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A jam submission

Voynich CafeView game page

the geometric cooking game
Submitted by Franz Kafka's Office Printer (@Kafkas_Office) — 1 day, 35 minutes before the deadline
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Play Platonic Ideal

Voynich Cafe's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation#674.4624.462
Originality#954.1154.115
Overall#1703.6793.679
Gameplay#5422.4622.462

Ranked from 26 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

What do you like about your game?
I love the art style, I kitbashed a ton of authentic illuminations from 13-15th century medieval manuscripts (painted what I couldn't find an original for) and tried to create a cozy potion crafter/

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Comments

Viewing comments 22 to 3 of 22 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

i literally dreamed to make/play a game with medieval paintings for graphics, thanks! and sounds are so good
yet it is quite tough, please update me or make a devlog once update is ready, i already subbed

Developer(+1)

thanks for playing! When I update I'll let you know, if you are looking for similar vibes, check out potion craft and inkulinati, they have similar visual style that inspired this game.

Developer

Hey man, I finally updated, I've overhauled the curve and would love to hear what you think!

Submitted(+1)

A very unusual experience but kind of fun in its own quirky way, it really reminds me of Monty Python and all of their antics hahahaa. great game overall, has a lot of funny surprises as you keep experimenting. 

Developer

Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed the style. I'm planing to update post jam, so hopefully I can iron out the bugs and make the puzzles a bit more approachable and the learning curve way better. I'll come back here and comment if I can when it's updated.

Developer

Hey man, just letting you know I updated this game and fixed the bugs if you're interested!

Submitted(+1)

I love the medieval visuals, and for some reason, the sounds remind me of the Point&Click games I used to play as a child so that makes me a bit nostalgic. I don't know if there is a goal in the game, but I still had fun mixing stuff randomly and seeing what new art I could discover :)

Developer

thanks so much for playing! I appreciate the feedback and glad to hear you like the art

Submitted(+1)

That's a really interesting one. I'm eager to know how can I understand things :D

Developer(+1)

thanks man, I'll update you when I get some time to push an update post jam!

Developer

Hey there! I finally updated and I think, while not perfect it's actually doable if you're interested still, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Submitted(+1)

I like the art style, but can't grasp on how this should play  :/

Developer

thanks for playing! I'm sorry that it's confusing I'm going to make some changes post jam and I'll come back here and notify people, in the mean time I'm happy to give a hint if youd like one 

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

I had to give this a try for the art. I LOVE the illuminated manu style!

I feel like all I need in order to progress is an understanding of what the "guess" field is looking for (name, number, color, ???). Or some combo? Any hints along those lines would have allowed me to cook with more purpose.

I did make it all the way to the "you lost" screen. >D

***

Also, I had to see what you submitted, as my own submission was inspired by the narrative aberration of Kafka's Metamorphosis. :-)

Developer(+1)

hanks so much for playing! 

I didn't do a great job with explaining the game, the core of the game has to do with guessing the correct ingredients based on the cauldron steam color (blue is means you match a potential recipe and green means that the ingredient doesn't match with a given recipe) with the books supporting the deduction to help cross reference once you discover a recipe (the guesses are just there for your reference to help you remember, I'll be replacing them with a visual indicator in the next version)...

I'm going to overhaul the difficulty curve and several systems after the jam to make it more intuitive and approachable.

****

Also, I love the minimalist art style in your game, it looks amazing! (And high five on literary references haha)

(+1)

I GOT IT!!!!

Developer

congrats 🎉! I'm thoroughly impressed, how far did you get?

TBH I satisfied one customer and then got frustrated because I couldn't pick up the ingredients anymore :<

Developer

:( bummer that bug is on the top of the list to fix post jam, but I think I have to rewrite the entire system TBH :( 

Developer

I updated the game! It's actually beatable now!

Submitted(+1)

I really wanted to like this game. I was genuinely intrigued by the concept and artistic style of this game. However, my enthusiasm quickly waned due to its lack of clarity regarding gameplay mechanics. Understanding the dynamics became a frustrating challenge as everything was left way too vague.

Also, grabbing items was quite buggy. It seemed that I couldn't interact with any other item if one of them was  stuck due to another collision. So I had to search for buggy items, move them. So that I could go back to interacting with the other items. Having to troubleshoot these issues disrupted the flow and made it quite annoying to try to figure things out. 

