We’re excited to announce that Alchemic Cutie is out now on Steam for PC / Mac / Linux 😀
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A lot of our Cutie Club have been waiting for this version so we’re excited for everyone to play 😊 If you haven’t bought it already, click the button below to add 100% more cuteness to your Steam library!
What’s next? We’re currently working on a big quality of life update aiming for the end of November release. A few things we’re working on:
Improvements to delivery tracking
Improvements to Jelly competitions
Jelly codes (share your Jellies with your friends across platforms!)
Remapping key bindings on PC
But what about modding you say? We’ll be launching our modding beta in December. If you’re eager to learn more about modding the game, we have an early preview of the mod guide here 👀
In case you haven’t already, you can keep up to date with us through our newsletter, by joining our Discord and following us on Twitter and Facebook.
Development Log #19 – Building Alchemic Cutie’s world with Tiled
Today our lead programmer Thomas Cashman is taking a look at Tiled and how the tool is used to build Alchemic Cutie’s Wimba Island. The tool itself is open-source and developed by @Thorbjørn. If you ever wondered what it takes to build a videogame world, or you just want to take a peek behind the curtains of Wimba Island, this will surely be an interesting video for you.
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What’s next? Alchemic Cutie’s team continues to work towards content completion, which believe it or not is not far away… so stay tuned!
Development Log #18 – Looking Back Into Early Development
Hey there Cutie Club! Today we are taking a look into the past of Alchemic Cutie, many things have changed since development started a couple years back. We will look at the changes in the world, the color palet and some of the facelifts that Wimba Island has received through the years.
World Art The world is one of the most obvious changes, since it affects everything, from the simplest of farmlands to the most intricate of forests. It’s really easy to see how simply changing the colours gave a really different atmosphere to the Island, it went from a desaturated place, to a colourful and charming one.
Another big change to the world was the “cleaning” of the ground textures, making for a much cleaner and less distracting feeling when exploring the island.
World art from alpha
Current world art
Changes to world structures Along with the colour changes, most of Wimba Island’s structures received a revision, making them more suitable to the simple atmosphere of the island. Some of these structures are: buildings, trees, grass, fences and more. Some of these changes were made not only to suit the environment, but also to help with future modding options, allowing the community to create better and more suitable structures.
On the other hand, the overhaul given to the trees gives the player a better understanding of the surroundings, clearly stating where they can go and where they cannot.
Farmhouse from the Alpha.
Current farmhouse.
Alpha version forest.
Current forest, much denser, cleaner and defined.
Cliff Overhaul While it might seem like a minor improvement, overhauling how the cliffsides are made gives a ton of options and flexibility to make multiple different shapes. At the same time, it reduces the amount of tiles used for every face of a cliff, which frees up spaces on the tileset for other environment tiles.
Alpha version cliff.
Current version.
Hear it from @vakerics, the artist himself Sebastien made a video talking much more in depth about the changes mentioned above, make sure to take a look, specially if you plan making something like this on your own, since he gives some insight and reasoning behind them.
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What’s next? The team continues to work hard with the quests, turns out there are more of them than what we thought! 😛
Hey there Cutie Club! We are pumped to share the Jelly Competition update, the perfect way to test your Jelly’s abilities and endurance. Make them break a sweat and compete for cool awards, but keep in mind, other Wimba Island neighbours may try to compete too!
Competitions are Season-tied events, winter related competitions will not be available during the summer, and will be held only during certain days, so make sure to plan ahead!
During the competitions Jellies will get very hungry, so keep in mind that even they need to rest and fill their tummies up. Different traits are beneficial for different competitions, so your professional swimmer Jelly won’t be winning Jelly Sumo events. 😅
Jelly Vogue
It’s spring time! Make your Jellies perform as amazingly as they are. Compete to collect stars and make sure you are the one with more stars at the end of the competition, that will surely grant you an awesome prize. Being social is always a key aspect of the Vogue competitions.
Jelly Splash
During the heat and laziness of the summer, there is nothing better than cooling off in the sea. That’s exactly what your Jelly will do! Swim in the cool waters of Wimba Island’s shore, and race to the finish line.
Jelly Buffet
Big tummies go a long way, in a buffet competition! Make sure you bring you best eating Jelly and compete to see which of the Jellies can eat all the contents the fastest.
Jelly Sumo
The Jelly Sumo competition is a winter event. We all know that winter is cold, and what better way to warm up than to push other Jellies out of the circle, that surely will get the blood pumping. Of course, the blobbier the Jelly the greater pushing strength it will have!
