Whack-a-Soul by JavaSaurus
Are you ready to help Mister Skelly protect the afterlife's treasures and keep the ghosts in check? Let the mallet-wacking mayhem begin!
* GamePlay *
Mister Skelly's goal is simple but challenging: stay alive as long as you can while collecting treasure chests scattered throughout the Soul Isles. These treasure chests contain valuable relics and memories of the past that need to be protected from the mischievous ghosts. However, there's a catch – the river Styx, a turbulent and malevolent force, is constantly rising. If Skelly gets swallowed by the river Styx, it's game over.
As the game progresses, the ghosts become more numerous and cunning, making Mister Skelly's task increasingly difficult. The longer he holds the ghosts at bay and continues to collect treasures, the higher his score and reputation as the unlikely hero of the Soul Isles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiiAC5J7wC0
* Story *
In the mysterious realm of the afterlife, there exists an enigmatic place known as the "Soul Isles." This ethereal archipelago is home to countless wandering souls, both benevolent and mischievous. However, a peculiar skeleton named Mister Skelly was the only one with a rather unconventional occupation – he was a guardian tasked with the protection of the Soul Isles.
Long ago, Mister Skelly was a jester in the mortal world, known for his impeccable timing and a bone-tickling sense of humor. When he passed away, his spirit found its way to the Soul Isles, where he was granted a unique responsibility. The Soul Isles had a major problem - restless spirits, or "ghosts," had a tendency to escape and wreak havoc across the afterlife.
Mister Skelly, armed with his oversized mallet, was tasked with a critical mission – whacking them back down and prevent the ghosts from escaping. His goofy charm and unexpected bravery made him an unlikely hero in the afterlife.
* Controls *
| | Action |
|----------|:-------------:|
| Right Click | Confirm a path to the selected tile. Mister Skelly will automatically hammer the last tile in the path! |
| Escape | Open the options menu |
| Q / D | Rotate the camera left or right |
* Dev Log *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk8L6GaReUg
| Link | https://javasaurus.itch.io/wack-a-soul |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/whack-a-soul |
Ratings
| Given | 26🗳️ | 36🗨️ |
In the beginning the arrows confused me a little bit (I didn't got why the want to keep me away from the chests) - well, after ignoring them and getting killed things became clear. But I think thats something the player has to learn. You need a symbol catching the attention and it got the job done.
Art and Music are really good and I also like that you can switch art-style-modes.
Good job =)
**UPDATE**
I decided to fix both errors as they were in fact game breaking (the stacking now is tied to what I intended to). The renderer also needed fixing as it caused crashes in some cases (I don't know why, I simply realigned the camera)
Bested with pure talent and skill. Kneel before me ye peasants.
I just want Arthur to see this so I can trash talk him further.
Fun game!
I seem to be able to cheese it by hammering in a little three-tile circle, but I'm not sure how you'd fix that. Maybe you could have the chests spawn randomly in the whole space rather than only within tiled portions (so a larger island gets you more chests), or maybe the tiles could have an "angle of repose" where a stack that's too tall automatically spreads into a wider area (sort of like the sand or liquid physics in those 2-d pixel sandbox games).
Balancing is really hard! We always struggle with it!!
One suggestion is to make the water a bit more visible. First run I had no idea what was going on, and had to read the instructions to figure out that tiles were slowly sinking into water.
2nd place :)
Looks like the highscore system broke. Couldn't see or submit any scores.
PS: The UI didn't work on ultrawide screens (3440x1440), so I had to play in the little window.
Lovely little game, easy to understand but frantic at times. I feel like the difficult could increase faster, because at one point I was beginning to question whether I could loose at all. Nice take on the theme. I hope to catch your stream tomorrow.
looks cool though, pixel shader used works well with the skelly aesthetic. Things piece together nicely setting a good mood. Was engaging to play
I love the animations on the character and he feels great to move around which is great, the basic idea is pretty sick but the game feels like it needs a bit of tuning as the optimal strategy seems pretty simple and braindead but also nothing can really go wrong after a point.
Great stuff, good job making compo!!!
Well done! Take a candy! :candy:
@spacey3d You are forever the queen of the leaderboard. I reset it to hide the exploit but I acknowledge your endless powers !
@ljg @alec Thank you so much !
