itch.io

Unfortunately getting stuck on the “some text here” bug like others. Since it’s Godot, if you start the game via a terminal application, you will get a log as such:

❯ Initialize godot-rust (API v4.2.2.stable.official, runtime v4.4.1.stable.official)
Godot Engine v4.4.1.stable.official.49a5bc7b6 - https://godotengine.org
Vulkan 1.4.303 - Forward+ - Using Device #0: NVIDIA - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

ERROR: Navigation map synchronization error. Attempted to merge a navigation mesh polygon edge with another already-merged edge. This is usually caused by crossing edges, overlapping polygons, or a mismatch of the NavigationMesh / NavigationPolygon baked 'cell_size' and navigation map 'cell_size'. If you're certain none of above is the case, change 'navigation/3d/merge_rasterizer_cell_scale' to 0.001.
   at: _build_step_find_edge_connection_pairs (modules/navigation/3d/nav_map_builder_3d.cpp:151)
ERROR: Line ID "line:C:/Users\Patto\OneDrive\Projects\WeightGaming\GainJam\pizza-planet\assets\dialogue\pizza_plannet_dialogue.yarn-StartGame-7" not found in line provider with language code None
   at: push_error (core/variant/variant_utility.cpp:1098)

(where that second ‘line 1098’ error spams indefinitely while the terminal is active) My initial guess is it could be something to do with users who have multiple Windows languages installed, as not everyone has the issue(?) - I try to avoid couch debugging though. Hopefully this gives enough info anyways.

Congrats on your first VN release! It’s a short, sweet little story that doesn’t try to overreach, and it totally nails the cute boyfriend vibe. Really charming stuff. These are just some friendly notes I wrote down while playing - mostly polish, future expansion ideas, and general feedback to help take things even further. Take all this with a grain of salt and feel free to ignore anything that doesn’t fit the style you’re going for. I see you’re trying to make more of these games, so hopefully this just comes across as friendly banter from a fellow in the industry who wants to see others flourish.

Writing & Dialogue:

• The slice-of-life tone works really well. It’s adorable, and the dynamic between the characters is super endearing.
• Grammar is mostly fine, but could use a quick polish pass - stuff like sentence structure and punctuation consistency.
• A small nit-pick, but a few lines don’t end with any punctuation. Ideally all sentences should end with some form of punctuation mark (‘.’, ‘?’, ‘!’). Similarly, some lines (like thoughts) don’t start with a capital letter. It’s all still readable, but tightening those up helps it feel more complete and intentional.

Text Presentation:

• Text speed defaults to instant, which can be a bit jarring (perhaps a leftover from rapid iteration during development). Normally for Visual Novels I would recommended to have the text speed set to some medium rate that matches the average reading speed, and the user can choose to set it to max speed/instant if they find it too slow, or slow it down if its too fast in the settings. Just helps the pacing feel more natural on first playthrough.
• All the text - dialogue, narration, player thoughts - shares the same font and color, so it’s not always clear who’s “talking.” The only distinction that something is a player thought comes from the fact there is no nameplate - something as simple as italics, or a slightly greyed-out text colour, would make this more distinct.

Visuals & Sprite Stuff:

• The graphite-style outlines are nice, but it looks like the background was removed using a magic wand tool or similar? There’s a faint white fringe behind the exterior outlines. Exporting images with a transparent background (instead of removing it after the fact) would clean that up (assuming you didn’t draw directly on the default background layer and first created a new empty one. I’ve done that a few times haha.)
• Lancer’s shocked face has a visible seam at the neck, where the head was presumably swapped - just a layering/tweaking issue, but thought I’d mention it in case it slipped through.
• The sudden stomach expansion is fun, but feels a bit too quick since only the stomach changes and the face stays the same. A short fade‑to‑black or 1 or 2 interim belly sizes spread across a few preleading lines would smooth the reveal to help it land better.
• There’s a line of text that mentions “blush on face,” but there’s no visible blush on the sprite. Might be worth popping one on there for consistency (/comedic timing + cute factor).
• Backgrounds are a bit bold and high-contrast, which can sometimes make the character art blend in. Softening them slightly - either by desaturating, blurring, or white-washing - would help the characters stand out more in the foreground.

