This is a curious game, I had fun doing potions, could unlock all the ingredients and my highest potion was sold at almost 500.
From not understanding the side and unstable effects to giving exactly what the client needed and was fun to figure out.
I liked this about the ingredients having a few effects and depending on the runes you could change them or overpowering to the max, because the more you progress with the potions, the more you can understand more about how to remove the side and unstable effects.
At the end I was just buying 2 of each ingredient to nullify the side effects or maybe do an extra mix with 3 max when I needed to have 2 main effects.
The runes are good but I found myself only using the one that reverts the front and side with the opposite effect, the one to max power an effect, I see that it could be used if the number of a effect is an odd number, the one that change all the dice can be fun if you want to make your potion in another way. Maybe a run to randomize the side of the cube would be fun since it can open more the combinations or just for the fun :)
Oh, also, when I started, I started to throw away potions and ingredients because I did it wrong or I bought the wrong one, so maybe a way to eliminate all those would be good, or a place to keep it also would be good, this time I threw them all to a corner haha
Also, the unlock system is a bit strange, only because the last 2 cost a lot more than buying them, needing like $200+ to only buy it to less than $10 felt strange, but the last 2 are the most interesting ingredients and I liked that.
I only knew how unstable works because I did a potion like that without the runes, and from there it was easier to understand the system and why some side effects appear.
This could be a more fun game in the late game with more 3D shapes, since you would need to think more about how to remove some stuff or add without breaking the mix.
I played on website so I didn’t see the shadow but the little cube at the corner helped with it.
I liked that the items are just a gray ball that looks like cotton and in general the vibes and visuals of the game.
If the game gets an update, feel free to let me know to play the game again!
This game took a lot of understanding and I'm very thankful to Varii for explaining things to me in Discord. I had a lot of issues with the game but I'm super happy I got to understand and play it. The mechanics are awesome!
So let me just get all the negative out of the way first 90% of this is due to a lack of tutorial. This is going to seem really harsh but trust me it'll be followed by praise.
I wasn't a fan of having to download the windows version to get a working experience even then the Windows version has no way of quitting or mouse settings so it was quite difficult to navigate and close the game.
I was SUPER confused about what to do. Even after reading the tutorial on the game page it was difficult without the dev answering my questions in Discord. I didn't realise I had to open activate the table with a reagent in hand for it to work. I was originally throwing it into the cauldron first. The page does say to do this though so that's on me.
The fact that the reagents all have this wispy/mist effect rather than their actual shape made it a hassle trying to figure out which ones were which without picking them up and taking them to the table. In addition to this there's no readout that tells you the current values of the shape either when being held in the shadow table or after it's added to the mixture.
The game also doesn't explain what makes a potion unstable and the way to fix this. Or the reason/fix for the side effects. Both which lower the value of the potion due to the customer complaint. The solution being that any effect that was +5 or -5 (I think?) becomes unstable and the side effects need to be countered by mixing in other reagents with the opposite effect.
With no readouts on any of the current effects it becomes a very difficult mental task to balance and remember what you have in your mixture and what you need to balance out.
Also not knowing what effects the shapes gave via the shop menu was a bit irritating as I had to just buy them and look at them one at a time to figure out what did what.
With all that being said. Once I knew all this (Thanks again Varii) the potion/shadow system is absolutely fantastic. I want a full game with this system so that I can run a potion shop and sell them to customers using this system. It was SUPER satisfying once I figured it all out and my biggest complaint is that it was so easy to unlock the other reagents and make money once you knew how it all worked!
There wasn't much to comment on art-wise minus the things I've already explained. The NPC portraits didn't work for me at all regardless of the version but the 3D models were fine. The shadow table and the rune effects were cool and the shadow movement/rotation etc was all really nice.
There wasn't any music but the ambient cave sounds/dripping fit the scene well and the SFX were all fitting and nice.
I know It seems like a very negative review but I genuinely loved the systems on display and I hope I get to see them again in the future in a more developed (and well documented) fashion.
I don't know if this game is totally broken or I'm just doing something wrong. Please correct me if it's an issue on my end.
1. Loaded the game and for some reason my entire camera flipped upsidedown. Couldn't fix it. Reloaded.
2. Started playing again, threw stuff into the caulron but the shadow thing just didn't seem to work? No matter what I did every potion just said it was luck?
3. Downloaded the game to play on my PC. Shadows now worked but the potions all still said luck? Also I couldn't quit the game so I had to CTRL+ALT+DEL and kill the program from task manager.
Happy to revisit if you can confirm if there's anything I can do to play the game.
hi, I'm really sorry you've had those issues. they're all down to a lack of polish.
