LudumData

Soul Dilemma by muriel

[raw]
made by muriel for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

A game where you need to collect souls from people living inside buildings.

I hope you like it!!

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Here you have the story:

Hi friend... I have bad news... You have been cursed by a demon! Now you are a monster that needs to absorb souls during the night in order try to postpone your horrible fait of being send to hell...

I wish you the best of lucks, as the demon king will always ask for more and more souls... That bastard!

Be careful with the villagers, they are smarter than you think as after you attack their homes they will reinforce them, put on alarms and hire more guards that won't hesitate to kill you if they see you. Be careful!

Ahh also remember that you need to finish the collection of the souls before daytime, so keep an eye on the clock!

Some Screen Captures:

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A random capture of the portal taken in the engine:

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Death Storm (The best skill)

Storm.png

Code https://github.com/4nc3str4l/LD50
(Recommended) https://4nc3str4l.itch.io/soul-dilemma
Link https://4nc3str4l.github.io/LD50/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/soul-dilemma

Ratings

Overall 267th 3.5⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Fun 259th 3.455⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 177th 3.614⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Theme 370th 3.5⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 367th 3.273⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Audio 179th 3.511⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Humor 144th 3.44⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Mood 270th 3.326⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Given 69🗳️ 73🗨️

Feedback

atomicptr
04. Apr 2022 · 13:25 UTC
"mwhaha your soul is mine!" Smacking houses until a villager comes around and kills you, great work! :)
Defrag
04. Apr 2022 · 13:27 UTC
Interesting balance between surviving this night versus preparing for future nights. I took me a moment to realize where I was supposed to get the souls, as I kept trying to walk into the buildings. I eventually figured out that I was supposed to click on them to break in. I like the different abilities, but I didn't like that the mana ('old souls') didn't replenish between nights. It felt too expensive to use abilities since I would have to re-earn all those expended souls the next night.
Papaya
04. Apr 2022 · 13:41 UTC
I like the concept of playing as the zombie and smacking houses haha. The gameplay is fun, and the sound effects are funny. For some feedback, I feel like the controls are a bit sluggish (the slooowww turning speed), and maybe remove the fences. Other than that, fun game overall.
Turkey
04. Apr 2022 · 13:41 UTC
Loved some of those Sound effects. Very entertaining xD Volume was a bit loud for some though. I didn't realize that you were supposed to return after collecting the needed souls to start, so that would have been nice to know. Over all very well done game! Good difficulty curve!
🎤 muriel
04. Apr 2022 · 18:03 UTC
@defrag Thanks for your review! :)
If you want to test the more advanced skill without spending time earning the souls you can press F1 on the windows version XD (It was there for debug but you can use it XD, let's say that I imagined that people want to be rich everywhere so I kept it)
NeneChico
04. Apr 2022 · 21:06 UTC
No bugs, clean game with simple task to accomplish with increasing difficulty. I lost some time figuring out to hit the house.
NeneChico
04. Apr 2022 · 21:06 UTC
No bugs, clean game with simple task to accomplish with increasing difficulty. I lost some time figuring out to hit the house.
Jordan Pavlic
04. Apr 2022 · 23:31 UTC
The theme and sound were really good on this one as well as the difficulty curve was right just right. It was also graphically really pleasing too. I would agree with others that the controls felt a bit sluggish. Overall pretty clean.
igorfelga
04. Apr 2022 · 23:54 UTC
The way the theme was developed was very interesting. It took me a while to adapt to the controls, but then the gameplay was very interesting
igorfelga
04. Apr 2022 · 23:54 UTC
A forma como o tema foi desenvolvido foi bem interessante. Demorei um pouco para me adaptar aos controles, mas depois a gameplay foi bem interessante
Paroxysmal
05. Apr 2022 · 01:03 UTC
Good entry, I'm on MacOS so playing on the Web version the frame rate was pretty bad. Tank controls take a bit of getting use too...but solid entry nonetheless.
munkkeli
05. Apr 2022 · 14:40 UTC
Wow, I'm surprised how much you managed to fit into 48h! Graphics look great, sound effects are everywhere (an they are funny too!) & everything has a little animation to spice things up! Awesome job, so much polish in such little time :smile:
🎤 muriel
05. Apr 2022 · 14:58 UTC
@munkkeli Thanks for your kind words :) this time I really tried to focus into keeping things clean and polished, too bad that people didn't like my design decision on the movement, I'm getting there though jeje :) (Next time I'll just do WASD without "car" movement).
It was fun because I hesitated a lot between various way of moving but as I wanted to make it harder to dodge guards so I went all in with this and apparently no one liked it jaja.
munkkeli
05. Apr 2022 · 18:16 UTC
@muriel Thank you for sharing! I think it is very helpful for other developers to hear about the tough choices and the reasons behind them. I didn't personally find it difficult, but I also understand that WASD movement is much more common in these kind of games. I also think it is always better to go all in, no matter the outcome! :laughing: I look forward to your future entries!
GummiBot
05. Apr 2022 · 21:45 UTC
Nice overall game, liked the take on the theme. Funny sounds (as other comments said) and nice gameloop. Good job overall :)
PKZinpo
05. Apr 2022 · 23:01 UTC
Very enjoyable, clean game! I especially liked the sound effects, they were quite enjoyable to listen to haha. Although I agree with WASD being more traditional and intuitive, I respect the decision to go with the 'car' movement. The WASD movement would have definitely made the game easier, and I always like a challenge haha. Overall, great job!
UC101
06. Apr 2022 · 08:31 UTC
I love the sound effects when you're stealing someone's soul.
controls felt a little clunky at first but I got used to them.
LDJam user 5143
06. Apr 2022 · 09:50 UTC
That sounds incredible! Nice idea and great job. I want to say that policeman is a little bit stupid, but after the third day I change my mind)

Maybe visual can be more bright. I played on sunny day and it was hard. I think you can make games more colorful and night feel doesn't corrupt.

