itch.io

I've had this game sitting in my bookmarks for months but I finally checked it out today* and I'm so glad I did. It scratched a deeply satisfying puzzle itch that I've had since playing Her Story, but with significant QOL upgrades like the ability to take notes in-game. And I see in comments here that more are coming in the announced Steam release--fantastic!

Some of the gameplay was a little aggravating, I don't like using brute force to solve a puzzle but I ended up resorting to it a little bit towards the end. It felt like busywork to clean up the last few photos and professions for minor family members before I could advance to the final step. But overall it was a fantastic experience; the story was interesting and there were several self-contained sub-plots in different parts of the family tree.

Music and UI are smooth, giving it a pleasant ambiance. (I wish that the modem didn't screech at me every time I switch on the computer though.) The AI artwork is mildly offputting but that's being addressed in the Steam version too.

All in all it's a fantastic game, 10/10.

(*Actually make that "yesterday" because I stayed up until 4am to finish it.)

Yes, please feel free to adapt this system! I'd love to see what you do with it. :)

I would like to make more games with this mechanic and actually originally intended to write instructions for others to adapt it as you describe. But it felt presumptuous to license The Official Patchwork Potions SRD when I couldn't even get past "draft" stage on the first iteration.

I'm glad you liked the game! Thanks for the kind words and the balance notes. My goal was to weight the prompts slightly toward the themes you are already focusing on so the grid doesn't end up being completely random noise, but the feedback loop may be a little too strong.

These look really useful, thank you!

Such a cozy, comforting game. Great inspiration for writing and imagination. It provides a tight mechanical loop searching for reagents and brewing potions while also delivering open-ended narrative opportunities in events, prompts, downtime, large-scale quests, etc. The annotated commentary PDF is also a fascinating insight into the decisions that went into writing the game.

Thank you Romelia! I'm glad you are having so much fun with the game. A full release with color and layout isn't off the table but it's not my top priority right now. In the background I'm also noodling around some other games that use the same color-grid engine for generating prompts. I hope to share them someday!

That's great news, thanks!

So far I am really liking these tiles as I build out a world map for my RPG campaign, but I start to feel limited when I get to populating the world with villages, cities, keeps, ruins, etc. More transparent tiles sounds wonderful! I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

I had been eyeing it for a while, but I pulled the trigger on purchasing Hex Kit specifically because these tiles looked so great! Thanks for putting these out.

If you are looking for suggestions for additional content, one thing I'd love to see more of is the Places category, specifically things with transparent backgrounds that can be placed over any terrain type. For example I love the wizard tower, but since it contains mountainous terrain in the background I can only ever place it in the mountains.