1) that was because we forgot to put a clamp on the camera's rotation. total rookie oversight on my part honestly. if it happens again, you can re-flip the camera by just rotating it upwards.
2) yeah shadows completely broke in our web export. so sorry about that.
3) now to actually explain why every potion was "unstable luck". your reagents are actually 3d objects, and the effects they have are based on the 2d shapes they contain. you've been using the "orthogon" (a cube). that reagent contains six squares, which by default add +6 luck to the potion.
to make a different potion, you could use a different unlocked reagent (you start with two) or apply runes to the specific sides of your reagent. there will be a sound effect when the rune is applied.
for example, if I had to make a "potion of misfortune", I would pick an orthogon, take it to the shadow table and apply a regular inversion rune to it. that reagent would them create a potion of unstable misfortune, instead of a potion of unstable luck.
"unstable", however, is actually a bad thing. a potion would be better with fewer levels of that effect. to create a regular potion of luck, I could apply a minor inversion rune to one side of an orthogon, and then brew a potion from it. that would create a potion with +2 luck.
finally, remember that you can throw multiple objects in the cauldron.
I apologise again that you had to get your tutorial through one of the Devs on request instead of in-game. it's really frustrating honestly because I genuinely think our gameplay loop is fun, but nobody gets to it because the mechanics are unintuitive and not explained. I do hope on second try you'll agree, at least to some extent.
It's a fun game, really sad some things broke in web, it's still playable in early stages tho, but like I said in discord it gets more confusing with more elements where you need the shapes and stuff.
I think there were supposed to be shadows on the wall which I did not see, but I dig the vibe overall. It takes some time to figure things out but managing to nail the buyer's request is very satisfying.
firstly, I'm SO glad you took the time to figure the game out! that means a lot. we really shouldve tutorialised better, but we ran out of time
annoyingly our web build exported without shadows, and we didn't have time to fix it. the download version does contain shadows.
and I'm SOOOO happy you liked the buyer request system! I spent QUITE A WHILE working on that LOL. it's also sadly another system that suffered from the web build - the windows build contains dynamic names and pictures.
Nice atmosphere and sound design, I brewed a potions with all my money but no one wanted to buy it :( Then I was out of money and couldnt continue. Nice vibe overall. I recommend downloading it!
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This is a curious game, I had fun doing potions, could unlock all the ingredients and my highest potion was sold at almost 500.
From not understanding the side and unstable effects to giving exactly what the client needed and was fun to figure out.
I liked this about the ingredients having a few effects and depending on the runes you could change them or overpowering to the max, because the more you progress with the potions, the more you can understand more about how to remove the side and unstable effects.
At the end I was just buying 2 of each ingredient to nullify the side effects or maybe do an extra mix with 3 max when I needed to have 2 main effects.
The runes are good but I found myself only using the one that reverts the front and side with the opposite effect, the one to max power an effect, I see that it could be used if the number of a effect is an odd number, the one that change all the dice can be fun if you want to make your potion in another way. Maybe a run to randomize the side of the cube would be fun since it can open more the combinations or just for the fun :)
Oh, also, when I started, I started to throw away potions and ingredients because I did it wrong or I bought the wrong one, so maybe a way to eliminate all those would be good, or a place to keep it also would be good, this time I threw them all to a corner haha
Also, the unlock system is a bit strange, only because the last 2 cost a lot more than buying them, needing like $200+ to only buy it to less than $10 felt strange, but the last 2 are the most interesting ingredients and I liked that.
I only knew how unstable works because I did a potion like that without the runes, and from there it was easier to understand the system and why some side effects appear.
This could be a more fun game in the late game with more 3D shapes, since you would need to think more about how to remove some stuff or add without breaking the mix.
I played on website so I didn’t see the shadow but the little cube at the corner helped with it.
I liked that the items are just a gray ball that looks like cotton and in general the vibes and visuals of the game.
If the game gets an update, feel free to let me know to play the game again!
Thanks for sharing :D
This game took a lot of understanding and I'm very thankful to Varii for explaining things to me in Discord. I had a lot of issues with the game but I'm super happy I got to understand and play it. The mechanics are awesome!
So let me just get all the negative out of the way first 90% of this is due to a lack of tutorial. This is going to seem really harsh but trust me it'll be followed by praise.
I wasn't a fan of having to download the windows version to get a working experience even then the Windows version has no way of quitting or mouse settings so it was quite difficult to navigate and close the game.
I was SUPER confused about what to do. Even after reading the tutorial on the game page it was difficult without the dev answering my questions in Discord. I didn't realise I had to open activate the table with a reagent in hand for it to work. I was originally throwing it into the cauldron first. The page does say to do this though so that's on me.
