Hamster Restaurant
Pixel Art, RPG, Restaurant, Mobile, Top Down
Overview
A mobile restaurant game, with hamsters as the main characters. Players manage their own restaurant, and decorate however they want.
Background
Personal Project
This restaurant game is another on-going project that was inspired by other successful base building/restaurant games such as, Hayday, Animal Restaurants, etc.
Tools & Skills
Tools Used:
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Unity
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Visual Studio Editor (C#)
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Aseprite
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Commercial free fonts sites​
Skills Applied:
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C#
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Procedural Map
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Unity Engine Proficiency
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Game Design
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Asset Creation
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UI/UX Design
Goals
Goals:
The goal of this project is to build a mobile game that is scalable to include content updates. The game is planned to be monetized, in order to learn ethical monetization techniques.
Building
Overview
The most important mechanic to perfect is the base building aspect of this game. Players will have a selection of buildings to choose from for their restaurant.
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In this section, I will showcase what is included in the latest build.
Grid Controller
The Grid Controller is a component that handles operations around the game grid system.
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Implementation
The grid is represented by a 2D array of an Enum (GridOccupant), which holds the state of tiles.
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Empty: Whether the tile is empty
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Wall: Whether the tile is a occupied by a wall
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Object: Whether the tile is occupied by an object
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WallObject: Whether the tile is occupied by a wall object
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Locked: Locked tile that prevents anything to be placed
Visualize - Editor
In the editor, this can be visualized with the component "GridVisualizer" using Unity's OnDrawGizmos event call:
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Empty: Light Green
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Wall: Bright Green
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Object: Light Pink
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WallObject: Yellow
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Locked: Red
Visualize - Gameplay
In build mode, the grid display is made using a "Tiled Image" component, scaled to fit the real size of the grid controller. Lastly, breathing effect controlled by the Animator.
Structures
There are currently 7 buildings in the current build. Each building has a "GridObject" component attached, which is responsible for communicating with the grid controller.
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Objects have the options to be in one of three grids (Currently there are 3 instances of grid controllers; Restaurant, Kitchen, and Garden grid).
Adding Buildings
With the communication between Grid Objects and Grid Controllers, and additional visual queues, we get this result.
Editing
The game has an edit mode accessible through the UI. During edit mode, buildings can be repositioned.
Mechanics
Building Functions
Each building can be selected by tapping it. Selecting a building will update the UI with a customizable option selector.
Showcase - Building Functions
Each building has their unique functions and is highly customizable.
Gameplay Mechanics
Like other restaurant games, the game loop consists of taking orders, cooking, and serving. For hamster restaurant, I added one more mechanic to the loop which is farming.
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1. Farming "Food"
In contrast to real world farming, Hamster Restaurant simplifies this process.
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To farm a certain food, first, the player obtain the seed of a particular food from the shop.
Then, plant it in the garden, with the "crop plot" building.
2. Take Order
In contrast to real world farming, Hamster Restaurant simplifies this process.
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To farm a certain food, first, the player obtain the seed of a particular food from the shop.
Then, plant it in the garden, with the "crop plot" building.
3. Cooking
Cooking is automatic. Players will have to remember to stop the stove when food is cooked, otherwise it will be burnt.
4. Collect Your Money!
After the customer finished eating their food, they will leave money on the table and also include tips!
Player Upgrades
Player upgrades are performed through card collections. Cards can be collected from a gacha machine.
Gacha Machine
"Gacha Machine" is a building that needs to be placed down.
However, in future plans, gacha page will not be locked behind the building once unlocked.
Gacha Machine
UI Design
Card Collection
Cards collected by the player can be viewed from the "Chalk Board" object.
User Interface
Time Display
In Hamster Restaurant, there is an in-game time system, represented on the UI by a clock​
Time Scale
The clock runs at 288 in-game seconds per second.
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This is designed so one in-game day equals 5 minutes.
Expand and Shrink
The clock can be expanded and shrunk with intuitive UI.
Day Progression
Players go through day progression through the clock UI. Which simulates opening and closing time.
Full Clock Showcase
Room Switch
Players are offered a room switching UI where players can use to navigate between the 3 rooms.
Build Shop
The build shop is designed to look like a book. This menu will contain all buildings that is buildable for the player.
Seed Shop
Additionally, there is a seed shop that will centralize all seed purchasing.
This shop is work in progress so it is subjected to change.
