PlateUp! News

[h2]Tutorial Systems[/h2]

There are two new features to help people learn the game; an interactive tutorial (accessed by interacting with the ? in HQ) and practice mode (accessed via the ? during the day).

Practice mode lets you play in your restaurant without customers, so you can try new dishes/check if things are working as you like.

You can also now restart the game from the beginning of the day if you fail in the first three days.

[h2]Franchise Mode[/h2]

This feature is a work-in-progress and is not well explained in game yet

Upon completing a run (getting past day 15), you now have to option to take your restaurants to the next level, by converting five of your cards into a franchise. Loading a franchise into the tray in the contracts room before starting a run will enable you to start the next run with those cards, to play on with increased challenge.

Take your franchise as far as you can by completing runs, but be careful; if you lose, your franchise will end.

[h2]Dish Rebalance[/h2]

"Dish" options (the right-hand cards) now reduce the number of customers based on how hard the dish is, with dishes like Potato Salad and Stir Fry reducing most significantly. This means you can now pick a varied and challenging menu without having to deal with lots of customers

[h2]Name your restaurant[/h2]

Interact with the sign at the door to rename your restaurant!



[h2]Changelog v0.13:[/h2]

Features:

- Info display: You can now see the expected number of groups for a day and the possible group sizes while designing your restaurant
- New layout: Diner. This small layout is designed for solo players and has one long serving hatch across the whole restaurant
- Added a tutorial: It can currently be accessed through the question mark in the HQ
- Added practice mode: You can now interact with the question mark at the front door of your restaurant to enter practice mode, where you will get no customers but can practice cooking
- Decor is now swapped rather than replaced. Using a decor change (wallpaper/flooring) in a room where you have previously applied a change will give you the old decor back, so you can reuse it
- The shop has been tweaked to be more playable. This is still a WIP but for the moment this change should prevent the shop being practically unusable a lot of the time.

Balance Changes:

- Rush amount reduced from 25% of day's traffic to 15%
- Queue patience now scales with the number of people queuing, so long queues are no longer managable
- Decreased base customer wait for food patience (90s -> 70s)
- Queue patience boosting table bonus is now capped at three tables. It also now scales much worse than before, so having lots of the boost is much less effective
- Slightly increased patience modifier for having 4 players (25% faster -> 15%)
- Taking dish cards now reduces the number of expected customers. Together with the increased difficulty tweaks, taking a dish versus a customer upgrade should be a more balanced choice

Fixes/Other:

- Fixed a bug that caused franchises to not be creatable when you took a contract
- Fixed a bug that prevented Startup Booster from boosting your startup
- Chairs are now toggled by holding to prevent accidentally switching them
- Fixed a bug that let you start the day while the end of day popup was spawning, which meant you could start the day with unopened parcels
- Fix bug where spaces wouldn't appear at the end of text inputs
- Improved handling when a player quits
- Fix bug where table bubbles would appear over other UI elements
- Fix bug where having lots of cards in the Active Cards view caused them to not display properly
- Added button prompts to pause menu
- Fixed a bug that sometimes meant you could get too many customers after loading a save
- Fixed some bugs involving loading franchise card sets
- Fix bugs with complex layouts not loading properly sometimes
- Dishwasher model replaced
- Fixed (some) bugs with the bar table (there are more to go!)
- Fixed potato derivatives not being storable
- Fixed decor not being saved/loaded
- Fixed decor not being offered in shops

[h2]Changelog v0.12.2:[/h2]

Fixes/Other:

- Reimplemented player management system to (hopefully!) improve bugs to do with players/joining
- Fixed bugs with menus that required all players to agree, including fixing soft lock if a player left during a menu
- Site popups now show the location on the popup
- Pause popup now says paused
- Fixed bug with stir fry being cookable by adding raw veg
- Fix Painting taking up a whole tile

[h2]Changelog v0.12.1:[/h2]

Fixes/Other:

- Fixed bug that made Steam not detect playtest correctly (which prevented multiplayer)
- Fixed missing name for bar table (still needs a proper description)


