With Jacksmith: Weapons and Warriors, we’ve focused on bringing the classic game over to Steam, optimizing the gameplay and graphics for widescreen and full-screen play at higher resolutions. While the game itself will feel familiar to fans who played the original on the web, we’ve also been adding some quality-of-life improvements to make this the best way to play the game. Today, we wanted to talk about one of the most noticeable improvements: Enhanced Bookmarks!
 

For anyone that might not be familiar with the original game, as you play you’ll earn parts and recipes for special Epic Weapons, which you can then build for local soldiers to improve their chances in battle.

To keep track of which components were used in Epic Weapons, the original game used a Bookmark system so you could see which parts to use as you’re building (or which you want to save for an Epic Weapon later.) We’ve made a handful of improvements to how these Bookmarks work in Jacksmith: Weapons and Warriors, so let’s see what’s changed this time:
 

Color-Coded Bookmarks

 
Bookmarks on the parts in your inventory are now color-coded for each recipe’s weapon type, matching the ribbon color you see on each Station as you’re working. This is especially helpful if you’ve bookmarked multiple Designs, making it easier to see whether a Grip was bookmarked for a Pike (in red), or if it was bookmarked for the Sword you’re building (in brown). In the example below, when you’re building a Sword, you’ll also see that bookmarked parts for Sword Designs will appear at the top of the list of parts.
 

 

Bookmarks on Metals and Molds

 
In the original game, bookmark ribbons only appeared on unique parts in your inventory. In Jacksmith: Weapons and Warriors, we’ve also added the color-coded bookmark ribbons to Weapon Molds and the Metal Ores in the Forge, so it’s easier to follow through the entire process of making one of your special Epic Weapons, and you won’t have to keep returning to the Designs menu to remember what you’re making. The ribbons on Metal Ores will also show you how much is needed for bookmarked Designs, so you don’t accidentally use up all of your Crystal before making that bookmarked Epic Pike!
 

 

Recipe Labels

 
If you’ve bookmarked multiple Designs for the same type of weapon, there’s a helpful way to keep track of your bookmarks for this too! When you move your mouse over a part, a label will appear showing the bookmarked Design which includes that part. So now you don’t need to wonder whether that Grip is bookmarked for the Stormstrung or the Poseidon Bow! Weapon Molds will also show a label for the Design using it, and the Forge will show a list of weapons that use each Metal Ore when you roll over each bookmark ribbon.
 

 

Design Icons

 
In the original Jacksmith, the only way to keep track of parts you were saving for a future Epic Weapon was to just Bookmark that Design Recipe, so you could see the bookmark ribbons in your inventory for each part as a reminder. In Jacksmith: Weapons and Warriors, we’ve added a new icon in the corner of each part in your inventory, which lets you know if that part is used in any of your collected Epic Weapon Designs, without having to bookmark anything. Now you can just check the icons to decide whether you want to use a part, or save it for later. The icon will also switch to showing a checkmark if it’s only used in Designs that you’ve already built in the past, in case you only want to hang on to parts for new Designs.
 

 

You can head over to the game’s page on Steam now to view more information, trailer, and screenshots before the release, and most importantly, add it to your Wishlist on Steam so you don’t miss the launch! Adding it to your Wishlist doesn’t cost anything, and when the game launches on Steam you’ll receive an email letting you know about the release! Click below to view the Steam page, and click the green “Wishlist on Steam” button below to add it to your Wishlist:

Stay tuned for more Sneak Peeks of Jacksmith: Weapons and Warriors!

 
The Steam Winter Sale has officially started, and Papa Louie is bringing the holiday cheer! Papa’s Pizzeria Deluxe and Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe are BOTH on sale for a limited time! Take a winter vacation to sunny Calypso Island or head to Tastyville for a holiday feast with all of your favorite customers. Hurry—this sale won’t last long, so grab your slice of the fun before it’s gone!
 

Reviving the Coffee Concept

 
Back in 2011, after the launch of Papa’s Taco Mia, we initially planned our next project to be coffee-themed. We began brainstorming and creating artwork, but regular coffee drinks, with their simple brown appearance, felt uninspiring and boring. The idea was eventually shelved in favor of the bright and colorful Papa’s Freezeria. However, we kept the coffee concept in the back of our minds, hoping one day we could find a way to make it visually exciting. Nearly a decade later, fueled by fan requests, we decided it was finally time to bring coffee into the Papa Louie universe.
 

 

Finding the Perfect Coffee Drink

 
We spent a lot of time researching different coffee drinks and the preparation for each, trying to find something we could distill into a cohesive game with classic Gameria mechanics. We explored drinks like cappuccinos, lattes, macchiatos, drip and pour-over coffee, frappes, and cold brews. At one point we considered a game where you could make ALL of these drinks, but it seemed overwhelming to try to tackle so many different build processes in the same game. We needed something both visually and mechanically interesting, and that’s when we chose the layered latte (or latte macchiato) as the perfect focus for our game, now branded as a Papaccino!
 

