Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Bake Me One More Time
By hadesfury, huitre and Morguy
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 758 | 3.37 | 22 | |
| Fun | 875 | 3.02 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 883 | 2.94 | 21 | |
| Theme | 682 | 3.47 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 111 | 4.35 | 23 | |
| Audio | 264 | 3.70 | 22 | |
| Humor | 2.75 | 16 | ||
| Mood | 307 | 3.81 | 21 |
The keyboard experience was frustrating so I switched to a controller. It was still somewhat hard to navigate the tight walkways in the back kitchen and aim correctly for a basket vs the open oven nearby. My buying the kneading machine first was a bad decision. I really like the sunset lighting, guitar track, and voxel art!
I just had no idea what I was supposed to do. I could get the cressant and bake it, and give it to the customer, but I didn't know how to make any of the other items. The idea is sound, the graphics are amazing, the sound works well, but I think it needs a tutorial, or to start with one item and add a new item each day so that we know how to make them. That, and the customers were coming in really fast. They should start a little slower at first and ramp up. i think if those two things were adjusted this would be a fantastic game.
I was stuck at "Press any key" for quite a while. Thought it might've been the web build so I downloaded the desktop version and had the same issue. I pressed every key on my keyboard and eventually it worked.
The game looks great, but the map layout and serving customers could use a bit of work. It was a bit hard to serve my intended customer.
In any case, awesome work with what you've got! Proud of you 💖
Fun game! I really like the voxel graphics and the sound, it evokes such a cozy atmosphere... in contrast to the absolute chaos that is non stop customers and frantic running around with dough and croissants on my head. As others have mentioned, it's a little difficult to interact with the correct counter but I think that adds to the chaos (in a good way). While I see where the theme is implemented, the difficulty of the game is less having little space and more about having little time to get all the orders done lol. Also, I love that the customers walk right around the counter and into the kitchen while they wait - do you want this bread or not? Great entry overall!
I didn't really enjoy my time with this game, the best I can describe it is a job with extremely low pay.
The game has three recipes two of which are to pick something up from the 'store' and put it into a stove then wait. Some things that I think you could have done to enhance the gameplay are; a burning mechanic when in the stove too long to make you want to use the counter space for something, toppings I thought that was what the butter was for (buttered croissant vs unbuttered croissant), and obvously more recipes even if there are only 2-5 more it would still make the game much more engaging.
The time to fufill an order and the time between orders is too low. As these two deal with the main instigator of making the player actually play the game they are important, no one wants to relax in a cooking game they want the feeling of frantic working in a kitchen. To make the current gameplay (three recipes) fit this you could have had customers come in groups or have a slow start then a frantic finish. The time between customers should also be increased because there is no time to prepare for orders, its perfectly timed so the second I finish an order a new customer comes in and makes it feel like a slog.
The amount of money made per sale is like $2, don't be afraid to have unrealistic numbers it's a game and people like them. Also I much prefer a rent/money per day system than the paying for groceries, if you wanted to have both you could have made them pay extra for *unused* groceries at the end of the day making the player careful on what they use.
And a large annoyance was that getting the right thing selected was hard and sometimes it wouldnt highlight it.
In summary the art, visuals and sounds are good, you just didn't make enough game for me to enjoy them.
Love the energy. The music is super cool for a game like this. I love bread and jazz. :) It is a bit difficult to figure out what to do at first. and the keyboard controls are a bit janky. I think they should just be rotated 45 degrees, so you walk in useful directions. Buying the bread station seemed like it made my whole situation a lot more difficult >.<
Great game :)
Hi all, thanks for your feedback. I'm removing the Web version for now, as it seems like you can get stuck on the Title screen on some machines.
Thank you all for your feedback! It's awesome to hear from you.
@normality: Thank you for your thoughtful and well-argued feedback. We would have loved to have more time to polish the game experience, adding more recipes, new rooms, a rent system, and a more nuanced rhythm.
@huitre added early recipe quick reference on this page to help newcomers.
Maybe we shouldn’t have put the "raw croissant" recipe, it can be misleading, but you can make it by yourself using flour and butter to increase your profit.
WoW so cool 🫢
The art style for this game is nice and I like these kinds of baking/managing games a lot. The execution for this one was just very difficult to really get into and enjoy. It's definitely the kind of game that needs a lot more of a tutorial or guide in-game to ease the player into how the game works. I wouldn't have known how to make anything if not for the recipes in this post - I tried and it seemed like that was a requirement, which wasn't very fun. If part of the gameplay is to figure out how to make the recipes, then I think having the chaos of the customers crowding around you doesn't really work with that kind of gameplay because now the challenge of the game is split between two very different things that become overwhelming for a first time player.
I made it through the first two days and on the third day, decided to upgrade to an extra dough station. I didn't realize that would make the game so much more difficult as I couldn't make dough anymore. Instead, I got a new room and a new material that I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. It didn't help that the music here changes to a slightly different theme the moment you enter it and the change is so noticeable and it's so easy to hop in and out of that room that the audio became very disorienting to listen to. I always appreciate the use of dynamic music in games, but I think the changes between the two tracks in those rooms is too jarring that it detracts from the gameplay experience. On a positive note, I do like the track used when you start going into the negatives - that was a good implementation of the audio.
Overall, the art style is nice, the controls are smooth, there are some nice music choices here and there, but the game feels like it's trying to be two completely different things and as a result, it makes everything very confusing. Add on top of that having to start the entire game over from the beginning upon losing and it makes the experience even less fun. I think the game would have functioned better if it either focused on:
1. Having all the customers crowd around the kitchen, but you get the recipes and guides on how to create the items in-game. 2. Have no customers crowd around the kitchen - it's just you, but you have to figure out what the recipes are.
Personally, this was just my experience with it. I think there are great elements hidden within this concept - it's just that the execution makes it very difficult to get into.
(My review and ratings were made playing HotFix 2023-10-03[15-34].)
I would have liked the recipes to be in the game because once I got in, I was very confused. The graphics are so good and it's a very cute game!
Enjoyed playing the game! The graphics look well polished and music really fits the vibe of the game. Great Job!
I really like cooking games so this was perfect to me haha :laughing: Like others said the controls were a bit tricky but anyway the visuals are nice so congrats !
I love cooking games! I like the art style and controls are fine but the rewards are really weak and the layout is not great. I guess that's meant to fit the theme, but it just makes the game painful to play...
Overall it's cool, I just think it lacks a bit of balance.
I think it was a bad decision making everything diagonal. Ok, I finally took the croissant out, but now I have to chase the customer, who's rotating around me at unfixed angles? smh
Amazing art! I really enjoyed the art and audio and the gameplay was a little fun but i wish the layout was better and that the customers didn't run around as much. im happy i found this game though because the art is amazing!