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The Dark Alchemist's Apprentice's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #653 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Playability | #804 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Artistic Style | #970 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Cleverness | #1471 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
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 controls and playability are straightforward, and I find the art style quite cute as well. The characters and environment look cool in my opinion, and I would like to see more of the story based on the interactions that took place with what you had. While I find collecting items to be simplistic, I feel that there could be more of a challenge outside of the time limit that was already in place, especially if my interpretation was that being in that space for a long time isn't a good thing. I definitely want to see more of this, because I think the implementation of the themes felt a bit more basic with the items being used and the kind of shop being run, but it didn't feel like there was much else going on with shadow and alchemy
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!
Quick Summary:
The game is fairly short (1-3 minutes) and consists of a short and simple story + a 30 second top-down collectathon for as many collectables as you can get.
Mechanics:
The mechanics boils down to a top-down shooter but with potions instead. There are 3 different potions, each with their own unique advantages (red is strong, blue is long range, and green is fast).
When you hit things in the map, it provides you collectables and points for your score. The game is ultimately about how much collectables and score you can gather in the allotted time (30 seconds).
Controls:
The controls are WASD + Mouse controls. You can use a controller as well.
Story:
The story plays in the beginning and end of the game. Very short dialogue, not too wordy.
Missing content:
Only a portion of the actual map is used (first level). The map would expand to a swamp area and a beach area, populated with new enemies (a bat and frog). The enemies would also attack you with bullets or charge at you.
The story originally would span 3 different chapters on running the shop. There was also a crafting minigame and a shop that is missing too.
Extra Notes
Thank you so much for hosting! I wish I had more time to add more, but I am happy with the game and what I've learned from joining. Thank you again!
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Comments
Cute dialog art, good music choice.
The game ended before I could even start to fully experience it / enjoy it.
Having to go through a whole dialog everytime I want to play 30 seconds is kinda painful.
Thank you so much!! Yes, I will definitely add an endless mode next time. Thank you for your feedback and for playing!!
Really nice art, and fun game nice job!!!
Thank you so much and thank you for playing!! :D
The basic movement and throwing controls feel really good. It's also really satisfying to take out a lot of enemies / collect a lot of items at once. I think the potions should be more different from each other, maybe they could have different movement and explosion patterns. Obviously there isn't much content right now, but it seems like a great base for a longer and more complex game, great work!
Thank you so much for playing!!
I really like taking out a lot of enemies/resources at the same time too, that's very satisfying haha. I'm glad you liked it.
I agree, I think the potions could be made more unique. I really like the idea of different movement or explosion patterns! I'll be adding more in the next update for sure!
Thank you so much again for playing and for your feedback!! :)
:D
I like the art style, gameplay was nice and fluid, nice 4th wall break, overall very fun!
:(
Too short! I feel this game would've done well with an endless mode of some sort, it sucks I can't enjoy the juicy gameplay without having to restart the game and go through all the dialogue
Thank you so much for your feedback!!
Yes, I think you are right about adding an endless mode to avoid the dialogue. Or maybe a skip button haha.
And I'm glad you liked the 4th wall break! Thank you so much for playing and for your feedback, I really appreciate it! :)
This is a fun little game! The art is great, love the sound too. Also really enjoy the story and loved the meta humor at the end haha! Good job :)
I'm glad you liked the meta bits at the end haha. Thank you for your feedback and for playing!! :)
Nice artwork! Really like it! Even though it was a short demo, the controls felt nice and fluid. I liked it! Great job!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you really liked the art and the game played good for you. Thank you so much for your feedback and for playing!! :)
Oh wow, that was really short but cute I can see a much deeper game potentially.
I'll keep it short and sweet just like the game.
The art is great well drawn and has a nice style. The audio is good too and matches the game well. The combat and resource collection was cool and really fast.
I hope we see more in the future :)
Thank you again for playing, Ecks! I'm really glad that the game worked for you, and I appreciate all the feedback. Thank you again! :D
This game is amazing! The art style is very charming, and it has the best soundtrack from all entries I played so far. The gameplay is short, but polished and satisfying. I got a high score of 33000 after my 3rd attempt, when I discovered the rocks. Congrats!
Thank you so much for playing!! And thank you for the kind words! Haha, yes the rocks are kind of tucked away. 33,000 is a good score, great job! Thank you again for your feedback and for playing! :D
There's a lot I like about this. The sound effects are really satisfying and nice to hear and I loved the music change in the middle of the dialogue. Wasn't expecting it, but it really set the mood up!
It really can't be understated how much I enjoy the artwork in general in this game. The menus have a lot of personality to them, the character designs are really good and the expressions of the Apprentice are very reminiscent of some older games, they look really nice.
The animations in the gameplay section for the objects, creatures and even the background all are a very good touch to making the world feel a bit more alive and the Apprentice's running animation looks really dynamic, it's cool to look at!
The character controls really well and although the gameplay section is short, I feel like there's a solid base for something bigger here. The dialogue at the end was unexpected but funny too!
My highscore was 35065.
This game has a really cozy feeling to it. I like it!
Hi Faulko, thank you so much for playing!! You were so kind on discord and I really appreciate it!
I tried to play the story part without the music change and it just didn't feel right, so I'm glad that worked for you!! And I'm so glad you enjoyed the artwork, I really liked how it all turned out too.
The animation took a bit to get right haha. I'm so glad that the game controlled well too, there was a lot that I wanted to add there. 35,065 is a great score too, great job! And cozy means a lot, thank you so much!
Thank you so much again for playing, I really appreciate all the feedback!! This made my day! :D
Oh my goodness! This game is gorgeous. The bouncing trees and the apples getting slurped up were all so satisfying. I played several different times, it seems like the red potion is the best. The black and white style and the characters are really lovely. Would totally play a satisfying game that looks like this for hours. Well done!
I was only able to get around 33000 for a high score.
Oh man... looks like another person got more than 40k... I'm going to have to try to beat that now!
Thank you so much for your feedback, I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed it! I really wanted the collecting of resources to feel satisfying so I'm happy to hear that it worked for you. The red potion is definitely one of my favorites too haha.
Thank you so much again for your feedback and for playing! :)
very charming, I can definitely see this as a moonlighter type of game!
but sadly not that much gameplay and having to click through that dialogue just to play another round was a bit annoying... anyways my highscore is 42510
Aww, thank you so much. Definitely similar idea, yes!
Thank you so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it! (That's also a really highscore, good job!)
While the amount of actual content is small, the gameplay that was there was really satisfying to go through! The sounds, character animation and feel was nice. I think it would have been better to hide the health bars to reduce clutter since the objects get destroyed after a few hits anyways.
Nice going!
Thank you so much for your feedback, it means a lot!
Your feedback is really good and I'll add it into the next update! :D