What's next?
Currently our main focus is finishing all the quests and improving cutscenes, it won’t be too long until you hear from us again. Stay tuned!
Welcome back Cutie Club! It’s been a while since we introduced members of the Alchemic Cutie team. So today we present to you Dale North, our music composer. As a special treat, Dale has uploaded a preview of the game’s soundtrack that you can checkout on his SoundCloud!
Dale North is a music composer for video games, based in San Diego, California. As a multi-instrumentalist (piano, vocal, brass), performer, and singer-songwriter with an international training, he brings a unique voice to video game music.
Dale’s music mixes traditional instrumentation with vintage colors, blending live pianos and orchestral tones with the synthesizers and sound sets that shaped the sounds of games from the Super Nintendo and PlayStation eras. His upbringing in Tokyo, Japan helped shape his melodic sense (and his love of synthesizers), and he continues to hold the traditions of game music in the highest regard.
Dale looks forward to working on projects that favor creativity and seek to honor game music’s rich heritage. He has previously worked on soundtracks for Wizard of Legend and Sparklite.
Hey there Cutie Club! We are back with some more development news! If you’ve been keeping up with our social media stuff you may already have seen some sneak peeks of today’s updates. Anyway, it’s time for Wimba Island to receive some love.
The Codex and the Cutiedex
These are your best companions when it comes to items and general information about your adventures on Wimba Island. The Codex will store information about different items that will help you remember what you can do with them, as well as allow you to know how much you may haven't found yet!
On the other hand, the Cutiedex will keep track of the different shapes and colors of the jellies you have caught. It will help you decide if you want to capture the next cute jelly you come across!
Shortcuts
Shortcuts do what you expect them to do, but on Wimba Island they are so cute you might as well activate them just for that.
Shortcuts should be used to avoid long walks to places you’ve already been to, progressing through the map will give you access to different and better ones. To activate a shortcut, you must place a relic on the correct side of it, this will leave it permanently active.
Shrines
In this update Shrines received a bit of a revision, changing some of their main mechanics. Shrines are now directly connected to temples, and are the main way of progressing through Wimba Island, allowing the player to access different zones of the island. You will have to find and complete all the different Shrines in the area before being able to travel to the next one.
Environment Widgets
Some of your favourite bushes and flora got some love in this update too! Receiving some cool animations and interactions, here are some examples:
Energetic Sprouts bounce up after you step on them.
Balloon Stalks give way for Yvette.
Stinkers fight back when stepped on.
What’s next?
We're currently working hard towards content completion so expect news about that in the coming weeks. Also, Dale is preparing a super awesome preview of the game's soundtrack. Stay tuned!
As you saw on the first Wholesome Direct, we’ve finished adding seasons into the game! It took a lot of work but it has really brought Wimba Island to life. Your Jellies and you will enjoy chilly mornings in winter and lazy summer days.
As the seasons progress, different Jellies, resources, items and quests will appear on Wimba Island.
Each season lasts 28 in-game days, with different types of weather and climate changing the environment around you; with new areas becoming accessible. It will hopefully affect your overall mood too 😉
Spring
Some days may be rainy others sunny but every spring day gets the jellies in a good mood. Lots of plants start to regrow during this season.
Summer
Warm and lazy, still makes everyone go crazy for sunbathing and Jelly swimming competitions. Time to shine swimming Jellies!
Autumn
Moody afternoons while walking through the forest, relax to the sound of water running and Jellies goofing around. Expect some foggy mornings during this season!
Winter
So cold it will make you want to stay home enjoying some hot chocolate and Jellie cuddles by the firepit. Some water areas will freeze over and give you access to new areas (with new Jellies!).
What’s next?
We’re currently hard at work adding in all the quests of the game. The characters are starting to come to life and we’ll be introducing some of them very soon 😊
Alchemic Cutie’s visit to PAX East 2020 is now officially in the books. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing everyone getting their first hands-on with our game.
We are super thankful to PM Studios for giving us a slot in their booth. They had a great line up of games for the event and it was great to meet so many awesome developers at their booth 😀
Also huge shout out to Indie MEGABOOTH for giving us a MiniBooth during Saturday and Sunday. Being able to see long queues forming to play Alchemic Cutie was amazing 😊
We had Welcome To Elk and Calico as our booth neighbors in the MiniBooth. If you like narrative-driven adventures based on real stories or want to run your own magical cat café, make sure to check them out!
