LO1 Game Analysis: Cook, Serve, Delicious!

LO1 Game Analysis: Cook, Serve, Delicious!

In this analysis I will be looking at Cook, Serve, Delicious! in terms of genre, narrative, production process, characterisation, gameplay, target audience and platform. I will be commenting about their use to create the overall game experience.

The game is 2-dimensional and has an abstract art style. Its genre is "hardcore restaurant simulator". The stylistic conventions of a simulation game are cartoony artwork, not based too much on impressive graphics, just fast-paced fun. It is one of the few restaurant simulators that actually becomes very difficult quite quickly. Isn’t similar to any other game - it requires quick keyboard skills and fast reactions.

The basic plot is that you are starting a restaurant in the “SherriSoda Tower” and you have to build from a one-star restaurant to a five-star one, and become known worldwide. The story informs the gameplay in the way that as you serve customers well, more will come in to your restaurant each day and you will be able to afford better foods and facilities. Your star rating gradually increases, as does the difficulty and the reputation of your restaurant. The only character in the game is you, and you have to prepare the food using your keyboard quicker and quicker as the game progresses. The story connects with the audience in the way that it isn’t too detailed - the game is meant for pulse-racing, intense fun.

The game was developed and published by Vertigo Gaming. The abstract art style enhances the gameplay as it gives the game its own unique charm that other games lack. In addition, the simple to learn, hard to master keyboard controls, which amount to pressing a key for a certain ingredient, make the game very addictive. The game is animated and there aren’t many physics-related things in the game, other than food going into the pan, which looks bouncy and larger-than-life, adding to the fun and charm of the game.

The only main character in the game is you, the chef, other than the comical dating characters whom you receive emails from later in the game. These appeal to a casual audience as they provide laughs and light-hearted entertainment. Although we don’t see these dating characters in real life and only receive emails from them, they match the conventions of a casual, fun game as they make it entertaining and provide the fun. The characters in this game aren’t detailed and we don’t learn anything about them, but that isn’t the aim of this fast-paced cooking sim. It’s just to have fun and get your pulse racing as you struggle to keep up with the orders coming in!

The challenge present in the game is to make as many perfect orders during the working day as you can, making sure you don’t disappoint any customers or take too long to do chores such as flushing the toilet and washing up. It gets fiendishly difficult as the speed increases. The challenge engages the player because there is never a dull moment - you have to be focused all the time and try to do everything perfect.  Also, the increasing difficulty as your restaurant’s reputation improves keeps the game interesting. Key to the game’s success are the charming art style and simple controls. For example, the “K” key applies ketchup to your hot dog. The number of ingredients builds up as you unlock new foods until you are flying around the keyboard. The gameplay engages with the narrative of building a world-famous restaurant in the way that it gets harder and quicker as your restaurant improves. In addition, the player’s attention is kept by new foods, new challenges and “bets” which can win you money if you can get a certain amount of perfect orders. As your restaurant improves you also play on a live “Iron Chef” cooking television programme.

The target audience is people of any age who are looking for yet challenging, exciting and fun gameplay, but not in the gritty, combat sense. The indicators that the game is produced for this audience are a cartoony, abstract art style, no offensive content, and light-hearted, upbeat and generally fun gameplay. The game directly appeals to the target audience in the way that it is exciting and entertaining to play. The game has a unique target audience in the way that it appears to be a “casual” game, but the difficult gameplay makes it more hardcore. However, other games targeting a casual audience would also have a light-hearted graphical style and simple gameplay, so in this way it is similar.

This game is available for PC and Mac via Steam, the game being the same on both platforms and both utilising a keyboard, so it is not better suited to PC or Mac. The game is perfectly suited to keyboard controls because there are so many ingredients and foods in the game that it needs the array of keys available. What makes Cook, Serve, Delicious! so much fun is how fast you have to navigate around the keyboard to stay afloat in your overcrowded restaurant.

The game was created using GameMaker: Studio, a game engine allowing smaller companies and lone computer programmers to make games with a unique scripting language. It doesn't require much programming knowledge. Since Vertigo Gaming is a smaller game development company without the resources of a bigger company, it allowed them to make Cook, Serve, Delicious!.