Hello everyone! It has been a few weeks since we participated in Steam's Next Fest. We were both excited and nervous to finally see the game played by regular players as well as streamers.
We were glad to see players having fun with the chaos and betrayal aspects of the game but we also noticed that first time experience can get overwhelming for some. Right now it takes about 2 or 3 full games before some players fully understand it.
I think that's fairly normal for a new game with some novel mechanics like Eat the Rich. But, before launching on Early Access, we want to ensure that new players can have a lot of fun even while they are still learning the game on their first session. We now realize that we still need to improve many aspects of our visuals, on-boarding UX and tutorials to achieve this.
Launch Delayed to September 10
Unfortunately, with these tweaks that means we have to delay our Early Access launch. We've decided to move the launch date to September 10. This should give us more time to polish existing content, and add some more mini games for you to enjoy with your frenemies when we launch.
For now, here's a sneak peek at what we're currently working on this month.
New Brawl Game
We can't have a party game called Eat the Rich without a cooking mini game! The title is Let Them Eat Cake - allegedly said by Marie Antoinette when she heard that peasants are starving. Here, the rich will be serving these delicious cakes to the peasants. This is a team-based competitive variant of typical cooking games like Overcooked and Plate Up.
We're still trying out different setups. We could allow combat, but it has the risk of making the mini game too chaotic and frustrating. But without combat, it will be a very straightforward time-management competition between the teams.
Either way, this is likely going to be a special mini game that will only be played on the first round. It takes much longer to finish than the others, and works best when everyone is still in the game.
Voting UI
We've completely revamped our Voting Interface. This is where players vote to eliminate a player out of the game. We're making it full screen and updating its assets to align with our Player Spotlights Interface.
Normally, players should try to vote out who they think the richest player is, but there are also other factors that more experienced players should take into consideration:
In the first round, players anonymously gift Curses and Bonds to other players. Curses allow you to steal pennies at the end of each round, while Bond makes both gifter and receiver earn pennies. These incentivizes the gifter to keep those players alive for as long as possible, even if they are already richer. It might be hard to keep track of your gifted Curse and Bond so we're adding icons for these in the Voting Interface.
Some rounds, players will play a Mind Game called Conspire or Betray. This is a Prisoner's Dilemma-type game where players place bets and then picks either Conspire, or Betray. If everyone picks Conspire, they need to protect each other from elimination to earn pennies equal to the amount they bet. If it's a mix of Conspires and Betrays, the betrayers will get pennies from those who conspired, as well as an extra Advantage! But if it's all Betrays, everyone loses a LOT of pennies. We're also adding icons in the Voting Interface to remind players who conspired and betrayed them that round.
Walking Heads
Depending on the number of players, the game could last either 4 or 5 rounds. The first two eliminated players become Defectors so they still have something to do even after getting eliminated. Players eliminated after the second round simply become spectators. Depending on the timers set by the host, they may end up watching and waiting too long before they can play again.
To improve on this, we're turning eliminated players who don't become Defectors into "Walking Heads"! While there's no opportunity to win anymore, they can now move around the map and do various activities:
During Vote Out phase, they can text chat with nearby active players and teleport to the Defector Room to talk to the Defectors.
Visit the defector room and spectate active players via the Temptation Shop (although they can't offer temptations since they are not Defectors).
Annoy active players by playing different emotes.
During Brawl Games, they are now also moving penny pinatas! They drop pennies if they get punched by active players and defectors. They can also be picked up by active players and thrown at other players like an explosive device!
Watch out for bullies!
There are a few other fun tweaks we're working on that we'll share on our next Devlog. Please stay tuned!
Maccima Games