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[matrix54]

Greetings everyone!

I'm here to present to you a charming little twitch/puzzle game I like to call Checkout: Journey to Employee of the Month.

The goal is Checkout is pretty simple: You play as a bagger at your local super market. As customers stream down the checkout line, it's your job to ring them up as fast as possible without breaking their goods. Goods must be placed in weight order in order to avoid damaging goods. Break a good, you get a strike. Too many strikes at the wrong time, you're sent home and your shift is over. However, if you keep the customers happy, you make your boss happy! Keep expectations high and you just might end up as Employee of the Month!

Features:

Story Mode:
The story is fun and silly and used to push the gameplay. There are 20 stages, and each of them can be played at any time (when unlocked). The difficulty is broad, ranging from incredibly easy to overwhelmingly difficult.

Multiplayer:
Compete head to head against a friend to see who's the better bagger!

Competition:
At every 6th stage in the game, there's is a competition where the player must compete against the game's AI to be the first to bag groceries. While some baggers are better than others, There's always a chance of the weaker bagger coming out on top.

Perks:
As the game progresses, the player will have access to select employee perks while playing. Once unlocked, these abilities will allow the player to quickly bag groceries, instantly satisfy a customer or slow down time, for more acute focus while bagging.

Pudding Customization:
Puddings are the game's characters. Give your pudding a name, a skin tone and an outfit. Like many customization systems, your options are limited, but as you progress, new options are unlocked and enabled. There are also several fun options for players to choose from with cheats.

There are also several fun options for players to choose from with cheats.

Achievements:
Currently, there are 24 achievements to earn in the game, based off the various tasks present in the game. Some are easy to attain, while some are much harder (like getting a combo of 100).

Cheats: My games features cheats, for developmental purposes as well as fun. All cheats are entered through the PUDDING NAME menu at the start of a new game. You CANNOT enabled cheats if you have an active profile.

Player Content/Modding: Players are able to create custom skin colors, outfits, accessories and aprons. A "Checkout/Mods" will folder will always be available in my documents, supplied by the game itself, allowing players to add their own content. Registry entries are also freely editable, for advanced players.

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Bored? You can try out a demo of Checkout: Journey to Employee of the Month - right now!
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/651631?updated=1

Also, don't forget to vote for Checkout: Journey to Employee of the Month on Steam's Greenlight - click below!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=327981925

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[matrix54]

Hello, all.  

Today, I have an update: The HUD!



I've also added a neat little feature when you've strung together a chain of 10 happy customers - called "Express Bagging." If things are looking a little hairy, press space/tab (or whatever else you set it to on the keyboard) and you'll immediately bag a customer's groceries! It doesn't raise the current combo, but it doesn't lower it either.

The 3 descending boxes are place holders for other employees, during competitions.

[billyboob]

The female pudding model looks a bit odd. I think you could get away with having just one, gender neutral, model. The customisation features and options should be enough to allow players to project the gender they want to play as onto the pudding.

I'd have more feedback but unity web player no worky on linux. Is exporting a linux build or to native client an option?

[matrix54]

Thanks for the reply. Feedback is always helpful.

For the female puddings, it's kind of a variable situation for me. Prior to having females, all puddings were male. Since puddings were distinctly human-based, apart from the generic pudding model - I wanted to show that, as well as provide diversity and choice.

There are quite a few skins in the games - the exceptions for females being breast, which is the odd part of the model. One of my friends called it "The Monoboob". Given the customization options I wanted to include women. I honestly don't want to remove them, but if you have any suggestions to improve them, I'm more than open to any suggestion. Though, I imagine it's going to be hard to made something so blocky look more feminine without breaking the original form.

Here are some Lara Croft puddings a friend asked me to make. I don't think they look too odd, but I've looking at them for a month I guess I'm a little used to them:



There are quirky character models in the game, like playing as soap, a candybar, a game controller, etc. All of these are based upon the male model, but genderless.

And since I've been working, I may as well release some demos. Everything's in one RAR file, so pick you OS and play...

https://www.sendspace.com/file/9xk2u2

[matrix54]

Ok! So... I've gone for a bit, but I have an update - no build yet! I want to release that when the game is fully playable (which is is, but only with cheating).



The game has gotten a lot of new art, and due to the increased new arts, I have some things to show everyone, like this WIP Checkout line:



New in the photo is:

A: New Puddings!

