Dim Sum Fusion Assassin by mike.cullingham

[raw]
made by mike.cullingham for LD32 (JAM)
Updated: v1.0.1 contains 2 fixes but no new features:
* the critical bug where the ui misses a number of seats update from the backend
* the minor rendering bug where the plate doesn't take up room until it appears which causes the customer to jump


1. Theme: An Unconventional Weapon
* The idea is that you are delivering poisoned food, which I haven't seen in many (any?) video games.
* Although it's not a typically conventional weapon in video games, I admit in real life it might be quite conventional.


2. Known Bugs & Quirks
* it's possible that a new customer will jump in and grab your poisoned noodles before it reaches the intended target. I've tried to mitigate this by adding a 1 second delay after they appear but before they are ready to eat, but at high levels if the target is at the far end it can be frustrating.
* There's no sound. Sorry, out of time.


3. How to Play
* There are 5 "Food" buttons on the left. Each will send out food along the track, and waiting customers will grab it as it goes by if they are interested in it (the order of their preferences don't matter).
* If you click the "Poison" button, the next food you send out will be poisoned.
* On the bottom of the screen there is a bar indicating your current target. Your goal is to poison that creature. But don't poison anyone else.
* Each customer will eat 2 food items before leaving.
* Each customer has about 30 seconds of patience. If they haven't seen any food they are interested in during that time, they will leave and the game is over.
* As levels increase, the number of seats increase, the number of potential creatures increase, and the number of potential foods increase.
* There is no end of game, the levels increase forever. Good luck!

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.06 651
Fun(Jam) 2.82 669
Graphics(Jam) 2.90 710
Humor(Jam) 2.70 587
Innovation(Jam) 3.45 285
Mood(Jam) 2.45 880
Theme(Jam) 3.58 358

Feedback

jhell
21. Apr 2015 路 13:39 UTC
Really interesting, if a bit simple. I liked the premise so I gave it a try =). I like the graphical ambiance you got, too bad you didn't put any sound, it could have really added to the immersion (restaurant and chomping sounds, you know ;)).
馃帳 mike.cullingham
21. Apr 2015 路 15:14 UTC
Thanks for trying it out. I 100% agree about the sound... it's a definite weak point of mine that I want to get better at.
BoyWithStick
22. Apr 2015 路 03:56 UTC
Took me a few rounds to get the hang of it, but after I did pretty well playing the game. I could see this game working pretty well with touch controls. The interface had a bit too much negative space and could have been tightened up. I could see this on a mobile device with some sounds added. Neat idea!
馃帳 mike.cullingham
22. Apr 2015 路 04:07 UTC
Thanks for playing and the insight on the negative space. The reason for that was I started off with 8 potential customers and had to remove a bunch near the end of the jam so that even I could play it.
Firaa
22. Apr 2015 路 04:14 UTC
It took a few rounds to fully understand everything. One thing that was unclear to me was that I presumed customers would not take food that wasn't given to them in the order on their preferences. Once I figured everything out, though, the game was actually pretty fun. The interface is otherwise simple and easy to use, and the graphics are all consistent.

My first time through the game, I slid a bowl of poison rice to the targeted rabbit when a berserk cat kicked the door to my restaurant in, ran to the counter, and began eating the poison rice. I feel I should have gotten bonus points for assassinating the kind of jerk that stole someone else's order.

Overall, I had fun with this game, and I think it was a good entry.
馃帳 mike.cullingham
22. Apr 2015 路 04:32 UTC
I hate those berserk cats too. Thanks for playing. And I'll think about if there's a better way to communicate that the food preference order doesn't matter.
Chippington
22. Apr 2015 路 05:00 UTC
Just like everyone else, it took a while for me to pick up on how the game works. Very nice concept, decent implementation. I would have played more if it were a bit more fleshed out.
Andy Gainey
22. Apr 2015 路 21:26 UTC
Not very forgiving. I can understand the instant game-over for poisoning the wrong customer. But for having a customer leave, or failing to poison the target, game-over felt harsh. I would have preferred to see a point system, or some other means of penalizing the player or making the game harder due to those mistakes, without instantly slamming them with the worst possible penalty.

I liked the art style, though the target icon at the bottom was a little hard to see and match up to the larger icons of actual customers.

