"Help! Earth has been mostly destroyed by an asteroid.
My name is H.E.R.A. Will you help me resurrect all of Earth's creatures?"
My name is H.E.R.A. Will you help me resurrect all of Earth's creatures?"
— Game Tagline
An Item Crafting Mobile Phone Game from Sheado.net, Eras of Alchemy puts players in control of rebuilding the world's ecosystems after a disastrous meteor crash wipes out most life on Earth. Assisting players is HERA, or Holographic Earth Revival Alchemist — an AI with the ability to alchemically combine the traits of two creatures to create a third.
Starting with amoebae and single-celled organisms, HERA and the players must decipher which combinations of creatures will recreate viable specimens of Earth's varied lifeforms. From starfish and jellyfish to elephants, eagles, and humans, it's up to players to reverse the cataclysm and fill the world with life again.
A short video trailer for the game is available on youtube
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Eras of Alchemy contains examples of:
- All Myths Are True: A Zig-Zagged version, but HERA has players create griffins, pegasi, fairies, dragons, flying unicorns (or "pegacorns"), and phoenixes during the "Mythical Era." Centaurs and mermaids must also be crafted during the "Human Era." If HERA has been programmed just to recreate lifeforms that have existed on Earth (as she's already recreated dinosaurs and extinct ice-age megafauna), then those mythical creatures must have existed before HERA was programmed. Even if they didn't exist prior to the meteor that destroyed all life on Earth, having HERA create those creatures makes them real for any future humans.
- Apocalypse How: Class 5 — meteors have wiped out all forms of multicellular life, leaving HERA and the players with only amoebae and simple single-celled organisms as root stock to rebuild the animal kingdom.
- Colony Drop: Downplayed — the game starts out with a meteor swarm having wiped out all forms of multicellular life on the surface of the planet Earth, rather than a single oversized rock.
- Dance Party Ending: After finishing the final level and recreating modern humans, HERA's avatar and the human sprites dance joyfully.
- Fun with Acronyms: HERA is short for "Holographic Earth Revival Alchemist".
- Hint System: Of the "Hint for Payment" variety. Successfully recreating creatures earns the player in-game currency that can be used to purchase hints about the "ancestors" of animals that have yet to be recreated. The hints include nigh-useless 50-coin "habitat" hints, 100-coin "trait" hints, and 150-coin hints that plainly reveal the identity of a creature's ancestor.
- Idle Animation: Animal sprites that are left to idle will sit, sleep, shake their heads, and shuffle around a bit. Each sprite has its own unique idle animations that cycle randomly.
- Item Crafting: Gameplay revolves around combining two creatures to produce a viable third:
- Some of the combinations are based on association, like the Platypus = Beaver + Duck
- Some are based on puns, like the Turtledove = Turtle + Bird
- Some are just off-the-wall, like the Whale = Manatee + Amoeba
- Meaningful Name: "Hera" was the ancient Greek goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth. HERA's mission is to recreate all forms of life on Earth, making her the metaphorical mother of all the newly-recreated creatures.
- Projected Man: HERA's appearance is a projection, and her form is often surrounded by motes of swirling light.
- Ruins of the Modern Age: The earliest levels take place just after the meteor swarms wipe out nearly all life on Earth, with the destroyed husks of skyscrapers, tilted streetlamps, and cracked pavement in the background. As players progress through further stages the ruins decay and eventually disappear, replaced by rocky hills and lush jungles.
