![Alkimia Shadowing](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE3MTQxNTE0LnBuZw==/original/HWLv%2Fz.png)
Alkimia Shadowing
Alkimia Shadowing
Created in 7-ish days for Pirate Software Game Jam 15. Theme: Shadow, Alchemy
Known issue: WebGL sometime gives me a constant slight rotation when cursor is locked. Play in full screen seems to fix it.
Team
- Kelvin - Design, Programmer, Art, Modeling
Synopsis
You finally find the hideaway of the legendary alchemist Master Umbra, but are greeted with an empty cottage except for a spotlight and a table. Things are not as simple as they first seem though. With the help of a few magical items and the power of shadow memories, can you repeat what your predecessor did and ascend to higher planes?
Theme interpretation
- "Shadow" as shadow, shadowing
- "Alchemy" as alchemy, occult
Controls
- [W, A, S, D] to move
- [Mouse] to control camera
- [Mouse Button 1] to grab and drop items
- [Mouse Button 2] to rotate items
- [Mouse Button 1] to use an item on to another item
- [F} to interact with items
- [Q], [E] to control shadow memory playback
- [SPACE] to pause shadow memory playback
- [ESC], [P] to pause game
Hints
Take your time and watch carefully what Master has done. Some actions are intended to be confusing. It's a memory after all so he is not going anywhere.
Playback control is your best friend. The pocket watch is a gift from Umbra, so just use it to the greatest extent.
Stirring the cauldron also counts as a step. Be sure to mix it well!
If you are really really stuck on a puzzle, here are the number of steps needed for each puzzle:
Steps For each puzzle
- Puzzle 1 : 6
- Puzzle 2 : 6
- Puzzle 3 : 7
Miscellaneous and Various
In order to get a better experience and graphics, you are encouraged to try the game as a standalone player. The build is included in this page.
I was aware of the game jam and got an interesting idea when there were only 7-ish days left to the Jam, so things are probably a bit rushed. Therefore there are currently only two levels, and no audio sadly.
Shadowing is a learning technique where you follow step by step what your mentor has done.
Design Document : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ygQ0kBb4uBQg7K1e9H2ogBe4QZvLxXNFhW9UPKmVqQM/...
Status | Released |
Platforms | HTML5 |
Rating | Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars (3 total ratings) |
Author | hoimankyuen |
Genre | Puzzle |
Made with | Adobe Photoshop, Unity, Blender |
Tags | 3D, Atmospheric, Black and White, First-Person, Mystery, Shadows, Short |
Average session | A few minutes |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
Accessibility | Color-blind friendly, Subtitles |
Comments
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I really really love the shadow mechanic in this game. It's really cool how it works.
I just wish there were more harder levels that force you to move the projector around more.
Currently all levels can be solved by placing it and leaving it in one spot.
With some polish on the item interactions more _selectable?_ levels could make this a really fun memory puzzle game.
I would make the intro starting level maybe 3 steps at most. Especially to get used to the controls & mechanic.
It's also rare to see a game run at my monitor's refresh rate of 360hz. For a 3D WebGL game that's really impressive.
The menu's look pretty too! Love the fades.
This game being greyscale mono-chromatic is a really cool aesthetic. It also makes the colored gems really pop!
Overall well done! I'd love to see more levels and mechanics added to this game. <3
Gave some additional UX/UI feedback in the Discord chat! :)
Thank you! The UX/UI feedback you gave will be so helpful for us later on! Thanks again!
I really liked the gameplay of the game because I think it’s creative to follow the steps of Umbra through the shadows and being able to change the position of the light was the thing I liked. Being able to see the room through different angles was fun!
I felt I was taking photos at times because I needed to change the angle of the projector and be able to see what the shadow did, which I liked, also sometimes I could feel the shadow was there as 3D and not just a shadow.
And good visuals. :)
I didn’t have much problem with the lack of audio, I could put music I like while playing so it didn’t affect the gameplay much for me.
I would liked that you could resume the play with hitting space again, like if I was going x2 forward, then pause, it would be good if it went back to x2 instead of pressing forward 2 times again. It is my only “issue” with the game
Oh, and the fact you could put the bottles in the air was funny, you could put it anywhere as long as you can even if it floats
Outside of that I had fun going step by step with the shadow, it can be tricky since the things aren’t in the same place but it added fun for me.
Oh, and my old PC could run this 3D game which made me happy, usually I have to move to a more powerful PC to play the games people shared and are 3D, so that’s a bonus for me.
Thanks for sharing your game! :D
Thank you and glad you enjoyed the game! Taking photos was such an ingenious way to help solve the puzzles, even we hadn't thought of that. It would be interesting if we could incorporate that into the game as well, think of them as haunted photos that contain special information, that would be fun.
Quick resuming is a nice idea as well. Thanks for that!
P.S. We tried to make the models and rendering as optimised as we could, so it's such a relief that our effort paid off!
Such an awesome idea! With a smooth and clean art direction and easy to understand instructions on how the game works :3
The puzzle itself were nicely tricky. I needed minimum 2 tries on all of them. And i loved that i was able to move the light after the first puzzle, which opens up so much more on puzzle possibilities :D
Im amazed at the shadow animation in general and wonder how you did that so that is runs correct from different angles :D
I felt like a reset option as button would be nice, after i noticed that my potion steps have been wrong. Which also would have resetted the 3D objects.
