Alchemist's Prison

drury 2017-04-26 01:11

The mood is definitely the highlight of the game. The somber combination of art, writing and ambient backdrop give the game a deep immersive feel, even without any music.

Besides the obvious loose ends (each day following "day two" is "day three"), my only actual complaint would be that on my screen (1366x768) some nametags of the ingredients are kinda hard to read.

Definitely one of those LD entries that leaves you wanting the full-fledged product (and yeah I have played VA-11 Hall-A).

wevel 2017-05-01 13:40

Wa wa, wa wa wa wa. (Nice game)

mox 2017-05-01 14:13

The set-up is fantastic. I liked the ambient noises and the process of making potions. I think a tablet version would work quite well, though personally I would prefer a "stoked flame" sound to the harsh click of the fire button.

endlessplumber 2017-05-01 15:01

Fun experience. You did a good job of capturing what I imagine an alchemist's job would be like. I'd like to see more aspects of the job incorporated, if you decide to take it further (more complicated recipes, research, ingredient procurement, etc). That said, this game is a wonderful jam game. The procedural customers are a nice touch, and keep it from getting to stagnant. The wah-wahs could be toned back a little, as they got grating over time. I enjoyed mixing the potions and tuning the cauldron, although it took me a minute to realize you had to stir it to make the potion.

Your tutorial sequence was very nice, you don't see those very often in game jams. Perhaps the master should have had you brew him a potion in the tutorial, just to make sure the player has mastery of the controls? Just thinking...

Did run into what was perhaps a bug. I screwed up the recipe for a mana potion, and the game informed me I had to make a large one, instead of the regular one the customer asked for. I did confirm they wanted a regular one by brewing it and them paying me for it.

Speaking of payment, this game's theme is a little dark. Poor, lonely alchemist, trapped forever in a small shack, slowly being crushed by the tons of gold that pile up, nothing to eat but basilisk eyes and poisonberry dew... :grin:

spelos 2017-05-01 15:16

Very Papers, please - like game. I am really fond of this type of games and was enjoying almost everything about it from the sound, mood to the potions themself. The only issue I had was that at my resolution it was very hard to read and understand which ingredients were which, but after an in-game day, I pretty much got it.

**Very fun, great game! Good job.**

karba 2017-05-01 15:19

The atmosphere is really great. (The sound is immersive, the graphics are neat). Gameplay is fun for a good while, but the lack of an increasing difficulty and having to make the same potion several times in a row made it a little repetitive. I also didn't find what you could spend those coins on?

Apart from those notes it was overall a very good game. Great job :D

dink-dunk 2017-05-01 18:23

Graphics are neat, very papers please esk! It got a little repetitive for my liking but I appreciated the feel of the game. Well done man!

jod 2017-05-07 15:51

Well done on sticking with a colour palette, even though the ingredients could have used a dash of colour for recognition. Quite good. I really missed a click-to-continue thing for the text, though.

gamechoy 2017-05-07 16:19

Graphics and the ambiance is great, I did run into a problem while playing though. Each time it was supposed to move to the next day after day three it just stayed on day three, it also seemed the difficulty did not increase so I assumed it was just a bug. What I got to play though was pretty solid, just a few minor things to consider. When you pick up ingredients to move them, sometimes they get caught on something and you can't pick them up. This wouldn't be such a problem if they didn't block other ingredients, so I'd have to wait for it to despawn before I could use the ingredients behind it. Another thing was that there seemed to be no penalty for giving the wrong potion or taking too long, maybe that's because I was stuck on day three but it would be nice if you would make the customer leave instead of just waiting and paying less money. Another idea you should use is that every day the alchemist must buy more ingredients, almost like a papers, please system. it would add more risk and tension to the game and make it more difficult. These are just ideas, but I say them because this game has great potential and I'd love to see it morph into something great, it's up to you though. Overall a great entry, nice work!

mhgamework 2017-05-07 16:42

This is great! The graphics are superb! I love all the potions, the ingredients, the flames, everything is perfect :)

In terms of gameplay I love the idea and what is in the game. I am however a bit sad there isn't more to do because i would love to be challenged with some challenges while brewing or some choices and something to do with my gold.