Audio & Atmosphere:

• The ambient diner chatter is a great touch - it gives the scene some life. That said, the volume balancing is a little off. Some sounds (like the gulp) are way louder than the rest, so adjusting the mix would make everything feel more cohesive.
• Adding a background music track would really bring the mood together. Even a single loop can go a long way in setting the tone and improving immersion. Doesn’t have to be a paid or even attributed track if you don’t want it to be - royalty free and even public domain generic tracks exist for this reason, and are a great quick addition.

UI:

• The game uses the default Ren’Py main menu. Totally fine for a first release, but even something as simple as a custom background image or some music would help give it a personal touch.
• The credits are great to have, especially for attribution, but it might be worth hiding Lancer during them and swapping to a neutral or dedicated credits background - just to make it feel like the story has properly wrapped up.
• Since you’ve got players’ attention at that moment, it could also be a good time to drop your social links (itch, Twitter/X, Bluesky, etc.). It’s a natural call-to-action right when players are most likely to want to see more from you.

Design/Future:

• The story is linear, which totally works here - but if you ever feel like expanding it or making more VNs, even just small branching choices that loop back into the main story can help players feel more involved. They don’t need to change the plot - even just the illusion of choice that changes a single response helps with player engagement since they feel like they have some degree of agency and aren’t just watching everything unfold with zero input.
• You’ve clearly got the Ren’Py basics down really solidly. With a bit of extra polish and these kinds of enhancements, I could easily see future projects going even bigger (pun intended hehe).

Hope this feedback is helpful and not discouraging - Really looking forward to what you make next, fluffball 💖

First off, congrats on getting this game out! There’s a lot of potential charm here which is very clear in the hand‑crafted intro and neighbour scenes at the start. Below is a brain‑dump of various notes and feedback from my playthrough. Please take these with a huge grain of salt, as I am but one person, and my vision may differ from yours. I’m not trying to say the game is good or bad, or that what’s currently implemented is inherently wrong, so please don’t feel that way. Let’s get started.

Visuals:

• Quite a few renders feel under‑baked (noise/light speckling, most noticeable on faces and flat walls with large shadows). Either more time in the oven, or (if not possible) a denoiser pass, would help things a lot.
• The world map is a painfully obvious vanilla AI image with nonsensical roads, bridges, buildings, lots of noise, etc. - it clashes with the hand‑made 3D art elsewhere. Consider making this a 3D modelled environment screenshot too, for a more consistent visual feel.

Writing:

• Speaking of AI, after the intro, the switch to clearly AI‑generated dialogue (like as seen in the Burgers, Bar, and Work locations) is incredibly jarring. Overly verbose long-winded dialogue without much flavour or underlying game lore hints; all while using words and descriptions that nobody talks like in the real world. If AI is a core part of the pipeline, and that’s non-negotiable (I won’t provide my opinion for or against that, what I feel is beyond the point) - a human rewrite for improved legibility, better word flow, insertion of game lore, and so on after the fact is in my opinion essential. It’s a Visual Novel. Novel is in the name. Good writing is important.
• Ideally you really should disclose AI usage on the description page, especially for a paid VN. Transparency to players is important if you don’t want bad reviews.
• Some dialogue lines are way too long and wrap all the way to the edge of the screen. There isn’t any right-margin on the text box, so it nearly gets cut off.
• Dialogue choices really should only show a short summary of what clicking on it will say, not the entire speech. Two-to-three sentences in a choice box, when you have three or four others to pick from, is a lot to read (and a waste of screen real-estate for those on smaller devices.)

UI:

• Multiple menu elements are light grey, or even white text on a white background, making it incredibly hard to read. That’s coming from someone with near 20/20 vision (and this would be borderline impossible for players with colour‑vision issues). Higher‑contrast text would help everyone (accessibility for some is accessibility for all.)
• The non-descript unlabeled “four‑girls” button in the top‑left at Home doesn’t seem to do anything that I can tell. There’s no icon label nor tooltip so it’s not clear to the user what it does, if anything (if it doesn’t do anything, consider making it greyed out, or hide it entirely).
• The “Toggle WG” option name is very vague and, frankly, a bit confusing. Is this toggling player weight gain? NPC weight gain? Both? Can the player even gain weight? It’s not explained anywhere. If the main mechanic of the game is about weight gain, why would there be an option to turn it off at all? It’s like buying a burger meal with chips, just to throw out the burger and chips and only have the soft drink.
• Similarly, the “Toggle Speech Sounds” option name is also a bit vague. Turning it on/off enables Text-To-Speech (not actual voice acting). If this is trying to be passed off as actual character dialogue, I would seriously recommend against it, as robotic TTS voices are not a great user experience. If this is supposed to be an accessibility setting though, that’s perfectly fine, but I would make it crystal clear (i.e. call it “Toggle Text-To-Speech” which is more indicative).
• TTS Voices fall under the “Sounds” audio slider, and not the “Voices” audio slider. I assume this is a bug, as it makes the voice slider a bit pointless since it controls nothing.

