SoftFoxxo's Untitled Cooking Game (Latest Release: v2a)

Gain Jam Gain Jam 9/2021
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Itch .io page (Download here):

So to fit with this year’s theme “Hands Off”, I made a cooking management game!
Your workers that you command are good and bad at making one type of food, and the quality of the food they make can radically vary. If they make something with a good quality, then the customer will get back in line for seconds (or thirds, or fourths). What’s not helping is that the customers are about as vague as can be with what they want from the menu - so you better hope you tell your crew the correct food to make. However, if you get a good amount of correct orders over bad ones, you might get a little bonus to help you out.
Randomly, your workers might get a boost or drop in morale - it’s completely random, but it’s at least only once a day.
You have to believe in your workers’ skills to make sure that you’ll have enough money to pay off your $1500 debt in 5 days. Each day takes 2 minutes in real time, so make sure you have around 10 minutes to spare. The game also stores your 3 highest scores, provided you’re able to pay off the debt.

When the game loads for the first time, it’ll ask you if you’d like to change the controls - I’d recommend at least looking at the defaults, and adjusting the graphics/audio settings from this menu. If you say no, you can still access the menu from “Options” on the title screen using the arrow keys, and pressing Z to choose the option. Changeable keyboard keys use a generic 1-6 graphic for each key, so it’s strongly recommended to look.

Install Instructions: Extract the zip into its own folder, then run the “GainJam2021.exe” file, and have fun! Feel free to post your score(s) with any feedback.

Default Keyboard Controls
Arrow Keys to move through menus
Key 1: Z (Choosing/Confirming)
Key 2: X (Backing out or scrolling through your food queue)
Key 3: C (Opens/Closes your food queue)
Key 4: V (Tosses out your topmost item in the food queue when the queue is open)
Key 5: A (Just used in the options menu to scroll left)
Key 6: D (Just used in the options menu to scroll right)

System Requirements: Windows 7 or newer. If you’re using Windows 7, make sure Service Pack 1 is installed first.

NOTE: The arrow keys, d-pad, and analog stick cannot be rebinded! The analog stick’s deadzone can be modified, however.

EXTRA CREDITS: Royalty Free music by Rolemusic.

In-game Screenshots (Using a PS4 Controller, Button Icons can be changed):

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14 Likes
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The hints seem incredibly inconsistent. For example, half the time when a customer asks for something with noodles and I give them pasta made by Chloe they like it but half the time they don’t. And I don’t know what on else on the menu that would have noodles, so I wonder if this is a glitch or something. It’s hard enough figuring out what to give for the rest of the orders when the ones that sound the most obvious don’t work properly.

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The heart just means the quality is extra good for them to get back in line - the audio is what you need to be listening for, in the case of getting the order correct or not. I’ll upload a new version tomorrow with less-vague hints, since I intentionally made it vague to begin with to add some difficulty. The quality is up to the crew members - so you just need to trust in them to make the most money!

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Okay, that’s the issue. Sound is set to 0% by default so I had to go into options to turn it on.

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Oh! Sorry about that! Thank you for the catch on that - adjusted the hints in release v1b, and fixed the default setting. You’ll need to change it in the Options menu still because the game will detect your earlier save, but it’ll be good for newer players.

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I don’t think it was so much the hints themselves but the feedback response (or lack thereof) that was the issue. Without sound or the heart icon, there was no way to tell whether a customer liked what was made or not. At least now I can figure out more opaque hints through trial and error.

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There’s sound??

*fiddles about*

There’s sound~! :star_struck:

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Heres my let’s play of the first build of the game :slight_smile:

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I want to try this game, but I messed up the key bindings pretty bad and made it unplayable. All I can do is back out of options and use the arrow keys. I tried re downloading the game to see if I can start over, but it remembers the key binding I set. Is there a way to fix that?

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Cor blimey, the challenge is fun but so far my “high” score has been getting -$150 haha :sob: Seems like you really need to land those bonuses consistently to stand a chance at winning.

Some playing advice? It seems if someone likes a dish, they are more inclined to come back and order the same thing, so try to immediately re-order the same dish or have multiple on the go. I found there were times when I was continually running batches of the same dish.
Also try to get a cake going asap since it’s the longest thing to make, odds on at least one person will want cake. Worse when you have a cake run going, oof…

I’ll share some more thoughts on the game later but for now I do wanna say that the music is an absolute bop! Simply love it!

edit: whoop! \o/

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2 Likes
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Sorry about that! To delete your data, you’ll need to go to this directory:
“C:/Users/[Your PC Account]/AppData/Local/GainJam2021/”
If you can’t find the “AppData” folder, look up online how to make it visible.
Either delete the contents of the Data folder, or Data folder itself. This will destroy your High Scores in the process.
If you realize you’ve messed up the bindings but you’re still in the correct section of the Options menu OR if you have a Gamepad to get yourself to the correct section of the Options menu, then you can press F8 to reset to default.

1 Like
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Are their new download links the current ones are not working.

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@Brawcup: Is the Dropbox link having issues, or is it the zip file?
Edit: I’m checking it on my phone and desktop, and Dropbox seems to be acting up. I’m unsure on how to fix this, I’m sorry. Looking into it right now.

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My only suggestion at the moment is that if you downloaded the game, please make sure to close the link afterwards so others can access the page! It was starting to give me 404 errors, and the file hadn’t moved in the Dropbox folder - so that’s my only guess at the moment.

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Hey, so Windows Security said that it detected a trojan in this?
Screenshot 2021-09-21 154616

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My game strategy (Spoilered in case you want to figure it out on your own): You can have a maximum of three items ready in the cue, so I immediately get Chloe to start on Pasta and the Bottom Girl to start on Cakes, because those ones take the longest to make. If the customer wants anything else, I get the middle girl to make it, which she usually does pretty quickly. Whenever the customer wants a cake or pasta, I get the respective girl to make another one for the next customer. At that point, it’s just a matter of guessing the orders right.

3 Likes
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It’s a false positive. The ! in that means it guessed via machine learning, from what I found online - so either it’s a false positive, or you’ve got a virus from elsewhere already.
Just to make sure, I ran a virus scan on my own PC and it found no threats.

2 Likes
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Can’t wait to play it! I’ll be sure to replay it after the jam as well, assuming you’re going to work on it a bit more. It’s always fun watching the progression of a project.

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Ok, sorry to for the false alarm. I’ll run a full scan and see if anything else turns up.

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I can’t download the game. It’s just a 404 page.