Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator has proven that visual charm doesn't depend on realism, but on coherent execution. Developed in Unity, the game simulates a 16th-century alchemy grimoire, where every element looks drawn in ink on aged parchment. For developers, understanding how this illusion is achieved is a masterclass in technical art direction, combining custom shaders, fluid particle systems, and a UI that breaks the fourth wall. 📜
Shading and fluid simulation techniques for the parchment style 🧪
The visual heart of Potion Craft lies in its shaders. Instead of realistic textures, a toon shading is used with ink-like borders simulated through an outline effect dependent on the camera angle. The key is the parchment shading: an unlit shader that applies a noise map to simulate the grain and stains of paper, combined with a dynamic sepia tone. For fluid animations, the game uses a 2D particle system with liquid physics (using the VFX Graph package or a particle system with gravity and vortex forces). Bubbles and splashes are rendered with low-resolution sprites, but with a soft bloom that simulates light refraction in an old glass flask. To optimize, avoid particles with high draw calls; use sprite atlases and limit the number of live particles to 200, prioritizing form over detail.
Design lessons: The UI as part of the world 📖
The most innovative aspect of Potion Craft is that there is no separate HUD. The interface is the recipe book itself. In Unity, this is achieved by placing UI elements (buttons, inventory) directly on a Canvas in World Space mode, anchored to the book's mesh. The buttons are not flat rectangles; instead, they use Image with clipping masks to mimic paper cutouts. To replicate this, create a Render Texture for the book and render the UI there; then apply an edge distortion shader to simulate page shading. The result is total immersion where the player doesn't use a menu but flips through a grimoire.
How can the lighting and post-processing techniques that replicate the aged parchment texture and vibrant ink of Potion Craft be implemented in Unity while maintaining readability for the player?
(PS: shaders are like mayonnaise: if they break, you start all over again)