Chef Wars Mindcake Games Chef Wars is the first food discovery RPG! Recruit chefs, source ingredients, and invent hundreds of recipes from around… Free Buy Now Watch Media DetailsChef Wars is the first food discovery RPG! Recruit chefs, source ingredients, and invent hundreds of recipes from around the world. Then use those recipes to win themed kitchen battles! Become the most famous chef and stop the evil Baron von Pork from world domination! FEATURES: - INVENT: Collect 200 ingredients. Then mix and match to invent over 900 recipes! - EXPLORE: Visit 500 towns on a fully explorable, real-world map. - TRAIN: Recruit and train 20 chefs - each with their own traits and backstories. - COMPETE: Build your recipe arsenal to win themed cooking battles! 3000+ unique fights presided by celebrity judges! - RISE UP: Win the annual Cheffy Awards, reach Master Chef level, and defeat Baron von Pork once and for all. DEVELOPER'S NOTES: - Chef Wars is free to play with optional in-app purchases. Purchases are NOT needed to finish the game! - You also don't need to register an account and go online to play, but doing so gives access to friend rankings, global leaderboards, and access to your in-app purchases like premium chefs and skins. - As of initial release, we have a huge world map covering Europe and Asia! We hope to add more features, regions, chefs and recipes over time! - The game is only available in English right now, but we plan to add more translations in the future. JOIN THE COMMUNITY! Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mindcakegames/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/mindcakes Chef Wars Playtest Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/chefwars/ Having problems? Got a suggestion? We're a small indie team and we'd love to hear from you! Reach us via social media or email: [email protected] Stuck? Need hints? Check out the community wiki: http://chef-wars.wikia.com! Information Seller:Mindcake Games Genre:Education, Role Playing Release:Oct 10, 2017 Updated:Jul 03, 2019 Version:1.4.2 Size:147.0 MB TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating: (1) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal The three of us at Mindcake are super happy to share that Chef Wars launched on October 12, after almost 3 years in development! Chef Wars is perhaps the first food discovery RPG focused on geographical and gastronomic exploration! Recruit chefs, source ingredients, and invent hundreds of recipes from around the world! Then use those recipes to win themed kitchen battles! Become the most famous chef and stop the evil Baron von Pork from world domination! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel FEATURES: - INVENT: Source 200 ingredients. Then mix and match to invent over 900 recipes! - EXPLORE: Visit 500 towns on a fully explorable, real-world map. - TRAIN: Recruit and train 30 chefs - each with their own traits and backstories. - COMPETE: Build your recipe arsenal to win themed cooking battles! 3000+ unique fights presided by special celebrity judges! - RISE UP: Win the annual Cheffy Awards, reach Master Chef level, and defeat Baron von Pork once and for all. RECENT RECOGNITION: - "New Games We Love, Apple iTunes Global Feature" - Oct 12-18, 2017 - "#1 RPG in 23 Countries, Apple iTunes Rankings" - Oct 12-18, 2017 - "#1 Educational Game in 101 Countries, Apple iTunes Rankings" - Oct 12-18, 2017 - "IMGA SEA Finalist" - 2nd International Mobile Gaming Awards - SEA, Oct 14-15, 2017 - "Google Play Early Access Feature" - Selected for Early Access, Aug - Sep 2017 - "Indie Prize 2017 Finalist" - Casual Connect Asia 2017, May 16-18 2017 AND SOME LOVE! - "Possibly the most the charming game Ive ever played. If you told me this was a mobile game made by a major studio... Id believe you!" (Paul Meekin, Heavy.com) - "Theres so much to unlock and discover, youll find yourself getting sucked in every time you play!" (Cammy Harbison, Player.One - "The cute little RPG animations without the need to be constantly online makes Chef Wars the perfect middle ground between something simple like Candy Crush and something super complicated like MMORPGS. My entire family cannot stop playing this game and it has taught us a lot about the different cuisines from different cities!" (Cecilia, Player Comments) Calm Member Sep 18, 2017 9 0 0 #2 Calm, Oct 18, 2017 Eagerly awaiting for cloud save support... L.Lawliet Well-Known Member Jun 28, 2011 6,405 420 83 #3 L.Lawliet, Oct 19, 2017 Promising game very much ruined by one f2p aspect of the game - recipe limit. Doesn't even make sense in the context of a cooking game itself. And I'm not the only one, plenty of people on the reviews mention the same thing. Basically the game should be about discovering new recipes and figuring out which ones are the best for the competition. With this recipe limit you have to literally "forget" recipes to learn new ones and then if you need them