Soul Breakers
This is my entry for the Mini Jam 113 game jam. It's a short RPG experience meant to evoke the feeling of loading a save file from the final dungeon of a jrpg. The game contains several cutscenes, multiple enemy types, and skills, and of course the final boss himself. The "stuck in a loop" limitation of the game jam is triggered when you fight the final boss, but there is a way to break out of it to see the ending.
All story, code, graphics, and sound were made during the game jam period.
Controls:
Move: Arrow keys.
Confirm (X): X or V
Cancel/Open Menu (O): Z or C
Tips & Tricks
* The final dungeon prevents you from using recovery items, but you can use healing skills from the menu.
* Don't be afraid to use skills. There is plenty of MP and a place where you can refill before the boss.
* If you get sick of random encounters, the character "Shade" has a skill called Escape that always succeeds in escaping from battle. But it can't be used against the boss.
Development
I returned to Pico-8 this time after two game jams spent in Unity. I had almost forgotten how much quicker it is to work with when it comes to adding graphics and functionality. Of course it comes with its own challenges. Trying to convey what the sprites are supposed to be is difficult with the low resolution and only 16 colors. Shout out to ShidyGames who gave me some pixel-art tips while I was livestreaming the development.
This was also the first time I attempted to make music in Pico-8. Out of all the parts of Pico-8 development this is the thing I know the least about. I still managed to whip up 4 tracks of varying length (and honestly varying quality as well).
The story for the game was made up along the way. I tried to mirror the earnest and slightly melodramatic vibe you can find in a lot of jrpgs. It is a genre I love, so it was fun to be able to make something like it even with such limited development time.
I was able to pace myself a lot better both in terms of scope and code length, avoiding the dreaded Pico-8 Token limit that caused a lot of problems for me during the development of Splash Zone Tournament. Overall this feels like the most "complete" game I've been able to make for one of these game jams.
I hope you enjoy playing my game!
Comments
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That was more fun than I expected! I have experience hitting PICO-8 token limits so I know the struggle and I'm surprised that you were able to fit so much content into a single cart!
The pixel art is pretty good for PICO-8, and I especially like the Dior's portrait. The use of the white highlight around the characters was also nice.
The first time that Fang said that there must be another way, and that it didn't feel right, I backtracked all the way back to the beginning, searching the walls for some secret I missed. That was a mistake lol. Maybe make that not possible? I dunno. It was nice though, because I was assured that I'd seen and done everything worth doing.
The dialogue is also really great! I appreciate the JRPG melodrama, and I think that you really nailed it. I haven't played a JRPG in over a decade but..
this really gave me the nostalgia. Aaaa
This is a very straight-forward little game, but there's nothing wrong with that, and it more or less nails every part of the execution! It felt like playing an older RPG, I felt for the old RPG characters and their story, and it's easy to see the "final boss" and "stuck in a loop" themes!
While it's great on its own, this would also be a great start to a slightly fuller game (made in more than three days, of course), where the current ending isn't what it seems...
There would be a lot of world building necessary to turn this into a bigger thing, I think. The story is intentionally pretty cliché, and I didn't come up with anything more than what is in the game itself.
I do intend to create more story focused games in the future though. Where I have more time than three days to work on it like you said. ;)