Duration: 2:08

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4

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
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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.
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Level 4 is a pain in the butt. Not only do you have to wait a long time for seeds to grow, but there's very little floor space to store ingredients. On top of that, you can get screwed over really badly by the RNG -- for example, after the first initial mushroom flower, your two next requests can potentially be another mushroom flower and an enchanted mushroom potion! In general, you won't be able to always keep both witches busy in this level -- there's too much walking required by both.

Important things to remember:
- It's too inefficient to make mushroom-based things on the left and batwing-based things on the right, so you should always put 2 mushrooms in the right pot and 2 batwings in the left pot no matter what.
- Always make sure you have seeds growing, until near the end of the level when it's a waste of time. Seeds take about 20 seconds to grow.
- If a potion needs to be delivered to the opposite side, it's usually faster to just walk. Using the teleporter is only marginally faster and that's only if the other witch happens to already be at the teleporter for some other reason.
- When you have extra bat wings, make sure to send one through the teleporter so the right witch can enchant it and send it back.

When you get bad RNG (e.g. multiple mushroom-based things in a row), you basically want to have the other witch just make potions that aren't currently being requested. This means you don't lose much throughput. If you do this, you need to put the finished potion at the top of the vine to free up the cauldron. If you get multiple mushroom-based ingredients, you can also have the left witch come to the right and help since one witch can be gather a mushroom while the other enchants a mushroom.