Cauldron, mortar and pestle are important, of course, but without proper alchemical map making potions it would have resembled wandering in the dark. That is why we keep on working on new map mechanics, and we want to show some of them now.
Sometimes the way to a desired effect is not as easy as it seems. Be careful with the swamp zones as you might waste a whole bunch of ingredients trying to wade through them as they slow down the movement and consume the path!
On some maps, the bottle indicator will not heal automatically while out of hazard zones — a healing zone will have to be found instead!
Speaking of hazard zones, we decided to add less deadly ones which will not be as hard to get through, especially if you have some Life Salt.
The alchemical potential of water, oil or wine is not infinite; that is why each map will have impassable borders.
Finally as a treat, a thing a lot of you have been waiting for — vortexes are now teleports!
We hope that this and other alchemy map mechanics we are working on will make the process of discovering and creating potions even more fun and diverse! Stay tuned and follow our Steam Page. Also, make sure to join our Discord so you don't miss other upcoming devlogs!
Save 30% on Potion Craft during the Steam Summer Sale
Hello, alchemists!
Summer is here and Potion Craft is part of the tinyBuild's Steam Summer Sale this year! Grab the game at 30% off and start your journey down the Alchemist's path today. What’s that? You already managed to fix the alchemy machine in your basement and made a fortune selling potions? Then it’s a great opportunity to treat someone with the copy of Potion Craft as a gift on Steam! Offer ends July 7th, so act while you can.
We’d also like to remind that Potion Craft will be leaving early access this fall and that there’s a new major game update brewing for July. Check out the new trailer below and read the latest blog post about the upcoming features here.
Potion Craft Leaves Early Access this fall
Greetings, alchemists!
Today we’re excited to announce the release window and give you a quick look at what's coming to the next Potion Craft update before the game leaves Early Access this Fall!
Watch the new trailer
Potion Craft Leaves Early Access this Fall
We can confirm that the game is going to be leaving early access really soon! While we can’t name the exact date just yet, we wanted to be transparent and give you the release window understanding so you can be ready!
We will be sharing more news and devlogs about some of the upcoming features in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled.
What’s Coming in the Next Update before the release
Here’s the list of some of the features coming your way in the next Potion Craft update this July. With this update we will continue to collect your feedback, polish up the features and balance, so make sure you share your thoughts with us!
Completely redesigned Water alchemy map
New Oil base and a dedicated map for it
New map mechanics: teleporting vortex, swamps, map borders, big experience books, etc.
New effects and quests for these effects
Special quest requirements (e.g. make a potion without using a specific ingredient or make it at least level 3)
New Salts: Moon Salt, Sun Salt, Philosopher's Salt
Want to know more on how we develop Potion Craft? Check out our latest devlog here.
Please make sure to follow us on Social Media and join our Discord to stay up to date on everything Potion Craft and chat with the community and developers:
Answering the most popular questions on Potion Craft Development
Greetings, alchemists!
We know that it's been quite some time since the last major update to the game and that you've been eagerly awaiting news on when we'll finally have something new for Potion Craft.
We read all of your posts here on Steam, on the Discord server and social media every day, and today we'd like to answer the most common community questions. We hope that after reading this you'll have a better understanding of how our development processes are structured, how resources are allocated within the team, and why it takes so long to work on updates. Grab yourself a nice cup of tea and settle in!
The game was released about 9 months ago. Why has it taken you so long to release any updates?
To answer this question comprehensively, we will break it down into several parts.
Approach to Potion Craft development
Game development is a complex and time consuming process. From the very beginning we chose the path of big but infrequent updates instead of frequent smaller ones. First of all, this is because releasing updates in big chunks is more convenient and efficient in terms of development and resource allocation within the team. Also, releasing individual small patches can lead to a lot of bugs and errors, as many game elements and mechanics are highly dependent on each other. We will talk more about this a little further below.
Our core team consists of only 5 people. If we tackle a major update and some individual small improvements at the same time, development will slow down a lot. Of course, this does not apply to hotfixes, which are aimed at fixing critical bugs players may encounter. After major releases, we always follow the feedback and try to fix the most annoying bugs as soon as possible.
We have a huge number of ideas and plans that we would like to implement, but it all takes time.
Linking features and mechanics to each other
Since the game's release in Early Access, we have been working on new features and content on a daily basis. During development it became clear that the upcoming update is growing and becoming bigger than we originally anticipated.
In Potion Craft, many gameplay elements are closely linked, so you can't just pick up and update one in isolation from the other. For starters, we need to rework the core systems.
