Giveaway of the Day - Potion Bar

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of ‘potential’ cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain why your reasons for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with a levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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Potion Bar

Installation:

The game downloads to a 51.3Mb zip file that unpacks to a read me and dual activation and setup file. The game installs to the following path by default, but you can change the path during the installation wizard:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Playrix Entertainment\Potion Bar (64 bit)

Or

C:\Program Files\Playrix Entertainment\Potion Bar (32 bit)

The game installs to a 58.6MB folder. Shortcuts are created for the desktop and the Start Menu/Programs List under Playrix Entertainment. The game plays in XP, Vista and Win 7. You can get today’s gamegiveaway 24/7 from MyPlayCity HERE though remember sites like MyPlayCity do sometimes have hidden perils like home page hijacking and toolbar installations as well as less innocuous but nevertheless annoying attributes such as opening your browser when you close the game down. The former can be reversed and are avoidable by unchecking the checkboxes that are presented to you during the installation wizard but the latter is always present in all free games from any of those free sites giving away full version and usually commercial titles such as the ones I mention in the ‘Alternatives’ section below.

Main Menu

Early Game Level

Problems installing or activating:

If you have difficulty downloading or activating the game you can try again later or do one of the following – for example once downloaded when you click on the dual activation and set up file you may get the message “Failed to connect. Please try again later” If this happens try re-booting your modem and/or router, failing that reboot your computer or clear out the internet cache, in particular the cookies for the game giveawayoftheday then re-try. Last week mike suggested that the problem has something to do with your browser. Check back to last week’s games for information on that if the above don’t work. Also Mr Snoozles posted another fix about a month ago

Introduction
Plunge into the captivating world of magic! Make delicious potions with Rainbow spray and Vampire fangs and serve them to fantastic clients. Decorate glasses with wild lotuses and Phoenix feathers. Witness your amazing potions endow incredible power, reverse aging and help get to the secrets of the Universe. Travel the world and space, see prophetic dreams and solve the enigmatic mystery! Be the first to play this game at Playrix!

Reference accessed HERE Aug 26th 2011

Later Game Level

Potion making Laboratory with Hidden Object mini game

The Game

The game is fully mouse controlled apart from creating your profile. You can create multiple profiles if you wish, which makes this an ideal family game. When you start the game for the first time you’ll be asked to create a profile before you can progress further. The options menu is simple with sliders to control the music and sound effects plus check boxes for Full Screen/Windowed mode and one for changing the cursor to a custom cursor.

When you start a new game you will first be shown several pages that give you the background story. You can scroll through these by clicking on each page or skipping altogether by clicking on the skip button to the bottom right of the game screen. Once you’re in the potions bar you’ll see several more screens of dialogue between yourself and a cat, amonst this dialogu you’ll have to click on a letter that tells you that the previous bar man has run away, then you are warned that your first customer is about to arrive.

The game is a light hearted attempt at a time management game (TM game) that even I can play. This isn’t like the time management games I’ve played before in that it’s relatively easy going, (well at least for the first several levels that I managed to play while checking this game out last night using the demo). The graphics are excellent and very colourful. You are a (press-ganged) potions bar manager in a witches, wizards , vampires and werewolves bar. Unfortunately, becasue the original bar person ran away you have been trapped at the bar and are not able to leave until the original bar person returns.

Your job is to create a selection of potions that is accomplished by adding various colored liquids into a flask then adding specific ingredients to the flask, then you place the flask onto a burner to cook. When it’s done a cork pops off. You then have to add a second ingredient then replace the flask on the stove. When the cork pop’s again it’s ready to serve to your customer. As you progress through the levels (of which there are only 35) the choice of potions that you have to create increases. Each potion is easy to create as there is always a picture of what you need to create in front of the customer on the bar.

The game starts with a simple tutorial which introduces you to this relatively simple TM game. As you progress through the levels the number of customers increases. You have to collect a specific amount of money within a certain time to complete the level and move on to the next. If you fail to collect the specified amount of money you have to restart the level or start the game over (you are given the choice). As well as potions you also have to occassionaly give talismen away as and when they are requested by a customer. The fiirst talisman is garlic. As the game progresses you will be awarded new talismen to give away as well as new potions and new items such as extra stoves and special flasks. Every few levels you get to purchase new upgrades and create new potions but to be able to do this you have to play a simple hidden object game where you place items on a fancy looking door (sort of like a jigsaw). On completion the door opens and you gain entry into the potion making laboratory where you can then create a new potion by adding various ingredients to a cauldron that are hidden around the lab.

The quicker you create potions for each customer the more money you can earn. You can see the mood of a customer after they have waited some time by a smily face above their heads. If you don’t earn a specific amount of money within the given time you have to restart the level.

Options Menu

Door into Potions Laboratory with puzzle pieces to open

Features

· 35 challenging levels with progressive difficulty

· City episodes in 5 beautiful locations

· Smartly incorporated mini-games

· Engaging story line and vivid characters

· Refreshing blend of mystery and irony

Level Completed

Ending the game

Images & Video
You can see a couple of videos of in game features HERE and HERE

You can see a slideshow of over 70 images HERE.

Conclusion

I’ve never really liked TM games as I play games for relaxation discovery or excitement. Most TM games for me are stress increasing, so generally I avoid them, but I quite liked today’s game; it wasn’t as stressful as most that I’ve played and I found the concept of potion making appealed to me (I loved chemistry as a child and youth). Overall I would rate this game are very playable and well worth including in your games library. It’s well constructed and includes a short story line that adds to the overall playability of this game.

Scoring

Score out of 10 = 7.2

Game Play – 7.5
Graphics – 7.5
Audio – 7
Re-playability – 7
Target Groups – 7

Part of Story Board

Letter left at start of game

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Alternatives
You’ll find over 50 free time management games over at MyPlayCity Reference accessed HERE and include such hits as 3 of the Farm Frenzy games, Amelia’s Café, Beach Party Craze, Cake Shop 1 & 2, Magic Farm, Magic Farm: Ultimate Flower, Youda Farmer as well as today’s giveaway Potion Bar, which means if you miss today’s gamegiveaway you can still get Potion Bar 24/7, though today’s giveaway has none of the problems such as your browser being opened when the game closes down or the risk of your home page being changed or tool bars installed that are associated with getting games from such sites as MyPlayCity and others like Gametop (you’ll also find some TM games at Gametop. That said those risks are not serious, more like an annoyance.

Yes! I love Playrix games, and this is one I’ve tried on the 1-hour trial. IMHO it’s a good time management game, easy at the beginning and getting quite complex further on. There are also object-finder and jigsaw-type games, the object finder to make new potions, and the jigsaw to correctly decorate the door to the next level.

This is a keeper. Thanks for the giveaway!