If I made up-scaled art, everything would look weird, so I had to go back and remake every pudding image in the game, and they have a smoother appearance. Due to the new art, I also had to increase the number of skin tones, because the darkest wasn't as dark, so now, there are 7 base tones: Very Light, Light, High, Medium, Low, Dark, Very Dark. Default is medium (shown above).

Due to being able to create breasts, I took the suggestion above and I created genderless puddings. All cheats have been renamed as well to accommodate for the change.

Also,due to having a single "gender" of Pudding, I may create more casual clothing, so if you have a suggestion please, add them below. I need Ideas for costumes.

B: An NPC Generator!

I was scared to actually attempt to create this because I'm not a programmer (I'm trying my best!) and I thought I was going to mess it up. From what I can tell, it works like a charm! When you've bagged an NPC, it leaves and another comes up to the line and waits to be bagged. I haven't got an idea of how to translate their anger into a visual form yet, but I'm happy the hard part is over. Still... a lot more art to do!

Next is...



The title screen! I felt that is was time for a logo, so I made one. It fits with the blockiness of the games, and it's representative of the game - a half filled logo.



Next...



The employee handbook.

I haven't written all the text and created all the images, but this is going to be a nice hub for players to reference the game's rules and mechanics.

Outside of bug fixing and cleaning up (especially the game's options!), That's all for today. Thanks for reading!

[matrix54]

I have an announcement to make: The game is, finally, fully playable from beginning to end. There's still a lot to get done, like art, writing, sound, but I'm happy that the base is done.

That is all.



And this, because it's cute:

[dez]

matrix,  
I PLEAD you to make this a deep game.  There is something important here - if you can only mine it.
What I mean is... do you know how 'papers please'  is so much more than a game about checking papers?

THIS GAME could be something that big - BIGGER!  I BEG you to transcend shallow game mechanics and search out what IT is (and btw I don't mean at all to be more technically complex)...
let me try to be a little more specific... maybe you will agree maybe you wont:
The direction can go into an ontological path.  In other words, what is the meaning of this bullshit the pudding is doing every day?   What does he ask himself about it?  "When I die, what is the meaning of all this shit I bagged?"
Of course this is the same questions people should be asking themselves in real life.
I BEG you to figure it out and sink your fangs into it and shake HARD!   If you can, I suggest to read a book about ontological psychology (existential therapy), HERE is a good one.  Maybe you will see what i mean.   Anyway I understand if you don't follow my suggestion.  But it is definitely where I would take this game and make it transcend being just a 'game'.  I think you are onto something... and I think that something is along the path I noted.  

Good luck regardless!  

[matrix54]

That... I don't know about. I'm not too sure.

The entire purpose of the game was meant to be light-hearted, playful and fun. Nothing to take seriously to the extent of questing the meaning of life because you broke a few eggs.

Now, don't get me wrong, I could easily turn this into a "I have a family of 5 at home and I need to work this terrible job to pay bills and support my family so they don't die," - I could probably work that out in a day or 2 - but that's not the level of depth I'm seeking. Could that be a potential hit among players? Could that be that one thing that hooks player in and really makes them connect with the game? Potentially. I'd be an idiot to say it won't. However, that's a little too serious for the kind of game I'm shooting for.

At, as far as I see it now. Considering my game has aliens in it and you can play as a bar of soap, being too serious might be a bit much, but I'll seriously keep that in mind, to later.

[matrix54]

A new build it up. Please, please, please, please leave me feedback. The game can be played from beginning to end (as far as my testing went), and all rewards and outfits can be unlocked.

Every little bit help. Thank you.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12892601/Checkout_WebPlayer/checkout.html

[dez]

I played it, my only critique is that I wish there were a way to go back once I know I screwed up the order.   Is there a way?

[matrix54]

Probably, but I'm inexperienced. I have an idea how it should be able to work, and I hope it's not too hard.


Now, in comes the balancing part: will it make the game too easy? Of course on later parts of the game, you'll be strapped for time so you probably wont have time to reset it while trying to bag everything else (even though I added a second to the clock, and the normal 3 on some levels with angry for frustrated puddings), but it makes it easier to glide through.

I used express bagging as a means to remedy this, while mid-combo (although it leaves when you've messed up your combo and you have to build it back up). With the little feedback I've been given, people have wondered if I could reset a messed up placement - we'll see.


