ALPHA ROADMAP
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 01:50:57 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

CHEF RPG ALPHA IS HERE!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Apr 07, 2023 at 04:05:13 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

ALPHA DATE, FISHING, QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 03:51:34 PM

Hey Chefs! We are back with another update on what we have worked on over the past 2 months.

ALPHA - APRIL 6

First off, we would like to apologize for the delays with the alpha. Since this is a passion project, we don’t want to release something that we are not quite happy with, even if it’s the first alpha. Since this is a long project, we are constantly learning new things, and our standards change over time. Because of this, we regularly improve old work and add new features that were previously unplanned, resulting in an extended development time. The good news is that the alpha has more content and is more polished than what was originally planned when we started this Kickstarter.

At this point, we are just adding some missing sound effects and doing the final polish and bug fixing. The Alpha will be available April 6, for PC and Mac, and requires a mouse to play. Currently, the game will not work for Steam Deck and does not have controller support. Steam keys will be sent out to your email along with further information on that date. We are really looking forward to having you guys try the game out!

Fishing

We have finished implementing the fishing Minigame. To fish in Chef RPG, equip the rod and stand facing a body of water. Cast out your line, and wait for a fish to bite. When a fish bites, a white ring will appear in the water. The goal of the minigame is to pull the fish toward the inside of the ring, while the fish tries to swim away. Your Gathering skill level and the quality of the fishing rod will determine your pulling power. The higher level of the fish, the harder it is to catch.

NEW INTRO SCENE

A new intro scene has been added to give a better introduction to the story. Without spoiling too much, here is a sneak peek of the new intro.

SEASON SELECTION

Before you set out on your journey, you can choose which season you wish to begin. We thought this feature would give a bit more variety to the early gameplay – depending on which season you select; you will have access to different animals and harvestable plants. This choice will not impact the gameplay in the long run.

NEW BEACH AREA & RANDOMLY SPAWNING ITEMS

We’ve added a tourist beach area in the South-East corner of the game world. Many NPCs wander this area, and you can often find the main characters hanging around this spot. A new item respawn system has been added to the game, so now you can pick up various objects around the beach like seaweed, clams, and some rare shells that can be sold for a big profit. Every item has a respawn timer and has a chance to respawn after a certain amount of time.

DAILY TASK REWARDS

Completing daily tasks will reward you with a variety of items, ranging from equipment to recipes, to ingredients. The more difficult the task, the better the reward. Rewards are randomized and you have a small chance of collecting a higher-level reward with each job.

QUALITY OF LIFE FEATURES ===================================

After some testing, we found that one of the biggest challenges with developing a game is easing new players in and getting them familiar with the controls and rules. The following are some quality-of-life features to make jumping into the game easier.

MINIGAME TUTORIALS

Every cooking minigame now has a tutorial screen that pops up when you play a minigame for the first time. The tutorial can be reopened at any time with the click of a button.

INFORMATION TABS

Collecting items, completing tasks or failing tasks will activate an information tab on the side of the screen. Before, you would have to open the main menu to see if a quest has been updated or find out which item was picked up.

SMART FURNITURE PLACEMENT

In restaurants, a smart furniture placement feature has been added to the build mode, where it notifies you if a primary piece of furniture (appliance, fridge, chair, table) is obstructed. This will prevent furniture placements that break the game – if a chef or wait cannot reach their target destination.

FORCE CLOSE RESTAURANT

Previously, to end the restaurant service, you would have to close the restaurant and wait for all guests to have their courses served and have finished eating. We felt it would be useful to add a force close button, which forces all customers to immediately leave the restaurant. It’s a useful ability if you are in a hurry,  but guests will not be happy and you will suffer a profit and reputation penalty.

That’s it for now! After the alpha, there is some exciting work coming up. We will also continue to update the alpha for a few months with more polish and some additional content. We look forward to revealing more of Chef RPG in the near future!

NEW YEAR UPDATE, CUTSCENES, DAILY TASKS, AND ALPHA COMING SOON!
about 2 years ago – Mon, Jan 09, 2023 at 10:26:39 PM

Happy New Year! We hope you guys had a great holiday and had some delicious meals over past few weeks. Here’s a new update on what we have added to Chef RPG over the past couple of weeks.

CUTSCENES

It took a while, but we managed to develop a highly modular cutscene system, with the ability to create new cutscenes in less than 20 minutes. This cutscene system provides the tools for us to create a wide variety of cutscenes for stories and events and will be integral to the development of Chef RPG down the road, as we dive deeper into story and character related content. It includes the ability to spawn and manipulate characters, open dialogues, activate emojis, activate camera effects, and more. The following are some examples of the cutscene system in action.

