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Ex Arcanum's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #653 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Cleverness | #755 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Playability | #804 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Artistic Style | #970 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- This game has a neat premise. I like games like this. The one thing I was confused about was whether or not I picked something up. I was left guessing, other than the cauldron being filled with potion. Good use of alchemy, but the theme was missing the shadow theme from noticeable gameplay.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
Controls:
Movement - WASD
Interact - E
Drop Item - Q
Lore:
Ex Arcanum follows Mary Fein in the first week of business in her new potion brewery in the town of Therol. Mary started out her week just fine, serving new and eager customers. But then, one day, something strange happens. A mysterious man comes in dressed in dark gray robes talking about things that Mary doesn't understand. When threatened, Mary chooses to follow the man's orders in hopes of nothing going wrong. Oh how naive that was....
Gameplay:
Ex Arcanum is a game where you brew and serve customers potions. Players must fight resource scarcity and impatient customers as they try to make it through the week of business while being watched by a mysterious figure. This man imposes a quota and threatens to attack if not met. Will Mary be ambushed by this man? Play to find out!
Extra GDD Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AwtwZQvEQwbdCq3PX3ndbVGXvAquqjALlvm4jScf6IQ/edit
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Comments
Cute little potion shop game! I think the dialogue that explains everything is a bit too long, maybe you could put in in a sign next to the chest? Having to go get a flask 2 times (once for water, once for potion) is a bit too tedious too!
But it works well, nice job!
Lovely peaceful game.
In the tutorial stage, it would help if it re-explains if you interact with the thing again. Like after i get the bottle, before I fill it, if i interact with the table again it could remind me to go to the cauldron. I accidentally skipped the last line of dialogue.
The horizontal lines on the font make it less legible than if it was a flat color, it dazzles my eyes a bit.
When customers do not get what they want they just slide backwards out of the shop lol, rather than walking.
I think the game would benefit from some obstacles, or some mechanic to manage while carrying the items from station to station, as it gets a bit repetitive eventually.
Otherwise wonderful jam submission, I played it through to the end. I was afraid of what the shadow man would do to me if i didnt...
A solid foundation for a game with a nice narrative.
So I'm gonna be pretty blunt here. I got totally bored by day 2. My brain was switching off as I ran through the motions of making the potion for the customer but with no variety at all from start to finish it was a bit of a slog to get through it.
The mysterious cult member showing up throughout the game and the final piece of the story at the end was what kept me going because I was interested in seeing what happened.
The character art was nice I liked the design and the pixel art. I especially liked the hooded cult member with the shadowy face. The environment was very basic and flat however. The item sprites and UI were solid though and the shop screen looked great.
The music was simple enough but I liked the music/tone change whenever the cult member showed up. Sometimes it kinda turned dark too and sometimes it didn't, not sure why but it was a nice touch.
Overall the game had me wanting more. You mentioned in the closing statement that you plan to keep developing the game and put it on steam. I'll be really interested to see that, I really like the base mechanics of the potion crafting and shop mechanics I'm excited to see how that develops and what the game turns into, especially with the lingering story beat.
Very fun game it took me a while not to confuse red and green :D.