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A jam submission

AlchemickalView game page

Wreak havoc with the power of alchemy in this roguelite twin-stick shooter!
Submitted by rodbotic (@rodbotical) — 2 days, 23 hours before the deadline
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Alchemickal's itch.io page

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Comments

(+1)

Controller isn't registered.

Camera panning feels a bit to abrupt to me. Tutorial Level already clearly feels generated and a bit empty, especially the outside Walls between the Rooms are just a big flat Texture and do sometimes make up quite a bit of the Screen.

I like that you actually have to look at the Sign, instead of just hovering over it or being close. I don't like the swinging Animation, it feels weak.

Why is me falling into the Pit in the Tutorial returning me to the main Screen?

Second Time going through the Tutorial caused a few massive Freezes right when clearing the Path with Fire.

Once when Dying Camera quickly panned into nowhere, looked like a Bug.

No Idea whats effective against Purple Enemies, nothing seems to do bonus Damage, wasting Time standing still to change Alchemickals doesn't feel very good, why isn't this just tab to clear and 1-6 for chemicals or something, but bound to movekeys? I'd prefer left to melee, right to shoot, shift to self instead of only having access to 2 at a Time, and overall Melee doesn't feel like it's worth it, since you're almost always getting hit by Enemies when going close to them, or at least risking a lot for not enough of a Reward.

The Snipping animation is nice, but use some Particles I think.

You can freezelock Minibosses making their Fight trivial, Diagonal Hallways look horrid.

It gets a bit getting used to, but once you get used to the Controls for swapping Elements quickly, and I assume learning the Element Combinations and Weaknesses by Heart, it quickly becomes a no-thinker, so you can focus on Dodging and attacking, which is nice. It also doesn't take a long Time to get used to it.

Some Enhancements or Weapon Powerups felt a lot more useful then others, but I think you need more Playdata to know for sure which should be changed.

Level Generation on a more Macro Scale is too simple, I found myself very often backtracking to get the last remaining Room or find the Portal because I went in the wrong Direction initially. You could use more Loopbacks on other Rooms, more interesting Room Designs, more Props to make Rooms or Floors feel unique, Player attack Animations could feel better, mostly melee tho, and you only have 2 Enemy Types, suiciders and floating Balls shooting Lasers, you could use a lot more. Not only distinct Colors, but also potentially distinct Models and behaviors for different Elements. Or at least in some Instances, you could and probably still should seperate Elements from Enemies overall.

There's too little going on with the Environment. If you don't have dodge-through, you just get stuck on useless Crates taking forever to clear, if you have it, they just sit in the Way. Early on they're great as Cover, but that becomes less useful later on I feel, and you could do much more with it, creating Damage or Healing Zones for yourself or Enemies, or other Things I can't think of right now.

Developer (1 edit)

Heyo, thanks for playing and for the extensive feedback! Hope you had some fun at least.

Controller isn't registered.

I have no plans for controller support at the moment.

Camera panning feels a bit to abrupt to me.

In what way? Like in the transition from spawning to giving the player control?

Why is me falling into the Pit in the Tutorial returning me to the main Screen?

It's kinda funny.

Second Time going through the Tutorial caused a few massive Freezes right when clearing the Path with Fire.

Are you on Linux by any chance?

No Idea whats effective against Purple Enemies, nothing seems to do bonus Damage

There is no set weakness for electric enemies so they fall back on the base faction weakness, so the purple robots are weak to corrosion. I'm well aware this is poorly explained, I'm thinking of just making electric enemies weak to ice or something even if it doesn't make much sense intuitively.

wasting Time standing still to change Alchemickals doesn't feel very good, why isn't this just tab to clear and 1-6 for chemicals or something, but bound to movekeys?

This is how the game used to be. Using 1-6 for mixing makes it hard to reach the bottom row of elements without either uncomfortably stretching your hand or taking your fingers off WASD, whereas QWEASD lets you keep your hand in the same spot. I've since added a brief slowdown effect when you enter mixing mode to my experimental build, it seems to alleviate the issue of standing still.

The Snipping animation is nice, but use some Particles I think.

I'm not sure what animation you're referring to. Did you mean the gun spin in the main menu?

You can freezelock Minibosses making their Fight trivial

Awesome that you found that out. It's a miniboss in the first part of the game, I think it's fine to let smarter players bully it with relative ease.

Diagonal Hallways look horrid.

Would you prefer all hallways to be rectangular? Alternatively, I could try making slanted walls for diagonal halls so they're less aliased.

Level Generation on a more Macro Scale is too simple, I found myself very often backtracking to get the last remaining Room or find the Portal because I went in the wrong Direction initially. You could use more Loopbacks on other Rooms, more interesting Room Designs, more Props to make Rooms or Floors feel unique

I've since added a map that you can use to better pick what path you'll go down, should help with some of the backtracking. I agree, though, the map generation is quite simple. I plan to add more base room shapes.

Player attack Animations could feel better, mostly melee tho, and you only have 2 Enemy Types, suiciders and floating Balls shooting Lasers, you could use a lot more.

