The Perfect Bowl News

With the addition and changes stated from my last update (December Update), The Perfect Bowl is at a state where I am proud of. I think it has a pretty good foundational gameplay loop and play testers have validated that theory. There are still many things to polish and fix but seeing such progress is really exciting and motivating.



[h2]Reworked Flavour System[/h2]

Unfortunately, this part will still need more time to cook. The biggest issue is that the mechanics are not tied closely enough to the narrative as much as I want. That being said, I'm still pretty happy with how this turned out and has gained me valuable insight on how I can possibly move forward.

In this iteration, the player is required to hit a threshold of any of the flavours based on the toppings used in the bowl. This unlocks dialogue options for the player in response to their customers'
conversation. Each dialogue option is different in the way they approach their customer.

Eg: A hearty dialogue option would make the main character respond in an assertive way.

[h2]Favourite Bowl of the Day Mechanic[/h2]

This is a replacement/extension to the photography system in the game.

The photography system still acts as a preset system to allow players to quickly spawn a ready made bowl but is now also used to "present" it to the main characters Dad at the end of the day who then responds with a unique dialogue based on the dominating flavour of the bowl. In addition, the player unlocks special toppings only obtainable through this interaction.

My hope is that this system would encourage players to be creative and assemble a beautiful looking bowl and also be a nice mechanic to cap off the game loop.

[h2]Better Noodle Physics[/h2]

One of the fixes I am particularly proud of is having better noodle physics. In previous builds of the game, the noodles was a huge pain in the butt to both code and play with the game. It took quite a while to figure it out but the solution was really quite simple.

So now not only do I have a really smooth running game, but also fun looking noodle physics as well.


Huge thanks and appreciation to play testers. Through their playtests, I gathers quite a lot of insight on what I should change and improve on.

• Viewport size transition speed adjustments
  
• Soup refills less fast
  
• Optimized systems to achieve a constant 60fps
  
• Stream jiggles noodles
  
• Condensed tutorial created
  
• Items that are over the trash button shrinks as a visual indicator
  
• Button interactable hints are more obvious
  
• Topping validity checks have improved
  
• Softbody physics have been made more efficient
  
• Dialogue has been cut down and edited to make playtesting smoother
  
• Soup function has been reverted to not applying it automatically
  
• Moving of bowl can be done as long as hovering over any front facing portion of the bowl
  

Another big thanks to play testers for being able to find bugs to fix.

• Toppings now get added back to inventory when trashed
  
• Only currently selected topping changes emission color
  
• After trashing toppings, selecting an existing topping adds it again in the credit panel
  
• Trashing bowls does not reset noodles in the credit panel
  
• Clearing table accidentally removes flavour thresholds
  
• Fixed scaling being snapped
  
• Soup spilling effect got broken but is now fixed
  

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December Update Post:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2976790/view/532085430055602329

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Happy Holidays! December was spent focusing on initial playtests and impressions. I'm proud to announce that the playtests were a success in that game breaking bugs were found and insights were gleamed. The gist of it is that the game loop didn't have enough depth to it. I thought of some solutions which would hopefully address these issues.

Additional features to add over the next month:

1. Inventory and Supply Shop System (Completed)
   
2. Reworked Flavour System
   
3. End day Favourite Bowl Mechanic
   

[h2]Inventory and Supply Shop System[/h2]
In the hopes of making the player be more conscious of what ingredients they add to the Ramen bowl, I thought I would make ingredients have a limited amount they can use (save for a few starting ingredients). This would tie in with a reworked flavour profile mechanic which I would go into detail in the next update.

The player then restocks their inventory before every work day starts. The availability of each ingredient and whether or not its on Sale (Half off its price) is dependent on its rarity.

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November Update Post:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2976790/view/536587777549009673

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November is basically a push to try to get a fully playable version of the game. Adding additional art work and features so that I can get some play testers to prod the game for game breaking bugs or extreme friction causing UI/UX.


[h2]Day 01 (Tutorial Level) and Day 02 Dialogue Sequences[/h2]
Using Pixel Crushers Dialogue System plugin definitely made this much easier than it would have been without. Most of the time spent of this was modifying the system to fit my needs and create exceptions to the pace game for the tutorial stage. Introducing features bit by bit.


[h2]Dialogue Options Hints[/h2]
This feature was thought up when I reallized even I had a difficult time trying to figure out what combinations of flavour would lead to which dialogue branch. I also wasn't going to design and develop a complex system to take into account of how every flavour would affect every dialogue. Just the illusion of it would suffice I think. So simplifying the process would hopefully make the game less of a guessing game. This is another one of those features that I think would be good but cant really confirm until I get play testers which fortunately would be soon.


[h2]Credits and Ingredient List Layout Changes[/h2]
The layouts showing the remaining credits and ingredients used have been adjusted a little bit to make it easier to look at

[h2]Customer Portrait and Name[/h2]
A feature to help with immersion.

• Topping transformer UI is properly active when Selecting topping when builder panel is open
  
• Credit and flavour fields get updated properly. Fields affected by soup get recorded twice causing values to not reset
  
• Next and previous buttons do not showing up when previewing photos if there is only one available photo
  
• UI panels appear and disappear appropriately when in photo taking mode or preview and preset
  
• Tutorial animated sequences playing properly
  
• Loading a preset updates system that checks if all required types of ingredients are present
  
• Target location of bowl updates properly when serving
  

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