P2: Cook King

Design Changes and Iteration History

Initial Concept

The first paper prototype of this game was much heavier and based on rebellion, government control, and competition all within a Mars Colony. I focused on the core loop of 1) Players wake up 2) make coffee 3) go to work 4) secretly learn new cooking techniques.

Feedback: (Female Senior) The idea of having The Feast, NutriCorp, and being on Mars was hard to understand at the beginnning. It was hard to be emotionally invested because there is little backstory or motivation to the character. The player liked having multiple options to choose from and felt their choices impacted the ending.

Changes: Introduced smuggled ingredients to expand cooking options and introduce more backstory. Start with a flashback introduction to get some context of the game. Strengthened the core loop to reinforce the cycle of waking up, cooking, working, and sleeping.

Enhancing Core Gameplay Loop

I moved the prototype into Twine and had decisions made until receiving the letter to join The Feast. I leaned hard into having one main core loop of waking up, cooking, work, and kitchen that would be repeated until the competition date.

Feedback: (Male Senior) (Female Senior)

• Observations showed players were reading each section thoroughly but felt overwhelmed by lengthy text.
• Players expressed confusion with the two flashbacks at the beginning and after cooking a new recipe; feedback indicated a need for more concise information.
• Core loop received positive remarks.
• Make backstory more clear and obvious since flashbacks had no distinctions from present time.
• Consider having a chef with personality. Don’t make them OP so they are more relatable.

Changes: I pivoted the entire story to be more of a slice of life so that the scope is smaller and there is no more competition or rebellion. Instead, the main character is trying to convince people that cooking and eating homemade food is worth it. I removed having flashbacks for a little bit and modified the core loop to be a try fail situation of experiment -> fail or succeed -> repeat.

Shift to Slice of Life Narrative

I transitioned from a competition-based narrative to a slice-of-life format to allow for deeper exploration of character relationships and motivations. I wanted players to feel more emotionally invested so I create more engaging loops of try-fail process with cooking, having them complete each step of the cooking process (seen above). I also changed the player to be a first time cook that just picked it up after having previously eaten NutriBlocks so there is more room for failure. Being a first time cook allowed me to have options that were experimental, bizarre, and more free. I had one main supporting character, Meredith, to build rapport with the player and give some more depth beyond just cooking all the time.

As seen above, this is how I updated the story to fit the new premise, noting that there is a lot more community outreach and individual reflections. I also really liked the idea of having a cookbook and written recipes at the end of all the dishes that the player ended up choosing and cooking throughout the story. I really wanted to lean into the procedural system of games by teaching players to care (to any degree) about cooking through experiencing the cooking process and interacting with people who taste your food.

Feedback: (Female Junior) (Female Coterm)

• Players expressed a strong interest in character interactions, especially with Meredith, leading to more engaging dialogue and backstory development. One player enjoyed the few interactions with Meredith and tried to romance her the entire time (“I’m gonna flirt with Meredith”) (“I did it!”- when picking the right option to meet Meredith’s family)
• Suggested adding consequences to choices and making dishes more interactive towards the end.
• The cooking recipes at the end was really helpful. Both players noted that they wanted to take tips of the cooking throughout the story and wanted a pdf at the end. (“I should take notes”)
• Lot of descriptions were nice but the player’s emotions were very similar. Might be more interesting to add more conflict. 
• Both players were very invested in the cooking and cared about it

Changes: I added time spacing for chunks and spaced out a lot of the passages since I noticed a lot of difficulty reading longer texts. I also decided to add some tiny moments of conflict but maintain the overall cuteness of the story. The main conflict would be from failures during cooking, being unable to teach others how to cook, and people not liking your food. I ultimately decided not to have any conflict related to violence or something with a lot of drama/tension because it was against the point of my game and seemed too unnatural. I also added color coded dialogue to help differentiate between the player, Meredith, and supporting background characters.

Worldbuilding and Conflict Introduction

In this iteration of the game, I introduced some more points of conflict to make the game less of a walking sim/passive. These points of conflict were expanded in the workshop scene where people wouldn’t understand how to cook right away, and when choosing to serve people for the first time. One scene in particular, a man tries your food and spits it on the ground. I also changed most of the cooking scenes to incorporate feedback on how the dish turned out based on the choices that were picked. Both of these changes reflected SOPHIA where fun is learning since a fear of the player would be revealed, then they go through some stress, insight, or surprise, then have happiness. My original problem was that there was not enough surprise and a lack of tension so it was easy to address looking through that lens.

Feedback: (Female Coterm) (Female 8year old) (Male 14 year old)

• Give more explanation of NutriBlocks and why people eat them.
• Very invested in Meredith– all players want to see more
• The main character’s motivations were lost once the story was expanded. Why do they want to cook/how they have so much time to cook?
• There are some time plot holes when the food shortage happened
• They all felt they cared about cooking and enjoyed the new food scenes I added. Having consequences to choices were fun. (“My main motivation was not trying to set the kitchen on fire”) (“Woaaahhhh” -ramen from scratch) (“Awwww” to personal growth)

Changes: I added another character, Charlie, to help introduce more context into why NutriBlocks exist, expand on the food shortage, and also break up the monotony of cooking or conflict. I also wanted to explore some more worldbuilding that highlighted community interactions so it wouldn’t be so jarring when you were invited to host a workshop or invited neighbors over for dinner. I also expanded on the main character’s motivations and introduced a lot more information on who they are and why they started cooking (burnout).

Final Refinements

I made my color palette off of Reasonable Colors to make sure the game was accessible. I integrated Charlie into the story and created options to interact with him and further your relationship, same as Meredith. I added scenes that subtly hinted to the player’s past working at NutriCorp and experiencing burnout. I made the flashback scene different color and past tense to help people recognize it was not the present time.

Feedback: (Male Senior) (Female Senior)

• Suggested color adjustments for dialogue to enhance visual consistency. “Put the options at the end because of different dialogue colors and consistency.”
• Found Charlie intriguing and wanted more interaction with him, suggesting additional scenes or a trio cooking ending: (“I WANT MORE CHARLIE.”)
• Reacted enthusiastically to gameplay mechanics, particularly the chopping action. (“I can chop again?? CHOP AGAIN!! My third time chopping..I CHOP AGAIN.”)
• Found value in the protagonist’s backstory, especially with NutriCorp. (“We have BACKSTORY… I worked for NutriCorp??? I’m the villain :0.”)
• Liked replaying the story for deeper character insight, noting it made her care about the protagonist’s motivations: (“Did you care?” → Yes, replayed the story again and liked the backstory to give context why the main character is pushing for cooking so much.)
• One player preferred cooking-focused interactions over social ones. (“Didn’t want to talk to people.”) (“Need more backstory on neighbors to trust them.”)

Changes: I put most of the options at the end in the fork style to remain consistent. I changed the endings to reward the player for interacting with both Meredith and Charlie and also have an alternate by yourself if you didn’t want to socially interact. I turned off transitions for smoother gameplay flow. I integrated sound and music elements to enhance the atmosphere and help the players imagine themselves cooking.