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Before You Go's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Narrative | #1935 | 3.083 | 3.083 |
| Creativity | #3608 | 3.458 | 3.458 |
| Artwork | #4139 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Audio | #5819 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Enjoyment | #7465 | 2.333 | 2.333 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
When a human's time runs out, death needs to cut their soul in time. Also, when a soul is lost, Death has a countdown of 5 heartbeats to convince them they are dead, so they can be guided to their afterlife.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
SFX by StumpyStrust on OpenGameArt
Slash SFX by qubodup on OpenGameArt
Whoosh SFX by bosslevelaudio on OpenGameArt
"Action Music”. Music by Marcelo Fernandez (http://www.marcelofernandezmusic.com)
Kenney's particle pack: www.kenney.nl
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Super Stable Games
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Comments
I loved the atmosphere and the visuals! There's a bug where, if you try to start a new run and find a reluctant soul, the dialogue doesn't trigger. I enjoyed the narrative and had fun trying to save all three souls in a single run! Great job! 😸
Thank you so much for playing and leaving a nice comment! <3
Oh no, another bug! We already seem to have one where the sand in the hourglasses doesn't deplete for some players, which makes the whole game pointless (maybe that's also why in your case the dialogue doesn't trigger too?) >.<
I wish a hotfix was allowed haha (on the other hand, being done and not crunching more is probably healthier xD )
Very cool artstyle, love this idea, original and fun!
Thank you so much, makes me really happy to hear that!
Oh that was a interesting game! I only managed to save the kids soul though xD
Good work! :D
Thank you so much for playing! If we continue working on it, we'll definitely gove the players more options to find out more before making a decision :)
It's super weird that I didn't find a single special soul on my first playthrough, maybe a bug? The music is amazing.
Maybe - Or they are not obvious enough (didn't have time to make something cool here) - it's basically just a colored version of the walking human, I think the color choice in front of the background also wasn't the greatest >.<
But thank you for giving it a try!
Brilliant take on the theme ! I enjoyed the talks but i think it's not that obvious what are the goal of them, i only was able to comfort the child. Clever idea though !
Thank you so much! Yees, there is room for improvement :D With more time I hope we can tailor the conversation towards a better player experience in the future - but for now I guess we could hopefully show what it could be :D
Interesting take on the theme! Getting to know the specials souls felt emotional. Unfortunately I couldn't save the child even on my second playthrough, the right answer often felt a bit like guessing.
Thanks for playing! Yeah, we totally could improve on writing and UX and give more hints, so it's not just guessing. Happy if it made you feel something though, despite not having enough info to make an informed decision <3
What a surprisingly touching game. The silence of the interrogation/conversation portions is what gets me. You folks have a knack for game feel, not in the sense of juice or impact, but in the sense of atmosphere and clarity. The heart beating after you say something? Just top-notch. I kept losing souls at first, but then I (think I) got the hang of the convincing. My main comment would be to improve the user interface. I have some ideas:
* Add arrows to the sides of the screen for the nearest off-screen person about to die.
* Make 'special' souls more distinct
* Use a different font. When you consider a full release, for example, basic fonts would drive people away. Have something more, corporeal, or death-like. Up to you, though!
Take these comments in good faith. I love your game and what you folks were able to do. Congratulations on submitting for the jam and I wish you all the best!
Omg thank you so much for the kind words and detailed feedback!
We are currently working on releasing another project as our first Steam game, but atm I'm very hyped about this, so who knows, maybe we will indeed develop it further afterwards. I would love to, and the scope seems manageable too...
To the specific points - arrows yessss, that'd be a great addition, especially if the level would get bigger.
Special souls more distinct: we had planned individual sprites for each special person, but ran out of time unfortunately. Think we can also work on the background, so everything gets easier to distinct.
Fonts, oh yes, so impactful, yet so difficult for me to select.
