Papa's Donuteria Game Review

Papa’s Donuteria Game Background

Papa’s Donuteria is a cooking-themed time management game and the tenth game in Flipline Studios’ Papa Louie restaurant sim series. The game takes place at Papa Louie’s new donut stand in the middle of a theme park. As Tony, Scooter, or a character you created, create custom donuts that match the exacting tastes of the parkgoers.

How to Play Papa’s Donuteria

Getting Started

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. Select Continue on the bottom right corner of the loading screen to bring up the welcome screen. Select Play at the center of the welcome screen to begin.

Choose from one of 3 save slots to get started. Choosing an empty slot will start a new session, while choosing an occupied one will resume a previously saved session. You can clear save slots by selecting the X button on the top right corner. Select Save a Backup to copy your save file to your device; load it to an empty save slot by selecting Load a Backup. Your web browser automatically saves your game progress.

Select a character to begin. You can choose between Tony, Scooter, or a character you created yourself. After that, a cutscene plays explaining the premise of the game. You can get past it by selecting Skip Intro on the bottom right corner of the screen.

Character Creator

On the character selection screen, select Create a Custom Worker to open the character creator. From here, you can make a worker in the Papa Louie style.

You can start off by choosing a gender and a name. You can choose from various hair styles, facial hairs, skin colors, hair colors, facial features, and accessories. You also have sliders that allow you to make adjustments to your character’s face and body. You can make further edits to your character by selecting customize on the pause screen.

Later in the game, you can also switch out of your character’s uniform by buying or acquiring clothing items.

The Process

The game has 4 stations, which represent the stages in the fulfillment of a donut order:

• The order station, in green, is where you write down the customers’ order tickets.
• The dough station, in purple, is where you prepare the dough.
• The fry station, in orange, is where you cook the donuts.
• The build station, in blue, is where you add toppings, glazes, and fillings to the donut.

To move to a station, select the button of its color.

Wait until a customer reaches the counter to take their order. Select Take Order above them to write down their order ticket. You can keep the order ticket on the hook on the top right corner or place it on the line on the top row.

At the dough station, choose the right dough for each of the three donuts the customer ordered. Cut the dough according to the appropriate shape. The finished donuts will be brought to the tray at the fry station.

Dip all the donuts on the tray to the left into the oil. The slots in the fryer have timers that indicate when the donuts should be flipped and when they are done. Flip the donuts when the meter is orange by selecting them. Select, drag, and drop the donuts onto the tray to the right to bring them to the build station.

The build station has 2 stages. The first stage has you dip the donuts into a glaze or icing of the appropriate flavor. Select the donut, then drag and drop it to the glaze or icing to dip it. Make sure the donut is perfectly vertical when you dip to ensure an even coat. At this stage, you can also fill a solid donut with filling by selecting a piping bag and connecting it to the donut. Make sure to fill all the donuts before you finish dipping them all.

The second stage of the build station has you add drizzles and sprinkled-on toppings. Select the ingredient, then move your mouse or fingers around while hovering above the donut to place them in. Make sure to coat the donut as evenly as possible. When you’re done, select the order ticket, then drag and drop it to the stand to serve.

If you make a mistake (e.g. overcook a donut), you have the option of tossing the batch and starting over or serving it as is. We recommend tossing it and starting over as while the score won’t be as high, it will be higher than if you serve the customer something they didn’t want.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Summary

The backstory is the same regardless of the character you choose. The Powder Point Theme Park is opening a new roller coaster, Sky Ninja, and the employees of Papa Louie’s Donuteria get a line-jump pass that gives them the opportunity to get ahead in line for it. This prompts the character to get the job. However, on the ride’s opening day, it breaks down. Repairs will take a year, leaving the new donut store employee stuck in their new job until then.

Basics

Your goal is to serve customers a set of three donuts to the specifications they asked. It’s important that you assemble the donuts in the correct order. In addition, you must make the donut toppings as presentable and even as possible, all while serving it in a timely manner.