My feedback is to have a more structured introduction for players in order for them to grasp at least the first few steps on how things work.

Unfortunatelly, I gave up without figuring out how to properly progress. Sorry.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for your honest and frank feedback. I'm sorry that the game let you down, I spent about 20% of the jam trying to troubleshoot the grabbing system and missed the difficulty curve and the mindmap was too large. I will 100% add a smoother introduction to simplify the problem space. 

Thanks again for playing!

Submitted(+1)

I think that after programming some guide at the beggining and fixing some bugs (what gamejam game doesn’t have them?) it would make for a really interesting game. The art style just makes its so unique and I think it would make some cleaver/grotesque/weird/funny gameplay taking into consideration what medival people drew after adding some weird sound effects! I think you could really have fun with this one

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for playing! I play to address those bugs and difficulty curve post-jam (I ran out of time trying to troubleshoot them), I'll put together dev log and probably come back here to note for anyone that seemed interested. I appreciate the feedback and I really would love for this to be a fun experience and not be hindered by those issues!

Developer(+1)

I updated the game and tweaked almost all the mechanics substantially, with much fewer bugs if you're interested in giving it another shot.

Submitted(+1)

Late reply I know wasn’t looking here for a while. I played this update for a bit and is so much more fun now! I think even some npcs were happy with what I did 😂 you did great, sounds like a lot of work

Developer(+1)

Thanks! I appreciate you playing again, Im really glad you enjoyed it more post fixes! 

I learned a ton on the process and will be taking that forward into future projects, but I think the core premise of this project is flawed in that it's basically a guessing game. I posted the assets I used as a pack if you want to use them in a future project for anything! Thanks for the feedback again!

Submitted(+1)

I had to come back to the comments to see whether someone had figured out the gameplay, and I’m glad I did. The gameplay is still a bit hard to understand, and there are some bugs with grabbing the objects (I think), but nevertheless, I’d be lying if this game wasn’t fascinating. From the artstyle to the language investigation aspect, to the puzzle itself, this is an extremely creative uncut gem.

Developer

thank you so much for playing! I really appreciate the thoughtful feedback, and I do wish I nailed the difficulty and ironed out the bugs, but I'm glad you see a uncut gem, and if I continue the project I'll come back and post when there's an update :) 

Submitted(+1)

As an avid hunter for all things unsolved, I'm familiar with the Voynich manuscript of indeterminate provenance. I think this is a really fun way to bring it to life and make sense of the thing (following the hypothesis that it is some sort of medieval recipe book).

The gameplay books are a bit buggy,  I was able to open them a few times but then never again and I think they might be instrumental to gameplay because it had a guess option in it. I did craft some stuff and got to see a bunch of the (well-curated) creatures spawn and muck about.

 As others have mentioned, the gameplay itself is a bit convoluted (which I think works to a degree because IT IS a mysterious cipher text) but there probably needs to a little bit of visual telegraphing to really ground the gameplay whilst keeping a lot of the mystery.

Developer

Thanks for the well thought out feedback, I totally agree with you! Do you have any thoughts on what type of telegraphing would be most effective? 

Thanks again for playing!

Submitted

I am no expert puzzle game crafter so I'm in no position to give specific advice. However, there is a whole field of study dedicated to making symbols comprehensible through generations; its called semiotics. i imagine the answer lies therein

Submitted

i guess for example, the cauldron immediately signals its a crafting game. which is perfect - but then how to devise recipes and come up with a right-wrong system to eventually get a recipe without just giving up the sauce. i really have no idea though, I'll revisit though if/when I get the game working properly

Developer

Hey! I took a lot of your feedback and tried to overhaul the game, i'd love to get your thoughts again!

Submitted(+1)

I like surreal aspect of this, though I was not sure what to actually do, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. :D

Submitted(+1)

blah blah blah blah blah. blah blah blah blah blah.

I wish I had some direction in the beginning, I have no idea what the lady wants!

Developer

I know :( after the jam I'm going to tweak at some point to try to make it a little more approachable and help add something of a tutorial or difficulty ramp. Thank you for playing even with the bugs!

