Duration: 2:06

167 views

5

Player: DDRKirby(ISQ)
Raven Delivery Service 1.0.1 (Single-player Mode)
Play or download the game at: http://ddrkirby.com/games/raven-delivery-service/raven-delivery-service.html

Me and the rest of my team made Raven Delivery Service from scratch in 72 hours for round 38 of Ludum Dare. It's an Overcooked-style co-op game where you coordinate with a friend to brew potions. You can also play single-player mode where you can switch back and forth between the witches. All code and content was created from scratch within the 72-hour timeframe.

View the Ludum Dare submission page at: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/raven-delivery-service
Download the soundtrack at: https://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/album/raven-delivery-service-original-soundtrack
=====
A few general optimization notes for those who are trying to get high scores:

At any time when there are no awaiting requests, the tree that is chosen for the next request is completely random.

The requests that come in each level are shuffled, but NOT completely random.

The first potion in level 1 is always a mushroom potion.
The first potion in level 2 is always a demon.
The first potion in level 4 is always a mushroom flower.

After the initial potion (or right away, for level 3), the game uses a "bag" randomizer: It shuffles the list of possible potions, then goes through them in that randomized order. After all possible potions are dealt, it reshuffles the list again.

The bag list for each level is as follows:
Level 1: Mushroom potion, batwing potion
Level 2: Demon, demon, mushroom potion, batwing potion (yes, 2x demon)
Level 3: Enchanted mushroom potion, enchanted batwing potion
Level 4: Mushroom flower, batwing flower, enchanted mushroom potion, enchanted batwing potion

You can use this to predict information about the upcoming potion requests. For example, in level 2, if after the first initial demon you get a mushroom potion, you know that the next 3 requests will be batwing potion, demon, demon, in some order. All three of those require at least two batwings, so you can already start putting those in the cauldron.

This is why you sometimes you may see me "get lucky" in the videos by preparing the correct potion before it gets requested.

In general, the strategy for optimizing in single-player is to make sure that you are travelling the least distance in total, and also to have both witches be actively performing actions at all times whenever possible. That means finding a pattern where whenever you need to move one witch, the other witch is busy preparing an ingredient at the same time.

For co-op mode, the general concept is the same, but there are a few key differences:
- Both players can move at the same time.
- Due to the minigames, the timing for preparing ingredients is different. In particular, enchanting an object can potentially go much faster.
=====
Level 2 is where things start getting interesting. The first request is always a demon, so you'll want to start with the witch on the right getting a batwing, then transfer the ingredients over to whichever side the raven flies to.

All mushroom potions should be made on the left and all batwing potions should be made on the right (then transfer the potion itself through the teleporter), since doing otherwise is really inefficient. Demons are faster to make on the right side, but unfortunately since 50% of the requests are for demons you will need to make them on the left as well.

An important corollary of this is that everything you make on the left requires at least one mushroom, and everything you make on the right requires at least two batwings. This is extremely helpful to remember.

The other thing to notice is that each bag cycle requires two more batwings than mushrooms (since each demon requires two batwings and one mushroom). So it's very important for the right witch to always be collecting batwings whenever the left witch is moving, but not vice-versa. In fact you'll usually end up with a surplus of mushrooms on the left. Since the left witch will always have extra mushrooms on hand, make sure you send one of them through the teleporter in advance for when you need to make a demon on the right.

The other important thing to note is that you don't need to get off the vine in order to deliver the potion. This can save some time. Falling early from the vine also saves a little bit of time compared with climbing all the way down.

Past that, in this level it's extremely helpful to keep track of the bag randomizer as it will let you make potions in advance.

I'm pretty happy with my execution here, but I think 14 is doable, assuming you don't get unlucky and have all the mushroom potions on the right and batwing potions on the left.