Play poison
Lethal Alchemist's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Use of the Limitation | #2 | 4.375 | 4.375 |
| Presentation | #3 | 4.625 | 4.625 |
| Overall | #5 | 4.156 | 4.156 |
| Concept | #6 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Enjoyment | #13 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team members
Myself (Nico Lovell) and my girlfriend Vivian who helped with drawing icons.
Software used
Ren'Py, GIMP, Blender
Use of the limitation
The main character is not a hero. He creates deadly poisons for bad people and has only profit in mind.
Cookies eaten
None this time. But I saw a squirrel outside my window while working on UI and somehow this moment will be forever tied to this game for me now.
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Comments
cool writing awesome concept cool art didn't like that i needed to mix potions to know their effects would recommend some sort of research table so the player could find the effects themselves overall a good game
Thanks for the feedback!
I'm planning to implement some sort of research mechanic into the full version.
I'm not sure yet in what way it will coexist with the combining ingredients mechanic for now, but I'm working on it.
you could make it so that the player either needs to spend money on research or change it so that the game has deadlines and you need to meet them and researching takes time
Really funny writing in this! Even though I couldn't mix all the potions, I had fun reading all the requests. I think this is a really clever idea for a game and this jam specifically. One of the better uses of theme/limitation. The writing of the contracts and the sassy assistant was super funny. I would love to someday play a more polished version of this game. Also good job on visuals and music. Aside from a little bit of buggyness with my potions not showing up in the storage, I would also suggest a "remove" button for mixing potions in case you choose the right thing, and then just not show its effect until after its mixed. Good game though, clever and funny idea. Also cool to see Ren'Py represented!
Thank you for your feedback!
I'll start working on a more fleshed out version soon featuring more ingredients, effects, contracts, a few more mechanics and a story.
The remove button for ingredients is a good idea. Originally I didn't include it since I saw the issue with the effects showing, but showing all the effects upon poison creation is a lot better idea.
Also the music wasn't made by me. I got the track called "Sewers" from a Humble Bundle content bundle I bought from gamedevmarket.net called "Dungeon Music". But I'll make sure to add my own tracks one day.
Fun fact: this was my first Ren'Py game. I kinda fell in love with the engine now.
that's so awesome! I'm down to play a future update!
Perfect! lol. Gimme 2 months though. Gotta rearrange that spaghetti code first xD
This one was nice, almost looks like old school runescape. Nice chill game with a good use of the limitation!
Your game fits the theme perfectly! I liked the jokes, but I feel it needs a little something more than just mixing ingredients at random to be really enjoyable for me. I'm really impressed by the amount of work you were able to fit into a weekend!
Thanks for the feedback!
Definitely agree. I'll make sure to improve on that in future versions.
As a jam game, great job and execution. Great limitation and theme use, great visuals and nice writing (I cannot guarantee it, but from the style i gather that you've played a bit more than a bit of ren'py VNs : ) )
Personally, I think the main game loop could've been improved if you had added a negative conditions for contracts or something similar - it's a bit off-putting that a child that wants to make his sister's face swell happily accepts a Painful Spontaneuous Combustion Mind Control Swelling Potion, after all. It would also discourage players from doing grab-bag kitchen-sink potions in order to get to know the ingredients before using them for contracts.
Knowing VNs, it's also a good main base for a more story-rich experience. In short - good job!
Thanks for the feedback!
I'm glad you like it! The main loop and contract parts are something I definitely have to improve on. Originally I planned so many more features but using RenPy the first time for a game left me implementing only a few.
One thing I plan on changing is different outcomes for contracts depending on how much you overshoot the goal or under-perform on the effects. And I also have to implement a way where some effects cancel each other out (currently it's possible to have a painful-painless poison).
Your feedback really helps, so thanks again for taking your time and checking out my game!
Really impressive stuff here, I love the cutscenes at the start and it's got a fun tone throughout. Great writing too! I think fleshing this out as a story based game with a few more characters could be interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Wow, thank you for your feedback!
I'm playing with the thought to make this a full game once I got the time again.
Already got a lot of ideas for new mechanics and ingredients.
Not sure with the story part though.
I think I gotta learn to write good stories first, but we'll see.
Thanks for the motivation! I appreciate that.
WOW! Amazing job on this gem, the game looks great, I LOVED the characters (“I want a name in the next version”), the UX is great, huge amount of work done in so little time!
To be picky, you could add some sounds on button clicks etc, I didn’t test the different text skip options but they seem to be needed.
Also I found a weird bug where using the scroll wheel outside of a scrollable panel would reroll the game maybe? Not entirely sure what happens, but it changes the current tab and can be exploited to add all ingredients to a potion > discover their effects > scroll in / out of laboratory > get the discovered ingredients effect but potion is empty and ingredients back in pockets
Thanks for the feedback!
I agree button clicks are definitely needed in future versions.
Regarding the scrolling issue: I'm not sure what causes this.
I think it has something to do with dialogue rollback since RenPy is made for creating visual novels and I think I overused the mechanics provided at some point since this is my very first RenPy game.
But thank you for pointing that out. I'm glad you like my game!