LudumData

Soulbond by JazzatheFOSS

[raw]
made by JazzatheFOSS for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

First Ludum Dare!

Made this with some of my friends. I'm very tired :)

If you wanna know more about the setting :

The game is based in a futuristic dystopian world where people’s souls are kept outside of their body connected by a chain. You play as the character WiIl O’Brian, who is trying to infiltrate the corporate responsible and put an end to the desperate plans of Dr. Mad Lad to save his daughter's life.

Soul bound is a puzzle/action game, where there is an overarching goal, story and relying on your wisp to choreograph your way throughout the game. Delve deep into Dr.Mad laboratory cavernous expenses in search of finding a way out. As you progress, you will encounter NPCs, unlock technology ability, military weapons and constantly find yourself outnumbered by vicious experiment subjects.

21/04/2020 - Changed file to regular exe - Fixed a bug with the moving platforms

1.png

2.png

Youtube https://jazzathefoss.itch.io/soulbound
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/soulbond-ld-46

Ratings

Overall 659th 3.732⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 470th 3.714⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1111th 3.339⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1943th 3.268⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1102th 3.714⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1125th 3.444⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 30🗨️

Feedback

DrewG8
21. Apr 2020 · 04:01 UTC
This is a very well made game, especially for a first-time entry! The art is very good and the mechanic is used in many clever ways and has room to expand. I have two small pieces of advice: (1) Gamemaker lets you export to Windows in .zip or regular .exe if you choose it from the drop down menu when you export. Those formats are less cumbersome than the installer. (2) There seems to be a lot of concepts that you wanted to include but didn't have time for. Sometimes its best to limit your scope for game jams and focus on things that you know you'll have time for, and you'll probably get better at judging that with experience. But that aside, awesome job and congrats on your first Ludum Dare!
Simin
21. Apr 2020 · 05:18 UTC
I enjoy the gameplay a lot! I think including an SP bar that regenerates as fast as this was a great call. It's restricting enough for puzzles to be interesting while still letting you use combat abilities relatively freely. You really nailed the balance here!:)
🎤 JazzatheFOSS
21. Apr 2020 · 17:17 UTC
@DrewG9 thank you for the advice! I'm going to update the game file to be a regular.exe.
🎤 JazzatheFOSS
22. Apr 2020 · 02:52 UTC
@simin I'm glad you had fun playing it!
aevek
22. Apr 2020 · 05:49 UTC
Really well made game! Love the leaving your soul in things and having to switch it, particularly on the jump/switch section. That felt great to nail.
Game_Coder28
22. Apr 2020 · 17:08 UTC
Great game, i like the graphics and the gameplay is great! good work :D
SleepyStudios
22. Apr 2020 · 17:15 UTC
There were some really clever puzzles in here. The one where you had to line up the platforms and the one where you were jumping up but quickly had to make the platforms available to you. Could definitely see this as a full game someday, great job!
mp_raxxius
23. Apr 2020 · 03:46 UTC
That actually controlled really well. You've got a couple of minor collider issues where I could get myself stuck in the wall.
🎤 JazzatheFOSS
23. Apr 2020 · 03:51 UTC
@mp-raxxius hopefully i'll be able to fix those issues soon. Thank you for the feedback, and giving it a play!
Quillwerth
23. Apr 2020 · 03:52 UTC
I jumped into a teleporter and got sent to a dead-end room from which there was no escape. Was that the end of the game, or was I caught in a cunning ruse?

This is a good start, but I'll echo @drewg8 here and say: don't implement features until you absolutely need them. That will let you get more done, and what you get done will be sharper and more cohesive. Nice work on getting something out there, though! First step is the hardest :v:
Rhoka
23. Apr 2020 · 05:06 UTC
For what is here you guys did a really great job! The movement feels good and the mechanic of leaving your soul and pulling it back through platforms and doors was really cool. My only issue was that the purple block sprite you used was sometimes used as a background image but sometimes used as a platform to climb on and that could get confusing for players. I would either use a different sprite or make the color of it darker when it's in the background. Other than that great job and keep working on it!
Waqar Naeem
23. Apr 2020 · 05:32 UTC
super duper game I likes the graphics and gameplay
imod
23. Apr 2020 · 17:52 UTC
Good platformer, i like gameplay and graphics!
Azalorx
24. Apr 2020 · 19:12 UTC
Great game I like art style the only thing that I don't like in graphic is that ugly animated green fluid/acid . About gameplay everything is good, only drawback as for me is that when you're a bit off the edge and click jump button then player doesn't jump you should create ground remember that even if you run off a bit of a platform then for time like 0.1 s or 0.2 s you still should jump.It really improve a player feeling and it's implemented in many games for example Celeste.
BoxedMeatRevolution
25. Apr 2020 · 14:30 UTC
I also got stuck in a dead end room when I jumped into a teleporter. Not sure if it's the end, a bug, or a troll. The movement feels pretty good, and the puzzles are fun (though they never became very difficult). Good work!
Gaming Night
25. Apr 2020 · 15:03 UTC
very fun to play and I want more now. Congratulations to you.
Too bad there is no sound, it would have been perfect
🎤 JazzatheFOSS
25. Apr 2020 · 16:22 UTC
@quillwerth @boxedmeatrevolution Sorry if you felt trolled! I had to rush an end room as I was running out of time. That dead end room is the end for now. Thank you for playing!
PeterBuo
28. Apr 2020 · 04:04 UTC
Great work
NiHuShu
29. Apr 2020 · 23:36 UTC
Really cool puzzle game, it could use some soundtrack and SFX.
VirtuaWorlds
02. May 2020 · 06:26 UTC
Nice game! nice puzzle mechanic and nice graphics. Needed some music and sound effects but you did make it in only 3 days. I loved the character design, very unique and cool looking.
notgreat
11. May 2020 · 00:50 UTC
I didn't read the itch.io description, so I had no idea what the controls were for playing until I looked a second time. It'd be very useful to have those listed on the ldjam page as well (preferably they'd be in-game, but that can be harder)

As for the game itself: it seems like it has some interesting potential, but none of the puzzles ever really puzzled me. It was funny watching my soul fly away if I recalled it while falling, and I was really expecting that to be a major mechanic since it seemed to trigger the soul detectors as it flew by them.

The graphics are pretty good, though I'd suggest making sure that the background is clearly distinct from the foreground- there were some background purple tiles that looked like they might've been actual blocks.