@sudocoffee Yes, you are completely right. I was using the yellow and red colors to notify players the tiles were in a danger zone, but it didn't really work out as I wanted to.
@mahalis Thank you so much ! The arrow mounds are bulging up and when they explode they destroy the tiles surrounding them. They have tiny spooks that escape :D
@enderswype Thank you so much for playing :)
@minjutin That means a lot to me ! There's indeed some cleverness involved, but it all boils down to a simple flood fill / BFS algorithm ^-^ the trick with hexagons is that getting the neighbours depends on your row, it's different between even and uneven. I had a blast developing this !
@Heremeus I'm sorry to hear, it seems the server hosting the leaderboard is down every now and then...
@apg Without specifying how I did it (so people cant hack into it), try searching itch for "leaderboard" ;)
@bauke-regnerus You're a hero :D Thank you for playing.
@fatemperor @siberpunk01 @kylazaur @miller @bradjste @akulove Thank you so much ! :)
@honest-dan You're absolutely right, I should have made it more clear. The yellow tiles are "in danger" but not urgent, the red ones will disappear soon. To be very honest, this wasn't a design decision, it was my debug way of testing and I just left it in :) I didn't have time to make a better "lava" shader. As always, thank you so much for the feedback, means a lot to me !
@3mpty Thank you, had lots of fun seeing you play it ^-^
@hagamosvideojuegos Strange is exactly what I was going for, thank you for playing and YAY candy !!!!
Great entry overall. GG.
The gameplay is cool. You play fast, you die fast, you try again... and again :grin: It really draws you in! The graphics and music go well together and create a cohesive impression. Very nice compo entry.
The look and feel of this one is undeniably charming, and it pairs so well with the sound effects and audio design. On top of that, the gameplay is nice and crunchy, and encourages me to start up another round. :smile: Great work!
Special shoutout for juicy effects, the explosions made my day.
5/5 ~~would~~ will take top score again!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1946756082?t=2h48m40s
@Hakro Thanks for playing and the kind words !
@davision Those are very valuable suggestions, I might implement that in the post-jam !
@marcel-1 Thank you very much :)
@queenofsquiggles Thank you very much for playing !
@christian-witt-martin High energy is what I was aiming for, I'm glad it came across !
@designernap I love doing Compo, but it does put a lot of strain on your mental wellbeing, I'm very proud that I've gotten all of this functionality in :)
@robert-li Thank you !
@fabula-rasa You got first because you owned the game :p
@psv-games-studio Thank you so much for playing !
@togis A new king was born !
@coleslaughter no, thank YOU for playing, was a joy catching the stream :)
@kankje Thank you :) Glad you've enjoyed it !
@senso This made me smile so hard, thank you !
@rickylee Heck yeah ! Thanks for playing :D
@dragonayzer I really wanted to go for the crunchy feels, it means a lot to read this !
@pen-island-games Thank you for playing ! The mounds indeed stop spawning when there's not enough room left, but I'm not sure why I made that decision, I think in my fatigue I accidently swapped mounds and chests in my head ^-^ Got to love duct-tape code :D
@digital-bacon thank you so much !
@burchyn let's goooo buuuuuuu
@ausstein oh jeez thanks ! Will give it a watch ^-^
@lincolnsalles Thanks for playing :) There's really not much to it, don't overthink it ^-^ I'm already very glad you tried <3
Great job!
most my feedback on stream i think was just unifying to UI stuff a bit, but it also took me a while to understand what was going on with the water and when it rises etc
woo i was #3 at one point hehehe >:D
@bredera Thanks for the review ! Means the world :D I love that it did feel crunchy and impactful.
@najjaman thank you so much !
@wisstopher Thanks so much :)
@gentoogames Thank you ! The jumping sound was made with jfxr and the pitch shifts every jump :) Small details but big impact !
@itsboats was a pleasure to see you play it :) Next LD I might try my hands at Jam instead of compo, so I can spend a bit more time on UI... Or practice it so I can do it properly fast enough :p
@EVERYONE Thank you so much for your review. I really enjoyed this LD and I needed it more than any of you realizes. Keep crafting, keep deving, every single one of you is talented beyond and above. Follow those dreams, make your games , and I'll see you at LD 55 !