June 23, 2015 -- Day 164
Another good week= I've done almost half of the critiques (I think it's over 100 in total, i'm not sure) & also the general debugging, and the new adding filling system is nearly done. (with ham & veggies) The FillingsSpeaking of 'fillings', they are a bowl of ingredient pieces to put into the egg/omelette during the frying session. For the next demo, it will be only Ham or Veggies. (mixture of carrot chops & onions pieces) Game tips: You don't see it on your first play though, they can be UNLOCKED after winning several passes from critics. The way the 'filings' works are similar to the 'toppings', but with more "interactions". You also serve your dishes to the critics, they will judge the fillings based on how cooked, how much you placed them on the egg, etc. The game is very "choice open" compared to other cooking game. You can either put them all or not at all. (But mostly critics don't want a dish full of hams & veggies you see!) So experiment them & find your way of cooking! Draft MusicAlso, I started learning how to make some basic music. I have no music background and also a music theory idiot. Although I'm trying to look into some books and some practices, if you're interested on what software I do for music making, I'm testing FL Studio free trial. After testing it, I kinda like FL Studio how "Pro looking", functioning & detailed the software is. But I don't have the money to buy it for commercial use, so I look elsewhere. I found out a free music making software called 'LMMS', it's like counterpart of FL studio but free. It's a wonderful too, yet LMMS is very 8-bit sounding, (without the other plugins of course) not quite auited for my game, so I have think I'll have to find myself some free-natural-sounding-instument-plugins! For additional, I want to use the sound of my recorders in the music. I'm not pro at playing it, but it'll be good enough for my game music.
For recording, I've already owned a pretty good mid-range microphone for flute recording. After evaluation, I'll make 4 game music tracks and some jingles for the pre-beta demo.
Let's talk about the genre/style of music i'll make. For this cooking game, It will be somewhat light-hearted & relaxing, like Nintendo's casual games, some may sounded like nursery rhymes, etc. Since they are the draft version, I'll probably use my flute for the most base melodies, and try LMMS. Let's wish I make GREAT progress! The pre-beta demo release date will be revealed in-- NEXT WEEK! Stay tuned, everyone! June 13, 2015 -- Day 154
I have a good week of extending the critic system, as well as finishing the expression drawings. (about 10~11 for each critic) First, let's enjoy some of my game testing- topping GIFs. I personally think the topping visuals can be improved a bit more. While the herbs are easy to make and code, the ketchup in the other hands is quite a HEADACHE. Right now I'm still struggle to find a way to "copy" the exact patterns of the spilled ketchup to the critic's plates. Now the next topic, let's talk about the 'Critic System' -- the 2nd important element of the game. Without it, your egg cooking would be meaningless. For the new improved version, 3 additional steps are added before 'Food Tasting'. I'll briefly explain the functions and changes in each step. So here's the list: By adding 3 more steps before 'Food tasting', it feels more realistic and also organized. Also, the addition brings to the judging process. To have visual critiques at first, then tasting critiques, just like real-life scenario. So here's what each step is about: Show Dishes + ReactionsThis would remain the same. The critic's emotions & expressions brings fun & humor to the players. You can immediately tell if they like your cooking or not. Responses (Visual Critiques)Because of this new action, the original critiques is categorized to visual & taste based. This one is focused on the looks: how cooked is the egg, when there's too much topping/filling etc. Also I think there's no need to have all of them responding, so only 2 critic's comment is selected in random. Reject or NotThis new action wasn't totally necessary or even fair to the player, but it's very reasonable if you look into how relevant it will be. What kind of critic will eat an egg that is totally raw or burnt? When a critic rejects, he/she pass through all the latter steps until the verdict, you'll automatically get "X" from him/her! So this is the first