LudumData

Reaper: Savior of Souls by Link270

[raw]
made by Link270 for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

Base.png COLLECT SOULS!

Explore.png EXPLORE!

CONTROLS: Move with WASD, Sprint with left SHIFT, activate towers with E and purchase upgrades with the mouse.

You are the Reaper and your job is to save the human souls by rescuing them from their mortal shells! Travel around the spirit realm, with light only from your lantern fueled by nearby towers. Spend your souls to capture towers and increase your radius of influence to explore deeper. Purchase upgrades that allow you to last longer and rescue even more souls!

The compass around you emits signal lines to help you find the nearest towers.

Upgrades.png UPGRADES!

TEAM: Link270 - Programing | Tanner - ART | Baconater - Music | 1Minatur - Emotional Support

Edit: Added linux build, based on the same code/version as the windows build. The linux build hasn't really been tested, so it may not function as well as the windows build. Also added a Mac build. Added v1.1 builds that contain two very minor, but annoying, bug fixes.

Windows Download from Itch.io https://nieve-studios.itch.io/reaper-savior-of-souls
Linux (Not tested..) https://nieve-studios.itch.io/reaper-savior-of-souls
Link https://nieve-studios.itch.io/reaper-savior-of-souls
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/reaper-savior-of-souls

Ratings

Overall 378th 3.621⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Fun 438th 3.357⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 716th 2.833⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Theme 670th 3.171⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 543th 3.5⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Audio 337th 3.5⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Humor 626th 2.103⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Mood 531th 3.456⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 47🗨️

Feedback

half-animal-half-beast
Apr 21st · 17:31 UTC
really strong visuals, they work great for the overall atmosphere. the game fits the theme well and feels nice to play.

the only thing that felt a bit off to me was the sprint on shift. there didn’t seem to be much reason to move slowly (maybe i missed something?), so it might feel better to just increase the default speed instead of holding shift all the time.

overall, great job! solid entry!
half-animal-half-beast
Apr 21st · 17:33 UTC
also really liked that effect on the background music, it added a nice “otherworldly” atmosphere!
🎤 Link270
Apr 21st · 18:09 UTC
@half-animal-half-beast Thanks! I added sprint on shift when I built the player at the start and never thought about it much after. haha Thinking about it, I always used shift when moving around the world, so you are correct, I should have just removed it and made movement faster. There are upgrades to increase your speed, but I agree with your feedback for sure. Thanks!!
Pelmeshik
Apr 21st · 21:58 UTC
The mechanics are interesting, there are a lot of upgrades, and overall it was interesting to play this project.
Xeltide
Apr 21st · 23:47 UTC
Good game! Closed loop and the upgrades feel impactful. Since there's no win condition, think it would've been nice to at least see how many souls I had gathered in total.
Congrats!
🎤 Link270
Apr 22nd · 00:47 UTC
@pelmeshik thanks!

@xeltide thank you! We had big plans (doesn’t everyone) of having a simple combat system and some end goal, but I’m glad we scrapped them to at least get this out. Haha That is good feedback to show some better total stats. While watching someone play earlier today I also realized I should have added a visual counter of how many towers you’d activated and such as well.
LDJam user 427605
Apr 22nd · 07:16 UTC
Wow, what a cool game!

I had a blast leveling up my penguin and racking up a ton of runs. I was hooked for about 40 minutes.

The logic behind the leveling was clear to me, but the placement of the levels was really awkward. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to make them specific, with specific stats and specific types of levels.

Plus, I didn't quite understand the end goal.

I'd really like to play the end game. Basically, the structure of this game reminded me of Hill Climb.

