A new update for Puppy Chef Academy is available. It addresses some issues from the game's initial launch as well as some new issues that appeared after merging the game's beta branch into the main branch back in December of last year.
The core focus of this update is to prioritize quality-of-life improvements and general bug fixes. Here is what changed:
- Objects beyond your immediate reach can be picked up with a laser pointer extending from your hand. This should help users with smaller or rectangular play areas, but it's still recommended that you play the game with a play area of at least 1.5 meters by 1.5 meters.
- Updated the game’s library assets for the Steam Library Beta.
- Updated the prop reset logic to be less prone to failure. Props that are hidden from view (i.e. behind a bowl) but are not touching a designated reset zone (such as the floor) will be candidates for resetting. Props that somehow fall through the world geometry or are otherwise falling infinitely should reset.
- In case your microphone isn't set up correctly, the time between Georgia, Oatley, or Guts asking you to say something and the time the game automatically advances has been reduced from 15 seconds to 6 seconds.
- Objects that reset should now have a reasonably sized poofing effect. Before, the poofing effect was being scaled wrong and resulted in an uncomfortably large poofing effect that obscured your vision.
- Increased the game's speed-reading scale to 5x the normal reading speed instead of the original 2x. Fast readers out there can now enjoy reading the game at a faster pace.
- Tying in to the previous change, animations are handled differently now. Previously, speed-reading through the game at certain sections (i.e. the game's epilogue) would cause a walking or turning character to try to catch up to the dialogue. This would, at best, cause characters to walk through world geometry. In a worst-case scenario, the character would be stuck in the turning animation and walk in place endlessly. To address this, character animations now work at (almost) any speed, so speed reading should be less likely to negatively impact the game.
- Added an auto-advance feature that lets the game automatically proceed during story and gameplay segments, similar to a traditional visual novel. This can be toggled on and off at any time (except during the very first prologue scene) by pressing down either track pad button on a Vive wand, or by pressing either analog stick on an Oculus Touch controller.
- Fixed a minor issue with the hub room where the center table had no collider
- Fixed a bug where props could be persistent between scenes
- Fixed a bug where your hands would disappear when placing food items into a pot or pan while holding them instead of dropping them into the pan
- Fixed a bug where food items you add to pots, pans, etc would not re-enable themselves.
- Removed the need to open the SettingsOS laptop in the hub room since most people either ignored it or didn't realize what it was
- Fixed the kitchen floor collider in all recipes so items dropped no longer fall to rest lower than the floor's mesh, causing them to "disappear" beneath them.
- Fixed a mistake where items that were counting down to reset would play their poofing effect when being picked up
- Fixed a bug where the player could not control Wacky Bear Game during the intro scene for the crepe recipe
- Fixed a bug where the chef hat wouldn't reset in certain areas in the muffins recipe intro scene
- Added a button that unlocks all recipes in the main hub
- Addressed an issue where objects in the pan (such as bacon) would fall through the bottom when picking it up
- Fixed the collider on the omelette during the omelette recipe so collider actually lines up with the mesh and no longer leaves an invisible collider hanging off the side of it. Did the same for the crepe.
- Bulgogi recipe - Increased the collider size of the bulgogi slices so they're easier to pick up
- Bulgogi recipe - Changed the carrot slices and cauliflower slices from several individual slices to single groups, making them infinitely easier to pick up by hand. Also locked their containing bowl down to cut back on physics problems.
- Bulgogi recipe - Reduced cooking time of bulgogi slices from 20 seconds to 10 seconds
- Bulgogi recipe - Locked the pan down during the pan cooking step to keep bulgogi slices from falling through the pan
- Bulgogi recipe - Locked the pot down during the rice cooking step since it was unstable
- Bulgogi recipe - Fixed a bug where the cabbage would disappear between the pouring and stirring steps
- Onion soup recipe - Locked the pan down to keep onion slices from flying everywhere or falling through the pan
- Onion soup recipe - Fixed the crying effect when cutting onions
- Onion soup recipe: Reduced the onion slice cooking time from 30 seconds to 15 seconds
- Onion soup recipe - Reduced white wine vinegar simmering step from 20 seconds to 10 seconds
- Curry recipe - Locked down the pot and pan
- Curry recipe - Reduced onion and chicken cooking time from 20 seconds to 10 seconds
- Curry recipe - Fixed the crying effect when cutting onions
- Lamingtons recipe - Fixed an issue where the knives would not hide themselves during later steps
- Pizza recipe - Locked the pot down for the tomato sauce recipe
- Pizza recipe - Fixed a bug where the baking stone placed at the beginning of the recipe was no longer visible
- Pizza recipe - Reduced the baking step length from 12 seconds to 6
- Disabled the music during the crepe recipe's end scene to better reflect the tone of the scene
- Updated the grocery store scene with a music track that previously went unused instead of just ambient outdoor sounds
- Fixed a bug during the very final scene where the fading object would be stuck to the floor instead of fading in front of your eyes as intended.
- The Oculus build of the game should now properly fade between scenes.
- General stability and performance improvements and decreased load times
More updates may or may not arrive as my time permits. Please feel free to report any lingering issues you come across in the game's Steam forums linked below, and I'll do my best to address them if I can.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/921520/discussions/
One more thing. If you enjoy the game, please consider leaving a review. Again, thank you very much for playing Puppy Chef Academy! I hope you'll enjoy this new update.
Until next time!