Zleef’s Blog
I wish i was swimming here –but instead, i’ll happily work on my computer science homework…Archive for HW 1
Executive Summary of Individual Project
Introducing “Gastronome,” the restaurant simulation game.
I almost never entered the world of computer science. Originally i had intended to enroll in the CIA, Culinary Institute of America –not the intelligence agency (not as much spying, but much better eats), but at the last minute switched back to the traditional educational route. While i’m far from Hyde Park, NY, I still greatly enjoy to cook.
I’ve always enjoyed the simulation games –Sim City, Red Alert (kind of a hybrid simulation/traditional game), and just about every ____ Tycoon game. Lately, i’ve really enjoyed the defense games where you are trying to stop some type of army from reaching the other end of a maze by strategically placing various weapons that freeze, blow up, shoot down, and otherwise destroy the villains.
As soon as i saw the project i knew i wanted to incorporate my passion for food into the game. I already have many ideas for game expansion, so i’ll have to make sure i limit myself to a achiveable scope.
Summary
The game starts off by setting up the game foundations — Name of the Restaurant and game difficulty (which would be how much money you start with, and speed) would be the only things for this version of the game, but i in-vision additional options such as restaurant type (dessert, mexican, bar, etc) where your menu would reflect the type of restaurant you are.
Typical game play would be configuring the following menu items to find a synergy of success:
Staff (waiter, hostess, bartender, head chef, sou chef, prep chef)This is where you would hire/fire people. Every position would have something like 3 upgrades that could be “purchased” for more money, or rather you would be expensed more on a regular basis.
Operations (hours, light level, music, decor)Here is where you setup the character of the restaurant. What time its open, how late its open. The ambiance,etc.
Ethics (3-second rule, pay off food inspector, professionalism, bribe food critic)Choose to be either ethical or unethical. Several different options that affect the short-term and long-term success of the restaurant. If they choose to do something unethical it will benefit them immediately (most times), but may come back to haunt them. For instance if you bribe a food critic you’ll see short term success, but later they might confess and give the restaurant bad press.
Menu (available categories[appetizers, entrees, dessert, drinks], available dishes) Here you can purchase new menu items. The initial menu would include one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert. Once they make money they can purchase more items.
Recipes (for all dishes purchased, tweak the recipe to use more or less of certain ingredients)Once they purchase menu items they can alter the recipe. It would be a sliding scale for how much of an ingredient (salt, eggs, milk, seasoning, produce –very generic things) goes into something.
Stock room (order ingredients for the food / beverages) This part might get omitted if it proves to be to difficult. The concept is that all the ingredients that a person uses in the recipe, would have to be purchased here. Therefore, if they don’t have enough on hand during a meal rush they wouldn’t be able to serve that dish anymore (which would irritate the customers, and they just generally wouldn’t sell as much).
The flow of the game would consist of the player configuring the restaurant settings, and then starting the day. the day would be dependent of how many hours the player chose to keep the restaurant open. the longer the restaurants open, the more it costs (all the staff is per hour) but you can also make more money if you have the right stuff. for instance, you can get away with being open later if you have more drink items on the menu. At the end of the day you’ll get a quick earnings/losses statement with a little break down of the numbers, and then you’ll be able to re-configure the restaurant settings. Durring business hours, no adjustments may be made to the settings, however they’ll be able to monitor how much ingredients is on hand and whats selling (and when it sells)…
Hierachies
Locations: the two main locations will be in the “control panel” portion of the game where the player configures all the settings, and then the sandbox where the game simulation occurs. As the control panel has already been described in pretty good detail, i’ll talk a little bit about the sandbox. First off, obviously the name will have to change to something more flatering then sandbox. But thats all i’ve got at the moment to describe it. The player will have the option to speed up the day so they don’t have to watch it crawl by. The game speeds will be normal (1 sec = 1 min), fast(1 sec = 10 min), instant(everything is instantly calculated and no animation occurs). When observing in normal or fast mode however, the player will see a layout of the restaurant and some sort of animation of customers walking to the table, staying at the table for the course of the meal, and then leaving. Since i’m not a graphic design person, the people will probably consist of dots, and the tables squares.
Action: this will be most of the game, as many different actions must take place. A couple to think about would be a food inspector/critic coming in. They would affect people’s opinion of the restaurant. Another event could be a food poisoning, again resulting in negative opinions. Something positive might be a celebrity attending.
Animate objects: the customers, the staff. The customers would have a grading scale that they would come pre-programed with. The scale would determine how much they liked various parts of the restaurant. For instance, they might have a very high priority for salty foods, or low light, or high prices. The closer the restaurants settings were to the customers scale, the more overall points the restaurant would score. The more overall points the restaurant had, the more customers they would be eligible for (i.e. more people would come).
inanimate objects: dishes and ingredients. I go into a good bit of detail earlier of what this entails…
