Vulpes the Alchemist

Vulpes the Alchemist was designed to be a small and contained project which would explore areas of Unreal Engine that I had not spent much time (if any) exploring. This included inventory systems, item crafting, save datas, audio design, having a day/night cycle and the general creation of a 2D/ pixel art game.

Itch.io link: https://lukemanga.itch.io/vulpes-the-alchemist

Why I chose this project

I wanted to make a short but sweet, relaxing fantasy style game that the player could take at their own pace. I also wanted to give making a pixel art game a go as I had done a module on 2D art in my second year and had found myself to be a fan of the artform (stemming from doing A level art, I am a fan of creating art in general). I had other ideas to do a island survival/ resource management game or a 2D combat platformer game, and this felt like a nice compromise between the two.

What I learnt

Being my first attempt at a 2D/ pixel art game I learnt a lot about the sprite based tools that Unreal Engine. Through testing I also learned more in regards to means of telegraphing success, through particles and sound. I also learnt more about tiling as I drew all the assets, excluding the player sprite and the background pieces, in photoshop.

What I enjoyed

As I expected, I enjoyed the drawing process for the various tile pieces. Beyond that, the process of creating a pick-up-and-play game that was designed to be relaxing, was in of itself relaxing. From the level design to audio design to the blueprint interaction system, I enjoyed the entire process.

Critical Review

The only thing I would have liked to improve on would be to have made a more dynamic clock/ time skip system, which was hour based and would cause plants to grow if you skipped time past their specific grow times. If I had the time, I would have also liked to add a day tally/ system, which keeps track of how many days it has been. I could then add a notice board which informs the player that on that day some potions are worth more and some are worth less.