Info about Alchemist Simulator:

Official game description:
Open packs of CARDS and grab GUNS to slay ZOMBIES with!
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About the Game
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Take on the role of a novice student of alchemical arts, taking over the studio of your famous relative. Will you ever match his legend? Take the challenge to become the most famous alchemist in history!  
Become a powerful magician! Thanks to Alchemist Simulator, you can feel the thrill of excitement associated with the world of magical ingredients (dragon egg - what to deal with it?), spells, and discovering ancient recipes. Will you brew a love potion or a poison?  
Discover an amazing world full of ancient, forgotten recipes and ingredients. Experiment. Be patient and hungry for knowledge. Fortunately, you are not alone - your extraordinary mentor will help you explore the previously unknown arcana of alchemical knowledge and art! Your eternal glory, gold and ... knowledge are at stake!  
Who is an alchemist without his precious book? Almanac is your greatest treasure - so take care of its content! Carry out various experiments and note their effects carefully, and soon ... no recipe, contract or order will keep secrets from you. Remember - each magician's source of knowledge is experience, and these - you must first write down, preferably on a solid parchment and seal with a spell before prying eyes.  
Along with the fame that surrounds you, responsibility will also increase - the order box will be full of more and more complicated potion orders. So it's time to take care of the workplace. Spend hard-earned gold on improvements to your studio to be able to brew increasingly difficult recipes for your customers!

Release date: 23 Oct, 2020

Categories: Brewing Simulation, Crafting, Resource Management, Puzzle Solving, Shop Management, Single-player Story, Shop Customization, Experimentation


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Enjoyable & Relaxing Gameplay (weight 0.99): Players consistently found the game to be fun, relaxing, and a great way to pass time. Its casual nature, unique mechanics, and cozy atmosphere contribute to an overall pleasant and engaging experience, making it suitable for unwinding.
- Engaging Alchemy Simulation (weight 0.34): The game excels as an alchemy simulator, offering satisfying ingredient processing and a unique principle-based alchemy mode. Players appreciate the hands-on experimentation and the freedom to discover recipes, making them feel like real alchemists.
- Appealing Visuals & Art Style (weight 0.17): The game's graphics, animations, and cartoon art style are frequently praised for being lovely, beautiful, and visually appealing. The warm tones and detailed scenes enhance the overall aesthetic.
- Charming Quests & Lore (weight 0.12): The quests are described as cute, well-written, and provide a sense of accomplishment. The game also features interesting lore and characters, adding depth to the experience.
- Clear & Accessible Design (weight 0.09): The game is easy to understand, with clear instructions and no difficult language barriers. This accessibility allows players to quickly grasp the mechanics and enjoy the game without confusion.
- Unique Mechanics & Multitasking (weight 0.07): The game features unique mechanics, including branching choices in quests and real-time progression that supports multitasking. These elements add variety and strategic depth to the gameplay.
- Easy Achievements & No Bugs (weight 0.07): Players noted that achievements are easy to acquire, often unlocking through plot progression, and that the game is largely bug-free. This contributes to a smooth and frustration-free experience.
- Soothing Background Music (weight 0.05): The game's music is consistently highlighted as pleasant, relaxing, and soothing. It enhances the routine work without becoming boring, contributing to the cozy atmosphere.

