There is a place on Olympus dedicated to all those capable of making difficult things easy. Of all the seats that make up their table, video game designers have a dedicated place where they can eat without gaining weight for eternity. Potion Craft It’s just further proof of how much they deserve that position.
This game is the reason why video game design seems to us to be the key piece of any title. You may like his art more or less, it may work better or worse, but if it’s not fun there’s nothing to do.
Make the boring fun
Make the boring fun or, which is ultimately the same, make the difficult easy. There is the key. In the case of Potion Craft is the process of inviting the player to become an alchemist to create potions and sell them to the public.
The one that heals after a battle, the one that poisons your enemy, or the one that makes your plants grow again. Combinations of herbs, mushrooms and flowers capable of changing the life of those who buy them while you get a good profit in the form of gold coins.
Gathering herbs to create juices, in essence. In a flat environment, without walks through the forest or animations beyond things as basic as stirring a cauldron or stoking the fire in a kettle. Something so simple and, at the same time, so deep, entertaining and well thought out. So fun despite being, at least on paper, dead boring.
For the outsider considering how to approach the design of a video game like this, the idea of adapting any farm game that comes to mind seems like the easiest option. A doll that goes from here to there planting, collecting and putting together elements in a crafting table.
Potion Craft, on the other hand, takes the difficult route, the eureka that probably lit a light bulb within niceplay games when they found the mechanics that would support the game. A surprisingly original formula that, in reality, is reduced to a handful of instructions that move you through a labyrinth.
Beyond Farmville
Behind all the paraphernalia with which to prepare potions lies the map that gives meaning to the game. In it, different objectives appear in the form of potions that we must approach starting from the center. With this we will be able to first discover, and then create, the different potions that customers will demand in the store.
The ingredients that we collect at the click of a button from the forest nearby are only the indications that move us from here to there. A path winding to the right, a zigzag upwards, a parabola moving left and down.
Elements that, once added to the mix, will draw on the map the path that our creation will take until we reach the desired objective. An insultingly simple process. Also insanely fun.
With the combination of herbs, their preparation, and a jar capable of watering the mixture to move back on that path created – and thus avoid the dangers that would destroy the mixture -, Potion Craft It already gives a good account of the potential of an idea to which, of course, there is still much to add.
There will be room for more combinations, for some customization of the garden and for shaping a more weighty narrative. But the truth is that it doesn’t seem to need much more than what it already offers. We’ll see how the expectation generated feels to you. Grow more or less, we will be there to applaud your achievement when you land in Steam at some point in this 2021.
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