LudumData

Mortal Compass by JakubBala

[raw]
made by JakubBala for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

An arcade game where you must survive by stealing lifeforce from the mortals of the realm of the living.

If the web player is laggy, download the .exe: --Link to Play (web)--

Description:

  • You're a reaper and you're loosing lifeforce, so you must take it from the mortals of the realm of the living. But there is a catch, your life drains quicker from manifesting yourself in their reality - so you must use your compass to trace them before crossing over and harvesting their life force.

  • Beware, mortals who you steal life force from will haunt you in the realm of the dead, so watch out.

  • The red arrow that appears around you in the realm of the dead (monochrome) is the compass that points to humans in the living world.

Controls:

  • Space to switch realms
  • Left click to smite
  • Escape to pause

Updates

  • Removed bugs
  • Improved WebGL performance and performance across all builds
  • Made the game easier, as requested, (more humans, slower ghosts)

Bugs (All fixed now):

  • [FIXED] Sometimes humans won't spawn for a game: this is fixed by pausing, exiting to the main menu and starting the game again; or restarting the program.

Scr3.pngScr4.png

Link https://sammot.itch.io/mortalcompass
Link https://sammot.itch.io/mortalcompass
Link https://sammot.itch.io/mortalcompass
Link https://sammot.itch.io/mortalcompass
Link https://github.com/Sammot/MortalCompass-LD50Source
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/mortal-compass

Ratings

Overall 718th 3.513⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 903th 3.184⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 237th 3.757⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 229th 4.053⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 397th 4⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Audio 466th 3.5⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 871th 2.632⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 373th 3.789⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Given 40🗳️ 59🗨️

Feedback

sammot
30. Mar 2022 · 12:37 UTC
We did it!
Lord Shulky
05. Apr 2022 · 11:51 UTC
It is definitely a difficult game! At least for me. :) The game is fun and looks great. The menu is pretty well done so overall the game is good :)
Similar to another game from this jam... I think it was called bloodlust, but I am not sure now.
ruruie
05. Apr 2022 · 11:52 UTC
You did it!
Rodrigo Montenegro
05. Apr 2022 · 11:52 UTC
The art looks very good and the sound design is nice.
I couldn't fully understand what the game loop was. Most of the time the compass kept moving the other way when I followed it.

I think the main concept is very original and full of potential. I would really like to see an improved version of this.

Great work!
Vincent Salgueiro
05. Apr 2022 · 11:53 UTC
Really good atmosphere!
metaljim
05. Apr 2022 · 11:54 UTC
The web browser version of the game is very jerky and unplayable, for me anyway using Chrome. However I downloaded and it worked fine. Had many attempts and could not find any souls in the living realm. Maybe I'm just bad at this so I'll keep trying. Love the 80's graphics though.
LDJam user 0
05. Apr 2022 · 11:55 UTC
After five attempts, I never saw a single mortal to smite. Nice graphics, though, and the music is nice and moody
MaratG2
05. Apr 2022 · 11:56 UTC
Great game! Loved the artstyle, theme interpretation and the idea itself. I can highlight that the game isn't that intuitive, so it's hard to grasp the gameflow. Thank you for the submission!
Dean Isseyegh
05. Apr 2022 · 12:02 UTC
Love the music, art and concept. Those things were all awesome!

The compass was quite confusing at times, it would point and rotate really quickly at times suggesting a human was close and was maybe next to me, but when I would switch, I wouldn't see anything. A lot of the times I would rarely ever see humans at all in a run.

But again - the music, art and concept are all top notch and I think with some more game balancing and more humans around this would be a seriously epic game.

Good job, amazing this was made in just a few days.
LDJam user 258516
05. Apr 2022 · 12:03 UTC
The effect of switching realities was super cool, I felt a small delay in switching from the underworld to the real world, I think if this delay was on purpose, it would be interesting to put a warning, because I kept pressing several times to make the switch.

Running away from souls is very difficult, I think that because this difficulty already exists, life in the underworld could remain the same, but I believe that this would change the plot of the game.

Good use of the theme and well done arts.

Congratulations!
Tamagotchi
05. Apr 2022 · 12:27 UTC
Nice graphics and audio! I loved the title screen with the rotating compass and the overall look of the game, the music was very calming, the soundeffects fit perfectly, and of course the theme fit perfectly too.

Now, this game is very, very difficult. I'm not sure how exactly it works, but it seems like the people only spawn when you get close enough to them in the dead realm before switching to the realm of the living. Funnily enough I encountered 6 people on my first try, then not a single soul for my next 4 tries, and on my last 2 tries I got 2 to 4 people. And let me tell you, they were out for revenge with the speed they killed me!

