Marcel's Metabolic Mishap, a Potion Making RPG

JUDGES’ VERDICTS:

I really think there is a solid concept here. Unfortunately the grindiness, the trial and error and needing a PhD in Mathematics sullies the experience. The original art is very cute and is a fun enough incentive to play. But I found that being thrown out into the world with somehow both too much and not enough information at the same time. A lot of places and things but a lot of telling, not much showing. The beginning feels very overwhelming as you only have a loose idea what you need to do and not enough breadcrumbs to get you started. Its a solid concept, it really is, but not an overly accessible one or one thats easy to find entertaining unless you’re one for grinding, guesswork and numbers. Would love to see a more refined version of this experience and this world, especially with such fun characters.

I hate to say it but I enjoyed this one the least compared to failmuseum’s previous efforts. While this game had the usual trademark ingenuity and flourishes indicative of this developer’s style, it felt like it had taken on too much, ladening the gameplay loop with design choices that felt claggy and burdensome, marring the experience overall. This wasn’t the only potionmaking entry of the jam but it was one the one where I struggled to acheive even that simple endeavor. In this game more than others did one feel the limitations and constraints of the RPG Maker engine with its laborious menu navigating.
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The positives were in the presentation and in the characters present, which helped sell the world
and premise admirably. I also thought the overworld map traversal was really nifty! This entry doesn’t want for fans so it’s clearly hitting some targets correctly, but this game doesn’t pull any punches and expects a lot from the player. An accessible game this is not, sadly.

1 Like


Latency and Potency values now shown in item descriptions for ingredients you have mastered.
Diving into the ingredient book is no longer necessary for ingredients you have on hand.

15 Likes

For what its worth this was my favourite gain jam entry. I had a lot of fun doing trail and error with the potions.

4 Likes

Found a bug with the escort feature - if he dies once during the run, his health doesn’t recover.

Edit: don’t know if this is another bug or not, but when you get sweets from the bakery, the food doesn’t do anything to the hunger bar.

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Two major new gameplay changes coming with the update. Cravings, and Laziness as a stat.

Cravings are a requirement that you make Marcel eat at one of the four major meal sources (Restaurant, Bakery, Buffet, Maya) at some point during that day. If you don’t, you can’t end the day (hunger will go up by 1 as a failsafe in case you ate somewhere else). The gluttony glyph in your room will handle any craving you have as well, essential for if Marcel can’t leave the tower, pay, or Maya can’t cook for you.

Laziness is now no longer just a thing that happens if you drink the potion or get a bad role with sly one. Now, taking certain actions will raise or lower the stat respectively (scales from 0-100). Going up the tower stairs, working in the mines, losing weight via the activity stat are the main ways to lose Laziness. Using the teleporter/return crystal, not making a potion for the day, using the travel carriage, being fat (+1 for every other additional weight stage starting from stage 3), sly one form being on, ending the day with left over energy, or drinking the Lazy Gal potion are the main ways to gain Laziness. Most of the ways to lose or gain Laziness work on a “if you did this today” system, so no running back up and down the stairs to lose laziness, or spamming the teleporter all day to get to 100 laziness.

Laziness works on a random roll every night to see if you get the lazy effect (like with the lazy gal potion effect in the current build, which will also always trigger the lazy effect still). This system is made to make certain decisions like using the stairs actually viable, since certain things in the game were just simply way more efficient than others. It’s not going to be just a net nerf either, I will eventually add content that requires being lazy, but I don’t think will be in this next update. So far it feels more like a background stat that doesn’t require constant attention, but letting it get too out of hand does have consequences.

Also added a sunbathing (just a fade to black for now) activity at the beach. Once per day, you can gain some laziness to get an additional point of energy for the day.

16 Likes

does maya actually gain weight when you use the pathogenic potion? or is the sprite not made yet, because i"ve been consistently using it but the sprite is still the same, she even has an additional dialog when i ask her to tend the garden saying that she isn’t able to fit through the door but her sprite is the same

4 Likes