Cooking is probably one of the last types of leisure we can do for ourselves; first, cooking is something most of us have to do to, you know, eat, so it’s a necessity. But it can also be a creative activity that, surpassing the ultimate domestic disaster, will always give a satisfactory result; score that will improve your skills and knowledge for the next round.
Once you learn the basics, cooking can be a sandbox for experimentation as you learn new techniques, ingredients, spices, and so it doesn’t feel like a game. Perhaps that’s why so many games use cooking systems in the first place, either as subsystems that add texture and flavor (xx) to the digital world, or by turning the process of cooking into a deft challenge of skill.
Cooking in video games usually comes in two forms; one is simply a combination of ingredients that the player has acquired while exploring the game world, which can then provide certain bonuses for real-world parts of the gameplay, as in the Breath of the Wild and Monster Hunter series; or can later be used for other in-game purposes, such as for gifts based on the tastes of certain characters. as in Stardew Valley and its useful counterparts.
Another form is more active and present in games where cooking is the main course (xx) and is abstracted into a series of micro-interactions of time and skill. The best example of this is Mom is cooking series in which the preparation of each dish consists of a series of simple control movements with some generous marks at the end.
![COOKING_MAMA_IMAGE.jpg COOKING_MAMA_IMAGE.jpg](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt740a130ae3c5d529/bltbc7e556af3b40d69/6661dba8d20790f42344d43a/COOKING_MAMA_IMAGE.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
This often involves micromanaging multiple tasks at once, as in the friendship tester Overcooked or the OG casual king Dinner Dash; there’s an almost neurotic zen that persists as multiple platters spin simultaneously, so the DD formula still spawns highly successful clones in the mobile market.
Other games are more involved in gamifying the minutiae of cooking; great series Cook, serve, delicious combines tight time management with a large variety of micro-interactions for learning, which can be quite a challenge in the game at higher levels; meanwhile Combat cook brigade combines different genres into a stew (heh) like action-platformer and match-3 puzzler to abstract from its core Iron Chef anime experience, though its individual mechanics falter from being overdone complexity and junk.
![COOK_SERVE_DELICIOUS_IMAGE.png COOK_SERVE_DELICIOUS_IMAGE.png](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt740a130ae3c5d529/blt7eec52678a5fb6f5/6661dc1def15977843325c58/COOK_SERVE_DELICIOUS_IMAGE.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
(I should also note Cooking simulator a highly detailed facsimile of the professional chef experience, although like most simulators published by PlayWay, the game mechanics seem too abstract and “gamey” to be interesting for design discussion; it’s still pretty fun, and might even be educational for people who can’t tell the difference between pots and pans)
As a fan of the cooking system in video games, I think I like both approaches; while simply combining ingredients to assemble a predetermined recipe can be tedious, I once did every prescription available in the 2D fantasy minecrafter Starbound, mainly because gathering ingredients complemented the game’s exploration cycle so well, even though the game had no ultimate purpose for this system beyond necessary stat boosts and fairly easy achievements.
![COOKING_IN_STARBOUND_IMAGE.webp COOKING_IN_STARBOUND_IMAGE.webp](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt740a130ae3c5d529/bltf1e374e4eaa74b44/6661dc35f57f283496380bab/COOKING_IN_STARBOUND_IMAGE.webp?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
In fact, many cooking games tend to be repetitive; in the Cooking Mama series, the lack of tasks and more specific goals than cooking for its own sake seems like a waste of some pretty complex systems that ultimately doomed the series and tragically led to Mama getting into some boring bitcoin business. And as much as I love Cook Serve Delicious, doing the same microtasks over and over again feels more like a light simulation of working in the IRS than loving home cooking. It should be noted that its latest iteration, Cook Serve forevermakes for an interesting experiment with the formula, even if it did make fans of the series pretty salty (heh).
Although there are plenty of other examples for aspiring designers to look to: recent critical darling Venba combines an emotional narrative about the emigrant diaspora with a simple cooking mechanic that reinforces its subject matter. Cooking is Venba feels more like a puzzle than a challenge, with a bit of the time pressure of similar games, but making or deviating from a recipe emphasizes the cultural aspect of food in a way that no other game does.
![VENBA_IMAGE.webp VENBA_IMAGE.webp](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt740a130ae3c5d529/blta2e04b7487b38ef5/6661dc61e51d6c7e25e384f3/VENBA_IMAGE.webp?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Meanwhile, the classic PS1 RPG Suikoden 2 had a dismal reputation cooking competition side quest, who used his large cast as judges; each with different, unique flavors that had to be considered when choosing a recipe. The gameplay consists of simply choosing a recipe and pureeing Circle, but this is a side quest a secret set of rules and surprisingly emotional twists made it a fan favorite.
finally Order! is a Wii game that made perhaps one of my favorite spins on the genre. It combines simple Mama-style movements with the Wii Remote with DD-style time management; but the most interesting part is that you end up with customers with special tastes like fried, raw or spicy food. Cooking this way just adds a bonus, so it’s optional and ties in with the cooking mechanics in an interesting way; for example, an overcooked dish needs to be removed at the very threshold of burning, which adds interesting wrinkles to the gameplay.
This last example highlights something that I feel is missing from most cooking games; the creative element of cooking. Rarely do cooking games allow you to improvise, which is so satisfying in real-life cooking, such as swapping out ingredients, enhancing the flavor of a dish by choosing the right spices, or trying unusual combinations of ingredients, such as a pinch of salt in a dessert. In most of the examples we’ve looked at, the path to the final dish is usually a straight line with a binary win state; you either make or fail your dish, with no nuance in between.
Multiple games can be livened up (heh) by setting different objectives and letting the player’s creativity shine in a way that’s as satisfying as choosing the right build in an action game or RPG; what dish could satisfy the taste of vegans and meat lovers? Can you combine elements of dishes from different cultures without losing their essence? Where’s the game that simulates the experience of creating a random masterpiece with leftovers and wit at 4am?
Cooking is such a versatile activity that it’s no wonder why it’s featured in so many games, and there’s no shortage of interest in this crossover given the number of video with recipesand even in many cookbooks dedicated to video game food; but it still feels like uncharted territory in many ways. Successful games like Diner Dash and Overcooked have perfected influential but very specific interpretations of mechanics, but I feel like we’re still missing a cooking video game, one that could launch a whole new genre on its own, and even turn some people away from DoorDash, sparking their curiosity about real food. So, let’s get into the kitchen, game people!
(Also yes, I watched Mesha’s dungeon and wonder why no other games have properly combined dungeon crawling with cooking, i mean come on atlus just reset etrian odyssey it’ll take about a week you guys are leaving money on the table)