Alnico Smithery Preview

Usually, I try to stray away from games where I'm running a shop because I have a tendency to braincrash when I'm around numbers and logic, as one might find themselves if they're trying to figure out how much their items should cost to get proper profit. Demos are less scary, though, and Alnico Smithery seemed to focus less on perfection and pricing and more on the crafting of everything. 

Starting off, this physics-based forging simulator is being developed by Pinapl, and it's all hand-drawn, which was the first thing that caught my attention — the art style! It's really nice on the eyes, and that usually means it's also easy for my brain to take it all in. As soon as you boot up the demo, there's no context or story, as you immediately get hands-on by mining some rocks and then crushing them in an incredibly satisfying way. This wasn't too scary to me because you can't mess up crunching rocks easily (at least, I don't think so), but when the smelting and crafting step came around, it wasn't that scary. I didn't encounter any quick time events or stressful mini-games: I just had to smack stuff until it looked like something useful.

Once I made two different items, an NPC arrived and gave me the opportunity to buy stuff, though I couldn't because it was a demo. On the game's Steam page, it mentions we'll be able to purchase new tools, stations, and upgrades to make our smithy even better, which sounds exciting! I'm also very glad we can enable an in-game setting to stop cranking the machines because I don't think my tendinitis would've been able to handle it, so I always welcome accessibility options!

In total, there are 12 materials to mine, more than 100 alloys (some are real, some not), and 40 different crafting recipes. The gameplay was relaxing and satisfying, so if you're not scared of playing a smithy and dealing with customers (or even if you are — gotta step out of those comfort zones!), then I suggest giving it a try if you can! Alnico Smithery will be available on the 25th of October 2024. Check it out on Steam!