Mechanics:

• From what I can tell, money never changes. Food from the Burger shop is free, and working doesn’t give you any cash. The money counter always sits at $1000. Since money has no effect, working, buying meals, and time‑of‑day choices all don’t feel meaningful. Same with eating—does the player gain weight? Do NPCs? Right now there’s no visible cause‑and‑effect so it feels like I’m pressing buttons that don’t matter and hold no weight (which is the most important feeling you need to nail for a VN).
• Entire “story dead‑zones” are very common at the moment (probably just because we are early in development). Going upstairs, staying at the beach, all of this often has zero effect, making the early game slow to a crawl. Maybe stuff is happening, but I’m nearly on Day 40 and I haven’t seen any visual indicators of my efforts. Early content should ideally stay dense to keep people engaged.
• The fire‑crackle SFX outside the house is atmospheric, but it keeps playing on the world map, and in neighbour cutscenes when you aren’t at your home. Feels like a bug in those areas.

Minigames:

• Cooking: A zero‑penalty tutorial (even just preceeding text prompts the first time) would teach the mechanic before throwing mistakes at the player. Right now the progress bar jitters (could do with interpolation/smoothing), and handle speed-ups feel random instead of rewarding skill. Check out Fable II/III’s wood-cutting/pie-making/blacksmithing money-making minigames for a tight “slow start to hectic finish” progression that keeps players chasing multipliers and rewards skill in an engaging manner without punishing newbies. (hint: It’s not just the minigame, it’s the polish surrounding it - the UI graphics, the affirmations and roasts by the blacksmith, the general progression curve, the levelling with higher levels starting with a bigger base pay but having more buttons to press, etc.)
• Marshmallow roasting: Cook time varies wildly - 3s one run, 30s or 1min the next.
• I think this is actually a bug. The first time I had Skip Text still turned on, and the second time I didn’t. Skip Text shouldn’t affect minigames, but if you turn it off, the base speed is so incredibly slow before you get even a single subtle sprite change that it can feel broken at times (like the game is stuck). Base speed should be increased.

That’s the lot for now haha. Please don’t let this dishearten you in any manner, nor let this reflect my overall opinion of the game (I haven’t sent through an actual rating/review yet since it still feels like early days, and opinions will change). I’m excited to see where this goes, because there’s a solid foundation here, but there are a few minor things that I feel need addressing for the sake of players. Good luck with the next build!

Achievement unlocked: Certified Yapper

Firstly, yet another astonishing update. This game has come a long way and I’m so happy for all the people involved :D

As is tradition at this point, I’ve collated a list of general feedback notes. You’ll probably note that quite a lot of these are minor and mainly polish related, since that’s in general a reflection of how things are coming along which is amazing. Again, I’m a silly goober - take all of these with a grain of salt. It may just be my playstyle and these aren’t as much of an issue as I make them seem to be. Some of the mechanic ideas may also not be what you guys have planned for the future, and that’s okay. I’m just spit-balling here so I get them written down somewhere before I forget. Keeping a small scope is important for game development, and some of these may detract from the most important parts of the experience!

