The Yokai's Spirit: Summer Flowjam 2024

Game Updates & Announcements
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Hello! This is a devlog for my 2024 summer Flowjam game!

It’s titled The Yokai’s Spirit.
I am writing the storyline now. It will come before the actual sidescroller platformer game, started from an awesome main menu:

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The main character is a Yokai made by the creator of the universe to enforce his laws. It was not a perfect creation, however, and it killed many while completing the tasks set by the creator, who had instructed the being to never destroy any humans. The Creator was dis-satisfied with his Yokai, and punished it by allowing the spirits of those he killed attack the yokai’s own spirit and entangle it in Karma.
The Yokai went on enforcing the laws and bringing peace to mankind, but eventually, the Karma grew too intense. The Yokai grew weak and suffered greatly. The creator took pity on it and said, “I have one more mission for you. As you know, the great nations have begun a war against each other for possession of the Earth. Hidden under the ancient mountain of Olympus, in Greece, is an artifact made by the gods from there as a parting gift to man. It has the potential to restore peace to my world. Obtain it, and your soul shall be free eternally from the karma bonds, and you will no longer have to serve me.”

So, the Yokai traveled to the land of Greece. He walked among the ruins of the temples and statues of the ancient gods of greece. In time, he arrived at Mount Olympus. The enemy encampment was near this place, and they roamed these lands. He slew many of them, but, as he did, the karma bonds entangled his soul more than ever. This mission would be his hardest yet. He must obtain the artifact without killing too many of the human enemies. With each man slayed, his bonds grew stronger, and he weaker.

EDIT: Took out the tuff about Greece. This isn’t a greek game, it’s Japanese! -Well… uhh… it’s american. But whatever!

The player plays the Yokai on this mission. To follow the theme; everything comes at a price, each time the player kills an enemy, the karma level rises. If the player kills too many, then the Yokai’s soul will separate from his body, and shall suffer forever by the karma caused by those he killed in his time.

Yeah, so that’s the idea. I will obviously re-write that a bit for the actual game.
Stay tuned for more updates!

-Ember.Y

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deadly smile is rapidly approaching

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Well, this is the game I’m making on my own for the flowjam. Still though, I should probably lock all my doors, you know…

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Update 1

I did ALL of the story today. It won’t be posted here (So you all can be surprised at the magnificence of it in a week), but I changed a few things up from the story I posted here originally. First, I changed it from MT. Olympus to MT. Haku, and actual Japanese mountain (to fit with the style). Second, I changed it from killing a few, to killing hundreds that gave him Karma.

And, making the story system was NOT easy:

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I used like, 20 switches in the same bundle, lol. CRAZY!

Anyways, I am so glad to have that over with. Hope you enjoy the story when the game comes out!

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I

I ADDED A COMBO ATTACK!

Underhand uppercut into straight down smash with the sword with spacebar.

It looks… SO AMAZINGLY AWESOME GOOD!

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Enemies now have RGN movement! Adding attacks now.

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I am SO behind. 3 days left and I don’t have the level design down yet.

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UPDATE 2

  • Player Attacks finished. (So amazing!)

  • Joined the Jam on ITCH (Account: Chimera [Ember.Y]).

  • Exporting game ASAP.

  • Enemy RGN movement.

  • Enemy death sequence.

  • GAME OVER Karma sequence. (Also very Amazing).

  • New controls: Spacebar to use combo or minor attack. C to use Major attack (Slower, 1-shot).

  • Enemy Jumping.

  • Enemy Attacks indev.

I am overall really happy with the attacks and the Karma Sequence. It looks SO good!

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What’s RGN?

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Random Generated Number(s). RGN movement would be random jumps, speed, turning, and just about everything else in sidescroller movement.

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Oh I thought it was RNG - Random Number Generator.
Both work anyway so there’s nothing wrong with calling it RGN

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As I said, I’m behind. Just started the level design.

Of course, it’s going to be floating islands… because it just is.

(No, because it’s WAY harder to make solid ground.)

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how is it harder to make solid ground?

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Because of the challenge of LAG. I want it to be at least 5 minutes, which will mean a big platformer level. I can’t have ten blocks of solid ground the whole way through. It’s just not going to work.

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Ohhh I had trouble with that too, why not just use JR01’s advanced camera? It makes it so that the camera is fixed to a specific area and can swap areas like a dungeon crawler. Basically you won’t have to place 10 rows of the same block just so the player can’t see under it.

And it’s also easy to set-up!

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I could, but I want it to be a smooth sidescrolling camera. Different sections wouldn’t really fit with the theme.

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Yeah you could still do that! (probably)
Just make use only the first area and just make it huge whilst hiding certain spots.
But the areas can only be rectangles and with the way your level is designed right now it probably wouldn’t work.

Still it would be a great thing to use in the future!

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I agree. This would be very useful.

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The Yokai’s Spirit

Game for summer Flowjam 2024. By Ember Games. Currently half finished.

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Special shoutout to @Extrez for the use of his Firework Blood Example! Makes the new downcut attack explode in enemy-damaging particles!

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