Witness the inevitable cosmic doom from the chasm of the abyss, endlessly devouring souls driven by unstoppable hunger, descending into darkness under the dead sky.

Ember Souls is a villain protagonist, souls-like 2d platformer action game where you play as a soul devourer driven by an insatiable hunger. Using a pixel physics-based attraction mechanic, you must devour souls to survive. Fail to feed, and you will be consumed by your own hunger. Inspired by Cormac McCarthy-esque idea of primal evil, and Dark Souls.

Controls

  • Move: Arrows or WASD  
  • Jump:  Z or J
  • Devour Souls: X or K

Instructions

  • Devour souls to survive.

Graphics

  • Recommended setting for Gamma: 0.80

Known Issues

  • The level is incomplete, and there is no boundary check, if you walk past the cliff, you will fall infinitely.

Credits

This game uses monogram, font created by datagoblin.

This game was created during the GBJAM 12.

Comments

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(1 edit)

Is there any end goal? Or are you just doomed to die as you inevitably run out of things to feed upon within the finite world of this game?

Other than that, I must say even with the tech-demoey aspect of this game I really like the aesthetic. Not just the cool physics based pixel stuff. But also the "monster" design, those are really unique. The tiny thingies look like tasty beings that may not be asking to be devoured, but I can't bring myself to not devour them. Especially when I play as this somewhat big guy who... got an Eye on his shoulder with a MASSIVE WEIRD ARM TO DEVOUR SOULS. And then we of course got the Dark Sign and Black-Dark-Mind from Kirby... Cool, I like it.

Also fun thing I noticed:
All the tiny devourable men run away from you as you approach the cliff on the right. Dunno if that's a technicality, a desired thing, or just plain coincidence. But if was funny seeing their undeveloped ai walk away off the cliff... slowly... very very slowly.


Also I'll note down that Cormac McCarthy in my head, sounds like I could find some cool stuff when I read up on that.



Edit: Also sorry for having to point this out, but from what I can see this is neither a metroidvania (as stated in the tags) nor a SoulsLike. Unless I missed some metroidvania-aspects. And SoulsLike is so misused, something having a Souls-inspired dark tone is probably not the worst misuse of the term I've seen.

(2 edits)

Whoa! Thank you for taking your time to play the Ember Souls and for the very kind words! 

Currently, yes, there is no end goal in itself, as this is a GBJAM 12 entry, the update is temporarily blocked to improve the game. 

I decided to down scope, due to the time constraint, but as soon as the rating ends, I will update into a state of complete game with proper levels, new mechanics (as it is intended to be metroidvania? souls-like), progression system, enemy design, combat design, and balance, that I left out, leaving the status of a tech demo. 

I'm glad you appreciated the ominous aesthetics, and enjoyed devouring the souls of the tiny little one-eyed creatures, satisfying your hunger!

About the level boundaries, that is just left out because of the lack of level design, but I also enjoy observing the tiny little creature slowly falling off the cliff, soothing experience.

About the Cormac McCarthy, if you are interested, I will recommend the Blood Meridian, definitely you will get the doom atmosphere there.

Thank you for pointing out the state of the game, sorry for offering an incomplete game, but it will be updated to a proper souls-like at least! 

Unfortunately for now, you just have to wait for the inexorable hunger to devour your own existence.

Nice, I'll be keeping the project in mind for when you update it.
Not getting to a full finished project in a jam is normal. I'd say the possibility of that is just part of the fun.

I'll certainly keep the project in mind and will check back for updates in the future. Just take your time and don't rush yourself.

Controls plz.

Sorry, at that time, I safe uploaded for the Jam entry, and the gameplay state was not integrated yet. If you want to give it another try, now you can devour souls! The controls are in the description.