The game is very simple:
Click on the top (or bottom) to add elements to the middle
If there are two (or more) elements they try to combine. In case of success you get new element. And when repeat.
There are over 700 items, grouped into 40 categories, with more than 2,000 possible combinations.
Here is my blog post about the game: the Greatest Alchemist | Donut Dog Games - by Donut Dog
If you have suggestions how to improve UI/UX, let me know. Itās my weakest point, so any feedback is welcome.
Hello! It appears that the up arrow moves the New Discoveries chain down instead of up. This might be on purpose, but thatās a small UI change that could be beneficial. One tiny thing I might change to make the experience smoother would be eliminating the small yellow triangle that appears when you click on the arrows, given that itās the same arrow and doesnāt fit super well inside the red triangle.
Great! My go-to solution for making UI satisfying is just changing size and alpha ( and maybe color ). If you add this code, it makes anything look great:
uiButton.setAlpha(0.7) // around this range should look good
uiButton.postFX.addBloom() // adds a smudge / light effect
uiButton.postFX.addGlow(0x00ffdd, 1, 1, false) // color, external glow, internal glow, knockout ( not sure what that actually does š )
However, my game is sci-fi, so this might not give you the look youāre looking for.
My menu interface in my game is just a scale change and a little sound effect, I find that simplicity is key.
I think one issue I found is that itās pretty easy to click around randomly and generate a bunch of stuff. In fact, I kind of feel like you may be able to complete a lot of the game that way. Have you thought about maybe having some kind of crafting grid? I feel like you just throw a ton of stuff in the middle and see what happens and there could be more thought involved if you had a loose structure to the crafting area.
It also feels like if itās alchemy based, that it should either have a medieval or steampunk theme.
Including an āalchemy book,ā with riddles and clues for how to make stuff would be fun.
If you really wanted to go crazy, you could turn this into a little RPG where you go out into a forest and\or town and collect ingredients to use in the recipes. This would feel like you really earned something when you make new creations in the ālab.ā
I write code, I drawā¦ I canāt do all I donāt do music
What is crafting grind? How should it work?
This game is not original idea. I played a lot of games like this. In most games you have to choose two items and drag when on top of each other. So you end up doing a lot of dragging and not seeing a lot of results. I wanted to change that. Yes, you can do a lot accidentally. That is okay. You donāt think like me, I also donāt think like me, one year ago. So connections that seemed logical to me, might feel like random to you.
Also there is 700 items to find, so good luck
Medieval or Steampunk theme? Sounds interesting, maybe you have some screenshots from other games that I could use as inspiration?
Alchemy book - that is an interesting idea, however I donāt see how it would incorporate in the current game.
That is complete different game. To say the truth, I donāt think that I played any RPG in my life, so I couldnāt make game in this genre.
The problem Iām describing is whatās called a ādegenerate strategy,ā in game theory. My experience with the game is that it was more effective to click at random. I had more success that way. You have to look at that as a dominant, pure strategy, meaning once people figure that out, theyāll just do that even if itās not the intended play style or even if itās less fun than the intended play style. I think you have to look at a way to balance that out of the game. Humans always seek to find the most efficient strategy to complete a game or task, even if it ruins the game.
Medieval and Steampunk Inspiration
I would say think Final Fantasy, but I guess you havenāt played any RPGs, but hereās some stuff:
If you like anime, Iām thinkingā¦Fullmetal Alchemist, Howlās Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, Kikiās Delivery Service. Make me feel like Iām in an alchemistās lab.
Itās fine if you donāt want to add RPG elements. It could be very, very simple. Like there is an iOS app called MinuteRogue. Thatās kind of what I was thinking of. In general though, my impression is the game needs more audio\visual elements. Take advantage of the fact that youāre using a game engine. Thereās nothing here that you couldnāt build in pure HTML5 and improve UI\UX, especially in terms of accessibility, resource usage, keyboard support, mobile accessibility, etc, so if you have it in Phaser, you might as well add a little bit of flavor IMO.
