Alembic — a screen-reader-first text alchemy game (alpha)

By Lanie Carmelo-Molinar, 12 October, 2026

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming

I'm sharing my new game, Alembic, now in alpha, and I'm looking for feedback, especially from VoiceOver users.

Alembic is a text alchemy game built for screen readers from the ground up. You start with fire, water, earth, and air, then combine them two at a time to discover 82 elements and chase 20 milestone goals. Every element has a short line of flavor read aloud when you discover it.

What it is

  • Screen-reader first. No drag-and-drop, no timers, no fail states. Every interaction is a button, and every change is announced.
  • Keyboard-driven. Linear layout — heading, cauldron, goals, catalog, hint. No spatial grid, no visuals required.
  • Automatic save. Your progress persists in your browser.
  • Flavor text for every element, with a toggle if you'd rather not hear it.

Play it

It's free, runs in any browser (including Safari on Mac and iOS), and needs no account:

Play Alembic

The source is open on GitHub.

It's alpha, so I'd really appreciate feedback on what works, what's confusing, and what to improve. I've tested with NVDA so far, and VoiceOver feedback would be especially valuable.

Thanks for giving it a try.

Options

Comments

By Sysskuu on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 - 01:18

Hiii, I studied languages so I was never a chemistry person but I love the game very much! it is very easy to navigate, the descriptions are fun and it encourages you to discover more elements. and I love when Jaws automaticly reads the results and the hints! it is really fun for me! so far I got 9 elements lol but I'll keep going! I use Jaws and Google Chrome and it's perfectly fine for me!

By Brad on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 - 05:29

To make it more fun for others maybe sounds and shortcuts could be added?

Hi Brad. I get what you're saying about adding sounds and definitely plan to add some, but what do you mean about adding shortcuts? I'm not sure what a shortcut would be in this type of game.

By Lanie Carmelo-Molinar on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 - 14:20

In reply to by Sysskuu

Thanks so much, that really made my day! I'm especially glad to hear the descriptions and the auto-read results work well with JAWS in Chrome, since I'd only been able to test with NVDA myself. Nine elements is a great start — have fun with the rest, there are some fun surprises further up the chain.

Thanks for the nudge, Brad — I added both! There are now keyboard shortcuts (Alt + C to combine, Alt + X to clear, Alt + H for a hint, Alt + S to search) and simple sounds, which are off by default but can be turned on in Options. Hope that helps.

By TheBlindGuy07 on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 - 17:42

I love this game so so much, I've directly started with all 3 options on and I am really really enjoying it so far, I have 11 combinations in 2 minutes no hints used. Thanks it's very a fun game! NVDA + chrome on windows, works flawlessly.

By TheBlindGuy07 on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 - 17:48

When we make mistakes and the combination doesn't work, the cauldron is emptied. Could you please make it so that either the latest element to the pile is kept in the cauldron or the first one? And maybe in the settings let the user choose if he wants the first or the last element kept rather than fully emptying the thing?
I swear I have rarely had so much fun. I am at 14 now.

Done. There's now a setting that determines whether the first or last element is kept or the cauldron is cleared. The default is keep first. It works after both successful combinations and failures. Refresh the game and let me know what you think.

By TheBlindGuy07 on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 - 18:25

I've finished everything! Some combination are strange, hilarious or a bit of both :) but all in all a good time pass game.