The Vendor was one of the entries for the IGMC (Indie Game Making Contest) for 2014. As one of the judges for the RPG portion of the competition it is my pleasure to share my thoughts on the game. This review will basically just be the notes I took cleaned up. It will be based on the competition version of the game, so certain aspects of the game may have been changed.

Presentation
Graphics are a mix of edits, RTP and some resource materials. Mapping is quite well done and solid. There were a few missing/oddly used tiles here and there but overall it was quite good.

Music was RTP. Sounds were used well and stood out nicely, too.

Writing is quite solid and well-used. Story is a bit sparse and open-ended, but characterisation is quite well done considering the limited amount of writing involved.

Gameplay
The game revolves around collecting ingredients, crafting items and selling them to heroes to help them defeat monsters. It's an interesting concept but involves quite a bit of grinding in order to gain enough items to actually get anywhere.

Thankfully items aren't in short supply, though it can be hard to have the money on hand after the heroes defeat monsters to purchase the loot they bring back and there's no second chance.

You don't battle. Monsters will not bother you at all.

Crafting is basically just trading with NPCs. This game could have used actual crafting quite well, though.

There's really not much more to it than that - talk to NPCs, give them tips when they give you information, trade items with them that you gathered to gain better items, buy and sell items to shops and heroes, collect resources that randomly appear in different areas on both the over world and separate area maps.

Fun factor
This game is pretty calming and good for just relaxing. The lack of confrontational experiences means you can just waste time building up your supplies and making trades, helping heroes get stronger and go after enemies. It's not so much fun as zen, but it is easy to spend a lot of time just playing it.

I gave the game a total of 52 out of 60 for the IGMC. On RMN I'm giving it 4 stars.