Wonky Brew by civmaniac

[raw]
made by civmaniac for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

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Your dreams came true - you have been hired by a great witch. Today is your first day as her apprentice, and you need to help her brew the most awesome and complicated elixir.

Can you be fast and competent enough to make it in the witching world?

Gameplay

In this game, you need to do your best to assemble the ritual recipes and add them to the cauldron to make the elixir. You'll gather ingredients, prepare them in the proper way and bring those to a proper ritual place.

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The elixir is hard to make and notoriously unstable. Each recipe you assemble correctly and put into your cauldron, stabilizes the brew and brings you one step closer to success! You'll need to be fast and precise, or all will die in a deluge of fire! Just like Mr. Bones did. .

Keybindings

  • Keyboard: WASD or Arrow Keys to move, E or Space to interact
  • Controller: L Thumb to move, A (or an analogous button) to interact

wonky<em>brew</em>optimized.gif

Credits

Everything made from scratch for the jam by the two of us, except for the music track.

Music: "Sunday Picnic (ID 719)" by Lobo Loco under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. Check Lobo Loco out here.

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Ratings

Overall 370th 3.796⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Fun 376th 3.741⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 964th 3.109⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Theme 644th 3.639⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 419th 3.955⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Humor 465th 3.385⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Mood 453th 3.67⭐ 55🧑‍⚖️
Given 57🗳️ 97🗨️

Feedback

OllieOA
05. Oct 2021 · 08:13 UTC
Nice game, it was intuitive and has game pad support witch is always a bonus. I unfortunately was not fast enough although I am sure if I spent a bit more time perfecting my mad dash around the place then I think I would have it down pat.
digital bacon
05. Oct 2021 · 09:53 UTC
Good entry. Clear instructions, and fairly intuitive. Cute graphics, bouncy music, frantic gameplay. Love it, well done!
Cain Sanches
05. Oct 2021 · 21:40 UTC
I'm not fast enough but I just loooooooove the game, I really hope you guys made a pos production, It was rly funny
Fractale
05. Oct 2021 · 21:50 UTC
It's the best game I played so far that use potions. I really loved the graphics and the gameplay. it's a bit like overcooked. make it coop and it's the perfect game for my pizza bear party.
DNAbro
06. Oct 2021 · 02:50 UTC
Love the cute art and it was pretty fun too. At first I skipped over the instructions but once I read it things made way more sense.
Tiago Cruz
06. Oct 2021 · 02:53 UTC
That was a very fun Overcooked-style game! Nice job
Aquilart
06. Oct 2021 · 02:56 UTC
I'll be honest the instructions weren't that clear, I had to trial and error for a few rounds before I knew what to do. Maybe if I had more understanding of the terms it might be easier, anyways good job!
cukeds
06. Oct 2021 · 03:11 UTC
Liked the graphics, they were cute. I chuckled at one of the beginning jokes. I was running around doing the things, altho it wasn't exactly clear where each thing went. It may be me being stupid, but once I noticed the place to prepare stuff was next to the recipe I got a bit better. Still got confused a few times, probably wouldn't be if I played more.
mathgeek
06. Oct 2021 · 03:25 UTC
The music is a crackles a bit (though it may be my computer), but the art (especially the colour) and gameplay are phenomenal. The only complaint I have is that the light up thing that indicates you can interact doesn't seem to occur for the pentagram.
fabula_rasa
06. Oct 2021 · 08:28 UTC
@aquilart @cukeds Thanks for playing, and for the feedback on the instructions. We tried to make them short and to the point, and I thought that the images of the things included in each point will be enough to convey the message (you know, picture is worth a thousand words and so on). Obviously, I was wrong :grin: Maybe I'll compose some more detailed and more verbose instructions, and put them here on LD page - could help some players!

But a bit of confusion - that's part of the design. We wanted the player to figure some things out on his own (like how to prepare each ingredient). You are supposed to run around confused before you can figure out what goes where and get a handle on things - just like a real life crazy witch apprentice would :wink:
🎤 civmaniac
06. Oct 2021 · 10:41 UTC
@mathgeek That's Godot and web builds. It crackles between scene changes. Changing a browser could help a bit, but otherwise I don't know how to fix it. Native version should work fine.
Game Endeavor
06. Oct 2021 · 21:18 UTC
Really cute game. :) It can get pretty hectic which is nice. Immediately I was pretty confused about what to do. I even went looking in the description to see if there were some instructions that I missed. Once I got past that though I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of matching up the different items with their stations. Nice job. :)
puppetmaster
06. Oct 2021 · 21:47 UTC
Great that we both had a similar idea, witches always go with October. :smile:

I like your game very much. Animations are great done. Congratulations on the contribution.
Trexxak
06. Oct 2021 · 22:55 UTC
Loved it! I admit I didn't know what to do with the ingredients the first couple of times, but I got better and better at assisting the witch over time.