Common complaints:
- Repetitive and Short Gameplay (weight 0.77): Players consistently report that the game becomes repetitive very quickly, lacks variety, and can be completed in a very short amount of time (4-10 hours). This leads to a feeling of incompleteness and a lack of replayability, with many comparing it to an early access or unfinished product.
- Poor Tutorial and Guidance (weight 0.58): The in-game tutorial is widely criticized for being unclear, unhelpful, and failing to adequately explain core mechanics, especially for mid-game equipment and complex alchemy theories. This forces players to rely on trial and error or external research to understand basic gameplay.
- Lack of Depth in Alchemy (weight 0.47): The alchemy system is described as simplistic, lacking complexity, and offering little room for experimentation or creative combinations. Once basic potion-making is understood, there's not much challenge or variety, making the process feel rote and unengaging.
- Unforgiving Mechanics & Item Loss (weight 0.37): The game is highly unforgiving of player mistakes, often resulting in the loss of valuable ingredients or progress. Issues like ingredients disappearing if not stored correctly or if the day ends during processing, and the inability to put down picked-up items, contribute to significant player frustration.
- Quality of Life & Technical Issues (weight 0.17): Players desire more quality-of-life features, bug fixes, and general polish. Specific issues include clunky UI, confusing controls, and critical bugs like save file corruption or game crashes, indicating a lack of attention to user experience.
- Unfair Economy & Saving (weight 0.15): The game's economy is perceived as unbalanced, with expensive ingredients often yielding less profitable potions. Coupled with unclear save points and the lack of a 'save game now' option, running out of money can lead to frustrating restarts and loss of progress.
- Overpriced for Content (weight 0.13): Many players feel the game is significantly overpriced given its short length and limited content. The perceived value does not match the asking price, leading to disappointment and recommendations to avoid purchasing at full price.
- Time Management Issues (weight 0.08): The game features a fast-paced internal timer and lacks a visible in-game clock, leading to players feeling rushed and often losing ingredients or progress due to unexpected day changes. This design choice creates unnecessary pressure and frustration.
- Limited Inventory & Movement (weight 0.06): The inability to carry more than one item at a time and limited temporary storage significantly hinder multitasking and create frustrating bottlenecks in gameplay. This design choice forces players into inefficient workflows.
- Developer Abandonment Concerns (weight 0.04): Some players express concern that the game has been abandoned by its developers, citing a lack of updates and bug fixes. This perception impacts player confidence in the game's future and potential improvements.
- Confusing Aspect Design (weight 0.04): The visual design of alchemy aspects is problematic, with similar colors causing confusion between different properties. This makes understanding and manipulating aspects unnecessarily difficult for players.
- Quest & Selling Limitations (weight 0.04): Players encounter issues with quest progression, such as difficulty in turning in potions or selling items while storage is being filled. This indicates a lack of clarity or functionality in core quest and selling mechanics.
- Misleading Game Title/Genre (weight 0.04): The Chinese title of the game is perceived as misleading, suggesting a more expansive or sandbox-like alchemy experience than the game actually delivers. This creates a mismatch between player expectations and actual gameplay.
- Uninteresting Story (weight 0.03): The game's story is largely considered uninteresting and serves merely as a background element rather than an engaging narrative. It fails to captivate players or add significant value to the overall experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Core Alchemy Simulation Gameplay (weight 0.56): The game is a first-person alchemy simulator where players take on the role of a novice alchemist managing a potion shop. The core loop involves accepting requests, processing ingredients using various tools, brewing potions, and delivering them to customers.
- Aspect-Based Potion Mechanics (weight 0.43): Potion creation is based on a system of 'aspects' within ingredients. Players must manipulate these aspects using various tools to extract, enhance, or weaken them to create specific potions. Recipes are not fixed and often require discovery through hints.
- Daily Quest & Progression Loop (weight 0.29): The game features a daily cycle where players receive 3 quests, with a 3-day completion window. Completing these quests earns money and experience, which can be used to buy ingredients and upgrade the workspace. Quests can form chains but tend to repeat after a few hours of gameplay.
- Short & Easy Campaign (weight 0.23): The main story and all quests can be completed in a relatively short time, typically 4-7 hours. Players found the game easy to understand and complete, with challenges diminishing quickly after the initial learning phase, leading to a lack of motivation post-completion.
- Ingredient Processing Tools (weight 0.19): Players utilize a variety of tools like cutting boards, drying tables, mortars, and juicers to process ingredients. Each tool performs specific operations (e.g., cutting removes phases, drying lowers levels, grinding raises levels) to achieve the desired aspects for potion brewing.
- Simple Puzzle Mechanics (weight 0.15): The game's core mechanics are described as simple logic puzzles, akin to addition and subtraction. While there's an initial learning curve, players quickly grasp the system, which involves solving similar puzzles with different ingredients.
- Limited Tool & Recipe Variety (weight 0.15): While new tools unlock later in the game, they are often less impactful than the initial set. The range of available research and recipes is considered small, and many recipes can be obtained by simply waiting for mail deliveries, leading to a feeling of following a recipe book.
- Rat Merchant & Story Setup (weight 0.1): The game's narrative involves the player taking over their grandfather's lab, guided by a talking rat merchant. This rat delivers ingredients and offers advice, serving as a key NPC for the player's progression and resource acquisition.
- Ingredient Persistence Issues (weight 0.09): A notable issue is that partially processed ingredients cannot be saved or stored outside the cauldron and disappear if not used by the end of the day. This can lead to wasted resources and requires careful planning of daily operations.

