Not too shabby. Now, here are my suggestions.
First, fix the music and SFX levels. Whenever the music comes on, the SFX drops considerably in volume. I also don't like how each of the music tracks are separated by 1-2 minutes of ambient noise. These audio issues distract me enough to prevent me from becoming immersed in the game.
I would also suggest giving the player special abilities to help lessen the influence that luck has on the game. When you transmute a group, a bar fills up with Mana (or Energy or Ether or whatever). When the player collects enough, they can spend some for one use of a special ability. More powerful abilities cost more Mana, of course. Here's a list of example special abilities, not necessarily in order from weakest to strongest:
- Swap: Switch the position of two adjacent elements.
- Polymerize: Let the player drop a special Polymerize element. When it falls, it destroys all elements in the same row, and becomes the highest tier element that it destroyed. No points are earned for liquified elements.
- Dissolve: Let the player drop a special Dissolve element. When it falls, it destroys all elements in the same column, and becomes the highest tier element that it destroyed. No points are earned for dissolved elements.
- Implode: Let the player drop a special Implode element. When it falls, it destroys all horizontally, vertically, and diagonally adjacent elements, and becomes the highest tier element that it destroyed. No points are earned for exploded elements.
- Compress: Click any element with one directly adjacent matching element. The two elements will merge into an element one tier higher in the location you clicked. No points are earned for the elements you transmuted in this way.
- Break: Break the molecule to be dropped into two single elements. The player can then drop them in one at a time. The element on the left side or top side of the molecule is dropped first.
- Elixir: Let the player drop a special Elixir element. The Elixir element transforms into the element that it lands on.
- Heavy: The next molecule to be dropped is imbued with the Heavy property. A Heavy molecule does not split when dropped. If a Heavy molecule does not make a match when it lands, it will descend one row by swapping its position with the elements directly below it, and check for a match again. It will continue to do this until it makes a match, or hits the bottom of the field. The elements in a Heavy molecule lose their heavy properties once a match is made.
- Exchange: Switch the current molecule with the one in the Next window.
- Destroy: Destroy the current molecule, and move on to the one in the Next window.
- Chaos: All elements currently in the field are scrambled.