Thank you again for the comment, made me really happy!
cool concept, unfortunately i never got any humans with their hourglass that is near empty. guess i was unlucky with the rng
Oh no! I think we have a bug there, because all hourglasses pass the near empty state, it's just when it's below 20% - and when it's at 0, it's too late. But thank you so much for giving it a try! <3
The game looks interesting but I'm using brave browser and couldn't see any special souls? Was the hourglass supposed to go down over time?
Hello, fellow Brave user.
Yes, the hourglass indicates when it's time for someone to leave!
Find people that have color and hit them when the hourglass is almost empty :)
Really nice art style and cool spin on the theme. I also like that it meets the theme in more way than one. Good game :).
Thank you so much, that makes us really happy! We are pretty happy with the vision of the project, even if there'd be lots to improve still :D
Hey the art style is pretty cool! Animations are pretty cool too, such as the walking human, heart impact, Death 360 degree harvesting ppl's soul!
Omg thank you so much, that means a lot to me, as I'm not an artist by profession :D
The concept is cool, but when there is no special soul to harvest, it is a bit pointless. There could have been a cooldown of how many souls I could miss, and if it reached zero it would mean I didn't do my job correctly and souls got lost. Just to keep the player entertained while waiting. Other than that, when talking to special humans it is quite unclear what would be the correct answer since they're always the same, seems like I never got one correct out of five souls, and I just left it after that..
Thank you for checking it out! You're absolutely right about the normal souls not having much effect at the moment. We didn't get to implement "points" or a currency of some sort in for the "normal" souls like we planned. So you'd be able to get a high score (freeing the special souls would give you more).
Same with the conversations, due to time constraints we realized we couldn't create enough content quickly enough, so decided it'd be the same questions, just different outcome/replies from each soul, depending on their personalities. Feedback on what could be/is correct can also be improved of course!
I'm happy if the general idea of what it could be came across though!
The art and concept is cool. I wasn't able to tell which souls were ready though?
Thanks for playing and leaving a comment! Not sure if there is a problem with some browsers or something (someone else feedbacked that too), but when the hourglass gets low, it should start flashing blue-green and lots of particles appear around the person.
I like the movement and slashing animation but I couldn’t see the special souls i was trying to slay
Thank you for playing! Didn't have time to make them more obvious, you have to look for colorful humans (as opposed to the black silhouettes).
I really like the art and the concept. It's a bit unclear as to what I'm supposed to do other than wait for the "special souls" to appear. The art style is also quite cute.
Thank you! We didn't have time to implement a "point" system or something to reward you for slashing all the "normal" souls, so yeah I can totally see your point :D
Thank you very much :)
Will check out your game soon.
The art is so good and I really enjoyed trying to understand the backstory of the special people.
Thank you!
I was excited to finally try writing some dialogue :)
Like the art of death, pretty cool! I slash 4 special people, but after the chat, I had no idea what the goal was or how to reach it.
Thank you so much for playing!
Yeeah, I wish we had more time to make that clearer, it's more of a guessing game at the moment which questions lead to the people realizing they are dead and to be fine with it. But yeah, basically they are souls that have not realized they are dead and need the help of Death to realize it. Depending on the personality, Death has to choose one way or the other to make them be okay with being dead and moving on to their afterlife.
I'm not sure i understood how to "cut their souls" in time, i tried everything ! Sad because the discussion heartbeats mechanic looked cool. I hope it's just something i misunderstood
Thanks for playing! Do you mean how to help them move on from the conversation? Basically you have to ask the "correct" or fitting questions depending on their personality :D
If you mean in the other screen - the hourglass of each human walking around starts blinking blue-green and emitting particles when there's the correct time to cut their souls. To slash, hit space or click with the left mouse button. If you find a "special" human (= the ones in color), you'll get forwarded to a conversation with them.
When the hourglass blinks red, it's too late and the soul is lost. (will add this to the description, thanks for pointing out it's not clear)
I didn't see any flashing of the hourglass !
Oh no! It flashes when the hourglass is almost empty. Maybe it doesn't work in a specific browser?