the second-last sword. The second-last one can deflect projectiles, so even if the gold one is stronger, deflecting attacks feels way more important. Really good despite these things, I think I was playing for over an hour to get to the end =D

raiyumi 2018-04-25 16:30

@tifu Thanks. Yep.. the deflect projectile thing is actually a bug, haha. Awesome that you beat the game though. Will be working on a slight post-jam update to add a bit more variety and weapon/loot fixes, and dash upgrade.

pparadigm 2018-04-25 19:57

I'm a person that's bad at combat, so I'll probably never finish this game. But I really liked the creepy people who fade in and out of existence at your shop. I agree with @RobertoHigor that only loot should be lost, because money allows you to progress in the game. For a more skilled fighter, they'll have lots of loot and be able to progress quickly, but since I'm not skilled, I just ended up back at zero every time, and there's no way for me to try out the later (and I'm sure cooler) weapons and make my own way through the game, at a very slow pace. I'd play more if money wasn't lose-able, but I can understand if I'm not the demographic you're trying to target.

jfraser314 2018-04-26 05:25

Seems really cool, I am going to definitely play it more tomorrow and give you a full review. Source code?

holyblackcat 2018-04-26 17:47

Great art man, reminds me of Titan Souls

damien-remars 2018-04-26 19:19

Beautiful arts & sound. I just felt the lack of purpose: each time I lost, I had to start over. I would have like to get some rewards sooner.

belga54 2018-04-27 15:26

It's a good game, liked the experience especially the music. I like also these pixelart graphics, good entry.

gil4 2018-04-27 23:48

Solid game! Thought your name sounded familiar, then realized you're the Cat Bird's creator, 100%'d it several months ago.

I really like how the shopkeeper stuff works here, addictive and fun - the classic game cycle of get loot -> sell loot -> upgrade your stuff -> "gotta test it" works wonders. As others have said, I could see this getting a full version eventually with more variety in enemies/weapons (or maybe even different types of equipment instead of just weapons). The art is just as good as the gameplay, creates a fitting atmosphere in conjunction with the audio. Nice job!

pietro-ferrantelli 2018-04-28 15:24

My top entry so far, this is addicting and super eye-candy. Love your work, super inspirational stuff.

twcrockett 2018-04-28 17:31

I really liked how the art is zelda-inspired

automatonvx 2018-04-29 12:52

Really nice pixel art and style, seemed very hyper light drifteresque. I was a bit confused, i picked up the bones but what i assumed to be the bone/money count didn't increase so never had a chance to get into the shopping part. Also really wanted to hit upwards rather than just on the sides. Music and ambience was also really well done.

goat-toaster-games 2018-04-29 13:06

This was really brilliant. Graphically stunning, very much reminded me of Hyper Light Drifter. Lovely music and SFX. I wish there was a dash or something to help move out of the way of some enemies, but other than this it was also very fun to play as well. Great submission!

mikeliosus 2018-04-30 15:23

It is an aboslutely awesome game!

I loved your entry very much! Every aspect of it. Gameplay, art, sounds and music making a great symbiotic mix together. It is actually the game I wanted to play. :3

Thank you for the great experience :3

Here is my win screen:

http://take.ms/9Btab

Only thing i would change is controls, I would re-bind them on AWSD+Space. But that is super minor.

Also some small bugs should be fixed:

1. Sometimes certain bullets losses their speed and ricochet off my hits 2. If some loot flies after me and I will jump to the next map, loot will fly out of the screen

But these small bugs not ruin the gameplay and are absolutely understandable for a jam game.

Actually I liked this game so much that I even would be happy to work on something like this. :3

alejandrodecea 2018-04-30 21:22

This is probably one of the best games I've played in this LD. If you made all the assets and music/SFX, my props to you, this game is beautiful. That being said, I'd like to suggest some improvements (probably some were already commented up there):

- You should halve the diagonal movement speed, it's too fast compared with the horizontal and vertical one. - The loot sometimes gets out of bounds if you kill certain enemies close to a wall. - The game can feel a little bit grindy until you get a good weapon. - The mage wand is a little bit under-powered compared to the previous weapon. - The loot speed should be faster, otherwise if the player keeps moving, the loot never reaches them. - The loot pickup range should be increased at least a little bit, makes you walk a little too much :sweat_smile: - There's a certain enemy in one of the latest rooms, that spawns inside a wall in the bottom right of the level. - Slayer should be the last and most expensive weapon, due to its ability to make the projectiles bounce.

Feel free to take or leave these suggestions, the game is lovely as is, and I would love to see it expanded and published :heart:

raiyumi 2018-05-01 07:17

@automatonvx Thanks. The bones is the loot you collect and you can go back to the home hub to sell it at the stall.

@mikeliosus Glad you liked it! Also, awesome that you beat the game. :)

@alejandrodecea Thanks! Yeah, I've made all the assets here. Will take all of those in consideration. The mage wand was supposed to be stronger, but didn't find out till last minute. And also 'Slayer' has a bullet reflect 'bug', haha.

alejandrodecea 2018-05-01 12:19

@Raiyumi Oh it was a bug! I totally thought it was supposed to be like that :sweat_smile:

samuelsousa 2018-05-02 08:47

Love the pixel and feedback visual and sfx effects. Music / ambience is also very enjoyable. Great entry!

cristiano-m-garcia 2018-05-10 14:22

Pixel art is very beautiful and the glameplay is fantastic. Congratulations!

I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape

csanyk 2018-05-12 15:54

Great game. I'm sad that it's in Flash, a dying platform, but it is so well done.

Only thing: I couldn't figure out how to get any money? Like, I'd kill the skull things, and they'd drop what looked like money, but it would say it was a bone, and my coin count didn't increase. So I couldn't buy hearts, or weapons, or get anywhere.

But I loved the graphics and sounds, and I wish I could get further into this game to see what's going on in it. It has the makings of a great quest/adventure game in the vein of Zelda III.

sean-s-leblanc 2018-05-13 03:36

Really great pixel art on this one, though I found the gameplay a bit lackluster.I see a lot of people have left suggestions on what could be done to improve the combat though; I don't really have much else to add to that discussion.

The disconnect on the controls was also a noticeable problem; arrow keys + s requires two hands, so you have to take a hand away to interact with the store elements. This seems like it could have been easily solved by making the mouse button attack when you're not in a menu, or by making the menus keyboard-based.

This game does have really great style; I think with more polish it could be quite fun!