I liked being able to place as I go to see where I needed to make more space. It'd be nice to have unlimited undo though, at least for an easy mode. There's already a lot of possible combinations, so it was already tricky to find the right combination to make the right shapes. Sometimes I'd just find I screwed up like 5 pieces ago. I'm not sure the purpose of the ingredients stacking and why dragging them as a stack was important though?
Originally, the ingredients stacked neatly in the top left corner to keep the screen tidy, and to give me flexibility if I ever decided to add more items or shrink the board area. Dragging an entire stack made complete sense alongside that setup. I eventually changed my mind and decided to spread the ingredients out to fill all that empty space, but I saw no reason to remove stack dragging.
To keep things fair, there's secretly a next piece director trying to minimise the amount of wasted item area. For performance reasons, it doesn't always find the absolute best solution. But as long as you build flat, there should usually be a solution when you reach the final queued pieces. That's from my own testing rather than any mathematical proof.
I think it's fine to reach an unsolvable state occasionally and just try your best to minimise the damage. Having a single undo is usually enough to prevent the frustration of a misdrop or the sudden realisation that a better spot was available. Paired with the generous lookahead and the piece director, I think the game is easy enough to finish. Though not necessarily with full stars.
Really like the game having two phases where you create the are you need to fill first then fill it later. I think the bigger pieces (especially the egg) simply don't provide any value at least to me. Like it's better to have a small piece with more olives then a single large piece maybe large pieces can give a bit more points then their actual size but that's my opinion anyway :\
Technically it is all one jumbled phase. It is probably a better idea to place items as you go so you have a better idea of what you should do next. In my playthrough I just placed the spaghetti first and then placed the items, since it is a bit harder and therefore more fun.
You are right, and I had the exact same thoughts about the larger ones. That is why the choice is actually a lie. If you don't pick up a certain item, the game eventually forces you to pick it up in the later rounds so you have at least one of each item by the end. I feel a little sorry for deceiving players, but I know people will optimise the fun away and go for the easier options every time if I gave them a real choice. I'm not saying it's impossible to find a way to encourage players to pick up objectively bad pieces, but it's not easy.
I like the idea of a falling block game where there's no time constraint, that's pretty cool. Even without the time constraint, it's still kinda stressful haha. Definitely a more chill take on the genre that makes you exercise your brain a bit. The interface and visuals are nice too!
A really fun yet simple concept to play out, especially for me who really enjoys Tetris! Had a couple of laughs when I first shaped the pieces as I normally would, only to be hoisted by my own petard when I had to place the items down afterwards.
Comments
I liked being able to place as I go to see where I needed to make more space. It'd be nice to have unlimited undo though, at least for an easy mode. There's already a lot of possible combinations, so it was already tricky to find the right combination to make the right shapes. Sometimes I'd just find I screwed up like 5 pieces ago. I'm not sure the purpose of the ingredients stacking and why dragging them as a stack was important though?
Originally, the ingredients stacked neatly in the top left corner to keep the screen tidy, and to give me flexibility if I ever decided to add more items or shrink the board area. Dragging an entire stack made complete sense alongside that setup. I eventually changed my mind and decided to spread the ingredients out to fill all that empty space, but I saw no reason to remove stack dragging.
To keep things fair, there's secretly a next piece director trying to minimise the amount of wasted item area. For performance reasons, it doesn't always find the absolute best solution. But as long as you build flat, there should usually be a solution when you reach the final queued pieces. That's from my own testing rather than any mathematical proof.
I think it's fine to reach an unsolvable state occasionally and just try your best to minimise the damage. Having a single undo is usually enough to prevent the frustration of a misdrop or the sudden realisation that a better spot was available. Paired with the generous lookahead and the piece director, I think the game is easy enough to finish. Though not necessarily with full stars.
Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate it!
Really like the game having two phases where you create the are you need to fill first then fill it later. I think the bigger pieces (especially the egg) simply don't provide any value at least to me. Like it's better to have a small piece with more olives then a single large piece maybe large pieces can give a bit more points then their actual size but that's my opinion anyway :\
Technically it is all one jumbled phase. It is probably a better idea to place items as you go so you have a better idea of what you should do next. In my playthrough I just placed the spaghetti first and then placed the items, since it is a bit harder and therefore more fun.
You are right, and I had the exact same thoughts about the larger ones. That is why the choice is actually a lie. If you don't pick up a certain item, the game eventually forces you to pick it up in the later rounds so you have at least one of each item by the end. I feel a little sorry for deceiving players, but I know people will optimise the fun away and go for the easier options every time if I gave them a real choice. I'm not saying it's impossible to find a way to encourage players to pick up objectively bad pieces, but it's not easy.
Thank you for playing and giving feedback!
I like the idea of a falling block game where there's no time constraint, that's pretty cool. Even without the time constraint, it's still kinda stressful haha. Definitely a more chill take on the genre that makes you exercise your brain a bit. The interface and visuals are nice too!
This was fun and really well done. Nice work
A really fun yet simple concept to play out, especially for me who really enjoys Tetris! Had a couple of laughs when I first shaped the pieces as I normally would, only to be hoisted by my own petard when I had to place the items down afterwards.
This was addictive and I was so proud of myself when I completed my grand banquet with 3 michelin stars ⭐⭐⭐Great job!