The game is quite unique, but that's where possible praises for the game end. It isn't really fun as the early game was stressful and once you get past it being stressful, it's just boring. The balance is fundamentally broken as winning is impossible due to the weird need to always be researching two things at once to actually make progress in research. The game is also entirely devoid of any Alchemy. One last bonus nitpick: I don't think the AI should be so powerful that it changes people's orientation
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A.I.lchemy's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Uniqueness (Originality of the game) | #3 | 4.366 | 4.366 |
Balance (Speed of the game) | #6 | 3.146 | 3.146 |
Fun (Overall enjoyment) | #7 | 3.207 | 3.207 |
Theme (How well the game fits the jams theme) | #9 | 2.854 | 2.854 |
Ranked from 82 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Neat idea, although yeah ending this mostly active game on an unskippable 25+ minute wait with nothing to do aside from click the +researchers button is a really anticlimactic end. I can't imagine how painful it is if you opted for the blatantly incorrect +100 researchers option early on. If the game just ended around the time you unlock the get bought research, the +100 might be a comparable tradeoff, but now it just looks like a 'haha you didnt read the description properly and everything is slower now' trap.
Additionally, having the researches be manually assigned is kinda a weird mechanic anyway? Given that money can only be spent on 2 other things in the entire game and both cost negligible amounts of money so you'd never need to precisely portion off a fund just for them; So hitting the +researches button just feels like busywork.
Still, the game is really well carried by the neat premise and gameplay; Just would probably have benefitted from the "Oh I have everything well automated and now its just the numbers going up while I wait" being sped up a little, and the final 25+ minute wait be like literally decimated.
Balance is quite hectic, and one of the worse parts of the whole game. Early game has a lot of active clicking paired with researches which are (by design) an idle feature. Since the AI doesn't choose best matches it'd often end up taking away some perfect combinations earlier in the game. Later on it gets quite idle especially with the last research.
Uniqueness- Nice style of matching game I haven't seen done a lot. Shut up and take my 5 stars.
Fun- Despite the balancing quirks I still think it was fun, especially after you could see results of matches and before total automation, but I'll still have to deduct some marks here.
Theme- With reference to "Chemistry between the people" and ignoring the communication barrier this is quite a fresh take on the theme away from generic "Make this potion thing" or "Get gold" interpretation.
I'd also like nb people or people who prefer the same gender more often since they're quite hard to match currently.
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