Alchemist Classic

by Oasiscircle
Alchemist Classic
Combine elements and create chain reactions to thwart your foes!
ID:1750894
 


Visual candy!


Figured I'd reveal a little more information regarding the project I'm currently working on. I'm making the concept used in this game, Alchemist, into the main game-play focus of an adventure RPG.

The game would focus around groupings of Bosses called "Dungeons" and each Dungeon would have between 2-4 bosses in it. To defeat the Dungeon, you must beat all Bosses one after the other after choosing three Spells to take with you into the Dungeon. After you complete the Dungeon, you are rewarded in Coins to buy more spells and other upgrades/customizing features and to unlock special Dungeons that costs coins to enter rather than progress from the previous Dungeon. Dungeons would be linked in a way similar to Mario 3's overworld, with each Dungeon being it's own structure but connected to other Dungeons. You can decide your own path as there would most likely be a few forks.

Each Boss has it's own AI and own special ability that functions similarly to how your Spells work. Bosses increase in difficulty as you progress through the Dungeon and all have their own uniqueness to them.

Armor and Health are two new things that have been added to the game to make it much more RPG-styled as well. Some Bosses have armor, which basically "shrugs off" that amount of damage that the opponent sends your way if that damage is in the form of garbage blocks. When armor reaches zero, garbage blocks begin to fall on the opposing side as they would normally in traditional Alchemist, although there are a few different types of garbage block now which you will encounter at various stages. Health in the second added mechanic, because of the game's new difficulty, you are allowed a certain amount of lives in order to get through a Dungeon without having to restart your progress on it. Bosses also have lives, but they function differently. Instead, when a Boss is taken to the point of losing, their board clears and everything resets except their armor. Most early on Bosses have only one Health and so won't be affected by this, but some later Bosses would perhaps even change their AI or their Ability after losing their first life.

The last mechanic that's different is the purple liquid (although is lacking some of the effects that make it look like a liquid) that can be seen on the left board. This liquid raises when either the Player or the Boss being fought gets off a combo. When a combo occurs, the floor raises one tile upwards for the opposing player in addition to raining some garbage blocks on them. To return the floor down a floor, the player with a raised floor must break 6+ blocks of a single color in a single clear. Each time this occurs, the floor will sink a level until there is no more liquid visible. This is a great way to beat your opponent as they quickly run out of space when you achieve a big combo all at once.'

That's all I have for now, hopefully more coming soon! Leave any questions you have below. :)
That looks so pretty...:D
Great work!!~
Can't wait to play Oasis! Looks like you have quite a few interesting mechanics in there!
Please add some sort of trim around the circle at the top. The parts where the checkerboard background squares meet the square bricks looks odd to me.
In response to SuperAntx
SuperAntx wrote:
Please add some sort of trim around the circle at the top. The parts where the checkerboard background squares meet the square bricks looks odd to me.

That circle would house the portrait of whatever boss you were fighting, but do you have any suggestions on what the trim should look like? Or would you like me to whip something up and see if you'd like to see what I could come up with.
If it's going to be covered then it doesn't really matter. To me it looks like the top left corner of the circle has a small optical illusion going on with the light checkerboard squares. Anything to break up that pattern would work.
In response to SuperAntx
I see what you're talking about.

It's the outline on the brick contrasting so much more with the lighter squares on the background than the darker ones.

It makes it appear uneven at a glance.
In response to Kumorii
Yeah I recognized the optical illusion, I'm working on a trim for it right now, I'll post back soon with a preview for it!
This game is becoming way too awesome! I never expected to see AI added in, let alone a whole RPG adventure mode.

I actually like the simplicity of the new art style, but since the blocks are just solid color, I would suggest that each type be given a unique match animation. What I mean is that you could make the red fire blocks burn away, the blue water blocks wash away, the yellow earth blocks crumble away, the green air blocks blow away, and the purple ? blocks float away. The garbage blocks could have an even more unique animation. Maybe they could get thrown away in random trajectories. What do you think of the idea?
In response to Multiverse7
Multiverse7 wrote:
This game is becoming way too awesome! I never expected to see AI added in, let alone a whole RPG adventure mode.

Thanks! I appreciate it, I'm really looking forward to what people think of the RPG Adventure as well! :)

I actually like the simplicity of the new art style, but since the blocks are just solid color, I would suggest that each type be given a unique match animation. What I mean is that you could make the red fire blocks burn away, the blue water blocks wash away, the yellow earth blocks crumble away, the green air blocks blow away, and the purple ? blocks float away. The garbage blocks could have an even more unique animation. Maybe they could get thrown away in random trajectories. What do you think of the idea?

I like the idea a lot! I'm uploading a video of some effects like that in action and hopefully everyone likes them!



Here's a video that shows all the effects I've come up with so far.
Saturate the brick colors a bit more, that's my only critique!
In response to UPD4T3
UPD4T3 wrote:
Saturate the brick colors a bit more, that's my only critique!

Do you have a palette that would look better? If you do I'd love to see it! :) I'm not much of a pixel artist, I'd much rather have the opinion of someone better than I.


How's this for saturation? I agree that this looks a lot better! Blocks really pop! :)
Looks much easier to identify the colors now!
I like the more saturated palette. It makes the old one look bland.

As for the effects, I actually had something far more dramatic in mind. Like the red blocks would really burst into flames. The blue blocks would break out of solid form and splash into a mist. The yellow blocks would suddenly quake with fissures and break into a fine sand. The green blocks would fade into a kind of translucent smoke and swirl out into nothing. The purple blocks could morph into bubbles, rise slightly, and pop! Each garbage block could split into 4 smaller blocks and each bit would disappear one at a time, as if it were dissolving.

I'm trying to be more descriptive!
good work dude

A quick picture that shows both "emotes" that bosses will use in order to have story-line in addition to an example of how the "portrait" will be used. That art is definitely not final, actually lifted it from a random Google search. :P

Hope you like it, any other pixel-artsy critiques? It's not my main focus, I try my best! :)
I think your work is amazing! :)
Looking good =D
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