Battle Mode - Update 0.9.1

Hello Chefs!
Today's update is a big one. The Battle mode i.e. player vs player is now live! Be advised!: while this mode will (probably) not break your relationship, it has proven to cause some resentment and silent treatment. Play at your own risk :-)

As always, we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't run some sort of game-related "research". Below is the footage of our battle mode research with one of my favorite music tracks - Season 3 battle mode music:

Season 3 changes Basing on feedback from our testers and players we have changed quite a lot of Season 3 gameplay:

• Bartek, our awsome graphics designer, changed many sprites. Things should now stand out more clearly and the dishes should be a bit more intuitive and easy to remember (still super-hard tho so be on your guard!)

• Lucy completely redesigned the levels so that the new dish progression is a little slower but more diverse at the same time

• We have removed two dishes as they created some confusion. This should make things just a little easier too

The above changes were mostly inspired by feedback from our awesome marketing team: Karolina & Maciej. Thanks guys! Please let us know what you think of how Ticassa Masalassa (Season 3) plays out now.

Other changes

• Redesigned the UI of the order cards a bit. Some testing pairs had trouble understanding what needed to be served and what was served already. To address this we have completely hidden the plate with served dishes behind the order card. This allowed us to reshape the card and the progress bar a little bit. We've sacrificed a tiny fraction of immersion for a noticeable clarity boost. Thanks to all our friends who had the courage to play-test in front of us and inspired us - most notably Emilka & Marek and Ania & Kuba! Here you can see these changes visualized:

• Redesigned the sound system to (hopefully) combat problems with some sounds not playing

• Added a stinking cloud effect (designed by awesome Kjell) whenever you throw something into the trash bin. Some play-testers did not know it's bad to waste food :-)

• Adjusted activation areas for some ingredients in Season 3 - Gloria had trouble activating some of them and now she doesn't

• Fixed a bug that would break the view of the summary screen when you had a negative coin score on a level (this is why kids make such good testers - they do things an adult would never think of!)

• Fixed the margins of some labels in the summary scene

• Made the blender in Season 1 a bit quieter

• The first level of each season was renamed to "Pilot Episode"

• Fixed some improper layering bugs in a couple of scenes

• Squashed some typos in the Polish localization files

• Leonard now gives a proper comment when trying to blend an "unblendable" ingredient

• Added a small outline animation to the number of purchasable upgrades indicator in the summary screen to make it more noticeable

• Added a similar outline in the upgrades shop to make the currently affordable upgrades stand out

• Improved the layout of the bottom buttons in the summary screen

• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause all menu buttons to lose highlight

• Fixed a couple of cookbook recipes

What's Next?
The battle mode is another important milestone in making the game how we wanted it to be. It adds completely new experiences and meta-mechanics, improving the replayability by a lot. What we plan to do next (in the probable order):

1. Edd - the final planned playable character.

2. Endless mode.

3. Steam achievements support.

4. Language support for French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Support for other languages is under consideration

5. Better and more clear information on how to play the game remotely.

6. Other features and bugfixes.

We love working on players' insights and improving the game with you all, so please do not hesitate to reach us on the discussion boards or our Discord.

Cook safe! Lucy & Jan Mysior Yellow Dot Games