The mood is where this game really shines! The setting and talking customers combined with the graphics just works.

tylerraz 2017-05-07 17:04

Really enjoyed the mood, graphics and charlie-brown sounds. I think the potion ingredients could have a little color, and I had a similar issue to Endlessplumber: i was supposed to make a large potion per the customer, I messed up temperature and the game said 'make regular one.' So it seems like you have that reversed!

brothers-arcade 2017-05-07 20:22

This looks great, wish there was a web or mac version... *hint *hint

wheffle 2017-05-08 20:59

First, love the audio effects, especially the talking noise. Had me laughing. The graphics are really amazing, and the idea is solid and the execution is solid! It was like an alchemist version of "Papers Please". I had a lot of fun! I would say that it only follows the theme very loosely. There were also a few minor bugs, like ingredients getting stuck part-way into the cauldron, but nothing big and nothing that bugged me a lot. After day 3 it began to repeat day 3, I figured I reached the end of the content for the game jam which is understandable. Overall, nice work, lots of fun!

for-science 2017-05-11 18:54

Beautiful graphics and nice mood. The sound effects had me laughing in the beginning.

This game has potential. Nice work and keep it up. :thumbsup:

archimagus 2017-05-12 03:31

As the game started up, I was really liking the look, and sound of it. Then the character started talking. That might be the most obnoxious "talking" sound I've heard. An option adjust the volume of that, or at least turn it off would go miles. Also, as with so many games that do the character at a time typing, it really needs the option for that text to go faster or even instant, probably on a click. And then, it shouldn't just Auto continue to the next statement, there needs to be an action like a click to continue.

That out of the way, the concept was quite interesting, I'm curious if it ever does go anywhere or if it's perpetually day 3 after the first 2 days? It would be nice if there was just a little more to it than just making the potion, like things that would go wrong with improperly brewed things rather than them just telling you it's the wrong potion.

One more thing, the button sounds were a bit loud. Something like a fire stoking would be cool rather than the loud click on the stoke the fire button.

I realize that's a lot of negative sounding stuff, but really I liked the game, If I didn't like it, it would be hard to put this much thought into the comments. Overall the game looked great and the atmosphere was good. The main mechanic was solid and worked well, except for ingredients getting stuck sometimes. I could see this being a full mobile game if you were to add some more content and more options for things to do.

geckoo1337 2017-05-12 05:26

There is in your game a big amount of work on the aesthetic whch is really pleasant. Also sounds are immersive. I have some difficulties to understand perfectly the gameplay. Overall, a great entry ++

devpaul 2017-05-14 15:02

*Day four never came.*

This is a great Compo entry! Feels very polished! The graphics are beautiful, I don't know how did you pull this off in 2 days, but its amazing! I love the shakespearean way the customers talking. The theme feels a bit forced, and some of music would be nice but I think this game could much more than a jam game if you could add some complexity to the brewing / buying, and maybe flesh out the story a littlebit more.

Here are a few ideas: - Regular customers asking for "the usual" and if you don't give them the right potions they will not come again - Maybe add stirring to the recipes like " mix the hartsone with the Basilisk eye, then add the poison berry" - Add some danger to the mix, for example adding hartstone to an already Hot potion would make an explosion, and the smoke would limit your vision / may be blow up the customer :smile: you could use this to get rid of the customers you don't like - As for the story you could do something like Recettear did, like you messed up and owe a large amount of gold to some shady wizard and you have to make ends meet at the end of the week or he will polymorph you into a hobgoblin.

A bug I noticed: When messing up the large potion of heath, I got the message: Potion creation failed you must create a regular sized Health Potion

max-amaden 2017-05-14 15:39

@devpaul Thanks for the feedback! There's a good chance I'll end up using some of your suggestions in the future :)

devpaul 2017-05-14 20:33

@max-amaden Thats awesome I will keep an eye out for the post jam version!