!wanderingalchemist@lemmy.zip

Just a small community for the game I'm currently developing. Fully free, no ads, no data collection, no in-app purchases. Still looking for testers and feedback :)

What's it about?

Similar to Pokemon GO, as in it's a real world walking game.

You pick up potion ingredients you find (with some minigames), brew potions and sell them. There's various NPC factions and they all want potions with different effects.

The gold and reputation you earn can be spent in the store, for:

• Skins (Main skin + face rune)
• Pet companions (Which also find you ingredients when walking) and pet upgrades
• Buildings: Freely place buildings and decorations in your neighborhood
• Buffs: With reputation you have access to various faction buffs/effects

Generally the game is fully offline and only needs GPS. One little trick I used: Despite being offline you see the same map and resources as other players, so if you find something you can tell others about it. Of course progress, buildings you place and so on is fully Singleplayer.

There is a one-time street map download function, around 30-150 MB depending on your location (I tried to cover the entire world), if you want streets as orientation while playing. The map itself is fully made up and procedural.

Very technical, sorry, I'm not good at sales pitches (:

Interesting. Pokemon Go and Ingress complain if you use them while taking the bus. How does this one treat the bus?

No complaining, but if you travel above 12 km/h you won't get any progress on distance walked (For daily quests, companion pickups and so on).

But you can fully pick up resources, brew potions, sell them and place buildings (though as soon as you back out of placement mode you'll jump in location, not optimal).

I only added the 12 km/h gate to discourage playing while driving, but the game doesn't bug you about it :)

How do I download it?

It's still in Closed Testing (until Google finally lets me fully release it).

You have to join the Google Group here with your Play Store email:

https://groups.google.com/g/wandering-alchemist-closed-test

Then you can join the test and download normally in the Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vlyn.wanderingalchemist

Always eager to hear feedback and suggestions, if you can think of some fun content let me know :)

Are you going to release it in iOS too?

I actually have a few friends who want it on iOS. I'd have to get a used iPhone though and Apple also charges $99 a year just to keep your free app on their store..

So my plan for now is to release for free on Android and if there is actually interest in the game I can look into iOS later. But then I'd have to do a onetime buy to play (like $5) for iOS to cover the cost. Bit of a mixed bag to be honest.

I was just curious, don’t worry. currently I have a iPhone but as soon as it breaks down significantly I’ll change to another non-iPhone phone and I’ll be able to play your game :D

Oh, why do you want to change away from iOS? Just due to the cost or other reasons?

I've been an Android user all my live, but I do like to tinker more (:

Cost is a pretty big one, and Linux opened my eyes to the world of FOSS

Apple took two weeks just for the first round of reviews, but it's finally out.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wandering-alchemist/id6798869918

Not the newest content update yet, but hopefully in a day or two that will also pass the review :)

Let me know how you like it, a rating and review would be very appreciated! 💚

Hey! I started playing and just noticed a small problem: I have my phone greyscaled and noticed that in the crystal mini game it’s very hard to distinguish rock from crystal. I’m not actually color blind so take this with a grain of salt. I would suggest you to find a color blind playtester so they can say if this is actually a problem

I’ll keep playing the game, telling you if I find any problems and later I’ll review it :) congrats, this game has potential

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

Good point, I'll take a look and see if I can make the crystal stand out more in greyscale :)

Keep the suggestions coming, have fun 💚

I snuck it into the new update :)

For iOS it might take anywhere from two hours two two days (Apple reviews every update manually), but it'll be there soon.

https://lemmy.zip/post/71144514

Wow that was fast :D

I am speed (:

Let me know if it's clear enough now on your screen 💚

Oh yeah, it’s way better now, thanks!