Great job!
🎤 muriel
06. Apr 2022 · 10:11 UTC
@kurakurture jeje thanks for your comments, yeah the policeman at the beginning doesn't bother a lot but then are a pain in the ass as soon as they are enough and the houses start to have alarms on them :)

About making games more colorful it is a topic that I need to improve in because as a Software Engineer I love programming but I'm very, very bad at graphics and music. In fact this is the first year that I go full 3D and I was a bit scared (Usually I put 3 pixels together and I say, Voilà here is my character XD).

I'll try to improve on this for the next time :)
Alexascher
06. Apr 2022 · 10:18 UTC
Very fun game, spent half an hour collecting souls. I really liked the system of improving the defense of quarters. This makes the game deeper than it seems at first glance. Great job.
🎤 muriel
06. Apr 2022 · 13:22 UTC
@alexascher thanks for your feedback!! I'm glad to know that you enjoyed the game :)

How many nights have you managed to survive?
caudatecoder
06. Apr 2022 · 21:19 UTC
An unexpected take on a stealth kind of game! Interesting take on the theme as well

The gameplay loop is really well done too, the risk/reward balance is just right. It's really fun to risk a bit and then try to get away from guards. *spoiler* don't try to fight a guard *endspoiler*

Great job!

I recorded my playthrough. Here's a link in case you'd like to see it https://youtu.be/aJkdjOKW03M
🎤 muriel
07. Apr 2022 · 00:54 UTC
@caudatecoder jeje thanks for the video it has been very fun to watch ;)

Also I loved when you have read the description it is clear that I was mega tired when I wrote it xD (People inside buildings xD)
iDunnyX
09. Apr 2022 · 15:16 UTC
Took a few playthrus to get the hang of it but over all great work!
netpunk
09. Apr 2022 · 17:41 UTC
Nice game! I've really enjoyed the balanced created by the night/day cycle, forcing you to make risky decisions. The incremental difficulty with houses and guards also feels just right, allowing you to enjoy the game without being overwhelmed.

Overall a solid entry! I'd love to see it turned into a complete game!
etchell
10. Apr 2022 · 04:23 UTC
Good stuff!

Enjoyed being a zombie attacking the village :)

Felt juicy. Loved the attack hit effects, and the warning before day time.
M2tias
10. Apr 2022 · 16:39 UTC
This is a really good entry! It was fun to play, looks pretty good and sound effects were nice. Some of the voice samples were creepy and others were funny in a weird way. The ticking clock was such a nice addition too. Nicely done!
mhorth
10. Apr 2022 · 18:01 UTC
Dang this is impressive, especially for compo! A full ability system with cooldowns, very nice work. The overall gameplay was very interesting how you forced us to make strategic choices, it pulled me in way more than I expected.

Only critique I have for you to work on next time is sound mixing. All the sound effects and voice lines were very good, just the volume of some of them was too loud and came off a little harsh. I'll be looking forward to what you bring next jam!
hungryroy
11. Apr 2022 · 13:17 UTC
This is great work, although I was a bit confused at first at what to do. The ticking clock is a great mood-setter. I didn't get too far though, because I always get confused with tank controls!
Skleembof
11. Apr 2022 · 15:15 UTC
Wow that was great! The gameplay felt very polished and balanced which is rare for jam games. I really enjoyed the unique setting and atmosphere created by the graphics and audio. Those sound effects while mostly funny, were also kind of creepy, especially when you just break into a house and steal all their souls.
Taximan981
11. Apr 2022 · 22:52 UTC
Quite fun, powerups, patrolling guards, increasing difficulty. Absolutely insane for a game jam!
Diego Escalante
13. Apr 2022 · 03:57 UTC
Wow that was really good! I was surprised how huge the scope was for this game and you pulled it off! Sometimes the lighting was a little glitchy so I couldn't see the field of vision from the guards, but aside from that, there's nothing to complain about on this one! The gameplay was really fun, the difficulty ramp up was smooth, the different abilities felt powerful but not over-powered, and being able to be extra risky for additional souls is great. My favorite detail was all the sounds that play when you break into a house. There were so many of them and they were all really fun to hear.

You should be really proud of this one, it was a blast! Nice job.
nyxkn
13. Apr 2022 · 17:56 UTC
Impressive entry! The humor of the audio clips was brilliant :D Beautiful graphics and great gameplay. My only gripe is that the audio was distorted. Maybe recorded too loud? Anyway really good job!
Common
14. Apr 2022 · 16:22 UTC
Despite the controls being a little iffy to get a hang of, the gameplay was very fun and the abilities were varied enough to be enjoyable.