itch.io

data.json (wouldn't fit formatted)

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verification.json

{
    "Mozzarella":"d52024d04922c524fa125dea2ddd423c",
    "Parmesan":"bce7ef5360afd2df892d683ac901e3fb",
    "Romano":"d52024d04922c524fa125dea2ddd423c"
}

I got a new error late last night after trying to resume my game after going to the catalog to refresh and see any new releases. The thumbnails were slow to load, so I went back to resume my game and saw the following error:

Seems like real file corruption happened somehow since windows offers to repair the drive when I attach my playdate in data disk mode. 
Does something look wrong with this save data (continued in another post to get under the character limit)

• Got this crash on the catalog version of the game when trying to load a saved game in slot 1. 
  
  Haven't run into it again. Might be significant that this is my first game on the catalog version.

• Also, I noticed 2 occasions where I got the same customer twice in a row. I've got overtime on as you can see above, in case that matters.  
• If you hit the skull in the spin to win minigame after getting a perfect on the clown it seems to increment your score from the satisfaction level you had prior to the mini-game, erasing any loss for the skull. I think Karen works the same, at least with "Nobody likes a Karen" on, but I never got around to mentioning it before.

All of the above is on a playdate from a little over a year ago 

New crash today on a game where I've probably been running the playdate without restarting since the last version dropped.

Ok, hottest of hot takes above from my first game of the update aside, I think I get what's going on with me being a bit averse to the frequency of the mini-games:

The main game is clearing customers by grinding cheese. The mini-games are distractions from this goal and feel like more of a threat than a treat. It's like that closing door psyche experiment, but in this case it's "deal with this game, or it will cost you". I call them distractions because they don't get me closer to ending the shift, I don't know how many are coming in a round as opposed to customers in a shift counting down, and they don't break my combo when I fail them. I don't mind the clown wheel or cheese lover games at all because that delay just me waiting on my guaranteed bonus reward beyond what I get for clearing the customer. Coming out of 2 mini-games and into a reload is jarring since the mini-games no longer deal with the cheese grinding so, I often forget that I might have been close to a reload. The grind only versions of the game make that rhythm easy to keep track of at the expense of variety. Maybe crazy, but could we see the cheese in the grinder go down visually somehow? 

Also, my aversion to Cheese Greatest has been making the game way harder than it needed to be since I'm playing on default crank sensitivity. Because my cheese dispensing was so slow, I didn't feel like there was much of a choice of when to take a mini-game. It was either right now, or if I was feeling adventurous, 1 more customer before I barely catch the end of the window to accept on level 20+ in progressive. This getting stacked 4 times means I don't get to space them out at all. Now that I'm using cheese greatest, there's a ton of leeway on when I take a mini-game and I can miss customers or mini-games with no real fear of losing. The perfect reload modification triggers after every few customers and makes up for any small slip ups and "More cheese please" feels like a debuff if I were to take it. That might be a bigger reason to tone down reload frequency than the mini-games occurring so often. 

I also wonder how someone new to the game will understand what's going on with mini-games happening so early. I picture them dealing with the inscrutable Pokerface, not quite spotting the customer countdown in the HUD, trying to read the score for the customer before it fades away, and having to deal with the urgent events as early as round 1 (which I've only run into once). I don't think the game needs more complexity that early for possibly the same reasons that you introduce more novel customers in later rounds. Maybe urgent events start after round 10 or some set number of total customers after you unlock all the customers? I'm very much thinking of this like the old single screen arcade games where you can gauge your progress by how much of the game's enemies you've seen (e.g. which fruit did you see in Pac-Man, did you see the flies yet in Mario Bros). I'm imagining someone talking to another player about making burgers in this game and the other person thinking they're being put on until they get good enough to reach that part.

Also, I'd love to beta test if you ever get something like that going! It's always fun seeing what you're cooking up.

Ok, just got the new update. This is hilarious!

First impressions: 

Try Havarti feels fantastic to hit! Schwing!

 Maybe there should be another sound effect for try havarti since the sound indicates scoring points in one setting (try havarti) and gaining satisfaction in another (when you have perfect reload active).

That Heimlich game got dystopian really quick. ♬Ooooh, ah. He just died in my arms tonight! It didn't even end my shiiift. His spirit floats awaaaay♬

Maybe a chair slides into frame and the customer does the self heimlich and scowls at you as way to not watch a man die and keep grating cheese? :D
I mean, I am still laughing about it, so maybe it works as is.

I think I should have the option of doing the last emergency event if I've completed the last customer of my shift and there's still time left on the event.

Not My shift, Not My Problem sounds pretty strong. Is that there in case the mini-games are too much for someone to deal with? It's opting out of the entire update minus a flashing icon to ignore, or am I missing something?

