Soulmart by Yngvarr

[raw]
made by Yngvarr for LD 43 (JAM)

"Living on the cloud is not as good as might be seen. People always talk of some kind of "heaven" and how cool it is to live where the Gods live... Stupid people! And also, stupid gods! These arrogant snouts always loaf here and there, look down and make people suffer with no reason. Pure stupid people... I would like to help them, really, but I can't. Not with that few sacrificed souls..."

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You are in charge of Soulmart: the place where the gods come for sacrificed souls (usually animal ones, but you can never be sure). Your task is to distribute desired souls to the gods the least harmful way. Gods are not the most patient creatures in the world, so keep an eye on a village below and try to prevent disasters huffy gods can create. Here's the list FYI:

drought.png drought, the lack of water, results in a lack of food. famine.png famine, lack of food. grief.png grief, lack of happiness. plague.png plague, the result of a lack if hygiene. Or the god's will, of course. war.png war, lack of understanding.

Each of it can be conquered by:

birthrate.png high birthrate. fun.png fun and happiness (and enormous amount of a blind optimism). yield.png a great yield of vegetation.

Each god affects these parameters in some way (which seems to be pretty obvious if you're somewhat into mythology). Find the logic, ~~look in the source code~~ conquer the disasters and grow your population (1500 is the target).

Good luck and may you be promoted!


Credits:

  • Dari Dubdanova -- the best artist ever, has her own personal look on perspective.
  • @yngvarr -- programming, spins around when something is going wrong.
  • Alexander Katsko -- programming, rebuilds the kernel in a blink of an eye. Doesn't blink.
  • Ivan Sidorenko -- game design, knows something about spreadsheet processors.

Huge amount of thanks to GameDevNSK and Siberian Game Jam for hosting the wonderful local event in out city! It's so great to have such a friendly local community!


I'm done. I have to catch some zzzzzzzzzzz...

Ratings

Given 2🗳️ 5🗨️

Feedback

Frank Gevaerts
04. Dec 2018 · 15:44 UTC
I can't quite figure out the right balance, so I keep losing very quickly. Nice art, and a good fit for the theme.
SpaceMonkey
04. Dec 2018 · 21:22 UTC
Cool game! With some thinking to it. I always like when a game is mixed with a good story, and mythology is great for that. It fits the theme perfectly too. Maybe I would have tried to help the player a little bit more but I know it's hard to do in a jam game. Great work team!
Hilvon
05. Dec 2018 · 08:32 UTC
This was interesting. Managed to beat it second try.

Love the graphics stile, though Anubis is a bit hard to read when he is not in the mood... he kind of always looks... mean.

Also the number of sacrifices to distribute seemed kind of... random.
🎤 Yngvarr
06. Dec 2018 · 10:13 UTC
@frank-gevaerts, best played with source code open! =) Jokes apart, yeah, game design turned out to be a terrible black box this time. Thank you for checking it out!

@spacemonkey, I really wanted to add some kind of tips on hover, but Morpheus was stronger. =D Thanks for playing!

@hilvon, wow, this is impressive! And now I have a proof that it's not unbeatable. =) The number of souls isn't the most random thing in the game. The rule is pretty simple: the better the life is, the less souls you got. Pity I didn't manage to make it clear for a player.

As for Anubis, well, I think, he's always not in the mood. =) Thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it.
commanderstitch
09. Dec 2018 · 22:05 UTC
Wasn't able to fit the right balance. Not sure what 'm doing wrong, but I found the game compelling and the art great!
Jupiter_Hadley
17. Dec 2018 · 19:20 UTC
Interesting concept! I included it in my compilation video series of games from the Ludum Dare, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/8e_nn2L0xnc
PhilStrahl
27. Dec 2018 · 23:22 UTC
I might be late to the party but still: Here's my experience with "Soulmart":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZuUnksM0WM
Ratherjolly
28. Dec 2018 · 18:55 UTC
Praise the gods! Finally, a game I can practice my sacrifices to all those pesky deities!
I'm a fan of your art design on this! I feel with a little added feedback or initial hand holding and this would be truly fantastic. Great job on this! Keep it up :D