Demon Army Soul Collector by D3kryption
Welcome to Demon Army Soul Collector.
Voting
Please vote on my game! [link]
Theme
This game was written for the Ludum Dare 58 game jam with the theme: Collector
Gameplay - Video
https://youtu.be/SkU3LmdKaXE
Review - Video
tbc (after the jam reviews are in!)
Story
Serve the glorious leader Nima as Grunt, a towering, numb-brained demon warrior, and Mancy, her loyal necromancer who harvests souls but cannot fight. Together, they purge a corrupted jail overrun by goblins and creatures, collecting souls for Nima’s cause. Inside, prisoners like Balvux the monk, Jipex the rebellious barbarian, and Abbadon the beastly outcast await judgment. Mercy or obedience — the choice is yours. Grunt smashes, Mancy reaps, and every decision feeds your leader’s power. A darkly comedic, soul-stealing adventure of loyalty, madness, and devotion in a world where questioning your leader might just cost your soul.
Gameplay
This is a top down third-person adventure game where you explore the jails looking for souls. Will you take the souls from prisoners or go back to Nima empty handed? Nima is our glorious leader after all...
Developer Comments
I've just spent 9 months doing client work and not any jams. It’s so good to be back haha! I've missed it. This game is very different to anything I've created. You don't control a "character" — everyone is AI and you just issue them commands! It’s great. Very different in design. It also uses GAS for everyone’s abilities, which if anyone has played my last games knows I love playing with.
What I did well
- Lots of new tech used! Gameplay Ability System, AI-based controls, and top-down gameplay.
- Had a cracking idea straight from the get go.
- Solved lots of new challenges and gameplay elements I'm not used to.
What I would do better next time
- After 9 months I'm a little deflated — not a lot, but noticeable. I found myself almost stopping and resting in the middle of development when normally I can’t stop!
New things I've learned
- Gameplay Ability System – a tool built into Unreal to help create a great system where you can change abilities per character on the fly. I've used it to handle the jumping, crouching, and more. It required many C++ changes, which was all good!
Known bugs
- No goblins spawn :( Sadly, no fights.
Assets used
- Narrative Quests & Dialogue by Reubs
- Polygon Dark Fortress by Synty Studios
Voices
- LemonDrizzle (https://lemiyu.com/)
- Craig (https://www.youtube.com/@InvisionCommunity)
- Me (https://d3kryptionstudios.com)
Ratings
| Overall | 363th | 3.561⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 554th | 3.082⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 410th | 3.223⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 437th | 3.607⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 180th | 3.679⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 231th | 3.396⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 349th | 3.62⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 76🗳️ | 99🗨️ |
@di-yum Thank you! :D
@debaser That was one thing I could have spent more time doing but I was working on features right up until the deadline haha Thank you for playing! :D
Enjoyed with dialogs and voices
Collision and walls sometimes make it's difficult to move sometimes
Missed some dialogs with live people in jail because Mancy told me to send Grunt first to kill them
Background music in jail might be more suitable for jail, it is too light and funny, but i can't create any music, so you made great job
@livingipod Thank you for playing! With the lighting, do you have any suggestions? I'm not a lighting expert so I just dropped a light in haha
@zzzkvidi4 background music in jail? Thats a great idea! :D
@maimai thank you for playing! Yes I think if I did it again, I wouldn't just try to make it visible, I'd add a shader to physically cut out the walls I think!
@x2shadow Sorry to hear that! I've heard from a few people Mega has been rather funky lately. But it seems to be working okay now if you wouldn't mind trying again please? :D
I appreciate the Linux build.
The controls could be clearer. I kept trying to switch characters by clicking, since the rest of the game is mouse controlled. I don't think how to attack was ever mentioned, though the tutorial popups were easy to miss.
I had some pathing issues, characters would often get stuck on things.
I couldn't get Grunt to murder Balvux, also telling him to use an open the door would cause him to become impossible to move again. I ended up restarting a couple of times to get to the end.
It would have been useful to have the non selected character follow the active one if they get too far away to prevent them being completely left behind.
The controls are slightly buggy, a lot of time characters were blocking each other's way, or won't go where I tell them to. For whatever reason LMB/RMB actions sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I'm assuming I couldn't hit the hitbox for the ckick. Also, often important items were obstructed by the envoronment (like walls).
Good concept, can be developed in a full game with further polishing.
Some of the controls and pathing got a bit wonky especially with the 2 player characters colliding. Good entry!
Voice acting, humor, athmos and the idea were good!
Overally, Fun idea ! :thumbsup:
But there are a few issues: the shadows are very harsh, the controls were sometimes glitchy, and I couldn't always cast a spell. Sometimes I had to rotate the camera and change the viewing angle because it was unclear where everything was (maybe they should make the isometric view more visible).
Also, I wanted to say I’m playing through LD entries — check out Madness Bar if you’re into weird/atmospheric stuff ;)
(also fell in the trap :joy: )