barrier to cross: How to make your egg looked good enough for the critics to eat. Also reminded that every critics has his/her own preferences. Food Tasting + ReactionsRemained same. Taste CritiquesThis is the 2nd round of your egg evaluation. Due to how the eggs are judged by the looks already in 'Visual Critiques', the food critics will now be tackling how your eggs taste in the 'Taste Critiques'. The fillings or toppings will also be looked at-whether if you put too little, too much, or all together that could affect the taste. VerdictRemains the same way. The way to predict is inspired by reality shows like "America's Got Talent" and also the popular 3-star system from mobile puzzle games. By the remarks of 3 critics, You can get 4 different verdict: failed terribly, failed, passed, and aced. Actually, there's one step absent in the current version, which is called the "Egg Look". This is a part which will only be featured in the final version of the game. So we will skip this for another time. Beside all of this, the flow of the procedure controls the pace of this game, and it affects a lot whether the game is dragging or too prompt. I'll tweak on the timings to get the best "flow" possible. That's all about the critic system now. I will be posing nexr update at the end of June, the next demo launching date would be announced then. Love Y'all! June 2, 2015 -- Day 143
The couple of weeks I've been working mostly a bit of this, a bit of that. (been lazy lately) There's still a lot of work till completion. There's one feature I'll like to skip for the next demo: Smooth Egg Transitions. It has been difficult (for me to code them correctly, so I have to hold this off for another time. (It wastes too much time and very little progress) Please visit next week for new update. Love! May 16, 2015 -- Day 126
I managed to put myself together and to be more 'productive' this week. Let's talk about the 'Topping Area' feature, on how it works. Basically, all the toppings (green herb/kechup or more) can affect the appearance of the egg. (same goes to fillings, which I may talk about next time) You can either "sprinkle" the toppings all over the areas, or concentrate on 1 part such as the center of the egg/omelette. In order to do this, the eggs are divided into 9 zones. (thus they are 9 variables) The more topping getting to that zone, the more number that variable has. Besides the topping in the cup, the ketchup is a lot more different & challenging... Look at that wonderful drawing effect! I can even draw an alphabet, or even random shapes!!
To be honest, that's actually a "screenshot-would-be". This might looked as simple applying some dedicated codes, but it's HARD to convert the random drawn lines into variables. (as all egg info are variables) Somehow I need to find a way to make this drawing mechanism work in future progress. Thank you, that's all for today. :) The more customization, the more variety of the game! (but more work) May 2, 2015 -- Day 112
Sorry for a long week of wait guys. I admit that I've been procrastinating a lot lately. I'm starting to feel the midway stage stress: there's jist so much to do in order to make this game "presentable". I'm currently focusing on adding the smooth transitions of the egg variation. (Yet to find a solution) After finishing all the "basic" egg variations (over 120), I started to realize that: the eggs are clearly lacks "juiciness", or in other way speaking: lack FUN. I think the eggs are just too plain without anything that players might not be interested on playing, don't you think? Therefore I need to "spice" things up. So, let's talk about this new feature I wanted to put in: the "topping area". It's a next step after you've done frying the egg, it'll give you a short amount of time to add toppings to the egg before serve. This is what it may look like: With more seasoning and toppings, along with the original egg variations, players can make thousands of variety, thus more "freshness" to the players. (and maybe more replay value) Even the critics will judge on how you apply the topppings, too much, too little , or too strong flavored.. exciting isn't it?. This is a (somewhat important) addition to the gameplay. I don't know how much time will it add to my already bloated workload, but I hope it will not be as "tedious" & will work as promised.
Until then, stay appetite! Apr 19, 2015 -- Day 99 From 46 sprites in alpha demo, to 108 from now!
