Firstly, yet another astonishing update. This game has come a long way and I’m so happy for all the people involved :D
As is tradition at this point, I’ve collated a list of general feedback notes. You’ll probably note that quite a lot of these are minor and mainly polish related, since that’s in general a reflection of how things are coming along which is amazing. Again, I’m a silly goober - take all of these with a grain of salt. It may just be my playstyle and these aren’t as much of an issue as I make them seem to be. Some of the mechanic ideas may also not be what you guys have planned for the future, and that’s okay. I’m just spit-balling here so I get them written down somewhere before I forget. Keeping a small scope is important for game development, and some of these may detract from the most important parts of the experience!
- The ability to customise Little Cowe is a cute touch, me likey
- I feel like on the first day, customer waves should be spread a little more (whenever something is initially introduced, the first shift or day should probably only be like 0.5x intensity, so it lets the player get into the rhythm a little better).
- The bedroom after shifts is nice, though perhaps an extra dialogue line after ‘Shift ended. You got $##.00’, like ‘I’m tired. I should head home now…’ would help ease the transition slightly.
- Instead of a ‘To Work’ sign, how about interacting with the bed to sleep? (immersion idea)
- A bit of weighted randomness, or using the grab bag approach, could be useful at the beginning, so we don’t get a new customer of the same type in the same seat immediately after the first was served. This becomes less of an issue at higher levels though, since practically all seats are filled all the time so you don’t notice.
- I’m loving the cameos
- [Technical] The highlight around tables when hovering also extends the mouse hitbox. This is good in terms of providing a larger hit detection range for those quick mouse movements, however in my opinion the highlight should not take hit detection priority over tables/customers that get occluded by said highlight (in other words, the highlight should expand the hitbox, but be on a layer underneath the table and customer sprites; meaning that if a table is behind another, even if you accidentally hover over the table in front, the moment your mouse enters the sprite of the other table it swaps to that as the focus; instead of currently where the highlight extends the range of the table in front). This does technically apply for everything interactable and not just tables, but they are the things where you notice it the most as they are all on top of eachother. Especially when you upgrade to add more and more tables. Misclicking tables is also really bad because you can start an order before you’re ready, and exit out of it by accident in a panic before you’ve written it down. Hopefully I worded this well - I might not be making sense here haha. Easiest place to see this is when there’s someone short in seat 6, and someone tall or wearing a hat in seat 3. Or the same with seats 2 and 8, or 1 and 3, etc.
- Potential immersion idea: Could have an item in the bedroom that allows you to save your game - you can do this with RMB, but it’s not immediately intuitive since you don’t right click anything else in the game. having a distinct item you left click on would feel more natural and make sure people know how to save [UPDATE: Ignore this, I didn’t realise ESC also works, which is pretty stock standard. This feature would just be for additional immersion but is definitely not required.]
- [Polish] It could be cool to implement “dynamic music”. Currently music does change when you’re in a shift vs. when you’re just hanging out on break, however it would be a nice touch if the music tracks had variants for different areas of the same building (like when you enter the backroom, or the manager’s office, it’s still the same track but with less/different instruments)
- The tip floating text is much appreciated
- The auto-serve sound (Break Time’s Over sticker) feels a little out of place thematically (I couldn’t tell what it meant initially until I witnessed it happened because I was out the back for the first few occurrences. That and it plays at the same time as the entry bell, but the entry bell sounds like it starts later because it begins with silence). It could even be something like a cat meow or cat bell sound to play into Charlotte’s?
- [Mechanic Idea] Could be cool for upgrades for cafe decorations too (like how it was done with outfits), such as different seat styles, wall decor, layouts, perhaps different stations that introduce new food types and complicate orders further.
Maybe the interior upgrades attract more of the cameo characters as decor improves? Before then it would be more of the generic ones. (Plus, nice decor = better ambience = better tips = more patience) - could even do fun items like jukeboxes.
- Option to recycle, upgrade, sell, or reroll duplicate stickers in some manner? (maybe you can combine lower tiers for higher tiers; or you can scrap stickers for some sort of ‘sticker shards’ units, that can be combined into another random sticker; or even a sticker blackmarket; just something so that duplicate rerolls dont feel as disappointing, especially at the start when you only have like 2 or 3 stickers and have so many to collect, yet you already get a duplicate because you haven’t unlocked the mechanics for the other sticker types yet)
- [Polish] Maybe the bedroom should get messier with player weight (starts clean, slowly the chips and soda appears on the desk, then the blanket becomes unkempt, then maybe the mattress gets a minor indent, etc.)
[Mechanic Idea] At some point perhaps you can upgrade to a nicer apartment since you outgrow the old one (at which point mechanics such as Energy could be implemented, and nicer apartments rejuvenate you better, or some other unique things that extend beyond cosmetics)
- There’s a few funny story telling opportunities that I don’t feel get explored in the earlier parts of the player’s progression, such as Penny could complain about needing to make so much cake, or Little Cowe stating that its weird they need to keep ordering so many cookies all of a sudden (hinting at the player’s snacking habits)
- [Mechanic Idea] Maybe the player at higher levels needs to clean tables, setup placemats and cutlery, and/or clean dishes as additional tasks? The computer could be used to hire someone to automate these.
- I love the new cutscenes; beyond obviously being hilarious and adorable, it really builds immersion too, as it now feels like there’s people living in this world (on top of the intro showing the other cafes, and the bedroom showcasing a city outside the window)
- Not sure if its a bug or intended, but the eating Penny scene (Day 11 for me) didn’t allow my character to digest food from the morning (could be intended since they spent that time eating more). In the later cutscene with a similar outcome, it’s stated the player feels full and didn’t get a chance to digest, so including a similar line in this cutscene would help.
- [Bug] Room To Grow (Rare) had the grey (Common) background in the popup when I received it, but in the clipboard it has the correct purple background
- [Polish] We’re getting to the point where it could be time to consider minor animations? (i.e. tail wag of the player, full stomach gauge meter could bounce a little, the notepad pencil could move when hovering, the movement arrows could bounce in the direction when hovering, etc.)
- Milk production seems quite fast when you first unlock it. Like the above recommendation, perhaps for the first shift or first day it only functions at 0.5x speed? That or it starts slow, and as weight increases a few more grades, it also increases in rate. This is mainly an issue because at the beginning you start with a really small capacity.
- [QoL] Pressing the milk room button should probably start milking immediately, as its an additional redundant click (you wouldn’t be going to the room unless you needed it; and this behaviour is inconsistent with when your milk meter is exceeded and automatically forces you to be milked, which doesn’t require an additional click)
- [Bug?] Pre-filled stickers slots in the clipboard can be replaced with different types in a single click, but not different rarities (for example, if you select a prefilled sticker slot of Break Time’s Over (Uncommon), you can replace it with Employee Retention Strategy (Uncommon), but not Break Time’s Over (Legendary). You must first set it to a blank sticker, then to the rarity you want.)
- [Mechanic Idea] Option to sell produced milk for additional money? Currently it seems like a punishment for reaching higher levels (which it should be, as it’s an end-game challenge, but there should also be something rewarding for sticking through it to the player imo.)
- Damn, the scale is sassy!