Making Layered Lattes

 
Once we chose the layered latte, we had to figure out how to translate its preparation into game mechanics and stations.
 

 
An early idea started with a Prep Station where you’d prepare an empty cup, add flavor pumps, and choose a milk to froth later. Later on we scrapped this idea, and considered a Brew Station just for espresso and a separate Moo Station for steaming and frothing milk as two separate steps. We also experimented with various ways to add espresso and milk to the cup at the Build Station, including an early concept where you would drag and slowly tip the ingredients into the cup, similar to the molten metal in Jacksmith. Ultimately, we opted for changing the controls of the Pour Button for the espresso and milk, where you hold it down and carefully watch the meter as you pour.
 
We spent a lot of time fine-tuning how the lattes should look, particularly the visual effects of milk and coffee mixing together. We also wanted to highlight colorful syrups and powders, experimenting with how they would look when mixing with the liquids. This stage involved far more iterations than usual, as we worked to find the right look, and then had to actually make it function in the game!
 

 
One of our main goals was ensuring the lattes didn’t resemble the Freezeria concrete sundaes too much. Instead of piling on whipped cream, we decided on dropping a dollop of cream instead. We also avoided heavy toppings that could sink into the liquid, opting instead for drizzles and light shakers that could be expected to float on the foam of the drinks. Once we decided to craft cannoli as well, this worked perfectly to keep the same creams and shakers for filling and decorating the cannoli.
 

Last-Minute Changes to the Build Station

 
In the early stages of development, the Build Station worked a bit differently for selecting the coffee and milk for each drink. You’d first see the espressos you’d prepared, with only the left slot on the station open. You would place the coffee in the left slot, and then the right slot would open and the prepared milks would appear separately, allowing you to place the milk on the right. It remained this way for months, until we started early playtesting and were getting confused with how the station related to the order tickets.

The order tickets for Mocharia showed the first ingredient to add (either espresso or milk) in the left column, and the other in the right column. This created a confusing situation when customers ordered milk first: The milk was on the left side of the ticket, but on the right side of the Build Station, making the process feel backwards.

Despite being deep into development, we decided to overhaul the Build Station. We combined the espresso and milk tumblers into one single group, allowing players to freely drag either ingredient into the left or right slots based on what the ticket showed. This change made it easier to keep track of the orders and align the gameplay with the tickets.
 

 

Working From Home

 
The COVID-19 pandemic struck just as we were finishing Papa’s Sushiria To Go, which sent us both home to work separately while finishing the app. Thankfully we had already finished planning Papa’s Pastaria To Go and had most of the assets ready before the shutdown, so it was still manageable to follow up with that app from our homes.

With Mocharia though, this would be our first time developing a game where we weren’t working side-by-side in the office together. On top of the stress and uncertainty in the early days of the pandemic, this brought a lot of new challenges to the process. All of the planning and brainstorming was done by email and shared documents, sending ideas and mockups back and forth while trying to find a new groove with work and with our lives in general. Thankfully we adapted and found a new rhythm, ultimately bringing coffee into the world of Papa Louie’s restaurants.
 

Score Details Finally Added

 
One of the most frustrating aspects of the Gamerias has always been making a mistake with an order and receiving a low score, only to be left clueless about what went wrong. Did you accidentally serve someone the wrong order, or did you mess up an ingredient? We had long wanted to add a feature that would explain why you received a poor score, but the task seemed so overwhelming that we kept putting it off. However, with this brand-new game, we felt it was finally time to tackle it.

The games have always known when you made an error, but explaining it in a way that’s clear to the player was the real challenge. We experimented with several methods to summarize mistakes and figured out how to prioritize the information in the Score Details. Every scoring system in the game had to be revamped to support the generation of these player-friendly explanations, but after much effort, the system finally came together. Now that Score Details are a part of newer games, it’s hard to imagine how we managed without them for so long!
 

 

Conclusion

 
The development of Papa’s Mocharia To Go presented many unique challenges. As the first app without an existing web game and fan base, we weren’t sure if it would succeed or attract an audience. Fortunately, the game became a hit, demonstrating that Papa’s Gamerias could thrive even in a world without Flash Player.

Papa’s Mocharia To Go! is available on iOS and Android!
 
                

We usually don’t have many drawings from the development of our games, but for Paleteria, we created a lot of sketches while planning how the game would work. We thought it would be fun to do a special edition of Flipline Rewind, sharing some of these early sketches to give everyone a small peek into what goes into the game development process. Click each of the sketches below to see a larger version!
 

