The hardest thing I think to plan for is the length of a game. On one hand, you don’t want to pad it too much and make it “filler” but at the same time, you don’t want the player to unlock everything in a few hours.

I think the biggest fault with the Oil Blue was the sheer amount of unlocks you got in the beginning, which started to decrease more as the XP bar got harder to fill. Or did that help get the player involved more in the beginning? I don’t really know. It’s that hard struggle that comes with XP systems, which again I’m thankful to be rid of in Cook, Serve, Delicious. When you unlock something in the game, it’ll be because you worked towards the goals, or simply worked an average number of days.

My biggest goal for the game: make something new happen after each work day. Whether that’s receiving a silly email in your virtual email system in CSD, or unlocking a whole new event, I’m trying to make sure the player has something waiting for them after putting in a full day’s worth of cooking.

A “work day” in CSD averages out to 7-8 minutes. To complete the goals and essentially unlock everything in the game, you would need to put in a virtual minimum of 25 hours, which doesn’t include menu management, extra side games, and so on (which would bring the game closer to 30 or more). I think that’s a solid number and gives me the direction to make sure the player has a goal they’re always trying to achieve. If there’s one thing I love about games, its the sheer surprise of something random. There’s stuff in this game that I get really excited with but don’t want to talk about, because part of the fun is discovering it yourself. But man, the temptation. Gah!

Anyways, I mentioned the new email system in CSD. This replaces the old phone/newspaper items you would get in ONR2, and tells you when there’s new upgrades to buy, foods to purchase, outbreaks of deadly food viruses, and more. And like any email system, it’s full of spam. If you want to submit your own “spam” email, just go to the forums and submit away! If you follow the rules, your email pretty much has a 100% chance of making it in the game. My goal is to have 300-350 spam emails, with 20-40+ from the community. I’ve already written 80 or so, and it’s fun if not crazy. :p

So go here and submit away: http://www.vertigogaming.net/newboards/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4469

Until next time!