Hello, everyone! Potion Pleasing's 1st demo has finally been released so I decided to make a postmortem about it!

(WARNING: It's LONG) 

First of all, I want to thank everyone who helped me with this DEMO: artists, programmers, beta testers, proofreaders, the editor and the composer. Potion Pleasing started last year and it's been a long, long process until this 1st DEMO was finished, but I'm so proud of the result!!!

Well, actually, that's not the complete truth either, 'cause my characters Parker and Rue have existed for YEARS, only with different names and genders! Parker used to be a woman witch called Paku while Rue was a kitsune guy called Ryuuta (she's not a kitsune anymore, though).

Here's what they used to look like (these are old sketches I did a long time ago):

Pretty different, right? But I think the new designs carry the same essence (well, maybe more for Parker, but I digress).

Originally, Paku and Ryuuta were characters from an old comic—just like Pommy and Paris were (when their names were Poppy and Orion) before they were "reborn" in Petrichor (pssst, please play it if you haven't yet, it's a very short game 🙏)—but that idea died very quickly because I've always struggled with drawing and being consistent with it. Still, I kept the characters 'cause I thought that maybe I could use them in a different way in the future...

And, what do you know, that idea came true! Paku and Ryuuta were reborn as Parker and Rue in Potion Pleasing! For those who don't know, the universe where Potion Pleasing takes place—Essentia—is the same universe where Panacea: Rebirth takes place. Panacea initially started as an RPG Maker game, but I also discarded that idea 'cause it became really stressful to do on my own and I ended up making a remake (in the form of a visual novel prologue) for Spooktober 2023. 

Why am I bringing Panacea in Potion Pleasing's postmortem? Because, since the worlds are connected, it's very possible that the characters meet at some point, but I won't reveal anything because SPOILERS. I'm not yet sure if the full project of Panacea will end up being an RPG Maker game, a visual novel or... BOTH, but it's a project that I'd like to tackle once I have more games under my belt (hopefully while I'm still in my thirties).

Anywho, while Potion Pleasing's idea was indeed born as a spin-off for Panacea, I came to love this project so much that I honestly wouldn't mind making it a longer series or have these characters appear in other games from the Essentiaverse! 

Another thing I wanted to mention in this postmortem is the reason why this 1st demo only contains the prologue. Basically... it's because I was missing 3 more backgrounds LOL. Potion Pleasing is the first project I created where everything except for the SFX is entirely original. This, of course, means that the sprites, CGs, mini CGs, music, backgrounds, logo and GUI were ALL things I commissioned! And, well, simply put, I ran out of game funds for the remaining backgrounds 💦 Backgrounds that were necessary for many of the scenes I had planned for the extended demo (which will include chapter 1). 

Be that as it may, I've been working so hard on this project that I thought it'd be a shame not to show a short demo of it, at the very least. Once I can commission the remaining 3 backgrounds that I'm missing, the development of chapter 1 can continue (and this chapter will finally include the potion crafting mini-game)! The good thing is that pausing things a little also gave me new ideas that I hadn't thought of before and that I feel will fit the story much better, so that's a silver lining!

What about after chapter 1? 

Well, after I release the extended demo that includes chapter 1... the rest will only be available to my patrons as Beta Builds. Potion Pleasing will be a commercial project but I don't intend to make it super expensive or anything 'cause I'd like a lot of people to play it; so maybe something around 7 or 8 USD? I think that would be a good price! My idea is for the game to have a prologue, 7 chapters AND an epilogue (as you might have noticed in the title screen, hehe)!

The not-so-good news here is that... unfortunately, my Patreon isn't doing so well, so getting game funds for both Potion Pleasing and Killer Trait will be a bit tricky. I've decided to start setting goals on my Ko-Fi to help with this once August starts, though, so we'll see how it goes! 

Thank you very much to everyone who played this demo and to everyone who read this postmortem until the end!!