Performance notes:
- Good performance and stability (weight 0.07): Players report that the game generally runs smoothly with decent PC requirements and a notable absence of bugs, contributing to a stable gameplay experience.
- Performance issues on some systems (weight 0.05): Some players experienced freezing issues, and one reported high CPU temperatures (80
C) after extended play, suggesting potential optimization problems for certain hardware configurations, particularly laptops.

Recommendations:
- Mixed reception, conditional recommendation (weight 0.38): Player sentiment is highly divided, with many recommending the game only under specific conditions, such as a sale or if players enjoy particular mechanics. Some players strongly recommend it, while others advise against it or even requested refunds.
- Wait for a sale (weight 0.11): A significant number of players advise waiting for a discount before purchasing the game. This recommendation is often linked to concerns about the game's price point relative to its content or length.
- Good for alchemy/puzzle fans (weight 0.1): The game is particularly recommended for players who enjoy alchemy-themed games, logic puzzles, or casual, relaxing experiences. It appeals to those who like the core loop of potion making and fulfilling orders.
- Consider alternative alchemy games (weight 0.1): Several players suggest trying other alchemy-themed games like 'Potion Craft', 'Alchemist - The Potion Monger', 'The Chemist', 'Alchemist Simulator', 'Atelier series', or 'Alchemy Garden' as potentially better or more complete experiences.
- Remove the timer (weight 0.04): A specific and strong piece of feedback is the request to remove the in-game timer. Players feel its removal would significantly improve their enjoyment and willingness to recommend the game.
- Game feels unfinished/needs content (weight 0.04): Some players feel the game is incomplete or lacks sufficient content, especially when considering its full price. They express a desire for more polish, optimization, and expansion of game content before fully recommending it.
- Company's practices are concerning (weight 0.03): Some players express concern about the developer's practices, suggesting a pattern of behavior that they do not wish to encourage. This feedback is vague but indicates a negative sentiment towards the company itself.
- Remake beginner's guide (weight 0.02): There is a strong suggestion for the development team to remake the beginner's guide, indicating that the current tutorial or onboarding experience is inadequate or unclear.

Other player notes:
- Appealing visual and art style (weight 0.25): The game receives high praise for its beautiful, polished, and cartoonish graphics and art style. Players appreciate the pleasant visual design, distinct ingredients, great-looking potions, and smooth animations, contributing to a cozy workshop atmosphere.
- Short but enjoyable playtime (weight 0.23): Players generally found the game to be a concise experience, offering a few hours of pleasant gameplay, typically 2-11 hours for completion and achievements. While some wished for more content, it's seen as a modest and unpretentious adventure.
- Desire for more content (weight 0.11): Many players expressed a strong desire for additional content, including more crafting ingredients, complex potions, varied quests, and things to spend money on. There's hope for future updates and potential DLC to expand the gameplay experience.
- Atmospheric and cozy setting (weight 0.09): The game successfully creates a cozy and immersive alchemist/witchy atmosphere. High-quality details contribute to the feeling of an alchemist's laboratory, enhanced by dynamic lighting and a day-night cycle.
- Engaging narrative and characters (weight 0.09): The game features nice characters with interesting stories, and client narratives are enjoyable to follow. The dialogue is often described as funny and quirky.
- Mixed feedback on music (weight 0.06): Opinions on the game's music are divided; some find it beautiful and relaxing, while others consider it unimpressive or repetitive. However, the background music adapting to the time of day is a noted positive.
- Tutorial improvements suggested (weight 0.05): Players suggested enhancements for the tutorial, such as adding voice-overs for lines and item highlight hints, to make the initial learning experience even smoother.
- Intuitive controls and mechanics (weight 0.04): Players found the game's controls to be intuitive, making it easy to pick up and play. The game also encourages experimentation with a 'Restart Day' option.
- Unique genre and references (weight 0.04): The game is recognized for its unique genre and includes many references and easter eggs to other works and games, adding an extra layer of enjoyment for observant players.
- Minor character details (weight 0.03): Specific details like the mole in the shop being a 'despot' and the rat assistant being visible while the protagonist is not, add character to the game world.
- Not a brain-racking game (weight 0.02): The game is not considered to be overly challenging or requiring intense mental effort, making it a relaxing experience.
- Minor sound design issue (weight 0.02): One specific sound effect, the knife sharpening wheel, was noted as being unpleasant.
- Shop decoration feature (weight 0.02): Clients sending souvenirs or mementoes that decorate the shop is a small but appreciated detail.
- Late day warning (weight 0.02): The game provides a warning when it's getting late, which is a helpful feature for players.
- Price influences satisfaction (weight 0.01): One reviewer noted having no complaints due to purchasing the game at a significant discount, suggesting price can influence player satisfaction.
- Potential for time trial mode (weight 0.01): A time trial mode was suggested as a potential addition, though it was acknowledged that this might detract from the game's peaceful essence.
- Comparison to other games (weight 0.01): One player noted that similar games often allow borrowing money with interest, suggesting a potential feature for consideration.
- VR game feel (weight 0.01): One player mentioned that the game feels like it could be a VR game, indicating an immersive quality.

