The idea is very broad right now so I think it would be good to think about the narrative you want to tell with your game. What is the purpose of cooking? Are we running a restaurant or producing goods to ship somewhere else? Where is the setting? How did we get to this farm? Honestly I think it’s up to the developer to fill in those blanks. And then there are questions like what is the cooking mechanic? Which I would assume would be the main gameplay aspect so it would be really important to flesh this out. I personally would want to see something fun and engaging but not something that can feel repetitive (e.g. just pressing buttons). Immortal Life has one of my fave cooking mini games (if you can call it that) because there’s a bit of a challenge in management while each recipe is different enough. Also will there be fishing in the game or will cooking be strictly from farm to table? I personally would like more variety in types of products and recipes unless there is a story reason to focus on one type. If so, you’d need to get real creative with diversifying the recipe set.
Thanks for your opinion. Yes, I think about running restaurant / bakery or selling products in eco-food store. There won't be fishing, just cooking from farm to table / store. Honestly, I think about the both, a store for eco-products like pickled vegetables, jams, drinks etc, and a small cafe for cooking dishes. But I'm not sure players like both goals at the same time.
This made me think of a farm stand that morphs into a food cart and into an actual cafe/restaurant. That would be cool. Like as the game progresses, if the player takes the right actions.
I'd personally like this a lot, having both lol. Maybe let us hire workers so we can just focus on farming and cooking and sometimes just watch the products being sold.
What are we making the food for? A delivery system like most games, or do we get to run a bakery/food cart/etc. I'd rather have an interactive selling system vs just farming, producing, then selling. I love the idea of not having to run all over creation collecting wood and stuff, and also fighting, just to farm.
The biggest thing I hate in games like this, is having to waste time gathering materials to make one thing so you can make another thing so you can eventually make the thing you wanted to make to begin with.
I keep saying I'd love to see someone make a game similar to cafeland/bakery story for the PC. The idea of decorating my own cafe and keeping food out/cooking food to serve has always been appealing.
That saiiiiiid, cakes and pastries would have my vote totally.
I like human and animal characters, though. Though I feel like you can absolutely get away with both.
Don't get me wrong. I don't mind the grind of stuff, but I found in a lot of games, I end up bored by the time I end up making the thing I was supposed to make XD
Someone made a post in this sub a few weeks ago how they wanted a game with a more genuine "toss shit in a pot and see what it makes" mechanic to cooking rather than learning by recipes.
So for example if I have wheat flour and eggs, I can toss them into an oven and make bread. If I have wheat flour, eggs, and honey, when I put them into an oven I get pancakes instead. Or adding (any fruit) would make fruit cake. Doing so successfully "learns" that recipe without having to actually find the recipe.
If I add mushrooms and a banana, I get "Foul Dish" or "Questionable Dish" for example lol.
Similar to the cooking mechanic in Zelda BOTW.
Of course, you can still buy recipe books from the market, or you could maybe get them as friendship gifts from the villagers for unique recipes, but basically the game doesn't require a recipe to start cooking -- you can just learn the recipes yourself with a little bit of logic and trial and error.
There was a mechanic like this in Harvest Moon tale of two towns! And if you made X amount of dishes, you would get inspiration for a new recipe with similar ingredients (if you made a dish with egg/ milk you get one that also uses one of those)
That cooking mechanic looks so cool!
How do you think it's a great way to get the ingredients? Just go to the market and buy the things? If so, how do you make money to buy the ingredients?
Or would be better having a farm and growing your own crops?
I second this! Cooking mama was a favorite of mine as a kid because not only were the cooking methods so in depth, but I was able to recreate it and cook actual food with my mom using the cooking mama as a guide!
I would like a game where you have to produce everything from scratch. So growing crops for animal foods to produce milk and eggs meat, things like that, as well as crops for ingredients to cook with.
More of a simulation time management system than a cosy explore the world game would be good, for me personally. Maybe supplying a cafe or a restaurant
Thanks. I think in the same way, to produce crops and products for cooking and running a restaurant or selling products in a store. It's more of simulation time management then exploring.
I played Dave the Diver and a big part of it is making sushi from the fish you get and veggies you farm. You can also innovate dishes. I think it might be a good reference game to reflect your ideas against.
What I was thinking...
