Donna's Diner: Version 1 RELEASED

Welcome one, welcome all to the full release of Donna’s Diner.

When your enigmatic aunt sent you a letter congratulating you on graduation, you only expected it to be full of well-wishes and celebration. You weren’t expecting her to pass on her old diner to you.

Better put that new catering degree to good use then?

This game contains the following:

A cast of lovable characters, player choice and lots (and I mean LOTS) of food.

Primary content:

  • Weight gain
  • Stuffing
  • Mild burps
  • General fat-ness
  • Money management
  • Multiple endings

Optional content:

  • Player character gains
  • Big burps
  • Slob
  • Intimacy
  • Secrets
  • Financial success
  • POV feeding

There’s quite a few hidden passages here and there, as well as 7 distinct endings, so get experimenting and see what you can find.

I don’t mind people discuss findings, but at the very least please mark them as spoilers if you do.

Version 0.1 release notes

Hello there,

So, for those of you who saw my post from back in March, the project’s been progressing at a steady pace. (Basically whenever I feel like writing in the evening when coursework’s on the light side.) I’ve probably jinxed it by saying it but I think it’s nearing the home stretch, that is until playtesting throws everything to the wind.

For those of you who haven’t seen my original concept post, here’s a summary.

The game is a twine text adventure where you take on the role of a diner manager who, through a variety of events, can influence both your own character and the rest of the staff to gain weight. You cycle through a routine as your choices begin to change the events around you, with plenty of descriptions as you go through the motions.

Premise
You, the player character, have just received a phonecall from your Aunt Donna saying that she’s retiring from her job as a diner proprietor and that she’s passing it down to you. Business had been a little slow, so the previous staff have all cleared out and moved on to other things, so it fell on you to put out an advert and interview any applicants, of which you’ve whittled it down to a shortlist of five.

Katie: an energetic sporty type, talkative and very enthusiastic.
Max: outwardly a reserved goth, but is more friendly than she appears.
Nadia: very warm and easy to talk to, slightly older than the others.
Maya: the slightly stiff but well-meaning daughter of a wealthy father.
Maria: ex farm-hand, bold and headstrong but a little out of her comfort zone.

Please note, the full game (probably) won’t have any illustrations, this are just to get an idea across for now.

Content
All the options for staff members are female, but references to and descriptions of the player character are gender neutral. Gains aren’t exactly accelerated, but the sense of time is loose enough that each cycle could be interpreted as a number of days or weeks, whatever you feel fits your taste.

There are descriptions of messy eating, burping and general slobbery/messiness but that content is specifically locked behind a choice later on into the game that I hope is fairly obvious, though if that stuff really isn’t your scene, I totally appreciate if you want to give this project a miss.

Project Status
Here’s the whole thing as it stands so far:

Fair warning, Maria’s lunchbreak interactions are unfinished outside of the full slob route, and a lot of passages are either unfinished or under contruction so don’t be surprised if you get any pages that are just a nonsense link, just hit it and keep going.

That being said if anything seems like it might be an error please do let me know, because I’ve definitely got unflattened bugs and gaping oversights.

Donna's Diner v0.1.html - Google Drive

Here’s a rough idea of how much is complete (green), nearly finished (yellow) or unwritten (red). (Purple is dummied out dev stuff.)

Version 1.0 Changelog
  • Game is longer and larger over all.
  • Maria’s content has been implemented.
  • Money scoring and shop system introduced
  • Endings introduced
Version 1.1 Changelog

Spelling error in Maria passage fixed
Issues with endings E/F hopefully resolved
Font should now be different

52 Likes

Looks interesting, I’ll be lurking

2 Likes

Nice work for being a first release. Keep us updated.

1 Like

I love it you came out the gate running it’s fantastic i love all the characters to the point where i played the demo multiple time and i cannot wait for more

1 Like

Ah damn I’ve already got a completionist on my hands, glad you liked it.

Just out of curiosity, did you have any favourite characters/routes?

1 Like

I’m loving the game so far! Went with Katie, Max, and Maya my first go around while experimenting with that unique event, dont know which outcome I enjoy more tbh.

Any hints as to how big everyone will be getting as the story progresses?

1 Like

I loved Katies , Nadias, and Max, This isn’t to say i dislike the other i enjoyed Maria and Maya

1 Like

You’re currently looking at most of the planned material in terms of growth, the only thing missing in that respect would be the endings, which would take on a “where are they now” style skip ahead. While I’d love to be able to add a few more cycles, as it stands I’m already bloody exhausted just doing the 4. I could dig deep for one more, but that’s probably about as far as I intend to go.

Size-wise basically anything still somewhat independently self-mobile is fair game, though at what size people are still able to walk in this universe, I will leave for you to find out.

2 Likes

I hope there will be more stages at some point. I know it takes a lot of time, but I think it would be nice. Ultimately, it’s up to you since you are the developer. Can’t wait for more updates :slight_smile:

1 Like

This has been an excellent first demo of the game! I really enjoyed the slob descriptions of the girls once they gave in, but kinda feel that they got to that point a little too fast as of now. Other than that I’m looking forward to seeing future updates and the eventual final product!

3 Likes

Really enjoyed this, keep this up!

3 Likes

I really liked this, excited for more.

1 Like

Personally I felt like the weight gain was way too quick. It should pile on slower. Other than that there’s lots of great potential with this text adventure

7 Likes

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who’s given feedback. Especially the criticisms, it’s all really useful stuff and I feel a fair bit more enthusiastic about the project now that I know there’s people who want to see it finished.

I’ll keep you guys posted when any major developments occur.

9 Likes

What do you need to run it? I just get yards of coding text…

Just any web browser like chrome. Just drag the HTML file onto chrome and it’ll just work

1 Like

So it does! Thank you!

It all seems to happen in a few days. Might it not be more fun if the staff inflate slowly and the customers do as well? Also the diner would make more money if the customers keep returning!

Great start - thanks…

1 Like

Assuming you don’t mean literal inflation, yeah I totally agree.

Pacing has quite clearly been the main complaint so far. The current pace wasn’t final, but I’m definitely going to make a few more changes than I originally intended.
As for customer gains, it was always planned to be included. It just needed a few more things in place before I could include the bulk of it.

Pun absolutely intended.

8 Likes

Pun accepted! No, I did not mean literal inflation!

Thanks.

1 Like

Minor update: Got the finance system working. (I think?) Meaning that everything left is either writing or value tweaking.

Also, hopefully, anyone who dug around the previous twine file will understand what this image means.

For those of you that haven’t, I guess you’ll find out when I’m done.

Sorry for the slow development, I’d blame Sunbreak, but I’ve also been distracting myself with digital art.

Again, I’ve got no plans to fully illustrate the game, but with the way things are going I might add a few bit and pieces if I can work out how images work in twine?

Here’s a couple of them by way of appeasement until I have something new to share.

14 Likes