Based on your choice of words, "casual gamer", I would say more like cooking mama. Consider what you're looking for if you're a casual gamer, you simply want quick stimulation, a way to kill time without exhausting too much brain power while you wait for the train on your way home from work. The goal is to get progressively more challenging without getting any more complicated.

Do you, personally, mind switching between various screens during gameplay, or would you rather keep it on one screen (Cook, Serve, Delicious)?

That depends on how often I have/need to switch, how much information is on each screen, whether information on the inactive screen is relevant to me when I'm working on the active screen, and so on. It depends on the gameplay.

If you have to switch screens, would you rather do it manually (Papa's Freezeria) or have the game change it for you (Cooking Mama)?

That depends on how often I have/need to switch, whether I want to check my selections before switching screens, and so on ... :)

Taking this into consideration, which do you think would be more popular with casual gamers, who aren't as used to playing hardcore games and want a quick, fun, and easy experience?

The one that ... offers the quickest, funnest, and easiest experience for your game? You're really asking several questions with this one, and not one of them has a straightforward answer.

Speed: I can design an app with 50 functions, and put buttons for all these 50 functions on one screen. Once you fully understand and memorize this UI, it will be very fast to use because everything is on one screen. But in the beginning you will be very slow because there are so many functions on one screen, and learning the UI will take a long time. On the other hand, I can design menus and sub-menus for these 50 functions, so the UI will be faster to navigate and learn. But because you have to navitage through menus, mastering this UI you will never be as fast as if you mastered the first example.

Fun: A dancing clown that carries buttons around while running away from my mouse cursor could be fun, but after a while become frustrating. A dull and boring looking button reading Level up! might be boring to look at, but seeing and pressing that button in a RPG can be a lot of fun. :)

Difficulty: A click on screen to win UI will be easiest to use, naturally. Make the button smaller and it will be more difficult. Add more buttons and functions and the difficulty increases. Group UI elements logically and things become a little easier again. Use more screens and things might become easier because the structure is easy and clear, but actually things might become more difficult because now you need to navigate through different screens to find an option. Use bad contrast and highlighting and players might never see that Press here to win button. Put the Press here to win button on a single screen with 50+ other buttons and players might take a very long time to find it. Hide it in sub-menus and players may not even know it exists. Which of your three UI examples is the easiest then? Exactly. I've no idea, either. :P

None of the three UI examples you used are inherently more casual or hardcore than another. They're different solutions to different problems.

Perhaps a good starting point for you would be listing all your GUI elements, grouping them logically (there are several ways you can group them, so make several versions, and see which way works best), defining relationships between elements (e.g., x always leads to y, a always leads to b or c, I need to see m when deciding between j and k), and then drawing your UI from there following UI guidelines. If all of that helps you come up with a UI and make a decision, you can go into user testing, improving, user testing, improving, user testing, improving, user testing, improving, ... . If none of that helps you make a decision, you can flip a coin and then go into user testing, improving, user testing, improving, ... . Or you can create three different versions of the UI and test all three of them with users to see which one works best with your target audience, then improve on that one, test more, improve, test ... .

The UI design guide by Microsoft that I linked is generally considered one of the best. It goes into questions that you have about usability (e.g., liking it, learning, efficiency) and provides a solution in the form of Inductive User Interface (IUI) design, which is why I linked it. It also goes into UI standards on the Windows platform, which would be a large part of your user base if your game is to be played on Mac and PC.

Has that been more helpful now? :)

Based on your choice of words, "casual gamer", I would say more like cooking mama. Consider what you're looking for if you're a casual gamer, you simply want quick stimulation, a way to kill time without exhausting too much brain power while you wait for the train on your way home from work. The goal is to get progressively more challenging without getting any more complicated.

Alright. Thanks for the input. That's 2 votes for Cooking Mama.

Has that been more helpful now?

I just...can't even...ok.

That aside, I was only asking for your personal opinion (not stats). That why I asked for everyone's insight in my post. No need to get too technical about this. Based on the [three] game's input method, you have to either left-click, tap, or press certain keyboard keys to prepare food (step by step). You'll see what I mean in a moment. I should rephrase my question (see below).

Here are three gameplay videos:

Cook, Serve, Delicious -> skip to 0:42 for gameplay footage

[media]https:

Papa's Freezeria -> skip to 0:12 for gameplay footage

[media]https:

Cooking Mama

[media]https:

Which gameplay interface do you like the most? I was hoping to get enough answers to use for future reference.

Edit:

*Please note the screen changes in each game. That's what I was referring to earlier.

*By gameplay footage, I was referring to the actual food preparation.

To be perfectly frank, you're asking a question that you don't fully understand. You're asking which of these three do I like most: a hammer, a screwdriver, or a saw. I'm telling you that all three are different tools used in different circumstances. My replies were on point.

Now if you really really want an answer anyway, use the hammer. Just mash those screws into the walls, and break the boards with brute force! .......or you can follow my initial advice and take a good look at what your game design actually needs.

PS: My best friend just told me that she likes screwdrivers best.

To be perfectly frank, you're asking a question that you don't fully understand. You're asking which of these three do I like most: a hammer, a screwdriver, or a saw. I'm telling you that all three are different tools used in different circumstances. My replies were on point.

Now if you really really want an answer anyway, use the hammer. Just mash those screws into the walls, and break the boards with brute force! .......or you can follow my initial advice and take a good look at what your game design actually needs.

PS: My best friend just told me that she likes screwdrivers best.

Nyaanyaa, I asked a very specific question (Which one do you like the most?), but you don't seem to want to answer it--which is fine, but this reply isn't very helpful to me (just being honest with you). If someone showed me Mario, Kirby, and Sonic, then asked me quite generically which platformer I liked the most, I would say Kirby. Yes, they're technically different games, but that person was just asking me which one I happened to like the most. I revised my original question in the hopes that you would just give me a more straightforward response. All I wanted was your personal opinion.

Now, I know that I'm not in a twilight zone right now because sciwiz12, Danglin Bob, and lede seemed to understand my original questions just fine. I feel like you're trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

-----

A note on my progress (if anyone's interested):

I've decided to use two screens for my gameplay interface. The first one will be the order screen, where the customers will appear with a bubble above their heads indicating what they want. The player clicks on the food and is taken to the second screen, where the food is prepared. After he or she finishes, the player will be automatically taken back to the first screen.