I recently found myself playing, and feeling the beginnings of addiction to, Travel Town. It’s a game based around merging identical items together to unlock more items. The mechanics of merging were satisfying, but there were two (as I saw them) main problems. One, it’s a predatory mobile game designed to hook you in and demand you partake in microtransactions. Two, it’s not really a game, in the sense that there aren’t any decisions to make.

Wanting to explore the genre myself, I though 7drl was the perfect vehicle.

So, I present, Amalgamate.

I’m pleased with the outcome! It’s fun, skill-testing, and there are plenty of secrets to discover!

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I like

  • Skill-testing. One of my notes reads: “noob, 8 points; pro, 88 points.” I think it’s important that your actions matter (obvious though it sounds.) In this game it’s very much the case. Whether you merge item A or B, spawn loot, cast a spell… it’s all impactful! But it doesn’t feel it at first.
  • Mechanical points. There’s something I call “mechanical health”, and I try to shoehorn it into my games. It’s where your health is represented by the mechanics of the game (rather than being a number). Mosaic and Magpie have it, Perimeter doesn’t. Amalgamate is the first game I’ve made which has mechanical points! Your points are items on the board like any other.
  • Spells. I really like the spell-casting system in the game. All spells start costing the same amount of mana, but they get harder to cast each time. This has the advantage that I don’t really need to balance the spells!
  • Secrets. I’m hoping there are a couple of epiphany moments in the game. But I can’t really talk about those here.

I don’t like

  • Time-consuming. A good run feels like it can take a really long time to complete. It’s a problem I’ve come up against in Magpie and Perimeter too; it can feel a bit of a slog.
  • Hopelessness. The game feels profoundly unfair at first blush. Monsters are relentlessly piling out of the chest, and you feel you barely have time to defeat them all. I think this will put people off the game (it certainly would me) before they get to the good stuff.
  • Not enough merging. Merging is satisfying, but the game doesn’t give you enough time to tidy up your board before the next monster comes knocking. I wish I found a way to balance the two aspects: allowing merging (because it’s fun) and putting pressure on (because you need a reason not to merge.) I tried a lot of variations, and never found the solution I envisioned.