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I was thinking this kind of game is usually more interesting if it has a few things depending on what the aim is

- make it frantic, like you're in a rush for whatever reason (think overcooked) and the goal is to do as much as possible in as short a time as possible. I don't think this would really make sense here, but I still thought I'd mention it

- make the characters unique, like they have their own stories, their own preferences, and you get to know them over time and they are the reason you want to continue playing. Maybe you have dialogue options, maybe not, but you get to know them one way or another

- make each species unique. Can go with the previous one, but lets say you added like just three desserts to the game (saying that because I'm not sure what species should like which tea lol), maybe the squirrels tend to love the chestnut cake and the turtles tend to like the fruit cakes. The bees and bear could be more likely to want honey in their tea

- don't actually say what they want specifically, or not always, or not entirely. Like I remember an animal telling me they were stressed, and it could have been fun if they just left it to me to decide what to give them. Maybe they just say "I need something for my cold", or "I've been having green tea every single day, surprise me with something different". And perhaps each tea has one to three different properties, like maybe chamomile and peppermint are both relaxing, black and green teas are energizing, and ginger is good for health. You can do the same for the toppings, and/or allow mixing teas to get multiple different effects in one cup. That last bit probably wouldn't make that much sense with the ripping of the packets and dipping mechanics, but there's still something to it. That does change the game a little, it's not just about fulfilling a specific order all the time, but it adds a lot of depth I think.

- make it a management game and/or let me unlock stuff. I was gaining money every day, but I couldn't really spend it on anything I don't think? It could have been interesting if I was the one that had to choose which product to restock, or unlock new flavors that could get me more money or more customers. Maybe I can unlock different machines too, or the aforementioned desserts

- alternatively (or concurrently), just let me use the money to decorate the cafe by buying different stuff.

Those are a few of the ideas I had, of course they can all be combined to some extent, meshing together in interesting ways: perhaps customers that are fully fledged characters can give you specific decorations, or maybe some decorations attract specific species of customers, or some species will sometimes give you some ingredients or something if they like you.

Anyway, good luck with the jam and with the game if you go further with it!

(+1)

We did this as a team so we basically brainstormed the ideas in a few days, not everything made it in, you know how jams go lol. We only had me and 1 other programmer Hiccup to build systems and implement the ideas that where flowing in from everyone. He was great to work with, between the 2 of us we got over 200 programming tasks of (varying degrees of complexity) done on our task board. 

I like the idea of fleshing out each character, it would be nice to do a pass on each character and get their personalities more nailed down. It was intended but done rather frantically.

All of your ideas would be pretty easy to add to the systems we already have without a major refactor. Adding so many more things without overwhelming the player might be a concern, but then again, sometimes games can be overwhelming when they start, but the more you play you start learning the mechanics and then if done right it makes you want to come back and keep unlocking stuff and thinking of ways to do x and y.

Some of my ideas are:

- add a greenhouse where it's more of a sandbox, you can grow herbs and ingredients, maybe after each day you go back to the greenhouse and count your money, acorns and pick new ingredients for the next day.

- add an inventory system, so you could carry special stuff with you, like rare ingredients or keep your acorns with you. (btw acorns, one of the ideas was to make them exchangeable into "bitcorn" which is a currency the composer Ella came up with lol)

- add a store to buy new ingredients/items every day

Thanks for taking the time to give your ideas!

Further development is up in the air at this point, just depends on where the team would want to take it and how much time they would want to spend on it.