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Casserole Quest's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #6 | 4.062 | 4.062 |
| Theme interpretation | #57 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Audio | #60 | 3.438 | 3.438 |
| Overall | #82 | 3.375 | 3.375 |
| Gameplay | #82 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Graphics | #180 | 3.125 | 3.125 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/Oblongjapan/CasseroleQuest.git
Game description
Head back to the 70s in an era where the microwave has been gaining popularity. Cookbooks are being released left and right and your goal is to create a compendium of all the cookbooks combined to become the Microwave Master Chef!
The goal of this game is to combine ingredients in the microwave to create new recipes to add to your cookbook. See if you can climb the tiers to combine all the base ingredients into one final dish and eat the Last Supper!
Theme interpretation
I interpreted the wave theme of the game with some realism and a splash of magic. I chose to use a microwave as the vessel to host the game mechanics and use a strong thematic tie to real life to induce waves of nostalgia.
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Comments
Very interesting take on the game. Quite addictive as well. Simple principle but not so easy to progress. I lost a couple times in round one before being able to progress aha
Very solid entry
Very solid submission! I love the music, it feels like im doing something important and exciting. The gameplay loop is also very addictive, I found myself wanting to try again and again to get more recipes and figure out more things. the one thing I found myself struggling on was figuring out exactly how the food would react in the microwave, even with those stats. Maybe having a tutorial level instead of a how to play could be beneficial! I also never understood why lettuce is a thing like why would i choose lettuce its just bad right? Anyway great submission, great music, and awesome gameplay. Nice work!
Lettuce isn't good, but that's where the challenge comes in. Trying to create all the recipes that include lettuce is hard because lettuce has horrible stats. So you need to do things like combine it with low Vol ingredients or upgrade it in the Make organic phase to make it better and easier to combine.
You're right a tutorial playthrough would make things much more clear!
Thanks for playing!
that s*ked me for hours, specially that i like games in type of "little alchemy"/"doodle god"
Glad you enjoyed. I had never heard of those other games before submitting this, but i see the infinite combination similarities!
yeah, there many such games yet only us both, maybe one or 2 people more ever made "alchemy" about food while i think it's a very alchemy-like thingy, lol.
I love this take on the theme, making a game about trying to avoid a microwave drying out food is so funny. I really love how the UI is animated, and clicking on the radio to toggle the music is great. The music is also a real jam!
Two pieces of feedback from me: When you get a game over and restart, I wish the music didn't restart! The moisture, resistance, and volume stats for each food make sense in theory when I'm reading about it, but when playing the game I was never quite sure if the food was going to dry out or not. It seems like the system totally works and maybe you intended for there to be even more, but I think the system needs a little more clarity in game. Though I can also see how the player being unsure and the result being a little chaotic could be the intended feeling.
Awesome job!
Thanks so much! Yea I struggled with making that decision. I wanted it to feel slightly uncertain, but you could still figure it out if you took the time to do the math. The approximate moisture drain label above the ingredients gives you the drain per second and you can figure it out if you times it by 15 and compare the number to the moisture of the ingredients in the microwave. It is possible to be certain, but I found myself approximating and hoping, which adds to the tension and I kind of liked not being sure (though it is annoying when you're far in the game and you lose all your progress. But that's why I added the recipe book system so that losing didn't feel so bad if you added some new recipes to the book).
Appreciate the feedback!
This is a creative interpretation of the theme. I love the idea and had fun. It makes me want to microwave a potato and make a loaded potato.
Thanks! Load up that microwave!
I love the unconventional vibe in this game and all the crazy combos allowed 😂 Music adds to the overall craziness of what's happening. Very cool concept. I genuinely think you can go deeper and make full funny game of it. And a successful one too! Seems like there's a trend for all those funny-gunny games
P.s. I've struggled for some time to understand what the game wants from me but eventually got to play just fine
P.p.s. I'm hungry now. I want carrot rice and pea sandwich
Haha thanks.
Yea the game is a shell of what the fully fleshed idea is, but I think I may revisit this in the future. Gives me an idea for a game jam specifically to give you more time on your previous submissions if you feel you could go further with it.
Gameoff 2025: Extensions
I've seen a jam called something like "Finish your game already" a couple times in jam calendar
Interesting idea! Was lost at the beginning, then I read the how to play at the menu which I missed on the first run. Then I started to get the hang of the game. Created some truly random dishes lmao. Peas and bread 😂Great job on creating this unique submission!
I admit the goal is not immediately obvious, but it becomes clear with playing! Thanks for playing!
Nice little puzzle game. I like the whimsical soundtrack and tone of the game, and the effort gone into the custom made graphics. Reminds me of those old newgrounds games we used to love in high school. Great work!
Thanks for playing!
Haha totally whacky idea. I love the crazy combinations allowed. The styling is cool and has a very nice nostalgic vibe. The music is high energy and really enjoyable. Making weird little illustrations for everything must have been fun to figure out how to combine. I think the biggest weakness is the feedback aspect, there probably needs to be a little more sound, the UI text could be a little cleaner dragging stuff is less fun then clicking and the 15 seconds are a little slow. Also it doesn't feel like there is much advancement beyond just getting a deeper understanding of the somewhat simple rules. I think being able to add some weird multipliers (you kind of got there with the make organic thing but I think leaning into that would have been really cool), making the waiting section fast or more fun (sounds or something else going on) and making everything more 'poppy' would make this game a lot more enjoyable. It's already a really strong enjoyable concept and really strong art and like I said totally innovative. Really had a fun run on it. Best microwave I've played in the jam so far!
Thanks for playing! Yea I had a choice, make over 8000 illustrations for plates of food, or find a way to combine them with slight offsets on the plate haha.
I agree with all you said! Feedback was something I started added near the end of the jam, but ran out of time.
The game had a lot more complex multipliers etc, coded in (pared down versions) but it began to get too out of scope for 1 month haha. Might revisit the game in the future.
This is actually so fun, and there are so many recipes. Long live the microwave!
Haha yea, 8178 recipes to be exact. Thanks, glad you liked it!
What do the numbers on the recipe box mean?
Basically count of cards in the deck before a shuffle!