itch.io

Understandable but disappointing (today's my birthday, was hoping it would drop today).

Still, super hyped to see what you've been working on.

A couple of problems coming back to this.

1. Inputs are VERY delayed. I can barely position/rotate my first piece and the computer has done already three.
2. Pressing the down key causes the entire screen to scroll, requiring me to manually scroll back up.
3. Fullscreen slows down inputs to a standstill. The computer racked up 20 before I could even do 1.

Can I mention that Level 4 of the Mailroom duties is a bit RNG based. If you get the delivery task on the far bottom left (by the trash bins) more than three times in a run, you can't get a three-star approval (even three times is tricky if you get the one on the far top left too many other times). It takes too long to get there and back (about 50 seconds for a round trip), and jumping off the edge to save time deducts points.

Might be worth adding a faster way to get back or swap the position of the middle delivery slot and the mailroom.

A simple yet engaging game, I like it. I've been trying to get something sort of similar designed (I have the assets, I just can't animate or code).

I've got a guide down below, but tl;dr, the best way to get started is to complete all the Package Delivery Mini-Game levels up to a three star, do level 5 a few extras times, THEN do the Employee Management Mini-Game.

In 40 minutes (5 minutes for each Delivery level plus the extra and any flukes) you can get your Trust up to level 1 and get enough upgrades in the Employee Mini-Game to make it self-sufficient.

Same here, hence why I didn't rate it too important in my guide.

You have to replay scenes multiple times to access the next scene.

You need to have max Trust and go through Scene 3 a few times.

Want me to add a cheat sheet to my guide?

Alright. Added as a 'Quick Start Guide'.

(Also, I'm not sure if you saw on the other post, but I tried to make a better reference for the nipples.)

Glad I could help.

Quick Start Guide

• Controls
  - Arrow keys to move around and navigate menus
  - Spacebar to select menu option
  - (All other key interactions are highlighted)
• Gameplay
  - The goal of the game is to make enough money before the end of the week to send to the Supervisor (accessed on Floor 4 in your office on the far left at the Calendar by pressing S) and raise your Trust (visible in the Pause menu).
  - The two ways of making money (currently) are with the Employee Management minigame (accessed on Floor 4 in your office on the far left at the Computer by pressing D) or with the Package Delivery minigame (accessed with the Mail Boy on Floor 1 after swapping places with the Receptionist and talking to the Boss at the front of the desk).
  - Scenes are unlocked with the Mail Boy, Dummy, and the Janitor (unimplemented at present) by raising Trust to certain levels and completing the previous scene a certain amount of times.
  You can also 'encourage' employees at the desks on Floor 4 by different amounts depending on your Trust to give them a speed boost in the Employee Management minigame.
• Mini Games
  - Employee Management
  The main minigame. Employees will walk to pick up reports, return to their desk, complete them, and deliver them back to make money.
  You can spend money to upgrade the amount of desks, the value of completed reports, the speed of various actions, and moral (which seems to increase the effectiveness of 'encouragement').
  Note that starting this minigame will progress the day by one, however, it can run indefinitely.
  - Package Delivery
  The secondary minigame. As the Mail Boy, you deliver packages from a central mailroom to desks and drop chutes around the building within a time limit.
  Use left and right to move, (down to drop through air ducts, platforms, and elevators), press A to interact with packages and elevators, hold S to sprint, press D while sprinting to roll, and Spacebar to jump. Elevators, moving platforms, and air ducts can help (or hinder) your deliveries.
  Completing a delivery increases your score by 150 points and falling off the map reduces your score by 50 points.
  Your score determines your approval rating, and you need an approval rating of 3 to allow you to progress to the next level. (You also gain money depending on the difficulty level and approval rating. The higher the difficulty and approval, the more money you make).

Fast Track

Note: This section of the guide is if you want to fast track your way to max Trust and unlock all the scenes.

1. Go to the office on the far right and speak to Dummy, then return to your office and access the Calendar. (You will get told off by the Supervisor for not meeting the quota, but this is fine).
2. Go to Floor 1 offer to cover the Receptionist.
3. As the Mail Boy complete all five delivery levels to rank three and complete level five at rank three at least five times in total.
4. Return to Floor 4 and re-enter the minigame to check your money (you should have around 8-10k) and upgrade your stats to the following levels:
   Tables: 4
   Profit: 4
   Take Speed: 3
   Report Speed: 3
   You don't need Morale, Move Speed, or Do Speed just yet. You should be left with around 4k.
5. Exit the minigame and report back to the Supervisor with the Calendar.
   Note that you'll have to report to the Supervisor multiple times to reach Trust level one (seen on the Pause menu).
6. Once you've reached Trust level one and your picture is up on the wall you can start to ‘encourage’ the staff sitting at the desk(s) by pressing S.
7. Encourage the first (and only) desk of employees and re-enter the minigame. You should make around 2k before the buff wears off, use this to upgrade your stats to the following levels:
   Morale: 1
   Move Speed; 2
   Do Speed: 4
   When the buff wears off, upgrade the Tables to 8 employees.
   Note that any employees added during the minigame won't have the encouragement buff, as such this will reduce the efficiency of the run as they'll slow down encouraged employees. I suggest adding Tables/Employees in multiples of 2 after the encouragement buff has run out and letting the game run for a few minutes to cover any shortfall.
8. Exit the minigame and encourage the first TWO tables of employees.
9. Re-enter the mini game and upgrade your stats to the following levels:
   Table: 10 (when the buff runs out)
   Profit: 5
   Moral: 1
   Move Speed: 3
   Take Speed: 6
   Do Speed: 5
   Report Speed: 6
   With this set-up you should make about 2.5k Money per Trust level (i.e. 2.5k at Trust 1, 5k at Trust 2, 10k at Trust 4, etc.) before the encouragement buff wears off.
10. Encourage employees, enter the mini-game until the buff runs out, check how much money you have, exit the mini-game. If you have enough money, report to Supervisor, if not, repeat step 10.
    If done right, you should be able to increase your Trust after every session, maxing it out in about 10 sessions. Allowing you to unlock all scenes with the Mail Boy and Dummy (you have to play through each scene multiple times to unlock the next).