• The ability to customise Little Cowe is a cute touch, me likey
• I feel like on the first day, customer waves should be spread a little more (whenever something is initially introduced, the first shift or day should probably only be like 0.5x intensity, so it lets the player get into the rhythm a little better).
• The bedroom after shifts is nice, though perhaps an extra dialogue line after ‘Shift ended. You got $##.00’, like ‘I’m tired. I should head home now…’ would help ease the transition slightly.
• Instead of a ‘To Work’ sign, how about interacting with the bed to sleep? (immersion idea)
• A bit of weighted randomness, or using the grab bag approach, could be useful at the beginning, so we don’t get a new customer of the same type in the same seat immediately after the first was served. This becomes less of an issue at higher levels though, since practically all seats are filled all the time so you don’t notice.
• I’m loving the cameos
• [Technical] The highlight around tables when hovering also extends the mouse hitbox. This is good in terms of providing a larger hit detection range for those quick mouse movements, however in my opinion the highlight should not take hit detection priority over tables/customers that get occluded by said highlight (in other words, the highlight should expand the hitbox, but be on a layer underneath the table and customer sprites; meaning that if a table is behind another, even if you accidentally hover over the table in front, the moment your mouse enters the sprite of the other table it swaps to that as the focus; instead of currently where the highlight extends the range of the table in front). This does technically apply for everything interactable and not just tables, but they are the things where you notice it the most as they are all on top of eachother. Especially when you upgrade to add more and more tables. Misclicking tables is also really bad because you can start an order before you’re ready, and exit out of it by accident in a panic before you’ve written it down. Hopefully I worded this well - I might not be making sense here haha. Easiest place to see this is when there’s someone short in seat 6, and someone tall or wearing a hat in seat 3. Or the same with seats 2 and 8, or 1 and 3, etc.
• Potential immersion idea: Could have an item in the bedroom that allows you to save your game - you can do this with RMB, but it’s not immediately intuitive since you don’t right click anything else in the game. having a distinct item you left click on would feel more natural and make sure people know how to save [UPDATE: Ignore this, I didn’t realise ESC also works, which is pretty stock standard. This feature would just be for additional immersion but is definitely not required.]
• [Polish] It could be cool to implement “dynamic music”. Currently music does change when you’re in a shift vs. when you’re just hanging out on break, however it would be a nice touch if the music tracks had variants for different areas of the same building (like when you enter the backroom, or the manager’s office, it’s still the same track but with less/different instruments)
• The tip floating text is much appreciated
• The auto-serve sound (Break Time’s Over sticker) feels a little out of place thematically (I couldn’t tell what it meant initially until I witnessed it happened because I was out the back for the first few occurrences. That and it plays at the same time as the entry bell, but the entry bell sounds like it starts later because it begins with silence). It could even be something like a cat meow or cat bell sound to play into Charlotte’s?
• [Mechanic Idea] Could be cool for upgrades for cafe decorations too (like how it was done with outfits), such as different seat styles, wall decor, layouts, perhaps different stations that introduce new food types and complicate orders further.

Maybe the interior upgrades attract more of the cameo characters as decor improves? Before then it would be more of the generic ones. (Plus, nice decor = better ambience = better tips = more patience) - could even do fun items like jukeboxes.

• Option to recycle, upgrade, sell, or reroll duplicate stickers in some manner? (maybe you can combine lower tiers for higher tiers; or you can scrap stickers for some sort of ‘sticker shards’ units, that can be combined into another random sticker; or even a sticker blackmarket; just something so that duplicate rerolls dont feel as disappointing, especially at the start when you only have like 2 or 3 stickers and have so many to collect, yet you already get a duplicate because you haven’t unlocked the mechanics for the other sticker types yet)
• [Polish] Maybe the bedroom should get messier with player weight (starts clean, slowly the chips and soda appears on the desk, then the blanket becomes unkempt, then maybe the mattress gets a minor indent, etc.)

[Mechanic Idea] At some point perhaps you can upgrade to a nicer apartment since you outgrow the old one (at which point mechanics such as Energy could be implemented, and nicer apartments rejuvenate you better, or some other unique things that extend beyond cosmetics)

