V1 Play Testing:
Play testing showed that the game suffered from some serious pacing issues.
The upgrade card was designed to stop runaway victories forcing a player with $50 to change focus from making food to digging through the ingredients deck to find an upgrade card, thus allowing other players to catch up. This at times worked opposite to its intended use, as players lagging behind wasted turns trying to find an upgrade card, making them fall even further behind.
The tax card of -$10 was too much of a hit to take, this also greatly impacted the pacing and was a little unfair to lose as much money as a 3 card food (hot dog).

V2 Changes:
– Player actions per turn increased from 2 to 3
– The frequency of each ingredient needed tweaking to help things move along.
– Players now start with a hand of 3 Ingredient cards and 1 Action card.
– The upgrade card mechanic was left in, but the number of them in the game was increased.
Additions:
–  Ability cards: Players could buy abilities
– $5 –  Hand size +1
– $10 – Sale: Each tip and sausage roll earns an extra $5
– $5 – Trade: Discard up to 2 cards and draw the same amount

              

 

Speed of play was the main focus for improvement, but was the V2 changes enough?
Check out next episode to find out.