Can design based solely on compulsive feedback loops be a good thing? Is Cauldron, a casually automated compilation of mini-games and turn-based combat, more game or more slot machine without payouts? Heady questions for a game that just exists as a super-cute time sink with barbarously compulsive mechanical hooks. Were these mechanics tied to monetization after the initial buy-in, Cauldron would feel diabolically evil. Packaged as is, Cauldron is still diabolical, but in the agreeable sort of way where you want to thank it as yours eyes roll back into your head from watching all the numbers build and build.
Cauldron is an optionally active sort of idle game, which is where it gets by on our good graces. It has an arrangement of diverting minigames, little jobs to do, which make the numbers tick higher and faster and lead to more upgrades so you can play them better and the numbers will skyrocket even faster.
The compulsion is undeniable. Hours have been spent investing in these little side-games. Initially they last a few seconds. You collect some resources — some fish, some rocks, some apples, some gems, some ice — and then you buy upgrades that help you harvest those resources more efficiently. In turn, the mini-games take your five best scores and use those to determine how they will be allocated in automated increments. Collect enough resources, and you can power up your characters, who are found spread all over the map, behind shrouds of fog you’ll need to clear in turn-based combat.
The mini-games are fun! That’s the excuse for this hyper-moreish design and it’s a good excuse. The designs are compact and repeatable. Take fishing for example, your line sinks down as you avoid red fish and catch blue fish. It needs to come up with the more weight that’s added to the hook, but some upgrades will have you going deeper and deeper, so you can retrieve some much bigger fish. From this take on Ridiculous Fishing (2013) to a gem-collecting mine-cart minigame aping Vampire Survivors (2021), the key is that these games are quick fixes that visibly reward the deep upgrade paths, which really adjust to just about every possible stipulation, until the games are rendered absurd and almost automatic in playing them.
You’ll want to keep building that score because your highest scores is what the game bases its automatic accumulation upon. So you want to keep building. The thrill is the same as most idle games, with the functional trick of really tying every upgradable path into something that recognizably engages with the game mechanics.
The turn-based battling can also be automated. This is a good thing cause fights get real long-winded with not a lot really happening in them. You’ll mostly want to worry about the composition of your party and how their abilities impact one another, and upgrade each character accordingly.
Cauldron exists, primarily, as a bunch of sliders to turn up until the numbers go fast enough to reach your dopamine receptors and your eyes start turning over like spinning slot machines. It’s way more fun than most casual idle and clicker games because it understands the key that progression needs to be tied to something mechanical, that noticeably produces better results. So, is all this design for compulsion good? This one time, perhaps it’s just the right design and deliberately gets its hooks in, but in a way that feels pretty rewarding. Good luck getting yourself to stop.
7/10
Reviewed on Steam Deck