LudumData

Unstable Concoction by NeilKleistGao

[raw]
made by NeilKleistGao for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

Unstable Concoction

Background

There are six elements in the world:

  • the Arcane
  • the Blight
  • the Crystal
  • the Diffusal
  • the Essence
  • the Force

The magical reactions among them create this beautiful world. ... And you, are a bottle of potion, who wants to become the greatest alchemist of the world! In order to do so, you shall find the hidden magic circle. But watch out for every step you make, since the chemical you carry may easily get spilled. And then, BOOM! The reaction with the ground might kill you. Also, you may collect elements on the way, and mix it with the chemical inside you to form a new component. You could use the potion you carry to corrupt the door that gets in your way. Do keep in mind that some chemicals are inert and would not react with others. By the way, the reaction with the door could also form a new element and thus changing your chemical. Use your wisdom to solve the puzzles!

How to Play

You can click the ground to move the lovely character. If the destination is not reachable, the movement will be forbidden.

You can collect elements in the scenes. If the given element can't react with the concoction in your bottle, nothing will happen, or you will get a new concoction. You can judge the type of elements and concoctions by the color.

Concoctions in the bottle will be spilled after every movement. The ground blocks may be eroded if they can react. Be careful that you can't move to a null block.

You need to break doors using some specified concoctions, or you can't pass them. When you get the Magic Circle, you win this game. Don't worry about trying! If you make a wrong decision, you can press Z to undo it. You can also press R to restart the whole game. If you want to get back to the level selection menu, just press ESC. Good luck and thanks for your playing!

title.pngintro.pngintro2.pnglev#el3.png

In order to simplify the game, we decided to release the reaction table here:

  • Arcane + Diffusal = Crystal

  • Arcane + Force = Essence

  • Blight + Crystal = Essence

  • Blight + Force = Crystal

  • Crystal + Essence = Force

  • Crystal + Force = Arcane

  • Diffusal + Essence = Crystal

  • Diffusal + Force = Blight

If you get stuck in the game, you could check the table above.

In the end, if you have any question, please leave a comment below!

Link https://chocolate-kami.itch.io/unstableconcoction
Link https://chocolate-kami.itch.io/unstableconcoction
Link https://chocolate-kami.itch.io/unstableconcoction
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/unstable-concoction-4

Ratings

Overall 905th 3.407⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1169th 3.02⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 655th 3.404⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 676th 3.615⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 198th 4.278⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 656th 3.278⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 983th 2.545⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 856th 3.32⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

stanroy
04. Oct 2021 · 22:28 UTC
I can't run it in Firefox and Chrome :(
Jzjerry
05. Oct 2021 · 02:23 UTC
Interesting puzzle game, it makes me take some notes to find out the relationship between these elements.The arts are pretty cute. Good job! :smile:
🎤 NeilKleistGao
05. Oct 2021 · 02:31 UTC
<del>Sorry for the problem in web package. Please play on MacOS or Windows First</del>We've fixed bugs in the web version.
LDJam user 237945
05. Oct 2021 · 06:21 UTC
Absolutely love the visuals of this game!
water_otter
05. Oct 2021 · 06:26 UTC
I really liked the art and music. Discovering interactions between the elemnts was pretty interesting, but took some time, also game felt a little bit slow because I had to click every tile individualy, it would be cool if player could go through multiple tiles in 1 click
KutaryouShinkoku
05. Oct 2021 · 06:33 UTC
I love the idea and the graphic, but I don’t fully understand what color can open what door.
🎤 NeilKleistGao
05. Oct 2021 · 06:38 UTC
In order to simplify the game, we decided to release the reaction table here:

