Surreal, minimal and numbly sad. This feels as much like a ritual or a meditation as it does like a game - it leans into the ritualistic aspects of the mechanics and the premise - the counting of the tokens, the separating out of the cards - which feels effective.

Some aspects of the rules could perhaps be described more clearly. For example, I wasn't 100% sure what the aces are for: it says in the example round that pulled court cards are added to the aces, but this isn't mentioned elsewhere in rules. I might have just missed this, though.

The consistency in tone works really well, and makes even just reading the rules feel like part of the experience – almost like an actor staying in character when talking to the audience after the play. “Never spare a knight” - great!

This idea of counting amassed piles of bodies is devious! As Christine said, I guess there's nothing more horrific than reducing death to something cold and calculating.  I love how the mechanics are in aid of a machine that warps the dead into create anew. The game itself offers some fun interpretive potential with how servicing the machine plays into the fate of the town. Great idea!

Thanks for submitting The Soul Machine to the SCREAM MACHINE game jam!

- SCREAM CATALOGUE