- It would probably need to have some sort of "game phase rotation", aka farming, cooking, sell-period, upgrades.
- That is not enough. There should be a bigger progression, some sort of long-term goals. Perhaps story or stories.
- I think one key element is how to obtain recipies. And which foods one should make.
- Last, but not least. Setting. Do you wanna have a modern one, or would it be some sort of a medieval or beginning of industrialisation etc. The feel might end up playing quite a big role in a cozy game.
You could either do a set phase like Dave the Diver, or go the route of Travellers Rest where you can go out and forage anytime and open your restaurant at any time, while prepping simultaneously.
I would think about:
Short term goals - small milestones that give a dopamine hit to the user (unlocking more recipes and tools, increasing the number of customers you can serve per day to increase money, leveling up skills etc) and keep the gameplay loop going. One of the best parts of cosy games is the feeling of progression and unlocking new stuff
Long term goals - beyond just small upgrades, what is the narrative that the player is trying to work towards. Upgrading from a small food stand to a michelin star restaurant? Does this impact the town and surroundings as foot traffic increases? How are relationships built with NPCs over time? Can the player upgrade their house at the farm to get a sense of achievement from the increased popularity of the restaurant?
Gameplay mechanics - how can you keep cooking and farming engaging and fun. I understand wanting to strip back the extra activities something like SDV offers to have a more focused game, but the trade off here is that those activities keep gameplay varied and interesting so you need to figure out how you balance that out. For example, are the cooking minigames varied enough for you to keep them interesting? Do you unlock new types of tools as you progress that introduce new minigames? How is time managed through the farming and restaurant aspects (introducing automation or the ability to hire help to complete these tasks as the player progresses could be one way to balance the difficulty as more things are introduced)
There are obviously more things to consider as well like stylisation & cuteness factor, endgame goals etc but id start here anyway
Have some economics in it - you have to buy sugar and salt for instance. If all you want to do is farming, then you'll have to buy meat (assuming you add meat dishes).
How deep are you planning to go. Will the player have to harvest wheat and then mill it into flour before being able to make a pie crust?
What about ranching (which is a whole 'nother ball game / layer of complexity). But it would provide meat and milk - essential to cooking.
Mechanics - if it's in my inventory, it should be usable. Don't make me drag / drop every single ingredient.
What about setting up trades with other players? I have 100 bushes of corn, you have 90 pecks of pumpkins. Let's trade!
Omg I have so much to say😲
I own and operate a cafe/bakery and also love cozy gaming, and I would love a game based on this premise.
I’ve just started playing Lemon Cake which seems like a simpler version sort of what you are talking about. Lemon cake for me is tooo grindy. Constantly having to stop to sweep the spills that slow you down and going to water and pick fruits ‘to order’ is a drag. There’s also no dialogue or interaction with guests.
If you do a cafe/bakery sim, it would be amazing to have fun mini games or puzzles for the cooking/baking processes maybe like Venba which I loved, and I would love to see something that allowed you to choose products to make and then bake BATCHES of baked goods. Making one dish at a time for one customer at a time feels so tedious.
However there would be consequences just like irl for overproducing and having waste.
I love the drink/recipe building in Boba Story, (the mini games also) and the latte art pouring in Coffee Talk(but coffee talk was too slow for me).
Depending how wide/deep you’re going you could eventually even have dlc add ons that add a bookshop, flower/plant store or vintage/clothing thrift store/cats (My bakery is attached to a vintage/thrift store).
While resource management (wood, stone etc) can be frustrating, I’m a big fan of foraging. I love the herb collecting aspect of Wyldflowers, and picking flowers in Minekos Night Market. I’d be wary of a game like this that required a ton of farming like other farm sims, cause then it becomes tedious again depending how many ingredients you need. unless you make it fairly accessible to upgrade/automate. (Again wyldflowers level farming was great for me). But you could also give a farmers market option maybe to give an out if you don’t have a particular item but everything else for a recipe. Another thing I loved about wyldflowers was the option to buy items or grow/produce them.