• There’s a few funny story telling opportunities that I don’t feel get explored in the earlier parts of the player’s progression, such as Penny could complain about needing to make so much cake, or Little Cowe stating that its weird they need to keep ordering so many cookies all of a sudden (hinting at the player’s snacking habits)
• [Mechanic Idea] Maybe the player at higher levels needs to clean tables, setup placemats and cutlery, and/or clean dishes as additional tasks? The computer could be used to hire someone to automate these.
• I love the new cutscenes; beyond obviously being hilarious and adorable, it really builds immersion too, as it now feels like there’s people living in this world (on top of the intro showing the other cafes, and the bedroom showcasing a city outside the window)
• Not sure if its a bug or intended, but the eating Penny scene (Day 11 for me) didn’t allow my character to digest food from the morning (could be intended since they spent that time eating more). In the later cutscene with a similar outcome, it’s stated the player feels full and didn’t get a chance to digest, so including a similar line in this cutscene would help.
• [Bug] Room To Grow (Rare) had the grey (Common) background in the popup when I received it, but in the clipboard it has the correct purple background
• [Polish] We’re getting to the point where it could be time to consider minor animations? (i.e. tail wag of the player, full stomach gauge meter could bounce a little, the notepad pencil could move when hovering, the movement arrows could bounce in the direction when hovering, etc.)
• Milk production seems quite fast when you first unlock it. Like the above recommendation, perhaps for the first shift or first day it only functions at 0.5x speed? That or it starts slow, and as weight increases a few more grades, it also increases in rate. This is mainly an issue because at the beginning you start with a really small capacity.
• [QoL] Pressing the milk room button should probably start milking immediately, as its an additional redundant click (you wouldn’t be going to the room unless you needed it; and this behaviour is inconsistent with when your milk meter is exceeded and automatically forces you to be milked, which doesn’t require an additional click)
• [Bug?] Pre-filled stickers slots in the clipboard can be replaced with different types in a single click, but not different rarities (for example, if you select a prefilled sticker slot of Break Time’s Over (Uncommon), you can replace it with Employee Retention Strategy (Uncommon), but not Break Time’s Over (Legendary). You must first set it to a blank sticker, then to the rarity you want.)
• [Mechanic Idea] Option to sell produced milk for additional money? Currently it seems like a punishment for reaching higher levels (which it should be, as it’s an end-game challenge, but there should also be something rewarding for sticking through it to the player imo.)
• Damn, the scale is sassy!

Yet another amazing update - I love seeing where this game is going, and as per usual, I want to provide my thoughts on some of the latest changes (at least the changes I've noticed):

- Pause menu animation: Awesome. Really nice touch.

- Notepad: I originally wrote a note here about how it was good that the music stopped so it indicated to the player that time is also stopped (though the new countdown also reveals that), but it would be cool (but potentially a lot of work) if it had a different variants of music that are more toned down instead of silence - apparently you guys beat me to it, and playing back I realised it actually did have alternate tracks which is sick

- Vending machine: When you first get the vending machine unlocked, all of the items are the same exact price now. While not necessarily bad, as a first opinion to the user, it does kind of degrade the 'illusion of choice' a little - for sure each item works differently, but they also all cost the same. Perhaps one could be $30, one $45, etc. for a bit more flavour (obviously this is nitpicking as I'm sure more vending machine content is likely to come down the line anyways)

- The plate icons at the top right are constantly visible, even in the introduction cutscenes. This confused me initially as, until I had actually grabbed my first item, I was stuck wondering what these weird 'pill-shaped ovals' over the amazing art was. Fixes would be either hiding these in cutscenes, only showing plates when you have food on them, adding an extra 'indent' curve to the plate, or even recolouring it to cream white or silver

- The floating text that appears when you place down food is a nice touch, and implies that the complexity of the order and speed of delivery can influence it (though this isn't expressly confirmed to the user as far as I can tell)

- Big fan of the new customer variants, both coloured and uncoloured (though its almost bittersweet in a way - I love the monotone goofballs too; would be awesome if there was an easter egg, or sticker, or some way to bring these old fellas back haha). An interesting thing from the new sprites is it also gives a third additional way to remember orders (colour, number, or distinct character sprites)

- Ideally the plates in the kitchen should highlight when you hover over them and the food is done; as it stands no highlighting occurs which, when every other interactable has a highlight, is a bit confusing to the player and makes them second guess if they can click on it initially (kinda ties into 'game feel' if you would. Showing the highlight only when food is cooked would also help alleviate the issue where the progress visual on food reveals some margin of transparent pixels on either side too, meaning that theres a fraction of time where the food appears complete but is not yet clickable)

- Would be nice if the held plate icons at the top right also had a highlight for this reason

- The different bottom arrow sprites is a nice touch that help isolate each screen from the other (not sure if this was a recent change or I'm only just noticing it)