I focused on "CG painting" more egg sprites the whole week, which takes quite some time to do so. (and this is not the most time-consuming part. :) ) Thankfully, I've found out a little software called WinMorph, which is designed for "morphing animations". I use it for the in-betweens, and it works really well. Even though some tedius steps are needed like screen capture, retouch, and remove the backdrops, this process has saved me twice the time than my usual 'deliberate painting' for every eggs... so thank you! Egg variations are "crucial" to the gameplay. The more subtle variations, the more the visual cues to the players thus easier to guess when to continue or when to stop cooking. Love. Apr 10, 2015 -- Day 90Sorry for a week of procrastination, there's minor things in life I have to attend to. The demo had already been closed down on Apr 6. Now, before I continue my next stage of game development (which will be a 'pre-beta' demo release) The stage is focused on finishing most of the visuals & audios, which is the "meat" part of the game, so it's going to be time consuming. It may also be less updates (but I'll try to keep at least 1 post in 2 weeks.) Okay, today I want to share the stats & feedbacks from my 2 weeks release of alpha demo. A. Visitor StatsThis is a short report from Google Analytics: According to Google Analytics (from posting day till closing day): Less than 50 people visited my website :| , a quarter of them revisited to play, and about half of the people played at least 2 times. (okay) I learned that you need to post something in order to maintain the visit counts. But sometimes it doesn't necessarily reflect on the stats. I don't know why it dropped when I released an updated version on Mar 28... The average session duration part bothers me. (See the 2 red circles on the stats) Besides the 2 peaks (they probably played around 4~6 minutes), It seems that many only took a glance and went back. I can only think that either my game is not attractive enough, or they don't have time to wait for the game to preload... (I wonder if my website's bandwidth is fast enough.) Even though this visiting number was not too bad for a first try, I feel I somewhat did poorly to draw more people into my game. Now I know that I need a lot MORE info spreading. Some people might question about my decision of short-term demo release. The reasons are mostly for gaining the insight, building uprecognition, receiving feedbacks. The best benefit I've learned is to test my effectiveness of my boost promotion in this short period, so I'll learn a better way to do so next time. (and ultimately could affect the game's popularity & play counts) So, my own goal of visitors for my next demo release is set sbout 250, and pageviews about 400, and actual plays about 350. (in 14~15 days of course) B. The FeedbacksI only got feedbacks from 6 people. But they're all valuable.
The most commented about how hard it is to get it pass the 2 critics. Then followed by need more music & sounds. (I'll put some music in it next time) About the most comments, I know it's my mistake as the egg 'cooked percentage' did not represent the 'supposed' look & it's slightly off. (The egg starts getting browned on the pan surface but actually it's still not THAT cooked.) This part is easily fixable just for a few tweaks. I hope this doesn't tamper their impression about the game badly. Also, some likes my character design, and some thinks it's fun & interesting. Thank you for the compliments people, that's encouraging! :D Other comments are: monotonous, gameplay confusion, social sharing difficulties on the webpage. The last one is easily fixed. For the 2nd one, I'll put in a simple tutorial picture when playing for the first time. And of course I'll make the game more variable than before. On the other hand, I think the current game wasn't quite connecting to people emotionally as I wanted (especially on the critics side), I need to make that part a lot more FUNNIER!! So that's about it. Thank you for reading! Mar 28, 2015 -- Day 77Today I uploaded a new, slightly improved version of the game. Go play it now!
Now it's your last chance to try out the game demo, before it closes at April 5. HURRY! :D Mar 21, 2015 -- Day 70I finally faced the inevitable and released the demo. I admitted that I was rushed a little and there's quite a lot of unfinished stuff and buggy parts left behind. (some may argue it's a pre-alpha) If you are disappointed, then sorry about that. I promised to myself that I will upload the demo today, as a necessary progress. I will certainly improve it as it goes.
things to be done on next version update:
I suggest using latest Google Chrome to get the optimum frame-rates.
