June Devlog!

To be honest, these were the kind of posts I was afraid of when I launched our Patreon. We made huge changes this month. Changes that will make some of the earlier screenshots and gifs you've seen here totally irrelevant. It's scary to think that some of you may have really liked things as they were, and yet here we go changing them, but from my experience iteration is the name of the game in... games. As someone who loves nothing more than finishing projects, my instinct is "if it ain't broke don't fix it", but this month we had some ideas that I believe will help make Rolling Hills the game that you all deserve.

The Belt Is Back

What felt like a big change a month ago now seems like small potatoes! When I talk to people about Rolling Hills, they normally say what excites them most is the prospect of being creative with their sushi making. I agree, and that's the theme of this month's changes. 

If someone comes in and orders "California Roll", that's not as creative for the player as talking to a customer, learning they love cucumber and hate crab, making a dish with that in mind, and then sending it down the belt. Because the customer will consider every dish as it passes by, the belt becomes a really good delivery method for inexact orders.

For the sake of variety, we'll still have picky customers who come in with special requests, but like a side-quest in an RPG, you can say yes or no depending on whether you want the additional challenge.

Crafting = Cooking

Our sushi creation minigame had some big issues. It was fun in small doses, but we were forcing it every time the player made a dish. Our first idea was to simply limit the number of times you play it. After finishing a dish, you'd be asked if you want to add it to your menu. If it was on the menu, you didn't have to replay the minigame in the future, you could just select it, play a short animation of the sushi being made, and voilà. Simple, right?

But that seemed like a cop out to us. We added that minigame to express the sensation of physically making sushi, but chopping and rolling isn't what makes sushi special. It's all about being creative.

So we rebuilt it. We have some cool new stats that not only make customers more interesting, but also give the player proof that as ingredients are added or taken away, the resulting dish is changing in meaningful ways. It all culminates in a new phase where the player applies condiments that change the dish in a variety of ways. Condiments can get pretty crazy (imagine how gold flakes might affect your roll) and we like that because it's fun to surprise the player.

Oh, and you can still add dishes to the menu to quickly recall them. That part still seemed like a good idea.

Can I See Your ID?

Because most customers no longer shout out their order, it's up to the player to seek out their preferences and make a dish with them in mind. We made a little card that displays when you interact with a customer. It shows their name, some stats that are still subject to change, and their ingredient preferences. The blacked out ones are ingredients they haven't been served yet. It's up to you to experiment and see what they like! I wonder what will happen if you put all their favorites into one roll?

Show and Tell

Finally, we took all these changes to our local game dev meetup on the 30th. I can't stress enough how helpful it is to have an opportunity to show the game to other developers, or anyone you trust for that matter. What I like about other game devs is that they know how tiring the process can be, and as a result it's easy to trust them to understand which portions of the game are in focus and which are still on the backburner. They're awesome!

On the next episode...

We're more confident than ever about our restaurant gameplay, and that feels great heading into July. We'd like to make sure rolls look as unique as our new crafting gameplay implies, and we'd like to start showing the town of Rolling Hills ASAP. It's time to leave the restaurant!