I suspect that the confusing compass, low amount of people encountered, and the speed at which the ghosts come at you and drain your energy are responsable for making this game a bit confusing and too difficult for new players.

But still, amazing work for 2 people!
hansj
05. Apr 2022 · 13:19 UTC
Great art style and loved the mood and atmosphere in this one. Also fun take on the theme. I had some trouble getting souls up to show, so I was a bit confused by the compass mechanic.

All in all good contribution though, something to be proud of!
Archenwhile
05. Apr 2022 · 14:34 UTC
Very good game overall concept is amazing, sound is amazing, gameplay works well at it's core. However, I think the difficulty curve increases a bit too drastically however. This could be mitigated by a larger map or abilities that make the reaper quicker etc etc.
Really liked the reality switching however, that was incredible.
🎤 JakubBala
05. Apr 2022 · 17:24 UTC
Note to everyone: There is a bug where the mortals don't appear for some reason in the living realm on some runs, will find a fix to this problem as soon as possible. Thank you for all the reviews :))))
BoClow
06. Apr 2022 · 06:42 UTC
Cool concept!The idea of switching between realms and the fact that more you play, harder the "easy" realm becomes is super cool! Game was really laggy for me both on web and on computer. I have old laptop and for some reason it could not keep up with the game. Graphics were nice and moody also :)
LDJam user 120213
06. Apr 2022 · 21:10 UTC
Just fyi for linux packaging you should use gzip or similar, not zip format, zip format strips permissions so to play you have to manually add execute permissions to the files, .gz files preserve permissions.

I enjoyed it, though sometimes the arrow flips as someone runs away and it makes me think i walked through them, made it a little harder to find. I did hit the bug with them not spawning once as well.

Scored 220 second try.
sammot
06. Apr 2022 · 23:17 UTC
Thanks @raptor851, Ill be sure to fix the linux build
Thaj
07. Apr 2022 · 19:06 UTC
Art style very cool, absolute garbage at this game but is very good :)
cornfab
08. Apr 2022 · 01:31 UTC
Really like the art and atmosphere. Took me a while to figure out what I was doing. My natural instinct was to think that score was tied to killing the people so I was confused when it was going up linearly, and also I didn't see the bar at the bottom for so long lol. I know that this is a "delay the inevitable" game but it really made me want to play a version where the ghosts helped point me to people and raised my score instead of haunting me. Agreed with people that it's too difficult to run away from them
NuclearChair
08. Apr 2022 · 04:39 UTC
Was really fun, really nice game!
zimny11
08. Apr 2022 · 15:34 UTC
As I promised, here I am. Quite a unique game set up! And beautiful art style! I was confused how the compass work for a moment, but once I turn into mortal realm it became obvious. In my opinion, the controls could have been improved. Using arrows/WSAD, space and mouse is quite inconvenient. If you switch space to right mouse button for example, I think, it would work better. Anyway, great game!
sammot
08. Apr 2022 · 19:02 UTC
Thank you so much everyone so far for the feedback!
Renge
08. Apr 2022 · 19:35 UTC
I like the concept very much, it's interesting how the more people you kill the more ghosts you have to deal with, kind of like an automatic difficulty curve which is always cool.
LDJam user 11377
08. Apr 2022 · 19:47 UTC
Cool idea for this jam. It's fun being the reaper for a change.
InitialPosition
08. Apr 2022 · 20:11 UTC
The atmosphere in this is intense. You really feel like you are taking out a small town as the grim reaper. The spritework was fantastic, I loved the lighting, the sound effects were nice, the only thing I didn't enjoy fully was the music. I don't feel like it really fits the mood and the cutoff when you die is a bit abrupt. Otherwise extremely well made.
J0ye
08. Apr 2022 · 21:11 UTC
The game is great, and it is such a fun thing to sneak up on the living, appear and smite them in an instance. I struggled a bit with moving through the streets, tho. You should be able to move through walls while in the astral plane, I think. And I believe that the 2D collider of the reaper is a square. It's easier to go around corners for any kind of character if they have round edges. A sphere usually.
sammot
08. Apr 2022 · 21:16 UTC
@j0ye really good suggestion for the collider, thank you.
eeaann9044
09. Apr 2022 · 10:51 UTC
Great graphics and mood. Could add more variation in gameplay though.
🎤 JakubBala
09. Apr 2022 · 11:15 UTC
@eeaann9044 Yes, definitely could add more features for the full game, but we were scared that adding too many features would make the game too complex to understand for a jam game, and furthermore, take more time to make :smiley:
Allax
09. Apr 2022 · 11:44 UTC
Beautiful graphics, great music, misunderstood the theme of the jam, and the online version lags a lot. But in general I liked it, thanks!
coolavy6
09. Apr 2022 · 19:31 UTC
The game is great. Amazing graphics and concept. The gameplay loop is fun and having to balancing your health with the ghosts' distance to you is very tense and rewarding. My only gripe is that the collision box feels too large and square, which makes colliding with lamp posts quite annoying. Also the "?" button in the menu frustrates me as it doesn't match the other 2 buttons (Ja pierdole Kuba, jak mogłeś?)
Debone
10. Apr 2022 · 11:40 UTC
Thanks for your submission! I had a very hard time with the controls, I pressed the space by accident trying to kill a human too many times. And I barely managed to kill more than 4 or 5 humans before I got stuck somewhere trying to get into some place and the ghosts overrun me. I enjoyed the concept, the graphics and the sfx, great job on that. Maybe there's too much to keep track for it to be fun, maybe if the worlds would be really separated, like when you're in the overworld you can't get hit by ghosts but you can't stay much time there, and in the underworld is where your energy for overworld charges, but with so many ghosts, you probably don't want to hang around for long. As always, it's just an idea :)
🎤 JakubBala
10. Apr 2022 · 14:29 UTC
@debone Hi Debone, it's interesting you say that, because ghosts arent supposed to be in the overworld, that must have been a bug! The gameplay is supposed to be that your health drains fast in the overworld, and a lot slower in the underworld, so I don't know whats up with that! Thank you for the feedback, very useful :)
Debone
10. Apr 2022 · 15:26 UTC
Oh, I take what I said back @jakubbala . I completely missed that I should lose more life in the overworld. I assumed it was the ghosts catching me up in the underworld, but reflecting in the life. And no, there was no ghosts in the overword, all is fine. Thanks for the clarifying answer!
sammot
10. Apr 2022 · 16:07 UTC
@allax would you mind expanding on how we didn't meet the theme correctly? Also I recommend you try the downloadable version if the online one is laggy for you.
🎤 JakubBala
10. Apr 2022 · 17:57 UTC
@debone Haha no worries! I got scared that you had discovered a game breaking bug :laughing:
zSharpFire
11. Apr 2022 · 17:55 UTC
The art style was amazing, SFXs were great and the gameplay loop is fine, although i think the compass mechanic feels a bit awkward to play with