Build Station

 
Initially, we thought the paleta molds would be upside-down, meaning you’d add the top layer first, then the middle, and finally the bottom, which is how real ice pop molds are usually set up. Many of our sketches show the paletas and molds this way. One of our main concerns was how what you see on the ticket matches what the customer holds in the end. If you were adding fillings upside-down, they would need to appear upside-down on the ticket too, so everything would be flipped when the customer held it! Ultimately, we decided it was more important for the paleta to stay right-side-up at the Build Station, so Papa Louie has specially-made molds with tubes and channels for the fillings.

Layering Paletas

 
We also had to decide how we wanted the paletas to look once they were made, as this would guide the design of the layering system and all the components needed to achieve the final appearance. You’ll see in these sketches that the paletas are still shown upside-down, as we hadn’t yet rotated the molds. Early on, we decided to always have three fillings, rather than keeping it open-ended like Bakeria’s pies.

Topping Station

 
We wanted to do something different with the toppings for Paleteria: Instead of just adding shakers and drizzles across the entire pop, we wanted players to be able to change the angle of the toppings being added. We had seen some great examples of fancy paletas decorated this way, and we wanted to capture that look for this game. This, of course, introduced new challenges, especially regarding the hands-on experience. Instead of dragging food left and right to pour toppings evenly, the “precision” part of the gameplay would involve dragging the paleta to the correct angle before adding the topping. Some initial sketches had the paleta suspended above, where you would dunk it into a bin below. When we decided to move the paleta into a falling “waterfall” of toppings instead, we needed to come up with a way to choose the topping first.

Drizzles

 
Drizzles were tricky to figure out, especially when we were thinking of dunking the paleta into round bins below. We brainstormed a bunch of ideas for nozzles and revolving sprayers, but streams drizzling downwards made the most sense. We sketched out how the drizzles might interact with the top edge of the paleta, and ultimately wanted it to ribbon across the whole surface.

Tickets and Rotations

 
We spent a lot of time thinking about how to make topping angles and rotations clear on the ticket. Originally the paleta was upside-down in the Build Station, and upside-down on the Topping Station if we were dunking it into bins. Should we make the rotation symbols relate to how the paleta looks right-side-up when the customer is holding it? Or also make them upside-down since the paleta is built that way? When we decided the paleta on the Topping Station would be sideways, we had the symbols relate to that position, and also made them look a bit like arrows so it was clear how to angle them. We also needed a natural way for molds to transition to this sideways rotation so players could keep track of what they were working on, so we had the molds turn sideways on the Chill Station once you add them to the freezer.

There were many other adjustments made as we worked on the game, but this provides just a glimpse into the planning stages before we begin programming or designing the final assets used in the game!
  
Papa’s Paleteria To Go! is available on iOS and Android!
 
                

Hey Everyone!

This week, we wanted to share an update on how development is going with Papa’s Paleteria To Go, and we’re thrilled to say that we’re in the middle of final playtesting right now!

What does this mean exactly? While we do plenty of playtesting as we’re working on the game, this final round of testing is where we play through the entire game and figure out if there’s anything we missed or anything that needs adjustments, and then fix those issues before submitting it to the app stores.

This first involves making sure everything works correctly on a variety of screen sizes, and testing on both slower devices and more powerful ones to see what needs to be optimized. After that, we test touch-screen and multi-touch controls at various sizes, and then it’s on to the final playthrough of the entire game. We make sure all the ingredients and customers are unlocking at the correct times, make adjustments to scoring and pacing, and test all of the Specials, mini-games, and stickers. We’ll work on fixing any issues as we go, and making sure everything is playing smoothly before preparing the final version of the game.

This time around, we’ve had to deal with issues with our development tools and new phone devices (which are thankfully fixed now!), so the process has taken a bit longer. To make sure all of the issues are fixed, we’ve also had to test the game on a whopping 14 devices this time, so it’s been a bit more time-consuming.

When we’re finished with final playtesting, we’ll then have to wait a bit for each of the app stores to review the game, and see if there are any adjustments they need. This part of the process can take a while, but as soon as we have a release date available, we’ll post about it right away on the blog!

We’re working hard to get the game to everyone as soon as possible, and we can’t wait until you can all play Papa’s Paleteria To Go!

Be sure to check back here for more Sneak Peeks of Papa’s Paleteria To Go!
 

Hey Everyone!

Time is running out to order the limited edition Papa Louie Plush! Thanks to your support, we were able to extend the campaign to make sure everyone had a chance to get one, but that extra time is now almost up. There’s only ONE WEEK LEFT to order this adorable plushie, so act fast to pick up your very own Papa Louie Plush!

Get it now! https://www.makeship.com/products/papa-louie-plush

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to Brody’s Gallery! Brody got a chance to open his own gallery in Toastwood and he’s excited to show off all the cool fan art he finds on Instagram. Just remember to use the hashtag #BrodysGallery to make your fan art super easy to find. Oh and also, try keep the images square.