[h2]Changelog v0.12:[/h2]

Features:

- Added Franchises
- Rebalanced the speed of the game to reduce length of a successful run
- You can now rename your restaurant
- You can now restart the day if you fail before day 4, with no penalty
- Added Extra Life appliance
- Improved active card view (still got some problems, though!)
- Rework customer scheduling
- You can now abandon your restaurant in the menu (requires confirmation from all players)
- Added some more cards (look out for long-range messes and even more Victorian Standards)
- Grabbers will no longer grab items that are undergoing processes, so you can grab things out of places like soaking sinks more usefully

Balance Changes:

- Rebalanced stir fry (should be much more manageable; burns much more slowly)
- Big changes to customer amount in line with above changes
- Service With a Smile card removed
- Informal Service card removed
- Tier 3 affordable decoration bonus is now Informal Service
- Tier 3 cozy decoration bonus is now Seat Without Clearing
- Napkins are now infinite
- Dish prices have been reworked to be more consistent
- All non-standard sinks no longer provide water
- Floor Buffer now lasts much longer

Fixes/Other:

- Fix bug preventing multiplayer with more than two people
- Fix bug causing messes underneath chandeliers/next to paintings from being cleanable
- Fix plating problems with some dishes making plates appear out of thin air
- Fix a bug that let you cut slices of bread at night
- Fixed a bug that let you start the day with unopened parcels
- Fix customers getting stuck on some furniture
- Fix queue patience boosts being too strong when queue patience decoration was in effect
- Fix items on conveyors having process bars when they shouldn't
- Colour choice is now fixed steps rather than picking a random hue
- Fix crash with connecting tables in a loop
- Fix crash when placing an appliance sometimes
- Fix arrow keys not working properly (movement and menus)
- Fixed a bug where you could be given multiple copies of an ingredient if you got two unlocks for it on the same day
- Made the day timer bar much bigger/central, probably to prepare for putting markers on it for things like rushes
- Fix a bug with sinks providing water when they shouldn't
- Fixed a bug that let you push yourself out the door by placing an appliance and be unable to get back into your restaurant

Twitch Integration:

- Fix case sensitivity in Twitch channel name and chat commands
- Names are now shuffled before being requeued (people who haven't visited are still first)

Hi everyone!

Today I'm uploading version 0.9 to the playtesting branch, which comes with a few big new features and (hopefully) a few big bugfixes. I'll update the demo too soon.

[h2]Decorations[/h2]

The main feature this week is a new decoration system. If you're a front-of-house player who has been watching all the cooking updates, this is the update for you!

You can now purchase decorations every three days which will provide nearby tables with boosts. Building a cozy pub, exclusive establishment or maybe you're focused on fast food? Decorate your restaurant with items of the same theme to gain big benefits.

Each decorative item gives points towards (or away from!) some themes. For every three points of a theme a table is affected by, it'll gain a level and a new benefit.

This update brings in five different decoration themes and a total of 12 new decorative objects!

This is very much a work-in-progress, so look out for lots more decorations to be added

(as a note, the old decorations are still in the game with their old benefits, although they'll be swapped over to the new system soon)

[h2]Layer-based placements[/h2]

To support the new decorations, the game now supports layer-based placements. In short, this means you can now put rugs* underneath chairs, pictures on walls behind tables and hang chandeliers above tables.

(*while typing this I realise the "old" rug hasn't been set to go under things, so not that rug)

[h2]Card based XP[/h2]

Experience gained is now based on the cards you've chosen. In practice all cards are worth the same, so it should end up being very similar to how it was before, but this means in the future choosing harder cards can give extra XP.

[h2]Table and chair interactions[/h2]

Chairs now act as interaction proxies for their tables. In other words, if you want to interact with a table you can now interact with an adjacent chair instead. This mean less pushing customers off their chairs to take their order, which is nice.

Also, customers now tuck their chairs under the table when they leave, because really it was just impolite not to.

