Soul Searchin' is a game about a man called Benjamin. Benjamin is feeling a little 'meh', so he's decided to enter his own brain in order to go soul searching. Inside he uncovers the ugly truth about his mental well being.
The game's main mechanic is that you can shrink down to 1/5th your previous size. Each next level is located in the current level at 1/5th its size, so when you shrink down you can enter the next level. Inside which you'll find another smaller level, and so on and so on.
In short you continuously enter smaller and smaller worlds :3
Woo, this game is loaded with neat size-changing tricks and clever moments. I like to jump'n'shrink, it's very satisfying. I'm glad that this game has a proper ending, running for your life back to full size was a great way to get perspective on the whole game!
I did run into collision issues whenever I hit space in a corridor that was too small for me, but it didn't really break the game.
Surprising and clever interpretation of the theme, the innovative mechanics kept me playing to the end. I also enjoyed that the story-texts shrank with the levels. The minimalist black/white art style works pretty well, but in my opinion the sprites don't quite fit in. That being said, this game is good enough to not even need fancy graphics. Good work!
This was really cool! loved how the world and the text kept shrinking and shrinking. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't really an ending for the story.
WOW, what an awesome game! Clever interpretation of the theme and really well executed! Brilliant level design, and the ending was a really nice touch. A winner is you! :D
Awesome game! But I saw this concept months ago in a game site called Game Jolt. Not sure the name of the game though... Something with phantom miner or whatever.
@Kroltan, it does quite resemble Spectre Spelunker Shrinks indeed :P I suppose you could say it was an inspiration for Soul Searchin'. Not that I actively thought about that game while making mine, but I guess coming up with the idea could have been catalysed by the fact that I knew Spectre Spelunker Shrinks beforehand :3
I freaking love the concept! As @KevinZuhn however said, there was quite a lot of collision problems. Deep inside I was hoping that Benjamin would get pancaked when enlarging in a small corridor :D That'd be even more fun. Emm ... I mean, entertaining. Damn, it still sounds like I'm a kind of a sadist. Ah well.
omg - you really wanted to win this competition, didn't you ?
such a brilliant concept
wow - graphics/audio aren't anything special but the mechanics of the game are simply amazing - this must be one of the best uses of the theme I've seen, possibly the best one
you're going to rock the innovation and theme categories with this
It really felt like you took the time to explore the mechanic and it was fun and interesting all the way to the end.
There were some parts which I personally found annoying though...
such as places where you were forced to jump and shrink in the air to get into. It felt like I was jumping and falling to quickly and it just became a kind of jerking motion trying to mash the buttons to get in. It wasn't satisfying at all. If it had taken more time to jump so that you could get some time to time your shrinking I think it could be immensely satisfying. Or you could make it easier to jump into the "groove" at the edge when you are bigger.
The box jumping at the end where you could shrink while you jumped was totally awesome the first time I tried it. Then I realized you had to go back to press a button and when I tried to jump on them again I just couldn't get past them, it kept me there for at least 5 minutes. I think if there had been a little more room between the boxes and ceiling then it would have been easier and making it easy to jump on them I think would give more players that awesome feeling I had of jumping and shrinking all the way through. :)
Finally the part of the game that is on your left smaller screenshot got me stuck for a long time as I couldn't figure out what to do. It wasn't until a friend showed me where to look that I saw the red button at the bottom.
Anyways, I totally loved the game, especially the narration and the twist at the end was great!
LOVE IT! Congrats man, I think you got one of the strongest entries! The mechanic really talks to the theme, and the fact that the whole game is contained in the first screen is indeed a technical feat! I just didn't enjoy precision jump too much, but I know that's the kind of thing one doesn't have time to test, detect and fix in 48 hours. Awesome man :)
It was fun and captivating. Interesting music and story. Only thing is it could have used a background or wall texture. One of the best games I've played so far!
Oh wow!!! This was incredible!!!! Too bad that from the screenshots alone the game doesn't seem so beautiful and innovative. I loved the text and the story (and the hat). I wonder how the hell did you program that.
Wow, I could hardly notice that this was made in 48 hours. It felt like any other high quality flash game. Great interpretation of the theme and good work :)
Really slick, and a great implementation of the tiny world theme! I was a bit frustrated by touchy controls at times. I'm not sure if the intent was to switch sizes mid-jump to make landing on small things easier, but that was the strategy I settled on. It's a bit disorienting and difficult, but things got better for me once I was used to that.
Challenging, but the jump-shrink puzzles got a bit repetitive. Still presented enough challenge that I stuck it through and completed it without getting bored. Very nice! I thought the music was a great enhancer and fit the mood of the game perfectly.
Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments! ^^ I'm very pleased to have earned 4th place in this wonderful LD! In fact I've decided to finish this game and to try and publish it :3
Right now I'm looking for play tester! If you're interested email me at maxim at sir-realism dot com
Comments70
I did run into collision issues whenever I hit space in a corridor that was too small for me, but it didn't really break the game.
Best use of 'Tiny World' theme
The minimalist black/white art style works pretty well, but in my opinion the sprites don't quite fit in. That being said, this game is good enough to not even need fancy graphics. Good work!
No but seriously, very clever and original concept, definitely one of my favorite entries so far! :)
Great job mate!
Good work.
such a brilliant concept
wow - graphics/audio aren't anything special but the mechanics of the game are simply amazing - this must be one of the best uses of the theme I've seen, possibly the best one
you're going to rock the innovation and theme categories with this
It really felt like you took the time to explore the mechanic and it was fun and interesting all the way to the end.
There were some parts which I personally found annoying though...
such as places where you were forced to jump and shrink in the air to get into. It felt like I was jumping and falling to quickly and it just became a kind of jerking motion trying to mash the buttons to get in. It wasn't satisfying at all. If it had taken more time to jump so that you could get some time to time your shrinking I think it could be immensely satisfying. Or you could make it easier to jump into the "groove" at the edge when you are bigger.
The box jumping at the end where you could shrink while you jumped was totally awesome the first time I tried it. Then I realized you had to go back to press a button and when I tried to jump on them again I just couldn't get past them, it kept me there for at least 5 minutes. I think if there had been a little more room between the boxes and ceiling then it would have been easier and making it easy to jump on them I think would give more players that awesome feeling I had of jumping and shrinking all the way through. :)
Finally the part of the game that is on your left smaller screenshot got me stuck for a long time as I couldn't figure out what to do. It wasn't until a friend showed me where to look that I saw the red button at the bottom.
Anyways, I totally loved the game, especially the narration and the twist at the end was great!
I hope this wins. That's all.
Great work :)
Great job
Fun finish, too :).
I'm very pleased to have earned 4th place in this wonderful LD! In fact I've decided to finish this game and to try and publish it :3
Right now I'm looking for play tester! If you're interested email me at maxim at sir-realism dot com