Alchemist's Alcove

absolutely loving this game so far! I was already enjoying the basic crafting gameplay but after unlocking a couple of super transformative spoiler items I feel like it's really exploded in terms of options. A very creative roguelike that gives a really awesome feeling of discovery. Recommended

If you like Noita, Void Stranger, Star of Providence, or any trad roguelike / metroidbrainias / esoteric worldbuilding as part of gameplay sorta game ; you'll probably enjoy this game!

Its pretty fun if not a little messy. Theres a lot of spells that I feel lack a good use case. There is also a bunch of small issues I have, with my biggest being the full process to win the game. The early discorvery and exploration before you know the map and crafting well is a great time.

What a weird quirky game. If you enjoy organizing things it's oddly satisfying. Finding new recipes also hits that dopamine switch. Makes me want to jot down notes in a notebook. That being said, the in game crafting notebook is both really robust and lacking at times. I can track down all the recipes and each step in a recipe by clicking on an item in it or in my inventory super easy! Trying to find a recipe you can't remember can be rough having to look through every page of the book for it.

Overall impression: this takes those Alchemy games that were really popular when the iphone first released and turns them into a game where your crafting creativity meets challenges that you can use all that combinatorial knowledge to overcome, and does a great job of it. Alchemist's Alcove is a charming experience with a huge catalog of recipes to discover, which proves equal parts challenging, imaginative and creative. I had a great time working my way through the recipes to find paths to power and overcome the challenges the game presents. What's really neat is that once I got a pretty good handle on what different things I *could* do, the game got much easier. It's a traditional roguelike in the sense that player knowledge makes it possible to trivially continue through areas that were challenging without that knowledge. It's a little bit antithetical (heh!) to trad. roguelikes in the sense that the player knowledge you earn partially stays with you in a physical form, a notebook you carry with you which tells you about the recipes you have learned. Trad. Roguelike purists, fear not! There are two modes which in turn reduce and/or eliminate the benefit of that notebook, so if you want a pure player-knowledge experience, the game delivers. That said, as my memory is quite poor I found it very useful to have the notebook as an easy reference to remind me about the things I *can* do. Speaking of the recipes, there's a huge catalog. As of this writing I have about 280 unique recipes unlocked - and the feeling of being able to rapidly advance through that catalog to get to late-game power feels very empowering, as the first time through you can easily get overwhelmed by kobolds and towards the end of my adventure I was confidently squaring off against dragons with a very small amount of time dedicated to preparation. The game has a discrete goal, and as much as I enjoy the game my biggest complaint is that a couple of the steps to make it towards end game feel a little bit esoteric. That said, plenty of people were beating this game very shortly after release with no guidance, so it's not a particularly huge leap to figure out what you need to do. The game provides adequate information without spoiling you, and I think it strikes a neat balance between allowing the player to feel good figuring it out, and leaving enough information that you don't have to risk too much to get there. All in all, this is a cute game with a surprising amount of depth. There's tactical considerations in combat - enemy moves are predictable and positioning can turn a fight that kills you into a fight with no hp lost - and there are very significant improvements in player power with relatively minor upgrades required to get there. That is to say, that even when you think you've only gained a small benefit - one more damage, one more movement, one more recipe - these small changes have a huge impact on the overall experience, enabling you to rapidly reach new areas which were a death sentence before. I think the balancing may be something I love the most about this game. Everything you can do feels impactful in one way or another. And when it doesn't seem that way, that probably just means there's something you haven't found yet. I'd have bought this game, but Adam was kind enough to gift me a copy during playtesting. I know the dev through other projects he has worked on, so I'm somewhat biased, but I really think he's a great guy with a good head for this business. All in all, I think he did a great job with this little game. Give it a shot. I bet you'll like it enough in the first hour that you won't want to refund it.

Only played for a short bit but can confidently say this game is hella cool, combining items and ingredients to make spells genuinely make you feel like an alchemist 10/10

Has a nice lore with cryptic scrolls and text; A noita/doodle god/roguelike mix that really scratches that itch. Very innovative!

Creative little roguelike crafting game. You can break the game over your knee pretty early, with the only thing keeping you back being your knowledge of the game's arcane secrets. There's the potential to get a little lost at times, but also some very satisfying "Aha!" moments.

Fascinating systems, fun sense of discovery, I have played more than my steam stats report idk why it says that. Wish progress was a little less randomised, I keep needing meat for heals tho maybe i am just dumb and missing another mechanic. Cool game!

It is a fun game but it mainly makes me want to play Rift Wizard 2. That is a better game.