Last week we had some workstations in, but upon inspection, they were poorly created and not fun to use. Workstation sub-menus and “mini-games” need more thought and effort that will be better reserved after all of our base features are in the game. So this week I spent some time disabling that functionality and deferring it to the future.
Every workstation now works the same way:
- Walk up holding an ingredient, press E and it’s deposited.
- Once all the required ingredients are at the workstation, the station starts making the recipe automatically.
- Walk up with empty hands when it’s complete, and press E to grab the output.
With menus gone, players need to know what goes where. Each workstation now shows a translucent ghost sprite of the ingredients it needs. If a station handles multiple recipes, the ghost recipe cycles through all of the recipes.
The HUD now cycles through individual order requirements instead of showing the first order requirement. Each order fades in and out on a 3-second rotation, so players can know where they’re at in the level.
Finally I worked on completing the full level 1 flow, with prefabs created for the different types of workstations that will be required.