Indeed, I have a lot more enemies to add. I plan to do another pass on the player animations when I less pressing things to add.

Or at least in some Instances, you could and probably still should seperate Elements from Enemies overall.

You mean having enemies that don't have a specific elemental association, or that can use multiple elements? I've been thinking about the former, it's gonna be a bit hard to design unique enemies if they all share the same weaknesses. 

Early on [props] are great as Cover, but that becomes less useful later on I feel, and you could do much more with it, creating Damage or Healing Zones for yourself or Enemies

I could add some more interactive props, I suppose. I could always have more barrels of different types, but that's a bit boring.

(+1)

I initially thought this would support Controller, my mistake.

Camera was meant for moving it from above the Player to below the Player quickly. It should jump to show more of the Area below like it does, but it felt to drastic of a change to quickly.

I tested this on Windows when the Freeze occured. 

I think it's fine if Electric is weak to corrosion, but like with all Elements it should probably be explained/showcased somewhere.

I understand the qweasd instead of 1-6 better after playing for longer, with a brief slowdown instead of stopping, it might work better. It's mostly a Thing of getting used to I think, don't know how Players might be getting put off directly by it tho. (But it is lots better then the usual selection Wheel popup)

I ment the snipping Animation of your Shopkeeper.

If you generate diagonal Hallways, I'd probably prefer Diagonal Walls instead of the current jerkiness, yes. But that comes with level Design, if you adjust the overall Level generation, you might not need or generate Diagonal Walls at all, Hallways currently serve no purpose anyway, so if you generate more interesting Roomshapes then just Squares, and just connect them with as short as possible Halls for connection Purposes, you might circumvent the entire Problem. I wouldn't work on new Wall Elements right now probably, and put that off until you've finalized the Dungeon-creation, and then come back to it for a final polish.

As for Enemy/Element disassociation, I ment allowing Enemies to still have different Elements. So you don't have just balls of random Elements, but more Enemy options. Like a Jerboa spawning, but still color-coded for its Element. Potentiall skew Element variation in Favor of the Enemy, so some Enemies have a higher Chance of being of a specific Element, or no Element at all, maybe some Enemies that have fixed Elements, that then act according to that Element. Like if its an Electric Enemy, lean into the spreading of the Damage, if its a Biomatter Enemy, have it heal others etc.

As for Level Generation, more Roomshapes is a good Start, but you could do a lot more with it. Levels looping back on themselves with you passing by a locked Door to the Exit initially, and having to traverse the whole Thing to get the Key. There's lots of Options to improve Map generation.

Developer
I think it's fine if Electric is weak to corrosion, but like with all Elements it should probably be explained/showcased somewhere.

Maybe I could add more elemental dummies to the tutorial, maybe split them into more rooms. The manual does tell you the weaknesses of each enemy but I don't think anyone's really reading that.

I ment the snipping Animation of your Shopkeeper.

Oh, the portal opening one? It does have a particle effect, but I can see about adding more.

Hallways currently serve no purpose anyway, so if you generate more interesting Roomshapes then just Squares, and just connect them with as short as possible Halls for connection Purposes, you might circumvent the entire Problem

I've considered that before, the hallways incur a lot of downtime. I'll try it out.

Potentiall skew Element variation in Favor of the Enemy, so some Enemies have a higher Chance of being of a specific Element, or no Element at all, maybe some Enemies that have fixed Elements, that then act according to that Element. 

I understand what you mean now, making the enemies get dynamic elements rather than fixed variants. That's a good idea for variety, though I'd still have to manually make textures for each possible combination.

 Levels looping back on themselves with you passing by a locked Door to the Exit initially, and having to traverse the whole Thing to get the Key.

Could work, but it's definitely on the backburner.

Submitted(+1)

It's really hard, but it makes it cool even though I didn't get very far.

Polished game. it's hard to mix elements in the middle of a battle but that could just be part of the challenge.

I think the tutorial is nice the way it is, you can take your time trying things out and you get a hint about mixes.

Also, i'm retarded and forgor about weapon ugrades, i'm sure it would've made the game easier (though it wouldn't have kept me from dying)

the shopkeeper killed me on my first run.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing!

it's hard to mix elements in the middle of a battle but that could just be part of the challenge.

It's intentionally hard, yes, but I will see what I can do about further streamlining it.

Also, i'm retarded and forgor about weapon ugrades

I don't blame you, they are tucked away in a side menu so it's easy to overlook them. I am going to change the way this works so they're more noticeable.

the shopkeeper killed me on my first run.

You did that to yourself...

Submitted(+1)

Really nice game, polished. 

Both fun and challenging. Didn't stumble upon any technical issues.

Only gameplay issue I had was that I can't move while cooking making it impossible not to be hit by ranged unites if you want to change your attacks mid fight.

Solution would be to add slow down timer or make it so the player can move while he cooks damage types.

Developer(+1)

Thanks again for playing!

Submitted(+1)

I've seen this game in a lot of previous DDs but only just got around to it. It's great! I'll echo what others said in that it's very difficult and while I can appreciate how much went into making different combinations of mixtures, it feels like only the single mixes are worth it, though maybe that's me not experimenting with them.

