From the beginning of development, we wanted to introduce a crafting system in 'Aritana and the Twin Masks'. Exploring the temple is a crucial aspect of the gameplay, and we wanted to create something rewarding and fun for the player.
Many games served as inspiration during the development. However, the simplicity of the recipe system in 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild', released during the production of Aritana, blew our minds! 💥
How could we incorporate into our game something simple, that maintained the essence of the combo system from the first game, but at the same time inspired by 'BOTW'? 🤔
For those who played 'Aritana and the Harpy's Feather', besides the troubles while fleeing from the Mapinguari, you will also remember that we introduced a combo system that rewarded players for exploring the scenery more.
The more combos the player unlocked (and for those who paid attention, each combo represented an animal from our fauna), the bigger their arsenal became to earn guaranás, lives, and even recover health during attacks!
There was the first characteristic of our system that occupied our minds until then. Each item created by this Crafting system should represent something from our fauna... or maybe from the flora? 🍇
The typical fruits from Brazil couldn't get out of our heads. Then, 'Breath of the Wild' gave us the courage to go ahead with an idea that seemed a bit too playful.
While Link mixed fish, insects, fruits, and anything else he found in a pot, why couldn't we have a crafting system that used native fruits from Brazil combined with magical stones? 💎
Nintendo has always been a master at showing us that, for them, fun comes first. This push, coming from one of the franchises we admire the most (easy to guess by the name of my dog, Zelda), made the potion crafting system start to take shape.
The selection of fruits made the dynamics even more fun. There would be seven potions: one initial, already known by Aritana, and six others learned throughout the exploration of the temple.
The potion that Aritana already knows is a tribute to the first game. It is the only one that does not use magical crystals, made purely of Guaraná. For those who remember, collecting 100 guaranás generated an extra life in 'Aritana and the Harpy’s Feather'.
The other potions would follow the second characteristic of our system: they also needed to be connected to the story of the new game, where the dual energy and the Equilibrium of Kûara and Yaci reign throughout the Temple of the Tree of Life.
They were divided into two groups: those conceived by Yaci 🌙 and those created by Kûara 🌞. Both artisans experimented with different types of fruits. From the recipes, you can get who liked sweet fruits more and who preferred sour ones!
We selected Guaraná, Passion Fruit, and Cupuaçu among the sour fruits. For the sweet ones, we chose Cashew, Açaí, and Buriti. Of course, the distinction between sweet and sour is not always clear-cut, varying in many cases, but we adopted this division to reflect the distinct 'palates' of the Artisans! 😛
With that, we develop our potion crafting system in 'Aritana and the Twin Masks'. An optional system that will reward those who explore every corner of the temple and harvest the different hidden fruits!
Are you curious to know more about the Artisans, besides their palates? Then check out the game page and get 💥 2 comics about them for free! 💥
Aritana and the Twin Masks offers free comics for you to dive even deeper into this adventure. Get two comics, 'Guardians of YpY' and 'Artifacts of Power', and learn more about the award-winning, fully Brazilian game!