The Underpaid Elf

Run game

🎄 Welcome to The Underpaid Elf 🎄

In The Underpaid Elf, you step into the shoes of an overworked and underpaid elf, tasked with fulfilling chaotic holiday orders. Imagine a blend of Overcooked's frantic cooking fun and the roguelike progression of Bounty of One, and you get the perfect recipe for intense, fast-paced gameplay.

Your goal is simple: complete orders, earn rewards, and upgrade your abilities to handle increasingly challenging tasks. The higher your score, the greater your progression—but be warned: the holiday season is unforgiving!

🍽️ Gameplay Features

• Complete Orders: Just like in Overcooked, the main challenge is fulfilling holiday orders under tight deadlines, juggling multiple cooking and crafting tasks at once.
• Upgrade Your Elf: Inspired by Bounty of One, the game introduces a progression system where you can earn upgrades and unlock new abilities to improve your efficiency.
• High Score Challenge: Your goal is to achieve the highest score possible while battling the stress and chaos of holiday orders. Can you outdo your best performance?

🎮 Caution!

• Controller Support: The web version doesn't support controllers, so it's best played in fullscreen mode for the best experience.
• Prototype Version: Due to time constraints, I used a prototype version of the elf with a placeholder texture (I’ll admit, I’m still working on my anatomy skills!). This is something I plan to fix in future updates.

🌟 The Making of The Game

For this project, I decided to experiment with hand-drawn art, scanning the drawings, and digitally coloring them after posterizing. This approach was a fun departure from my usual art style, though I admit, art isn't my strong suit! The goal was to give the game a unique and personal touch, and I'm excited to continue improving it.

🔮 What's Coming Next?

While the game is already fun to play, I'm planning to make several updates to enhance your experience:

• Adjusting Spacing: Making the orders more manageable by tweaking the layout.
• Improved Tutorial: Better explanations of each station’s function to help new players get up to speed.
• Crafting System Tweaks: Refining the crafting mechanics for smoother gameplay.
• Minigame Improvements: Adding an option to quit crafting minigames.
• Couch Co-op Mode: Play with your friends and take on holiday chaos together!
• Enhanced UI: A better user interface to make navigation easier.
• Music: Adding festive tunes to get you in the holiday spirit.
• Online Leaderboard: Compete with players around the world for the top score!

🚨 Known Bugs

• Player Texture: The elf is currently missing a proper texture—this will be fixed soon!
• UI Visibility: Some UI elements may not be visible when not in fullscreen mode.

💬 Your Feedback is Welcome!

This is a work-in-progress, and your feedback is invaluable. If you have any suggestions, encounter bugs, or just want to share your high score, feel free to leave a comment or get in touch. Your input helps improve the game!

You can also visit the full game page on itch.io to play and rate it!

🎅 The Underpaid Elf was a submission to the Jame Gam Christmas Edition 2023, so be sure to check out other great entries in the jam too!