Genre: Roguelike

Features: Crafting

Project started on: May 11th 2013
Project completed on: June 19th 2013
Approximate time spent on project: 85 hours

My goal with Brooman Potionmeister was to continue in the vein of procedurally generated maps and add some roguelike elements to it. I also wanted to create a crafting system which worked a bit like a puzzle. There was also an inventory and an actionbar where you could place potions and items to use them.

I wanted to create a niche title with permadeath and a constant threat of doom upon the player, where death wasn't the end but the opportunity to restart again with better options. The ending was also difficult to obtain, making this game completable only by the most determined players.

Screenshots

About the game

In Brooman Potionmeister, the player has to survive in a toxic environment with a limited supply of air and health. The air is represented by a gauge on the back of the character while the health is related by blinking lights on its front. Air is draining constantly while health is reduced by enemies and traps. The character's main ability is to spin, destroying things in its environment such as rocks and logs and globes of gold and silver, then using a cauldron, the player can craft potions and various items to help him defeat enemies, restore its resources and ultimately win the game. The way you brew potions is simple, you memorize a pattern for a few seconds and then you need to reproduce it before time runs out. If you fail, something might happen like losing your ingredients or the cauldron might simply blow up.

Whenever the player wants to quit the game, he has to craft a Safety Potion that will save his game and allow him to come back safely, however, if a player just exits the game, it will erase its progress and the player will have to start from the beginning. This was done in order to enforce the permanency of what happened in the game; The player's inventory, his status in the world, etc. When the player finally dies, he gets to make a few choices that will influence his next run regarding the number of enemies, traps and resources he will find. Like in JesterQuest 3D, the level is built procedurally as the player moves in the world. As the player collects items and materials, he gets to learn more about them too, sometimes hints will be placed in these descriptions.

Controls

A/D: Turns the character on its axis (This game has what is called 'tank controls')
W: Move the character forward
Q: Use items/open chests
E (hold): Spin in place to break things
1 to 9: Use slotted potions

Materials found in the game (ordered by rarity)

Rock, Wood, Rubber, Grass, Water, Sand, Steel, Iron, Sulfur, Ash, Tin, Silver, Oil, Bronze, Red Ink, Coal, Gold, Obsidian, Uranium, Quartz, Meteotite, Diamond, Lava, Normalium, Rarium, Epicium

Potions in the game

Rock Mix: Is thrown at enemies
Strength Mix: Increases drilling speed temporarily
Air Potion: Replenishes the player's air
Health Flask: Restores two life points
Lungs Mix: Increases max air capacity, restores all air
Purple Potion: Heals all life, replenishes air, restores max life total to 3
Spear Mix: Stabs in front of you
Map Fial: Shows you a map of the cave
Armor Drink: Grants you one temporary armor point
Glass Flask: Makes you imprevious to traps and enemies for a while
Firebomb Mix: Thrown at enemies, explodes in a ball of fire
Trapview Potion: Reveals traps
Warp Drink: Randomly warps you in the room you're in
Speed Potion: Increases your speed
Wall Breaker: Destroys walls
Light Fial: Dispels the toxic fog, removes the darkness ailment
Spinning Potion: Spins around the character as a barrier
Void Mix: Makes you invincible but air drains twice as fast
Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Omega flasks: Drinking them all in order makes you win the game
Meteorite Flask: Makes meteor fall randomly in the room
Boulder Mix: Bigger than Rock Mixes
Titan Potion: Increases drilling speed more
Epicium Mixture: Grants one unit of Epicium
Whirlwind Flask: Makes air regenerate over time
Golden Potion: Revives you if you die
Sniper Potion: Is shot in a straight line in front of you
Retry Mix: Resets the room you're in
Shield Fial: Gives 3 points of armor
Medal Fial: Makes new room have more helpful items and less enemies and traps
Ghost Flask: Makes you able to go through everything
Nuke Potion: Causes a large explosion
Trapproof Mix: Makes you immune to trap effects
Luck Drink: Increases quality of items found in chests
Return Potion: Returns the player to the first room of the game
Turbo Mix: Makes you go really fast
Gathering Flask: Increases number of items dropped from resources
Holy Potion: Can defeat ghosts
Wheel Fial: Spins really fast around you as a shield
Chaos Potion: Lowers your maximum health to 1 but greatly increases rewards
Armageddon Mix: Destroys everything in the room, deals 2 damage to yourself.

Enemies found in the game

Summoner: Spawns more enemies
Darkness Monster: Makes it dark around itself so you don't see as well
Mimic: Moves as you do
Armored Monster: Is invincible except when it attacks
Ghost: Spins around trying to find you, if it hits you lose maximum hit points
Poison Cloud: Carries a cloud of air-reducing poison around it
Trapper: Spawns more traps
Thief: Steals your items
Warper: Warps around the map, then attacks
Nuker: Explodes if it spots you
Shooter: Shoots bubbles at you constantly
Charger: Moves randomly, charges the player if it finds him

Traps found in the game

Spikes: A bunch of spikes pop out of the ground
Gas Bomb: Releases air-draining poison
Crusher: A piece of the ceiling goes down to crush the player
Doom Walls: The walls move to squish the character
Arrow Trap: Shoots arrows
Hole: The player falls through it
Fire Trap: Explodes all around itself
Lightning Trap: Shoots a bouncing ball of electricity
Ice Trap: Freezes the player in place
Darkness Mine: Reduces player visibility
Spinner: A spinning bar of fire
Pendulum: A swinging blade