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

Thanks so much to everyone in the Discord who has been reporting bugs, especially everyone sending videos of the completely perfect work-in-progress networking going wrong. There's definitely still some bugs with multiplayer (as expected!), particularly with 3 players, which I'm working on at the moment.

But if you've had a problem joining where the bar would fill and unfill or flicker, that should now be fixed in v0.9, together with a few other bugs.

[h2]0.9 Patch Notes[/h2]

• Adds decoration system, with 4 positive and one negative decoration themes
  
• Adds 12 new decoration items
  
• Adds layer support for appliances, to allow placing things over/under/next to other things
  
• Chairs are now interaction proxies for their tables
  
• Chairs now tuck in automatically
  
• The game pauses again when any player has the menu open
  
• Fix bug with two players taking from a stack at once (I think) (thanks Kroc)
  
• Fix input queue bug that caused the game to be unjoinable for some players (thanks Anaxileah, SummerBorne and Kroc)
  
• Fix rotation bug that caused some appliances to not rotate appear to rotate when pressed (thanks Numerophobia)
  
• Fix rotating things off walls
  
• Fix candles lighting outside
  
• Demo version will now always provide all available dishes as options (i.e. you'll always get stir fry once you unlock it)
  

Hi everyone,

Good news! Today I'll be releasing update 0.8 for everyone (playtesters and demo users!). It's got lots of bug fixes, a new bit of content, and most importantly: native multiplayer!

Before we get into what's new, I highly recommend checking out this hilarious 4-person cooking stream from Briony.

[h2]Multiplayer[/h2]

This is the big one! The game now supports multiplayer natively, which means you can play with your friends without using Remote Play Together. It should be more reliable and faster, and have a much smoother experience all round.

Multiplayer might have a few bugs at first, so please bear with it and report any problems you have on the Discord so I can get them fixed. Thank you!

I know how frustrating it is to not being able to join your friends, so I tried to design multiplayer to be as flexible as possible.

• The game supports connections over Discord and over Steam, so if one isn't working for you, you can swap to the other. Different players can simultaneously play over different services. For me, Discord has been quite patchy, so I'd recommend using Steam for the moment (although let me know if Discord works for you!).
  
• The game also supports hot-joining, so you can hop into your friends' games at any time, without them having to restart. You can also leave and join again if you have to go away for a bit.
  
• Up to four players can be active at once, but you should also be able to join your friends and spectate if it's already full.
  
• You can also join locally while playing online, as before. You can also have a friend join you locally while you're connected to someone else. In fact, you could even join a friend's server and then remote play with someone else so they can play, if you really wanted to.
  

I hope you enjoy playing multiplayer, let me know in Discord if you have any problems! There are a couple of caveats for the moment:

• Demo players can't join full game players. Sorry! This is unfortunately a limitation of using Steam; the two games (the demo and the play test) have different App ID numbers in Steam, so Steam doesn't let you play together.
  
• Starting the game from an invitation should work on Steam, but it's a bit patchy, so I'd recommend starting the game first and then accepting the invitation
  
• You can't (yet) kick people from your game, so play nice!
  

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

Thank you to everyone who's playing the game, and thanks to everyone who reported bugs. I've tried to fix as many as possible, and there's a few big ones that should be gone now.

• The middle of the restaurant should now allow things to be placed there again; this also means you can't pick up the floor anymore
  
• Dish washers can no longer be loaded while they're on, because that's not hygienic
  
• UI elements shouldn't fall off the screen if you resize during the game anymore
  
• Customers are no longer fussy about where food is placed on big tables (and instead can get back to focus on throwing the food all over your restaurant)
  

[h2]Discord and Steam Rich Presence[/h2]

I've also added support for Discord and Steam's rich presence, so you'll show up as ingame on both platforms. People can also see what phase you're in and if you have any free slots to join! There's lots of potential things to add there, so let me know what you'd like to see!



[h2]Stir Fry[/h2]

All this netcoding has taken a lot of time, but I still wanted to squeeze in some more content to the playtest, so there's now a new dish: stir fry!

Stir fry is all about preparing in advance and cooking quickly. To make a stir fry, you have to add each ingredient into a wok and cook it briefly -- too little and you can't add the next ingredient, too much and you'll be in the sink, scrubbing!