I'm thrilled, you guys are awesome!!!
Danibeve
Apr 22nd · 08:42 UTC
Really cool concept, i love the visuals of the game. A bit laggy sometimes when loading, but the like a charm when fully loaded. Great job!
LDJam user 342640
Apr 23rd · 03:49 UTC
Really stellar art on this one - and the gameloop of collecting souls and upgrading, while simple, is also really satisfying. Good job!!
YurisCat
Apr 23rd · 06:12 UTC
Pretty decent game! You gotta keep an eye on the time running out and how you allocate your souls, otherwise you'll just be standing there staring at the last one unable to light it up
VenomousMouse
Apr 23rd · 07:43 UTC
Nice game! I love the upgrades and the mood!
SHU WEN
Apr 23rd · 07:45 UTC
Really cool concept
Mr.Relanium
Apr 23rd · 10:19 UTC
Really cool concept, i love the visuals of the game.Good game!
ManTou
Apr 23rd · 10:35 UTC
This game has a nice progression loop where you collect resources, upgrade, get stronger, and then collect even more resources. It felt pretty good to play overall. I did run into some issues, though. Pressing ESC made the game freeze, and in cases like the screenshot, the numbers at the top became very hard to read after clicking an upgrade.
![QQ20260423-183159.png](///raw/f42/31/z/726f5.png)![QQ20260423-183206.png](///raw/f42/31/z/726f6.png)
🎤 Link270
Apr 23rd · 13:57 UTC
@mantou Thanks! So, I built a pause menu and setup Esc to pause the game, but forgot to have to pause menu actually pop up.. haha on the upgrades being weird, every time you go to the upgrades page It respawns all the upgrade icons to make sure they are accurate, but I forgot to use it clear the previous ones, so you get them stacking and hard to read. Lol classic time constrained jam bugs.. I need to put up a new build with those issues fixed at some point. Glad you liked it regardless and thanks for the feedback!
Theg
Apr 23rd · 15:54 UTC
this game does have a nice loop going on. getting stronger and going out farther and farther each time feels good. well done!
Accelerate0814
Apr 24th · 06:58 UTC
Awesome entry! The 'otherworldly' atmosphere you created with the visuals and music is spot on. The upgrade system feels really impactful and kept me hooked. Great job
FLemming1k
Apr 24th · 07:55 UTC
Lovely incremental game, very well polished. I think the game could benefit from some enemies or anything really you can kite. Fun experience anyway!
LLlarsO
Apr 24th · 12:08 UTC
I like that you used only a few colours in the game. It gave the game an own identity and fits good to the reaper. The overall gameloop is fun. The upgrade tree is nicely implemented.

@baconater2141 I really like the song you created. :)

I would have liked more visual feedback while gaining the souls. Maybe adding a pulsating blue fire (the one in the upper left corner) when you collect a soul would help.

I played the newest version (1.1.7) and got a similar visual bug like @ManTou, but in my case with the font.
![asdsdd.png](///raw/797/53/z/7290e.png)

The camera movement in the title screen was very cool. Your description of the goal and how you interact is very clear, so you know what to do. The style of the radar is also very nicely done. Congrats for finishing your project in time! :)
bravelytyped
Apr 24th · 21:56 UTC
This is the first game from this jam that I played to "completion". Great dopamining implementation. Taking notes for my next procgen jam game! Well done!
Lazarus Richardson
Apr 25th · 01:08 UTC
The audio is pretty polished! I like the sound of collecting the souls : )
Aashen
Apr 25th · 09:17 UTC
Nice visauls and sound effects! Bit confused on the signal theme there, but overall game felt p cool
🎤 Link270
Apr 25th · 15:36 UTC
@aashen Thanks! The signal theme is from the signal lines around the player that grow and shrink directing you to the towers you can activate around the world.
Alex de la Cour
Apr 26th · 11:37 UTC
Cool game! I really really loved the art style, everything was super slick and readable. The main mechanic of the game was straightforward enough to understand very clearly what was needed, and the progression of getting more powerful and getting more souls each run was really smooth. There were a few jittery UI issues but nothing that got in the way of my enjoyment. Overall a really tight entry.
Disvent
May 02nd · 16:50 UTC
Nice visuals. I like your black and white color palette with the vibrant colors of the souls.
I think if you adjusted the camera angle a little, it could look better.

I bought all the upgrades, but I don't understand my goal. I connected new beacons, but I didn't understand why I was doing it. No matter how much I played, there were too many of them to just go and collect them all.

Also, a point about optimization: please limit the FPS in Unreal Engine projects. My gaming laptop rebooted from overheating XD