The game has a wide array of ingredients and donut styles, most of which are unlocked over the course of the game. The standard ingredients and styles, available year-round, are as follows:

• 5 doughs
• 5 shape cutters
• 10 icings, glazes, and powders
• 8 fillings
• 8 sprinkles
• 8 drizzle syrups

During the holidays, special ingredients and items become available. There are 6 per holiday.

By the 4th day, you’ll need to hire a second employee to serve seated customers. Every so often, the second employee will arrive with the order tickets of customers in the seated dining area.

Work Week

The work week is the basic unit of in-game time. Each work week is divided into 7 days, with each day defined by the time you spend fulfilling orders for customers. A day ends when the last customer is served. The days of the week determine the closer that appears at the end of the day and when you receive your weekly pay.

At the end of each day, you receive a performance assessment based on how well you did in the following metrics:

• Building
• Cooking
• Dough preparation
• Waiting

Use these as a guide to help improve your performance later.

Customers

The game has 90 customers, only a few of which are available at the start of the game. As you play, you unlock more customers. Each customer has a specific preference, which is summarized in their entry in the customer menu. You can view the profiles of every customer you unlocked by pausing the game and selecting Customers on the pause screen. You can also view the characters you’ve unlocked by selecting View Parade on the startup screen.

Each customer receives an order ticket upon ordering. Once you finish a set of donuts, attach the correct order ticket to send them to the correct customer. Attaching the wrong order ticket can have disastrous consequences to a customer’s perception of your service.

You earn customer points based on how satisfied a customer is with your service. To level up, you must earn enough customer points.

On top of that, customers have a star gauge. Earn a star in the gauge each time you impress a customer with a high enough score. Fill in all 5 stars and the customer gains a badge. Customer badges come in 3 tiers: bronze, silver, and gold. Customers with badges order faster. While you cannot lose a customer badge you’ve already earned, your progress toward the next badge will be erased if you fail to impress a customer.

Closers

Closers are the last customers for the day. They are the hardest customers to please and will generally be less forgiving of anything that isn’t near-perfection. There is a different closer for each day of the week, so earning customer badges from each one takes longer.

The hardest closer to please is the food critic, Jojo. Successfully impressing Jojo will grant you a blue ribbon for 3 days. While you have the blue ribbon, you will receive higher tips.

Holidays

As the game progresses, months and seasons pass. Each season consists of 3 months, and each month has its own holiday. The game’s holidays are as follows:

• New Year (January)
• Valentine’s Day (February)
• St. Paddy’s Day (March)
• Easter (April)
• Big Top Carnival (May)
• Summer Luau (June)
• Starlight Jubilee (July)
• Sky Ninja Returns (August)
• Maple Mornings (September)
• Halloween (October)
• Thanksgiving (November)
• Christmas (December)

The game officially starts in September.

Every holiday comes with unique ingredients and themed items, many of which must be unlocked over the course of the game. Some customers also have their debuts during a holiday.

Customers have a favorite holiday and, thus, a favorite order unique to the holiday. Some customers (and all closers) come in holiday-specific outfits.

Earnings and Improvements

You earn money in the game through the following means:

• Tips. Customers tip you after they are satisfied with your service; the greater their satisfaction, the higher the tip.
• Your weekly pay. The weekly pay starts off at $100 and increases as you level up.
• Achievement badges. Each of the game’s 110 badges comes with a one-time cash reward.
• Consolation prizes. You can sometimes gain a minuscule cash reward each time you fail to win it big in a mini game.

The cash you earn can be spent on various improvements that can improve your workflow and customize your shop lobby. The improvements can be divided into clothing, upgrades, and furnishings. Clothing is purely cosmetic and gives your character something else to wear besides their uniform. Upgrades make improvements to your work flow. Furnishings not only allows you to customize the appearance of your store but also helps improve customer patience.

Of these, we recommend buying upgrades first. These will help you out greatly as the days get busier.

• The doorbell ($30) lets you know when a new customer arrives.
• The cook boosters ($120 apiece) allow you to fry the donuts faster.
• The alarms ($80) alert you to when you should flip or remove the donuts.
• Icing guides ($400) shows you if the donuts are perfectly aligned with the icing
• Advanced guides ($500) show you the direction needed to drizzle a donut perfectly.

