The Alchemist by sbeif

made by sbeif for LD 44 (JAM)

In The Alchemist you will have to defeat a huge skeletal golem.

As an Alchemist you don't exactly excel at fighting.

What you can do though, is combine the elements you find, imbue them with some of your life force to create something stronger and use it against your target. Never forget the Law of Equivalent Exchange.

Screenshot (166).png

Combine two elements and sacrifice part of your life (don't worry if you're almost dead, you won't die this way) to launch an attack, create a shield or heal yourself.

Screenshot (168).png Screenshot (170).png

Screenshot (171).png

Gamepad not required but highly suggested (not working correctly WebGL version)

UPDATE: since many people couldn't play I modified input so that the game detects whether you're using KB+mouse or a gamepad

UPDATE 2: added WebGL version (NOTE: it doesn't work with gamepad so I still suggest downloading it for the best experience)

Credits: * Art: Omar Belhaj * Code: Fabio Marocchi

Windows	https://sbeif.itch.io/the-alchemist
Linux	https://sbeif.itch.io/the-alchemist
HTML5 (web)	https://sbeif.itch.io/the-alchemist
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/the-alchemist

Ratings

Given

21🗳️

16🗨️

Feedback

enichols

30. Apr 2019 · 08:53 UTC

Hey, maybe it was just me but I wasn't able to switch to keyboard controls so I couldn't move. I really like the sprites, though.

🎤 sbeif

30. Apr 2019 · 10:49 UTC

@enichols I'm sorry I was half asleep and wrote the wrong key in the tutorial, you should actually press 'T'..my bad, I'll update the description

Noah Reinagel

01. May 2019 · 14:19 UTC

I wasn't able to figure out how to play.

UltrasonicAeron

01. May 2019 · 14:28 UTC

The game was alright. Didn't seem to be any sound though, and the lack of transitions into the win and death screens was a bit jarring. I like what you were going for though!

Knatt

01. May 2019 · 14:37 UTC

I like the sprites, and the dashing mechanic is implemented very well.

Switching the movement with T is jarring, especially when you have to do it on the fly at the beginning of the game. Maybe there should be a toggle on the screen beforehand, or have both movement types active at once?

Also, a little sound goes a long way, even if its just a repeating scale in chip. https://www.beepbox.co is a great for this, I used it in my submission.

Gaming Night

01. May 2019 · 14:48 UTC

It is hard, missing some healling compo. The first atack come early, we can't avoid it (press before "T"). The game play is not easy to handle, but after some tries, it is fun.

🎤 sbeif

01. May 2019 · 15:09 UTC

@noah-reinagel @ultrasonicaeron @knatt @gaming-night Thank you all, you're right about the input switch, I updated it so that it automatically detects if your using gamepad or keyboard.

I know sound can make the difference in the feel of the game but unfortunately we only managed to deliver right at the end of the jam (3AM here and I had work the day after :sweat_smile:) so we didn't really have time to add it. That's why we opted out of audio, but we'll surely add it later on.

ratz

01. May 2019 · 17:27 UTC

Really cool concept! Love it!

BackwardsCap

01. May 2019 · 19:44 UTC

This was a very great idea! Mixing elements for the spell mechanic was super cool.

ldjsq

01. May 2019 · 20:21 UTC

how do I make damage to the boss?

jutjuan

01. May 2019 · 20:24 UTC

I always to watch Edward Elric fighting against sans from undertale! Jokes appart, the game concept is really nice and gives many possibilities. Good job ;)

🎤 sbeif

01. May 2019 · 20:34 UTC

@ldjsq You can either hit his fist right after he slams it on the floor, or you can hit is mouth right before he shoots the beam (the second one becomes pretty hard near the end as the boss gets faster as his health grows thinner and the window of opportunity becomes really short). We didn't write it in the tutorial because we wanted the players to find out, but maybe since you lose health with each attack we should have shown it more clearly..

ristoretto

01. May 2019 · 23:03 UTC

The mixing of elements is very interesting! and works well in the game. The collision on the boss felt a little off, the hands would deal damage even when they fly, ex when they return back. It feels a little restless to wait around for the laser to finish. It works okay to look for resources while waiting it out. Would be cool if the resources would move around more often, ex if other enemies would try to pick them up, or drop resources when they move around, so it would become more dynamic.

fingamer

01. May 2019 · 23:16 UTC

Nice little game. The art is good and the mechanics are interesting. The idea of mixing the elements for different spells was pretty neat. I would've LOVED so music and sound effects! I had to play it for some time until I realized what was seriously going on (at first I didn't know how to damage the boss). It turned out to be a pretty challenging at the end, which I liked.

Cool game, would be great with some audio. Well done!

EdevJogos

01. May 2019 · 23:25 UTC

Really nice, with some sound this would be great.

🎤 sbeif

02. May 2019 · 09:04 UTC

@ristoretto the hands can hit you during the return because they remain on the ground (instead of being lifted like before the attack), so I thought it would be weird if they hit you and didn't damage you.. Although it can also be weird if they hit you "outside the attack". I'm not sure which way is better..if anyone wants to join in and tell their opinion on this, please do.

schitzN

02. May 2019 · 18:33 UTC

Good idea, played a fair bit! Would be cool to have even more elements to experiment with and to discover what combines well with each other! :)

fidrik

02. May 2019 · 18:35 UTC

Great game and a cool idea. I felt like the icons could have shown what effect that had more. and been larger and clearer. Also sometimes I needed to heal but picked up the wrong thing by accident, is there a way to drop items? But its a nice idea and a good entry, well done

majana2

02. May 2019 · 18:41 UTC

It was fun trying to kill the boss but I was not that engaged after multiple tries, nice job though!

emf31

02. May 2019 · 19:14 UTC

Good game and really cool idea, i'd only miss some sounds and maybe other attacks of the boss.

Well done.

JakobTheQuizGuy

02. May 2019 · 19:25 UTC

Cool boss fight! It was surprisingly easy to remember all the combinations, and the difficulty was just right. Good job!

Purrseus

02. May 2019 · 19:29 UTC

The game works really well mechanically, I love the fast pacing! It's all quite fluent and the feedback is really nice! The graphics are also quite cool. I love running around on this giant's table and trying my best to outsmart him, I really feel it. Well done! Audio would be a great addition, but it's a game jam after all. I felt it to be a little unfair/unintuitive that the hand cano damage you when it's flying. But with just a tiny bit of polish you'll have a really great game! Good job :)

AwesomeAlliterationAlliance

03. May 2019 · 18:55 UTC

You Won!! It took me a few times, but once i understood the mechanics, it was really fun. I mainly spamed the hard attack and that worked really well in the end. I like the concept, and the feel of the gameplay. The only minor thing that i didn't understand at the beginning was the behaviour of the colliders. But once I understood that I cant walk in the hands at any time, it was a nice experience. The Boss behavoir is nicely programmend and feels really good. Good work!