Unstable Concoction by theviraldragon
A game about discovering and crafting potions.
How to play:
- Drag the ingredients into the cauldron
- Once you decide on a recipe, click on the brew button to start brewing
- When brewing starts drag the stick and stir the cauldron and collect 10 potions to finish the potion
You will get orders on the left panel. Once the required potion is brewed sell them to get the next order.
Find all the potions to win the game.
Tools used:
- Code editor : VS Code
- Game engine : Phaser
- Music creation : Beepbox.co
- Sound effect creation : sfxr.me
- Pixel art editor : Pyxel Edit
| Github | https://github.com/AmeenAhmed/LD49 |
| Itch.io | https://theviraldragon.itch.io/unstable-concoction |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/unstable-concoction-1 |
Ratings
| Given | 53🗳️ | 61🗨️ |
I do like the gameplay quite a bit, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.
I think that the game is too random. It's too hard to figure out which ingredients need to be used to make what. That's about it though, I like the minigame.
Oh, also, You should probably include the fact that you need to stir the cauldron. I spent a few minutes figuring that out, only to read your itch page.
Again, really nice game, especially for 48 hours :)
The gameplay was good and clear, the art really nice and music truely fitting! It all matched the calm atmosphere really well. The text on the orders was also really nice, as it gave you a feeling of the bigger fantasy world out there. Great job!
The game just felt a little frustrating to me at times. In the end I was just randomly trying combinations of ingredients. It would have been really cool if the orders hinted a little bit towards what combination you need. Perhaps these hints could become more and more vague the further you get. I also could not remember which combination I already tried, so a little reminder for this would have been nice as well.
Another little point of feedback is that right now there is not a lot of satisfaction once you complete an order. Maybe it is a bit of a stupid idea, but I think it would be really nice if there was some number going up the further you get (like money made, or alchemist skill level, or 2/10 potions found, or something like this). So that the player gets a sense of progression. This might just be me though :P
I really enjoyed this game, and I think you could improve this game pretty easily using all the feedback you are getting! If you do, let me know so I can give it another try :D
- its kind of hard to figure out the recipes and feels a little too grindy
Small bug: the potions were not going not the potion tab, but I think you noticed.
I which there were some clue on how to brew different potions because once I did all the 2 items combinations I didn't know what to do and it seemed too much work to try every 3 items combinations
I got stuck at gritty paste and I think I tried every 2 ingredient combo in my inventory. :laughing:
Thanks for a fun entry.
I love the fact that brewing is a minigame and not a reflex test!
Cheers! [-LB](https://ldjam.com/users/the-lame-brain/)
Thank you for this charming game!
I have one issue though: I don't what ingredients to use to make the right potion.
I know that the player is encouraged to try new things and all that, but small hints, or maybe descriptions for each ingredient, would've gone a long way to make the experience a bit smoother.
Aside from that though really great game!
There's something very peaceful in its gameplay.
Also I would take away the stirring thing because after a while it just becomes tedious, especially if your using trackpad against those fast moving ones. I feel like just finding the right combination should be challenge enough. All in all though, one of the BEST gam james ive played so far. great job!
I also took a peek at the code (because I didn't want to figure out the recipes so I cheated) and I saw you had your items in an array:
```
Items: [
{
id: 1,
name: 'Fire lily',
type: ItemType.INGREDIENT
},
{
id: 2,
name: 'Aqua bloom',
type: ItemType.INGREDIENT
}
]
```
It's probably too late to change now, but in the future I recommend against hardcoding IDs like this because the ID doesn't tell you anything about the ingredient and also it is duplicating the index of the array. Instead, consider converting `Items` into a dictionary and then using descriptive IDs:
```
Items: {
"FIRE_LILY": {
displayName: 'Fire lily',
type: ItemType.INGREDIENT
},
"AQUA_BLOOM": {
displayName: 'Aqua bloom',
type: ItemType.INGREDIENT
}
}
```
Now creating recipes is a whole lot easier:
```
{
ingredients: ["FIRE_LILY", "AQUA_BLOOM"],
product: "ACIDIC_WATER"
},
```
If you want to iterate over all items, you can use `Object.keys(Items)`.
I also liked how the code permitted recipes that require more than two ingredients. Very nice practice.
However the gameplay at the start can be a little tad too confusing at least at the start even if the gameplay experience is lots of fun once figured out. I get the point of what is trying to accomplish. But perhaps by clicking on the order you can see clues on what is needed instead of a description of said item.
This way, you can keep the trial and error gameplay you wanted, while also providing some tips for player to start out.
Overall solid entry especially in 48 hours.
One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will aperceite very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
Congratulations!
If you'll allow me, I'll make a few remarks at points that I think you should consider improvements if you make future versions of this game:
- The sound was too loud. As pleasant as the music and ringtones were, the sound could be at a lower volume, or else you could put some kind of sound control (if this control exists, I ended up not finding it hahaha, so please disregard what I'm talking about .
- I think you should somehow indicate or give more tips regarding the recipes. As fun as it is to find out for yourself, there comes a point that the possibilities of ingredients are so many that the player may end up having problems managing it (again if this already exists, please also disregard it haha).
Finally I would like to congratulate you for making this good game, the overall experience is pleasant!
Here are some suggestions
1. The theme, art style(like color) and UI layout are a bit similar to "Potion Craft", I hope there are some obvious distinctions, otherwise the sense of resemblance is a bit strong
2. The tutorial gives too much information at once, which is a bit difficult to read. It is recommended to give it slowly. Even if you want to give it together, it is recommended to mark 123456 to help players understand the reading order
3. The level experience needs more detailed planning. It is difficult for me to guess the relationship between the four unknown plants and the mission objective. The game did not slowly teach the effect of each plant. For me, I can only experiment blindly.
4. If all recipes require only 2 ingredients, according to the [code](https://github.com/AmeenAhmed/LD49/blob/master/src/constants.js), it is best to add a limit in UI. Otherwise there will be a lot of wrong attempts
Вот такие бывают забавные штуки на LD.
Спасибо за котломешательство и зельеварительство!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1210320/Potion_Craft_Alchemist_Simulator/
It got kind of frustrating to find the right combination of items. Maybe if the orders gave you hints about what items you needed to use that would have improved it a lot. A way to keep track of what combinations you have already tried would have been good too, I can imagine if you had tens of items you would lose track easily.
The brewing minigame got very repetitive, and became almost pointless, it felt like busywork. If it increased in difficultly or added variations then it would have gone a long way.
I also had a bug where the scroll bar teleported to the middle of the screen when I clicked on it.
Overall good game!