Developer Log – Yellow

You have been hired as an intern for Olive Garden. They want to redesign their kids menu to include a paper-based game that will:
– Keep kids happy (and quiet) (keep parents happy)
– Is on brand
– Requires only Red, Blue, Green, & Yellow crayons
– Menu prints only black ink + one color

Olive Garden is well known for their unlimited deals and pastas, so developing a game with a concept that reflects this can have potential. After brainstorming some ideas, I figured a maze game would befit the restaurant’s endless theme, however, this idea is cliche and fairly common in children’s menus. That being said, I’ve created an alternative to the traditional maze format that most restaurants follow. This maze will be pasta themed and will require the player to use all four colored crayons in a sequence. The player starts by tracing through one long continuous path of pasta. When the player follows the path through the maze with one color, the word “Never” will reveal itself in the shape of the pasta they traced. Then the player will alternate between colors to continue following this path, as it will take them back into the pasta maze three more times. This path will reveal the words “Ending”, “Never”, and “Ending” again if the player successfully follows it. The player should notice the seemingly “Never Ending” theme by the end of this maze, that is if they get to the end… In general, this exercise was difficult for me, as I struggled to recognize Olive Garden’s distinct qualities that could be translated into a children’s game. And I spent hours researching children’s menus after settling on a theme, but I settled for a maze that seemed infinite to reflect their endless promotions.