🕯️ THE MIDNIGHT APOTHECARY The dead can't speak. Read them.

One night a year, the dead visit Mother Ashgrove's apothecary. They can't speak, so you read the signs they carry, brew the right potion and send them home before midnight. Each soul you help comes back to life for a moment, leaves you a last line and lights a candle.

Some places feel like memories even if you've never been there. For me, an old apothecary at midnight is one of them: candlelight on glass jars, rain against the window, something strange simmering on the fire. This game is that feeling, and a quiet place where the dead can finally be heard.

▶ PLAY https://midnight-apothecary.vercel.app Best in Chrome or Edge on a laptop, with sound on.

─────────────

⚗️ FEATURES USED: RIVE CLI + GPU CANVAS

Rive CLI + Rive Markup: the whole scene written from the command line by my coding agent and refined live in the preview

GPU Canvas: 10 WGSL shaders, including the ghost static and resolve, a real fire, the swirling brew, candlelight, fog, rain, the crystal ball and the room effects

Scripting: 48 Luau scripts run the nights, visitors, stirring and bottles

Data Binding: 1,160 bindings, with data-bound lists for the Ledger and the Gathering

State Machines, events, audio, nested artboards, constraints, bones, blend states and feathering

─────────────

🖋️ HUMAN TOUCH This is my first project in Rive. I designed and directed it over 21 build steps, playing every version and art-directing every prop and character: the haunted shop with its real fire, a candelabra that lights one blood-dripping candle for every soul you send home, a sober velvet witch whose face stays hidden, and 24 visitors who each have their own story and their own bottle.

─────────────

🎮 HOW TO PLAY

Find the two signs each visitor carries

Drag the matching ingredients into the cauldron

Grab the ladle and stir three circles

Watch the clock: hints and wrong brews cost time

─────────────

🌙 WHAT'S INSIDE

3 nights and 24 visitors, each with their own story, bottle and last line

Visitors who change the room: a flood, frost, a room drained to sepia, a Horseman who can't drink

A grimoire, a ledger of the dead, a raven that follows your cursor, a cat in the basket

Something that knocks instead of drifting… and one last visitor you won't expect

- The video shows the game in action and a glimpse of my agent workflow and code.

#rivehalloweenchallenge @rive_app

So beautiful, you have done such a great work Aditi. The detailing is next level.