I’m not on the forums to get users. The Godot Forum isn’t very large, but it’s got some amazing developers (the Prison Architect developer is on here, for instance), super helpful testers that are also developers (like phoenixdk), and helpful posts to fix issues (like pennyloafers’s posts on networking). If you’re looking for players, I think reaching out to content creators that play games in this genre is your best bet. Start with small creators (~1k subscribers) and work your way up. However…
This is the main thing. When I first saw your game’s post on the forums, I thought it was a jam game or a work in progress. Here are a few things I suggest:
Lean into either a stylized look or a realistic one. Right now, the game is sort of in-between.
Add more lighting, whether it’s cartoony, stylized, or realistic.
Add some textures, same thing.
This bit is huge. It’s really hard to make a game good if it’s not your thing. Honestly, it’s not my kind of game either. The premise is essentially “Work this job and get everything EXACTLY right, or else!” so it’s not too appealing to me. In fact, 21 plays is surprisingly high.
Also, the game doesn’t work well in fullscreen (UI scale changes) and the mouse is inverted.
I’m curious about a few things:
How long did you spend on the game?
Do you feel that it’s better than other games in the genre? If so, how?
Will you drop the project or keep tuning it until it succeeds? (I think it has potential.)
Solid points. I wasn’t keeping close track of the time it took, but I experimented with the Cogito framework in Godot for maybe 5-7 days before I was comfortable enough with it to try making this project. If I count that it was about 10-14 days total to finish it. As far as if it’s better than other games in the genre. It’s hard to say really. I’ve seen videos of some cooking simulation games but never played them. Right off the bat, that was probably my first mistake. As far I can tell, at least on Itch there’s not many similar games, but I could be wrong. So I considered that a plus. Anyway, I just started from the premise that I enjoy cooking in real life and started messing around in Godot and thought maybe this mechanic about stacking ingredients could be adapted to a time management and arcade style ‘cooking simulation’. I appreciate the comment on how it might have potential. At this point, I’m leaning towards continuing on with it. I think I’m gonna try to refactor the code and see if I can fix all the bugs. If that takes any longer than say five days I’d probably start worrying it’s too much time on a project that isn’t getting much interest and still needs a visual overhaul.
The problem isn’t gameplay, because most potential players never made it far enough to experience any gameplay. The problem is that the cover image looks unappealing. Those burger patties just look completely unappetizing. Those are the kinds of patties I would expect in a gross-out horror game, not in a cooking game.
Your burger patties look like you took the first photo of a patty you could find and slapped it on as a texture onto a low-poly model. That’s how you create PS1-style horror. It doesn’t just look unrealistic, it looks actively creepy. Creating appealing realistic-style food images is incredibly difficult even if you have the actual food and a good camera in front of you. Don’t even try it. Find a cartoony style that works for you and stick to it.
Well, I like the look of those patties. The issue is that with the PS1 style, you have to go all in. Everything should look like those patties and burger ingredients, maybe a pixelation and outline shader too.
DON’T PLAY THIS GAME!
There is a link for game in itch.io I tried to play it and strongly recommend for everyone not to play it.
What is the problem? The game captures your mouse and ESC button doesn’t give it back. I started pressing random buttons on keyboard and accidentally opened games’ meniu which let me close itch tab.
WOW. This is horrible. No game should do that.
Okay, so what’s my impressions of the game?
Loadings takes forever. You can play 5 other games, while this loads.
Meniu looks like crap.
If this is the game about making food, why do you get controls of games like Doom or Quake and so on? If this is the game about making food, you should stand still and just make food. Not walk around while looking at the ceiling.
Controls are very confusing. You can’t walk with arrows, you have to walk with whatever buttons on the keyboards. If you walk to the right place game meniu pop-up to say which of the keyboard buttons you need to press to do some action. This is crap.
Room layout is confusing. You see the bread, but you can’t walk to it. You have to take it at a distance.
What is the goal of the game? Which type of sandwich do I need to make?
Okay, so how to fix the game? Easy way: Delete everything and start from zero. Hard way:
A) Controls have to be intuitive. Which means, if you walk next to the bread you pick the bread and don’t need to press random button on the keyword. Or you can pick bread with a click of the mouse.
B) Is there a reason for movement in the room? Is there are reason for looking up and down? No. Remove it. Yes. Make it clear why you need to do it.
C) Show the customer, let a customer ask for specific burger. There needs to be clear goal of what player is doing.
But seriously, delete this game. Make a new one. Better one.
Considering it’s a simulator the movement will probably be used at some point when the game is more developed. Also lots of games have separate keys to pick stuff up or interact.
LOL. That is what I thought when I first looked at it too.
@oneoverzero no offence meant. Please don’t take this as an insult to you personally, but your game is not good. It does feel like a game jam effort to me at least.
Deleting everything is not actually terrible advice, starting again happens all the time. When you realise there is so much reworking that starting again is the right thing. Your game is really a prototype. So now you can look at it and think what works, what doesn’t and what would make it more fun. When prototyping I might have five or six different projects, each trying out fundamentally different approaches. And yes, unfortunately sometimes you realise the entire idea needs to go in the folder with all the other abandoned projects to possibly be revisited in the future. Maybe it just didn’t work, or was too difficult for me today, or just wasn’t enough fun, or (and this is the worst) you realise others have done it already much better than you. We all have tons of these projects, sidelined for now.
It can be really nice starting a new project with a new idea. It is in some ways a really exciting time. You have learned tons from this game, you are probably a completely different developer now you have this experience behind you. A better one.
So my slightly different advice would be not to flog this horse, but go and build a motorbike!
Good luck and honestly, even though this game is not great IMHO, you did manage to get it to a finished state and published. Congratulations, you should be proud, but perhaps it is time to start a new project with all your new found wisdom and experience.
Edit:
Some ideas. How about you are cooking on a beach stall, so not stuck in a kitchen. You get supplies from your van parked off the beach (a good reason for movement) and your customers walk up to you and order. Perhaps even a queue forms. When the customers go they leave a review. You need to get your stall well reviewed so you can get more customers. But as it gets busier you risk your burgers not being perfect as you rush. Perhaps there are other stalls around you also making burgers in competition with you. Maybe you have to pick up the litter from past customers too. Maybe weather happens and when it gets breezy its harder to stack the burger. Perhaps a dog comes and tries to steal your meat and you have to chase it off, but it lurks around.
After watching trailer - there are few things that i want to point out
The trailer is boring, there aren’t many VFX, SFX, gameplay is very generic and looks like it’s too slow and too chore-like, more like a cooking show than a game
Even if someone likes slower games, the lack of effects make it look like working prototype, not final product nor vertical slice
There isn’t anything unique about the game i see in the trailer that’s interesting for me to play it instead of other cooking games on steam
Some advice i would give is
Add at least 3 or 4 effects to each interaction player does, it can be sound, camera effect, particles, giant seagull eating burger, anything that will make it more responsible
Make more cinematic trailer, add cuts and transitions
Finally don’t show generic gameplay, show the best and most interesting parts of your game in the trailer so player’s will want to play it
Also i reccomend checking bad and good steam games, read reviews, note analytics like likes, review count, date of release, if there is early access or demo ect. as it might help you find some common problems games have
