PyWeek - Paper Dragon 31 - feedback

Incredible production, I really enjoyed the art style and the execution within the game. The cut scenes and story were funny and well-done. Really really impressive overall

This was a lot of fun. Special congratulations to whoever drew the art, this looks great and it's very charming. Everything is just so well polished, the art, the sounds, etc. It was fun to have the pressure of getting all the orders out correctly, and I also enjoyed the characters. Excellent work.

Really nice art 🎨🐇

There's a lot to like about this game. The art style, the voices, the random sound effects, the character design, the tutorial level triggering if you fail… well done, team! It was not a very original concept, but well-executed. It was just missing a clever original twist on the game mechanics and some music.

The interface of the game was kind of frustrating at first when I was still figuring out the ropes. It is immediately very hectic with a very tight time to respond while I'm still trying to figure out the order to do things in (I don't think I've ever seen a doughnut in real-life, let alone cooked one, so I may just be particularly uneducated on the subject batter… er, matter.) Anyway, I didn't get very far, unfortunately. I'm consistently failing at serving the third officer on the plate level. I may just be terrible at these games, but it seemed impossible to me, so I gave up.

It was also very frustrating how often I accidentally quit the game by pressing escape (while trying to cancel the action of having picked up something I didn't mean to). I would expect pressing escape to enter a pause menu at worst. A forgivable issue, though.

This was great: the artwork and general design of the game is phenomenal: I really liked all the charming details in the story and voices, everything runs so smoothly together absolute top marks for production value. I really liked the tutorial system too, like when I fail the first level I get patches to come in and tell me how to do things. I had a bit of an issue (running on python 3.8.4, osx 10.15), maybe with pyglet? (running 1.5.15) where after a while there would be a huge creep of input lag on the mouse clicks that would grow to like several seconds so the game became unplayable for me: I'm not sure if this could be some sort of input/event queue flushing issue? and not sure if this affected anyone else: let me know if you want me to try and reproduce it.

It looks great and the sounds and music are great too. It's frustrating in a way that makes me want to beat it. I did get a crash at one point but I think it might have been a pyglet error.

Very cool art style and voice acting. Everything looked and sounded great and communicated very clearly. The writing was a bit dry but at least it had writing which is quite something for pyweek. The gameplay itself was very much "oh one of those". With a game like this it is essential you bring your own "special sauce" to the table to make it a memorable experience. It needed another idea in the mix to make it fresh. The production quality, while exceptional just wasn't enough for me to stay engaged.

In short: The glazing and sprinkles were amazing but the dough was stale.

Great coherent style! Everything about the game is really charming. The fact that you saved the tutorial until after you'd failed once was a really nice touch, although I would have liked a chance to skip it even still, as typically I had the mechanics figured out on my first try, just not in time to beat it. I had some trouble with the controls - I would miss a hitbox sometimes, and I kept forgetting that you can't put an uncooked donut back on the pile if you accidentally pick one up. It's not a huge deal, but there's so little margin for error in the time that it felt unforgiving. Still, it was a good challenge level and the cutscenes kept me interested enough to keep going. Great job, glad to see you again! :)

MacOS 11.2.3:

(venv) $ python --version
Python 3.9.4
(venv) $ pip freeze
pyglet==1.5.15

(venv) $ python run_game.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/media/codecs/wave.py", line 58, in __init__
self._wave = wave.open(file)
File "/Users/jalexander/.pyenv/versions/3.9.4/lib/python3.9/wave.py", line 509, in open
return Wave_read(f)
File "/Users/jalexander/.pyenv/versions/3.9.4/lib/python3.9/wave.py", line 163, in __init__
self.initfp(f)
File "/Users/jalexander/.pyenv/versions/3.9.4/lib/python3.9/wave.py", line 130, in initfp
raise Error('file does not start with RIFF id')
wave.Error: file does not start with RIFF id