You need to get at least one level of Trust by completing the Employee Management minigame. (Pause to see your trust level)

Quite welcome.
And yeah, I figured that might be the case.
I tried to give it one more go and attempted to recreate the original breasts at the right scale for proper reference.

By the way, I know this game is going to go through some changes later, but would it be alright if I made a little guide to help new players?

Yeah, that's kinda what I was talking about in regard to the breasts.

Also, I attempted to illustrate what I meant with the nipples. I know the ratio doesn't quite match your art, but I tried to get it as close as possible to the best of my (limited) ability.

Forgive my shoddy attempt, I am very much NOT a pixel artist. (I'm more of a writer, hence my initial focus on the story).

Hey there, glad to hear back from you.

Sorry, I didn't mean to go overboard with the story, I just thought it might be a nice way to 'wrap up' the main game. I liked how frustrated the Boss was getting with the Superior, so I figured it would be nice to put her (i.e. the Superior) in her place at the end of it all and give the main employee management minigame a bit of replay value. (I also didn't realize that you could check the trust level in the pause menu).

Other than some of the bugs with the delivery minigame, I did enjoy both it and the main employee management minigame, I just wanted a reason to go for 100% completion. I'm glad to hear that you've got more plans for them.

And about the art thing. I actually went back to try and figure out what I meant as well. I think the issue for me is that her breasts and nipples (especially the nipples) look 'flat'. Like, I know this is pixel art and you're only using a single level of shading (except for certain things like the Boss's hair and faces when characters blush) but I feel like there could be a bit more shading on her breasts to give them the same feel of depth and volume as when she has her shirt on.

Excellent game thus far, a bit of a learning curve as to ‘what' you're supposed to do, but once you get the hang of it, it's fairly straightforward. (I didn't realize that you had to call management a couple times to get your trust up before you can ‘encourage’ the employees, so I just let the game run for half an hour to try max out the moral stat).

If I could make a few little suggestions, mostly from a gameplay/story perspective but one from an art perspective?

I do like the employee management sim (i.e. make number bigger), but it feels like there's no reason to invest in it that much once you understand the ‘encouragement’ mechanic, especially seeing as the latter upgrades cost more than the cost of earning trust. And once you've maxed out trust, you don't need to revisit it again.

It could be nice if there was a benefit to continuing to play the mini game, and maybe a secret benefit to maxing all the stats?

Perhaps an event could happen if you reach max affection with ‘Dummy' and your Supervisor, i.e. ‘the bitch', comes to inspect your company and wants to take your spot and snag your company’s profits for herself.

She could be similarly stacked to the protagonist, (with a ponytail and shades to add to her arrogance) and the two could get into a face to face (and breast to breast) argument over the productivity of the company. For every non maxed stat, she pushes you back and for every maxed stat, you push her back. (Having 4 out of 7 maxed out means you ‘win’, and maybe a bonus scene if you have all 7 maxed out).

You could possibly have other events from maxing out the Kid that depend on your progress with his delivery mini game (potentially getting the Receptionist involved) and similar with maxing out the Janitor and your progress with whatever his mini game will be.

Also, related to each set of scenes with each individual, I think it would be a nice touch if each set of scenes had four^(however many repeated scenes it takes to unlock the next affection level) different dialogue paths, that would then start to loop once you've reached the next scene level. It makes it more interesting and gives players an idea when they can access the next level without having to keep checking the phone.

Also also, I have a bit of a gripe in regard to the delivery mini game. I know there are still some bugs to work out with getting stuck/softlocked, but some of the later maps are so easy to mess up on. You make one mistake and the time it takes you to reset prevents you from getting the top score.

Lastly, one suggestion with the art. The boss looks amazing in almost all her scenes… except for the one's where she's completely topless. Something about the shading (or lack thereof) on her bare breasts around her nipples looks odd. I'm no artist, let alone pixel artist, so I can't really say why, maybe it's something to do with the scale?

Still, amazing work overall.