Continuing the behind the scenes look at what it takes to go beyond a small town diner with Associate Game Designer Helen Cheng...
We introduced some features within DinerTown Tycoon that are new to the genre. For example, the game focuses on menu management. This involves looking at taste and price trends and adjusting your menu accordingly so that you are serving the most desired dishes or dishes with inexpensive ingredients. You’re also competing directly against Grub Burger, so you have to make strategic business decisions to beat them.
Another innovation is the Daily Chef Challenge, which is a daily activity that can give you a leg up on the competition. This optional task varies in scope and difficulty, but once a player achieves the Daily Chef Challenge, she or he will knock down Grub Burger’s progress and gain more time to win over the residents of DinerTown. When you’re playing DinerTown Tycoon, you’re racing against Grub Burger to see who can serve the most customers first. Any customers that the player loses will go to eat at Grub Burger. Grub Burger has a big meter that is constantly filling up, and when they get to the top, they’ll take over the neighborhood completely.
The featured newspapers in the game also offer Daily Chef Challenges. Examples include selling 10 meals to a particular customer type, making $500, buying a décor upgrade, buying a new recipe, preventing unhappy customers, etc. If the player is able to fulfill their goal that same day, Grub Burger’s progress gets knocked back at the end of the day. This can buy the player a little bit of extra time.
My favorite part of the game? There are so many! I love competing against Grub Burger and seeing it quiver in its cocoon when I beat it! I like knowing what kinds of food each DinerToon likes to eat, and I love the satisfaction of completing a Daily Chef Challenge and seeing Grub Burger's progress hampered.
Check out DinerTown Tycoon when it becomes available on May 5 at PlayFirst.com.
I'm a mother of two boys, ages 11 and 13 and live in the chaos that ensues. I've a permanent disability that keeps me homebound, so books, kids, games and books are my constant companions. Oh, and books, too. *grins*
My children both play games so I often play them first, getting to know exactly how something may effect my sensitive and easily stimulated older child vs. my stoic and imperturbable younger.
I like games for games; for the pure enjoyment of them and believe that no game is wholly bad, though some are real stinkers.
I also have the dexterity of a camel in mittens so find playing FPSs difficult (and I also don't like the gore) and RTSs at times can stump me. I just can't seem to move quickly enough to keep up with them. Some of my favorite games are arcade games and I'll spend 3-5 years on the same 5-6 levels because I just never get any better. But, I have fun.