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/run_game.py", line 9, in <module>
main.main()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/main.py", line 11, in main
pyglet.app.run()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/app/__init__.py", line 107, in run
event_loop.run()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/app/base.py", line 167, in run
timeout = self.idle()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/app/base.py", line 237, in idle
redraw_all = self.clock.call_scheduled_functions(dt)
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/clock.py", line 292, in call_scheduled_functions
item.func(now - item.last_ts, *item.args, **item.kwargs)
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/engine/controller.py", line 108, in update
self.dispatch_event('on_tick')
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/event.py", line 408, in dispatch_event
if handler(*args):
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/engine/animation.py", line 246, in on_tick
animation.tick()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/engine/animation.py", line 175, in tick
self.stop()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/engine/animation.py", line 36, in stop
self.stop_state()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/engine/animation.py", line 170, in stop_state
self.callback(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/scenes/menu.py", line 243, in do_rawr
self.rawr_player = sound.rawr()
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/engine/sound.py", line 38, in __call__
source = pyglet.resource.media(source, streaming=True)
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/resource.py", line 678, in media
return media.load(path, streaming=streaming)
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/media/__init__.py", line 140, in load
raise first_exception
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/media/__init__.py", line 130, in load
loaded_source = decoder.decode(file, filename, streaming)
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/media/codecs/wave.py", line 105, in decode
return WaveSource(filename, file)
File "/Users/jalexander/src/pyweek31_judging/31/copcake-caper/copcake-caper-1.2/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyglet/media/codecs/wave.py", line 60, in __init__
raise WAVEDecodeException(e)
pyglet.media.codecs.wave.WAVEDecodeException: file does not start with RIFF id

cool game, the icing colors where not so clear

The donut making could get a bit repetitive so I am glad that the game is just the right length to enjoy it without getting bored.
I also like the unique colored pencil style of this game as well as the sounds of the characters. The added polish in addition to the learnable game mechanics through tutorials is truly deserving of praise.

Very nice art.
Very good game.

Man am I a bad Copcake Cook... Or is it baker?

Seriously! This is a great entry and an awesome example of how to polish and tune a well scoped game idea. I loved the art work, how the game lets me try first and if I fail it teaches me how it's done. I lack the coordination necessary to please the cops enough, but that didn't kept me from enjoying this game, which is a very good trait for a game. Have it being frustrating without the player quitting because of the frustration!

Compliments!

This was an awesome game that I really enjoyed. It was a little bit difficult at times to fulfill all of the orders and I think you could benefit from more time in order to fry and decorate the donuts. Overall, I think it is a great game!

Really good game, well made with nice graphics and sound. I'm not sure why the plates were there as it seems they weren't necessary at all to win. Also the tutorial could have come before loosing once but other than that it was really well integrated. I just had a strange crash once (I'll add the traceback below) but other than that it worked well.
With the second play I had some more trouble getting past the third "level", the suspicious bar grow to quickly and the guests had barely enough patience to wait for their doughnuts. I'm not sure how I beat the game the first time. Also I noticed esc quits the game while I expected it to go back to the menu.

python3 run_game.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "run_game.py", line 9, in <module>
main.main()
File ".../Copcake Caper/copcake-caper-1.2/applib/main.py", line 11, in main
pyglet.app.run()
File ".../.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyglet/app/__init__.py", line 107, in run
event_loop.run()
File ".../.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyglet/app/base.py", line 168, in run
platform_event_loop.step(timeout)
File ".../.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyglet/app/xlib.py", line 121, in step
device.select()
File ".../.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyglet/app/xlib.py", line 85, in select
app.platform_event_loop.dispatch_posted_events()
File ".../.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyglet/app/base.py", line 103, in dispatch_posted_events
dispatcher.dispatch_event(event, *args)
ReferenceError: weakly-referenced object no longer exists
AL lib: (EE) alc_cleanup: 1 device not closed

some fails with the mouse, if you have an raw donut, you can't put it down -> cant exit

but very nice graphics, sounds

I'll take a Copcake too please

What a charming game! I didn't want to play a crook, but this game charmed me; and meddlesome cops stuffing their gobs at my honey donut pot sealed the caper for me. Major fun.

The artistic flare grabbed me rom the start. The light, romping poem. The hand-drawn and -colored scenes, with all their detail - if you didn't pause and study them, you missed out. :) The use of colorful jargon. The muffled, unintelligible voice acting was near hilarious. For all this, it was easy to overlook the silly flaw in the accomplices' plan: the cost of a decoy donut shop operation versus the profit from palming apples. :D

I will never be a master of this game. I burned a lot of donuts. But I had fun doing it. The fun of the experience far outweighed my compulsion to win.

Excellent work. Thanks for making this game.

Great game! It had a bit of a steep difficulty curve, but the graphics were amazing! Also, loved the story.