September Devlog!

Another month, another devlog! September was extremely productive as we worked long hours to prepare a version of the game to submit to a popular convention. Though these sprints are tiring and it's important to take care of yourself throughout the process, they are admittedly very helpful in forcing you to cut out all the fat in your designs and get down to what matters. Here we go!

New Sushi Interface

Again!? Unlike the last changes to the sushi interface, this redesign was much more about organization and ease of use. The list view allows us to keep things neat even as the number of ingredients and condiments grows, though as a writer I'm mostly just excited to have room to describe things!

Chatty Customers

Whether a customer adores or despises a dish, it's important to know why. These simple messages are helpful to the player and I look forward to seeing how much personality we can squeeze in them.

Better Character Editor

James made the character editor a lot prettier, and I was able to successfully lobby for the shoes and apron options as well. The randomize button occupies most of my play-test time. it's just so fun to me! When the randomizer picks matching shoes, apron, and hair... It's gonna be a good day.

The Story of Rolling Hills

For (what feels like) a long time James and I have been pitching ideas to one another about what makes the town of Rolling Hills special, and what exactly those cute animals are doing there. We needed a story that would be uplifting, justify the animals' existence, and combine it all in the context of a sushi restaurant.

Here's where we are: the animals are unseen mountain spirits known as muses that grant people the courage to follow their dreams. Your restaurant happens to be in the exact location where their shrine was a thousand years ago, so they mistake the first dish you serve as an offering to them.

The reward for your "offering" is that the muses will imbue your sushi with magic, so whoever eats it will become a little braver. Once a customer has eaten enough, you can trigger a small scene to help them overcome what's been holding them back from pursuing their dream.

I like this story a lot because it gives us a way to make each animal and customer extra special. Seeing customers drop hints about their dream and then watching it finally come to fruition alongside a cute costume change is (hopefully) a satisfying, emotional moment.

On The Next Episode...

If you've been following along closely, you'll notice these "Next Time..." sections are increasingly unreliable. As you might imagine, things move quickly in game development and sometimes our priorities shift. In the interest of being transparent I'm going to continue writing them. Feel free to place bets on which ones will be finished first! 😜 

Whenever James and I are at a crossroads, we'll write out every feature we think could immediately improve the game and then "draft" each one, taking turns as we decide what's most important. It struck me upon our most recent draft that more than half of the features were things that add more challenge to the game. 

Right now the experience of playing Rolling Hills is a bit like a playground. Outside of picky customers saying "I don't like this ingredient", there are very few restraints on how you play. The wonderful part about that is the lack of stress and room for experimentation and creativity, but to make the gameplay more balanced we're looking to add a "special request" system that allows customers to occasionally ask for more specific things. We'll also be fleshing out the town portion of Rolling Hills, with the goal of further illustrating how the restaurant and town gameplay compliment one another.