Stir fry is unlocked after fish. If you've already played past that level, you should be given it immediately after you finish any restaurant.



Stir fry is also available to demo players, so if you've been craving some more plating-action, you can steak your way to stir fry and enjoy the new dish too!

[h2]Patch Notes v0.8[/h2]

• Adds Steam and Discord multiplayer support (use the menu -> Multiplayer to allow people to join)
  
• Adds Stir Fry dish
  
• Adds Rich Presence support
  
• Adds current players panel (so you can see who is playing)
  
• Fix bug with background objects occupying spaces, mostly the ground occupying the middle tile (thanks Kroc, Anaxileah, SummerBorne, awesometanker and everyone else who reported this one!)
  
• Fix bug with conveyors stacking objects placed at the same time (thanks Kroc)
  
• Fix bug with placing dirty dishes into dish washers while they were running
  
• Fix bug with UI elements on screen resize
  
• Fix bug with trees blocking orders (thanks Anaxileah)
  
• Fix bug with large tables only accepting items in one place
  
• Improve card readability (larger, darker text)
  

[h2]Patch Notes v0.8.1 hotfix[/h2]

• Improve networking stability in almost all cases
  
• Fix bug that randomly caused players with reasonable connections to be kicked for having bad connections
  
• Fix bug that caused day to start when no players were connected
  
• Fixed a bug with local player's name when running without Steam
  

Hi everyone,

The last few weeks have been busy, so this update has ended up being a couple rolled in to one. The good news is that this should be a big one, with a few new features, lots of fixes and the start of some big improvements.

This patch will roll out to the play testers first (should be available now!) and then to demo players once it's been put through its paces!

[h2]Location[/h2]

Fed up of the city? Take your restaurant to the countryside, and enjoy some tranquillity. Want something more intense? Go even further afield and find a snowy mountainside to sizzle your steaks on.

There are three locations in the game so far. Each location will affect your restaurant, giving a little twist on each run you do. This is currently a bit barebones, but I'm hoping to give each location it's own feel and give you another thing to factor into your plan.



[h2]Weather[/h2]

Each day brings new challenges, and new weather! Each location has its own weather pattern, and days with inclement weather bring their own problems. For now, customers will be less happy to stand outside in the rain or snow, so don't let the queue build up on these days!

This is also a first-pass, so look out for more effects from weather, good and bad.

[h2]Upgrade cards[/h2]

To make it easier to keep track of what's going on in your restaurant, I've re-styled the upgrades at each star level into cards, which have been re-designed to better explain what they do. The full set of cards you chose (together with any others active) can be seen at the end of the run, so you can show off your incredible menu variety.



[h2]New outfit[/h2]

Lots of people have said they'd like new outfits, so I've taken another look over how outfits work in the game and made it easier to add new ones! This update has one new outfit for you to try, but let me know what other outfits you'd like to see.

I'm still playing with the idea of allowing each player to equip an individual upgrade that gives them a special ability, or makes them a bit better at something. Personal chef knife set? Running shoes? Emergency napkin? Tool belt?

[h2]New appliance[/h2]

While I'm not yet focusing on adding content, it's always nice to throw something new into the mix... enter the mixer! The mixer will automatically chop things and knead dough for you. It's not the fastest, but another pair of hands will always come in handy.

[h2]Tweaks[/h2]

There's been a bit of twiddling to various settings.

For layouts, the most important one is that large layouts can now have another hatch! Supply your front-of-house twice as fast, cook in front of your guests, or set up a giant conveyor belt, the choices are endless.

For customers, I've changed it so that customers are now more likely to order extra things (sides, desserts and starters) when you have more options. Previously, you could choose a side for each upgrade and the difficulty wouldn't increase much. Now this will stack up until every customer is ordering a side.