Edit: Per your request, an undo function has been added. I'll be updating the new demo shortly. I set it up in such a way so you can only undo one action, which means if you've messed up and stacked and extra item too many, it's still possible to mess up.

I'm considering added extra abilities besides express bagging. One to slow down time for a duration of time and another to make a customer happy, so you can focus one bagging a customer's groceries before being rushed to do the next.

I also had to change the controls, but when I upload the download for testing, you can modify the controls later. I have no idea how to set up altered controls in the game.

[matrix54]

Not only did I add in the undo feature (the ability to immediately go back a single action and replace it, if you messed up), I've added in two more abilities: Free Candy and Sugar Rush.

Express Bagging:

This was added ages ago, but I thought I'd talk about it a bit. At the start of each shift, the player is allowed to bag groceries immediately, as long as their combo is maintained. Express bagging is used to maintain an ongoing combo as well as give the player a break while playing if they feel a combination will take too long to finish in time.

Once used or lost, the player has to string another combo together to use it again.

Free Candy:

At the start of each shift, the player is allowed to pass out a few pieces of candy to ease the mind of the current shopper. One activated, the candy will instantly satisfy the customer, indicated by the temperature gauge turning blue. It will no longer fill up, allowing the player to take their time filling the bag up with groceries.

The player can do this up to 5 times per shift. No more can be added in the level.

Sugar Rush:

At the start of each shift, the player is given a bag of sugar. The player then consumes the sugar (all at once) and time slows down for a short period of duration of time. This is indicated by the screen turning a hazy yellow. After this, the player isn't given anymore sugar until the shift ends.

In-Game:

[matrix54]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12892601/Checkout_WebPlayer/checkout.html

Lots of new things to fiddle around with so, go and have fun. I changed some stuff around, like the controls, so if you have questions, I'm here. I even add sounds for the puddings and other effects and updates things here and there. Write any and all feedback below.

Controls (because I didn't add them to the game yet) - I tried to make them feel natural as comfortable as possible for the defaults, but they can be changed later.

1 or A : Slot 1
2 or S : Slot 2
3 or D : Slot 3
8 or J : Slot 4
9 or k : Slot 5
0 or L : Slot 6

tab or left shift: express bagging
[ or / : free candy
] or right shift : Sugar Rush

space or enter : undo

Esc or P: Pause (while in game)

Also, feel free to visit my page at IndieDB!
http://www.indiedb.com/games/checkout-journey-to-employee-of-the-month


Lastly, better looking art:

[matrix54]

New Sprites! I decided to replace roasts with cake, because:

-There are too much animal based products in the game.
-Not enough food groups were being represented.
-Roasts are hard to make.  



Top to bottom:
-Holiday Cake
-Cereal
-Bread
-Eggs
-Fruit (generic, but inspired by oranges and apples)
-Packaged Meat
-Milk and Juice
-Canned Goods

I opted for basic recolors because having diversity within the categories would be potentially confusing. Regardless, I'm having a bit of trouble having individual recolors display in separate cells for whatever reason. It's annoying...

[matrix54]

Welp... Dev time in winding down, and the game's almost finished! I just have to finish off the art, do some clean up and the game is done! It's been a fun 2 months.

To commemorate, he's an shot of the tutorial:

[matrix54]

Attention, Attention: Checkout now has some basic support for player mods!

While I'm happy to have it, loading up images requires an internet connection. Regardless, I'm happy to have it in the game.

If anyone knows an alternative to having players load images from the user directory, with Unity, I'm all ears.


Edit: I've learned how to import images from a mods folder. Yay for me!

[dez]

LOL mod support! 

is there a playable build?

[matrix54]

Sadly, not at this point (since it's almost done and I'd be giving away a relatively finishe game). The other build is still up, though.

And I guess "mods" might not be an appropriate term to use (since I just enabled players to load up their own content), but players can certainly fiddle with the registry if they want.

There's a folder in the documents section of the computer and players load their mods there. Currently, if players don't have the appropriate images, the feature is turned off. I think I'll just have the missing image replaced, though. I'll see what's best.

[matrix54]

The awkward moment when you still have to work during a riot...



That sinking feeling.


Something look a bit... off.

[matrix54]

Create custom games. I hope you have fun with it! :D