The wizarding frog Clorance has accidentally transported himself to a strange land full of dangerous creatures! In order to return home he must craft and throw potions to defeat these enemies.
Itch Page
Itch Page
I developed Amphibious Alchemist in Unity on an 11 person team for a junior year game production class.
In addition to coming up with the concept and most of the mechanics, I spent most of the project working on the alchemy system. This included programming an inventory, a crafting system, a dynamic recipe list, and an interface through which to interact with these features. I was also responsible for adding QoL features to the interface such as clickable elements glowing and displaying flavor text when hovered over.
Amphibious Alchemist's standout feature is the delivery method system. Each ingredient consists of a primary element (represented by its color) and a secondary element (represented by its shape). Each recipe requires a certain number of each primary element to craft. If the ingredients the player uses to fulfill these requirements all have the same secondary element, the resulting potion will interact with the world differently! For example, a potion crafted using only ingredients with the triangle secondary element will spawn 3 roving areas of effect upon bursting.
I did not program the combat mechanics, but I did create the architecture necessary to define the various potion types + delivery methods. I also linked the throwing mechanic to the inventory to ensure that when Clorance throws a potion, he throws the correct one.
Scope Better: Finishing Amphibious Alchemist required me to work approximately 50% more than the course's recommended hours per week. Rather than push myself to finish everything I wanted to (at least I was having fun working), I should have discussed with my team what we could have reworked or cut out to reduce the project's scope.
Find the Fun: In our mechanics-first approach we neglected testing and balancing. Though we succeeded in creating a mechanically complex and functional game, the basic player interactions were uninspired and the challenges bland; overall, not a fun game. I now understand far better the importance of crafting an engaging & rewarding core loop before diving into extra mechanics, options, and QoL.
Find the Fun: In our mechanics-first approach we neglected testing and balancing. Though we succeeded in creating a mechanically complex and functional game, the basic player interactions were uninspired and the challenges bland; overall, not a fun game. I now understand far better the importance of crafting an engaging & rewarding core loop before diving into extra mechanics, options, and QoL.
Streamline my Code: I created an abundance of C# script classes for Amphibious Alchemist. When I made them, of course, they made sense to me-- but any programmer who claims to remember how code they wrote last month works is either a wizard or a liar. Trying to expand upon features involved following a trail of references between classes to determine how they functioned. I now endeavor to create as few unique classes as possible and to thoroughly document each one's purpose & connections.