DAILY TASKS & QUESTS

Another major system we have begun developing is the quest system. The first part of this system is the implementation of a Daily Tasks Bulletin, where you can select a random task from 3 choices, and you be given 2-4 days to complete the task. By completing bulletin tasks, you can receive a wide range of rewards, ranging from credits, equipment, recipes, to furniture items. These simple Bulletin tasks provides the foundation for the larger story and character quests, which will be added later on. Because there will be close to 100 story + character quests in the final game, the quest system must be built in a modular manner. Like the cutscene system, modularity will allow us create the required quests at a quick and efficient pace.

LA GALERIE + NEW FURNITURE ITEMS

A dedicated furniture shop has been created in White Ash Harbor, where you will be able to preview and purchase furniture for your restaurant and house. We’ve also added dozens of new furniture items for you to customize your spaces! We will continue to add more items throughout development, and we would love any ideas on decorative items you think would be cool to include in the game.

SLEEPING

We’ve gotten around to adding the ability to sleep in Chef RPG. Sleeping lets you pass the time and recover energy. You can select how long you want to sleep. If you sleep for more than 8 hours, you will receive a temporary “Well Rested” buff.

IMRPOVED ANIMAL AI, AND RESPAWN SYSTEMS

Animals have improved AI, and will be alerted if you get too close and run away. Some creatures will attack if provoked. We’ve also added a global respawn system to every animal and harvestable vegetation, so that they will return to the scene after a certain number of hours or days.

ALPHA COMING SOON!

That’s it for now! All the core systems have now been added to the game, and it will be an exciting road ahead as we can focus more on adding content. There’s a couple more things that we want to implement and refine for the alpha, and it will be ready in a few more weeks. We thank you for your patience and we are looking forward to open Chef RPG to the first round of players soon!

ENHANCED BATHHOUSE, RESTAURANT UPDATES, AND NEW TOOLS
about 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 05:01:04 AM

Hey fellow chefs! It’s been a while! For the first half of the period since the last update, we have been mostly working on non-visual features of the game – things like dialogue systems, animation rigging, setting up a settings & sound system, and general code and art improvements. We've also brought on a profession writer who is creating some amazing dialogues and stories for the characters and game world.

I feel that these non-visual features aren’t very interesting to show, and are unlikely to make their way into a backer update or a Youtube video. After finishing up those features, we’ve jumped back on more exciting work and we here’s what we have developed in the past few weeks.

Bathhouse Enhanced

We’ve updated the White Ash Harbor bathhouse with a bathing area redesign, taking inspiration from the surreal places and creatures of Studio Ghibli. Staff suites and Aylin’s office at the top of the bathhouse have been added to the bathhouse as well. They will play an important role in Chef RPG’s main story and is a great spot to find main NPCs. You can also purchase various clothing items and soaps to gift to various NPCs. We’ve received feedback on potential gameplay activities that could happen in the bathhouse including: collecting ingredients and minerals to change the baths and receive different buffs, and using soaps to gain various social buffs when chatting with main NPCs. These features won’t be implemented in the alpha, but will likely make their way into the final game.

Recipe Art

We’ve completed all the recipe artwork for the alpha. There are currently 110 dishes available (around 240 in the final game). Here’s what the in-game sprites look like, as well as a sneak peak at some of the new recipe artwork.

Cooking Minigames

Every time your player cooks a dish; you have the option to play a cooking minigame. There are currently 9 different appliance types, and each appliance has its own minigame. Here’s a sneak peak at 2 more cooking minigames available in the game. We are aware that not everyone enjoys playing these types of minigames repeatedly, so an “autocook” option is available for those who enjoy a more relaxed, hands-off experience. However, you will receive a slight exp and reward bonus for completing minigames.

Restaurant Reputation & Finances Window

Restaurant reputation is an important factor as your progress through Chef RPG. For every completed restaurant service, you can gain or lose reputation based on the quality of food served, the wait time for food, as well as receiving bonuses from restaurant décor. Restaurant reputation is a requirement for certain quests and activities, receiving awards, and unlocking new restaurants.

At the end of every restaurant service, you will be able to view your restaurant performance. We’ve updated the finance window to include your reputation gain, as well as the average quality of dishes served and the average wait time of customers. You can use this information to hire/manage your staff and furniture placements to have a more efficient service, or boost your own cooking skills to produce higher quality dishes.

Fishing Rods and Spears

Fishing rods have new animations, and you can your character now holds the rod when equipped. We’ve also added spears into the game for close range hunting. Both of these systems are still a work in progress, and more features and refinements will be made to them in the near future.

Bathhouse Renovation Design Process

Check out the latest development video if you wish to see the full design process of finishing the bathhouse!

That’s it for now! We will reveal more exciting gameplay updates to Chef RPG as we approach the alpha!