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Pirate Software - Game Jam 16

Hosted by Pirate Software · #PirateJam
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A jam submission

Soulbound MechanikaView game page

Control both body and soul—gather, craft, and fight as a mechanical genius with a ghostly twist!
Submitted by SimplyCuriosity, MarioPToledo, Aldonist, StuMonster, Amamaia — 21 minutes, 13 seconds before the deadline
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Soulbound Mechanika's itch.io page

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

  • Pretty cool! Wasn't the most enjoyable to control, but the ideas are quite interesting and enjoyable. Very cute art.
  • 2D Art Style It is very unique and cute. love the electrical ghosts especially. I love all the unique assets used, and the animation of the characters and enemies really adds an extra depth to the gameplay, which was also very fuBeing eing able to turn into a ghost and then become the weapon literally was something; wI saw saw I was,like,lWow, I wishwI thoughtught of that!This s game has such a high replayability because of the strategic elements, i.e., when to morph and when to collect resources, and also the dungeon crawler feel; all of this took timing and practice, which is an A plus all around. The music choice was great; love The eerie feel and the sounds of the footsteps especially gave it a visceral, eerie feel. I would like to see more levels.

Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19YDdwwPtm9f5_lhREF2uZ9UMPMXIu-zQnw7DCtuvB_M/edit?usp=sharing

Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes

Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes

Summarise your game!
Control both body and soul—gather, craft, and fight as a mechanical genius with a ghostly twist!

Please explain how your game fits the theme:
The player acts as a weapon in 2 different ways! The first is by going into electric ghost form and dash through enemies to either stun or deal damage. The second is to become a bigger & stronger weapon by taking control of the turret in ghost form, killing even enemies that the dash can only be stuns!

Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
Love you pirates!

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Comments

kharmachaosSubmitted1 year ago

I really like the game so far! My main issue is that I couldn't keep up with the spawn rate of the enemies pretty quickly- the cooldown without exploiting the fast switch was too slow, though i imagine with more play a person's skill would increase! very good overall though.

Submitted
Slug Doug Prototype
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Interloop StudiosSubmitted1 year ago

I think the gameplay is fun. It maybe could've been a little better if there were a few more sound effects and the music was more than ambiance (unless it didn't load for me idk). Overall, a solid game! Good work!

Submitted
Throw This UI Out!
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GexSubmitted1 year ago

Was really fun I just wish the game started slower and the ghost could dash through walls other than that pretty addicting

Submitted
Ragnoira
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Project SylSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Your game was really fun. A really solid core mechanic and it feels good to micromanage the machinery and your movement. The spritework is great, and the atmosphere with the music is really nice. This feels like it could be expanded to a full game.

However there are 4 things that kinda bothered me: 

1- The hallways feel too narrow. It's not unusual that when you're cornered and manage to stun a bunch of them, they inmediately get replaced. And the un-ghost/re-ghost animation is too long to multi dash forward.

2- More than once my ghost got stuck in wall edges, killing what I felt were promising runs. Does it use move_and_collide instead of move_and_slide?

3- Killing enemies does nothing: I know that vanishing the common guys is supposed to clear the lanes but at some point they come in larger groups that my mouse can drag. If in the future you manage to make them more distinct by giving them different movement patterns or speed that could really spice up the gameplay. 

4- No healing: Since every mistake is permanent in a run, if you make one early on, you're compelled to reset manually. Which can be a pain point on some users. 

These don't change the fact that you have something that is already good with even more potential in here!

Submitted
A Cannon With Legs
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RoryMcBigSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

This was really satisfying to play once I got the hang of it! Initially I found the animation-lock of summoning my ghosty forme quite difficult to manage, but it definitely got easier with some kiting practice.

I also got a bit stumped on firing the gun, I got confused when I tapped the LMB and it didn't fire immediately, so I figured it had to be fully charged and collected my heart out, before finally having to scroll down to the controls section while frantically kiting around to realise what I was missing. Super simple fix with a tutorial/an animation/sound while the gun is revving up, and I only really bring it up 'cause it was funny! I only ended up needing about half my reserve in the end, but it never hurts to be prepared.

The art and animations are soo good, they really sold the aesthetic and made it fun to look around while exploring the level. The UI was super clean, and the menus were a nice touch.

It was really cool working out how to manage my time while beating back the horde, when to switch to my offensive but vulnerable state, how to create enough space to charge up the machines, even with just the two enemy types there was a good amount of variety, got me excited about future levels!

I can see you had a conversation on another comment about the ghost attack mechanics, definitely agree with your thoughts about considering opening it up to a 'combo' system of movement, although I do see why you didn't go with that initially as the power balance would be hard. It added a lot to feel like my back was constantly against the wall!

I really appreciated how simple you kept the controls, it's tempting to add too many hotkeys and leave the player a bit tangled, but having such a streamlined, contextual system worked really well once I was used to it.