The fact that the reagents all have this wispy/mist effect rather than their actual shape made it a hassle trying to figure out which ones were which without picking them up and taking them to the table. In addition to this there's no readout that tells you the current values of the shape either when being held in the shadow table or after it's added to the mixture.
The game also doesn't explain what makes a potion unstable and the way to fix this. Or the reason/fix for the side effects. Both which lower the value of the potion due to the customer complaint. The solution being that any effect that was +5 or -5 (I think?) becomes unstable and the side effects need to be countered by mixing in other reagents with the opposite effect.
With no readouts on any of the current effects it becomes a very difficult mental task to balance and remember what you have in your mixture and what you need to balance out.
Also not knowing what effects the shapes gave via the shop menu was a bit irritating as I had to just buy them and look at them one at a time to figure out what did what.
With all that being said. Once I knew all this (Thanks again Varii) the potion/shadow system is absolutely fantastic. I want a full game with this system so that I can run a potion shop and sell them to customers using this system. It was SUPER satisfying once I figured it all out and my biggest complaint is that it was so easy to unlock the other reagents and make money once you knew how it all worked!
There wasn't much to comment on art-wise minus the things I've already explained. The NPC portraits didn't work for me at all regardless of the version but the 3D models were fine. The shadow table and the rune effects were cool and the shadow movement/rotation etc was all really nice.
There wasn't any music but the ambient cave sounds/dripping fit the scene well and the SFX were all fitting and nice.
I know It seems like a very negative review but I genuinely loved the systems on display and I hope I get to see them again in the future in a more developed (and well documented) fashion.
I don't know if this game is totally broken or I'm just doing something wrong. Please correct me if it's an issue on my end.
1. Loaded the game and for some reason my entire camera flipped upsidedown. Couldn't fix it. Reloaded.
2. Started playing again, threw stuff into the caulron but the shadow thing just didn't seem to work? No matter what I did every potion just said it was luck?
3. Downloaded the game to play on my PC. Shadows now worked but the potions all still said luck? Also I couldn't quit the game so I had to CTRL+ALT+DEL and kill the program from task manager.
Happy to revisit if you can confirm if there's anything I can do to play the game.
hi, I'm really sorry you've had those issues. they're all down to a lack of polish.
1) that was because we forgot to put a clamp on the camera's rotation. total rookie oversight on my part honestly. if it happens again, you can re-flip the camera by just rotating it upwards.
2) yeah shadows completely broke in our web export. so sorry about that.
3) now to actually explain why every potion was "unstable luck". your reagents are actually 3d objects, and the effects they have are based on the 2d shapes they contain. you've been using the "orthogon" (a cube). that reagent contains six squares, which by default add +6 luck to the potion.
to make a different potion, you could use a different unlocked reagent (you start with two) or apply runes to the specific sides of your reagent. there will be a sound effect when the rune is applied.
for example, if I had to make a "potion of misfortune", I would pick an orthogon, take it to the shadow table and apply a regular inversion rune to it. that reagent would them create a potion of unstable misfortune, instead of a potion of unstable luck.
"unstable", however, is actually a bad thing. a potion would be better with fewer levels of that effect. to create a regular potion of luck, I could apply a minor inversion rune to one side of an orthogon, and then brew a potion from it. that would create a potion with +2 luck.
finally, remember that you can throw multiple objects in the cauldron.
I apologise again that you had to get your tutorial through one of the Devs on request instead of in-game. it's really frustrating honestly because I genuinely think our gameplay loop is fun, but nobody gets to it because the mechanics are unintuitive and not explained. I do hope on second try you'll agree, at least to some extent.
I got many riches selling potions :)
It's a fun game, really sad some things broke in web, it's still playable in early stages tho, but like I said in discord it gets more confusing with more elements where you need the shapes and stuff.
I think there were supposed to be shadows on the wall which I did not see, but I dig the vibe overall. It takes some time to figure things out but managing to nail the buyer's request is very satisfying.
firstly, I'm SO glad you took the time to figure the game out! that means a lot. we really shouldve tutorialised better, but we ran out of time
annoyingly our web build exported without shadows, and we didn't have time to fix it. the download version does contain shadows.
and I'm SOOOO happy you liked the buyer request system! I spent QUITE A WHILE working on that LOL. it's also sadly another system that suffered from the web build - the windows build contains dynamic names and pictures.
Nice atmosphere and sound design, I brewed a potions with all my money but no one wanted to buy it :( Then I was out of money and couldnt continue. Nice vibe overall. I recommend downloading it!