It also would be nice to have a reminder that you can upgrade your weapons- my best run I accidentally had enough to buy 5 at once.

Are you going to add bosses? It feels a little cheap that the goal is only to find the floor portal.

And the shopkeeper needs to get mad if you hit her.

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing!

 it feels like only the single mixes are worth it

That's to be expected considering how the enemy roster solely consists of trash mobs for now. Hopefully, future enemies will require more complex strategizing!

It also would be nice to have a reminder that you can upgrade your weapons- my best run I accidentally had enough to buy 5 at once.

I wholeheartedly agree, even I forget to upgrade my stuff sometimes. I'm thinking of adding a workshop bench somewhere in the dungeon—maybe on the shop island—where you can upgrade stuff.

Are you going to add bosses? It feels a little cheap that the goal is only to find the floor portal.

Yes, there will be a boss every three floors.

And the shopkeeper needs to get mad if you hit her.

I will not let you down.

Submitted(+1)

Wow, this was a really hard game. Although the tutorial does a pretty good job of teaching the main mechanics, it's really hard to actually manage swapping mixtures while fighting enemies. Still, it's a pretty unique mechanic and having to manage so many things feels quite addictive. I really liked how I could just drink water to extinguish the flames on myself, really cool that it works so intuitively. Definitely feels like the damage output of enemies could be toned down a little, especially in the first level. Things can get out of control really quickly because of the barrels, too.  I had a lot of trouble with the bomb enemies, especially around the 3rd or 4th level when a room would spawn 4 or 5 all at once and getting close enough to be in their collective blast radius was near instant death.
Also, they need to be BIGGER. And make them jiggle when you shoot water at them.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing!

And make them jiggle when you shoot water at them.

I wanted to make them jiggle when you hit them period, which would eventually cause her to get mad, but I didn't have the time...

Submitted(+1)

i still find it weird how pretty much all enemies are either ranged or kamikaze, which makes trying to attack them with the scythe extremely dangerous
game's pretty hard as balls but that's by design
ahem, AWOOGA

Developer(+1)

More enemies are planned, including melee ones. Thanks for playing again.

Submitted(+1)

Cool concept, it gets quite complicated very quickly though, pretty tough. I also killed myself by drinking fire in the tutorial, so probably a skill issue on my part. I feel like the scythe attack could be a tad bit less delayed.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

I feel like the scythe attack could be a tad bit less delayed.

There is a weapon upgrade that makes it swing faster, but I could tweak the base speed.

Submitted(+2)

Finally we can say it

They are NOT too small!

Developer

This opinion is not universal.

Submitted(+1)

I sucked, then I learned how to dodge and heal and not scythe the barrels and I sucked less. But I still suck. I think I will have to play smarter if I want to get past the first two floors. I like the main mechanic of the game. Switching between the chemickals gives an extra strategic element to the gameplay.

Great visuals and gameplay! I really liked the UI specifically. I can tell a lot of effort was put into this.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Very nice. It took a couple of tries to get my muscle memory back but then I got two bosses at floor 1 and snowballed from there.


The new purchasable buffs are a godsend, the shield saved me on floor 2 from being chain frozen to death and on floor 3 from having dodged into 3 newly spawned mines. I think you should lean less on passive damage resistances and more on the ones that modify the alchemist's moves and abilities if you want the player to feel like they're choosing a build, right now it's mostly flat buffs without much synergy or strategy, but as a first implementation and for what is the first third of a full run I think you've aced it.
The ethereal dodge one is really fun, it's great to be able to put obstacles between you and the constructs.
Going by the description alone the one that gives you a chance to absorb enemy elements seems like something I would either fail to notice when it happens or not be in a position to use that specific element effectively.
I still think mines are a bit too oppressive in the smaller rooms but since they're rare in the first two floor and the shop upgrades give you a nice safety net it's not as bad as before.

The merchant lady's audio was very bass boosted and distorted, idk if it's just too loud or it simply didn't agree with my headphones.

After changing the resolution the arsenal was the only one that didn't rescale properly until I restarted.


Very nice overall! Will play more of this.

Developer

Heyo, thanks for playing again!

I think you should lean less on passive damage resistances and more on the ones that modify the alchemist's moves and abilities if you want the player to feel like they're choosing a build

Fair point, I added the resistances basically as content padding. I'd love to hear whatever buff ideas you might have.

Going by the description alone the one that gives you a chance to absorb enemy elements seems like something I would either fail to notice when it happens or not be in a position to use that specific element effectively

Yeah, that one's very situational.  The yellow buffs are all quite powerful so my idea was to have a kinda crappy one to dilute the pool a bit. Maybe I'll buff it.

The merchant lady's audio was very bass boosted and distorted, idk if it's just too loud or it simply didn't agree with my headphones.

Terribly sorry about that, evidently my laptop's speakers have shit bass. I've deployed a hotfix that should help.

After changing the resolution the arsenal was the only one that didn't rescale properly until I restarted

Noted.