During my visit to the Daedalic stand, I had the opportunity to discover two games: Potion Tycoon and Destroyer the U-boat Hunter. Normally, I was also supposed to see Inkulinati but a mess in the schedules and an overall delay of the developers (who had a little trouble waking up on Friday morning) led me to have to skip this presentation (you can however find here a article I did for their Kickstarter campaign in June 2020).
potion tycoon
As the name suggests, Potion Tycoon is a potion management/simulation game.
Our game begins with a house where only a few rooms are currently accessible, in a 2D view very inspired by comics, with hand-drawn graphics.
The tutorial explains how to select the effects of the different ingredients, install the machines necessary for the alchemical stages and recruit the operators. Many details are configurable, ranging from the choice of bottle, the cost of marketing, through the color of the label and the selling price. The final product gets a score, which predicts whether it will sell well or not. Tags are also applied automatically which define the main characteristics. It is better not to have anything red. In our first test, we did well because the only negative characteristic concerns the fact that this same potion is also on sale at a competitor.
Different factions are interested in purchasing alchemical potions, which represent different types of customers: warriors, wizards, mages, and thieves. Each style of customer needs very specific products. By selling one type over another, it can attract the attention of influencers, VIPs who will help sell the products better. But a certain diversification is also necessary so as not to disappoint too many customers.
Ingredients are harvested from plantations, along with herbs and mushrooms, each type requiring its specific facility. The place is not long in running out, which leads to enlarge the house. I had the opportunity to see a very advanced part, and it extends as much upwards as downwards, for what becomes a real mansion, with its rooms dedicated to customers, employees' rest, machinery and plantations. A score is calculated for each, depending in particular on the decorations (positive) and the machines (negative). If someone spends too much time in an unwelcoming environment, they will start to feel depressed, with all the consequences that follow.
Many games seem to place themselves on this same segment of chemistry. If only during this gamescom, I saw The Last Alchemist. But Potion Tycon will undoubtedly stand out from its competitors thanks to its original universe and the quantity of potions available. It should be released shortly, with no exact date yet:
Destroyer the U-boat Hunter
After the enchanting universe of Potion Tycon, I found myself in the middle of the Second World War, aboard a destroyer in charge of protecting convoys against U-Boats. The game is ultra realistic, created in collaboration with veterans and a museum ship in Louisiana (the USS Kidd) where the members of the studio spent a week to collect as much data as possible. The objective is that each screen, each manipulation, down to the phrasing of the operators, everything is as close to reality as possible.
Different views are offered, starting with the exterior. It is difficult to spot a U-Boat with binoculars, especially if it is submerged. So it's mostly the place to take in the view as long as things are calm.
As soon as a signal is spotted, all the tools come into action, radar and sonar, with reports broadcast live. It would be presumptuous of me to explain to you exactly how it works. Granted, I've seen the developer use the various curves, enter coordinates, locate points on a map, and then change the ship's course accordingly. But I can't really say that I understood the process or its calculations. Note that it is not necessarily necessary to do all the steps manually, the computer will itself help to do this work for players who do not want to go too far.
The difficulty is also adapted to the chosen map, with a set number of ships to protect and computers involved.
Extremely thorough in its smallest details, Destroyer the U-boat Hunter gives the impression of great fidelity. Of course, I'm talking about impressions, because I don't know anything about it, I've never been on a destroyer. But, in any case, this presentation marked me and Destroyer the U-boat Hunter does not resemble any other game that I could see during the show. The studio is aware of its strengths and has great hopes for its game. The future could be on the side of virtual reality or multiplayer. If the idea seems interesting to you, I strongly invite you to test it, thanks to the demo available for free on Steam. That way, you can decide whether to buy the full version when it comes out, scheduled for September 28.