For example, in our roadmap we mentioned the reputation system. This system is linked to visitor queue generation, which in turn is linked to the way quests work. Therefore it's impossible to release an update where we only include the updated reputation system and don't change the quest system - they are too interconnected. And there are plenty of examples of such new features. We'll share a few of them below.
Additional content and community management
Apart from development, we occasionally need to get involved in creating different promo materials for the game, which we use here in the news, social networks, Discord, and other communication channels. These include, for example, pictures, gifs, trailers, devlogs and more. Of course the team at tinyBuild helps us a lot, but it's a process in which both parties – the publisher and us – are equally involved.
We work daily with the Potion Craft community. Apart from the traditional interaction with players, this also includes collecting and processing feedback that we take into account when developing updates.
Current World Situation
The main part of the Potion Craft development team comes from Russia and, unfortunately, the recent world events have influenced us a lot. Not only the speed of development and the team's morale have been affected, but also many work processes, which we had to rearrange on-the-fly.
Apart from reduced working hours, we have encountered difficulties with the availability of the software, services and licenses required for the work.
At the moment, the team is already working more or less as usual. We still face some difficulties, but we are trying to adapt to them accordingly.
Why are you so meticulous about creating every game element?
Our ‘niceplay games’ studio has a certain quality standard that we are not prepared to go below when releasing a game or update. This is one of our main approaches to game development. We have set the bar high enough with the previously released Potion Craft versions that we don't want to make an update that is more bloated than the original version.
We love Potion Craft and want to make it as awesome as possible. Sometimes we spend a lot more time polishing individual elements than we expected, but often that polish is crucial. We believe that the success of Potion Craft lies in a lot of small but extremely well-crafted details, and many players share this vision with us.
Why can't you release updates to individual elements of the game? (new potions, ingredients, haggle, garden management, etc.)
In Potion Craft, many mechanics and game elements are highly dependent on each other. This is no exception for the upcoming update, which we are currently working on. Here are a few examples:
New maps
We need to develop new features that affect the balance of ingredients. We also need to consider the new element system, etc.
Potions effects
These can be found on the new maps and we need to come up with new quests for them.
Ingredients
The element system and old ingredients need to be reworked here. This also affects the design of the new maps and the location of the effects on them.
Reputation System
Because of the reputation system, the way queue generation works is completely changed, affecting the class system, which wasn't there before, and with it, the way quests work is also changed.
Unlocking content by chapter
Much of the content is locked into this system and because of this everything is tangled together - NPCs, merchants, ingredients, new maps, effects, quests and additional conditions for them, etc.
New save system
Affects literally everything.
Animated loading screen
Required a redesign of almost every element in the game as weird as it may sound.
We usually work on several features at the same time. However, developing some elements of the game simultaneously for immediate release and for a longer term (a bigger update) is not a comfortable working format for us which causes a lot of hassle and slows down development dramatically.
We agree that some individual features could indeed be made and released separately from others. We will try to do this in the future whenever possible.
Are you working on the features promised in the roadmap?
Yes, and most of them are already worked out in some form. Some things are already complete, some need to be refined and filled with content. Something is still on a concept or mock-up level. Much of what we have shown in the roadmap will appear in the next update.
What's coming in the next update?
Here are some of the things that are planned in the coming update:
Completely redesigned Water alchemy map
New Oil base and a dedicated map for it
New map mechanics: teleporting vortex, swamps, map borders, big experience books, etc.
New effects and quests for these effects
Special quest requirements (e.g. make a potion without using a specific ingredient or make it at least level 3)
New Salts: Moon Salt, Sun Salt, Philosopher's Salt
Will the old save files be supported after the game update?
No, the save files from the current version of the game will not be compatible with the new update. This is primarily due to all of the above-mentioned new features and developmental tweaks. Some of the Potion Craft aspects, as well as content and balance, will change drastically, so players will need to start a new game.
Your old saves will remain and appear as "incompatible" in the load menu, however. You'll still be able to run them by rolling back to an earlier version of the game – this will be possible via the beta functionality on Steam.
Such a long pause between major updates to Potion Craft is also due to the fact that we didn't want to reset player progress too often. It was important to us to release a stable version of the game that we were confident in, and that players could comfortably play for as long as they wanted without having to start all over again.
You rarely release information on updates or devlogs, why is that?
We actually stopped posting devlogs and news frequently a while ago. The main reason is that we released the game in early access and were actively maintaining it in terms of hotfixes at first, and then started working on a major update. It seemed to us that the game itself was enough at that point, but that was wrong and we had already realized that.