And it took me a bit to notice that i could stop, maybe an ui icon as stop sign when its stopped would indicate it nicely that the stop exists. I skipped over the stop often at first when i switched between reverse and play. But maybe that was also me being dumb, when i didnt see that it can stop ,:D
Some mechanics seem to have a cooldown which is nice to avoid double tipping, but it feels like it could be longer on the cauldron. I was able to spam create wrong crystals with extract.
I liked that the different potions and items had comments, which made them more unique :D. But I feel like i found a bug on it. I looked at a Potion and didnt understand what it was at first so after the dialog disappeared i looked at the ground and then again on the Potion. I had to look at the spoon or something else and then again on the specific Potion to get the dialog again. Looking at it, then at the ground or just not at an object and then on the Potion again didnt show the dialog again.
In total, its an awesome game and was very fun. :D
Thank you for playing and for your kind comments as well! Glad you enjoy the game!
The time manipulation mechanic is very important to the game, and it's essential that we make that experience as smooth as possible, so making the controls obvious is one of our priorities. Resetting the whole puzzle is also a very good suggestion, this should be a great QoL improvement too. And thank you for that bug you found, we will look into it further. Thank you very much!
I like this idea a lot! Using the shadows and time to solve puzzles is brilliant, be careful, the flashing black and white could be an epilepsy trigger. I really really wish there were music and sound to keep me engaged, great work!
Thank you! Glad you like it! The epilepsy issue never crossed my mind during development, probably need be more careful about that! Thanks!
This is really fun! It fits the jam theme well. It took me a while to figure out the puzzles, but that was my own fault because I'm dumb. Great job!
Thank you! It's okay, the hints are a bit misleading by design. Do feel bad about it.
Anyway, glad you enjoyed it!
very clever and well executed game , fits the theme really well
Thank you for playing!
I like the concept here, and managed to complete all 3 puzzles; admittedly, I had to take a few rewinds to take a closer look, but eventually figured things out. I also like how later levels would have you find the right spot for the spotlight.
One annoyance would be picking up items and then dropping them; often Drop command wouldn't appear, and after a bit of mouse juggling it would appear at a position where the item would end up in a weird spot. I feel like my playthrough would be significantly shorter and smoother if not for this oddity.
The graphics were fine; too bad there was no audio. Neat entry, overall.
Thank you! Glad you are enjoying the puzzles! Yeh, I needed to spend some more time of the whole interaction bit, thanks for the comment!
I really liked the setting and idea. It has huge potential. The two levels are very easy, but I can see this becoming a deduction/detective game like “Return of the Obra Dinn”.
No sound is a bit of a let down, but the graphics were good enough that I felt immersed.
There is some quirkiness with the object physics, especially when dropping them. I think allowing the player to always be able to drop the items with a rigid body sim would work better, but it served it’s purpose.
Overall well done, keep at it. I would love to see more!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! I originally intended the items to be dropped to the floor, but just aren't able to get it working yet before the deadline. But yes this would be much better.
I am seriously planning to continue work on the game, and maybe get a full game out of this.
Very cool idea for mechanic and it's well presented! The controls were a bit finicky at times for me though.
Thank you! Wondering if it's about the input schemes or the lag. I should investigate into it a bit further
Such a cool concept. This feels like it has a lot of potential. Yeah, no sound is a bit of a bummer, but don't be too hard on yourself, you made something great nonetheless.
Thank you! Hope you like it! I am more and more tempted to make it into a full game with the potential and suggestions I've got lately. We'll see :)
No sound design is killer for such a fun game experience. Great job making everything, it was masterful!
I am regretting every second of it right nowww :( Sure will get the sound in for the quick fix!
Anyway thank you for playing!
Do not regret the choice at all! Every second of playing was wonderful and you should be proud of what you accomplished!
That's so clever! Wish I thought of it!
Ha ha! The whole gone through the process of "Playing with shadows" > "Manipulating the shadows" > "Why do we even need something to cast the shadows". I am quite proud of it.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the game!
I genuinely cannot believe something this awesome and complicated was made in just 7 days. Absolutely blown away.
Just gonna get the bad outta the way. It needs sound, any sound any music just anything would have been nice because playing it in total silence felt weird and as if it robbed the game greatly.
Even if the lack of sound was a drawback the mechanics, the shadow replay / reverse system the style the goal to follow the shadow through the recordings... It was all so beautifully done and executed that I would not be surprised to see a full fledged game of this style in the future. You really made something awesome here and my biggest complaint is that I don't have more to play.
Thank you! Glad that you liked it!
I am regretting every seconds right now not having enough time putting in the sounds. That should be a priority for a quick fix.
Played and I have to say that the use of the "Shadow Recording" is amazing ! Good job !
Thank you! Glad you liked it!
This is a cool game! The puzzles were fun too! And gaphically it fit so well! loved it
Thank you for playing! Glad to see this fun little idea paid off!