Mages Alchemy

[tjheldna]

Hi All,

 

Welcome to my showcase for Mages Alchemy, a world where maths becomes the magic =).

 

The time has come to release my first build of my game Mages Alchemy. For the last 8 months or more I have dedicated all my spare time to this title (-LECP). I feel it's time in the games development for some external testing and for your opinion on how the game has progressed so far, so I can decide where it will take me to the future.

 

With the lead up to Christmas it is getting very hard for spare time, however I will do a indieDB listing soon. I might even give myself a little break.

 

 

A special mention to Aggror who found a massive bug straight up after some testing. Although painful to fix, it would have been x1000 worse if that bug made it onto a public release. Thanks for your help as any help is appreciated. It's credit mention worthy for sure! Also thanks to the community members who have helped me get to this stage through forum help.

 

I really hope you enjoy previewing the game!

 

Current Release:

• Download v1.8.9 BETA (188 mb)
  

 

Please note level 3 is a big WIP, it's in development and all over the place! However I made it available as it makes use of a new spell and can be used. It is impossible to finish this level at this point in time, so you will have to esc out.

 

 

Beta video

 

 

To get up do date on what it's about check out my earlier blog or my website... for those who care ....

 

http://www.leadwerks...-mages-alchemy/

 

&&

 

http://www.bleedingc...om/MagesAlchemy

[Rick]

Looks very quality.

 

Love the visuals.

 

Feels like to many interruptions at the start to teach the player how to play. I always hate those. I just want to play the game ya know. Maybe a more in game creative way to teach them? I don't mind getting hints but not game blocking hints. Maybe just popups on the lower part of the screen or something.

 

To much lowering bridges. More creativity with the lower spell would be nice.

 

The level ending part where it tallies things up seemed sort of slow and not exciting. Most of the time games that have these put lots of flash into these and lots of spinning numbers with crazy win sounds. They make it like we just hit the jackpot on a slot machine

[tjheldna]

Cheers Rick,

 

I agree there is too many bridges. Currently I have only done 1 item that is effected by the lowering spell, there will have to be more variety (I just came up with an easy to implement idea just then). Also I have done other spells (raise, lock pick, illuminate, trigger) however they are not planned until later levels.

 

As far as the tutorial windows go I could trim them down a bit text wise. The spell windows only happen once. The main game start one keeps the player in place before the game is fully loaded. I think it's an engine thing, but you can start walking at a super pace before the level is visible so the initial tutorial window is needed to disable the player. I can easily set the spell tutorial windows not to disable the player and have it vanish over time, I'll have a play around with it.

 

I'll try and liven up the result window. Score bonuses are awarded in game, I should display them in a manner pleasing to the user. I'm not sure if I can get around to this before the 15th though, I'll try and add at least something however. I'll take a look to see how other games have done it, maybe add a star rating or something.

 

 

I can't argue with any of your points Rick. Thanks heaps!

[Guest Red Ocktober]

looking really good tj...

 

something is missing though... sounds... a narrative voice maybe... i dunno what...

 

(and, yes... maybe too many of the same type bridge )

 

--Mike

[Pixel Perfect]

Overall it's looking superb, just needs some more variation as already mentioned. Great work though! Few people have ever got a game in Leadwerks to this stage.

[tjheldna]

oooh Id love to have what he is saying spoken, I can't think of anyone who would do it though. It would sound terrible if I did it =).

 

Last night I added a new type of lowering object that will be finalised soon, but I'll let ya work it out when your playing.

 

 

Thanks again!

[AggrorJorn]

Very nice work! Like pixel said: there are so many working items in your game allready. There aren't many who have gotten this far. so thumbs up on this! It also looks very good. I especially liked the natural stone bridge with the flowers on it. The feel of adventure is really well done in the game.

 

I would like to help you with the voice, if you want to ofcourse. I am not sure if my voice would fit with the game character.

[tjheldna]

Hi Aggror,

 

Thanks for the offer. You definitely have the ability to do it as you are a serial video blogger =). I'm not sure if your voice will fit as I picture the voice to be an older deep voice but I'm willing to give it a shot if you are? Who knows, it may just work and if it doesn't it will serve as a stand in so it would be useful anyway.