We revised our approach to development coverage and decided to release devlogs more often (about 1 devlog every 2-3 weeks), and we'll try to keep this tradition going in the future.
We try to make each of our devlogs interesting and informative, so it takes the team a certain amount of time to create them. We don't have a dedicated person who writes the devlogs – there are different members of the team involved in the process. They each talk about what they specialize in. For example, if the devlog is about the graphical part of the game, our artist does that. If it's about some technical feature, it's better for the programmer who was working on the feature to talk about it. And when it comes down to the game design it is more logical to have a game designer sharing his thoughts in this article.
All of this takes some part of the game development time but it is important for us to involve players into the process of development too, and to have at least an approximate idea of where the project is heading. We read all the comments on devlogs and news articles and often even answer some questions straight away, so don't hesitate to give feedback - it helps us a lot.
Please make sure to follow us on Social Media and join our Discord to stay up to date on everything Potion Craft and chat with the community and developers:
Devlog #16. New ingredients and elements system rework (work-in-progress)
The main instrument of a master alchemist is not a cauldron or mortar as one might think. True, alchemists manipulate the Elements themselves! Many of you must have noticed that the map directions in Potion Craft are associated to the elements: e.g. Water is on the right and Waterbloom, being the main water ingredient, leads there; while Fire is on the left and Firebell leads there also. In the upcoming update, we decided to upgrade this system, making it more complex and consistent. To achieve that, we needed to review old ingredients and create a lot of new ones. To begin with, we collected all sketches and legacy ingredients that have ever been created.
Click to enlarge the image
Click to enlarge the image
The new system will have 8 “elements”, each one having its own direction on the map. Each element will also have a set of effects relevant to it.
Up: air
Right/up: magic
Right: water
Right/down: life
Down: earth
Left/down: poison
Left: fire
Left/up: explosion
Before we started working on new ingredients, we had divided existing ones into new elements to see what was missing. Some ingredients had to be moved into new elements. For example, it is more consistent for Terraria to belong to the Life element due to its green color. It will have to change the name as well while some other ingredient will become the basic ingredient for the Earth element.
We wanted each element to have 7 ingredients, one crystal among them. Moreover, each element should have a distinctive color scheme, e.g. Fire is yellow and orange, while Magic is violet and purple. When the task was clear, we started working on new ingredients and revising the old ones.
Air ingredients are mostly light, delicate flowers and herbs.
The Magic element combines flowers, fruits, and even root vegetables, but they all share similar purple-violet colors.
There is no more Watery ingredient than waterweeds! Moist and underwater mushrooms will do too.
Juicy green is the main feature of Life element ingredients.
Mushrooms and roots — what else could be closer to Earth?
Poisonous, ghastly colors and mushrooms of all shapes make up the Poison element.
The Fire element embraces various types of ingredients, but warm colors and a touch of hot unites them.
Barbs, nervous bends and vivid red color are features of the Explosive element.
Some ingredients, being processed skilfully, should give an alchemist an opportunity to make way on the map in any direction. We decided to make them iridescent.
So here is what we came up with finally: 8 elements, 58 ingredients and an infinite alchemical potential! We still need to draw it all though. By the way if you wish to know more about the process of creating new ingredients, please, read our previous Devlog (#15). There is some fascinating stuff there!
We are actively working on the new system of Elements and new ingredients right now and we would love to hear your thoughts on them as well to know what kind of ingredients you would like to see in the game! New ingredients also need names, thus we will be happy to hear ideas from you!
Thank you for your attention! Please make sure to follow us on Social Media and join our Discord to stay up to date on everything Potion Craft and chat with the community and developers:
There is nothing more important in potion making than ingredients! Rightly so, the most renowned alchemists used to say: “Garbage in, garbage out”, that is why we approach creating ingredients for Potion Craft with utmost focus and consideration and we would like to share this process with you.
As usual, everything starts with a sketch.
Color is the most important feature of an ingredient, it gives the ingredient density and tangibility. For us to decide whether a flower or berry belongs in the game, we strive to finalise the appearance of it first. You might notice that most ingredients never make their way into the game, but nonetheless, we never lose this legacy groundwork and often return to them while working on new ingredients.
After the best ingredients are selected, we start polishing their appearance and searching for the right color scheme.
Moving onto the ingredients which are dear to our hearts, mushrooms, flowers and minerals. They require a lot of effort to be crushed, smashed and broken. For soft ingredients, 8 to 12 states are usually enough.
