PAX: Potionomics is set to light hearts and cauldrons ablaze this fall

destructoid.com:

Potionomics can seem like a lot up-front. Within minutes of starting my demo at PAX East 2022, I was brewing basic potions, stocking the shelves, and opening up shop. Customers approach and haggle, taunt and flirt. It’s charming, expressive, locks its different parts together well, and has been one of the games I can’t stop thinking about coming out of PAX.

The story of Potionomics follows Sylvia, a young and aspiring brewer who inherits a rundown store from her uncle. I didn’t get too many chances to dig into the broader narrative in the demo I played, but suffice it to say, uncle disappeared in a mysterious manner.

My time was spent getting the shop up and running again. Sylvia’s relative didn’t leave her the nicest place, and day one starts with a basic lesson in brewing. This is the first part of the Potionomics formula: making the actual potions. I could dump in ingredients from a list, and a recipe on the side informed me the right balance needed to concoct certain solutions.

As time goes on, there will be demands to meet and rarer ingredients to add into the cauldron. That’s for the future; for now, I need to make some cash. Sylvia’s owl helper informs her that some of uncle’s old potions are still around, and we should sell them off. They’ll make for good seed money, and they’ll give her some practice in dealing directly with customers.

As I set those aside to brew, it was time to open up and sell off some of my uncle’s lingering stock. Here, Potionomics goes from brewing and management to an actual card game. Customers approach the counter with a potion of their choice, plucked from shelves (which can also have modifiers that, for example, make potions more appealing).

When they approach, a battle of wills