Otter Seaweed Restaurant by StephanSchue

[raw]
made by StephanSchue for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUaVJSBUQog

Description: Help the otter harvest seaweed to create dishes for its customers. In each round, you have 2 minutes to get the highest possible score.

Controls: Move - WASD / Arrow-Keys / left analogue stick

The game works on a keyboard and controller using arrow keys or the left analogue stick. By toggling the ESC / B-Button you can navigate to the menu on the top right.

Team: We are a team of two and split the work in programming and graphics.

About the Project: All graphics were drawn by hand with coloured pencils. After the scanning, we animated them with After Effects. So we got a more friendly look.

We used Unity to build our game. Our main goal was to create several modules to stick together. So we are having the freedom to adjust and extend the game in future.

Ratings

Overall 684th 3.026⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 775th 2.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 700th 2.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 474th 3.605⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 225th 4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 455th 2.765⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 645th 3⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 9🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

Azel Wkr
10. Jan 2023 · 16:59 UTC
Played for a bit, the max score I could obtain was around 240 if I remember correctly. The game need a lot more variety to be actually fun to play for more than 20 secs, **but** the main loop is here and is nice so that's already something cool in a jam. Plus the sprites and animations of otters are quit cute.

Great work for a one person's job !
mrs.wheelsx
10. Jan 2023 · 22:33 UTC
Your otters are SO adorable! Like the concept and would love to have had more.
nullval
11. Jan 2023 · 21:35 UTC
really charming, it felt like I was playing a childrens book.
Rezioz
11. Jan 2023 · 21:43 UTC
maybe the gameplay is a bit redundant, but I love the graphics !
Joror
11. Jan 2023 · 21:49 UTC
Lovely hand-drawn graphics! The gameplay is a bit on the simple side, but all working without bugs.
Missed a bit of sound or music, that would have been a nice extra touch!
Alex de la Cour
11. Jan 2023 · 22:13 UTC
What an adorable game, I love those otters with all my heart! Absolutely beautiful hand drawn art.
osh.studio
12. Jan 2023 · 11:37 UTC
Wow the hand drawn sprites came out really great for the otter and seaweed, the gameplay loops is very simple but it is a jam, so that makes sense. I had a similar issue! Well done :)
Skosnowich
12. Jan 2023 · 11:49 UTC
Very cute otters you have there. Sadly, I had terrible performance on the right screen collecting the sea weed. I like the core gameplay idea, but agree that it gets repetitive pretty quick.
Roroto Sic
12. Jan 2023 · 17:12 UTC
very cute game idea ! great art !
collecting seaweed is fun, but the cooking part lacks gameplay. Just something very basic like a QTE, or "buttons mashing" would have been perfect!
but i totally understand the lack of time during a gamejam to implemant more stuff (like audio)

But overall, its a nice and cute game idea :)
davisjc22
13. Jan 2023 · 16:27 UTC
Cool idea! I was understood the basics after reading the instructions, but was a little confused about cooking the seaweed after I started. I was unsure if it took 5 seaweed for 1 order, or if it was 1 for 1. After watching the trailer that was clear. The hand-drawn graphics were cool, I haven't seen that done before for a game jam. I like the take on the theme, too. I think you could easily throw some good humor in the game with this idea. Nice job!
sakura_magika
14. Jan 2023 · 19:08 UTC
wow, paper cutout graphics are great! did you physically create them or use texture maps?
Random-storykeeper
14. Jan 2023 · 23:40 UTC
The graphics are definitely the standout in this entry. I particularly like the use of crinkled paper coloured blue for the texture of the water. It has a lot of charm alone.

I played with a controller and my experience with playing the game like this was overall positive. I think the controls generally worked well for what the game is and most of my issues were more in the execution rather than the fluidity or performance. There was a good setup for the gameplay and it took a bit, but it was relatively easy to pick up.

If this is a score based game, I don't think the game should loop back to the beginning once time runs out. When that happens, there's less incentive to share your score as you could miss it if you're not prepared. I think the game could have benefitted from at least having a game over screen where the player presses or clicks a button to replay on their own volition.

Of course, some audio and additional complexities in the gameplay (like customer satisfaction, different types of harvests, etc.) would elevate this entry further, but for what is presented, I think the basics are there, boosted by its cute and stand-out art style.
🎤 StephanSchue
15. Jan 2023 · 21:04 UTC
Thank you very much for all the kind comments. :)
To get feedback on our game is brilliant.

We are really happy you liked the hand drawing on paper approach. In the beginning it was just an idea to change the paste from the digital workflow, but we see you really love the outcome, so we do.
After scan the paper drawings, we put together the graphics and created the animations on the PC.

About the gameplay, we are also happy you guys enjoyed it, played fluid and had no bugs.
We had the idea to have more dishes and put salmon and rice in the game, but the time flew by.
Same for the endscreen. It was the plan, but yeah. Happy it worked out in the end. :)

Your guys comments motivate us, so we think about working on an extended version that considers the feedback we got. This means, more complexity in the gameplay with added resources and dishes. Like a proper Sushi restaurant?
We also want to add music, upgrading the UI/UX, more visuals and animations to make the game really nice.

Maybe a browser and a mobile version could be fun? What do you think?

Thanks!
ohsnapitzsean
16. Jan 2023 · 03:45 UTC
fun art style!
Sheng Mai
20. Jan 2023 · 07:28 UTC
The otter is very cute, the style of painting is also great, I'm not sure if there is a bgm (because in the tour did not hear) there is a fairy tale book-like flavor, I hope there are more levels and more ingredients, very much looking forward to the subsequent updates.
Schmalex
24. Jan 2023 · 18:14 UTC
Awww this must be the most adorable entry of this jam! Your style is really unique and happy-making and i would love to see this game again if you ever plan on adding more gameplay.