Chemical Love by der Mondhase
One wrong ingredient can turn a Potion of True Love into a Potion of Unchained Evil. One wrong dosage can be the difference between reaching for your loved one and being assaulted by a lovely stegosaurus.
And the one who has to mix the ingredients... is you!
Unstable
Chemical Love is a short narrative game with minimalistic graphics, made for the Ludum Dare 49 Game Jam, with the theme "Unstable", in the span of around 10 hours.
Here, unstable, is used with two meanings: "unstable" like the Love Potions our unnamed protagonist brews, causing every kind of disaster, and "unstable" as the personality of Freaky Glasses Guy, the customer whom you will interact with during your playthrough.
There are several bad endings (some of which comically bad), which are required to actually reach (one of) the true ending(s).
- All graphic assets have been handcrafted for this jam, except two small potion icons from the RPG Maker XP RTP;
- A full list of credits for audio and scripts is included inside the game's folder, after running the installer;
This game handles some heavy themes, such as thoughts about taking one's life. Do not play it if you are considering these thoughts - instead, please look for qualified support!
The game also includes a walkthrough to get all endings. You can find it inside the game's folder.
| Link | https://gamejolt.com/games/ldjam49chemlove/652308 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/chemical-love |
Ratings
| Overall | 463th | 3.726⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 320th | 3.798⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 645th | 3.415⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 515th | 3.793⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1143th | 3.11⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 108th | 4.048⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 209th | 3.962⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 60🗨️ |
However, I'm glad I did them all, because the true ending was worth the wait.
P.S. Combustion is the fallback for day 1. For the good ending, you need to select 1,1,1,2 in the list of ingredients and for the Devil ending, 2,2,2,1 (that is, the opposite as the good one).
Quite a nice experience, with its serious and even dramatic or wholesome moments and rather well done.
Getting the endings was rather tedious, but I guess you can't have everything in a jam.
Overall, a big kudos!
Very nice attempt, good job.
@matthieu-riboulot P ending was also my favorite to write. Overall, I liked that how it worked out the most!
@khelian thanks a bunch! Yeah, sadly I couldn't get a meaningful "chapter skip" function in time for the jam. I will try to improve the experience in a post-jam improvement!
Overall I liked it very much. It is obvious that you have put a lot of work and thought into it. Great Job!
0-2, 3-6, 7-9. 0-2 will always get Self-Seduction or Zombie (single), 7-9 will get Stegosaurus or Zombie (Horde).
The trick is that, once you get a Good potion, the "premium" bad ending one is always the exact opposite of it.
E.g. if the Day 1 good ending is given by 1,1,1,2, the "premium" bad ending (devil) is 2,2,2,1.
For day 2, the "good" range for the intensity is 3-6, to get the other bad endings one need to use the 0-2 and 6-9 range. 6-9, even with the correct ingredients, will spawn the Stegosaurus ending.
There *should* be a walkthrough TXT in the game folder. I think I will try to rework the game a bit for a post-jam session! Thanks a lot for the feedback!
It's really sad to have no proper good ending :cry:
@wakobu Thanks a lot! the P. ending is the nearest to a good ending, the Am. ending is more bittersweet, while the An. ending is a downer. The power is on the player's hands to choose what is the most apt. I wanted to make that choice matter, so this is why the game "locks" down after that event!
@aznz Thanks! Programmer art struck again! Honestly, I would have loved have an artist friend of mine join the fray, but he was unfortunately too busy and couldn't produce art for the game in time. Maybe for a post jam version? I would love to expand it a bit!
Like others have said, the only real issue I have is that you have to go through the entire loop each time to see any new endings. That said, I really appreciated the QoL feature where the game warns you if you've made a concoction leading to an ending you've seen before.
@ryusui thanks! And yeah, now after the jam I had an idea on how to implement a "chekpoint system", but I stupidly didn't get it while I was working on this. I will add it to a post-jam version after the voting period ends. And yeah, I should add a note about the walkthrough being in the game folder, hoping someone will read it :id:
@voyagerix thanks a lot! Honestly, storytelling is my specialization/forte. Writing stories is like breathing for me, I cannot live without. The RPG Maker engine was the easiest choice for me to build a narrative game. I had the inspiration while talking with a friend about the theme - Unstable - and speedran the writing in about 6-7 hours. I am very proud of how it came out!
I used to play with that engine A LOT ten or so years ago - I literally learned how to program thanks to it - and I'm still pretty proficient with it. At odd times, when I need something proven and working, I dust it off and put it to work again ;)
I liked that the "good" ending is unlocked only after all the other, over-the-top ones. I did not expect the zombie apocalypse and the potions guy *definitely* needs to remove the business name from the flasks :laughing: Great work!
@lauchsuppe fair point about the first day. The first potion should have been for the girl, but I could make it clearer. Which true ending did you choose? P., Am. or Ann.?
One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will appreciate very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
No offence taken ;)