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

Part of the reason this update is a bit later than usual is that I wanted to get a lot of bugs fixed before I sent it out, so there should be fixes to pretty much all the problems people have reported (and a few they haven't!). My favourite ex-bug: you can place conveyor belts next to tables and let people take their orders directly from them (that's intentional), but the list of connected conveyor belts was never cleaned out, so if you picked up a belt and put it somewhere else, it would still let people take their orders from it, even if it was on the other side of the restaurant (that's not intentional).



Layouts now have a location, which affects visuals and weather
Adds City location
Adds Country location
Adds Alpine location
Each day may now have special weather, which will affect queue times
Adds Rain weather
Adds Snow weather
Upgrades are now styled as cards and have had their descriptions updated
Adds a post-game screen showing all your upgrade cards
Adds a new outfit
Adds the mixer appliance
Adds sound effect for chopping things
Tweak layouts, particularly double max hatches in large layouts
Extra ordering chances is now proportional to the number of options
Pressing the same button in the unlock choice screen will now deselect your choice
Fixes multiple crash to desktop bugs
Fix player 3 and 4 getting stuck leaving their bedrooms (thanks JungleCat!)
Fix bugs that let you start the day with unopened parcels (thanks lots of people who triggered this one)
Fix bugs that let you reach through walls (thanks Kroc)
Fix conveyor belts teleport items to tables (thanks again Kroc!)
Fix bug that could make appliances invisible when unboxed
Fix bug with children (disabled crying until it can be reimplemented properly!)
Fix crash to do with pressing a button as soon as a popup opened
Fix bug that caused customers in groups to all be in exactly the same place
Fix bug with soaking sink sound effect
Fix bug causing some minor performance drop
Fix crash bug caused by returning an item to a provider right at the end of the day
Fix crash when changing resolution sometimes

Hi everyone!

It was great to see all the support during the Steam Festival, and hi to everyone who jumped in on the demo. The demo will be remaining up from here on, so you'll be able to try it out whenever you like! The demo will also be getting updated to 0.6 with this patch, which will fix the problems people have reported, and add some new content!

[h2]Flower Pots[/h2]

In a much earlier version of the game, your restaurant used to be outside and could have little gardens, which means there's a few garden-related things in the game that will hopefully make an appearance later. For now though, I've added purchasable flower pots. Buying a pot will give you one flower each day, which you can use to get yourself out of a tight spot - each colour of flower has a different ability

[h2]Messy Customers[/h2]

Building on the improved messes from the last patch, there's now a new Messy Customers unlock, and customer groups with children will make more mess. To help you keep on top of all the flying food, the new napkin station will let you drop napkins off on people's tables to stop them making a mess

[h2]Layout Improvements[/h2]

Lots of people have been asking if they can build bigger restaurants: the game has always had a larger layout unlockable at level 9, but that takes a long time to get to, and it was unclear that you would get it. In this patch, I've added a new wide layout, which is a bit bigger and unlocked sooner. Watch this space, though; I'm hoping to rework layouts to add more variety and more types, including different settings and more unusual features

[h2]Conveyor Improvements[/h2]

Conveyors can now push things into more things, including dish washers, large sinks, plate stacks and ingredient sources. This should hopefully make them a bit more predictable and open up some more automation options.

[h2]Full patch notes - 0.6[/h2]

- Adds flower pot
- Conveyors can now push into more things (including dishwashers, ingredient sources, large sinks)
- Adds new wide layout, unlocked earlier than the large layout
- Adds napkins, Messy Customers upgrade and makes families messier
- Increase experience gain from doing well
- You will now have at least one layout choice from each layout type you have unlocked
- Fix mop water and sink splashes not being visible
- Fix bug with new layouts not being displayed correctly (thanks DuckingDuke and Summerborne)
- Fix bug with layouts not being granted at the right level
- Fix bug with placing items on top of each other
- Fix bug with rare crash at end of day
- Fix parcles being delivered in doorways (thanks LordyMatsuo)
- Fix messes spawning underneath things (thanks DuckingDuke)
- Fix for being able to start the day with unopened parcels (also added warning telling you) (thanks LordyMatsuo and others)
- Fix patience not being updated mid-timer if something changes (this also enables temporary patience improvers)