PlateUp! was part of the Tiny Teams selection that took place recently. This event highlights many independent or small studios with very ambitious games that I think will mark many minds. Getting back to the game itself, PlateUp! is a party game where you have to manage a restaurant.
If we want to take a comparison, the game uses the basic codes of a game like Overcooked where you will have to respond to orders from your customers. PlateUp! goes much further in the management of the restaurant because the dishes are no longer simply a box where you have to bring the order but you will also have to manage the arrival of customers to avoid an endless queue and a game over because the restaurant will have lost all credibility.
At the very beginning of the adventure, you will have the choice between a basic dish and potentially some blueprints for items to use in game (often improved versions of the basic blueprints). One of the objects that I tried to systematically have as a bonus at the start of the game is an improved sink to be more efficient in managing the washing of plates. You will also have to choose the configuration of your restaurant with one or more rooms, etc. In the version I was able to test, the plans did not change at all except for the daily/weekly ones.
After your choice of main course and restaurant plan, you will have to organize the latter to be able to both prepare your dishes, manage the tables, the service, the cleaning of the tables and the plates. Yes, you will have to be multi-tasking to succeed in growing your business and pocketing money to improve it. Often, you will use a room for the management of customers and another for the kitchen, it is quite possible also even if it is not very orthodox to mix everything. It is quite practical, for example, for managing the cleaning of tables and plates.
One of the positive points first of all is that the game uses a preparation phase with no time limit so that players can organize their restaurant in each phase as they wish. It is also possible to carry out a test without consequence on your run to test if your restaurant design is correct and if there is no bad placement or rather quirky design choices (objects in the corners, c 'is bad).
Your game will be broken down into a day during which you will perform your tasks as a restaurant owner and satisfy your customers, all within a given time. If you can't meet the delivery deadlines or the waiting time is too long because of an uncleared table, it will simply be a game over. At the end of each day, the game will offer you, in your restaurant, new plans that you can use to improve it. This is quite complete, being able to go from new tables to new cooking or cutting instruments. At the end of the fifteenth day, you will be able to create your franchise, a kind of New Game + but above all you will have the choice to continue your current game to see how far you can hold out!
An important thing to take into account is that it is possible to improve your blueprints thanks to a research desk (blueprints to unlock/create) allowing you to improve for a day a blueprint stored in a specific cabinet. Slightly more interesting plans will thus be unlocked, sometimes with more than brilliant effects such as automatic management. There is a very well done wiki by the creator listing all the blueprints in the game and how to get them during a game (Wiki PlateUp!).
As you can imagine, managing a restaurant is not easy. You should know first of all that the number of customers will increase as the days go by. At the beginning of the adventure, you will have 5/6 customers to quickly reach fifteen to manage. On top of that, the game will ask you every three game days to choose between two maps that will directly impact your gameplay. This can work because customers eat more slowly since they have, for example, the right to change their mind about their dish being ordered (quite annoying to manage this menu!).
The cards that will have a certain impact will mainly be the new dishes to be managed. One of the big advantages is that if the new dishes are starters/desserts, it will be possible for your customers to bring you more money on average over a day. But the big concern will be that you will have more things to manage in the kitchen and on the tables. You will have to systematically review your kitchen in relation to the new constraints and your plans to optimize and potentially automate certain tasks (automatic cleaner, robot that cuts by itself, etc.).
If I had to note one missing point, it would be a small sandbox mode to test kitchen layouts for managing rugs and other kitchen objects to create a self-contained kitchen.
Apart from this very small lack, PlateUp! is a real gem if you have a few friends to share a few evenings with, whether online or locally. On the other hand, the game is relatively full-bodied in single player. The replayability is also present with the different choices of basic dishes that can be prepared and especially the cards during your adventure which will make it more difficult.
Otherwise I have nothing else to say except that we had fun together for several evenings without seeing the time pass and that's a pretty good sign!
The game is available on Steam since August 4th!
