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Pepper Hermit's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artistic Style | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Cleverness | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Theme | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Playability | #205 | 4.667 | 4.667 |
Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- Loved the game! It was a nice, relaxing break from a hectic day! It tickles the ADHD part of my brain with the addition of physics and organization, I had trouble pulling myself away from the game and might have spent a bit too long on it. The art style is charming, though it could use a bit of polish here and there. I understand the cute and charming aesthetic fully and you could leave it at that, but a little bit of shading and a bit of an upgrade to the outside of the world would be nice. For example, instead of a wide open field, as a hermit myself, I'd feel more comfortable in a place surrounded by trees. It would also be nice to have some more organization, for example, a crate you can eventually buy that allows you to put the peppers away into, it could tickle the part of people's brains that enjoy seeing numbers go up. I loved the music and the option to turn it off was really nice! All in all, really good work! I do hope you keep working on the project, I would love to see where it goes!
- The physics got in the way of an otherwise compelling game. The UI should be a little less crowded (UI being the store front). Love the music. Love the art.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
YES
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
You play a researcher developing recipes for a secret shadow cabal of chili sauce connoisseurs, tasked with rediscovering the recipe for the Philosopher's Hot Sauce.
Click and drag objects to move them around.
Drop peppers onto plots to start to grow them. Drop peppers into cauldron to start to brew them into sauces.
Click on the calendar to progress time.
Be sure to right click around any posters, documents, or papers in the room! They act as in universe tutorials.
If you have too many letters cluttering up, you can burn them via the candles when they turn on at night.
Buy peppers and sell sauces through the market by tapping the bell on the windowsill.
Story is presented through letters every 3 days.
Research points are granted every time you make a pepper. Get 25 research points to unlock the ultimate sauce recipe.
Click the cassette player to toggle music.
Extra Notes
In the interest of saving time for judges, please read the Tips section in the game page's description! It'll help speed things along if you want to 'beat' the game. The game should take 10-20 minutes.
Have fun!
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Comments
First off, I must say- great minds think alike! Our entry also utilized a very physics-based approach to the brewing section with specific recipes to follow to produce certain results, and it's a lot of fun to screw around, throwing peppers and other objects all over the place.
One thing that I found quite difficulty to play around however, was the lack of non-physics storage in the game. That is, places to put items that didn't make them pile up and flood the countertop. I quickly found myself having to sort through piles of peppers every time I wanted to brew something, and the money adding on definitely didn't help, and I never found myself needing to spend it because I was able to simply grow the secondary and tertiary peppers instead of cross-breeding. My one recommendation in that regard would be to make money be more of a UI element where it just subtracts from it when you make purchases, and make some kind of storage system that is independent of the physics system (look at how our ingredients were stored for reference)
I absolutely loved the bit of humor in the letters you would receive, like how the organization got extra adjectives added to its name every time, but they too I wish could be stored/trashed without relying on a secret mechanic (which I actually found out about while writing this. I saw the letter that hinted at burning them and even tried the candles during day, but had entirely not noticed they became lit at night, even if it makes sense in hindsight). The sound effects and music were also very well done.
Other things that could be done just as a quality of life thing would be to make it possible to "bookmark" a recipe so that it can be viewed without opening the book again, as I found myself reopening it every couple peppers to ensure I had the steps in the correct order (although this wasn't an issue for yours as an incorrect potion would just spit the ingredients back out. Although, the problem WAS exaggerated when my items started to pile up too much, causing ejected items to fall back into the cauldron immediately), and allow players to skip to any point in the day by clicking that point specifically. I found the game would lag greatly to the point of freezing if I tried to spam click the calendar, so waiting it out and then clicking again got tedious after a bit.
All said, I'd honestly call it a solid 9/10 game! Only quality of life issues to account for, but a really good entry.
Thanks a ton for the detailed feedback! It’s super helpful, and I especially appreciate the candidness.
