itch.io

Yet another amazing update - I love seeing where this game is going, and as per usual, I want to provide my thoughts on some of the latest changes (at least the changes I've noticed):

- Pause menu animation: Awesome. Really nice touch.

- Notepad: I originally wrote a note here about how it was good that the music stopped so it indicated to the player that time is also stopped (though the new countdown also reveals that), but it would be cool (but potentially a lot of work) if it had a different variants of music that are more toned down instead of silence - apparently you guys beat me to it, and playing back I realised it actually did have alternate tracks which is sick

- Vending machine: When you first get the vending machine unlocked, all of the items are the same exact price now. While not necessarily bad, as a first opinion to the user, it does kind of degrade the 'illusion of choice' a little - for sure each item works differently, but they also all cost the same. Perhaps one could be $30, one $45, etc. for a bit more flavour (obviously this is nitpicking as I'm sure more vending machine content is likely to come down the line anyways)

- The plate icons at the top right are constantly visible, even in the introduction cutscenes. This confused me initially as, until I had actually grabbed my first item, I was stuck wondering what these weird 'pill-shaped ovals' over the amazing art was. Fixes would be either hiding these in cutscenes, only showing plates when you have food on them, adding an extra 'indent' curve to the plate, or even recolouring it to cream white or silver

- The floating text that appears when you place down food is a nice touch, and implies that the complexity of the order and speed of delivery can influence it (though this isn't expressly confirmed to the user as far as I can tell)

- Big fan of the new customer variants, both coloured and uncoloured (though its almost bittersweet in a way - I love the monotone goofballs too; would be awesome if there was an easter egg, or sticker, or some way to bring these old fellas back haha). An interesting thing from the new sprites is it also gives a third additional way to remember orders (colour, number, or distinct character sprites)

- Ideally the plates in the kitchen should highlight when you hover over them and the food is done; as it stands no highlighting occurs which, when every other interactable has a highlight, is a bit confusing to the player and makes them second guess if they can click on it initially (kinda ties into 'game feel' if you would. Showing the highlight only when food is cooked would also help alleviate the issue where the progress visual on food reveals some margin of transparent pixels on either side too, meaning that theres a fraction of time where the food appears complete but is not yet clickable)

- Would be nice if the held plate icons at the top right also had a highlight for this reason

- The different bottom arrow sprites is a nice touch that help isolate each screen from the other (not sure if this was a recent change or I'm only just noticing it)

- For the first few beginning days, the waves are a bit aggressively obvious - you end up with 2 customers immediately, then nothing for 40+ seconds, then 2 customers, then nothing for ages, etc.; whilst this is great for difficulty in the later days, the beginning may need a bit more balancing (and again, this is just balance, i.e. the boring stuff that comes with time. No one is expecting perfection here yet as stuff changes haha)

- I appreciate that tables have both colours and numbers now (the numbers in particular are ideal for colour blind individuals), however perhaps an accessibility option could be added to show the table numbers in the main area overview too, since if you rely on the numbers due to colour blindness, your only solution is to try and remember positions on top of everything else, or click on every table until you find it otherwise

- I did have around day 3 or 4 a comment from little cowe stating the 'cafe was doing unpopular?', however it wasn't clear to me why this was happening as a player. I hadn't made a single mistake, I was upgrading as often as I could, and I was incredibly rapid in my deliveries. It would be nice if little cowe gave a bit of justification about what the customers aren't liking so it turns it from a negative 'you did bad, but I wont tell you what' into a more constructive 'you did bad, here's what to improve' comment

- It would be funny if higher player weight made you slower in screen transitions (fan service c'monnnn)

- The 'ask again' feature (or what I assume is the 'ask again' feature, as I saw the bubble but never actually clicked on it) needs some introduction to the player, since its a random button that suddenly appears with no explanation. Something as simple as an extra part in the tutorial "Let's pretend you forgot, you can press the bubble to ask again but it will affect your tips/client satisfaction" would suffice

- A transition between subsequent days may be needed at this point, as the music and everything suddenly 'resets', but it isn't clear what actually happened until you see the day counter increased and its now morning (basic fade, music sting, etc. doesn't have to be something stupidly cinematic)

- I'm a little skewed on the addition of addons (hehe) like sugar. It's not immediately clear by reading the upgrade, and even when you first purchase it, what the system does (I sat there clicking on it thinking it was supposed to increase my fullness when I eat or something but I must have misread the wrong upgrade), and I didn't work it out until my first order; at which point when you get to the stage of adding addons, you're probably pretty quick, and so I clicked through it too quickly and realised I stuffed up. It could be nice if little cowe came back when you purchased your first addon and gave you a brief introduction to what it entails? Maybe I'm just being a clicky clicky doofus though and just need to slow down

All in all, I think this update like the others is smashing it out of the park. I absolutely don't want any of this to sound negative as I love the work being done here, and instead am just providing my (probably biased) two cents. Cheers big ears!

Yet another banging update. The upgrade system is ingenious, especially since it allows you to temporarily upgrade yourself, permanently upgrade yourself (gacha), and permanently upgrade the restaurant too. It gets considerably more hectic now which I love, and in a way, the notepad acts as a way to help ease new players in, and not using the notepad is a risky skill-based tactic to maximise efficiency (since you save time not writing down, but if you stumble you have nothing to go back on), instead of the previous update where it was more of a suggestion.

As always the art style is adorable, and the comedy is on-point (weapon foreshadowing much.) The more I play, the more I see myself thinking of other systems from real-world American diners (and classic flash games like Papa's Pizzeria) that could be used as inspiration points - for example, maybe there are "high priority" customers with quicker tempers that tip more; maybe there is a penalty for providing the wrong food to a table instead of it just not letting you place it (less tip, more anger, etc.); maybe there is a chance for random disguised restaurant inspectors who affect the popularity of the place based on their service; maybe some upgrades come with a penalty (like one which upgrades the kitchen, providing faster cooking speeds, but introduces a new menu item you have to remember); so on and so forth. I can't wait to see where this evolves with time. Great work team!

Great game flow, and it's really interesting leaving the notation entirely up to the player to work out how they want to write orders with limited space and symbols. One issue I've noticed though is there is actually almost no incentive to use the notepad unfortunately. Whenever a customer arrives, even if a bunch arrive at once, you can just as easily click on one, immediately get their order from the kitchen and serve it, then click on the next pair, and so on - there's no penalty for going to the kitchen over and over again, so there's no reason to try and be smart and remember a bunch of things at once. I reckon if going to the kitchen passed time faster by even a little, then that means you've got more of a reason to write down as much as possible to minimise trips.

Oken the first time, then Nishky the second. Think I'm sensing a trend...