

I made it a priority to focus 100% on making a gameplay video as soon as it was possible. I’ve been making a ton of progress so I wanted to share how it was going so far!

First off, what does it mean when I say I’m focused on a gameplay video? It means that stuff that is typically saved for later in development is pushed forward (like graphical effects for the grill) and stuff that’s important for the game but unimportant for gameplay is pushed back until the video is ready (like having text being loaded outside the game for translation purposes). It does jumble things a bit but it’s a great morale booster as it gives me a window into how the game is shaping up and what to expect when it’s all done.

Yesterday I had to rewrite some of the visual scripting I had going on as it was much too complex to be really useful. I was worried how difficult it would be to write this part of the engine, as it is the number one thing that changes drastically from food to food. For example, I can make a new ingredient menu for a new food in five minutes, as they all use the same basic scripts and code. But to display that food on the grill or on a plate takes a ton more time, or at least, it would if I had to do it food by food like I did in the last game. Now, I’m making it to where I can make batches of food per equipment. So by making the grill I can focus on getting all the foods that utilize the grill in the game, then make the deep fryer, etc.



I want a good variety for the gameplay video so I think I’m going with six foods, two sides and two desserts. Two of those foods are the Hamburger and Lasagna, and I wanted to expand a bit on how those look in CSD 2. First up is the grill…I’m super happy with how it turned out in the game. In the first game, you would throw the patties on the grill and they’d have a bit of smoke come up, but that was mostly it. In this one, I have the charcoal grill glowing underneath, with sparks popping randomly and a large amount of steam rising up. Throw some patties on there and the sparks really fly with some fun particle effects. On one hand, graphically it looks super snazzy and I could just stare at the grill all day. On the other, it’s something that players are going to slam through quickly and maybe see it for 2-3 seconds at a time. Thankfully with this new engine I’m able to do all these effects in just a few hours, so I’m not spending a large amount of time on the little stuff, no matter how much fun it is to do.



Another thing I ran into was the Lasagna recipe. In this game I’m going with a LCD-like display for ingredients to make it super easy to read. But what about recipes with a lot more information? I tried to make it fit using the framework I made for the other recipes, but I wasn’t having any luck. It was too confusing. Ultimately I decided to just write it out on the screen, but even then it didn’t really pop. So I decided to try highlighting the ingredients in a different way from the rest of the text.



While it doesn’t have that LCD design, it does display the steps clearly, and I like the color coding I have going on here. I might have to choose form over fashion on this one. It still looks nice at least!



Speaking of Lasagna, the ol’ PSCR keys are back! But I’ve made a small change, from Parmesan being R to Ricotta being R. It’s technically more accurate and easier to remember. And I’m also adding a new ingredient for later recipes, one that I really like but still doesn’t quite hold a candle to meat Lasagnas. But that’s just me. :D



Another part of the UI I’m changing is the way orders display in prep stations. In the last game, yellow signified orders that were ready to serve immediately, and blue orders meant you had some more prep work to do. That could be a little bit difficult to view instantly when things got chaotic, so I’m switching to a huge checkmark on orders that can be served immediately.



The addition of Holding Stations also means I have two new icons for incoming orders, which I’d like to add to a bit more from the last Holding Station update. Here we have two orders that just popped up. Lasagnas always require a Holding Station, and Burgers are optional as I could cook some patties in the Holding Station and skip the cook phase of the Burger. If I don’t have any patties available, I can just cook them on demand with the Burger.

An optional HS food is shown with a yellow icon (meaning you can still prep it right away), and a required HS food is shown with a red stop sign icon (meaning you have to make the food in the Holding Station before serving it).





In this case I decide to cook the Burger normally and make a Lasagna in the Holding Station. Now when both orders are fully cooked, I have the Lasagna with a checkmark indicating I can serve it immediately, even if I’m making food or doing something else at the moment. The Burger is blue but with no checkmark, which means I still need to put it all together before serving, just like the last game.



The large checkmarks are much easier to see at a glance, and I think are a better solution than the yellow/blue codes in the original game.



The best part about Holding Station foods, though, is the fact that you serve them immediately. So I get six orders worth of food when I make Lasagna, which means these three tickets that just came in can all be served immediately for a perfect order, and I’ll still have enough Lasagna for three more orders!



It makes the game much faster as a result. I can’t wait to see how it comes into play when people get to play around with these different types of foods.

I’ve still got lots of work to do for the gameplay trailer but things are really coming together nicely, and way more quickly than I anticipated. I’ll have another update next week that talks about the new sound design, so until then, have a tasty week!

