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The Little Alchemist's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artistic Style | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Cleverness | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Theme | #196 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Playability | #258 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
Ranked from 2 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- This game is very polished, unique and fun spin on punch out, with mixing elements to make attacks in various combinations, like punch out arts meets avatar the last air bender with mixing elements, I love this.
- Really unique combat system. It takes a little getting used to but started to feel natural. Lack of visibility into mob health/difficulty made it hard to know how impactful my attacks were. Also map had some unclear barriers that weren't obvious. Sent me to restart the level several times without warning. This was frustrating as a new player and reduced the amount of time I wanted to play.
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!
Take control of an alchemist who dwells in a dark dungeon-like place in search of the mysterious Shining Water. Overcome strange enemies and get to your desired treasure in this short adventure!
CONTROLS (In Overworld):
W, A, S, D - Move around
Z - Interact
Left mouse button - To choose options during dialogue or in the game over screen
ESC / Enter - Pause
CONTROLS (In Battle):
A, D - Dodge
Q, W, E, R - Select element
Left mouse button - Select enemy
Right mouse button - Attack enemy
GDD Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ep_qKe0hbzvXGoK9YLqRTeyofkmwOKHe/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106493393198316017444&rtpof=true&sd=true
Extra Notes
We hope you like it!
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Comments
A great game! I love the art and music, but like the rest of the comments, I think that the battle controls could use some work.
We'll be taking a closer look on those battle controls. Thank you for playing and leaving feedback!
Ok there's a lot of things I already love about the game. The art style, battle music, and battle backgrounds were all charming and drew me into the game. I thought the battle mechanics were fun and unique. The battle controls gave me some funny moments, because of how dodge buttons and element buttons were so closely spaced, that I would fat-finger the wrong element because I needed to dodge an attack quickly while in the middle of figuring out the element attack.
I thought most of the attacks were hard for me to dodge, I wasn't sure how they were telegraphed and which direction they would go, and would have to take the HP hit a couple times to learn where the attacks land and where I need to dodge. But I kind of just spammed a random direction hoping it was right :)
The room puzzle was a bit confusing at first, but I eventually got it through brute force, and then I realized after getting the key what the solution was. Oof :( I should've read more carefully.
Overall fun game!
Yo, thanks for taking the time to play our little game!
I was a bit worried if the attacks were a little too sudden or fast. I'm not sure if we'll make immediate changes to it, but I'm considering some possibilities to help telegraph things. Having to learn enemy patterns is intended but I don't want to make every enemy attack cutthroat.
And don't worry, we do need to make it a little clearer what's going on in that puzzle room. That's on us!
I'm happy you enjoyed the game though. Once again, thanks for playing!
Oh man, same sentiments with the other comments. Didn't really understand what was happening in the overworld, but the overall vibe of the combat was super cool.
For the combat controls, I think that the input layout would have been cleaner with just three spells (Q, W, E) since having to press the forth spell is a bit cumbersome. Especially when you have to focus on dodging, it keeping your fingers in a consistent placement helps make the combat feel better. And simply pressing to attack would be cleaner rather than having to select the enemy first.
Hey, thanks for checking out our little game!
There was meant to be a longer, playable ending sequence, but we had to cut it away and switch it for a very simple "cutscene". I think the sequence would've made the things in the overworld make more sense, so I'd like to implement it on the post jam update.
We'll definitely be considering changes to some of the input layout as well, since it's very important for the controls to feel comfortable. That also includes how the attacks are done!
Thank you so much for playing the game and giving us some feedback!
Okay, I really love this! The art style and general vibe were impeccable. I love the battle and it's a fun concept, the only thing I wish with the battling was that it was a little more intuitive for what keys I should be pressing, e.g. a more "guitar hero" style mechanic or some other way of being able to more easily link the icon to the key press. Maybe it could use the arrow keys, and you could gradually introduce each element with a rationale for the arrow? E.g. Air rises so it's the up arrow, ground is at the bottom so it's the down arrow, water flows downhill so it's the right arrow, and fire travels uphill so it's the left arrow? And just introduce 2 elements first, then the other two, then start to combine them.
It's also a little confusing in the battling screen how I have to sometimes select an enemy and sometimes right click to attack - I would've thought the combos would do the attacking for me! And I'm not always sure when I've dodged correctly.
The overworld was also very confusing, I kept getting teleported back to another room and I don't really know why! I'd love to see some more story in the overworld and something to connect the fights together, but the fights themselves were very fun!
Wow, first of all, thank you for this thoughtful feedback!
I found the idea you brought up about the arrows really interesting and I'm probably going to discuss it throughly with my brother. The whole thing about linking it to the elements and all, I really like the sound of it. And yeah, originally it was meant to be a single left click to attack an enemy directly but we had mouse detection issues. However, you bring up an interesting idea with the whole "select enemy, enemy stays selected, combos automatically attack selected enemy".
I did actually consider making a little popup saying "Dodged!", but time constraints and all. We're gonna cook a post jam update though, so that's going in the list.
Oh, there's a bit of a puzzle with that room that teleports you back, but from your and other people's feedback, we should've done a better job of hinting or communicating what's going on in that room!
Once again, I'm very thankful for your feedback. It's given me plenty to think about and I'll discuss a lot of it with my brother! And thanks for playing our game!!!
I am of the same opinion as SuperStudios. The overworld only really has 2 rooms. But I can see the fighting mechanics being really fun! I found selecting an enemy and then attacking to be annoying. It was hard to juggle that along with dodging as well as paying attention to the different elements. The animations are pretty cool, definitely reminds me of Earthbound.
Hey, thank you so much for checking out the game! Yeah, as I said to SuperStudios, we sadly had to cut some stuff due to time constraints. And I totally get it about the selecting enemy thing! It was originally meant to be a single left click to attack directly, no selecting first, but we had some mouse-detecting issues that we can get to fixing now. Thank you so much for checking it out and leaving some feedback, we really do appreciate it!
The overworld is unpolished and i didn't really know what was going on, but the battles were actually really nicely polished and fun to play. Really cool concept, played to the end 👍
Thank you so much for giving the game a chance and finishing it! It really does mean a lot to us. We got quite busy polishing up the battle system and fixing a lot of issues regarding the dialogue system, so some of the originally planned overworld content ended up being cut as a result. Makes me happy you see potential in it though. Thanks for playing!