Hearthbrew

Inspiration

Hearthbrew was inspired by shop management and automation games that reward both short and long-term progression. The goal was to create a relaxing and rewarding experience where players focus on customizing and growing their shop while automatons handle the day-to-day operations

What it does

Hearthbrew is a shop management game where players transform a small potion shop into one of Valeria's most reputable destinations. Automatons farm ingredients, brew potions, and fulfill customer orders while players expand, customize, and improve their shop through meaningful progression, reputation growth, and automation

How we built it

Hearthbrew was designed around a simple progression loop:

Earn Coins & Experience → Invest in the Shop → Increase Reputation → Attract More Customers → Earn More Coins & Experience → Repeat

As automatons fulfill potion orders for the player, the player receives coins and shop experience. Shop experience contributes to the shop's level, which brings new unlockables on every level up, including building expansions, building upgrades, new building materials, new decorations and furniture, new potion ingredients, and additional automatons that can be hired. Coins can be spent to purchase these unlockables. Every investment ultimately increases the shop's reputation, helping attract more customers over time

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest design challenges was creating meaningful progression while preserving the game's relaxing nature. Systems such as automaton specialization, adventures, reputation, events, and shop customization were designed to provide depth and meaningful decision-making without requiring constant player interaction

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud of creating a management game where nearly every system contributes toward a single goal: Building one of Valeria's most renowned potion shops. Progression, automation, reputation, special events, shop expansion, and customization all work together to support that vision

What we learned

I've learned the importance of connecting progression systems together. By doing so, every progression system supports the same core objective, making player decisions feel impactful and connected to the growth of the shop

What's next for Hearthbrew

Future development would focus on expanding existing content and systems rather than introducing entirely new ones. This includes additional building materials, decorations, and furniture, giving players even more ways to create a truly one-of-a-kind identity for their shop

Another area of expansion would be campaigns, VIP visitors, and world events. All of these could be expanded with additional themes, rewards, gameplay impacts, and characters, increasing variety while remaining consistent with the game's existing progression systems