Have fun & see ya next week! :) Mar 11, 2015 -- Day 60
NEXT WEEK. The alpha demo will be out within next week, I promise. The webpage for the demo is not opened for public now, but just let you all know anyway: play.snoutycreations.com Okay, most of the item is now done. (for demo) At first I was going to draw all into plan drafts, but the item like the forks, the salt/pepper, plates are good enough for the final version... Well, others will definitely needed to be re-colored better. The expression drawings of the food critics. I only drew few of the expressions for each critics. There will be more coming up after the demo version. Some may think there will be some animation of the critics, but no, I will not add animations into the critics. (maybe minimal) Also, here's some color variations of the kitchen. The overall design is confirmed, but i just couldn't get the best color theme that I can truly satisfy with. I currently picked the one on the upper-right. I think it's more "warm" and "home-like" which I wanted. Things you'll expect in the demo:
Things that are not yet done in the demo:
I also opened an indieDB account. Will try to put something into it when the game is "content ready". It's time to get serious, people. Stay tuned! Feb 27,2015 -- Day 48
First of all, please pardon me for didn't update the development log last week. Second, it's decided: the title of this game is to be named: 'Fry Me Omelettes'. Also, I'm been working on the build(alpha) now, I'm trying to put all basic things together. I realized that it is a WHOLE LOT more to do. Being first time developing a game, It's interesting to realize the sudden temporary lost of drive when you have SO MUCH things to do! I underestimated the time needed to make a decent game. Good thing I wasn't ambitious to make a BIG game by myself! I'm slightly overwhelmed, slightly discouraged. But everything is still within my ability, and I know what needed to be done. Only some slight worries over some future implements & setups... I know I can handle it. Just don't go too fast, and too into details. Focus on how to get the game done. Now, here's another turn of fry testing: Deep-frying an egg into a very hot oil. Real-life fry testing can be beneficial to my game development. I didn't know eggs can be inflated like a balloon!
Hopefully, the demo (alpha version) will be posted on March 7 (Sat), you might be able to have a taste of this frying simulation at first hand. Also, all the 5 prototypes will be put through a new page(link). Stay tuned for next week's update! *prototypes are not available in this dev log. Feb 10, 2015 -- Day 31Character & Kitchen DesignThe critics overall design is basically confirmed, as it's decided in very early stage. I want the "chibi-ish" (tiny body, big head) approach. My drawing style also have a "japanese" vibe in it so it'll be somewhat welcoming for the gamers in the east as well. I think the design can be improved more in later versions. The picture below is the design of the kitchen corner. (will definitively work on the wall decors & coloring) This concept art has to be a direct reference to the kitchen view in real gameplay. For the design, I don't want to it to be a professional kitchen (don't want to be too serious), or a home kitchen. (It will be inappropriate for critics to judge) So I think small restaurant would be a better choice. About the feel of the kitchen. I like to keep it and more "home-like" & "casual". The color palette will be 'pastel-like', and it's 'unisex' for both genders. Color mood would be bright and happy-- no deep shadows. Why the mild setting? Well, this is cater to large percentage of young girls who plays cooking games like crazy. :D Now, let's share something about my frying test I did a few days ago. Excuse my bad cooking. :) While having just one fry test is not enough for me. (I probably try more later) The test is primarily analyzing how an egg is cooked, what timing, temperature, oil etc... It's really a complicated chemistry, and that's why it's FUN to make! I won't try to make it as life-like as possible, as I can see too many subtleties going on during the process! Nevertheless, I'll try make it as fun & fresh as I can!
Next log update will be on Feb 18, which is the date of Chinese New Year's eve. And I think the game will finally have its official title, soon. See Ya. Love. Feb 6, 2015 -- Day 27
The menu system is mainly to test the preloader, the controlling of sounds & music, and the 'starting events system'. (changing the events based of how many play-counts.) The music part is a bit buggy on the mobile, I'll handle that soon. Major functions are now okay, any other minor problems will be dealt with on the pre-alpha version, which focus on testing all gameplay & functionality in one compiled data. I'm afraid there's no topic today. Here's the screenshot of the prototype #5: egg interaction: Next Monday will be the 30th day of the game's development. Things will get a bit quicker from now on. I will probably start drawing some concept arts to post first. Also,, maybe make some experiments on frying eggs... It'll all come together slowly.
