The Journey So Far with Moonlit Alchemy

Hi everyone! I’m excited to officially start sharing public devlogs for my solo game project Moonlit Alchemy, a cozy 2.5D potion shop RPG. In this game, you’ll gather ingredients, brew potions, and sell them to a variety of customers—each with their own unique personality and preferences. Some potions can be used during magical adventures, while others are crafted to help the townspeople who visit your shop. As your reputation grows, you’ll unlock new recipes, learn spells, and decorate your space to make it truly your own.

I originally shared my development updates as part of university discussion posts for my capstone project, but now I’m bringing them all together here on itch.io. This post will serve as a recap of everything I’ve worked on so far and give you a high-level view of where the game currently stands. If you’re curious about the full details, I’ll also be sharing revised and combined versions of each devlog in the coming days!

Getting Started

The project began with some early shader experiments to define the game’s visual tone. I built a dissolve shader and a dynamic color-shifting shader using Unreal Engine’s Material Graph—two effects that may later be used in potions and magical interactions.

Core Systems

Over the next few weeks, I implemented several core systems that form the gameplay foundation: 

•  A custom time system inspired by Stardew Valley, with real-time updates and support for future lighting and event triggers 
•  A Paper2D player controller with input mapping, animations, and parallax backgrounds 
•  An inventory system and early potion crafting setup 
•  A context-aware UI that changes based on whether the player is in the potion shop or an adventure zone 
•  A level transition system that saves and reloads key data like inventory and in-game time

Refactoring & Feature Polish

As the game’s scope became clearer, I started refactoring some key features:

• Moved brewing logic to a dedicated BrewingComponent, separate from the Cauldron
• Refined player interaction logic for better modularity and responsiveness
• Added visual feedback for brewing and ingredient use
• Introduced the beginnings of an exploration loop outside of the shop

Visuals & Art Pipeline

To support a cohesive look and feel, I dove into Blockbench to create low-poly stylized assets—including an early cauldron model—and began blocking out the potion shop environment.

I also started collaborating with an artist to design custom player characters, adding personality and polish to the world. These characters will be animated and integrated into the game soon!

Most Recent Milestone: Camera Overhaul + Custom Characters

To better support the 2.5D aesthetic, I’ve implemented a spline-based camera system that keeps the camera movement cinematic and controlled. Instead of following the player directly, the camera glides along a predefined path, giving me full control over framing while still responding to movement.

This change was a big step forward in making the game feel more polished, and I’ll be breaking down the full implementation in its own post very soon.

I also began integrating custom character sprites into the game! While they aren’t animated yet, this milestone has really helped solidify the visual identity I’m aiming for.

What's Next?

Development is continuing at a steady pace as I work on completing the core gameplay loop and finishing up asset modeling and placement. I’ll continue posting devlogs for major updates or deep dives into specific technical systems.

In the meantime, I’ll be sharing revised and combined versions of my original devlogs over the next few weeks as a public record of the development journey so far. Stay tuned—and thanks for following along!

Follow this page for updates, and check out Getting Started & Shader Experiments to see how it all began!