Baby Foot Diner
Baby Foot Diner is a restaurant task management game where you play as a busboy keeping tables clear and his boss happy.
If all the tables are covered in trash, customers won’t come in and that hurts the diner’s profits. You have to meet the profit goal to move on to the next level.
Play the game here!
Concept
The picture above was the original layout. The player and NPCs were having difficulty moving around the space, so it needed to be redesigned.
Baby Foot Diner originally started out as a simple game concept to get better at C# during my independent study. My instructor and I just focused on the code, and when the class ended I continued working to make this into a finished game.
When I decided to continue working with this concept I created a new level layout and designed characters and dishes for the restaurant.
I went with a random assortment of food, just mindlessly sketching and choosing whatever I ended drawing.
After I sketched the idea I quickly jumped into modeling in Maya. I knew I wanted the modeling to be simple and colorful.
Modeling
In the picture above, the modeling is done and texturing was in progress. I had a hard time choosing the color palette. I had to pause, figure out what colors I wanted to use and make a color scheme.
Taking the time to create the comic actually helped me figure out which colors and textures I wanted to use.
As I added more functionality to the game, there needed to be a way to give the player a heads up about what’s to come in the next level. So, I made the shift forecast and boss advice pop-up to tell the player what to expect.
UI
I decided to make a comic to add some depth and narrative to the game. I wanted the game to be more than just 10 rounds of throwing away trash, and makes the world of Baby Foot Diner feel bigger.
Comic
When it finally came time to make a tutorial, there were a few paths I could have gone down. I went with the option that best suited my skill level at the time and made pages the player reads through: Baby Foot Diner’s employee training manual. I had a lot of fun being in art and design mode; no coding, no modeling. I enjoyed experimenting with textures, colors, and shapes again, and the way I designed the tutorial adds more personality to the game.
Tutorial
Game
Promotional Illustrations