Submitted

Can you give me a hint about what I should be doing? I'd love to try it again!

Developer (2 edits)

oh of course! above the pot there is steam, it shows for each ingredient if it matches a valid recipe (but it could be any valid recipe). the names of ingredients etc in the recipes are consistent (but in voynichese), what you need to do is use all of the clues (what she asked for, combined with the recipe books and the clues from the pot).

If you get stuck again I'm happy to give a few more clues; it's the least I can do since I messed up the difficulty curve ;) 

Developer

Blah Blah Blah, the game is update and actually beatable now (do not having as many game breaking bugs)!

Submitted(+1)

Agree with many things already said below, just wanted to say I really love these kind of projects using medieval illustrations in fun and interesting ways! Definitely didn't have the patience to figure out any correct recipes though :D

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much!

Submitted(+1)

i really love the aesthetic of this game! the combination of the old medieval art and the sounds of the bustling crowd in the background made me feel very immersed! i can see myself just idling in the game, taking in the atmosphere while waiting for my plants. really good stuff!

i love seeing what random creatures i manage to create, they all look so wacky and fun. its funny how the only thing i can understand in universe are these creatures being sassy at me frame 1 upon being summoned. the whole scenario is so silly and playful, its very nice!

though i wish the game gave a bit of a holding hand in the beginning to help ease players into the game. this is a great concept (similar to a game like Chants of Sennar), though i was pretty overwhelmed with the amount of options that i had at my disposal in terms of what to put in the pot. i only have 1 gold coin to my name after bringing upon dozen upon dozen cases of attempted robbery xd. maybe instead of having all the ingredients be available to you at once, have two ingredients in the beginning with people asking for very simple recipes. this will allow players to gain a little of bit of information about the language, and then you can use the money you get to unlock/buy more seeds for different ingredients.

since you have a wide variety of eldritch aberrations made, i think a fun idea would be to have something to a pokedex in the game. it can just be a book that shows images of all the creatures you've summoned so far, with you having the ability to fill out their names or something similar to how the recipe book works.

but yeah, overall this was such a fun and cozy experience, would love to see how this game would grow if you ever decide to continue it. great stuff!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for playing and all the feedback & ideas! I totally hear the diffulty curve (i blame sleep deprevation and a fear of it being too easy), but I love the ideas and if I move on I love the idea of the pokedex. 

Also, I can see you're a gamer of taste, I was 100% inspired by Chants of Sennaar. 

Developer

Hey there! I updated the game, it's still the same core concept but it's much more polished and  actually works now if you're interested in giving your thoughts.

Submitted(+1)

I made strange things, That were running around, blabbing. I also made a weird geometric shape. that did nothing.

There were books around, They were all eventually stolen by the creatures. Woman wouldn't accept anything. Sorry madam, but if a snail, a fish with arms and something with a human hand for a head doesnt meet your expectations, then I am out of ideas.

I was really confused, but also the game was fun to play.

Developer

Thank you so much for playing, at some point in the future I'll fix the difficulty curve, but I'm glad you at least had a little fun with what is there! I appreciate it so much!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

i made alot of strange things but i was not sure what to do with the books. Great concept. The sounds are awesome too, makes me feel busy and crowded, if that makes sense.

Developer

Thank you so much for playing, and I appreciate the kind words!

Submitted(+2)

This seems like it would be a fun game, but I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. (I guess that's kind of the point). It would've been nice to have the option to have at least one filled out book that you could use as a reference to understand what some ingredients are and use experimentation to derive what the others are.

Developer

Thanks so much for playing! I realized after I finally got a little sleep that I made the learning curve way too steep out of fear of making it too easy. In a future iteration (if I continue with project), I'll add a smoother curve and introduce ideas more gradually. 

Submitted(+1)

What I like in particular about this is there must be some logic and mechanics behind it but would take the most perspicacious medieval mind to figure it out.

Developer

Thank you so much, there is, but I made the difficulty curve too high, lesson learned and I'll probably tweak it after the jam :( 

Submitted

Brilliant concept, love the cut out art feels like a surreal Monty Python bit.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much! I loved your game too!

Developer(+1)

If you're interested, I updated my project and it's much more cleaned up on the mechanics side!

Viewing comments 22 to 3 of 22 · Next page · Last page