 

Maybe it's possible to edit the voice for these effects afterwards.I won't be able to get to adding a voice sound just as yet but I'll chuck it on my list and give you a yell when I'm ready. I'm also going to have to learn a thing or two about sound editing as I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to this. If you are up for it now I guess the first phrase I'll need is "I do not have enough mana" or "Mana levels are too low" as a variation.

 

Cheers!

[AggrorJorn]

Yeah I figured that my voice wouldn't sound old enough. I will give it a shot and send you some samples.

[tjheldna]

Nice one thank's Aggror

[fumanshoo]

This is awesome! It reminds me of a math game I played as a little kid. Great job, man!

[cassius]

You can alter the pitch of voices in audacity. I did a deep voice and a female voice using my own voice for both.

[ChrisMAN]

My i tuned my wife's voice down a couple semitones and she sounded like my brother in law... very scary.

[Josh]

You can alter the pitch of voices in audacity. I did a deep voice and a female voice using my own voice for both.

The question is, which was the altered version and which was the original?

[AggrorJorn]

I have send you some samples.

[tjheldna]

Thanks Aggror,

 

I got them this morning, I didn't respond as I left my computer on last night. Thanks heaps! I'm actually really happy with them and good variety to. I'll add a voice to the player hopefully tonight and see how it meshes with the game.

 

Thanks again!

[tjheldna]

Hey Aggror, very cool, your voice is now the voice of the main character. I went for the 10% lower pitch_normal voice. I think that one sounds really good and not too out of place. I have another thought, instead of your voice being the voice of the character, it could be like a commentators voice over. I think that would fit very nicely indeed.

 

I'll roll with what I have atm I have a tonne of things to do before this weekend. I want to just keep the voice in and let it sink in more as it's added a whole new dimension to the game . If you are interested in creating more in the near future that would be awesome!

[AggrorJorn]

Thanks, really cool to be able to help you with it. A goodgame that does comments the game whilest playing it is Bastion.

[tjheldna]

First post updated and download link to the first release beta build added.

 

It's late here, and I'm done for tonight.

 

Cheers!

[Pixel Perfect]

Cool ...will download and try it out tonight

[Pixel Perfect]

It's really most impressive tjheldna. The graphics and gameplay is really very polished and looks as good as anything I could compare it too. I have only played the first level so far on hard setting and chalked up a score of 24400 at the end. Will play the 2nd and third levels tomorrow.

 

A couple of things I noticed right at the beginning with some of the introduction text:

 

'An evil wizard has cast dark magic to blocked your path' would be better English if phrased as:

 

'An evil wizard has cast dark magic to block your path'

 

Likewise:

 

'only you have the power to undo it all of this evil work' is better phrased:

 

'only you have the power to undo all of this evil work'

 

 

The only other issue was I noticed I got some corruption of the graphics occasionally when on the wooden platform by the bridges. The textures would sometimes break up. Might just be the graphics chip on my cheap internet PC. I tried to take a screenshot but it just came out black!

 

Plays beautifully though on this low spec AMD A6-3500 APU with onboard Radeon HD graphics chip.

 

My son (7 years old) is away for the weekend but I know will really enjoy playing this when he gets back. Look forward to seeing this finally released and I'm sure it will do well!

[Josh]

'only you have the power to undo all of this evil work'

 

Fewer words is better. Don't be wordy.

[tjheldna]

Thanks guys! I'll take a look at the text, I haven't really put a whole lot of thought into it as of yet. I like the text changes you have to the text and will add them in. I do have a storyline in mind I think I need to amp it up in that area, maybe as a cut scene at the start or something.

 

@Pixel.

 

Good to hear it runs well on your computer. I still have many optimisations to do as I haven't done a single LOD as of yet, which I'll hopefully get to soon and make even more of a difference.

 

 

As far as the bridge goes there are two things that probably have something to do with it, It doesn't happen on mine however..

 

1. I attempted to create a shader on it as I wanted it to flash when casting a "detect magic" spell, however I didn't get it working, but I don't think I removed my dodgy shader code properly.

 

2. The bridge is only half textured as you may have noticed some sections aren't UVW mapped at all. Maybe it has something to do with it?

 

 

I was thinking about 7+ years to be the target audience for this game. It would really make my day if your son likes it and possibly even learn from it! Mine is still way too young to play it and the schools I work at use Mac with no Bootcamp, so testing in that age group hasn't happened yet. I'm very interested to hear the results of that.

