Ludum Dare #49compo

Waiter Extraordinaire

by levidsmith

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.88

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.81

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.43

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.21

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.90

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.10

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.93

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.29

Chester Servesalot Waiter Extraordinaire is a game created from scratch over 48 hours for the Ludum Dare 49 game jam competition.

Help Chester Servesalot deliver drink glasses to all of the customers at the tables. He is an expert at balancing glasses on his serving tray, but his greatest fear is mice. Bumping into a mouse will cause him to lose balance and drop all glasses on his tray. At any time, he can return to the orange glass table on the left side of the room to refill his tray with glasses.

There are three types of mice in the game.

- Green – Moves back and forth in a straight line
- Purple – Moves in random directions
- Orange – Chases Chester Servesalot when he gets close. Run far enough away and he will stop.

Tools Used
- Unity 2020.1.4f1 - game engine
- Blender 2.82a - modeling / texturing / animation
- Gimp 2.10.24 - updating textures
- iPhone - taking pictures for textures
- Bfxr 1.5.1 - sound effect generation
- GarageBand 10.4.3 - music composition
- Audacity 2.3.2 - sound file editing
- Filezilla 3.55.1 - uploading files
- Unity Build Tool 2020 - compiling different platforms, uploading packages
- Git GUI 0.21 - committing source to code repo

Thanks to my supporters
- Seth Robinson at RTSoft
- Games Finder
- Lukasz Zelezny

Genres: action

Tools: Audacity, Bfxr, Blender, GIMP, GarageBand, Unity

Comments13

c64cosmin3 Oct 2021, 20:56

Hilarious, I really loved the orange aliens that follow, they create an explosion of glasses, the game seems simple but it is not, it takes some planning on which order to take tables. This could be a really good mobile game.

TheGreenWorm4 Oct 2021, 03:35

I liked the diversity in number of people at each table, and the fact that you can plan your route ahead to optimize the number of glasses you have to carry.
The movement didn't felt frantic enough in my opinion.
The "flip tray" animation wwas a nice touch !

spudboy4 Oct 2021, 04:37

It can be tricky to figure out which table is missing the last couple unserved guests, but perhaps that's part of the fun. Not a bad jam game overall.

SlimmerBurger4 Oct 2021, 08:03

It felt kind of like a strategy game where you have to find the best route with the amount of glasses you have and the number of people on each table

GustavB8 Oct 2021, 06:55

I like the concept of the waiter serving. It fits really well with the theme. I think it would be interesting to try out placing the tables in a less symmetrical way, making some passages more narrow and others wide. To create a bit more risk vs reward decisions together with the mice. Well done :smiley:

smilewood9 Oct 2021, 02:29

Cool little game. I like the general feel of it, it was fun to dodge between the mice and tables trying to get to the far ones. I found the fixed viewpoint a bit weird at the beginning, but by the third level I was used to it and I think it worked with the game. The main character is very fun, I love the way his legs move, and the explosion of glasses when you bump a mouse is great. The music fits great with the general atmosphere, but I found the other sound effects were a bit loud and jarring. Overall I had a lot of fun playing this game, great job!

LaurenceOgden10 Oct 2021, 16:23

Pretty solid game, I think that last level was as big as you should make a level.

I really liked the glasses falling, butler and mouse models were pretty good. I would suggest your next development should be adding more gameplay. Maybe dynamic orders or something.

ChillerTyp11 Oct 2021, 05:46

The font suits the theme. Funny walkcycle. ^^

Castoor11 Oct 2021, 07:51

Well played !! Relaxing music, i really enjoy the walk animation xD ! Funny to play ! GG

djcoil13 Oct 2021, 06:30

Nice work. Good presentation and the final level was a nice challenge. I feel like you could have pushed a little more at the "unstable" theme - while hitting a mouse did result in a very satisfying glass volcano, there were really only two states for the tray of glasses: stable and empty. Adding some physics to the glasses (or perhaps destabilizing them as you hit mice, with far more mice to hit) would have really nailed the theme.

Barrier13 Oct 2021, 10:14

At first I taught they were aliens but then I read the description and found out they are mice.
I wouldn't eat in a restaurant full of mice! :D
But nice work on all the graphics and sounds!
The game is functional, pretty easy, the mice don't really pose much of a challenge but maybe that's ok, I would rather it be too easy than too hard.
The glass tower is super stable, to fit with the theme more you could add an additional balancing mechanic where you have to ocasionaly press arrows left/right to keep the glass tower from collapsing.

Khadia13 Oct 2021, 11:04

Well done pulling all this together in only 48 hours! I felt like additional stability mechanics could have really helped sell the theme (move back and forth to balance a wobbly glass? the room is tipping sideways? a slippery puddle instead of some mice?) but a complete game which plays smoothly for an impressive compo submission in any case!

wafflesys17 Oct 2021, 11:16

It is a bit hard when you start the game and find out what to do. Starting next to the glass table would probably help for that. As suggested it can be a bit tricky to know which tables are missing glasses.
The music is ok, I find it a bit too high pitch but that is my personal taste. As for the graphics, not a fan but they work ^^. The game launched full screen but there is no way to close it in-game.
The game is playable with the difficulty ramping up and doing it 3D is a nice accomplishment.
Well done!

Other games by @levidsmith

★3.03