WIP: A Cooking Game

Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Projects/WIP: A Cooking Game

Arabia(Posted 2016) [#1]
There is no "title" as such to this. Lately (last couple of months) I've be obsessed and having a great time playing "Cooking Fever" by Nordcurrent. The gameplay is fantastic and the graphics after perfect for this style of game. The monetization I personally think is awful though - I haven't paid them a cent to play their game, but at it's current state I could have easily spent over A$300 on Gems and not finished all levels with 3 stars - If someone like Blizzard has trouble extracting A$80 for their latest StarCraft episode, then Nordcurrent is zero chance of getting me to pay them A$80 or more to just hurry my progress in their otherwise fine game.

Anyway, I decided to see if I could write a similar sort of game. All the graphics are public domain and the video does not do them justice (did a quick recording using XSplit - I'll try to find a better free recorder for future uploads).

While this has taken me a long time to get this far, it's mainly because I've taken weeks off in between touching it and often only code for 5 minutes at a time. Put in a good 5+ hours this weekend including play testing and am happy with how it's progressing.

This is the sort of game that pretty much anyone with basic to intermediate programming skills could write, but for it to really stand out and make money on the mobile market would require a very high degree of polish (graphics, sound and effects). My only chance to get it published and make money would be if I can find graphic artists who are will to take a chance on a profit share. After reading about Crime Solitaire, I do not have the capital or the balls to chance probably $100k upfront to get the whole game done professionally.

Anywho, here is a very badly recorded YouTube clip of what is going on for the moment.

By the time I post another update I'll also post a link to an APK for those with Android to give a go.

For some reason when I click on "forum codes" it doesn't show me how to embed YouTube videos, so here is the direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZANI9Dncxt8&feature=youtu.be

Don't get too excited, just showing the stage I'm at at the moment :)


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#2]
Well that's actually not that bad! Let me know when you have an APK to test!


Arabia(Posted 2016) [#3]
@Xaron - thanks. Watch this space. At the moment the player is only dragging ready made deserts to the customers. When I have it to the stage where you need to cook items which takes time, and then plate them up before dragging them to the customer I will make a download available. Also need to put level select and at least two levels in. Hopefully sometime in the next seven days.


therevills(Posted 2016) [#4]
Looks good... nice bouncing customers ;)
To add a youtube video:
[*youtube video_id]

(But remove the * and add your video id (yours is ZANI9Dncxt8):


Regarding graphics cost, Dave wanted a lot of backgrounds for Crime Solitaire and Retro do charge for them. For your game I would guessamate you might get Retro to do it between $5k to $10k (if you only have 1 background). You could always shoot them an email and I do think they will do a revenue share scheme... but again it doesnt hurt to ask.


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#5]
$5k up to $10k for 2d art for that kind of game? Are you serious? :o

Ok, let me say this more politely. :D I paid about $900 for complete artwork for my toddler puzzle game which has 20 puzzles and has quite a lot of graphics. It was made by a guy who charged about $20 per hour if I remember correctly (edit: It was this guy: http://dcgraphics25.prosite.com/ ). So $10k would be 500 hours of work for what exactly? That's more than 3 months full time work for an artist!


Arabia(Posted 2016) [#6]
I wasn't going to put up an APK right yet, but I've done it anyway for those who would be kind enough to give it a quick shot on their device.

Hopefully this link should work: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlrqjv0xccbkmah/MonkeyGame-debug.apk?dl=0

Runs fine on my Samsung Galaxy 2 7" tab. Be interested if it also works fine using an Android emulator like BlueStacks and also other devices. I'm using AutoFit atm using the default 640x480 resolution to test it out, so it will have black area's down the sides depending on the resolution of your device and the orientation of your screen.

Did a couple of little tidy ups since my YT video: eggs, bacon & mushrooms are in the right place along with their respective fry pans - but as of yet you can't cook them let alone plate them up when they are ready. When you serve a customer, or the customer leaves because you didn't give them all they ordered, you will now see two piles of coins. The left pile is what they paid you for the food (fixed amount) and the right pile is the tip. They tip you based on how fast they are served.

As with the Nordcurrent game, the next customer will not enter unless the space they want to sit at is free and the coins have been removed.

There is currently no way to replay the one and only level (if you can call it that) on the tablet, you'll just need to close it and re-open it.

At present all you can do is drag the ready made "treats" to the customers which if you can't tell what they are, are from top to bottom a waffle, pancakes and crepes. Just to clarify, I didn't draw any of the graphics, they are all free public domain graphics. If I release something as is, I will credit those responsible.

