Soulbound Steel

THE CHALLENGE

Soulbound Steel is an experiment on the idea of fusing two game genres into one mechanic.

It’s a shooter and a hack n’ slash in a single button.

The core challenge was creating a combat system that remained readable despite the player simultaneously controlling their character, summonable units, defensive actions, and crowd management at a hack n’ slash pace.

PROBLEM #1: Teaching the block mechanic

Soulbound Steel’s top down shooting combat premise is relatively unique. Your bullets are actually animated characters that dash forward and attack enemies for you.

The block mechanic involved dragging your units through an attacking enemy to interrupt its move. Players struggled to make that connection, as it works differently than other action games.

CONSTRAINTS

  • The mechanic was central to combat.

  • Players needed to learn it early.

  • Long tutorials would disrupt pacing.

First, teach the attack mechanic and ensure they have at least one unit on the map, which is required by the block mechanic.

Timing is especially important when blocking, as most enemies attack while dashing at the player, and can only be blocked while doing so. Later on in Level 1, I use yet another mixture of the elements mentioned in the point above. This time it’s a strong enemy that kills you if you don’t block properly, sending you to a checkpoint nearby.

The next challenge is a pair of slow moving statues that chases the player and shoves them away upon contact. They can only pass once they’ve executed the same action twice, within a minimum interval.

PROBLEM EXAMPLE #2: Players Losing their Character

Players frequently lost track of their character during combat due to the number of moving entities on screen.

Playtests showed that summonable units attracted significant visual attention, making it difficult for new players to maintain awareness of their position.

SOLUTION

Several interventions were introduced:

  • Increased character visibility through a saturated health indicator, which also individualizes its silhouette.

  • Reduced environmental visual noise.

  • Limited simultaneous threatening attacks during early gameplay, allowing the player to focus on one enemy at a time.

  • Added reactive damage indicators that redirected player attention toward their character.

Result

New players maintained awareness of their position more consistently while preserving the visual complexity of combat.

Play Demo

Solution

  • Slow-motion teaching moments emphasizing timing windows.

  • Forcing functions that prevented progression until mastery.

  • Short contextual instructions.