That being said, the speed at which to prepare the different ingredients may just be a tad bit too fast, considering how taxing it is to the brain to just think of how to process these, let's say "exotic" materials in the first place, especially if you never saw them pop up before.

Overall though, it felt like a very complete game, and I absolutely love the creativity that must've gone into this game :D

On a sidenote: I love how I'm able to recognize your games by the artstyle alone by now!
DriagonV
07. Oct 2021 · 13:02 UTC
Nice game! I like the artstyle and the mechanics, I was a bit confused at the start on where to prep and where to cook/infuse, but I reread the instructions and figured it out, I thought that the icons next to the instruction text were just examples that's why I didn't figure it out earlier, but once I figured it out I had a lot of fun!
Raph_Gi
07. Oct 2021 · 15:29 UTC
I like the OverCoocked style and the art is cute. The gameplay is smooth but I'm not really fast...
Kamuniaft
08. Oct 2021 · 05:15 UTC
Loved characters design! Cute little witches, with a touch of mystery in the eyes :) Game feels solid and polished. Core gameplay became tedious rather fast and i found myself yearning for some kind of progress indication (long term goals or some record stats) or narration pauses. Great job making the game!
VPhyre
08. Oct 2021 · 05:59 UTC
Your game has a fun concept. It's nice to try to mix the recipes correctly.

The graphics are well produced, I liked the visuals in general.

The sound is fun, with nice music.

And the gameplay is fun too, although I had a little trouble understanding the order in which I was supposed to manipulate the recipe items. But nothing that got in the way of my experience.

Overall I thought it was a good game!
Xeke-Death
08. Oct 2021 · 11:47 UTC
I'd like to see some more automated tasks so you can get more things going at once. Was good overall, the graphics are nice, good mechanics, but sadly I was disappointed by the lack of a deluge of fire.
Good work!
sakura_magika
09. Oct 2021 · 02:31 UTC
i like the spooky take on overcooked! the cute graphics were my favorite part, i like the hue rotation filter when the brew gets unstable.

i think combining various ingredients together in the ritual circles was a cool idea.

i think the three different ingredient prep stations didn't add a lot to the game, since they were all so close together, and had the exact same interaction, there was no motivation for actually learning which ingredient went with with prep station, and consequence for getting it wrong, since it would just make the "nope" sound, and move on to the next one, without losing much time. if you had spaced them out a bit more, it would have cost more time to get it wrong, which would have been more motivation to learn them. also, while some of them made sense, others didn't like grinding the feather looking thing, or boiling cobwebs. with no intuitive connection between them, that also made it seem more like a minor frustration than a fun mechanic.

for the opening cutscene, i would have appreciated a button that simply advanced the dialogue right way, instead of either skipping it entirely, or waiting the full duration of each dialogue sentence.

i also think that having some kind of progress meter would have been good. i felt totally blind as i played, not knowing what goal i was pursuing, or even if there was a goal, or if it would go on forever. that motivated me less to keep trying again, when i wasn't sure how much progress i had made in the previous run.

on the score screen, it said i had "00:01", and par was "05:00" or something. that didn't make any sense to me, i definitely played for more than one second. was 5 minutes supposed to be the duration of the game? or was there a certain number of recipes i had to successfully brew?
AlexTengu
09. Oct 2021 · 05:36 UTC
Nice and fun, nice music. But a little imbalanced, when it comes too much ingredients at one place at once.
🎤 civmaniac
09. Oct 2021 · 14:24 UTC
@sakura-magika Hey! Thanks for detailed feedback! About prep stations. Originally, we wanted to place them apart, but since we don't indicate where which ingredient is supposed to be prepared, we feared it would cause too much confusion for a jam game. And judging by feedback, it is a problem. Eventually, we went with them being in the same place and I can see why that is not the best. One thing I was thinking about is spreading stations around the room, but maybe color code ingredients and stations, so that it's more understandable where which should go. Or have a more sane connection between them, like you suggested :).