again (which you probably will), you have to buy them back with premium currency. It makes no sense and forces you as a player to struggle with the debate of removing a recipe you might need later, then possibly having to pay real money if you get stuck. Looks like a whole well made game but definitely way too strong on f2p. Ultimately, you should be amassing a huge amount of recipes and figuring out which ones work best to win. Not inventory management of a handful of recipes. IOSgamer1980 Well-Known Member Nov 6, 2015 432 2 18 #4 IOSgamer1980, Oct 19, 2017 Hit the same IAP wall and just walked away. Such massive potential. So much excitement in the pre-launch thread, and look at this thread. Says it all... cofunguy Well-Known Member Sep 24, 2012 825 0 0 #5 cofunguy, Oct 19, 2017 Hope the developer is listening...otherwise 3 years wasted... ChronoSigma Member Oct 19, 2017 6 0 0 #6 ChronoSigma, Oct 19, 2017 Great game concept. But got stuck and can't progress any further due to the IAP. Really hope dev will improve it better for F2P users. MindCakeGames Member Oct 9, 2015 23 0 0 Indie Developers Singapore http://mindcakegames.com #7 MindCakeGames, Oct 19, 2017 Thanks so much for the feedback guys. The recipe slot system is something we've thought about extensively over the course of the 3 years development, Alphas, and also tested over the last 3 months Beta prior launch. As with any F2P system, there were folks who didn't like it, folks who weren't bothered by it, and others who gave us some constructive feedback for how to better balance it. I talk about the history of some of these changes in the notes below. Attaching a post we did on the pre-launch thread, which hopefully sheds some insights on how we thought about it. -------------------------------------------- RECIPE SLOTS There's two parts to the concern on recipe slots - the relevance of the system per se, and then the balancing that follows once we decide on implementing it. When we started designing the game, we put the recipe slot system in for a couple of reasons: 1) RPG Mechanics - we wanted to go the route of some RPGs and Card Battle games where you had to make strategic choices about what you brought into battle. By making each character own/learn the recipes, and allowing them to upgrade it over time, the recipes functions similarly to equipment, or perhaps upgradable skills/magic that appears in some RPGs. If you always had access to all (eventually) 900 recipes, and these recipes could be selected across any chef, and the upgrade of one recipe also upgraded it across all chefs, the challenge and tension would almost entirely disappear. The game would turn into something like "Doodle God" - an "alchemical" game focused entirely on finding ingredients and inventing/collecting recipes. There are no energy systems or gates, and you can farm cash endlessly (if you hit rock bottom, there are no-cost battles in the early areas), so battles would be a bit meaningless given the lack of tension or restriction. You're basically just farming tags off battles, in order to complete your 900-recipe collection. That could actually be a plus for some folks who just want to relax and find out all the recipes of the game (again, "Doodle God"), but it can also be a turnoff to some players who enjoy the battle challenge, and the need to be strategic about what you want to focus or specialize. Btw, "forgetting recipes" on a chef doesn't destroy the upgrade progress your chef has had with the recipe so far, but you would need to re-invent it if you want to relearn it at some point. The cost of forgetting is therefore the ingredients you would need to recollect and the percentage of failure (which diminishes, to the point where invention is usually at 100% once Creativity is fairly high and you had even just 4 of the right ingredients). This same cost creates the tension that forces some players to be more strategic about what recipes they want to have. 2) Battle Loop Simplicity - we wanted to keep the battle loop simple. UI-wise, we experimented with no recipe slots, 50 recipe slots, then 20 (the current once fully brain-boosted). Once you got to 100+ recipes, having to manage or choose from many at a time for each battle, even if there were elegant ways to filter or choose your favorites, was very unwieldly. With about 8 freely recruitable chefs in the game including Sylvie, a full arsenal (without ever expanding recipe slots or paying gems) would be 45 recipes, which is actually quite an expansive hit list that could take you all the way to Asia. Many recipes fit multiple regions, because many of the tags could be applicable across cultures (Aromatic), or half the judges are just as or more concerned about Power or Preference rather than themes. If you add the number of gems you can get for free by winning boss battles (believe around 50), that's an additional +10 slots or 55 recipes without having to spend a cent. We've found that this could already be quite unwieldly for some players to sift through at the battle recipe selection screen. Some extra notes on this: - You could finish the France and Belgium/Amsterdam area with just 5 basic recipes. Again, many of the early competitions overlap themes or Sylvie's starting recipes cover a wide range of situations. You usually just need to add a Fish dish and a Porky dish. By the time you finish the early areas, you would find Astrid (+5 slots) and Gottlieb too (+5 slots), get about 15 extra gems from boss battles (+3 slots), and at that point have 23 slots. Of the 5-10 recipes you really need to win most of the early areas, the remaining balance of slots could be for preferential recipes you just want to have in your arsenal. - This progression continues as you recruit more chefs, get more free gems from boss battles, until you have your 40+ to 50 free slots, again without having spent a cent. 3) Monetization - we of course wanted to earn as well and feed ourselves! We've been making the game for about 3 years and funding from our own savings. We felt like selling slots for added convenience (if you want to have an expansive selection) was reasonable, while those who did not might just have to be slightly more strategic about what they brought in. Now the next question is balance. We definitely agree with some of the points raised, not just here but again in various Alphas and Betas where we've talked with players in various stages of the game. While we still believe in having a recipe slot system, perhaps much of the frustration is due to balancing. We did eventually realize after a lot of feedback that 5 slots on Sylvie as the starting character was too restrictive, especially as you're only starting to learn the ropes! So we brought that to 10 for her in the 1.1.3 update (other chefs still 5). In coming patches, we also want to add more ways to earn gems besides boss battles - through a daily login reward perhaps, or some social actions. So that the premium / gem economy can be accessed in two ways - either over time, or paying if you want to accelerate that progress. This means, over more days of play, folks can slowly expand their slots (or use their gems on other stuff), almost endlessly. As it stands though, the game has no direct paywalls. We're not gating time spent through an energy system (again you could farm endlessly for cash in the France area, including some no-cost fights in Paris), and we've tested that you can finish the game and beat Baron without spending a single cent (there are many paths to him). Many of the beta players who finished the game never bought a single gem! And many folks in the community groups and reviews we've talked to are relatively far off (because they've been reporting late-stage bugs!), again without having spent a cent. We've also allowed both offline and online play - most Free to Play games require consistent online connections so the economy is tightly controlled, among other things. There's also no strong multiplayer or PVP loop which you have to do to get anywhere, since the game is mainly a story-driven romp. So we really tried to make payments focused on convenience/acceleration if the player so chooses. Again, you can either take more time, or accelerate with payments. There's no "losing" so unlike many competitive games, there's no impetus in Chef Wars to really spend money to "win". For folks who are complaining about hitting walls, we found that: - For some it could be more a guidance issue on our side - the learning curve may be quite steep and people feel stuck because they don't know what to do, or we haven't taught them well enough after a certain point how to be more effective. So some folks we understand may become impatient and feel they aren't progressing, and will naturally point to the recipe slot system as it's the most obvious limitation. - Sometimes, the game is simply not what some folks were expecting. Again, could be a "Doodle God" example where some folks just want to play nonstop, without any challenge or constraint, and exhaust the game content without limitation. While we argue that you can exhaust the game's content albeit with a bit more effort and a slightly longer play time, sometimes that pacing still turns off some people. And as devs we really cannot eliminate that perception unless we just make the game totally free, without limits, and not ask anything in return. But rest assured we did listen to the feedback of many previous players and paced the rewarding of gems and unlocking of free chefs/slots in a way that you can finish the game with less than what is given. By the time you hit 40-50 recipe slots, you can win any competition. For some, it might just mean giving the game a bit more of a chance, finding alternate strategies to get past a boss or hurdle. We know that we still have a lot to improve and we love hearing back from players. It's our first game as a team, and we're constantly listening, adjusting, and evolving with the community. So we really love hearing these kinds of questions and concerns as it also lets us think more deeply about where we can tweak or balance. Thanks again for giving us a chance to share our thoughts. P.S. In any case, something we're definitely working on next is the daily login rewards which has a chance to drop free gems. This can help give early players access to a bit more slots even faster, if they so wish. Beth Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Jan 29, 2014 126 8 18 Professional do-nothing'er Eastern usa #8 Beth, Oct 21, 2017 That might just be the best dev reply/response I've seen , like ever.....most thorough & helpful for sure! I love it! Apologies in advance, for my random disjointed thoughts...lol Leveling the recipes is akin to leveling gear/weapons ....so you wouldn't nessasarly need every single one. I can see those large unlimited slot/amounts might become extremely unmanageable, I'd probably use those few favorites, those I'm most familiar with and forget the rest exist. I really don't think this would be as enjoyable if it were "doodle godded" down ....it would just be just another collect/craft/explore type game. Seeing the whole thought process behind this choice really makes a lot of sense to me I'm also one who doesn't think twice about buying IAP /games ( even those I might not nessasarly play) just to support my fav games/developers. Your power bills need paid, same as anyone elses.....so yeah. Also...I hope this game gets to the right audience, I'm really shocked that I didn't see it featured anywhere in the AppStore (maybe I'm overlooking something) ....there is really a lack of this sorta big immersive game, where you don't have restraints & timers limiting play. Also, I find this absolutely to be "universally appealing" ... male/female ..younger/older. It's a perfect mesh of an Epic map/world to explore, collect/create, cook/craft, RPG/battle etc....something for everone! I had a question about the end game/goal....is that what the countdown is? I'm wondering should I be more concerned with the timers ...I've been leasurely exploring ....? netherjade8 Active Member May 6, 2013 35 0 0 #9 netherjade8, Oct 21, 2017 I decided to try this game out. It's very polished and cute but I have to stop playing. The trial and error or recipe invention is too aggravating. That and mixed with the correct ingredients that randomly drop in some town as well as the drop for said recipe to hopefully work. I wasted so much cash in the beginning just to find out I get 1 random ingredients and it isn't the one I need them to finally get the one I need to end up failing on discovery and losing it. If I wanted to look up a recipe offline somewhere you could avoid a lot of headache by including a recipe/progress book. Since this is partially crafting. I wouldn't mind coming back to this game but the way things are now some mechanics need to change. Hajio Member Oct 21, 2017 7 0 0 #10 Hajio, Oct 21, 2017 The ads aren't obstructing and the IAP wall is kept away from. the game itself is a blast and tell you what i have actually gone and reviewed it on the appstore MindCakeGames Member Oct 9, 2015 23 0 0 Indie Developers Singapore http://mindcakegames.com #11 MindCakeGames, Oct 21, 2017 Awww thanks so much for the kind words Beth! Really appreciate it. We got featured on the Apple Store for a week under New Games We Love (we were so grateful they did!). But Features come and go and we don't have marketing budget LOL, so we just need to continually improve the game and try to find ways to get it to the right audience. I'd go on a limb here and say in terms of content we can match up to the big premium games in terms of scope, and I really hope some folks appreciate it and wouldn't mind just a little bit of IAP to help keep our lights on LOL! But again on our part, it's finding the right balance especially in the early game. We admit it could just be too steep early on! The goal is to beat Baron von Pork! He's slowly perfecting a secret recipe he stole from Sylvie (the main character's) father. It's a recipe so tasty, it can mind-control people and take over the world! Yup, that's what the timer is for, it ticks slowly. But with every boss battle you finish, you push the timer down. You can also find farmable minion fights (usually named "Trouble at the...") which if you win, helps reduce the "Baronometer" too. But even if it does hit full bars, it won't end the game. It asks you to sacrifice 10% of your fame points to reduce the bar by 2 notches. You won't get demoted though, it just means it will take longer to be Master Chef level (Tier 5, and then 6 to finally be able to fight Baron)! We could probably do a lot more to improve the guidance systems in the game. Couple of points we get a lot of questions about and need to do a better job of clarifying are: 1) You don't need all the ingredients to invent a recipe, especially not rare ingredients. We've had players get frustrated about burning a lot of cash trying to find the exact set of ingredients they need for a recipe, only to have it fail even if they had everything. The thing is, the algorithm only needs at least 3 to 4, just that having all ingredients gives you a better chance. On top of that, a chef's Creativity attribute gives you more ROI on recipe invention than perhaps finding that final ingredient. Each point in Creativity gives +X% to recipe invention chances (and some chefs like Gottlieb who you can find early on in Amsterdam have traits that add a flat +20% to the chances too!) 2) The recipe library can be accessed within the kitchen base at the bottom, by clicking on the little recipe icon. It shows all successfully discovered recipes so far regardless of chef, in case you want to insta-learn (IAP), or use as a reference to go through another invention process (not IAP) to have another chef learn or re-learn. 3) Upgrading the Tenacity attribute increases a chef's chance of finding rarer ingredients. There are also black markets scattered across the map (Mushroom House) which sell specific ingredients depending on the day of the week (though more expensive), without going through the randomization of the markets. Thanks Hajio! Appreciate that! There are no ads and we plan to keep it that way! Hiraether Well-Known Member Nov 28, 2012 62 0 6 #12 Hiraether, Oct 22, 2017 It's amazing how this deb pretends to do research but it's completely unscientific. Enjoy watching all your had work go to waste due to your company's greed and ignorance. The greatest chefs are said to know 10,000+ recipes. The system is ludicrous. IOSgamer1980 Well-Known Member Nov 6, 2015 432 2 18 #13 IOSgamer1980, Oct 22, 2017 Nothing about the recipe slot limitation is intuitive or makes sense, even after that explanation. In a premium game it'd come across as a means of padding playtime to completion. In a freemium game it's ransoming my free time. I'd have dropped $4.99 at least if it was premium and didn't have these barriers designed into it. They exist simply as a means of inconveniencing me so I'll cough up money to avoid the limitations. I'm sorry, but that's not how you should do freemium. L.Lawliet Well-Known Member Jun 28, 2011 6,405 420 83 #14 L.Lawliet, Oct 22, 2017 I also don't agree with the interpretation that recipes = rpg equipment. In rpgs you can choose what equipment you want or sell them or keep the ones you like. I've rarely seen an rpg that says you can only have a handful of equipment storage. And generally aside from special parameters, in rpgs new equipment is pretty much better than older ones. In this game there are many different types of recipies and judges. You would rather have all the recipes you can get your hands on. Lastly, you should be collecting as many recipies as you can get in a cooking game - especially when it boasts the amazing amount of recipies you can acquire on the description. Anyhow, enough of my rpg talk. I do wish the best for this game as it does have great quality. It just obviously isn't for me. cofunguy Well-Known Member Sep 24, 2012 825 0 0 #15 cofunguy, Oct 22, 2017 Would have to concur with you. It is idiotic to have to choose which recipes to keep over others. It is a plain money grab. Could been a great app with a one time payment but like others here and in the App Store, the approach of the developer is horrible on delivery principles. And then have to have to pay real money to get back recipes that you original had before. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) 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Promising game very much ruined by one f2p aspect of the game - recipe limit. Doesn't even make sense in the context of a cooking game itself. And I'm not the only one, plenty of people on the reviews mention the same thing. Basically the game should be about discovering new recipes and figuring out which ones are the best for the competition. With this recipe limit you have to literally "forget" recipes to learn new ones and then if you need them again (which you probably will), you have to buy them back with premium currency. It makes no sense and forces you as a player to struggle with the debate of removing a recipe you might need later, then possibly having to pay real money if you get stuck. Looks like a whole well made game but definitely way too strong on f2p. Ultimately, you should be amassing a huge amount of recipes and figuring out which ones work best to win. Not inventory management of a handful of recipes.
Hit the same IAP wall and just walked away. Such massive potential. So much excitement in the pre-launch thread, and look at this thread. Says it all...
Great game concept. But got stuck and can't progress any further due to the IAP. Really hope dev will improve it better for F2P users.
Thanks so much for the feedback guys. The recipe slot system is something we've thought about extensively over the course of the 3 years development, Alphas, and also tested over the last 3 months Beta prior launch. As with any F2P system, there were folks who didn't like it, folks who weren't bothered by it, and others who gave us some constructive feedback for how to better balance it. I talk about the history of some of these changes in the notes below. Attaching a post we did on the pre-launch thread, which hopefully sheds some insights on how we thought about it. -------------------------------------------- RECIPE SLOTS There's two parts to the concern on recipe slots - the relevance of the system per se, and then the balancing that follows once we decide on implementing it. When we started designing the game, we put the recipe slot system in for a couple of reasons: 1) RPG Mechanics - we wanted to go the route of some RPGs and Card Battle games where you had to make strategic choices about what you brought into battle. By making each character own/learn the recipes, and allowing them to upgrade it over time, the recipes functions similarly to equipment, or perhaps upgradable skills/magic that appears in some RPGs. If you always had access to all (eventually) 900 recipes, and these recipes could be selected across any chef, and the upgrade of one recipe also upgraded it across all chefs, the challenge and tension would almost entirely disappear. The game would turn into something like "Doodle God" - an "alchemical" game focused entirely on finding ingredients and inventing/collecting recipes. There are no energy systems or gates, and you can farm cash endlessly (if you hit rock bottom, there are no-cost battles in the early areas), so battles would be a bit meaningless given the lack of tension or restriction. You're basically just farming tags off battles, in order to complete your 900-recipe collection. That could actually be a plus for some folks who just want to relax and find out all the recipes of the game (again, "Doodle God"), but it can also be a turnoff to some players who enjoy the battle challenge, and the need to be strategic about what you want to focus or specialize. Btw, "forgetting recipes" on a chef doesn't destroy the upgrade progress your chef has had with the recipe so far, but you would need to re-invent it if you want to relearn it at some point. The cost of forgetting is therefore the ingredients you would need to recollect and the percentage of failure (which diminishes, to the point where invention is usually at 100% once Creativity is fairly high and you had even just 4 of the right ingredients). This same cost creates the tension that forces some players to be more strategic about what recipes they want to have. 2) Battle Loop Simplicity - we wanted to keep the battle loop simple. UI-wise, we experimented with no recipe slots, 50 recipe slots, then 20 (the current once fully brain-boosted). Once you got to 100+ recipes, having to manage or choose from many at a time for each battle, even if there were elegant ways to filter or choose your favorites, was very unwieldly. With about 8 freely recruitable chefs in the game including Sylvie, a full arsenal (without ever expanding recipe slots or paying gems) would be 45 recipes, which is actually quite an expansive hit list that could take you all the way to Asia. Many recipes fit multiple regions, because many of the tags could be applicable across cultures (Aromatic), or half the judges are just as or more concerned about Power or Preference rather than themes. If you add the number of gems you can get for free by winning boss battles (believe around 50), that's an additional +10 slots or 55 recipes without having to spend a cent. We've found that this could already be quite unwieldly for some players to sift through at the battle recipe selection screen. Some extra notes on this: - You could finish the France and Belgium/Amsterdam area with just 5 basic recipes. Again, many of the early competitions overlap themes or Sylvie's starting recipes cover a wide range of situations. You usually just need to add a Fish dish and a Porky dish. By the time you finish the early areas, you would find Astrid (+5 slots) and Gottlieb too (+5 slots), get about 15 extra gems from boss battles (+3 slots), and at that point have 23 slots. Of the 5-10 recipes you really need to win most of the early areas, the remaining balance of slots could be for preferential recipes you just want to have in your arsenal. - This progression continues as you recruit more chefs, get more free gems from boss battles, until you have your 40+ to 50 free slots, again without having spent a cent. 3) Monetization - we of course wanted to earn as well and feed ourselves! We've been making the game for about 3 years and funding from our own savings. We felt like selling slots for added convenience (if you want to have an expansive selection) was reasonable, while those who did not might just have to be slightly more strategic about what they brought in. Now the next question is balance. We definitely agree with some of the points raised, not just here but again in various Alphas and Betas where we've talked with players in various stages of the game. While we still believe in having a recipe slot system, perhaps much of the frustration is due to balancing. We did eventually realize after a lot of feedback that 5 slots on Sylvie as the starting character was too restrictive, especially as you're only starting to learn the ropes! So we brought that to 10 for her in the 1.1.3 update (other chefs still 5). In coming patches, we also want to add more ways to earn gems besides boss battles - through a daily login reward perhaps, or some social actions. So that the premium / gem economy can be accessed in two ways - either over time, or paying if you want to accelerate that progress. This means, over more days of play, folks can slowly expand their slots (or use their gems on other stuff), almost endlessly. As it stands though, the game has no direct paywalls. We're not gating time spent through an energy system (again you could farm endlessly for cash in the France area, including some no-cost fights in Paris), and we've tested that you can finish the game and beat Baron without spending a single cent (there are many paths to him). Many of the beta players who finished the game never bought a single gem! And many folks in the community groups and reviews we've talked to are relatively far off (because they've been reporting late-stage bugs!), again without having spent a cent. We've also allowed both offline and online play - most Free to Play games require consistent online connections so the economy is tightly controlled, among other things. There's also no strong multiplayer or PVP loop which you have to do to get anywhere, since the game is mainly a story-driven romp. So we really tried to make payments focused on convenience/acceleration if the player so chooses. Again, you can either take more time, or accelerate with payments. There's no "losing" so unlike many competitive games, there's no impetus in Chef Wars to really spend money to "win". For folks who are complaining about hitting walls, we found that: - For some it could be more a guidance issue on our side - the learning curve may be quite steep and people feel stuck because they don't know what to do, or we haven't taught them well enough after a certain point how to be more effective. So some folks we understand may become impatient and feel they aren't progressing, and will naturally point to the recipe slot system as it's the most obvious limitation. - Sometimes, the game is simply not what some folks were expecting. Again, could be a "Doodle God" example where some folks just want to play nonstop, without any challenge or constraint, and exhaust the game content without limitation. While we argue that you can exhaust the game's content albeit with a bit more effort and a slightly longer play time, sometimes that pacing still turns off some people. And as devs we really cannot eliminate that perception unless we just make the game totally free, without limits, and not ask anything in return. But rest assured we did listen to the feedback of many previous players and paced the rewarding of gems and unlocking of free chefs/slots in a way that you can finish the game with less than what is given. By the time you hit 40-50 recipe slots, you can win any competition. For some, it might just mean giving the game a bit more of a chance, finding alternate strategies to get past a boss or hurdle. We know that we still have a lot to improve and we love hearing back from players. It's our first game as a team, and we're constantly listening, adjusting, and evolving with the community. So we really love hearing these kinds of questions and concerns as it also lets us think more deeply about where we can tweak or balance. Thanks again for giving us a chance to share our thoughts. P.S. In any case, something we're definitely working on next is the daily login rewards which has a chance to drop free gems. This can help give early players access to a bit more slots even faster, if they so wish.
That might just be the best dev reply/response I've seen , like ever.....most thorough & helpful for sure! I love it! Apologies in advance, for my random disjointed thoughts...lol Leveling the recipes is akin to leveling gear/weapons ....so you wouldn't nessasarly need every single one. I can see those large unlimited slot/amounts might become extremely unmanageable, I'd probably use those few favorites, those I'm most familiar with and forget the rest exist. I really don't think this would be as enjoyable if it were "doodle godded" down ....it would just be just another collect/craft/explore type game. Seeing the whole thought process behind this choice really makes a lot of sense to me I'm also one who doesn't think twice about buying IAP /games ( even those I might not nessasarly play) just to support my fav games/developers. Your power bills need paid, same as anyone elses.....so yeah. Also...I hope this game gets to the right audience, I'm really shocked that I didn't see it featured anywhere in the AppStore (maybe I'm overlooking something) ....there is really a lack of this sorta big immersive game, where you don't have restraints & timers limiting play. Also, I find this absolutely to be "universally appealing" ... male/female ..younger/older. It's a perfect mesh of an Epic map/world to explore, collect/create, cook/craft, RPG/battle etc....something for everone! I had a question about the end game/goal....is that what the countdown is? I'm wondering should I be more concerned with the timers ...I've been leasurely exploring ....?
I decided to try this game out. It's very polished and cute but I have to stop playing. The trial and error or recipe invention is too aggravating. That and mixed with the correct ingredients that randomly drop in some town as well as the drop for said recipe to hopefully work. I wasted so much cash in the beginning just to find out I get 1 random ingredients and it isn't the one I need them to finally get the one I need to end up failing on discovery and losing it. If I wanted to look up a recipe offline somewhere you could avoid a lot of headache by including a recipe/progress book. Since this is partially crafting. I wouldn't mind coming back to this game but the way things are now some mechanics need to change.
The ads aren't obstructing and the IAP wall is kept away from. the game itself is a blast and tell you what i have actually gone and reviewed it on the appstore
Awww thanks so much for the kind words Beth! Really appreciate it. We got featured on the Apple Store for a week under New Games We Love (we were so grateful they did!). But Features come and go and we don't have marketing budget LOL, so we just need to continually improve the game and try to find ways to get it to the right audience. I'd go on a limb here and say in terms of content we can match up to the big premium games in terms of scope, and I really hope some folks appreciate it and wouldn't mind just a little bit of IAP to help keep our lights on LOL! But again on our part, it's finding the right balance especially in the early game. We admit it could just be too steep early on! The goal is to beat Baron von Pork! He's slowly perfecting a secret recipe he stole from Sylvie (the main character's) father. It's a recipe so tasty, it can mind-control people and take over the world! Yup, that's what the timer is for, it ticks slowly. But with every boss battle you finish, you push the timer down. You can also find farmable minion fights (usually named "Trouble at the...") which if you win, helps reduce the "Baronometer" too. But even if it does hit full bars, it won't end the game. It asks you to sacrifice 10% of your fame points to reduce the bar by 2 notches. You won't get demoted though, it just means it will take longer to be Master Chef level (Tier 5, and then 6 to finally be able to fight Baron)! We could probably do a lot more to improve the guidance systems in the game. Couple of points we get a lot of questions about and need to do a better job of clarifying are: 1) You don't need all the ingredients to invent a recipe, especially not rare ingredients. We've had players get frustrated about burning a lot of cash trying to find the exact set of ingredients they need for a recipe, only to have it fail even if they had everything. The thing is, the algorithm only needs at least 3 to 4, just that having all ingredients gives you a better chance. On top of that, a chef's Creativity attribute gives you more ROI on recipe invention than perhaps finding that final ingredient. Each point in Creativity gives +X% to recipe invention chances (and some chefs like Gottlieb who you can find early on in Amsterdam have traits that add a flat +20% to the chances too!) 2) The recipe library can be accessed within the kitchen base at the bottom, by clicking on the little recipe icon. It shows all successfully discovered recipes so far regardless of chef, in case you want to insta-learn (IAP), or use as a reference to go through another invention process (not IAP) to have another chef learn or re-learn. 3) Upgrading the Tenacity attribute increases a chef's chance of finding rarer ingredients. There are also black markets scattered across the map (Mushroom House) which sell specific ingredients depending on the day of the week (though more expensive), without going through the randomization of the markets. Thanks Hajio! Appreciate that! There are no ads and we plan to keep it that way!
It's amazing how this deb pretends to do research but it's completely unscientific. Enjoy watching all your had work go to waste due to your company's greed and ignorance. The greatest chefs are said to know 10,000+ recipes. The system is ludicrous.
Nothing about the recipe slot limitation is intuitive or makes sense, even after that explanation. In a premium game it'd come across as a means of padding playtime to completion. In a freemium game it's ransoming my free time. I'd have dropped $4.99 at least if it was premium and didn't have these barriers designed into it. They exist simply as a means of inconveniencing me so I'll cough up money to avoid the limitations. I'm sorry, but that's not how you should do freemium.
I also don't agree with the interpretation that recipes = rpg equipment. In rpgs you can choose what equipment you want or sell them or keep the ones you like. I've rarely seen an rpg that says you can only have a handful of equipment storage. And generally aside from special parameters, in rpgs new equipment is pretty much better than older ones. In this game there are many different types of recipies and judges. You would rather have all the recipes you can get your hands on. Lastly, you should be collecting as many recipies as you can get in a cooking game - especially when it boasts the amazing amount of recipies you can acquire on the description. Anyhow, enough of my rpg talk. I do wish the best for this game as it does have great quality. It just obviously isn't for me.
Would have to concur with you. It is idiotic to have to choose which recipes to keep over others. It is a plain money grab. Could been a great app with a one time payment but like others here and in the App Store, the approach of the developer is horrible on delivery principles. And then have to have to pay real money to get back recipes that you original had before.