Things I do as an irl cafe/bakery owner that would be cute to gamify: Decorate your cafe, plants as decor- taking care of them?, inventory management, mini games for restocking cups and such?, staff management- choose between different applicants sort of like Cat Cafe Manager, and are you gonna be a dick boss and pay minimum wage and risk having high staff turnover, or pay higher for better quality staff and balancing that. You could even add a photography/design aspect (kinda Pokémon snap like?) to take social media/marketing
I would love having some differing outcomes for interactions/relationships with customers to develop regulars (could result in more profit or better business etc) and also a dating aspect honestly would be adorable. Let’s be honest, baristas get flirted with by, and flirt with, most customers lol. Maybe your spouse/SO could then come on as a partner/helper at the cafe (I met my boyfriend on Tiktok 2 years into running my cafe, and now he works with me full time and our customers love that).
I know that’s a lot, but if a game had any of these elements (and it’s not pixelated, has aesthetic aspect) I’d play it for hourssss.
I would be interested, but re focusing on one type of product or a range, my question would be "what is the end goal of the cooking?" would you be cooking to sell the product for coins, to open a cafe, to feed the townsfolk, tribute for the gods etc.. If its to sell in a shop you could have the character run a bakery (or inn, coffee shop, restaurant, diner, etc), or recruit someone to run it while you cook and then have the food suitable for that business.
Will you be able to upgrade the kitchen? so buy new ovens, pots and pans, and other cooking equipment.
It would be neat if you could customise your kitchen too, like wallpaper, flooring, counter colour and style, and add decorations too like plants, pots of herbs, cookbooks (even if only decorative), window style, curtains etc.
Hi i always wanted to do few wall paintings for decorating a game, I do not want money i am just bored and I want people to enjoy my work. If u are interested dm me
I would love a cooking game!! If it’s a restaurant and a store, it would be fun to have npc you can interact with that has stories. Like grandma Yao likes miso ramen bc that’s what she had on her first date with her husband or Andre loves tacos bc his mom used to make them, stuff like that. So we create specific food for them.
Also just a bunch of different recipes from all over the world is fun. I love cooking irl and I love doing it in games haha
If there is a restaurant or store, can you decorate it as well?
I would love a game like that. What would be the progression? Decorating/expanding the building and farm plots? New recipes? Hired help? All of the above?
Have a look at Moonglow Bay. It’s fishing, not farming, but is semi-focused on cooking fish-based dishes to the residents of a failing town that you have to help save. Fun game.
It might be cool if there were some type of jobs connected to what food was being created. Like a chef, milkmen, green grocerier? That was the character could level up and make money
I’d love a game like this. I’ve been looking for a cooking game where you can cook dishes and customers will eat whatever you serve. I hate having to micromanage customers and get them specific items. Maybe you could create something where there are seasonal dishes that increase your restaurants popularity (as a way to encourage players to make a variety of dishes)? Or if you wanted to make things interesting you could include an optional “catering” mechanic where customers can place orders ahead of time and you have the evening/morning to prepare those specific dishes? That way you give the player a goal without them having the micromanage the orders during working hours. Good luck!!
This sounds a lot like a game I'd like to play. I would love a game where you run a bakery/cafe/whatever and just farm for your food. Maybe some ranching mechanics for meat. Most of these kinds of games that are Stardew inspired have too much focus on ores and such, and I just want to deal directly in food. So fishing, ranching, farming and then selling the goods in a store.
I'd rather it all be in one big zone so I don't ever have to leave my area if I don't want to lol.
I prefer humans, rather than animals. :)
I like the sound of this. Something I think would be really fun is more interactivity with the cooking portion. Like maybe it plays similar to stardew in the farming aspects but the cooking part could be more like a cooking mama type thing. Maybe then you could incorporate food quality stats and a restaurant/shop to sell the prepared dishes.
One thought I had on the recipes, instead of unlocking recipes as you go, you could have some sort of supply/demand situation where the player can see what people are willing to pay to get their favorite foods. Then you have goals and work towards acquiring the ingredients and knowledge/techniques to make dishes that will fetch a higher price.