Things get more difficult with rigid ingredients such as minerals. A mineral should split into two pieces after the first hit; then each piece should split into two when hit again, and so on until they are grinded into dust. Thus, 19 sprites are needed for large crystals, and even more for small ones. For example, 27 sprites had to be drawn for the Frost Sapphire.
Leaves, petals, barbs and anything with the ability to cheerfully spray around when an ingredient is thrown at the wall, should also be created.
Basic work on ingredients is finished at this state, but small icons for the Recipe Book and garden plants still need to be drawn.
Next time we will talk about a new elemental system for ingredients and potion effects and will show a lot of interesting stuff, so stay tuned and follow our Steam Page. Also, make sure to join our Discord so you don't miss other upcoming devlogs!
Thank you for your attention! Please make sure to follow us on Social Media and join our Discord to stay up to date on everything Potion Craft and chat with the community and developers:
Today we want to show you a new feature that will be available in the upcoming update – auto-hold! The auto-hold will be the first option in the new Accessibility section of Potion Craft settings.
We decided to add this feature after a significant number of players reported getting hand fatigue due to having to hold down the left mouse button for long periods of time to grind ingredients, mix potions with a spoon, and drag items around the shop. We hope that the auto-hold feature will make the gameplay more comfortable.
While this feature might seem quite simple and easy to implement, many changes to the internal structure of the game had to be done in order to add such functionality. Due to this, the auto-hold feature will only appear in the future update along with other additions.
The auto-hold feature is but a first step in improving the accessibility of our game. By listening carefully to our players, we plan to gradually add new options regarding accessibility and controls to make the experience better and more enjoyable.
Thank you for your attention! Follow our Steam page or join our Discord server to never miss new devlogs and important announcements!
We know that some players find Haggling too hard, while others think that it does not fit with the pace of the game. We believe in this mechanic and we would like to tell you about adjustments and improvements that will be made to it in the next large update.
We don’t want haggling to put too much pressure on a player and meddle with your focus and mood, which is typical for alchemists; that is why you can now choose one of five different themes to talk about with a visitor, each of them with different difficulty levels. There are easy themes, where you choose to respond in the easiest way and won’t lose any profit, and there are hard themes, which are more difficult and risky but the profit is much higher. Each visitor has a unique set of themes which will help you to understand their character better. For example, the Mushroomer enjoys a snack, which makes it easy to speak to him about food as he is not very picky when it comes to it. On the other hand, mushrooms are of great importance to him, you need to be careful when speaking about them as you can easily upset him. If he finds a fellow mycologist in you though, he will be willing to make a better deal!
The most sensible themes (4th & 5th) are locked at the beginning of the game but can be unlocked later. Do you remember the Mushroomer had mentioned something about his memoirs?
Click the image to enlarge it
The theme difficulty affects:
The arrow speed
Quantity and size of bonuses
Scales tilt speed
Miss potency
Profit of a deal
On top of that, current profit will be shown more clearly now during Haggle and haggling will finish automatically when maximum profit is achieved.
To help players cope with Haggling nuances, we added a new info window.
Click the image to enlarge it
We believe that Haggle, while not being a key mechanic, is still important in Potion Craft as it provides a change of pace, some risk, helps to know your visitors a little better and, finally, to get a discount (show me those that don’t like a good discount)!
Stay tuned for more devlogs on the upcoming update. Please don’t hesitate to follow our Steam Page and make sure to join our Discord so you don't miss other upcoming devlogs!
Save 20% on Potion Craft during the Steam Lunar New Year
Happy Year of Tiger, alchemists!
Potion Craft is part of the Lunar New Year sale on Steam with 20% off. Get it for yourself or treat someone with a nice gift! Offer ends on February 3rd so don’t miss this opportunity!
We hope you all had wonderful Holidays! Thank you to everyone who has participated in the Feast of Winter Cone seasonal event. Let us know what you think about it and if you managed to find all the decorations around your shop!
This small update will retire the Feast of Winter Cone event as well as address “the empty map issue” that some players have encountered before. We’re aware of this one and are trying to resolve it with this update. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit more complex than we originally thought, so we hope this update will fix it (or at least will give us some more information). If you still encounter “the empty map issue”, please do let us know in the #bug-reports section of our Discord server.
Patch Notes:
The Feast of Winter Cone event is now over.
Hopefully the “empty map issue” that some players could have encountered, is now fixed. If you're still experiencing this issue, please let us know.
