Celebrating One Year of Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale’s Doors Being Open
One year ago we put on our chef hats and aprons and opened the door to Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale for the first time. We were anxious to see how players would react once they had to work together to keep the orders coming for a hungry cast of enchanted creators and their reactions didn’t disappoint. From watching kitchens being set on fire to frantically cutting ingredients, it’s always a fun time when you enter the Cook-Out kitchen. Today, we’re catching up with the game’s Producer Gustav to take a look back at the development of this wacky and whimsical game.
You are the producer of Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale. Tell us briefly about your role and your contributions to the game.
I am the producer for the game, meaning I run the day to day activities with the team, provide direction and participate in the fun-making. It also means making sure everyone in the team has something to do, and that the team has the resources it needs to deliver the game and game updates on time.
What were the general main thoughts and principles that drove the concept of this game?
First off we wanted to make a social, collaborative game. Placing it in a kitchen with cooking as the main gameplay made a lot of sense since that would mean players could create something together, not just do their own thing in their corner of the game room. We also realized early on that we didn’t want to make a cooking simulator, but rather simulate the high intensity, collaborative environment of a professional kitchen. My background as a chef came in handy in doing just that. In Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale, communicating with your team is the way to go, just like in a restaurant kitchen.
What inspired you specifically throughout the process?
My main inspiration is and has always been my colleagues in the team. It is amazing what you can achieve when you come together as a group with a shared goal and vision. We allowed ourselves the time to goof around a bit and try some new ideas, and while quite a few of them were scrapped, some of them made it into the game, and great fun was had by all.
Did the team face any challenges while making the game and how did you solve them?
The main challenge for Cook-Out was game balancing - we wanted the game to be challenging, but not too hard. So we needed to find the right level of challenge there. To add to the problem, we also wanted that same level of difficulty when playing single player and two, three or four players. In the end we set up a task force that would do daily playtests of four players, then after 20 minutes one player would drop out and the three players would continue. This went on until the last playtester was alone in the room playing with the AI-helper Rob-Bot. This allowed us to gather data and feedback for any number of people playing the multiplayer mode as well as the single player option. Our Game Designer would then adjust and balance the level of difficulty, making the game ready for the next day’s playtest. This went on for every single one of the 50+ levels in the game, plus the endless mode.
What was it like to launch a game during a pandemic?
This was a surprisingly smooth process. Luckily we had managed to find the core game loop while still working in the office together, so most of the “a group of people in front of a whiteboard solving a problem” moments were already behind us. If anything, Covid forced us to playtest the game even more, since having meetings inside the product you are developing is a very neat way to work out design problems.
Do you have any tips for others who are interested in creating a multiplayer VR game?
I’d say focus on the fun shared moments first, and let those inspire the game play. Also keep your spider senses on the look-out for those magic moments that may emerge when a few people play and goof around together, if you laugh, the players will laugh.
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