[Rick]

Commenting as I'm playing. Take comments for what they are worth

 

 

- Create New User screen:

- Would like to use the keyboard to type my name

- The on screen keyboard is in alphabetical order and not a "normal" keyboard layout.

 

- Loading screen:

- The image black wasn't the same as the bg black. I'm guessing you want that to blend so we can't really see the bounds of the image?

 

- Game:

- Animation looks pretty choppy. Are you doing animation blending? That would help smooth this out.

- If I jump and move at the same time there is a good amount of gliding the character does.

- There is a good amount of gliding happening

- Camera angle gets to far away sometimes. After the first bridge I'm in the middle of the bridge and running over the coins was a little odd.

- In 1 bridge lowering I got 2 of the exact same formulas. Maybe make it so that can't happen.

- Not sure what the coins are for. They don't seem to serve any real purpose

- Takes way to long to tally the scores. I feel these should go faster and more flash and bang.

- Starting level 2, maybe just automatically give me the mana and down spells from last level. Not much sense in just easily picking them up when I already know them.

- More variety in puzzles. (I know you have this planned)

 

3rd level froze on the loading screen. Not sure what happened but I just killed it at that point.

 

Love the music, love the scenery, great UI & overall game look and feel. I think the puzzle variety would go a long way with a game like this. Keep up the good work!

[tjheldna]

Hi Rick,

 

Responses below

 

Create New User screen:

- Would like to use the keyboard to type my name

- The on screen keyboard is in alphabetical order and not a "normal" keyboard layout.

 

My friends wife pointed this out too, she didn't like the layout of the keyboard I'll make that change of those two items.

 

- Loading screen:

- The image black wasn't the same as the bg black. I'm guessing you want that to blend so we can't really see the bounds of the image?

 

Yes I do, and I never noticed. I'll fix it.

 

- Game:

- Animation looks pretty choppy. Are you doing animation blending? That would help smooth this out.

 

There is some animation blending, but can do with improvement.

 

- If I jump and move at the same time there is a good amount of gliding the character does.

 

This should blend the land animation and the amount depends on how hard he hits the ground. This has been pretty seamless from my tests. I'll check it out.

 

- There is a good amount of gliding happening

 

This shouldn't happen and doesn't happen on my end. I'll look into it.

 

- Camera angle gets to far away sometimes. After the first bridge I'm in the middle of the bridge and running over the coins was a little odd.

 

I'll look at improving the camera's. Positioning is quite tricky.

 

- In 1 bridge lowering I got 2 of the exact same formulas. Maybe make it so that can't happen.

 

Easy Fix

 

- Not sure what the coins are for. They don't seem to serve any real purpose

 

Currently the coins do not have a specific purpose apart from trying to find all 20 in each level and all 5 orbs. As levels progress they will get increasingly harder to get. Originally I wanted to do a store, but I cut that idea out ages ago.

 

- Takes way to long to tally the scores. I feel these should go faster and more flash and bang.

 

I remember this feedback from the video. I was going to work on this in the final week, but ran out of time. I have a few things planned for this.

 

- Starting level 2, maybe just automatically give me the mana and down spells from last level. Not much sense in just easily picking them up when I already know them.

 

Originally inventory items did save, but I commented it out. Here is my reason.... say if you come across one of those bridges and you don't have the lower spell, but you used it in a previous level. I want the user to think hey I've done this before and think what did I need to solve that problem? It also gives the user more things to collect in a level. In future levels they will become harder to find and reach.

 

- More variety in puzzles. (I know you have this planned)

 

Completed another two items. In level 2 did you find the two secret caves using the Detect Magic Spell?

 

3rd level froze on the loading screen. Not sure what happened but I just killed it at that point.

 

That usually means some player loading didn't work. I'll look into it, you might want to try deleting your save data in your "Mages Alchemy" home folder (don't delete the sqlite db )

 

Love the music, love the scenery, great UI & overall game look and feel. I think the puzzle variety would go a long way with a game like this. Keep up the good work!

 

I can't claim credit for the music, it's from a royalty free site =).

 

 

ty Rick, I appreciate your comments as they show you have put quite a bit of thought and time into them. They have helped me to identify what areas to look at.