Hey everyone, I'm Tim and I'm tackling GameMaker:Studio with a cool team of people to create a demonic cooking rhythm game! Or at the very least a prototype of one!

Overview

"Soul Food" is a PC game (future platforms TBD) that takes place in the real Hell's Kitchen as the soul of a sinful chef finds their self on the menu unless they beat the underworld's top culinary talent in a series of Chopped style cook-offs!

Gameplay

You play as the sinful chef who will have a short time to cook a selection of ingredients at separate cooking stations that each require rhythm based minigames to maximize your meal score. Select an ingredient, move it to the highlighted station, then hit the notes just right to get the most points before moving to the next station. The trick is starting all of your ingredients at the right time and juggling multiple minigames to cook the perfect meal!

Team

• Tim(skeletim) - Lead/Programmer/Designer
• Tony(SaucyFaucet) - Musician/SFX
• Ashanti(ashantifortson) - Asset Design/Artist
• Emilee(cyclopticrobot) - Character Design/Asset Artist
• Kodie(megaspel) - Animator/Programmer

Personal Goals

1. Complete at least one functional level of the game!
2. Keep code clean, organized, and well documented!
3. Playtest a bunch to make it as fun as possible!
4. Git gud at game design!

Progress So Far...

Over the weekend, I was able to get a grasp on GM:S and implement dragging and dropping ingredients into different stations to start the minigames, which looks pretty boring so far since I'm just using red and blue blocks while I prototype.

SO here's some assets Ashanti and Kodie cooked up today for the Cutting Board station!

There'll be lots more to share later this week as Tony and Emilee work on their portions as well, along with tweaking the heck out of the chopping minigame and figuring out our starter menu of ingredients/recipes.

Thanks for checking out this project, I guarantee the cooking AND hell puns will NEVER STOP. Hope you guys enjoy!

Looks neat, I'm looking forward to playing this !! :3

I really, REALLY love the idea of a cooking rhythm game, and the cutting board looks sick. Definitely looking forward to this one!

i love cooking games and rhythm games looking forward to it!! :D

lovin the eyeball cutting board. excited to try this out??

fun as hell concept!! *finger guns* and that gif alone is freakin' gorgeous I'll def be checking this out

Hey everyone, thanks so much for the positive reception so far!
Here's a quick update with a little concept art to show and progress to share:

Emilee whipped up a few chef designs for the player character, who will react to how well you're cooking throughout the level via constantly changing expressions. I liked the designs so much that I want all 4 to be options for the player!

Aw, wouldn't they fit in so well on an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen? If we have time, I'd like to add character bios and the specific Culinary Sin that damned them to this infernal challenge as well. Perhaps you'll meet one of their demon opponents soon too...

Today I worked out how to spawn notes for each rhythm section and how to properly set score based on how accurate your clicks are. I'm still a little shy about showing the prototype in its current state since it's a little food baby, but I imagine it'll be more presentable by the weekend.

There's a lot I still need to learn about rhythm games, but luckily Tony's making the sure the music's great and recorded some excellent SFX for the first minigame! Hoping to share a sneak peek of the sound design in the next update. Enjoy!

THIS IS SUCH A COOL CONCEPT ?!? i'm really loving the cutting board's design whoa... i can't wait to play this!

Really cute aesthetic! 100% interested in playing this game after it's done.

Oh boy, it's time for another update!

I've been coding the first minigame, the cutting board, and finally got it to a point you can understand what's going on (though some of the graphics got garbled in the GIF maker somehow).

That blue block represents a piece of chicken you'll start the game with. You can drag and drop it onto the cutting board, which starts the rhythm portion. Click the note when it's lined up with the target for 30 points, missing the target will only net you 10 points, and missing the note altogether gets you NOTHING! There's a lot that's going to be tweaked about this, such as when notes are generated and moving the target. but LOOK IT ADDS SCORE AND GETS RID OF NOTES AND YOU CAN DRAG THE THING BACK OFF WHEN YOU'RE DONE!! I'M SO PUMPED!!

Still need to add all the amazing animations and music my team's been working on, but I'll be able to start the next minigame tomorrow, which will be measuring out ingredients for a sauce and mixing them together. What kind of sauce does this recipe call for, you might ask? It's going to be a TERROR-yaki sauce! This first level will essentially guide you through a simple, condensed version of a real life teriyaki chicken recipe. One goal I didn't mention at first is helping players learn recipes and embrace their creativity in the kitchen, both when they're in hell and at home!

Stay tuned, the weekend's approaching and I'll have loads more to share tomorrow and Sunday! Also, I occasionally stream my development, so keep an eye on twitter to catch when I start the stream!

We're now past the halfway point, so let's keep it up, fellow jammers!

Oh man dudes this looks AMAZING I'm so psyched!!!

Hey guys, here's another update as we approach the finish line!

Even though a good portion of gameplay still has a ways to go, I'm just happy to get more of Ashanti and Emilee's wonderful assets into the game. Tonight I started the process of coding one of the player characters, Mikoto, to react when you're getting perfect accuracy on chops or missing entirely!

Going to add a frame around the portrait, a better display for the score, and to rearrange the play area to let some of the assets be bigger and show off that sweet art more. Also I need to get Kodie's knife animation in there, along with perfecting 3-4 other minigames and getting all of Tony's excellent tunes and sounds into the game and all sorts of loose ends, I have my work cut out for me!

If you're digging Ashanti and Emilee's art, you should check out their awesome webcomics: Galanthus and Conduit!

At this point, I'm not sure I'll have time for another dev log update, but it's been a pleasure sharing progress with all of you. I'll be really happy with whatever we have done by the end, I've learned so much over the course of this jam and I really want to make Soul Food something special. There's a good chance I'll continue plucking away at developing this, even after the jam. Thanks again for the support and encouragement!