The game devs guide you in great detail through the Cookbook!
Last time we briefly spoke about all the GladiEATers you can command; but how do you actually prepare them? What does it take to turn an ordinary egg turn into a Shakshouka monstrosity? The Cookbook is the player’s tool to dictate the flow of Cooking.
Raw Egg was not ready for this *eggsact* situation!
Minigame Selection Screen
When deciding what to cook, the cookbook appears central, showing your options for cooking on the left page, and the team your cooking has created so far, on the right page
Your options for cooking show what you’re starting with and where you can go. In the example below, the Egg could become either a
Raw Egg
or a
Boiled Egg
We found the best way to show this branching path choice was a flow chart, akin to an evolution or ancestry tree.
The team you’re bringing into the turn-based combat is shown on a plate *theming*, a preview of what the CAL particle will do when it transforms your yummy food into powerful GladiEATers
Pre-Minigame Screen
After selecting a minigame, and just before playing it, the cookbook slides to the left. This reveals instructions for the minigame, and a preview video – so you’re given familiarity with the game before getting stuck in.
In the example below, these are the egg cracking minigame instructions.
We put the preview video in this photo-like border and tape to mimic a polaroid in a home-made cookbook. This is obviously *theming* but more importantly it helps the player understand this is a preview.
Before this change we saw players trying to interact with the video – which was
funny… but probably not fun.
When the player clicks begin, the cook book slides out to the left and the player gets cooking right away. /wave/
Post-Minigame Screen
After finishing a minigame, the cook book appears from the right. The page shows the GladiEATer you’ve prepared, the grade for your minigame performance and how your performance affects your GladiEATer’s stats: their health, power and speed.
Your rank can vary from F – S. With S of course being the first letter of the alphabet and therefore naturally the best score/sarcasm. What a funny convention.
When the player clicks next, they’re returned to the stage #1 - minigame selection.
A little more talk
Generally you’ll notice the cook book slides around a lot. This serves two purposes, the first is to hide one of the pages.
Originally, the second page always showed your current team. We found this irrelevant information. By moving the cook book to the edge of the screen and cutting off that second page, we keep the player focused on just one important page.
The second purpose of the cook book sliding is to help get the player into the rhythm of cooking. Our testers liked how it felt, the visual cues for the different pre and post minigame stages illustrated by a moving book and a turning page.
The foreboding timer at the top of the screen shows how much time the player has left to cook. This is important to know as even when paused (in the cook book) it's still good for the player to plan out their cooking in relation to how much time they have left.
That wraps up our little* cook book discussion!
Development wise, this book has seen many iterations and (with your help) will probably see many more.
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