Devlog 09: Sliding right into polish!

Hey everyone, welcome to Week 9 of development on Soup Showdown! We're getting close to the finish line, and this week was packed with power-ups, UI upgrades, sound polish, and lots of behind-the-scenes improvements. Let’s take a look at what’s new!

Art

The art team delivered a ton of visual updates and new assets this week to help bring the game’s identity into sharper focus:

• Designed the start screen and menu buttons for the game’s intro flow
• Created controller button visuals for the guide screen
• Made the ink splatter VFX for the squid power-up
• Tweaked the timer visuals for clarity and style
• Modeled new props and ingredients:
• Faucet + water bowl meshes
• Bowl mesh, butter, squid, mushroom, and snail meshes 🧈🦑🍄🐌

All of these elements are helping the game feel more complete and visually exciting.

Programming

On the code side, the team implemented several new power-ups and made key system-level improvements:

• Added the squid, butter, mushroom, and snail slowdown power-ups, each bringing its own wild twist to gameplay
• Implemented button presses and thought bubbles to communicate player intent and reactions
• Added UI for utensil selection
• Introduced a countdown timer to give matches a clean start
• Reworked the prefab structure for better performance and easier management
• Squashed a bunch of bugs across systems for smoother gameplay
• The team is also still experimenting with game mode variations, working toward something that’s both fun and replayable.

Sound

The sound designer spent the week fixing bugs and polishing implementation, and we’ve now got a bunch of new audio in the game:

New sounds include:

•   UI sounds are now fully implemented for a more tactile feel!
• Stirring success sound
•   Stun effect sound
•   Ingredient spawning noise
•   Cauldron boiling loop
•   Splash sounds

With most SFX in and music on the horizon, the game’s soundscape is finally taking shape.

That’s it for week 9! We’re getting close to the finish line, and each week brings the game closer to being the frantic, soup-slinging showdown we’ve envisioned. Thanks again for sticking with us, and we’ll catch you in the next devlog! 🍜💥