Herbalism

Game Description

You are a Wizard’s apprentice in the world of Ethshar and the Wizard has gotten bored of running his old potion brewing shop. His solution? Pass it off to you, with little to no instructions, and merely a book of potion recipes to aid you. You must keep the potion shop running until he returns from goodness knows, whatever he’s doing.

Your shop exists in the Ethshar of the Spices. The world is not incredibly relevant as it’s outside the doors of your shop. Aside from the occasional relevant potion request, this does not serve much of an impact aside from mechanical world building (port trading town is great for acquiring potion ingredients).

A single-player crafting and management simulation strategy game where you play as an alchemist, brewing potions, refining ingredients, and fulfilling customer requests to build your reputation and grow your potion shop.

The game is valued with its hands-on, exploratory crafting experience, which rewards curiosity and experimentation. By selecting, refining, and combining ingredients, players engage in tactile decision-making that directly influences the final potion. Each ingredient has predefined refinement paths and behaviors outlined in the recipe book, guiding the player through the required steps for each potion. This process fosters a strong sense of discovery and mastery as players learn how their actions affect potion quality. The gameplay loop of choosing ingredients, refining them with different tools, mixing them in the cauldron, and racing against the timer creates an immersive and satisfying rhythm that keeps players engaged throughout each day in the shop.

Key Features

Story-Driven Apprentice Experience

Take over a potion shop from a Wizard who has left you with little guidance beyond a recipe book.

Immersive ingredient refinement

Use tools such as grinders, scissors, hangers and ropes, and infusers to refine ingredients according to established recipes.

Potion Crafting

Follow the recipe book to prepare potions with ingredient combinations and refinement steps that determine potion type and tier.

Interactive Cauldron System

Add ingredients, complete stirring sequences, and let the cauldron evaluate refinement levels to produce the final potion.

Time-Based Customer Requests

Fulfill orders before time runs out. If the timer expires, the customer leaves and the day ends.

Engaging Daily Rhythm

Move between ingredient selection, refinement, brewing, and order completion in a relaxing but focused gameplay loop.

Credits

Made by Potionsmith

Team Roles

Samuel Denton – Producer

Brady Marr – Artist

Kevin Zheng – Main Gameplay Programmer

Galen Sagarin – Assistant Programmer / Bug Fixing

Resources

Graphics

Shutterstock. (n.d.). Hemp rope on white background [Photograph]. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hemp-rope-on-white-background-260nw-2510919495.jpg

Flaticon. (n.d.). Sun icon [Icon]. https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/169/169367.png

Audio

Pixabay. (n.d.). Bell ding [Audio file]. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/bellding-254774/

Floraphonic. (n.d.). Bubbling water sound effect loops [Audio file]. https://www.floraphonic.com/l/bubblingwatersoundeffectloops

Pixabay. (n.d.). Adventure medieval happy music [Music]. https://pixabay.com/music/adventure-medieval-happy-music-412790/

Pixabay. (n.d.). Click game menu [Audio file]. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/click-game-menu-147356/

Pixabay. (n.d.). Medieval background [Music]. https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-medieval-background-351307/

Packages

Demigiant. (n.d.). DOTween (HOTween v2) [Unity asset]. Unity Asset Store. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/dotween-hotween-v2-27676