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🕯️ 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.
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⚗️ 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
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🖋️ 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.
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🎮 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
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🌙 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.
Thank you for the compliments Punya! Glad you liked it!
GOATED
OMG Thank you Mariya!
This is so damn good. I love the art direction!
Thanks for the compliment Rohit! Glad you liked it!
Haha thanks Leo, it really is my first! That ladle took way more trial and error than it looks. Got completely hooked on the process though, so there'll be many more games coming.
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🎮 Play here: START
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⚡ Each zombie starts with 100 energy.
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Try the puzzle and share your solution!
Good luck, and have a great brain teaser! 🧟⚡🍭
like the art and animation a lot! Good luck!
Delivery vs Zombies is my entry for the Rive Halloween Challenge with Contra. 🧟🍕
A one-level runner set in Buenos Aires on a full-moon night: Matilda has to deliver a pizza through a city full of zombies, with werewolves howling from the rooftops and fog rolling in, for an app that never stops rushing her. At the end, the app prints your receipt, with deductions.
Made from scratch over nine days for this challenge:
Rive CLI: the whole file written in RML from the terminal with Claude Code. 291 commits, checking every change with headless screenshots and pushing back and forth with the Editor.
GPU Canvas: a custom WGSL shader for film grain, chromatic aberration and lens blur, tuned to hold 60 fps.
Scripting for the game loop and physics, Data Binding to dress every zombie at random, State Machines for characters and UI.
The agent was fast, but its art came out generic. So it blocked out the shapes, and I redrew, rigged and animated everything by hand in the Rive Editor, adapting Vero Beltrán's original characters so they read from far away. Matilda squashes on every landing, the zombie bite runs 52 frames, your scooter parts stay where you got caught, and the receipt prints line by line. The UI comes from a design system I built in Claude Design. Original chiptune music.
Playtested with friends until the jumps felt right. English and Spanish, effects and audio can be switched on and off while you play. Desktop only for now.
Let me know if you make the delivery on time. 😅