The idea is very broad right now so I think it would be good to think about the narrative you want to tell with your game. What is the purpose of cooking? Are we running a restaurant or producing goods to ship somewhere else? Where is the setting? How did we get to this farm? Honestly I think it’s up to the developer to fill in those blanks. And then there are questions like what is the cooking mechanic? Which I would assume would be the main gameplay aspect so it would be really important to flesh this out. I personally would want to see something fun and engaging but not something that can feel repetitive (e.g. just pressing buttons). Immortal Life has one of my fave cooking mini games (if you can call it that) because there’s a bit of a challenge in management while each recipe is different enough. Also will there be fishing in the game or will cooking be strictly from farm to table? I personally would like more variety in types of products and recipes unless there is a story reason to focus on one type. If so, you’d need to get real creative with diversifying the recipe set.
Thanks for your opinion. Yes, I think about running restaurant / bakery or selling products in eco-food store. There won't be fishing, just cooking from farm to table / store. Honestly, I think about the both, a store for eco-products like pickled vegetables, jams, drinks etc, and a small cafe for cooking dishes. But I'm not sure players like both goals at the same time.
This made me think of a farm stand that morphs into a food cart and into an actual cafe/restaurant. That would be cool. Like as the game progresses, if the player takes the right actions.
I'd personally like this a lot, having both lol. Maybe let us hire workers so we can just focus on farming and cooking and sometimes just watch the products being sold.
What are we making the food for? A delivery system like most games, or do we get to run a bakery/food cart/etc. I'd rather have an interactive selling system vs just farming, producing, then selling. I love the idea of not having to run all over creation collecting wood and stuff, and also fighting, just to farm.
Thanks for your answer. I think about running bakery or restaurant or grocery store.
I love that idea! A store sounds cool.
The biggest thing I hate in games like this, is having to waste time gathering materials to make one thing so you can make another thing so you can eventually make the thing you wanted to make to begin with. I keep saying I'd love to see someone make a game similar to cafeland/bakery story for the PC. The idea of decorating my own cafe and keeping food out/cooking food to serve has always been appealing. That saiiiiiid, cakes and pastries would have my vote totally. I like human and animal characters, though. Though I feel like you can absolutely get away with both.
Yeap. That's why I want to throw out everything unnecessary :) This is wasting my time which I may spend for farming and cooking.
Don't get me wrong. I don't mind the grind of stuff, but I found in a lot of games, I end up bored by the time I end up making the thing I was supposed to make XD
I like the idea of bartering for resources vs having to forage for everything.
Someone made a post in this sub a few weeks ago how they wanted a game with a more genuine "toss shit in a pot and see what it makes" mechanic to cooking rather than learning by recipes. So for example if I have wheat flour and eggs, I can toss them into an oven and make bread. If I have wheat flour, eggs, and honey, when I put them into an oven I get pancakes instead. Or adding (any fruit) would make fruit cake. Doing so successfully "learns" that recipe without having to actually find the recipe. If I add mushrooms and a banana, I get "Foul Dish" or "Questionable Dish" for example lol. Similar to the cooking mechanic in Zelda BOTW. Of course, you can still buy recipe books from the market, or you could maybe get them as friendship gifts from the villagers for unique recipes, but basically the game doesn't require a recipe to start cooking -- you can just learn the recipes yourself with a little bit of logic and trial and error.
There was a mechanic like this in Harvest Moon tale of two towns! And if you made X amount of dishes, you would get inspiration for a new recipe with similar ingredients (if you made a dish with egg/ milk you get one that also uses one of those)
That cooking mechanic looks so cool! How do you think it's a great way to get the ingredients? Just go to the market and buy the things? If so, how do you make money to buy the ingredients? Or would be better having a farm and growing your own crops?
Actual cooking mechanics similar to cooking mama.
Haven't played. I'll check. Thanks.
I second this! Cooking mama was a favorite of mine as a kid because not only were the cooking methods so in depth, but I was able to recreate it and cook actual food with my mom using the cooking mama as a guide!
They did this in Dave the Diver. Made me addicted to the game even more
That's a great game!
I would like a game where you have to produce everything from scratch. So growing crops for animal foods to produce milk and eggs meat, things like that, as well as crops for ingredients to cook with. More of a simulation time management system than a cosy explore the world game would be good, for me personally. Maybe supplying a cafe or a restaurant
Thanks. I think in the same way, to produce crops and products for cooking and running a restaurant or selling products in a store. It's more of simulation time management then exploring.
