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The Great Work's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Playability | #258 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Artistic Style | #401 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Theme | #653 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Cleverness | #755 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- The art, the environment, the music/sound effects and even the story were all put together very well here. I found myself intrigued as to where this was going to go. But, I was also a tad overwhelmed with the amount of information given in regards to any kind of crafting. The controls were easy to grasp, and I didn't really have issues while playing. And while I feel that the way the themes were presented in this game were interesting, especially from a narrative perspective; where shadows--in regards to parts of the story you want to uncover, for alchemy, while gathering and crafting were a big mechanic here, having to complete the philosopher's stone as the main objective feels like the objective in a lot of stories that utilize alchemy. Though this may not be the kind of game I would personally play, I found what was presented to be done quite well and ties in your interpretations of the theme to the story nicely, too. All the same, do keep up the good work.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
Performance Tips:
- IMPORTANT: Don't use Firefox. It doesn't support SharedBufferArray, so the game will freeze a couple minutes in. Edge may have the same issue. We recommend Chrome and Opera GX.
• We strongly recommend activating hardware acceleration in your browser before playing. Since this is a 3D game, it can be demanding in web mode.
• Once the game has fully loaded, we recommend refreshing the web page to avoid potential bugs, such as book pages not working as they should.
• Also, in the web version, you might experience some stuttering the first time you enter the house due to shaders loading. This should only last for a few seconds.
About the game:
This is a first person puzzle game with light horror ambience. No jumpscares. You are Melchiades, an alchemist who is going through a trial to transcend humanity and create the Great Work (i.e. Philosopher's Stone) and you are supposed to find the recipes around the house and figure out how to make the philosopher's stone. You can interact with ingredients and tools and craft stuff.
Extra Notes
Please let us know your thoughts on it! We work day and night on this project and are thrilled with how it turned out thanks to our small team. However, we didn’t have much time to test the web port.
We welcome any feedback you have, whether it’s about the difficulty of the puzzles or any other suggestions!
Also, I’ve included a couple of nods to Thor’s stream... a big spoon and urine alchemy!
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Spoilers on mechanics below:
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Shadows spawn on a timer and decrease the light in the environment. In order to fight them you can craft flares. The recipes have the formulas for them, and exposing the shadows to them will give you more time!
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For those of you who want to see the ending but don't get how to solve the recipes, there's a walkthrough link in the game's description.
Have fun ;)
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Comments
Very well made and very good representation of the alchemical process of self-improvement! Can't wait to see more from Astrades!
Thank you! A fellow alchemy connoisseur I see... You really got what the game was all about... Expect more soon ;)
I did not get too far due to some of the aforementioned performance issues, but I liked what I saw both visually and gameplay wise.
Thank you! What browser are you using? We are investigating issues with Firefox and Edge mostly. Edge works after reloading apparently.
This was in chrome. I tried looking for hardware acceleration options, but it looks like they are already enabled. I'm gonna try the game again tomorrow, because I wanted to get a little bit further :)
Oh but did it freeze? The stutter seems unavoidable due to Godot's shader compilation. The only current solutions for that are finicky hacks that introduced lots of bugs so we decided to let initial stutter stay, after the first minute the experience is way smoother.
It froze when I picked up a yellow bottle somewhere, I don't recall exactly where though.
Very creative and textured entry. I experienced a few performance issues which was a shame but was impressed by the books and the objective. Good Job!
Thank you! Unfortunaly the stutter is native to WebGL... But what browser are you using? We are investigating issues with Firefox and Edge mainly. Edge works after reloading apparently. Did it freeze for you?
I was using Firefox, I think the game froze a few times before new dialogue appeared or when the camera was turned to a new area that wasn't rendered before, and I got stuck permanently the first time I saw the shadow presence.
I see. Yeah Firefox is the worst performing one. Regarding the stutters, yeah it's a shame; that's the shaders compiling the lights. Very tricky to pull off, especially in webgl. A small price to pay to get a prettier game though. Fortunately once they load the experience becomes smoother.
I had hardware acceleration on and still experienced the freeze after looking at the phosphorus recipe and trying to interact with a banana. Beautiful game and it would have taken me a while to understand what is going on for sure. It seems pretty complex.
Thanks for the comment! What browser were you using? Firefox is currently a no go apparently. Others fare a little better. We use Chrome and Opera GX which show no issues for us (hence why we didn't catch them)
I was indeed using Firefox, I'll have to try again with Chrome.
I really liked the atmosphere and scenary of the game. The small intro nicely sets the mood for the game. Sadly the game froze with no recovery after interacting with some items and the furnace. You should release a desktop version. :)
Thank you! We worked really hard on making it look right on web compatibility mode... But debug version didn't have this issue. We believe it is linked to the hardware acceleration option in browsers (the risks of doing 3D work). Shadows spawning are not handled well...Too bad because we even managed to fit an ending cinematic.
Regretfully, it is not allowed to distribute any updates until the judging time is over. :( Update will have to wait until then.
This game is so atmospheric, I really think you’ve nailed the ambiance. The story you’ve told is great given the short time of the game, and the puzzles were good from what I played, although I wish we had an easily accessible reference for all the symbols. The game froze for me shortly after looking at the recipe, so I didn’t play through it completely, but I’d love to give it another try, because it felt like it was going to be really good (maybe with a desktop version to try and avoid the issues WebGL might be causing).
Thank you for trying our game. Regretfully, it is not allowed to distribute any updates until the judging time is over. We believe the issue is linked to the hardware acceleration option in browsers (the risks of doing 3D work). Shadows spawning are not handled well...Too bad because we even managed to fit an ending cinematic.
We strongly recommend you to activate hardware acceleration on your browser before playing since it's a 3D game and it can be heavily demanding on web mode. We are aware of the audio bugs and book pages not playing or showing up correctly, this aren't present on the desktop version, so keep that in mind. Experimental itch io features were required for the game to work at all.