Ethereal Harvest by ElMikosch

[raw]
made by ElMikosch for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

You are a ghost haunting an old abandoned dungeon on the outskirts of town. You have always been restless and alone, until you discovered you can gain strength by harvesting the souls of the living.

But no matter how many souls you collect, you can't find happiness. You are doomed to wander the dungeon forever, searching for purpose in a forgotten world.

Or are you?

Use your weapons to kill enemies, harvest their souls using your scythe to get stronger.

Ratings

Overall 801th 2.568⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 777th 2.432⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 817th 2.068⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 722th 2.977⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 671th 2.795⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 459th 2.705⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 628th 2.194⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 768th 2.5⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

Heinar
10. Jan 2023 · 00:21 UTC
Nice Binding of Isaac inspiration. I like it
JackOfCups
10. Jan 2023 · 02:00 UTC
Love the loading screens!
HFSEvans
10. Jan 2023 · 06:19 UTC
Very Binding of Isaac with a nice twist on collecting, but I just found myself killing stuff and then collecting the souls in peace later. Perhaps if those two mechanics played better together? Like the souls slowly faded forcing the player to collect during combat for example
Unentokku
10. Jan 2023 · 06:27 UTC
More indication of when you take or don't take damage would have been nice.
Souls needing two swings of the scythe makes collecting them a bit annoying(decided to just ignore them after failing to figure out a point to collecting them).
togo sepultraut
10. Jan 2023 · 15:12 UTC
i really like the ghost's sprite and attack animation, its very nice.
some visual feedback when you get hit or when you hit an enemy would be a good improvement (mostly for the melee attack)
Schmalex
10. Jan 2023 · 15:17 UTC
Nice little game that i think would benefit from a bit of tweaking (harvesting souls gets tedious after a while). Regardless, it is quite relaxing to walk around and shoot guys and the movement is on point. Keep up the good work!
NvrSkipGameDay
10. Jan 2023 · 16:32 UTC
Spooooky! I liked the music a lot. I found a big boi and he killed me so fast I'm not sure how it happened, but it was cool to find :D
Slush
11. Jan 2023 · 03:59 UTC
Binding of Isaac but enemies go "ewgh"
Suchista
11. Jan 2023 · 18:25 UTC
Cool game, could be further improved by adding some effects when the ghost gets hit and adding more enemy types. The audio is nice.
Minakorii
11. Jan 2023 · 21:57 UTC
The sound was funny to heard !
Harmofish
13. Jan 2023 · 08:49 UTC
That's a good idea. I like how this ghost harvests human souls, but I'm not sure how to harvest the souls I killed.
Riesyeti
14. Jan 2023 · 15:23 UTC
Cool Binding of Isaac type game. Quite simple but very fun! I would've liked to see a health regen pack or something because I seem to die pretty quickly ^^"
AndideBob
14. Jan 2023 · 16:15 UTC
A simple little game, I can easily see this being expanded with different abilities and weapons you unlock with the souls. However I did not feel like I was getting stronger by collecting the souls, all the enemies still took the same amount of hits. Also I think that there should be a little risk reward connected to harvesting the souls, because currently you just kill everything and then harvest. If you had to be fast or something like this it might feel a little more rewarding to harvest the souls. Also, what's with the jumpscare at the end? :D

All in all a solid entry, well done!
nikitavychuz
14. Jan 2023 · 16:37 UTC
Needs a bit more polish like UI and better audio feedback, as well as enemy variety. It does not feel fair to have enemies jump at the player before the camera even reached the room. Still, good job making a game!