- For the first few beginning days, the waves are a bit aggressively obvious - you end up with 2 customers immediately, then nothing for 40+ seconds, then 2 customers, then nothing for ages, etc.; whilst this is great for difficulty in the later days, the beginning may need a bit more balancing (and again, this is just balance, i.e. the boring stuff that comes with time. No one is expecting perfection here yet as stuff changes haha)

- I appreciate that tables have both colours and numbers now (the numbers in particular are ideal for colour blind individuals), however perhaps an accessibility option could be added to show the table numbers in the main area overview too, since if you rely on the numbers due to colour blindness, your only solution is to try and remember positions on top of everything else, or click on every table until you find it otherwise

- I did have around day 3 or 4 a comment from little cowe stating the 'cafe was doing unpopular?', however it wasn't clear to me why this was happening as a player. I hadn't made a single mistake, I was upgrading as often as I could, and I was incredibly rapid in my deliveries. It would be nice if little cowe gave a bit of justification about what the customers aren't liking so it turns it from a negative 'you did bad, but I wont tell you what' into a more constructive 'you did bad, here's what to improve' comment

- It would be funny if higher player weight made you slower in screen transitions (fan service c'monnnn)

- The 'ask again' feature (or what I assume is the 'ask again' feature, as I saw the bubble but never actually clicked on it) needs some introduction to the player, since its a random button that suddenly appears with no explanation. Something as simple as an extra part in the tutorial "Let's pretend you forgot, you can press the bubble to ask again but it will affect your tips/client satisfaction" would suffice

- A transition between subsequent days may be needed at this point, as the music and everything suddenly 'resets', but it isn't clear what actually happened until you see the day counter increased and its now morning (basic fade, music sting, etc. doesn't have to be something stupidly cinematic)

- I'm a little skewed on the addition of addons (hehe) like sugar. It's not immediately clear by reading the upgrade, and even when you first purchase it, what the system does (I sat there clicking on it thinking it was supposed to increase my fullness when I eat or something but I must have misread the wrong upgrade), and I didn't work it out until my first order; at which point when you get to the stage of adding addons, you're probably pretty quick, and so I clicked through it too quickly and realised I stuffed up. It could be nice if little cowe came back when you purchased your first addon and gave you a brief introduction to what it entails? Maybe I'm just being a clicky clicky doofus though and just need to slow down

All in all, I think this update like the others is smashing it out of the park. I absolutely don't want any of this to sound negative as I love the work being done here, and instead am just providing my (probably biased) two cents. Cheers big ears!

Yet another banging update. The upgrade system is ingenious, especially since it allows you to temporarily upgrade yourself, permanently upgrade yourself (gacha), and permanently upgrade the restaurant too. It gets considerably more hectic now which I love, and in a way, the notepad acts as a way to help ease new players in, and not using the notepad is a risky skill-based tactic to maximise efficiency (since you save time not writing down, but if you stumble you have nothing to go back on), instead of the previous update where it was more of a suggestion.

As always the art style is adorable, and the comedy is on-point (weapon foreshadowing much.) The more I play, the more I see myself thinking of other systems from real-world American diners (and classic flash games like Papa's Pizzeria) that could be used as inspiration points - for example, maybe there are "high priority" customers with quicker tempers that tip more; maybe there is a penalty for providing the wrong food to a table instead of it just not letting you place it (less tip, more anger, etc.); maybe there is a chance for random disguised restaurant inspectors who affect the popularity of the place based on their service; maybe some upgrades come with a penalty (like one which upgrades the kitchen, providing faster cooking speeds, but introduces a new menu item you have to remember); so on and so forth. I can't wait to see where this evolves with time. Great work team!

Great game flow, and it's really interesting leaving the notation entirely up to the player to work out how they want to write orders with limited space and symbols. One issue I've noticed though is there is actually almost no incentive to use the notepad unfortunately. Whenever a customer arrives, even if a bunch arrive at once, you can just as easily click on one, immediately get their order from the kitchen and serve it, then click on the next pair, and so on - there's no penalty for going to the kitchen over and over again, so there's no reason to try and be smart and remember a bunch of things at once. I reckon if going to the kitchen passed time faster by even a little, then that means you've got more of a reason to write down as much as possible to minimise trips.

Oken the first time, then Nishky the second. Think I'm sensing a trend...