Emotions:
- Disappointment (weight 0.24): Players felt let down by the game's short length, repetitive gameplay, and lack of content depth, especially concerning mechanics and puzzles. Many perceived the game as unfinished or unpolished, failing to deliver on expected features like complex crafting or tycoon elements, leading to a feeling of poor value for money.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.23): Players enjoyed the core alchemy simulation, finding the potion mechanics and crafting system engaging and fun. The game's cozy atmosphere, relaxing gameplay, and appealing graphics contributed to a positive experience, often seen as good value for its price and suitable for casual play or achievement hunting.
- Frustration (weight 0.15): Frustration stemmed from unclear tutorials, unintuitive mechanics, and various bugs, including crashes and disappearing items. Players also struggled with unforgiving time limits, inventory management issues, and an irrational in-game economy, leading to wasted resources and lost progress.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.07): Players found enjoyment in the game's puzzle-solving aspects, the overall alchemist atmosphere, and the cozy, relaxing environment. The core gameplay loop, crafting system, and unique mechanics were frequently cited as sources of fun and a positive overall experience.
- Hope (weight 0.05): Players expressed hope for future updates, additional content, and improvements to address the game's current shortcomings. There's a belief in the game's potential, with desires for more quests, recipes, ingredients, and overall content expansion from the developers.
- Boredom (weight 0.04): Boredom arose from the game's monotonous and repetitive gameplay loop, particularly after the initial crafting mechanics were understood. Players felt there was nothing new to do, leading to a sense of extreme repetitiveness and a lack of engaging activities.
- Excitement (weight 0.04): Excitement was generated by the interesting potion-making process, the unique alchemy mode, and the immersive experience it offered. Players also expressed anticipation for future updates, DLC, and even sequels, indicating a strong positive overall impression of the game's quality.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Players experienced joy from the game's wonderful and cozy atmosphere, finding the potion-making and item collection incredibly fun. The charming puzzle game aspect and immersive experience contributed to a blast of a time, fulfilling fantasies of being an alchemist.
- Confusion (weight 0.02): Confusion primarily arose from unclear game mechanics, particularly regarding the purpose of new equipment and many ingredients. Players initially struggled to understand the game's systems and how certain operations worked, sometimes misinterpreting the game's actual genre.
- Desire (weight 0.02): Players expressed a strong desire for more content, including additional features like gardening and leaving the shop, due to the game's short length. There was also a wish for more complex potion recipes and a larger, more integrated game experience.
- Anger (weight 0.02): Anger was caused by poor design choices, such as the aspect colors, and significant bugs like losing save progress, which in some cases led to players seeking a refund for the game.
- Relaxation (weight 0.01): Players found the game relaxing due to its suitability for casual play, comfortable background music, and a generally unchallenging experience. It served as a pleasant activity to engage with alongside other tasks.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance stemmed from specific design flaws, including inventory bugs, clunky UI elements, and inconvenient mechanics like material placement and the lack of a clear time indicator.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement was derived from charming in-game elements, specifically the character of the mole in the shop and the whimsical animation of ingredients flying to shelves.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Players expressed admiration for the game's detail, craftsmanship, and creative mechanics, recognizing it as a well-done and thoughtfully designed experience.
- Engagement (weight 0.01): Players felt engaged by the game's brain-teasing aspects, which required them to think critically about ingredient properties, processing methods, and financial management.
- Sadness (weight 0.01): Sadness was felt due to the game being abandoned by developers and its unfulfilled promises, as well as the disappointment that the game was too short and quickly over.
- Skepticism (weight 0.01): Skepticism arose from concerns about the developer's past practices of shipping incomplete games and doubts about their long-term commitment to supporting and expanding the current title.
- Discomfort (weight 0): Discomfort was specifically caused by motion sickness experienced due to the game's camera movement, impacting the playability for some users.
- Resignation (weight 0): Players expressed resignation by accepting the game for its inherent relaxed and repetitive nature, acknowledging its limitations while still finding some enjoyment within those confines.}