Interior Decorating

As the line grows longer in the later part of the game, managing customer patience becomes vitally important. Customers are willing to wait a bit longer in a well-decorated environment. To begin decorating, select the Decorate Lobby button on the startup screen. Select items you bought or won from the inventory, then drag and drop them either on the wall or floor of the shop. To return items, simply select them, then drag and drop them back to the inventory.

Your lobby has a score determining its effectiveness in managing patience. Adding items to it increases its score. Over time, your maximum score rises, requiring you to add more furnishings to your store’s lobby. Keeping everything on-theme is a key part of keeping this score high. Most items come as part of a letter-coded theme; these are marked by letters on the top left corner of the item’s icon in your inventory. Keeping at least three items on-theme in the lobby guarantees maximum points.

In addition, your lobby also has a freshness rating. The freshness decays over time, representing your customers getting bored of your shop’s interior. Keep things fresh by switching out items every so often.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

General Tips

These tips work especially well in the early game before you start acquiring your upgrades.

To start off, you will want to keep checking on the stuff on the fryer periodically. It only takes a short time for things to get overcooked in this game. See if you can break down the build station activities into steps you can interrupt to ensure you have time to check.

Before the alarms come in, you’ll need to check on the timers on the fryer slots closely before proceeding to any action. If the timers are still far off from when you need to take action, go ahead and do another activity such as decorating finished donuts or taking orders. If it’s close, pause what you’re doing and wait until it’s done.

When decorating longer donuts, move your cursor or fingers at an angle instead of hovering above the donut. This will help distribute the drizzled ingredients a bit more evenly across the donut.

Staying Organized

Sort the order tickets according to how far along they are in production. Always put the earliest ones or the ones closest to completion close to the hook, while keeping the newer ones further in the back. Double check to ensure that each order matches the ticket before serving.

Mini Games

The game has a collection of 7 mini games, which you have the option of playing or skipping at the end of the work day. You can play each mini game as many times as you want as long as you have enough tickets for it.

Tickets are earned each time you sufficiently impress enough customers throughout the work day. You can earn up to 3 tickets in a typical day. A gauge appears at the counter whenever you serve the customer, indicating your progress in earning tickets for that day.

Papa’s Raceway

This is a simple racing game. Beat the other three vehicles by collecting coins to gain speed. Select each trackway to move. Avoid oil slicks; these will slow you down. Be the first in the finish line to win the prize.

Slider Escape

This is a sliding escape puzzle game. Move your fingers and cursor around to determine the direction the slider can move to. The slider can only move from one edge to the next; use the blocks as stoppers to find a path for the slider to reach the star spring. Note that cracker blocks can only be used as stoppers twice. Don’t let the slider exit the maze.

Freeze-Putt

This is a simple minigolf game. To win a prize, try to get the ball into the hole within the target number of strokes (par) shown on the bottom right corner. Select to aim and charge each stroke, then release. Go above par by up to 3 strokes nets you a consolation prize of cash. Going past 4 or more strokes above par and you will not receive any consolation prize.

Hallway Hunt

Your task is to hunt for the door where the highlighted customer is hiding. The customer appears with a group consisting between 1 and 3 others. When the lights are off, track the eyes of the target customer as best you can to find out which door they’re hiding behind. Select the correct door to win.

Pop Dart

This is a balloon popping game where your goal is to pop the Foodini-themed balloon (a yellow one with a purple star). Pop any other balloon and you win a small tip. Pop no balloons and you win nothing.

Spin N’ Sauce

This is a wheel-spinning game inspired by Wheel of Fortune. Wait until the meter on the right edge is charge, then select to spin the wheel. You win a sum of cash based on the number you end with once the wheel stops

Mitch’s Mess

This is a simple hidden object game. Select the objects shown on the bottom left before the timer expires. Avoid selecting the wrong items; the game ends when you commit three mistakes.

Educational Aspects

The game challenges a player’s skills in task-switching and time management. Players must remain attentive to customer demands while moving from one task to the next at great speed.

Player Age Recommendations

The game is suited for older school-aged children and above; its controls may be too complex for younger players. We recommend it for fans of restaurant sims and time management games.