Overall a great experience. Good Job!
Melik Cagan Oduncuoglu
11. Apr 2022 · 23:36 UTC
Cool graphics and nice theme, but a bit hard at the start. Overall; Great Game, good job.
Marc-Antoine Girard
12. Apr 2022 · 02:36 UTC
A bit hard, but I really like the implementation. There was some nice play mechanics to avoid ghost and kill humans. The music was nice, the graphics was perfect for the theme, well done!
Arttu Halonen
12. Apr 2022 · 14:01 UTC
A really cool idea and well implemented! The graphics and the sounds work well together, and hunting down mortals using the compass was a neat puzzle while avoiding the damned souls. The movement felt a bit floaty (which kind of fits for a floating reaper), perhaps that feel could be improved. Solid entry, keep it up!
Proxy-Games
13. Apr 2022 · 03:52 UTC
Great entry! The pixel art here is very charming, and the audio work in tandem to set a downcast mood for the game. The gameplay loop is simple, but satisfying, and quite well balanced. It was very satisfying to figure out where people were within the world from the realm of the dead, in order to pop in right on top of them and slash them. In addition to the crowd of ghosts that follow you once you get a lot of souls, it makes the game shine as a fast-paced game requiring quick thinking. I kind of wish there was a faster and more tense version of the gameplay music that came in based on how many souls you reaped that would play if you where in the dead realm-I feel like that would set a really strong mood.

Overall, this is a very well done entry with very little flaws (beyond maybe the difficulty with more ghosts, but I kind of liked it?). Good job!


![Capture.PNG](///raw/672/04/z/4df40.png)
Confidant17
15. Apr 2022 · 16:39 UTC
incredible art, loved it. ahd a lot of fun. thanks for entry. gj
someone
15. Apr 2022 · 23:36 UTC
Missed the bit about switching realities at first. That could have been more obvious.
A really interesting idea though.
🎤 JakubBala
17. Apr 2022 · 10:36 UTC
@someone I believe the full version would need a tutorial XD
Evan Minto
21. Apr 2022 · 04:40 UTC
Really like the atmosphere and the title screen looks fantastic. The idea of switching realities with limited information in one and limited time in the other is great and I’d love to see that expanded upon. The main thing I’d tweak here is making the ghosts slower and offering a way to counteract them. As it is you can’t escape so they’re effectively a persistent health drain.