+ Arcane + Diffusal = Crystal
+ Arcane + Force = Essence
+ Blight + Crystal = Essence
+ Blight + Force = Crystal
+ Crystal + Essence = Force
+ Crystal + Force = Arcane
+ Diffusal + Essence = Crystal
+ Diffusal + Force = Blight
K4M1
05. Oct 2021 · 06:49 UTC
@stanroy I'm sorry for the problem in web package, and it should be fixed by now. You could check the game in your browser now!
K4M1
05. Oct 2021 · 06:51 UTC
@jzjerry Thank you so much for your comment! It's really inspiring for us :smile_cat:
K4M1
05. Oct 2021 · 06:54 UTC
@madr It almost took me 2 days to do the art work so I'm really glad that you said so!
K4M1
05. Oct 2021 · 06:56 UTC
@water-otter Thank you for your kind suggestion! We will consider to implement it in the future. The time for us was so limited so we had to focus on other features first. :sob:
K4M1
05. Oct 2021 · 06:57 UTC
@kutaryoushinkoku We've released the reaction table now and you could check it if you get confused!
KutaryouShinkoku
05. Oct 2021 · 07:11 UTC
@k4m1 wow!Thanks and i'll try it again!
Roelosaurus
05. Oct 2021 · 07:36 UTC
Kinda confusing, but I like the art. 👍
jan5366x
05. Oct 2021 · 07:50 UTC
Nice Idea but hard to master without reaction table. Graphics is very nice!
tetrapteryx
05. Oct 2021 · 12:49 UTC
The art is seriously beautiful. I'm a sucker for shiny-looking pixel art, and this certainly delivers! The undo feature was super helpful early on. I think starting out with some really small introductory levels to teach each combination without having to walk too far to fix a mistake would help ramp players up to solving the more fun, complex puzzles.
zantze
05. Oct 2021 · 13:24 UTC
Very good looking game, the sprites and the animations look very neat! I personally couldn't get past the third level, as I always seemed to get stuck in one of the dead-ends. If I could recommend something, the movement could be a bit faster, since it got a bit tedious going around the map. Good job on the game, and good luck with the jam!
suisou
05. Oct 2021 · 14:40 UTC
Music and art are very beautiful. It took me a long time to understand that the disappearance of the door and the cube is the same attribute restraint relationship. After understanding this it feel very novel. It would be perfect if you could move as fast as undo. The puzzle has great potential. I think I like it very much.
Sodaro
05. Oct 2021 · 17:09 UTC
The art style is lovely and I like the concept of combining elements and that combination adding an additional layer of complexity by destroying tiles! :smiley: Would have liked to be able to click less (felt a bit straining), such as by being able to hold the mouse button or use keyboard) :)
rock-gong
06. Oct 2021 · 09:48 UTC
Lovely graphics and clever game mechanism. Character moving is a little too slow.
AegisFate
06. Oct 2021 · 11:28 UTC
artstyle and 8bit music impressed me.route planning sometimes stumps me, the undo button is very useful at this time, and the puzzle part is very interesting.
personally, it would be very helpful if there is a function to plan the route and execute it. Clicking to move sometimes takes away my patience for repeated attempts
praleks
06. Oct 2021 · 14:25 UTC
Nice Graphics and Puzzle. Would be have keybourd to control
Locke8
06. Oct 2021 · 16:28 UTC
The graphics and audio were nice, but the game felt a bit slow, the movement could have been a bit faster. Its also quite difficult to tell which elements open which doors or which elements combine into what. Some sort of indicator would have certainly helped. the game can be a bit confusing all around, it could have really used more indications and more explanations.
NoeTheLazyDev
06. Oct 2021 · 18:03 UTC
The idea is quite interesting, I think it would be cool to add a "reaction table" cheatsheet to the game. And as some said, keyboard controls would make the experience more pleasant.
RoyalAndLive
07. Oct 2021 · 14:56 UTC
Interesting!I passed the first three levels to test the reaction between color and color,so the fourth level is much easier.
Dustin Brown
08. Oct 2021 · 03:26 UTC
Fun puzzle game! The potion is absolutely adorable. I like how the "tutorial" so-to-speak is built into the puzzles themselves.
NPr0nn
08. Oct 2021 · 21:23 UTC
Cute and nice puzzle game, I loved the introduction, I would add a little more polish in the gameplay, like an arrow where you can click and more animations, but overall pretty fun to play
xiyou
18. Oct 2021 · 08:45 UTC
Very interesting game. This rule has a lot of potential to make complex levels. The concept of the game is also very interesting, the characters can react with different elements and become new ones.

I think that if the core of the game is a variety of elements then maybe each element can have its own characteristics.
You know, like the crystal element, which can be so slippery that the character can't change direction on it, a very classic design.
Or there are elements that affect 3*3 squares instead of one at your feet.
Or there is an element that can react with all other elements.
This would have more potential.

I was stuck on level 3 for a long time until I realized I didn't have to eat the elements but just the doors.I noticed that doors and elements are the same concept except that one blocks the player, which is confusing.
Perhaps a little difference could be made, such as moving around gradually consuming liquid, while elements can refill, but doors cannot. The player starts out empty, so eating the element is the element itself without considering the new element after the reaction.

Overall it's still very good and I really like the grid map style in this perspective
(从b站来，是相同类型的替身呢。 狗头)