Sushi Bushi by Frozentape

[raw]
made by Frozentape for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

start_menu.png

Kevin is a skinny accountant and otherwise totally normal human being.

He wakes up one day and decides: “Today, I will do nothing but eat sushi.” He skives off work and drives to the nearest sushi restaurant to gorge himself. But he’s not going to pay for his sushi, oh no! He’s going to eat everyone else’s sushi! Stick it to the man! Kevin’s tired of being told what to do anyway!

So many questions to answer! Why doesn’t this sushi restaurant have any security? Why do they keep sending more sushi down the conveyor belts despite Kevin’s never-ending gluttony? Maybe speeding up the conveyor belts will help? Only time will tell!

It's up to you to decide whether Kevin can become what he truly desires - the one and only Sushi Bushi.

Team

Well done to our amazing team, what a pleasure it's been to work with you all :smile:

Code: Duncan Gallagher and Adrianna Kamińska

Art: Lyla Taguma

Sound: Andrew Ramsey and David Galego

Music: Rossano Cariello

We'd originally tried to stick to the 10-second theme with sushi being dispensed every 10 seconds, but decided it was more fun if we made it faster :stuckouttonguewinkingeye:

Screenshot 2022-10-03 at 21.55.32.png

Ratings

Overall 704th 3.4⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 755th 3.192⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 764th 3.12⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1203th 2.229⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 631th 3.577⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 211th 3.78⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 113th 3.885⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 609th 3.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 38🗨️

Feedback

DileriumL
04. Oct 2022 · 00:24 UTC
Nice one
Gryph0n
04. Oct 2022 · 00:25 UTC
I too wish to be kevin and eat exclusively sushi every day.
HoneyHop
04. Oct 2022 · 00:27 UTC
Super cute game! It was fun to play and pretty challenging once it started to speed up! Only thing that I got caught up on was the L keybind because I kept thinking it was an I.
amarokczukay
04. Oct 2022 · 00:48 UTC
SUSHI BUSHI SUSHI BUSHI i like this game, it's fun to play SUSHI BUSHI SMASH DAT SUSHI BUSHI BUTTON
Faust_Mi
04. Oct 2022 · 13:03 UTC
SUSHI BUSHI SMASH DAT SUSHI BUSHI BUTTON!!! \o/
Bredera
05. Oct 2022 · 07:11 UTC
Awesome little game, Really liked the art direction and the audio was pretty amazing. Well done!
lectvs
05. Oct 2022 · 16:50 UTC
Fun little game! I like how you have to balance stuffing sushi in your mouth with smacking it off the belt. :smiling_imp:
Ayxs
05. Oct 2022 · 18:46 UTC
I like the concept of this little game, but to me it was quite unclear what I was supposed to be doing. I didn't really understand knocking it off the belt was an option and just stood still while eating every sushi that came my way, casuing a very quick game over screen (becasue I ate too much?)

It seems that the game over screen could include a better explanation about why I lost as it now combines two lose conditions into one screen. Which was quite confusing for me.

Also the energy meter seems to never change?
🎤 Frozentape
07. Oct 2022 · 19:58 UTC
Glad everyone is enjoying the game :wink: @ayxs Thanks for the feedback :smiley: I agree that the *Sushi Bushi* attack doesn't have a clear purpose, and if I were to work more on the game I'd definitely try and find a way for it to benefit the player. The lose screen is indeed confusing, and I'll have to check the energy meter not changing as I hadn't noticed that!
Gno Evenimente
08. Oct 2022 · 07:38 UTC
Hilarious game, love it! It is fun and intense, and the audio and visual presentation is fantastic. Makes me want to get some sushi tonight.

One critique is the way the win/lose screen just fades into view as you're playing is a bit unintuitive, but you guys did a fantastic job.
steinuil
08. Oct 2022 · 14:08 UTC
Very dumb fun game lol, I love the little sounds the guy at the other end of the conveyor belt makes when you eat a plate.
blobo
08. Oct 2022 · 14:14 UTC
The voice acting is marvelous! I love the idea of one guy waiting for food to arrive, watching this lunatic eat everything and throw plates around before it gets to him. Hilarious stuff.

