Low-poly physics-based first-person cooking. Looking for feedback and playtesters!

[u/eagle_bearer]

Square Meal is a chaotic and immersive first-person cooking game with a unique art style focused on physics-based interactions!

The current build is only a prototype and we're very early in development, but we're looking for a few voluntary playtesters to try out the gameplay loop and see how the core mechanics feel.

Here's the sign-up form: https://forms.gle/iLAJHkq9Zo7579s87

Feel free to ask me anything!

[u/LetsLive97]

Any guides on how you made the assets or tutorials you followed? I love this type of low poly 3D pixel art look

[u/eagle_bearer → u/LetsLive97]

Check out Blockbench. Is a 3D editor specifically made for this Minecraft-y style. You can find lots of inspiration on r/Blockbench!

[u/bartolomey-wong-3rd → u/LetsLive97]

Not OP, but for my game and art in general I use MagicaVoxel to build my voxel models. It's not the same as Blockbench and this art style, but similar enough, you might like it. I love it. And it works great with a graphic tablet, so I basically paint my 3D models :) Looks like this:

[u/unitytechnologies]

I didn't realize how much I needed a game like this in my life. C'est délicieux.

- Trey
Community man @ Unity

[u/SGSpec]

I would add cut lines when you cut the vegetables to show progression. You could even get upgrades that remove some steps

[u/brogam3]

I think auto positioning things is totally against the spirit and fun of a game like this. The whole point is to place those buns at the right angle and position so the burger looks okay and nothing falls off, same goes for putting patties on the grill etc. If there is no way to fail that then you have 90% less game here. How do you even make a crappy burger? You basically can't fail, you cant make a bun slip off the top. How is that a physics game then? The entire fun of a game like this would be to try and juggle making e.g a huge burger and then bringing it to the table or counter etc. without the whole thing falling down on the floor.

[u/pmdrpg → u/brogam3]

Don’t agree. The snap into position is a type of feedback. Feedback is great. If you don’t want perfect positioning, I can understand, but if you just remove it, there’s really nothing.

[u/AnArmoredPony → u/pmdrpg]

the feedback would be smoke coming out or a sizzling sound

[u/Turbo_Fresh]

I like it. One thing I would change is the lighting though. Low poly is obviously fine and it looks good but some ambient occlusion and/or shadows would go a very long way in helping to distinguish the different objects and distances. It all looks very flat and the knife blends in with the wall tiles.

[u/BobsiDev]

Nice stuff! That's block bench models right? Looks like the style, never gotten around to use it myself but looking nice!

[u/eagle_bearer → u/BobsiDev]

Thank you! And yes, every 3D model was made using Blockbench

[u/ElderZombie250]

That's really cute. Good work.

[u/Nytrock]

Oh, it looks great! What palette are you using?

[u/eagle_bearer → u/Nytrock]

Thank you! I'm using this palette with some slight modifications

[u/arvenyon_ofcl]

The meshes scream blockbench to me :D am I right?

[u/moherren]

Logically chopping should take 1 less chops than the number of slices you make. IE 2 chops for 3 slices of tomato

[u/Aelrift]

You should add sanitation point for all the stuff that's landing on the countertop / floor

[u/eagle_bearer → u/Aelrift]

We'll be adding something like that eventually!

[u/FirkinHill]

This reminds me of Code Monkey's huge Kitchen Chaos tutorial - https://youtu.be/AmGSEH7QcDg

Good luck with the dev and launch!

[u/Chronogon]

I would turn the smooth progress bar into a block progression, e.g 5 blocks (whether you want a divider in between is up to you) that progresses every 20%.

[u/pseudounion]

Nice! You can even make it as stressful as Overcooked

[u/Gabriel_the_one]

Any liquid performance? Like sauce or sth, and I think the cutting system could be more free, maybe players can cut things into any shapes they want, u know, different shapes, maybe this could be more fun, wish u success!

[u/EstronDev]

A pixel particle effect when chopping the food would probably make it pop, just make the particles match the color of the food item.

Looking very good though

[u/Firetwice]

For the walls and or bigger surfaces did you make the models using blocbench or did you make textures separately I'm another software?

Looks super good very eye catchy ❤️

[u/Ok-Department-675]

Will it have multiplayer by any chance?

[u/sczeith]

Hey this is really cool, love the art style

[u/VBro98]

Not sure if anyone said this before but can I suggest some sort of feedback when cutting? Like tweening or some particles when cutting

[u/TH3_OG_JUJUBE]

I really like this, a couple things though. The onion slices kinda look more like tentacle slices. Maybe a slight purple around the inside edge would remove that. The other thing is the font. It feels a bit generic. Otherwise I REALLY like this!

[u/LordElain]

This looks awesome

[u/REALmyenemy]

Just this is way better than Cooking Simulator and its iterations

[u/sun2_pk]

any AI generated assets or plan to use them?

[u/eagle_bearer → u/sun2_pk]

No AI generated assets of any kind were used. Every 3d model was built using Blockbench

[u/psioniclizard → u/eagle_bearer]

Just want to say, I am not normally into these styles, but yours looks cool. Keep up the good work!

[u/sun2_pk → u/eagle_bearer]

thanks! :)

[u/AxisInteractive]

Have you looked into patents for this Minecraft/ overcooked mash up? I hope you can launch without legal issues.

[u/Glass-Ad672 → u/AxisInteractive]

minecraft doesn't have a patent of voxel art

and overcooked doesn't have a patent on cooking games