ENHANCED BATHHOUSE, RESTAURANT UPDATES, AND NEW TOOLS
over 3 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!

New Areas, Minor NPCs, Social Panel + Locking in Backerkit Orders
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 29, 2022 at 04:50:20 AM

Hey Chefs, we hope you are having a great week and we are once again back with an exciting new update for Chef RPG! Since the last update, we have completed two new exterior maps, as well as major progress towards minor NPCs and Chef RPG’s relationship system.

New map – Ashy Swamps

The swamps are filled with a wide variety of vegetation to harvest and several creatures to hunt. As one of the true wilderness maps, this will be a primary destination for adventuring chefs to gather ingredients directly from nature!

New map – Lonely Cliffs

On the western coast of White Ash Harbor lies cliffside beaches, where plenty of fish and shellfish can be found along its rocky shores. Up above, the wild grasslands are a perfect location to hunt wild game. The houses of Bowie (the seafood vendor) as well as Pomarine (the hunter) can be found here as well.

Minor Characters

Alongside the major characters that offer you their friendships, romances, and special quests, minor characters will play an important role in the game as well! Minor characters include train ticket vendors, Hotel Rose staff, Bathhouse staff, Lelsh employees, and more!

We want to create a game that feels immersive and natural, and let you learn about the game world and receive tips without using popups when possible. This is where minor characters come into play. Chat with these characters throughout the game world, and they can give you hints on where you can find certain ingredients, or tell you interesting facts about a certain place or building! Some minor characters will be regular vendors and sell you a variety of goods. Others will play a small role in quests.

Social System

Here’s the first iteration of a UI panel to track your relationship status with primary characters. Each character will have favorite gifts for you to discover; the gifted items appearing on this panel when delivered. Currently, the social system is the least developed system and most open to change throughout development. We would love to hear ideas or feedback on what you would like to see (or experienced from other games you like).

Locking in Backerkit Orders

Finally, we would like to announce that we will be locking in all orders and hiding most Backerkit pre-order options on September 17. Last month, we noticed that add-on orders could not be charged without locking them in first, and we wanted to give everyone a bit more time before locking everything down. Once locked, all remaining orders will be charged. After September 17, only the regular digital game & Chef RPG game music can be pre-ordered, and all other options (alpha access, custom statues) will be hidden.

That’s it for now!

Thank you for reading. We will be jumping on updating the restaurant gameplay and cooking minigames next, so look forward to seeing some brand new restaurant features soon!

Alpha Release Delay, Character Daily Schedules, NPC Homes
over 3 years ago – Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 04:26:47 PM

Hey fellow chefs, we hope you are having a great week! We are back with some news regarding a delay in the alpha release, as well as some exciting new updates for Chef RPG.

Alpha Delay

Due to some features of the game taking longer than expected to implement, and spending extra time on redrawing old assets, we’ve decided to push our alpha release to January of 2023, as it looks like we can no longer deliver a feature-complete game experience by our original planned alpha for this September. We understand that this may be disappointing for those of you who are eagerly awaiting to try out the game, but we want to take this extra time to deliver the best experience possible, and do not wish to compromise on important aspects of the game.

To be specific, here are the missing features that the extra time will allow us to implement:

- Some missing restaurant gameplay features

- More furniture to customize your restaurant and home

- Character friendship & daily quest system

- Experience & Skills system

- Music and sound effects

- More creatures, vegetation, items, and recipes

- Several key exterior maps and building interiors

- New tools for hunting and harvesting

The delay in the alpha will likely result in the final game being delayed as well, and we will continue to keep you updated on the state of the game and the eventual planned release date. Apologies for the inconvenience and we thank you for your continued patience and support!

Daily Schedule System

Over the past 2 months, we’ve been hard at work implementing daily schedules for all the NPCs you will meet in the game! Now, characters will be able to run their shops, visit their friends’ homes, hang out at the bathhouse, hang out at the beach, and go to sleep at the end of the day!

 New NPC Homes 

To make this system work, we’ve added several new NPC homes that you will be able to access once your friendship with the character is high enough! Here’s a few of the new interiors.

New Character Creation Menu & Intro Scene

One of the oldest unchanged assets in Chef RPG is the character creation menu, which was created way back in 2020. We’ve redesigned the creation menu and it now directly transitions into the intro scene, which will take place aboard the train, as you are travelling from Billboard City to White Ash Harbor.

Detailed Devlog – Designing the character schedule system

Noah has released a new development log for Chef RPG, where you can have an in depth look at the development process and see more of the game world. Check it out here!

New Character Designs, Graphical Improvements, & Backerkit Update
almost 4 years ago – Fri, May 06, 2022 at 12:20:34 AM

Good day fellow chefs! We have been hard at work making improvements and adding new content to Chef RPG, and we have some exciting new updates to show!

New Character Designs

One of the most requested improvements was an overhaul of the in-game character sprites and animations. Thanks to our newest artist Clement, we now have some cute new character designs.

Vegetation Overhaul & New Areas

We are always looking to improve the visual fidelity of Chef RPG, and one of the areas we felt was lacking were the plants, trees, and grass. We have completely redrawn these assets and added animation shaders to create a higher quality and cuter look.

Additionally, we are always working on creating new areas to explore. Below is a new farmhouse where you will be able to meet some interesting NPCs, and purchase numerous ingredients.

Here's a sneak peak of some new areas.

Restaurant Staff Customization

You can now change the staff uniform colors for your restaurants! This new UI panel allows you to assign your staff members between different restaurants.

Backerkit Update

If you made purchases via Backerkit, we will begin charging for your orders at the beginning of June. However, the Backerkit store will remain open until the end of September this year, so don't worry if you miss the June deadline! 

For more Frequent Updates

As always, if you would like to see more frequent and in-depth updates on the progress of Chef RPG, check out Noah's Youtube Channel :  Pixel Architect 

His latest video goes over the entire development process of Chef RPG since starting the project in 2020, and you can see the overall progress of the game since its inception.

New Maps and UI Systems
about 4 years ago – Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 09:58:49 PM

Hey fellow chefs, we hope you are having a great week! We are back with some new updates for Chef RPG we would love to share with you.  First, here’s sneak peaks of some new maps:

New User Interfaces

We are continuously developing Chef RPG’s game systems and have added some new UIs to adjust restaurant operation modes, restaurant open times, and menu to hire new waiters and chefs. Everything is a work in progress and may change throughout development. 

If you ordered custom rewards

Finally, if you backed at a pledge level containing custom character statues, custom portraits, or a building dedication, we will contact you via email this week to begin working with you to create your custom designs! If you do not receive an email by the end of this week, feel free to contact Noah at [email protected]

Thanks for reading and we will be back with more updates soon!