The creators of Garden Paws gave us the scoop on their upcoming new game, Potion Paws.

We here at myPotatoGames have been huge fans of Garden Paws, as you can probably tell from our Steam review here, and many post updates here. We’ve poured hours into this simulation game, so when the developers of Bitten Toast Games announced during their Twitch live-stream a few days ago that they’ve been working on another game, we were very intrigued. Dan and Kristina showed us a surprisingly spooky yet adorable game they’ve been working on alongside Garden Paws and we couldn’t be happier.

Their new game is going to be a lot simpler and shorter with a Kickstarter coming in early September and a release date on Steam before Halloween this year. Don’t worry though, they’ll still be working on the Nintendo Switch release for Garden Paws for this December! We wanted to share with the rest of you all the details of the new potion-making, dungeon-crawling, and magical game via an interview with some of the greatest game developers we know!

We’d like to thank Dan and Kristina for taking the time to answer all of our questions and we wish them all the best for their Kickstarter campaign!

Q&A with Dan and Kristina of Bitten Toast Games

What inspired you to make this particular game with a spooky theme?

Kristina: It’s something I wanted to do for a long time. I like the idea of creepy monsters dropping creepy stuff like eyeballs or tentacles. Halloween is around the corner and I love Halloween.  We plan on releasing this game before then. We also wanted to push ourselves to play with particles and more special effects. We’re always trying to push ourselves to be better.

Have you decided on a title for your new game? I know you were thinking Potion Paws?

Kristina: Potions Paws is the title, I love the alliteration. Also, Spooky Paws was taken.

Do you have a date in mind for your Kickstarter campaign?

Kristina: We are aiming to start the Kickstarter September 5th, where we’ll also be releasing a free demo.

Is Potion Paws related to Garden Paws? Do they share the same universe?

Kristina: It does share the same universe as Garden Paws. Based on the art style, you can tell they share the same ‘verse. You might see a familiar character from Florens too as caravan merchant.

Dan: Some items will cross over from both games.

Kristina: We’re introducing new features to Potion Paws like expanding the world around you by purchasing land, carrying heavy items that can’t fit in your inventory and combat via potions.

You mentioned we will see a familiar character from Garden Paws, will there be new villagers to meet in Potion Paws?

Kristina: No new characters, no. The idea behind this game is that you are a hermit away from civilization, slowly purchasing more land. Being solo lets the player immerse themselves in their work.

What kind of potions will we be able to craft?

Kristina: For potions we have some basics ones but also some really silly creative ones.

Dan: Some potions make you smaller/bigger, some turn you into animals, some confuse. We’re currently taking ideas from the Twitch community because we like including people. We started a spreadsheet with all of the ideas.

Kristina: We are going to hide some puzzles into the game for new potions. Potions are going to be very useful against monsters as well. You are an apothecary but you’ll be doing some fighting.

So there will be fighting in this game?

Kristina: You can battle if you like but you can play the whole game without fighting at all, you can just sneak around them. But using potions to attack monsters will get you some extra loot. If you see items in the dungeon that you want, you have to physically carry the items out and not get spotted.

What kind of items can we get from Potion Paws for Garden Paws?

Kristina: If you buy Potion Paws, you will get the crossover items for Garden Paws. There’s a furniture set, a cauldron, a skull, a skull carpet, things that are generally not seen in Garden Paws. There are also stacks of books with bookcases, and a pretty decent pile of stuff like that. We will be adding one pet as a crossover item as well, a cute spooky ghost cat that you can ride. It will be a variation of something we will have in Potion Paws, just as a bonus for supporting our Kickstarter. We wanted to make this game separate from Garden Paws because there are probably a lot of aspects people will not like in terms of spooky stuff like cobwebs. We didn’t want to force scary stuff on people if they didn’t want that.

In your stream there will be very adorable sheep in Potion Paws, will there be any other animals?

Kristina: There will be sheep in the game. We just made a penguin that will be in Garden Paws and Potion Paws along with its snow habitat. So in Potion Paws there will be cows, sheep, and penguins.

What can we expect in these new parts of land that we can unlock?

Kristina: Specific zones might have pumpkin patches, fireflies and even ponds that you can harvest items from like fish skeletons and frog legs. There’s another area with a spooky tree where you have to harvest from a crow’s nest. But there are also secret areas that you can only access with a shrink or jump potion. It gives you a drive to keep unlocking zones.

What are the main focus points of Potion Paws? So far we have dungeons, crafting, potion-making.

Kristina: There will also be a cooking station where you create recipes as well. You can unlock more recipes and more of the land around you for more ingredients.

How long will the game actually be? Will there be a story or an end goal?

Kristina: It’s a bit smaller of a game than Garden Paws but we think it will still be a lot of fun. The end goal would be to unlock all of the upgrades. For example: a desert station and transformation potions. As for gameplay, we’re going to be putting our demo on Discord for free before the Kickstarter and based on how long it will take everyone, we’ll be able to know roughly how long the game lasts. It will probably give a solid few hours. We’re hoping to add enough items so that you can make a spooky house in Garden Paws and unlock new content for that game.

What kind of character do we get to play and will there be any customization?

Kristina: Not much customization because it is very time-consuming to develop but we did create a slight variation of the fox from Garden Paws that has a smaller face and bigger ears. So it will look a little more like a cat. A cross between a fox and a cat. We added the fox tail to it too which is bushy. There won’t be any skin customization or clothing as we need to go back to Garden Paws because we plan to release it on the Switch in December. There’s a chance you can play this on the Switch too. It would be a good place for it, it’s a great console.

It seems you love to play your own game. What kind of other games do you both enjoy and playing?

Dan: I play a lot of Night of the Full Moon and Dungeon Defenders. It’s tower defense game I put a lot of hours into. I love dungeon games and rogue-like games

Kristina: I play Animal Crossing and other chill farming games but also play shooters. I love the multiplayer aspect of games. Portal Knights is another good one, My Time at Portia is super fun. It’s funny because we are very different gamers Dan and I. I enjoy grinding and farming, and he likes dungeon games. Our goal was to make a game we can play together so we incorporated both things in Garden Paws.

What sort of projects do you have in mind going forward? Once you’ve released Garden Paws on the Nintendo Switch that is.

Kristina: We’re always going to be making games. I have ideas for more continuations of Garden Paws that we’ll be announcing in December.

Dan: We’re also going to be using the Steam Workshop in Garden Paws so people can make their own quests for people. I’m really excited about the Workshop.

What other things to you still have left to add in Garden Paws?

Kristina: We’ll be wrapping up the story in Garden Paws, basically signaling to the players that they are done the main story.  Frank will be able to build you a Tardis-like house (bigger on the inside), we need to add fruit trees and berry bushes, as well as winter games and decorations. We need to add more levels to the dungeon where our goal is to have 100 procedural levels. You’ll see in the dungeon now that there are nine doors used to access those areas. We’re working on another island to add but we’re going to change that up from what you saw on our Twitch Stream. It’s going to be one of the treasure islands that you can explore. We’re adding more creatures too, like a dragon on that island.

Save the Date!

Make sure to mark September 5th, 2019 on your calendar for the Kickstarter of Potion Paws, giveaways, and to celebrate with the developers and friends via an online community event! We’ll have more screenshots and information for you going forward! You can also follow and help support Potions Paws and Garden Paws by going to the Bitten Toast Games official website or their social media pages such as: Facebook, Discord, and Twitter.