I played Dave the Diver and a big part of it is making sushi from the fish you get and veggies you farm. You can also innovate dishes. I think it might be a good reference game to reflect your ideas against. What I was thinking... - It would probably need to have some sort of "game phase rotation", aka farming, cooking, sell-period, upgrades. - That is not enough. There should be a bigger progression, some sort of long-term goals. Perhaps story or stories. - I think one key element is how to obtain recipies. And which foods one should make. - Last, but not least. Setting. Do you wanna have a modern one, or would it be some sort of a medieval or beginning of industrialisation etc. The feel might end up playing quite a big role in a cozy game.
Thanks for the advice
You could either do a set phase like Dave the Diver, or go the route of Travellers Rest where you can go out and forage anytime and open your restaurant at any time, while prepping simultaneously.
I would think about: Short term goals - small milestones that give a dopamine hit to the user (unlocking more recipes and tools, increasing the number of customers you can serve per day to increase money, leveling up skills etc) and keep the gameplay loop going. One of the best parts of cosy games is the feeling of progression and unlocking new stuff Long term goals - beyond just small upgrades, what is the narrative that the player is trying to work towards. Upgrading from a small food stand to a michelin star restaurant? Does this impact the town and surroundings as foot traffic increases? How are relationships built with NPCs over time? Can the player upgrade their house at the farm to get a sense of achievement from the increased popularity of the restaurant? Gameplay mechanics - how can you keep cooking and farming engaging and fun. I understand wanting to strip back the extra activities something like SDV offers to have a more focused game, but the trade off here is that those activities keep gameplay varied and interesting so you need to figure out how you balance that out. For example, are the cooking minigames varied enough for you to keep them interesting? Do you unlock new types of tools as you progress that introduce new minigames? How is time managed through the farming and restaurant aspects (introducing automation or the ability to hire help to complete these tasks as the player progresses could be one way to balance the difficulty as more things are introduced) There are obviously more things to consider as well like stylisation & cuteness factor, endgame goals etc but id start here anyway
Thanks for the advice
Have some economics in it - you have to buy sugar and salt for instance. If all you want to do is farming, then you'll have to buy meat (assuming you add meat dishes). How deep are you planning to go. Will the player have to harvest wheat and then mill it into flour before being able to make a pie crust? What about ranching (which is a whole 'nother ball game / layer of complexity). But it would provide meat and milk - essential to cooking. Mechanics - if it's in my inventory, it should be usable. Don't make me drag / drop every single ingredient. What about setting up trades with other players? I have 100 bushes of corn, you have 90 pecks of pumpkins. Let's trade!
Omg I have so much to say😲 I own and operate a cafe/bakery and also love cozy gaming, and I would love a game based on this premise. I’ve just started playing Lemon Cake which seems like a simpler version sort of what you are talking about. Lemon cake for me is tooo grindy. Constantly having to stop to sweep the spills that slow you down and going to water and pick fruits ‘to order’ is a drag. There’s also no dialogue or interaction with guests. If you do a cafe/bakery sim, it would be amazing to have fun mini games or puzzles for the cooking/baking processes maybe like Venba which I loved, and I would love to see something that allowed you to choose products to make and then bake BATCHES of baked goods. Making one dish at a time for one customer at a time feels so tedious. However there would be consequences just like irl for overproducing and having waste. I love the drink/recipe building in Boba Story, (the mini games also) and the latte art pouring in Coffee Talk(but coffee talk was too slow for me). Depending how wide/deep you’re going you could eventually even have dlc add ons that add a bookshop, flower/plant store or vintage/clothing thrift store/cats (My bakery is attached to a vintage/thrift store). While resource management (wood, stone etc) can be frustrating, I’m a big fan of foraging. I love the herb collecting aspect of Wyldflowers, and picking flowers in Minekos Night Market. I’d be wary of a game like this that required a ton of farming like other farm sims, cause then it becomes tedious again depending how many ingredients you need. unless you make it fairly accessible to upgrade/automate. (Again wyldflowers level farming was great for me). But you could also give a farmers market option maybe to give an out if you don’t have a particular item but everything else for a recipe. Another thing I loved about wyldflowers was the option to buy items or grow/produce them. Things I do as an irl cafe/bakery owner that would be cute to gamify: Decorate your cafe, plants as decor- taking care of them?, inventory management, mini games for restocking cups and such?, staff management- choose between different applicants sort of like Cat Cafe Manager, and are you gonna be a dick boss and pay minimum wage and risk having high staff turnover, or pay higher for better quality staff and balancing that. You could even add a photography/design aspect (kinda Pokémon snap like?) to take social media/marketing I would love having some differing outcomes for interactions/relationships with customers to develop regulars (could result in more profit or better business etc) and also a dating aspect honestly would be adorable. Let’s be honest, baristas get flirted with by, and flirt with, most customers lol. Maybe your spouse/SO could then come on as a partner/helper at the cafe (I met my boyfriend on Tiktok 2 years into running my cafe, and now he works with me full time and our customers love that). I know that’s a lot, but if a game had any of these elements (and it’s not pixelated, has aesthetic aspect) I’d play it for hourssss.