Progress indicator would be nice, but not sure how to present such a thing. Just a progress bar is not great imho. Maybe an old clock in the corner or a window indicating time of day, and player goal is to get to the morning without totally screwing up. I guess, a progress bar under cauldron could work too.

The thing about time, PAR time is supposed to indicate average competent time of completion, which I calculated from my best run +30 seconds. It's an incentive for players to beat it, if they want to play again. 00:01 however is strange, I didn't see that bug happening until you reported. It should show your play time for the successfully completed run or --:--:--. I'll check it out. And thanks again!
LDJam user 156819
10. Oct 2021 · 03:11 UTC
Very neat! It took me a bit to realise the distinction between ingredient preparation and rituals, and which one I had to pay attention to the icons for, but once I got over that, the gameplay became quite enjoyable. Loved the art, enjoyed the challenge and the variety in the game.
ChillerTyp
10. Oct 2021 · 16:46 UTC
Looks like a character from South Park. ^^
Yorsh
10. Oct 2021 · 22:41 UTC
Feels very complete, good job. The tentacle friend is really nice :)
Mascoll
11. Oct 2021 · 08:27 UTC
Excellent entry! Love the graphics and I'm super impressed by what you have made during the time alloted!
It's overcooked for cultists/witches!
coolestdoggie
11. Oct 2021 · 10:20 UTC
I really like your cover!
Denzil Gomes
11. Oct 2021 · 12:43 UTC
This feels very polished for a jam game. It has similar gameplay to Overcooked, and I like that game so I had a good time. The artwork was also nice and the animations worked well. good job
Taffaz
11. Oct 2021 · 13:55 UTC
Really cool game with nice artwork.
elysiagriffin
11. Oct 2021 · 15:21 UTC
Hi there! Thanks for submitting your game for me to play live during my Twitch stream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1172268556?t=2h6m51s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
chtimy
11. Oct 2021 · 18:57 UTC
Thank you for your game! Some ingredients like the cobweb, I don't know what to do with that and the timing is tight, it stressed me ahah ^^ . Maybe more information about the combinaisons would be nice. Otherwise, the drawing is cool the music fits with the ambiance, with time and motivation it could be a very good idea for a Overcooked-like game. Hope you could go this way :p
gdesecrate
13. Oct 2021 · 22:08 UTC
Thanks for the game!![Screenshot_20211014_010409.png](///raw/fd9/14/z/48207.png)
Krjemelik
14. Oct 2021 · 14:29 UTC
Really good game! Interesting idea, great visuals and sound effects. Well done!
Vivoubos
16. Oct 2021 · 17:17 UTC
Nice entry! It was fun to play, i enjoyed! Thank you and congratulation
Togis
18. Oct 2021 · 03:39 UTC
Hey there! This game was really amazing to play! Thanks for joining us live!

I finally had the time to come back and rate everything I played so far!

Here is a link to the vod of the review if you wish to see it again: https://www.youtube.be/watch?v=1gUA0Q2dn6I&t=1080s
Rewzu
19. Oct 2021 · 13:28 UTC
Intuitive gameplay and great graphics. Audio is decent as well. Quite enjoyable experience! Very good entry!
kristinamay
19. Oct 2021 · 15:28 UTC
This game was so cute! I liked the art and it was fun to run around like a madwoman trying to get all the stuff. I was really bad at it but that's okay! I like the attention to detail, and I love Fluffy.
Ve_ret
20. Oct 2021 · 15:50 UTC
Thanks for the opportunity to play your game.
The game really turned out to be attractive, a separate respect for the art style)
It seems to me that this is a worthy result for the work done in such a short time.
Vladadamm
21. Oct 2021 · 16:18 UTC
A nice and well polished game. It feels rather complete, with everything being pretty intuitive (except the way of preparing some of the ingredients) and some nice polish like the color switch after an error or failing to do an ingredient. The graphics are very good and cute looking, and clearly one of the game's strength.
As for the downsides, I think what lacked the most was some kind of global progression indicator to know whether we're close or not to finishing the potion. Also, small detail but could have been nice to be able to fasten the intro's dialogues by being able to skip to the next dialogue line early as the time for reading felt a bit long.