The Alchementrix is a machine that uses industrial alchemy to extract gold from stone.  Each element has a set of inherent properties, behaviors, and these can be used to refine stone, or combined, to form new effects.

The basic elements for industrial alchemy are Water, Fire, Acid and Vacuum.  Water courses downwards, eroding softer stone to reveal precious metals. Fire burns upwards, a blast furnace of heat cracking stone and melting precious metals into the cistern below.  Acid’s volatile temper causes it to spray outward, eroding softer material quickly.  Finally we have vacuum, the ability to suck air from a room, to crush and implode, snuffing out flames and freezing liquids, re-arranging tiles in the process.

Each of these can be used to refine stone, but the player can also store their energy to power faster, more powerful reactions, called Elemental Attacks.

Elemental Attacks use energy from multiple elements.  For example, water added to fire gives steam, which can be used for mechanical work.  The Alchementrix uses Steam to rotate the game grid, turning the board on it’s side.  Another mechanical elemental attack is Moorewick’s Mangler, a gigantic drilling device which tears through a column of tiles.

Other combinations of the initial elements yield electrical, explosive and optical effects, allowing the player to chew through the stone faster. Many are named after the pioneers of science and natural philosophy who discovered their fundamental principals, men like Spinoza, Ampere, Peltier and Fresnel.

We’re excited to roll out a preliminary list of the Elemental Attacks and their animatics (a short series of images which illustrate their behavior) next, and as the particle effects for the base elements come together, we’ll be able to build upon those for the Elemental Attack effects.  Exciting times!

Finally getting back to work on a really fun aspect of Alchementrix:  the power-ups.  Here we have the rebuild of Moorewick’s Mechanickal Mangler, a giant drill piece capable of tearing through an entire column of tiles in half a second.

One of the primary aspects of the power-ups is balancing orderly effects against chaotic; the demo version will ship with 4 power-ups.  The mangler, an explosive called Grenado, and a pair of others we’ll talk about later.

The mangler you see here is powered by Steam, which is drawn from the player’s reserves of water and fire.  The mangler is a quick way to destroy a column of tiles, but it won’t return gold from stone tiles, so the player has to balance that predictability against profits.

I’m considering taking the project to Kickstarter – with the user generated puzzles and the power-ups, I know I’ll need help on the back-end and balancing at the very least; coupled with my need for a c# collaborator, and it’s just unavoidable that I’ll need to purchase some assistance in the near future.  If anyone has suggestions and advice regarding that process, please drop me a line!

I need to remodel the iron boxes and figure out why unity is creating a halo on the transparent parts, but seeing them working in game is gratifying.  The iron box is simple, but the concept that it brought – non-reactive utility tiles – has given a lot of flexibility towards puzzle building, and we’re looking forward on expanding that with the 3 others – each with unique, game expanding behavior.  As iron prevents tiles from touching, and reacting, the remainder modify the game’s rules in a similar manner, by reducing reaction costs, pausing a reaction until prompted, or redirecting a reaction’s effects.

Also, I’ve started the first steps towards getting music into this build, and even though it’s just a single track, Mike’s gameplay music adds a ton of rhythm to the game.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get the menu and other tracks from Brian and sound effects into the game soon.  Fun times!