Overall, really fun and brimming with potential; great work to everyone on the team!

Submitted
From Above
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bake12345678Submitted1 year ago(+1)

Cool game once you get the hang of it , nothing like filling up your gun with loads of ammo and killing them all in one go, as you already know a tutorial is extremely helpful, but was able to figure it out, the strategy to win is probably the hook, will be interesting to see how you diversify the strategy in the future if you continue to work on this

Submitted
Hoshi's Gun
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Poloe808Submitted1 year ago(+2)

Heyo! Artsy here. I just to upfront say that you did a pretty damn good job with your mechanics, the types of enemies you threw at the player, and the time you took to balance the map out with those mechanics/enemies in mind. While I was opposed to the turret ammo-makers being on the opposite sides of the map, I actually really appreciate that choice, as it really does feel like dodging and weaving your way through the hordes of enemies to juggle those two engines. I also thought that it was pretty smart that you could cancel the spawning of enemies by dashing through their spawn portals. as it was a neat way to deal with having too many "unkillable' guys roaming about making a mess.

There was a tech (that I will be dubbing "ghost cancelling"), that helped me to survive for longer which basically entails ghosting, dashing, and then calling it back, then repeating. I think it utilizes the fact that you dash resets on enemy kill? It really helps to reposition yourself to a position that is more advantageous, and if this was an unintended bug then I would consider making it a feature.
It was very satifsfying to use the dashing mechanic, as the enemies always lended themselves nicely to lining up in straight lines. The artstyle was also very lovely :)

Somethings that I noticed that could use some work though were that the dash, as it would often get stuck on corners when I tried lining up a shot, which isn't great when you need to work within the tight corners of those generator rooms. Also, I kinda get that the turret was the final thing you needed to kill the final enemy types, but it felt kind of disconnected from the gameplay loop.. Could have just been the way I played, which was to gather enough ammo to fill the turret (cause I thought you needed to fill it to actually use it.. just needed to hold down the mouse button ;-;), and shot until i won. You might want to consider removing the delay between holding the fire button and actual shooting, as the delay totally messes up with the quick pacing of the juggling act that your gameplay thrives on.

Overall, i'm very impressed you did this in 2 weeks! It's very polished gameplay wise, and has a bunch of animations.. I could never lol.

Great work and I wish you good luck!!

Submitted
Slam.exe
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SimplyCuriosityDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for trying and being the first to beat it! what you called ghost dashing was indeed intended(feature that comes from bug but I decided it should stay hehe). I was honestly debating removing the cooldown completely, instead having the dash be available only once if you don't hit an enemy and do the combo. Yes the way the level currently work isn't perfect per se. The original plan was to have level/stages where the game teaches you the mechanic once at a time(dashing & combo at first level, how to operate and transfer item between stations on second level, how to deal with armored commanders in third, boss who spawns armored commander in the last) but we ran out of time. The level at present is a way to showcase all available mechanic at bare minimum. Now the dash is interesting, I couldn't quite get the mouse motion for dash to not "teleport" at times in the web version(not sure if this is what you mean but I agree dash can be improved).

Thanks for the feedback! The turret will be more satisfying to use(more blasting less crafting) in the future levels :D

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jguadySubmitted1 year ago

The game was really well done! It took me a bit to figure out the controls and how to interact with things. I think the cooldown for dash should be lowered or spawn rate turned down because I just kept getting overwhelmed before I could get any ammo crafted.  

Submitted
Chunks
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SimplyCuriosityDeveloper1 year ago

Gotcha, I'll reduce the cooldown for the dash! Just curious, did you manage to utilize the 1 second window after dashing through the enemy to dash again right away or to turn off and on ghost mode to  reset the cooldown entirely? Will add more levels/tutorial once its allowed, enemy spawns shall be more balanced, thx for playing!

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jguadySubmitted1 year ago

I didn't utilize the immediate dash again. I missed it. I did notice the reset and use again but it felt like it wasn't supposed to be that way. 

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MinagySubmitted1 year ago

I like the aesthetic of the game. Having a physical form moving resources and a ghost form keeping away foes seems like an interesting concept. Sadly, it seemed like I couldn't interact with any of the turrets= If I understood the controls correctly, I am supposed to press E next to them, but that did nothing. It also seemed like enemies wouldn't drop any resources or armored commanders.
Would love to try again with some further instructions.

Submitted
Attach Attack
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SimplyCuriosityDeveloper1 year ago

Hi, Thanks for trying it out! Entering the turret is the same as entering the miner & the furnace, by clicking E in ghost form. To then shoot, try holding left click with the mouse! It has a build up to max speed and it'll fire so long as there is ammo left in it, once its empty more have to be crafted via the miner and the furnace :)

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