Ink Souls by Neowedge
Legend has it that there once lived an Artist capable of capturing the soul of those he drew on a sheet of papyrus, so that family members could preserve their love forever.
Such a gift reached the ears of the Emperor, who ordered him to possess the souls of his enemies to punish them in the afterlife forever.
As the Artist refused, the Emperor ordered him to be executed and his papyrus burned.
The Artist's last drawing was his own portrait, in the hope of freeing the rest of the souls from the Emperor's punishment.
When the fire reaches the souls, they will burn in eternity. Souls once condemned in ink will be set free with ink.

Credits:
- Miguel López (Programmer and Game Designer)
- Alma Garez (2D Artist)
- Adrian Martínez (Sound Designer and V.O.) www.adrianmasound.com
- Angeal (Music Composer)
| Itch.io | https://neowedge.itch.io/ink-souls |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/ink-souls |
Ratings
| Overall | 478th | 3.655⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 730th | 3.222⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 688th | 3.209⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 990th | 2.934⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 28th | 4.607⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 81th | 4.082⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 754th | 2.5⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 82th | 4.173⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 51🗳️ | 99🗨️ |
@monian Thanks for playing! ^^
Wish there was a little more to the game, but I liked the idea. Great job!
@mossgames Thanks for playing!
@foursay Thanks! I considered remove upper collider, but I think the Artist would die if he left from the papyrus hahaha!
@thelastslowpoke Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it!
@roboimuri Thanks you! Really is not about skills at all, but observing the patterns and found what is the best order to do the run.
@jozgames Sorry hear that! What browser do you use? I don't have any problem with controls. The game is played in a browser, a server is required for the download version to work.
@metronick Thanks for the feedback! The "limited space" theme is because you are inside a papyrus. Also, in the first versions, the papyrus was burning and reducing its size over the time, but we found some inconvenients for level design with this feature and I removed.
@gamedevjeroen Thanks for the feedback! Voice was a Saturday 3am idea hahahaha I wrote the story straight away imagining the typical movies about an oriental legend and I thought: "this needs a voice"
@haste06 Thanks for the feedback! At the beginning we imagined something more too, but we preferred to invest the time in improving the game feeling and we removed things (like there were going to be several levels). I don't rule out adding some of them in the future :).
The only thing that slightly confused me was that the character kept running for a bit after stopping, but on the other hand, it adds a touch of challenge. :smile:
I enjoyed completing the level.
@yurain33 Thanks for playing! Voice over by @adrianmart93 hahahaha
@ghpxi Thanks for the feedback! I'm trying to improve my skills making action games and it is very usefull!!! How do you think I could improve the jumping experience? Thanks!!!
@mmason Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it!!!! :)
The platforming felt a little but clunky, but art and music are really gorgeous
@ghpxi Thank you very much! My approach was to double the gravity while falling (I use a setable param), but this solution looks like much more complete. I'll keep an eye on it these days ;).
I like it because they have more control over the height the character reaches (you set the jump height and duration and it calculates the jump speed and the gravity scale it should have, while I directly set the gravity modifier and the jump speed), so I may use their system in my next implementation ^^. But the feeling is the same at a code level, so the problem must be in how I setted the jump values (gravity, falling gravity modifier, keep button pressed gravity modifier and jump speed).
The problem is that I am contaminated and I don't see it as bad hahahaha! I'd like to know what the player expect to happen: should it jump and/or fall slower or faster? I'll take a look at other games to better adjust the jump settings :).
Thank you so much! I come from developing idle games and in jams I have almost always made more narrative games, so this is helping me a lot :)
I completed the level and was surprised that it was the only level. :'(
This looks like an interesting mechanic, but it requires more "meat" to be tested out I think.
For example: how far can it go?
Can there be non-combat related puzzles that would require colors?
Can colors also have some side-effects apart from allowing you to defeat a specific enemy?
Can colors be combined, somehow?
Etc.
I'll rate the game by extrapolating this experience.
It's a nice little level after all.
Last but not least, thank you for playing my game.
@devez Thanks for the feedback! I have the same feeling with the pink soul because I didn't balance its time with that of the platforms and waiting is tiresome. I'm going to upload a version that corrects that :). I'd have liked to have more levels, but with programming I didn't have time (level design is not my strong skill).
@crylica Thanks for your feedback! :)
Ah, and visual style too!
Ah, i've said it already.
Have i said about visual style?
The ink art is beautiful, and it plays quite smoothly too. Well done!
awesome game, beautiful music and atmosphere. great dubbing
@asfdfdfd Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! Our artist @alma-garez is awesome ^^
@ditam Thanks for playing! Yes, the limited space is about the papyrus hahaha!
@skel3ton Thanks you so much! Yes, it should have some more level :(
I also really like how the souls cause platforms to fade as they move around the environment, which adds a fun layer of planning (being careful not to fall through a disappearing platform to danger below) and executing your jumps quickly enough before the next set of platforms fades away. This is a very solid entry and you guys should be proud of your work here!
@chompdev Thanks you for the feedback! Our goal was to make something small but polished :)
1) It took too many hits to kill enemies,
2) Getting hit once and you die then restart doesn't balance well with the "it takes too many hits to kill enemies,"
3) Jumping was a bit janky
Could be tweaked and really fun! I like the artwork, voice-over and overall mood of the game.
Once knowing this, the level does not require so much skill, just learn petterns and find the correct order to kill the enemies, that's why I decided that the character would die in one hit.
I would like to do more levels, but with the programming I didn't have time :(.