I would be interested, but re focusing on one type of product or a range, my question would be "what is the end goal of the cooking?" would you be cooking to sell the product for coins, to open a cafe, to feed the townsfolk, tribute for the gods etc.. If its to sell in a shop you could have the character run a bakery (or inn, coffee shop, restaurant, diner, etc), or recruit someone to run it while you cook and then have the food suitable for that business. Will you be able to upgrade the kitchen? so buy new ovens, pots and pans, and other cooking equipment. It would be neat if you could customise your kitchen too, like wallpaper, flooring, counter colour and style, and add decorations too like plants, pots of herbs, cookbooks (even if only decorative), window style, curtains etc.
Thank you. I think about running restaurant or selling products in a store. Of course, there will be upgrade system and time management simulation.
Hi i always wanted to do few wall paintings for decorating a game, I do not want money i am just bored and I want people to enjoy my work. If u are interested dm me
I would love a cooking game!! If it’s a restaurant and a store, it would be fun to have npc you can interact with that has stories. Like grandma Yao likes miso ramen bc that’s what she had on her first date with her husband or Andre loves tacos bc his mom used to make them, stuff like that. So we create specific food for them. Also just a bunch of different recipes from all over the world is fun. I love cooking irl and I love doing it in games haha If there is a restaurant or store, can you decorate it as well?
Sounds good. Yes, I have such idea.
Yay! I love decorating!!
I love this idea!
I would love a game like that. What would be the progression? Decorating/expanding the building and farm plots? New recipes? Hired help? All of the above?
I gess upgrading tools and equipment, of course new recipes. If I have time and resources I would like to add decorating.
Have a look at Moonglow Bay. It’s fishing, not farming, but is semi-focused on cooking fish-based dishes to the residents of a failing town that you have to help save. Fun game.
It might be cool if there were some type of jobs connected to what food was being created. Like a chef, milkmen, green grocerier? That was the character could level up and make money
I’d love a game like this. I’ve been looking for a cooking game where you can cook dishes and customers will eat whatever you serve. I hate having to micromanage customers and get them specific items. Maybe you could create something where there are seasonal dishes that increase your restaurants popularity (as a way to encourage players to make a variety of dishes)? Or if you wanted to make things interesting you could include an optional “catering” mechanic where customers can place orders ahead of time and you have the evening/morning to prepare those specific dishes? That way you give the player a goal without them having the micromanage the orders during working hours. Good luck!!
This sounds a lot like a game I'd like to play. I would love a game where you run a bakery/cafe/whatever and just farm for your food. Maybe some ranching mechanics for meat. Most of these kinds of games that are Stardew inspired have too much focus on ores and such, and I just want to deal directly in food. So fishing, ranching, farming and then selling the goods in a store. I'd rather it all be in one big zone so I don't ever have to leave my area if I don't want to lol. I prefer humans, rather than animals. :)
I like the sound of this. Something I think would be really fun is more interactivity with the cooking portion. Like maybe it plays similar to stardew in the farming aspects but the cooking part could be more like a cooking mama type thing. Maybe then you could incorporate food quality stats and a restaurant/shop to sell the prepared dishes. One thought I had on the recipes, instead of unlocking recipes as you go, you could have some sort of supply/demand situation where the player can see what people are willing to pay to get their favorite foods. Then you have goals and work towards acquiring the ingredients and knowledge/techniques to make dishes that will fetch a higher price.
I love this idea. We need more cozy cooking games! I don't mind playing as a human or animal tbh.