Potion Maker

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Today we brew up a game with Potion Maker

Today is a very simplistic and anime-inspired game. In this game, you play as a magical girl that opened a potion shop. On the surface, the game has a charm but it has a very weak gameplay system.

Here is the basic game screen. There are 4 main currencies in this game. The main one is Gold coins. These are used to buy new upgrades, more ingredients, and pay for other multipliers. The other two currencies I will touch on later in the blog. The basic game is you choose from one of the random ingredients that scroll along the top of the screen. The first ingredient you choose affects what potion you make. It appears if you add the same color ingredients as the original object gives a major value boost to the potion yet you can throw in every ingredient you can with little to no consequence. As you keep piling in stuff you can then try to enhance the potion to a higher level. 

Along the way, some people will come in asking for a very specific potion. There is a hint giving as to which item to start with. You create the potion and enhance it to the required level. When you do, you get a temporary boost to other potions you make. 

I will now go over the next Currency which is the start. You get stars for enhancing a potion up to the maximum level. When you do you can use these stars to unlock a new character or a new outfit as seen in the next screenshot. This screen shows a Heart level. I assume this offers some sort of bonus the more people like you and you level up the quest NPCs you meet.

There are many outfits you can buy. We also meet the new currencies. Nyan tickets and rubies. Rubies are the premium currency in the game. You can unlock some as you play along completing quests.

After a point in the game, you unlock the ability to summon up to 5 cats that help you create potions, and by help, they just throw everything into the potion no matter what it is. Each cat costs tickets and works for only a few minutes at a time. I don't think they help too much other than lets you build up money in a potion passively.

I was not able to make it far enough to figure out what faires are or how to get them. It appears they give permanent buffs based on what one you unlock.  

Another portion of the game I was not able to figure out at the time of this blog. It seems possible that NPCs give you items when you level them up. So here's a second item to look forward to exploring on your own.

The stats screen shows you all the things you have done in the game. A basic section for all the numberphiles out there.

Achievements are where you get all your rubies for free. There are many things to do to gain the premium currency without paying into the game.

A common feature you find is the mailbox. I have not found anything that sent stuff to the mailbox yet so this may be for special events and such.

The settings button helps you to set up all the common options you find in many games. Set them up to your preferences.

Lastly is the upgrades. You find many things here that permanently buff your earning potential.  These upgrades become exponentially expensive once you progress further. 

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this game doesn't have much logical progression to keep you playing. The setup doesn't quite make the game compelling enough to keep playing to want to unlock stuff. There isn't anything engaging in this game beyond the quality anime style.

Story:

 1 of 5 cogs.

There is not much story. You get a small amount of story starting off and some small clips from the NPCs but the game is boring otherwise.

Amount of ads:

 

Optional Only

You only have the ability to watch some optional ads very rarely to get more Nyan tickets or some coins. You can't just watch a bunch of videos to get stuff.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I do not recall if I watched an Ad for this game but all the screenshots on google play are accurate.

Graphics:

5 of 5 cogs.

The game has high-quality and HD anime-style graphics. This is the best part of this game.

Gameplay:

 

2 of 5 cogs.

Oh, this game has so many weak game concepts that are just not fun. There is little logic to how to progress properly as you can just throw everything into a potion. I had higher hopes for this game but it failed to deliver a fun experience for me. I lost interest very quickly after playing it and made it harder to complete this week's blog.

Free play:

💯%

As far as I can tell you can effectively play this game for free and not pay anything into it.

Fun factor:

😐 Mediocre.

I want to give this game a higher score but it just falls short. There is nothing really fun or unique about the game other than the style.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

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