The Bugbear Tavern by Carter Andrews
You play as a bartender who serves heroes in a fantasy world. You need to brew potions to help them on their adventures and serve them. Talk with each character and find out what they need and then consult your recipes to find one that helps them. Have fun.
Ratings
| Overall | 922th | 3.083⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 931th | 2.883⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 972th | 2.862⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1030th | 2.883⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 890th | 2.933⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 313th | 3.5⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 328th | 3.365⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 603th | 3.268⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 29🗨️ |
Really liked to pick object and throw them in the cauldron :) Feels satisfying.
Good job on making the game!
A few kinks, But still, a good game.
I think definitely some ambiguity for the recipes would be nice. Also, maybe a patron would request a drink based on flavors or colors rather than just the effects? Who knows... maybe medieval people drank for fun and not just potion effects! :)
The concept is awesome and I'm sure if you had more time, there would be more than one patron per recipe. Seriously... if you made this game a full experience with shinier graphics and polished music. Ugh. My money. PLEASE.
I had a lot of problems with the mouse. It was going really fast, and sometimes my out-of-game mouse cursor would show up, and since that cursor can't go off the edge of the screen, it would stop me from spinning around.
One quirk I noticed was that the UI for a character talking would show up before the camera finished moving, giving the appearance that the UI window was hovering in-game instead of being an overlay.
I liked the tone and the use of humor. The writing wasn't mind-blowing, but it was entertaining enough to keep me playing through the end of the game. The little touches like the "punch" button and the boot ingredient were great. The character art helped set the tone and theme of the game. The 3D assets mostly looked like stock 3d models, but they did help create a fantasy atmosphere along with the music and sounds. The 2D interface also fit the theme of the game, but it also didn't feel very polished. For a mostly text-based game, I think it's pretty important to have a smooth, clean, and easy-to-read UI.
The game was, simply put, too easy. There were three very general potions, so figuring out which one is needed wasn't hard. You could have improved this by either creating more potions with more specific effects (like improving accuracy, helping memory, and providing courage for the examples provided) or by making the needs of the customers more obscure.
Also, I felt like giving the whole thing a time-limit (like an evening at the tavern), and then scoring the player on how many customers they were able to provide with the right potion, would be really nice.
Anyhow, this is a really nice concept with nice and generally fun gameplay which has a lot of potential. If you feel even a bit like working on this idea again, I certainly recommend to do so! It will turn into something great with a bit of work. :)
[Void salts](https://i.imgur.com/htjUetA.png) and [Fire salts](https://i.imgur.com/DYxIEVJ.jpg) from Skyrim. The void salts bowl has an interesting scalloped pattern, and looks like it's made out of some kind of smooth translucent stone. The fire salts are in a thick, chunky, 3-legged grinder bowl, and notice that the edges seems slightly worn-down from use.
[Primordy oil](https://i.imgur.com/cgCEMJF.png) from Slime Rancher. The 3d model is very simple, and has hardly any detail. But notice the very unique color and material choices. The cork is a bright purple/pink gradient, and the glass outline has a very saturated purple/green gradient. It's a very unique color choice that you wouldn't see in any other game.
[Grog Tankard](https://i.imgur.com/88d42XJ.png) from Sea Of Thieves. This model has an almost ridiculous amount of detail. The edges of the tankard are heavily chipped and worn-down, so you can see the wood material underneath the paint. It has a bunch of leather straps wrapped around it and a metal band at the bottom to hold it together. And even the leather straps have lots of cuts and worn edges, and an aged surface patina. It looks like this tankard has been in multiple knife fights!
You can notice similar stuff in a lot of other games. Potions will have little tags, or bits of string and cloth tied around them. A knife will have a little gem in the hilt, or runes carved into the blade. A tree branch will still have leaves attached. A piece of meat will have grill marks, thick streaks of fat, and a bone sticking out.
Of course, you have very limited time during Ludum Dare, so you don't want to spend too much time detailing a single model. But you can still add a lot of quick little details to the texture. [Here's an antique tankard](https://i.imgur.com/Lhm3iTc.jpg) that has a nice little repeating pattern around it. [Here's a clay flask](https://i.imgur.com/FYDuyMu.jpg) with a simple geometric design. I think this kind of little detail can really make a 3d model stand out, especially if it's an important item that the player can interact with.
I feel the game was a bit too short and rigid. The gameplay as it stands is far too simplistic.
Well done regarding the 3D models though. I guess some may think they are stock because their style doesn't blend in with other aspects of the game, such as the 2D patrons. It was a shock to learn the game was actually 3D!