THE SOULARIUM
Genre
Puzzle/Bullet Hell
Engine
Unity
Team Size
Solo project
Role
All roles
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Soularium is an adventure game mixing puzzle and bullet hell situations.
This game was created as part of thatgamejam#01 during 2 weeks and was a solo project.
INTRODUCTION
ThatGameJam#01 was a game jam organized by Thatgamecompany from December 20th 2025 to January 5th 2026. The theme for the jam was an image. I participated alone to this jam, which was a challenge, especially during holiday season.
PROTOTYPING
As I was alone and did not have much time, I prototyped a simple version of the game with a first puzzle and a test room for the action gameplay.
I did not want to add fighting abilities to the character to fit the mood of the jam. The original gameplay was inspired by Lost in Random‘s mechanic where enemies drop ressources that you use. In this case it was used to activate flames, but the gameplay was not dynamic enough.µ
The prototype made me realize that a bullet hell gameplay would work better than what I had, and so I designed enemies and turrets so that they go in that direction.
LEVEL DESIGN
The levels in this game were designed so that they were easy to produce. There’s very few environments, most of what we see is minimalist, with simple shapes, and there’s no background, it’s just a simple skybox.
In the final version, there are 3 exploration/puzzle areas and 3 gauntlets, with 2 cinematics. The game takes 10 minutes to complete. I’m very happy with the final result, it’s quite close to what I expected it to be. There’s a bit more content, I initially expected the two last gauntlets to be merged into a bigger challenge but I think this version with two successive gauntlets is better for such a short game.
POST MORTEM
This project is a huge success for me as it was the occasion to make a game that summarizes all of my skills, from design to art or audio. By focusing on what I can do and getting rid of my weaknesses, I managed to create a simple but effective game focused on a few gameplay elements.
What I learned from this project:
– A minimalist character controller can be fun to control
– Thinking about the other aspects of a game than gameplay can lead to new ideas
– Simplifying art, music or gameplay helps to focus on the core elements
Walkthrough