LudumData

Wage Slave by Riker Greenslade

[raw]
made by Riker Greenslade for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

Welcome to the Moondoe's Team! The Friendly-tainer Super-ista who was supposed to onboard you into our beverage-delivery ecosystem called in sick, but we're sure you will manage to leverage customer satisfaction to achieve revenue targets all on your own!

Oh, and I'll be synergizing some new menu choices to maximize our ROI and reduce churn rates! We are shifting the paradigm of coffee-based beverages to maximize shareholder alignment! You need to ideate to innovate, after all!

Do well, and you'll be one step closer to the staff pizza party!

Best Regards,

The Manager

Instructions

Click and drag ingredients into your cup to add them to the drink. Follow the recipe in the upper-left corner.

Use the steamer, blender, filter, and saw to modify your ingredients - just drop something suitable in, then click to grab the new item.

Submit a drink by placing it on the far left, then clicking the pen. Then, grab a new cup from the stack.

Press Escape to pause and adjust settings.

Credits

Programming: Riker Greenslade, Skylar Greenslade

Art: Graham Wiebe

Audio: Matthew Rempel

Playing The Game

The previous error with WebGL has been resolved. It should work in browser or, if you prefer, downloadable versions are available.

Youtube https://rikerg.itch.io/wage-slave
Youtube https://www.dropbox.com/s/7umlolrkzzbz4h1/WageSlave_Windows.zip?dl=0
Youtube https://www.dropbox.com/s/8sqef85nqsyygv3/OSXBuild.app.zip?dl=0
Youtube https://www.dropbox.com/s/0e6599vysuv45bx/LinuxBuild.zip?dl=0
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/wage-slave

Ratings

Overall 862th 3.45⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1140th 3.05⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 932th 3.225⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 908th 3.525⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 611th 3.775⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 161th 3.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 83th 4.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 344th 3.825⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 11🗳️ 0🗨️

Feedback

oxxar
05. Oct 2020 · 22:29 UTC
Couldn't find game page :/
🎤 Riker Greenslade
05. Oct 2020 · 22:59 UTC
You were too fast - the link wasn't active yet! It should work now.
Andrea Ancona
06. Oct 2020 · 01:18 UTC
I played the browser version and it worked perfectly. Good job on the game, i really like it :)
Shanzhai
06. Oct 2020 · 01:25 UTC
Music, art and commentary earn you a solid 5/7 in my book. However, a little more indication of what exactly is what yould be nice. I've never worked at a coffee shop (even rarely visited any... I like tea. ^^") and had a few problems finding out where/how to steam milk. Same with those four colored bottles - no idea whats in there, it was just trial and error all the time. And the little black bags (?) of whatever to the left. If confusion is intended to be part of the experience, I'd suggest to drop a little exposition before the game starts, telling you that it's your first day, you ain't got no clue and the guy who was supposed to help you didn't come in today - with that premise, confusion would be less.... confusing. :D
That aside, it was fun. Good job! :)
firetwoonenine
08. Oct 2020 · 04:28 UTC
10/10, served customer a mix of mayo and everclear

As a non-coffee-drinker, I had to make some guesses as to how to work the machine, but after that it was fairly clear. Surprisingly fun, and the sound effects actually made me laugh.
Slavi
08. Oct 2020 · 04:28 UTC
Were can I do this *** streamed milk ?? I was trying 10 min and didn't find how to do :c
But I sure is a nice little game !!
Nobongo
08. Oct 2020 · 04:30 UTC
Pretty neat concept with some fun puzzle elements. It was a bit difficult to figure out what exactly I was supposed to do. Sometimes I just threw the drink out there if I couldn't figure out how to get an ingredient. My suggestion would be to maybe make it so that a list item is added with every drink, so that the requirements become so long, strange, and tedious, that the player feels like they're truly slaving away to crazy customers while working for a company that doesn't care about them at all.
A bug I noticed was also that I would make an incomplete drink and get a bad score but the audio cue would still be something like "Perfectomundo!"
Tayo
08. Oct 2020 · 04:30 UTC
Liked the idea! The writing, art and music all deliver on the experience of working at a cafe.

