Potion Craft Fan Art Fest Summer 2023

Posted on July 8, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

I am one of the winners of the Potion Craft Fan Art Fest: Summer 2023 for my “Enchanted Garden” entry during week one. I made a diorama of the in-game garden, with tree, flowers, potion bottle and alchemy map, all contained within a box that looks like the recipe book in the game.

Check out my POTION CRAFT playlist on YouTube

The theme for week 2 was “Potion Shop” so I made a little cart an alchemist might wheel into the town square during fairs & festivals. The bottles are based on potions in the game and the tent edges are shaped like tabs in the game’s potion book.

The theme for week 3 was “Unexpected Encounters.” I didn’t have time to do much that week but a little Fallout crossover: What if a stranger, wandering alone through the village, stopped by the alchemist’s shop with something called “Quantum”?

Week 4 of fan art fest was “New Uncommon Merchant.” I proposed a Beekeeper monk from a local monastery who sells a random assortment of bee products like beeswax, royal jelly & propolis, after you provide him with some protection from bee stings.

The Beekeeper also offers a new potion base: Honey. When purchased, you get a beehive added to your Enchanted Garden, which gives a small boost to the number of plants that can be gathered every day (because of the bees pollinating) & an occasional random bee product.

Play POTION CRAFT: ALCHEMIST SIMULATOR on Steam

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: GLASS MASQUERADE 3 HONEYLINES

Posted on June 13, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

GLASS MASQUERADE 3: HONEYLINES just came out at the end of May 2023. After enjoying the first Glass Masquerade and sequel Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions, I was eager to play this one.

Mesmerizing music and beautiful artwork take these games to a whole other level, and HONEYLINES does not disappoint in these areas. I think it’s well worth the US$5 price tag. That said, I don’t like some of the new features.

You can choose the shape of the pieces in each puzzle – options are shard, honeycomb and chemisty – but they’re all based on the same hexagonal cuts (thus the name “Honeylines,” I guess), regardless of the image in the puzzle. In previous games, the pieces were cut along the lines in the artwork, just as real stained glass would be cut and assembled. Standardizing the pieces probably made things faster/easier for the devs, but made the puzzles less enjoyable for me.

Puzzles start with the edges already completed. Doing the edges was one of my favorite parts of the previous games, so that’s kind of a bummer.

There are two difficulty modes – high and relax. The only difference is that you have to rotate the pieces in “high” which adds a tiny bit of a challenge but not much.

Players can now choose between game modes – flood, iris, bowl, classic and random – which determine how many pieces are provided and in what order. “Classic” is the one you want if you want to start with all pieces available, like the previous games in the series.

There’s just one ring of pieces orbiting the puzzle now instead of two, for some reason, which means you’ll see half as many pieces at a time, giving you fewer options to choose from.

You can also choose between tracking various statistics – time, accuracy or achievements – or none at all.

I’m happy to have another Glass Masquerade and I appreciate the devs trying new things, but some of these changes made it less fun for me than previous installments.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: POWERWASH SIMULATOR

Posted on June 6, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

Some of my favorite YouTube channels are powerwashing, mowing, cooking and cleaning channels, so I thought it was time for me to try out POWERWASH SIMULATOR.

I had a great time with POWERWASH SIMULATOR, not so much for the cleaning aspect but for the aiming. I love ranged weapons in video games, whether it’s a sniper rifle in Fallout: New Vegas, a plasma rifle in Fallout 4, a bow in Skyrim or a pepper-box in GreedFall. If I couldn’t throw the Leviathan Axe in God of War, I probably wouldn’t have played.

But here, I’m shooting moss & grime instead of bandits & ghouls!

Some people call games like this “dad games” but anyone any age can enjoy this one. I’ve only cleaned a van and a backyard so far, but there are all kinds of creative, cruddy jobs to do, including a lost city, fortune teller’s wagon, Mars rover, mini golf course and a carousel.

There’s even a co-op mode so you can powerwash with friends and family. Now, if only I could get my family to clean the house IRL!

POWERWASH SIMULATOR was developed by FuturLab and released in 2021. I played via Steam on a Windows 11 laptop with an Xbox controller but the game is also available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PS4/PS5.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Story of my life

Posted on June 1, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

Sometimes you find a quote that just seems to sum up your whole life:

“Those who dance are thought insane by those who cannot hear the music”

Art by DariaAzolina

Quote attributed to Nietzsche

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Try-It Tuesday: UNPACKING

Posted on April 25, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

Knowing I enjoy casual puzzle games, my youngest recommended UNPACKING. The idea of unpacking boxes and put things away sounded pretty boring. After all, I’ve done that in real life more than fifteen times since I turned 18 (I’m in my 50s now).