Jan 31, 2015 -- Day 21
The record system is almost completely functional. If I figure out the 'empty' save slots' problem, them this one of the hardest coding is done. The new prototype #5 is the extension of prototype #1, it adds the 'egg-on-the-pan' physic & a new 'smudge' function for making a scramble egg/omelette. I'm quite pleased with the smooth development on this prototype. Not all functions are implemented into the prototypes, only the most prominent features are (not counting prototype #4), that is to ensure gameplay mechanics & clarity into game development. Let's talk about a little of my 'critics' system. I will talk about how this works & some of the elements inside the system, but I won't spoil the surprise elements that I will implant into. So you might ask: How is this going to do with the game at all, especially with the cooking simulator? What would you want to know how "well" you did your recent frying! You want to be judged! So you can get praised; or be criticized to the floor! That makes things interesting & juicy. I think besides the simulator, the 'Critic system' could also be a great compliment system: to add value to your cooking results, have a round of verdict, to give player how well does they do; or maybe adding fun & humor elements inside too, to bring some laughter.
It works like this: After you've done your frying, there will be 3 critics waiting on the table. They will first judge the looks of your egg(s), then start the tasting. There will be interest reactions going on. After that they will comment your egg(s), and give up-votes and down-votes at the end. You passed the round by a least 2 up votes. Supposedly, that's 'critic system' in the nutshell, but I do hope it can be added some features into a bit more evolved system, like a reward system or achievement stats or something... That's it for now. Jan 26, 2015 -- Day 16'Record system' done. (prototype #3) 'no-extra-empty-slots' & a better swiping mechanic will bee implemented. Nearly a week, my 3rd prototype- 'record system' is finally finished. I am still not satisfied with the current swipe function, let's hope they're fixed as soon as possible. Then, I can go on finish the menu system, where I can start sorting things out, figuring out the art assets, art style and preparing for the real build. Soon, the pre-alpha stage will begin, many-many parts will have to be decided & executed, and there will be tight scheduling. Busy days are near again. Today, let's talk about the game's main game mechanics. (please follow me to the kitchen :) ) I'll talk about the concept of the gameplay, but not too much to spoil everything... Game design is pretty simple & intuitive: It's a static kitchen view, with necessary cooking items around. Just use your finger and explore. I want a gameplay more like a real cooking. The gameplay will only focus on frying eggs on the spot. You know how to fry something right, just do what you think that's the way of doing it. TimerThere's a timer, but it only shows you how many minutes left, as I don't want to spoil the player's fun by keep showing the time, they should have time to experiment their cookings. Also, timer is to prevent you for taking too long to fry an egg, thus hinders the flow of gaming. The Dial, Flame & TemperatureNext, the circular stove dial on the bottom-right, is connected with the animations of the flames on the shove. The stove flames respond to the angle of the dial you're dragged, this is to make a realistic feel of you actually open on an electric stove. The flame will make the pan's temperature rise to the point, so you can crack an egg and cooked it, and so on. Extra note: there will be a "done" button appear at the top. If you think you want o stop the cooking, click it and the cooking session is over. Item InteractionsExcept for the pan, the items around the table top can be drag and put on top of the pan. This is where the delicate mechanic works: the pouring, the sprinkling & the egg breaking. This part is important as I want to give the player interaction feedbacks as natural & intuitive as possible. I'll try to improve on: to make a better/harder oil pouring, or a more natural salt sprinkling, etc. Generally, you can have all the freedom and possibilities to your egg. You can have all the freedom and possibilities to your egg. You can fry it right away with low flame; or on a hot pre-heated pan. You can put all the salt you want, or none at all. Also, every part can affect the outcome of your egg. One of the best feature here, is to have hundred possible variations of an egg. I may not & will not have the most realistic & chemical cooking system there, actually I might make the simulator a bit "unnatural", because precision is not the game's main focus. I want to give a sense of surprise when players got to see their own frying results. Next time, we'll look at the 'Critic system'. |