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A jam submission

Kitchen NightmareView game page

Scale up your constantly growing business. Move around your assets. Can you turn a kitchen nightmare into a dream?
Submitted by LWCoding — 8 hours, 47 minutes before the deadline
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Kitchen Nightmare's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Enjoyment#29012.8913.000
Overall#42662.6442.744
Style#43802.5942.692
Creativity#51622.4462.538

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
You work in and manage a kitchen that scales up in size everyday... you also have to scale up a business to accommodate more customers!

Development Time

96 hours

(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See description for full credits

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

really had a nightmare 10/10

Developer

Perfect, just as we intended!!

Submitted(+1)

Really liked your game! it reminded me not only of the flash games from the past, but also of the time when I used to work in the kitchen myself :)

Developer(+1)

Oh pfft, thank you! I hope that entails your kitchen experiences were fun rather than chaotic! :')

Submitted(+1)

Cool art! Music jumpscared the hell out of me and the audio did it again, could use some mixing.

Developer

Ahhhh! Right, forgot about audio stuff. Should've coded in a mute button or +/- controls to change the volume.

Thanks for playing, though! :)

Submitted(+1)

I really like the game! It reminds me of the old Flash games—so cool ^^

However, I soft-locked myself by accidentally placing a table in the entrance, so I couldn’t continue TvT The sound design work is also remarkable—the little crackles and the doorbell add a lot of charm to the game.

If you want to check out our game, feel free to do so :3 https://butterflan.itch.io/spicy-king

Developer(+1)

Aw man, sorry about the soft-lock!! We also caught that issue when it was too late - honestly just a fault of not-enough playtesting. :(

I'm happy that you still found some sort of fun andnostalgia factor in it!!

Thanks for playing, will do. :3

Submitted(+1)

Lots of fun and the art is really nice.

My experience was essentially: Buy stoves, and frantically run around trying to feed everyone.

Unfortunate that the ready button is hidden at the start, but was easy enough to click after reading the description.

Developer(+1)

It's interesting to hear about your strategy - it was definitely not easy balancing the benefits of utility versus decor. :)

We are also saddened by how the build cuts out the visibility of the ready button... but I'm glad that the description was able to help!

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Kitchen Nightmare was a delightful surprise. The game’s unique blend of time management and restaurant chaos creates a compelling experience. And the humorous tone is appreciated. The core gameplay loop of cooking omelets and serving customers is satisfyingly addictive. The sound effects are well-implemented and the music creates a fittingly calming atmosphere in a chaotic space.

While the restaurant management aspect shows promise, there are a few areas for improvement. The ability to block oneself in with furniture by placing it in a "door square"  is a frustrating oversight that can quickly derail progress and loss of a game. I don't know, why your money balance is reset every night, but with a 100$ budget you can never buy a jukebox 😔. Finally, the customer AI could benefit from some random behavior in table selection, not always picking the same table.

Despite these minor issues, Kitchen Nightmare is a fun and enjoyable game that showcases the potential of its core mechanics. I kept and kept playing, which is a really good sign!




Developer(+1)

We also noticed the door square problem a bit too late - definitely an oversight on our part due to lackluster playtesting. ":) This is also a reason why the resetting-money glitch exists (apparently, getting a jukebox is possible, but it's super annoying; this is a bug!).  Regardless, I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the game despite these problems.

I love the suggestion about randomization in table-selection AI! This would place less emphasis on the player trying to figure out how the algorithm works for table selection, allowing them to consider the restaurant's overall layout more strongly.

Thank you so much for playing! :D

Submitted(+1)

Oh, totally get it! Sometimes there's just no time for thorough playtesting—barely enough for prototyping or even designing! You commit to something, and then it’s all about meeting the deadline. I completely understand.