Play game
Ember Souls's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Interpretation of the Secondary Theme | #153 | 3.778 | 3.778 |
| Graphics | #233 | 3.222 | 3.222 |
| Gameplay | #263 | 2.444 | 2.444 |
| Overall | #286 | 2.678 | 2.678 |
| Gameboy Soul | #304 | 2.778 | 2.778 |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #342 | 1.167 | 1.167 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game meet GBJam's theme?
Ember Souls is a villain protagonist, souls-like 2d platformer action game where you play as a soul devourer driven by an insatiable hunger. Using a pixel physics-based attraction mechanic, you must consume souls to survive. Fail to feed, and you will be consumed by your own hunger.
Witness the inevitable cosmic doom from the chasm of the abyss, endlessly devouring souls in an unstoppable descent into darkness under the dead sky. Inspired by Cormac McCarthy-esque idea of primal evil, and Dark Souls.
Ember Souls satisfy the following GBJam constraints
- Primary theme: Gameboy
- Secondary theme: Spooky
- Resolution: 160px x 144px
- Palette: 4 colors
- Control: D-pad, A, B, Start, Select
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
The scenery goes really hard! I am interested to see what's the plan moving forward, since you have a solid base here. What you have here is pretty good, well done!
A very interesting concept and mechanic. Cool graphics but no sound was a pity.
Visually striking, for certain. I read into the other comments to see that this is more of a concept piece at this stage, so I'll limit my responses to that. The basic gameplay loop of snatching up souls does feel pretty good, the ticking clock of a dwindling health bar urging me to keep eating up all of the little people at my feet. I would love to see what context is eventually added. The eye in the sky is great, reminds me of Dark Souls 3. Best of luck with the updated version, and I'll keep an eye out for it!
I really like what you've got going on here so far. Looking forward to what you do next with it. I love that you went with an abnormal colour palette as it works really well for the vibe, and the soul-harvesting mechanic is done really well. Keep at it!
Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you appreciated the ominous aesthetics with evil soul devouring mechanics.
Yes, currently I'm implementing what I left out due to the jam time constraint, but will update as soon as the rating event ends, taking this tech demo to a state of complete game.
Love the graphics and the color palette, feels good sucking up the souls of those little things even though it seems like there's no clear objective at this state of the game, but has potential!
Thank you for taking the time to play the game! I'm glad you took pleasure devouring souls of the one-eyed little creatures!
Yes, currently there is no objective, as it has no level design, enemy design, progression system, victory condition, to qualify as a complete game, but as soon as the updates becomes available, I will polish to leave the tech demo state.
Unfortunately for now, you just have to wait for the inexorable hunger to devour your own existence.
Ominous! I like the particle effects, especially during the intro. Add some atmospheric music and develop it further!
Thank you for the compliments! Certainly! There are several polish I already implemented to leave the tech demo state, and will be more omnious as soon as the update is avaliable!
It's an Interesting concept and you've got a good start here. The only critique I have at this stage is that it looks like the resolution is too high, there are some noticeable sub pixels happening with the eye movement, screen movement and left of the soul bar. Keep at it! Continue making, continue improving.
Thank you for the feedback, glad you find it interesting! Yes, you are correct, right in the details! haha;
For the particle rendering, I truncated the particle floating point position to the nearest grid position, to emulate and respect the pixel constraint, but did not applied neither to the character, nor to the eye rendering.
I implemented the pixel constraint to the character and eye, will experiment with the parameters.
I'll update after the Jam to increase the low-res representation coherence, together with more polish that I wanted to make, but could not due to the jam time constraint.
Very interesting mechanic also I loved the art style and color palette. Great Entry!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
Absorbing those enemies is so satisfying and very smart decision to include a counter that goes over the maximum so no soul is wasted! I really love that palette too! Awesome job!
Thanks for the compliment and spending your time to play the prototype! Glad you enjoyed devouring souls from the minions under the dead sky! Wanted to explore the gameplay more thoroughly in depth using the soul mechanics to design challenges, but the inevitable time constraint got us.
Nice particle effect while absorbing the enemies holding B button (X on the keyboard), and I think it can be replicated on an actual gameboy.
The 4 selected colors fit the mood very well.
The giant eye monster in the background that opens and closes the eyelid is a very interesting and impressive effect.
Note to other players: if you walk all the way to the right, you'll find a cliff. avoid falling into it, as you'll have to wait until your health deploys until losing and being able to play again. There's a cliff to the left after walking a while too. Didn't try jumping into it but I guess the same would happen.
Thank you for the kind words!
Yes, the idea was to experiment with the concept of pixel physics engine, but due to the time limitation it became more of a tech demo than an actual game.
After the Jam, I'll do a proper level design, enemy design, combat design, and progression, with some music and sound effects.
The giant eye monster is a cute buddy that will help you devour more souls along the descent into the darkness.
Thank you kindly for the note too! I'll update the page and add as a known issue as soon as possible.