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A jam submission

Dark CauldronView game page

A game where you run an alchemy shop, while carrying out missions for your nefarious guild.
Submitted by Crude Oil (@crudebird) — 14 hours, 20 minutes before the deadline
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Dark Cauldron's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#6533.0003.000
Playability#8043.0003.000
Artistic Style#9703.0003.000
Cleverness#14712.0002.000

Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • Great step on implementing controls in the game with that it is still quite difficult to get how exactly mix potions so there could be a guidance to make a first potion, also there need to be a bit balancing on how often customer comes to the shop number should how from 1-2 to gradually increasing. Over all interesting idea! Keep this up.

Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes

Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes

Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes

Tell us about your game!
Dark Cauldron is a game about mixing potions and serving customers. At the same time, you're supposed to carry out quests from your guild, which are usually shady and result in someone being hurt.

You're expected to mix potions within a certain amount of time, before the patience of your customers runs out.

Potions are made by combining fluids in a cauldron, after which they can be put in smaller containers to be sold.

There are systems in place for business simulation, where you need to buy supplies, but these are nor properly balanced.

Controls are:
WASD to move,
Right click or middle mouse button to rotate camera
E to grab items or take fluids from a container you hover over with the mouse into a container you're holding
Q to drop items or to put fluids into a container you hover over with the mouse from a container you are holding
Left mouse button can be used to advance dialogue from the NPCS by clicking on them.

Making potions:

Grab a cauldron from the box of cauldrons by pressing E.
Press E on the golden cauldrons to draw fluids from them into your cauldron. Hover over your black cauldrons to see a list of recipes.

Selling potions:

Get an appropriate container, like a bottle, from a box using E.
Put liquids in the bottle by drawing from another while holding it (Q).

Put the bottle in front of a customer on the counter by hovering over the counter and pressing Q.

Customers will ask for specific containers!

Your potions should be OK to sell if a potion makes up at least 80% of the total volume.

Extra Notes
Had fun making it, but probably spread myself a bit too thin on many different mechanics rather than a more focused thing. I would really like to continue developing this as a game, with a slightly different direction.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

The functionality of this game is astounding, it has so much that you can do and the way to do those tasks is *mostly* detailed. I enjoy all of the characters, and the little chirps they have for each line of dialogue are endearing, however, when there is an influx of customers (especially ones who seem much more impatient than others) it gets rather difficult to have a full conversation with them because you're juggling other tasks. The urgency is important for this kind of game, but I think it needs some tweaking.

The UI in this game needs some additional attention. For one, the UI doesn't scale well with very high resolutions, making text rather difficult to read with larger monitors. Also, unless I just happened to miss it, there's no in-game menu for me to use to quit the game, return to the main menu, or view the options

Great experience, played it many times!

Developer

Thank you for the feedback!