A slightly better screen shot for those who don't want to download and install the APK:



In case playing is not clear: Just drag the treat up into the speech bubble of the customer to give them the food. When they leave, they will leave coins and hopefully a tip for you. Just tap on the money to add it to your score.

@Xaron - I'm open to suggestions about getting graphics done. Sounds like you got a really good deal, and if I look at publishing something I will definitely hit your guy up to see if he is interested. The cost to get graphics done also comes down to the time you are willing to wait - are you willing to wait 500 hours for 1 artists, or are you willing to get the same stuff done in a couple of days by a team of 20?

Trust me though, if you haven't already, download Cooking Fever. It's a fun game and will give you an idea of just how much graphic design is involved in their game. I've toyed with the idea already of trying to source someone off Freelancer - some of these people, especially those in third world (can you call them that?) countries like India will work for next to nothing. It's one of the reasons why here in Australia so many jobs are outsourced to them. Guys will code complete applications for a fraction of the cost that it can be done locally because they don't have all the red tape and government BS that employers here have to put up with. Slave wagers for them? perhaps, but their cost of living is a fraction of ours and this topic and politics are something I'm sure doesn't belong in the MX forums :)

Just to give you a quick idea if you (or anyone else) doesn't want to download CF - the version I'm playing currently has 14 different restaurants with background, probably 50+ different customer images all with facial expressions which change, probably 60+ food items some of which change as they cook, a pokie/slot machine/fruit machine mini-game for winning money and gems. Plus plenty of little effects when you earn coins, win a level etc. It really is well done, and I could see the man hours involved in doing this being in the thousands of hours for a single person to reproduce - but then I'm pretty crap at graphic design so who knows how long it would take a qualified person. To me, along with Solitair games, Match 3 games and even Slot machine games - the graphics are what sells the game probably 80%. The 20% is probably reserved for the programmers who really aren't doing that much to make a game like this in terms of hours at the computer.

@therevills - thanks for the YouTube code - I'll use that next time, for some reason it doesn't appear when I click Forum Codes although it did a couple of days ago. For anyone wondering, the "bouncing" customers is something I copied straight from the Nordcurrent game, I think it looks kinda cool - all it is is moving the imagine along a sine wave.


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#7]
@Arabia: Yeah I can recommend that guy, he was straight forward to work with and very fast. He did a fixed price with me, half of it to pay upfront the other half after completion. Quite a fair deal. You could ask over there at DeviantArt ( http://forum.deviantart.com/jobs/offers/ ), lots of talented artists there and very affordable.

In case you want to make money with it I could ask a friend of mine who works with a revenue split (50/50). But she is usually very busy though but can do nice vector artwork which would fit nicely I guess for your project.


Arabia(Posted 2016) [#8]
@Xaron - cheers.

I want to get the thing fully working with my free PD art first, then I'll see if I can do a deal with a graphic designer. It would show the potential graphic artist that the game is right to be launched as soon as the graphics are done which could probably make a difference over someone going to them with a "this is my idea, but I haven't even programmed it yet".

My thought was that if I could get someone to do it on a profit share basis would be to get maybe 2 or 3 restaurant themes going, and then progress from there if it does show signs of making money. If a company for example would do a "scene" for $5000, I'd be more than happy to pay someone more than this amount if they would do it on a profit share agreement - so if it fails we both lose out on the time we spent on the project, but it makes money they are rewarded for taking a chance on something they may have only done for $5000 up front if that makes sense.

I do like the idea of using a Freelancer though, it gives you a chance to try someone who may be new to the industry - they can at worst get something on their Resume to show potential customers. Added to what I already said, some of the Freelancers will work for a lot lower rates and the quality is comparable to the big companies which work out of countries like Australia etc. where they have to charge more due to overheads and minimum employee wages.


Arabia(Posted 2016) [#9]
Didn't get much done this week, but did mess around with some sounds. Snagged and did a crap job editing a sound loop to use as background music. As with the graphics, I'm not really worried about the quality too much, just putting them in as place holders to show that it works and I'll worry about getting it professionally done in the future should this project materialize.

You can now also cook eggs, mushrooms and eggs - but as yet no customer asks for them which is good because you can't drag the cooked products to the plates. They'll just sit in the pan until cooked and then burnt - you can see my crappy Gimp skills have been put to use on these graphics - they are lighter in colour until cooked, and then very dark in colour when they are burnt. Need a bin graphic so you can discard with the burnt stuff, but one step at a time.

I really wish I had more time and enthusiasm to get this done but oh well.

Anyway, the latest APK is here if you want to put it on your device for a quick play. Fingers crossed this week I'll get a full level playable as well as a level selected and a restart level button so you don't have to close the App and reload each time...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlrqjv0xccbkmah/MonkeyGame-debug.apk?dl=0