Coins definitely pile up. I quite like the physical aspect of them, I think having more things to spend them on would alleviate much of that issue. That and the slow tedium of passing time was definitely more of a progression balance design that I’m less adept at, and didn’t have a lot of time to refine before the submission date.
A robust non physical storage system would alleviate that too, like you said, and could be extended to both coins, peppers, potions, and the letters. I couldn’t quite think of an elegant way to make something in time, but I quite like how you did it in your game!
Things can definitely pile up, and the chaos can add to the charm since it depends entirely on how the player organizes their workspace, though I’ll admit the options for such organization are quite limited! We tried to add shelves and baskets and made sure the countertop was large enough to help, but only so much.
Regardless though, I’m so happy you enjoyed it enough for a 9/10 despite the flaws! And it’s cool how similar our entries were :) I’m sensing some shared inspiration from Potion Craft! (If not, I’d recommend trying it!)
This is my favorite game of the jam so far! It feels so cozy and interactive. I love that it’s so physics based, it’s so fun to throw items around! Also the art is AMAZING! The only thing I think is wrong with it is not implementing the “Shadows” part of the theme. Overall a 10/10 experience!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it that much! The feedback really means a lot.
We tried to interpret “shadows” as “secret organization” and delegated that entirely to the plot presented through the letters. That said I do recognize it’s not as strong an incorporation of the theme as it could’ve been.
Very cute submission! The tutorial is presented very clearly and the gameplay is intuitive. The only thing that stumped me for a second was how buying and selling works. I also like how you move everything around on your screen, although picking up objects was not always super responsive. The main feedback I have is that I would like to see some mechanic to organize my workspace, because it quickly becomes really cluttered.
Good job!
Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad it was an overall positive experience, despite said imperfections.
I definitely agree with you on the organization, we didn’t have much time to do that right and fully finish the game loop. Being able to burn the letters to free up space, baskets for peppers and the jar for coins as well making sure most of the screen has table space and shelves was the best compromise.
But yes, very valuable feedback! Thanks <3
Chill little puzzle game; reminded me of Witch Hand. In the spirit of Witch Hand, I could see this game growing into something more, with many more recipes, peppers, combinations, and a bit more countertop space (I really didn’t want to burn the letters and didn’t try to put them in the basket).
The most challenging part was me being a stubborn dummy who refused to read any of the help text for the first 20 minutes. That, and remembering what I had planted out and needed to pollinate after the sun went down.
Everything being a physics object was charming, especially when you send a pepper flying and it hits the power button on the radio.
I had a great time. Well done!
Thank you so much for the feedback and I’m so happy that you had a good time with it, it really does mean a lot <3
It was definitely in the interest of time that some of those issues weren’t ironed out. Like having an indicator of what was planted, or a more organic guided tutorial. And frankly burning the letters was a simple and quick solution over figuring out an elegant storage solution haha.
Still, I’m happy with how it turned out and I’m glad you feel the same! I don’t think it’ll win the jam but any response like this is a win for me <3
It's a great looking game, I love the fact that you can pick up and throw around anything in the world! And thank god you put a button in the game to turn off the music, it was too noisy so that was a really nice touch :)
I like the artstyle and the lore. Cross breeding pepper to get new ingredients is a good idea on pepper (:D) but I feel like I just plant some seeds and furiously click on the calendar, hoping to have the intended result as time passes.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah that is an issue we’d run into, we weren’t fully able to iron that out in the time frame without an overhaul. Do you have any thoughts on how you’d address it?
Well if you ask me to be the idea guy ! :p
I would have done cross-breeding by surroundings one pepper with different colors, as it is (kinda) done in Nier Replicant.
Player would for example plant one blue pepper, surrond it with 2 yellow peppers or more and the next day the blue pepper would become a green one.
So a day in the game would be "plant seed and try combination" and then the player click next day with all the new pepper already grown out.