I wish the gameplay consisted a bit more than mashing buttons though. Like, if the sushi had some other incredibly short minigames (that simulated eating somehow), that would be cool.

I recorded myself playing for even more feedback: (Though the video is poorly cropped, my bad!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qGF5-lTWQM
🎤 Frozentape
10. Oct 2022 · 11:30 UTC
Ah @100th-coin thank you so much for recording the video, this kind of feedback is so useful!! :smiley: We had planned to have three different minigames which I agree would provide a lot more variety.

Thank you @gno-evenimente and @steinuil for playing :smile:
LDJam user 267116
11. Oct 2022 · 02:31 UTC
Funny game! More games should use the whole keyboard as a game mechanic. The sound effects were wonderfully sickly as well. Nice job!
Adafheyesh
14. Oct 2022 · 01:15 UTC
I didn't know you could gain too much weight, so I lost on my first attempt. I was able to find out how to lose weight since the opening instructions called out the Sushi Bushi attack, so then I beat the game. It seems like weight is the only way to lose -- I tried a run where I just let all the sushi pass, and nothing happened. The instructions say I need to prevent them from reaching the end; not sure if that's a bug?

The weight mechanic is a neat idea in terms of having to manage it vs. energy so that I can't spam eating, but in practice I can just spam the attack as I eat to avoid becoming overweight. It doesn't seem like there's any other reason for me to use the attack -- knocking the sushi around doesn't seem to do anything to help me (though it would if sushi reaching the end caused me to lose). I also noticed that weighing more slows me down, but there's no need to move anyway. It would be interesting to see some levels where movement and attacking and eating are all relevant, so that managing them all can come together as a truly hectic experience.

Having to press a different button each time to eat is a nice touch to keep the player on their toes just that little extra bit. A minor issue is that it's kind of hard to tell the difference between lowercase I and L, especially if you see L first and don't know that all the letters are actually lowercase.

I like the animation of the character, how the chopsticks open and close as he moves, and how he grows as he eats more. I appreciate the variety of different sushi dishes, too. The music is quite fitting for the gameplay and theming, and the dings and the sushi bushi sound effect are great.

Nice job overall!
🎤 Frozentape
14. Oct 2022 · 19:47 UTC
@adafheyesh Thank you for your detailed and insightful comments :smile: I agree that the *Sushi Bushi* attack is pretty redundant, and that the mechanics in general are not particularly clear. If I were to work more on this game I would try and make balancing the weight and energy levels more interesting, and give the player a clear reason to move around - perhaps multiple conveyor belts or something? It kind of felt like we came up with a number of fun/interesting mechanics but in terms of making them work together as a cohesive experience it didn't quite work!

The sushi reaching the end should definitely be bringing the player closer to a lose state, but we didn't get round to adding that in, which is definitely confusing given the objective of the game.

I'm glad you enjoyed it overall though! We were especially proud of the art and sound, adds a lot to the silliness/hecticness I reckon :wink:
PROJECTaroid
16. Oct 2022 · 20:07 UTC
Great game, very funny. The game looks good and plays well. Nice work.
EOShadows
17. Oct 2022 · 03:57 UTC
Nice game! Great graphics, animations, and sound effects. I thought the game, while kind of a short experience, was pretty fun. I also respect your decision to remove the aspect of your game that responded to the theme by making the dishes go faster, it probably would not have felt as fun if the dishes moved that slow. Overall, very nice game. Well done!
mikouaji
19. Oct 2022 · 23:40 UTC
I dodnt read the instructions on my first try and didnt know how to eat, the second attempt went better :D Very nice graphics and sounds, plays really fun
Rewzu
20. Oct 2022 · 18:42 UTC
Very funny game, neat graphics and audio. However, it might be a bit unintuitive at first. Good entry! :D
🎤 Frozentape
22. Oct 2022 · 08:31 UTC
Thank you @projectaroid @eoshadows @mikouaji and @rewzu !!! I'm so glad you enjoyed playing :smiley: