Hey guys!

So, of course, the first thing we have to say is a huge thank you for 1,000 followers on this very Game Jolt page for Chef Wanted.

To a lot of people this game might seem like a small, silly, one-off FNaF fangame that we’re making just for fun, but I can assure you that Chef Wanted is much more than that. This project was initially created simply to bring three people together for the first time, to make something small as a challenge (for the FNaF subreddit’s first Game Jam contest). But now, half a year later, the game has become a serious labour of love for TeamEKS, to not only be a really fun and unique experience for FNaF fans, but to also be a great opportunity to break free from the fangame series that each of us have been tied to since we started this kind of content, of course referring to Five Nights at Candy’s and POPGOES.

Knowing that over a thousand people have gathered in the past few months, eager to see more and play Chef Wanted, is a humbling reminder that there are lots of fans out there who are prepared to try something brand new and take a break from the other fangame projects for a while. Chef Wanted is in many ways a first experience for all three of us, and the experience of creating it as a team, growing as game developers, has been really great. Though it may sound like a bit of an overstatement, I would definitely say that starting Chef Wanted is one of the most important things each of us have done whilst being active content creators online. So, because of that, we want to genuinely thank each and every one of you for keeping up with us, especially during the current drought of FNaF content, while we develop this really special video game. You da best!

Onto the news! Development has admittedly been a bit inconsistent lately due to some real-life stuff popping up, like Emil having some school work and exams to take care of, and Sian’s parents visiting all the way from Australia (we live in the UK)! That being said, things have been worked on, and on average, I wouldn’t say things have slowed down that much at all, so that’s good. Most of what is required now is programming, and quite a lot of sprites for NPCs and enemies. We’ve also been planning out a trailer for the game, which we realise needs quite a lot of gameplay footage that we simply don’t have access to (since it hasn’t been programmed yet…). This hasn’t stopped us from working hard on what the game still needs, and I’m going to use this devlog to go further into this:

SCRIPT

(Coded dialogue for a section of the first conversation with The Manager)

Chef Wanted currently now has around 1,350 lines of dialogue. As mentioned in a previous update, Emil has developed a special system in Game Maker that allows dialogue to be written with tags that add colors, effects, and most importantly the dialogue images that match up with each line spoken. This means that each line of dialogue in the game also has a few characters at the start which tells the game’s engine which character sprite to show on the screen, as well as which side of the screen they’ll appear on, and whether the sprite should slide in or change instantly (from a previous line).

I can now say with confidence that ALL of the dialogue in Chef Wanted has been written. Every single line of script, from every single character, in every single section of the game, has been written. The only thing left is for a ton of dialogue images to be sprited, and then I can insert those sprites into the script. Thankfully I’ve used placeholder text to reference all of the upcoming dialogue sprites that are going to be made, so when those sprites are added to the engine it’ll be a breeze to put them into the script.

I’m super happy with how the script has turned out, and it’s pretty cool that basically none of it has been shown off. You’ll see more of the characters’ personalities when the trailer comes out though!

BATTLES

(Some in-development sprites of a battle background, Freddy’s attack, and some enemies)

One of the most important parts of Chef Wanted is the battling. Though the game is not completely revolved around fighting enemies, it is integral to the gameplay, and also the plot. In fights, Freddy is given the option to either physically attack his enemies, or attempt to scare them off from a distance. We have made it a goal to make each of these abilities feel different for the player, and we believe we have achieved this through separately designed minigames. When you select ATTACK or SCARE, you will be greeted by a small, simple task. For attacking, you must press space multiple times when targets overlap a line, a bit like Guitar Hero. And for scaring, you have to hold down space and let go at a specific point, a bit like charging up a shot in a load of golf video games. Though these minigames will look quite similar on the surface, the difference in gameplay should still be a fun change of pace for players.

You should have already seen, in one of the gifs we’ve shown off, that Freddy is also capable of “blocking” attacks from enemies, which is also initiated with the space bar. When it’s the enemy’s turn to attack, it will swoop into Freddy, dealing damage as it makes contact. If Freddy blocks at just the right point, the enemy’s attack damage will be halved. You’ll find it quite easy to block the moves of low-level enemies like Rats, but as the game progresses enemies will have more unpredictable movements, some of which include flying through the air (introducing the Pigeon in this devlog, haha!)

You will notice some similarities of Chef Wanted’s battle system with that of Undertale’s, or some RPG Mario games, and these aren’t coincidences. We have embraced the successes of these games, and put some serious work into making them feel truly unique in this game. Chef Wanted will be full of surprises when it comes to the battling!

COOKING

(A mockup of the four major steps of a pizza in Chef Wanted)

The cooking section of Chef Wanted has been by far the most secretive, and you may be wondering why. To be honest, it’s just because it’s nice to have something that’s completely under wraps. Though we’ve only shown maybe 2% of the whole game so far, we’ve still been eager to show off at least some examples of each section of the game. But since the cooking section is a pretty major part we’ve just been waiting for the right time to show off some good footage of it. That being said, you can expect its first big appearance in the trailer when it comes out.

The cooking section is pretty unique in that it is completely time-based. It’s not possible to actually mess up a step; when you make a mistake you’re simply wasting your time instead of ruining the pizza. All pizzas you end up making in Chef Wanted will be visually perfect, but how quick you are at making them will be the variable that makes you a good chef or a bad chef. This system might seem strange, but it initially came to be in the early stages of Chef Wanted’s development, when we realised how difficult it was to write story paths that made sense with this kind of freedom. For example, Freddy actually messing up all of the pizzas in an early day of the week and how that might affect his “cred” at the end of the week. Would he be fired? Would he continue but with every character remembering his mishap? It was a bit too much, so instead we developed a clever way of rewarding fast pizza-making and punishing mistakes through time penalties. This actually made the game feel more unique, and I would argue more fun too. You’ll see all of this in action soon.

Oh, and Sian has been making sprites for the doughs, sauces, and toppings in the past few weeks. I think they’re looking delicious. What about you?

TRAILER

(A storyboard-esque timeline annotated onto the trailer’s song)

As mentioned previously in this post, the team has indeed been planning a full trailer, which will showcase all of the major sections of the game. I’ve edited a “Trailer Cut” of the Floor -5 theme, and we’ve essentially storyboarded the content which will be shown in sync with the music. Since the trailer doesn’t need to be scary, we’re going to really focus on the song’s rhythm to make the trailer really fun to watch.

There is still a lot of the game to program, and the trailer does require a lot of footage of the game to be completed. So because of this, it will still take a while before a trailer can be released. But heads up, the trailer will not be posted to any of the YouTube channels you’re currently subscribed to. Instead, we have made a brand new account that will cover the TeamEKS identity as a whole. This is where the trailer will be posted when it’s finished!

TeamEKS YouTube Account

As always, we encourage that you ask any questions you might have about Chef Wanted as a comment on this post, and we will answer as soon as we can. It’s always really fun to interact with the community, so we’d love to hear what you have to say.

I hope that this devlog gives enough information to tide you over for the time being. We’re hard at work every day, so we hope that you can continue being patient and that you’ll enjoy the trailer (and the game itself) when it comes out! And, of course, thank you again for the 1,000 followers!

~ TeamEKS