Only two things that i think might make it more accessible:

1. The funny **explanation of the manager** that is on the itch page could be in the game at the **start** (so players know they have to figure stuff out.

2. Your marked the places that the player can put the coffee, do the same if holding for example the milk or other ingredients (But maybe that design is intended to make the player experiment more?)

Anyway, really funny entry! I liked it.
Kamuniaft
08. Oct 2020 · 04:40 UTC
Awesome soundeffects! I liked the art style too. It's not always easy to be a barista, so I never figure out how to create the non-fat steamed milk (: And tips are looow. It was fun playing! )
piscythe
08. Oct 2020 · 04:55 UTC
I have no idea what I'm doing. I can't find the non-fat milk. No one labeled the syrup bottles so I guess this customer is getting some extra flavors. My cup is stuck. I can't move it so let's reset. Oh no I dumped my tip jar in the coffee there goes my hard-earned 19 cents. You know what? This guy is getting a cup of alcohol and gummy bears because I can't find the caramel. Who even cares? I'm going to stick an entire pumpkin in this cup just watch me.

5/5 mood.
AreyWarlord
14. Oct 2020 · 16:35 UTC
Good art and awesome sound.

Thought customers' replies and interface texts not always fit the coffe I served and each other.

Also, this game needs some more clarity, like - what are all those unsigned bottles and where is the steamer? >_>
Sondy
14. Oct 2020 · 16:54 UTC
Cute little game! I feel like the lack of explanation of the tools and ingredients hurt gameplay quite a bit, however- instead of being funny or fun, I found myself more annoyed that I didn't know how to do things or what things were. That being said, the concept is great, and the music and voice acting were spot on! The art was also a perfect fit for the game's theme!
The jokes that played over the PA were also top notch- I really feel like I was working as a wage slave in a hostile working environment! 5/5 humor and mood!
ForgeronStudio
14. Oct 2020 · 17:19 UTC
This was a really fun game! I loved figuring out what every ingredient could do, and it was fun that the coffees gradually got weirder. I ended up playing for quite a while. I agree with the commenter who suggested you include your description in the game itself. Perhaps an overly friendly, slightly intimidating introduction from the manager at the beginning would be fun - I'm sure the voice acting would be fantastic - and help to put the player in the mindset of "uh oh, what are all these ingredients, I better just throw some stuff in". I also think that would help the feel of the game in general. The scary atmosphere of the coffee shop is awesome, but you could push it further, for example by adding voice lines from the manager when the player gets too many coffees wrong. You've clearly put a lot of effort into building up the mood you wanted, and I think it wouldn't take much more work to make it even more effective.

Overall, great job!
Raphiell
17. Oct 2020 · 00:23 UTC
Absolutely hilarious! I laughed out loud when the managers special came up, especially cause I wanted to save up a $1 tip, and it came up when I was at 99 cents!

Funny, good art, great critique of corporations. Well done!
MattWoelk
17. Oct 2020 · 16:26 UTC
Steam milk by attaching milk under the handle on the big machine.
Got that, and the rest was smooth sailing. :)
Nice game!
TheCrittersCove
17. Oct 2020 · 22:13 UTC
Overall I really like the idea of this game, but figuring out what's what is painful for non-cafe goers. I had to read someone else's comment to figure out how to make steamed milk, which is required for a good chunk of the drinks. Still not sure on non-fat milk.

The audio is funny and graphics are well done. Other than the lack of object info, it's a pretty solid game.
kaeveris
18. Oct 2020 · 11:45 UTC
Funny game, cool art and great sound effects!
Chris Hay
19. Oct 2020 · 03:15 UTC
Kind of a dark dry humor in this, the lack of clarity about how and what to do was meant to be part of the fun I think. I don't drink coffee and have never worked in a place like that so I had no clue - sorry to the always displeased customers! =P