"Fight sparingly, and keep moving because your time is running out!"
The Concept
Soulfire is a 2D platformer where players take on the role of Luna.
Luna is the last moth of her village after the Umbra attacked, monsters that steal souls and leach life from their surroundings to become powerful. It is up to her to brave beyond the safety of her home into a world corrupted by the Umbra and restore the souls of her village’s people.
The game encourages challenging and fast-paced movement as Luna’s soul constantly drains from the corruption.
My Role
I worked on a team of 4, working to create Soulfire over the span of 4 months. I was the lead coder, I focused on designing, testing and refining the player movement, making sure it all felt smooth, responsive and dynamic. The move set was designed for players to go fast first and foremost, each move was designed to connect together, allowing players to dodge, attack, and parry enemies with perfect timing.
I also programmed a variety of enemies, obstacles and interactive elements that the level designers could easily drag and drop into levels whenever necessary.
Play Soulfire
Moveset
The moveset included the basics like running, jumping, parrying and attacking, however because the focus of the game was to encourage efficiency and fast movement we added moves like dashing and sliding to help players both attack and dodge enemies while maintaining momentum.
Dashing makes Luna temporarily invulnerable allowing her to pass through most enemies, and sliding provides a short speed boost and knocks back enemies while dealing damage.
Another main focus of the move set was Luna's lantern which functions both as a ranged attack that she can throw at enemies and a moving platform to parry bounce off of, making it a great tool for advanced players. The lantern can be thrown by pressing the trigger and will remain out if you hold the trigger, on release it will recall to Luna, hitting enemies from behind on the way, which helps Luna get past shields and other protection.
Parrying in the game can be used as to defend yourself, deflect attacks such as projectiles and to lift you into the air depending on the context of it's use.
Health System
The health system was central in reinforcing the need for speed within Soulfire, providing a core pressure point for the player with life force draining every second, and the only way to refill it is by killing enemies or reaching a checkpoint. However fighting enemies can slow you down, so it's up to the player to decide if a fight is worth it or not or to take down an enemy in the most efficient way possible.
When you take damage a section of your health bar is damaged and that capacity is removed, meaning your maximum time is lowered. The only thing that can restore your health bar sections is reaching a checkpoint. Thus if you are hit 4 times you die instantly.
When you take damage a section of your health bar is damaged and that capacity is removed, meaning your maximum time is lowered. The only thing that can restore your health bar sections is reaching a checkpoint. Thus if you are hit 4 times you die instantly.
Dynamics
Overall, the different game mechanics are meant to enforce the following gameplay, to master precise movement, kill lots of enemies with effectiveness, strive for perfection and of course to go as fast as you can.
Screenshots
Acknowledgments
Alex Di Nobile - Lead Artist
Cole McMullin - Lead Coder
Daniel Gagne - Technical Artist
Cohen Ly - Audio Designer
