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DHDEV36 days ago(+1)

I haven't tried this game before. I didn't get past the first level firstly because every time you die either it generates a new level or you appear in a different part. I appreciate some good procgen for extending replayability but I think if you're respawning in the same game it should be the same level... Unless this game is supposed to have perma-death and each respawn is a new game in which case there needs to be better messaging about that because I don't know what the stakes are.

The procgen also does entirely randomise the new player experience. The very first room I entered a large circle appeared next to me and a big turret immediately blew me away, this was the first enemy I encountered outside of the tutorial.

The alchemy system I'm honestly not sure about, I found juggling that while dodging a room full of enemies and playing a colour matching game in my head for which element each colour-coded enemy was weak to was a lot of mental load for so early on in the game, and I'm not sure there's enough benefit to interacting with the system when you could concentrate entirely on dodging and using default attacks. I get that it's very similar to and probably inspired by Magica but it seems more cumbersome to use while being less flexible than in Magica. 

It's very competently made game but I don't think it's for me. 

Runs fine on Linux. 

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rodbotic36 days ago

Thanks for playing. Yeah, it's a permadeath roguelite, you start every run with a new generation and from the start. Frankly, this isn't an issue in my eyes. Anyone who reads the storefront (here or on Steam) will see it's a roguelite, Demo Day is just an unique situation where people download the game without looking at any promo material. 

I agree on the randomized introduction, I want to make a new tutorial that acts as the first level of the game. It'll give you some weak enemies to learn your alchemy on.

What if I add a stronger time slowdown when you enter alchemy mode? Would that make it more bearable, or is there something fundamentally wrong for you?

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DHDEV36 days ago(+1)

Well communicating permadeath could be more clear. In other roguelites such as Noita you die, you get a big game over screen, you get the screen showing your run's stats and your personal records, and then you explicitly get a 'new game' option which takes you to difficulty selection. In Alchemickal you get a stats screen but I didn't think it was clearly a game over screen, and a 'retry' button which implies to me that you're just respawning in the same run.

I'm not sure about the time slowdown. If you don't engage with the alchemy the time slowdown isn't really needed as the enemies that I encountered are all ranged and telegraph their shots for a long time. Maybe have fewer elements to deal with earlier on? The tutorial introduces them one by one maybe the game should too? Or should they be randomly found and unlocked which influences your choices for what to buy from the big booba lady or whatever other sources of items are in the game.

Or maybe make the alchemical stuff a passive build that you tinker with during quiet times and use the right-click controls to add more twinstick combat mechanics and powers since the player will have more mental bandwidth to focus on combat if they're not trying to pick different elemental damage types on the fly. In Noita for example I only have to think about my wand  build when I'm between levels, during combat I don't have to slow time and hastily rebuild my wand to get a bit more damage against some of the enemies on screen, just point, shoot and dodge

Also just a thought if your central mechanic revolves around colour matching that's going to make the game inaccessible for colourblind people which, it's like 1/12 people it's not a lot but also not insignificant

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