But that’s what Try-It Tuesdays are for. I tried UNPACKING and I got hooked. The “puzzle” part of the game involves figuring out what each object is, where it belongs in the home, and how to fit those items into the available shelves, drawers and cabinets.

More than a puzzle game, though, it tells the story of a young woman through the stages of her life, as we unpack her childhood bedroom, college dorm, first apartment and so on. I won’t give away all of the locations, as part of the fun is discovering where life takes her.

There’s a bit of a voyeuristic thrill to the game. Like looking into someone’s medicine cabinet during a party or reading someone’s junior-high diary, players are handling someone’s most personal possessions, from underwear to stuffed animals to travel souvenirs. We get a very intimate glimpse into her personality, hopes, dreams and struggles.

UNPACKING was developed by Witch Beam and released in November 2021. I played on my Windows 10 laptop but the game is also available on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.

Though UNPACKING is rated “E” for everyone and has a colorful art style, it’s not a game for young children. Players need to be able to identify such items as tampons or cooking tools, and infer the “story” of the game from the objects and locations, so I recommend parents play along with children under 12.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: SUDOCATS

Posted on April 18, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

SUDOCATS is a single-player puzzle game released in March 2022 and created by DevCats, the developers behind Building Full of Cats and Castle Full of Cats. I played on my Windows 10 laptop but the game is also available for PS4/PS5, Xbox One/X/S and Nintendo Switch. Rated “E” for everyone.

This is exactly what it sounds like, sudoku played with cats instead of numbers. There’s an option to play with numbers, if you prefer.

My husband loves sudoku but I’d never been able to get into it before. I think playing with cats instead of numbers worked much better for me!

Players can also unlock information about the real-life cats behind the SUDOCATS game, which inspired me to turn my own cats, Zoe and Buddy, into “sudocats”!

(Note: We didn’t actually get Sammy until months later, but he got the Sudocats treatment, too!)

~ J.L. Hilton

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Game Night: BODY ON THE BOARDWALK

Posted on April 17, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

My family played BODY ON THE BOARDWALK yesterday. It’s a tabletop game similar to an escape room experience where you get a box full of clues – actual news clippings, letters, fliers, photos, misc small items – and use them to solve a murder.

Very cool, especially for fans of Columbo or Agatha Christie mysteries.

From the website: When Katie Dunn, an employee at a seaside amusement park, turns up dead inside a popular ride, her boyfriend quickly becomes the prime suspect. Could someone else have had a score to settle with the victim, or is the boyfriend as guilty as he looks? Behind the boardwalk’s picturesque façade lies a criminal underworld where everyone’s got something to hide.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Game Night: SNAKE OIL

Posted on April 15, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

Picked up a game called SNAKE OIL at the thrift store for $4 and played it with the family tonight. Turned out to be a lot of laughs.

SNAKE OIL is not a card game like Uno or Fluxx (two of our favorites) or a head-to-head deck builder like Magic. It’s more of a creative role-playing game, similar to Cards Against Humanity. Sort of.

Players take turns pretending to be various customers, such as a Nurse, Billionaire, Mad Scientist, Clown, etc, and the remaining players become salespeople, pitching imaginary products based on prompts provided by the cards in their hand.

The trick is to invent the best (or funniest) product suited to that particular customer. The customer selects their favorite pitch, and the player who made the pitch wins the round. The player with the most successful product pitches is the winner.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: ZODIACATS

Posted on April 12, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

ZODIACATS is a tile-swapping puzzle game developed and published by Devcats and released on Steam in January 2022. I played on my laptop. The game is also available on Nintendo Switch.

I posted on Twitter that cat games often get me in tears but this one had some sentiments that were particularly near and dear to my heart. One of the reasons I stream and make videos is so I feel less lonely and hope I can help others feel less lonely too.

One of the Devcats developers retweeted my post and said this kind of feedback is one of the things that gives her the strength to keep making games, to help cats and humans.

~ J.L. Hilton

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Try-It Tuesday: A BUILDING FULL OF CATS

Posted on April 4, 2023 by J.L. Hilton

I enjoyed A Castle Full of Cats so much, I decided to play A BUILDING FULL OF CATS from the same developers, the DevCats.

A BUILDING FULL OF CATS is a hidden object puzzle game where all of the objects are cats, with hand drawn art and lots of hidden secrets and surprises, including a reference to the Fallout games.

Some of the “cats” are little more than two pointy ears and two dots for eyes, peeking out from the scenery, or they’re hidden inside of drawers and behind objects that must be clicked to open, so it’s quite a challenge!

The game is only $1.99 on Steam and worth every penny for about an hour of cat-filled fun. It’s also available on Nintendo Switch.

~ J.L. Hilton

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