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!