LudumData

ALCHEMY unsTABLE by kpded

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

oblozka.png You are running a small alchemy business in the middle of a magical forest

It all goes okay, but potions you sell are unstable and ready to explode every time they collide with real world entities like walls (or a cat)

Go to the customer to find out what ingredients she wants to mix into a potion. Then collect them from chests (and a well) on the level and put them one by one to the alchemy table at the top right corner of the level.

You can see ingredients that are on the table by going close to it. If the correct sequence of ingredients is broken, the table goes unstable and you need to put a stabilizer (bottom middle chest). And hurry up, because otherwise the table will explode and you will lose the customer

Try to sell as many magical potions as possible before losing three clients. Btw, ingredients the potions are made of are unstable too. Try not touch the walls with them

https://youtu.be/uQgXwHnktYU

Controls:

move with WASD

rotate potion around you with left and right arrow buttons

push and pull potion with up and down arrow buttons

run on Shift

interact on E

The game made with CocosCreator

We used Spine, AdobePhotoshop for animation and art

Audacity for audio editing

Art by @yanamoe

Animation and art by @alex-belikov

Programming by @aprioriface and @bo-rocket

Level design by @kpded

Background Music: "Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link https://github.com/Kodedyukh/AlchemyUnstable
Link https://kpded.itch.io/alchemy-unstable
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/alchemy-unstable

Ratings

Overall 337th 3.828⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 821th 3.362⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 302th 3.724⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 174th 4.155⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 166th 4.328⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 362th 3.556⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 311th 3.828⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 44🗳️ 36🗨️

Feedback

Zachery Delafosse
04. Oct 2021 · 23:54 UTC
The instructions aren't quite clear but I figured it out (at least partly). The customer may request multiple colors. When they do, you must bring them to the alchemy lab thing in the top right one at a time so that they'll combine, and bring that to the customer. Interaction with the customers requires facing the right direction, so you'll need to use both arrow keys (to rotate not just the potion but your facing direction) and wasd (to walk around).
LDJam user 243193
05. Oct 2021 · 05:03 UTC
I had troubles understand what to do and what not to do at first. Later on I understand that I have to combine potions in correct colors and put each near book on upper right.
The idea is fun but it become less fun when potion combinations become too long.
Mirko
05. Oct 2021 · 15:49 UTC
i had problems with collisions, and later an npc stuck me at a room's corner, but nice idea overall
Cocomineral
05. Oct 2021 · 15:59 UTC
Graphics and theme were cool but in the gameplay i couldn't manage to combine the potions together i think a practice tutorial were we are guided on how to do things would be cool.
LDJam user 257438
07. Oct 2021 · 16:14 UTC
Amazing game you got here!!!
But it is hard!
felixwentzel
07. Oct 2021 · 16:17 UTC
Great puzzle design, the grace period before the potion breaks while colliding with a wall is a really nice touch that gives the game a nice learning curve
Becky Rayner
07. Oct 2021 · 16:18 UTC
Great concept and overall a fun mini-game in my opinion! love the art style, super cute & clean! Definitely needs a tutorial but it doesn't require that much thinking to figure out what to do
Hoeleboele
07. Oct 2021 · 16:22 UTC
Game pace was a bit slow. Gameplay and controls felt nice but also a bit slow. If the game is 2x as fast i would have been interested for longer the game idea is really good and i liked it alot :D very good job!
JayJack
07. Oct 2021 · 16:22 UTC
OH man 🤣 I blew up everything. I loved running around and getting potions and the cat was a hilarious addition to the game. I didn't think the controls for turning were working until I held the button for more than a second but I suppose it is a good idea to have more control over how you're turning because otherwise it would be so much easier to explode everything. Great take on the unstable theme and definitely a patience test for me!
LDJam user 264629
07. Oct 2021 · 16:28 UTC
I liked the graphics, music, and just the mood overall but there were some parts that weren't very fun. A lot of the things just felt kind of tedious. In particular the yellow potion which I had far too much trouble getting out of that tight corridor. Nevertheless, I rated the game very highly overall since I like the overall premise and (aside from that cursed yellow potion) also the execution.
LunacyEcho
07. Oct 2021 · 16:28 UTC
I would actually disagree with many of the commenters here and say that, after reading your description, I thought it was pretty clear what I needed to do once I started the game! There were some really cool and well-thought-out game design elements here, from the amount of time it took a potion bottle to disintegrate after being in contact with a wall (long enough to be forgiving but short enough to provide lots of good tension), to the width and layout of the corridors of the house. I think I eventually found that the best strategy was just to watch backwards while holding the potion in front of me lol.

Honestly, this game seemed super solid for what it was! If you were to expand it further, I might suggest having different house layouts, since this existing one started to get a bit tedious after a while--eventually I just learned how to get the potions everywhere through muscle memory. That, or perhaps you could introduce more obstacles to dodge once the player had a few successful runs. One small bug(?) I found: you can actually hand the completed potion back to the person who requested it through one of the walls of the house, which eliminates the need to go through that final curve on the way back to the bottom left.