And naturally, sound effects could have gone a long way to enhancing the experience and mood.
ConflictiveLabs
22. Apr 2015 路 21:31 UTC
I feel bad about poisoning animals :P but overall good game
RoryD
22. Apr 2015 路 21:31 UTC
Even after reading your instructions it took a while to work out how to play. I like your take on the theme.
dray
22. Apr 2015 路 21:32 UTC
simple game but very effective, i really like the idea and the aestetic work really well. Sound and little bobbling movement to the head should help with feedbacks.
馃帳 mike.cullingham
22. Apr 2015 路 21:35 UTC
Falling behind on my acknowledgements. But thanks to all for trying it out and for the helpful critiques. I'll try to think of ways to implement these.
Benjamin
23. Apr 2015 路 07:20 UTC
I could understand the game on first play because I read the how to play before start. I failed on lvl4-5 (monkey target) because of some bug : When the level start my previous customers was still there then the customers reseted and I was serving two non-targets customer when the game gave me the gameover message for no apparent reasons.
Apart of that I found the concept quite interesting and fun to play. The game would have been a lot better with some graphics + sfx feedback.
馃帳 mike.cullingham
23. Apr 2015 路 16:54 UTC
@Benjamin: Unfortunately you discovered the killer bug that I spent 2 hours on before the deadline, but it was elusive. I have a strategy now for finding/fixing it, but sorry it's not in yet. Glad it was fun until that.
馃帳 mike.cullingham
24. Apr 2015 路 04:10 UTC
I've fixed the critical bug where the ui misses a number of seats update from the backend, and have updated the download link to v1.0.1.
Pix3M
24. Apr 2015 路 09:37 UTC
Sorry if I sound annoying, please be careful when using elements of a foreign culture. Please don't name your game "Dim Sum" Fusion Assassin when your restaurant is not a dimsum restaurant. We don't eat bowls of rice, bowls of noodles, or dango at a dimsum, we eat a large variety of foods, mostly dumplings. Dimsum restaurants are structured completely differently as well- Dimsums are more similar to eating at an airplane than at a restaurant - you order many small pieces of many kinds of food from servers walking around with carts full of steamed food.

That aside, the layout is clean and effective, and I can figure out the game pretty quickly. Always good to have a game that can easily be picked up.
馃帳 mike.cullingham
24. Apr 2015 路 11:10 UTC
@Pix3M: Thanks for the feedback. I had hoped the "Fusion" would cover the foods that are not served at Dim Sum. (also I was limited by existing emoji... Hamburgers and pizza show up at higher levels). And I was thinking of the style of Dim Sum where the carts come around with food and you take them if you're interested rather than the style where you order. my sincere thanks for your honesty.
Dietrich Epp
25. Apr 2015 路 05:10 UTC
Cool! It could use an introduction level where you play without poisoning, just to get the hang of things.
馃帳 mike.cullingham
25. Apr 2015 路 19:00 UTC
@Dietrich Epp: I totally agree. If I continue with it a period of just serving customers is totally on my to do list. Thanks for playing.
deadbodyoutline
26. Apr 2015 路 21:21 UTC
Haha, interesting entry. Got a lot of fun playing this one, although took me a while to understand how to play (I read the description :p)

Maybe a better way to show the customer have eat it's food to send the next one could be nice ;)
馃帳 mike.cullingham
27. Apr 2015 路 04:44 UTC
@deadbodyoutline: Thanks for playing. Thanks for pointing out that it's not clear. A "currently eating" timer animation was one of the last things I had to cut before submitting. Any future version will certainly have some changed animation / sounds / etc.
RobotHoboDanceParty
27. Apr 2015 路 06:42 UTC
A little confusing to begin with but a pretty cool idea overall. Great Job!
馃帳 mike.cullingham
29. Apr 2015 路 19:05 UTC
@RobotHoboDanceParty: Thanks for playing! Appreciate that.
A Flat Miner Studios
30. Apr 2015 路 02:57 UTC
Super neat idea. Have to be both sharp assassin and attentive server at the same time.
Stending
03. May 2015 路 16:38 UTC
Pretty nice concept!
broknecho
05. May 2015 路 03:23 UTC
I really like this premise. Kinda has a cool puzzle game feel to it. If you were to give a little more feedback to how long they are eating for, the player could then line up a few more combos. Combo's being the timing on getting food to the customers. Could even do a more open floor plan kinda like Diner Dash and make a neat puzzler out of it.

Great start!
馃帳 mike.cullingham
05. May 2015 路 03:42 UTC
@A Flat Miner Studios: That's exactly what I was going for. Although in my head it played a lot faster.

@Stending: Thanks.

@broknecho: The combos is something I hadn't thought of. But I definitely like the idea of a bit more planning being worth something (because the time limit encourages no planning :-)). Thanks for that feedback.
tripleVisionGames
05. May 2015 路 15:49 UTC
Really cool concept and neatly done. Would be good with a lot of cool ambient sound like you're really there - worth working on after the jam I reckon!
PaperBlurt
06. May 2015 路 09:11 UTC
Very funny, and the title is good.
Pretty simple in a good way.
馃帳 mike.cullingham
07. May 2015 路 16:22 UTC
@tripleVisionGames: Thanks for the encouragement. I've been trying to figure out what kind of ambient sound I want (music or actual restaurant) for a post-jam version.

@PaperBlurt: Thanks for playing. Glad you enjoyed it.
Omiya Games
08. May 2015 路 03:17 UTC
Very innovative, a unique take on those diner-dash-like games where you need to manage your customers while focusing on one to kill at the same time. I think the presentation could have used a little help, especially audio, but I liked what I played.
Tselmek
08. May 2015 路 14:58 UTC
The mechanic is simple and it makes the game easy to understand. The graphics are nice and I'll only echo other comments mentioning the lack of sounds that could have added a lot to the ambience. Maybe an indicator on how much time is left for a customer to finish the food ther're currently eating would be nice.
Wayward
08. May 2015 路 16:18 UTC
Needs more tactic as i thought :) And pretty cute graphics
馃帳 mike.cullingham
12. May 2015 路 11:38 UTC
@Omiya Games, @Tselmek, @Wayward: Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it.