Ok, too many emergencies kind of kills flow. It actually does keep me on my toes, but its hectic and I wonder if it would put people new the game off a bit to have to juggle so much and choose when to activate the mini-game.  I find that the sound alert is probably necessary given how the events work now, but they can interfere with the "close to satisfied" sounds the customers make which is what keeps me out of flow because I'm dealing with scheduling an interruption while more are coming instead of being fully engaged in the customer I'm dealing with. For instance, I've had the same customer interrupted by 2 events and a reload multi[;e times. 

I'd rather have the emergencies show up like reloads automatically do. I'm picturing a fast waiter anime cutscene like a boss showing up in a shmup. "HELP" or "ORDER UP" or a single word scroll across the screen prompting me on what the mini-game would be and it's over very fast. Like can I fail the soup game and watch the customer run around fanning their tongue if it's not over in 5 or so seconds? You can take a long time with burgers and soup which can make for weird pacing compared with the rest of the game. 

Alternatively, could there be another kind of problem customer who needs you to run a bit of a gauntlet of soup cooling, burger building, etc? Another person who orders dessert sometimes and needs whipped cream on top that you tilt the playdate to apply. I'm leaning towards more predictability on when the events happen to put an upper-bound on the chaos making the events feel less disruptive.

Random  thoughts:

It would be nice to have a couple of save slots or even just a way to quickly play an unsaved game. I wanted to show the game to some relatives at dinner and ended up just bringing my older play date since win didn’t want to spend the couple of minutes to back up progress on my newer one.

Overtime is making this a bit less of a casual drop in kind of a game for me. I don’t remember exactly how many customers are in a shift now, but it’s close to 150. Playing a shift is now a bit of a commitment to having (at 5 seconds per customer)12.5 minutes to lock in since I’m in the faster shifts of a long progressive game.

Does the high cheese output per grind setting also make “Raw Dog” and “All I Need” much more sustainable than expected? 

Perhaps there should be some cap on how much cheese a cheese grater can grate given a cheese grater can up their cheese output in the settings?
The Cheese Lover mini-games pays out like Cheese Greatest at the lowest crank sensitivity setting, which doubles the points per mini game. I’m guessing with Cheese Greatest and lowest settings that doubles again. Capping it so that you’re cranking to get up to 100% of some fixed rate per second could address the accessibility issue while removing any score incentives for cranking irresponsibly.

Also, it would be cool to update stats at the end of the shift to include of the current game. It can be a long time  between Fired screens so you might not see a new high score or max combo for quite a while.

Could there be some tables that need their drinks filled to the perfect level by using the tilt sensor in the play date? Variety or unnecessarily increasing complexity and needed dexterity while breaking from the cheese focus?  Haven’t given this one much thought 

(Also, I am totally representing the Try Hav-arti ‘s of the game, so take any suggestion with a grain of sea salt)

The Cheese Greatest reload window is fine, but as a score centered game, I think there needs to be some pressure on the player to take on that kind of risk as a requirement. For instance, you could limit the total shifts in a game or remove the “Stay Employed” and reroll option after some number of rounds to make the more risky options mandatory. Without that I can settle on a build where I safely score more slowly, but play indefinitely.

I feel like the Cheese Greatest reload window is something a player can consistently manage, but takes you from “play forever” into “the house will eventually win”. Missing a couple of reloads after resuming was enough to derail a 2M+ run. Hard to say it’s worth the risk if I’m just chasing points. Also, a bunch of cheesy achievements to chase or somethings to unlock with points would be amazing. 

Here are a few power-up ideas: 

Git Gouda or Jack Wick: some kind of growing the customer points multiplier for every 10 (or whatever number makes more sense) consecutive perfect reloads you have currently comboed when you’re in Cheese Greatest. 

Cheese Wax Wings: combo your next 100 customers and get 2x their points, -3x those points if you don’t.  Inspired by taking Cheese Greatest too lightly and getting humbled 😅

Jean Parmesan:  Karen has a chance to be so happy after a perfect grind that she gushes to your manager. Complete the direction sequence for double points? Maybe you just have to crank some ridiculous amount of cheese instead of the mini game? I’m mostly just want to reference this bit in some way: 
https://youtu.be/Sx6qfur2Cuc?si=EGmTBPb-YZlmryLC

Cheddar luck next time: forgive one mini game that will get you fired otherwise. Helpful if you up the stakes on Karen or the clown.

Modifiers with no name:

Bonus points for pressing b on the first frame or 2 that qualifies as perfect 

Bonus points for, but rising score quota for the shift or you’re fired

More varied timing on the cow mini game in exchange for bonus points for completing it successfully

Clown mini game always triggers 

I’m not sure I’m getting “all I need” in this game. Do you need another modifier that can go inactive to get the 4x at the end of the round? I started another game where I only have, in order of acquisition, All I Need, Take 5, and End on a Good Note. I haven’t triggered the 4X bonus yet.

Now that I’m further along, I’m seeing duplicate modifier choices. I already have Lactose Intolerance, but now I’m being offered it again.

Also, we need to have more modifier names along these lines for maximum pun-age