Very fun game overall! I liked how you worked in a bunch of different elements of instability into it. Great job!
LDJam user 263688
07. Oct 2021 · 16:30 UTC
This game is very challenging, but I like it. The instructions I just blew past, which I shouldn't have done, but I feel like a tutorial would be better. ( Walking the player through the steps instead of just having some text on screen. ) Overall great game, very innovative.
Raph_Gi
08. Oct 2021 · 08:31 UTC
Great looking game, nice choice of music. The labyrinth / puzzle side of the game is really cool, I just wish the potion rotation was a bit faster. I think the concept is cool but becomes quickly repetitive, maybe add some kind of more specific objective.
Ben Yazi
08. Oct 2021 · 13:54 UTC
I had some trouble with understanding what to do with blue and red bottles (because I missed it in instruction). I tried to give bottles to the customer :joy:
I think, if switch rotation to mouse It will be interested.
Nice game. :thumbsup:
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 05:55 UTC
@zachery-delafosse thank you for your feedback! Yeah, that was not very clear initially, so we added one more help screen in game.
Hope it is clear now :smile:
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 05:58 UTC
@bloodbane thank you very much for the feedback!
We have tuned a recopies a little, now difficulty is not that steep, and added some guidance within the game
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 09:48 UTC
@mirko thank you very much! We have tweaked the collision system a little, should work relatively stable now
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 09:49 UTC
@cocomineral thank you for playing our game! We will try to put those instruction more straightforward next time
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 09:51 UTC
@spider-developer that's true :smirk:
we have changed the balance a little, to make it easier
moi93101
13. Oct 2021 · 10:38 UTC
I didn't succeed to make at least one potion... More precisely, I did it, but never go to customer because of some... bad walls that just want to brokes my potions !
I really like graphisms btw
Anaxie Studio
13. Oct 2021 · 11:48 UTC
I never get tired of potion games! The art is really cute and so is the little cat! I like the idea of moving potions with magic, and the game is challenging in a nice way. I also really love the sound design. It seems the menu buttons can only be used with the keyboard (?), but I wish one could also use the mouse. The brief tutorial did a good job in my opinion.

All in all, it's a really charming game! The alchemist should probably do some remodeling tho, hehe. It'd be interesting to see something like this as a full game.
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 15:40 UTC
@loiclegrosfrere thank you! That's true, our artists did really great here
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 15:51 UTC
@anaxie-studio thank you! We are thinking of something bigger, based on this mechanics

But not sure what could be the better way to make progression clear and gameplay deeper here.

The alchemist is not a 3D model, btw ) It is a spine animation, thank your drawing our attention to it
Anaxie Studio
13. Oct 2021 · 16:20 UTC
@kpded Perhaps you'd have to build, upgrade and manage your own shop? Or become increasingly famous, having to work in more and more well-known places? :)
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 16:56 UTC
@anaxie-studio I think we gonna move somewhere in that direction
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 18:30 UTC
@felixwentzel thank you very much for the feedback! We are planning to tune the movement and rotation to make it faster if this will go to something bigger
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 18:54 UTC
@jayjack thank you for playing our game and your feedback!

Yeah, the cat! It is our favorite useless feature. At first it should take a bigger part in the gameplay. But eventually it didn't) And decided to left it anyway, because it is hilarious

As for controls, we are still thinking on improving them
🎤 kpded
13. Oct 2021 · 18:58 UTC
@pwnzer thank you for your feedback!

That's right some blancing is required with the yellow potion (one of our programmers thinks that it is cursed too, btw :scream_cat: )
chtimy
13. Oct 2021 · 19:35 UTC
I broke everythings XD
Nice game ! The rotation is a little bit slow. I never arrive to pass the corner with the big potion :( But the gameplay is well thought.
Thank you for your game!
Krjemelik
14. Oct 2021 · 15:11 UTC
Amazing and hard game! I really-really like the visuals, soundeffects and design. Well done!
🎤 kpded
14. Oct 2021 · 16:41 UTC
@krjemelik thank you for your feedback! We are still working on making it less tedious )
KeichiTS
15. Oct 2021 · 18:09 UTC
Ipressive graphics, fluid mechanics and a very creative unstable theme usage. Well done! Congrats for the great work!
VarunDevs
16. Oct 2021 · 07:26 UTC
Pretty cool game :v:
Vivoubos
16. Oct 2021 · 16:19 UTC
Meowww!! ^^

I loved it The yellow is so hard !!

Congratulation for this entry
matthewlacker
16. Oct 2021 · 16:49 UTC
This is a pretty neat idea, I liked the walking and rotating to keep the potions from touching the walls. It might work well on a controller with two analog sticks for movement and rotation.
arron-fowler
17. Oct 2021 · 18:57 UTC
I will start my stream about 9pm Uk time. Hope to see you there. https://www.twitch.tv/thesoulselector
arron-fowler
17. Oct 2021 · 21:22 UTC
I played this on stream tonight. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1179627561
🎤 kpded
18. Oct 2021 · 14:52 UTC
@arron-fowler thank you for the stream
Unfortunately had no chance to see it live due to my time zone :sob:
🎤 kpded
18. Oct 2021 · 15:17 UTC
@arron-fowler thank you for high rating

And sorry about it being so dense we didn't mean it :smile:
FireSlash
19. Oct 2021 · 06:26 UTC
Nice polish!

Oh boy was this hard. I managed to make a couple potions before frustration got the better of me. The mechanics are super clear, I'm just not a patient person, and the pacing is clearly optimized for the slow, methodical types.

Graphics are lovely, and the music is simple yet catchy. I didn't encounter any obvious bugs.

Great job!
VarunDevs
20. Oct 2021 · 09:00 UTC
Good one it was pretty hard but still keep up the hard work
🎤 kpded
20. Oct 2021 · 15:37 UTC
@matthewlacker yeah, with analog it could be much better

Basically a mouse is analog input device, and that was our first prototypes controls, but it turned out that there are some pitfalls, so we decided to switch to arrow keys. Thinking of making it back :thinking:
Ve_ret
20. Oct 2021 · 16:01 UTC
How difficult it was to carry these potions, but I tried to fulfill it!)
The game looks great, the graphics are beautiful, I would like to separately mention the running cat :3, pleasant music, in general, the impressions of the game are positive. Well done!)