Game review
Alchemy Shop
4 / 10
- Developer
- Feral Code Monkey
- Publisher
- Feral Code Monkey
- Released
- 5 February 2023
- Platforms
- Windows
- Genre
- Puzzle
- Monetisation
- One-time purchase, no DLC or in-app purchases.
- Players
- Single-player only
The short version
Alchemy Shop casts players as a shopkeeper in a world of magic and monsters, combining ingredients on a puzzle board to craft potions and alchemical goods for a stream of impatient customers, upgrading the shop and unlocking new recipes along the way. Steam records zero reviews for this game — not a small or thin sample, but genuinely none at all — and this review is honest about what that means: there is no player testimony whatsoever to weigh, positive or negative.
What can be said comes entirely from Steam's own public records rather than anyone's play experience. There are no achievements configured for the game at all, which is unusual even for a small puzzle title and offers no telemetry to infer how far players who did buy it actually got. No update or news post has ever been recorded publicly since its February 2023 release — more than three and a half years of complete silence. A live concurrent-player check for this review returned zero. None of that proves the game doesn't work as described, only that it appears to have found essentially no audience and, as far as the public record shows, received no support after launch.
Biggest strengths
- A clear, specific premise on paper — combining ingredients on a puzzle board to fulfil potion orders for a fantasy shop — that reads as a coherent, small-scope idea
- Cheap at NZ$7.39, limiting the financial downside of trying an unproven title
- The store page's own screenshots show a readable, purpose-built puzzle-board interface consistent with the described mechanics
Biggest weaknesses
- The defining fact about this game, more than any specific mechanical complaint: it has zero Steam reviews, meaning there is no player testimony at all to verify whether the described mechanics work well in practice
- No achievements are configured for the game, an unusual omission that also removes the one telemetry source this review typically uses to infer play patterns when reviews are scarce
- This review found no public update or news post of any kind since the game's February 2023 release — over three and a half years of apparent silence from the developer
Who it's for: Only players specifically curious about a very obscure, seemingly unplayed puzzle-crafting shop game, with realistic expectations that they may be among the first people to properly evaluate it.
Our recommendation: Approach with real caution given the complete absence of independent verification — this isn't a case of mixed or negative reviews, but of essentially no public record of anyone playing it at all.
4 / 10
Introduction
Alchemy Shop casts players as a shopkeeper in a world of magic and monsters, combining ingredients on a puzzle board to craft potions and alchemical goods for a stream of customers, upgrading the shop and unlocking new recipes along the way. Developed and published solo by Feral Code Monkey, it launched on Steam on 5 February 2023 at NZ$7.39. This review needs to be upfront about something unusual before going further: this game has zero reviews. Not a thin sample of one or two — none at all, over three and a half years after release.
What the store page actually promises
Taken at face value, the pitch is specific and coherent: "combine ingredients. make alchemical creations. complete customer orders. upgrade your shop. unlock new recipes and creations." The store page frames the challenge honestly too, asking directly: "can you keep up with all of the different recipes you will need to complete and all of the demands of the impatient customers?" — suggesting a time-pressure element layered on top of the core ingredient-matching puzzle. The five screenshots provided show a readable, purpose-built puzzle-board interface consistent with that description, alongside a small companion dragon mentioned in the pitch.
Being honest about what this review can't tell you
This library's standing practice, when a review sample is thin, is to say so plainly and lean on whatever independent verification is available — achievement completion data, a live player count, a developer's update history. For Alchemy Shop, none of those normal fallbacks exist either. There are no achievements configured for the game at all, which is itself unusual; even very small indie titles typically ship with at least a handful. There has been no public update or news post of any kind since the original release. A live concurrent-player check for this review returned zero. None of this proves the game is broken or poorly made — it's entirely possible the mechanics described on the store page work exactly as intended. But it does mean this review has no way to confirm that, and neither, apparently, has almost anyone else who may have bought it.
Verdict
Alchemy Shop presents a clear, specific puzzle-crafting premise that reads reasonably on paper, and its low price limits the financial risk of trying it. But the complete absence of reviews, achievements, updates, or any detectable live playerbase means this review can't responsibly vouch for how the game actually plays in practice. This is less a story about a bad game than about one that appears to have never found an audience at all — approach it as a genuine unknown, not a tested recommendation.
Pros and cons
Pros
- A clear, specific premise on paper — combining ingredients on a puzzle board to fulfil potion orders for a fantasy shop — that reads as a coherent, small-scope idea
- Cheap at NZ$7.39, limiting the financial downside of trying an unproven title
- The store page's own screenshots show a readable, purpose-built puzzle-board interface consistent with the described mechanics
Cons
- The defining fact about this game, more than any specific mechanical complaint: it has zero Steam reviews, meaning there is no player testimony at all to verify whether the described mechanics work well in practice
- No achievements are configured for the game, an unusual omission that also removes the one telemetry source this review typically uses to infer play patterns when reviews are scarce
- This review found no public update or news post of any kind since the game's February 2023 release — over three and a half years of apparent silence from the developer
- A live concurrent-player check for this review returned zero, consistent with a game that appears to have found essentially no audience since launch
Screenshots
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Alchemy ShopImage: Feral Code Monkey via Steam -
Alchemy ShopImage: Feral Code Monkey via Steam -
Alchemy ShopImage: Feral Code Monkey via Steam -
How the review scores each part of the gameWanderer Editorial -
The essentials at a glanceWanderer Editorial -
The short versionWanderer Editorial