Bubbly Brew

• Create a game around a single core mechanic, and two secondary mechanics

• Relaxing: trying to create a peaceful, no pressure experience
• Discovery: using limited instruction, allowing the player to discover new recipes at their own leisure
• Visual Reassurance: using visuals to provide clear feedback to the players on how they engage with the environment

To make Bubbly Brew a relaxing experience, we initially decided there would be no timer in order to give the player as much time as needed to figure out potion combinations. Additionally a book was added to keep track of each potion brewed. The book helped a little, and was later updated so that it also let the player know how many potions they had left to find. This way the player had a clear goal to aim for.

For a small challenge, the cat was added as a way to hinder the player. The cat wakes up every so often and try to eat ingredients away from the player. To stop it, the player needs to click and drag it back into bed. To make the cat easier to deal with, a thought bubble was added as an indicator of where the cat was heading, so the player could prepare in time.

For Bubbly Brew, we challenged ourselves to try and tutorialize the game without words. Since the core mechanic is simply click and drag, we tried to make interactable items stand out as much as possible from background objects.

Additionally, we tried to make the mechanic obvious right from the start screen. Once the game opens, we animate the interactable ingredients to make them pop, and use bubbles to draw attention to the cauldron and the ingredients already inside. The game can be started by successfully dragging another ingredient into the cauldron.

We wanted click and drag to be the main way to start the game so initially there was no start button. However, we quickly realized through playtesting that some players were confused by the initial lack of a start button.

We learned the importance of giving feedback to the player through the cauldron. Initially the cauldron was only green, and when the player interacted with it there was no change. Through playtesting we realized some players were unsure if anything was happening when they dropped ingredients inside. Afterwards the cauldron was changed to become deeper in colour as each new ingredient was added, letting players know what they were doing was having an effect.

Because Bubbly Brew used a very simple art style, we took time to consider the shapes and colours of objects to make them stand apart from each other. The background of the game is made up of mostly dark colours, while interactable items are bright yellow and each have a distinct shape. By using yellow with each interactable item we hoped to illustrate to players that each item with yellow is clickable.