THE FOOD GAME
Serious Board Game
PURPOSE
The Food Game was designed to help people build confidence in cooking, learn how to measure by eye, adjust recipes, create unique recipes, and cook based on visual and other sensory clues rather than instructions and specific times.
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
By learning about cooking techniques from flavor text on the cards, the player should feel more comfortable with the idea of cooking. The win conditions of the game are designed to motivate the player and get them excited, so that they give cooking a try. The player wins by using random ingredient cards they receive at the beginning of the game to cook the best dish they can make while trying to satisfy the preferences of different customer cards. This will help the player get into the mindset of using what they already have and trying to get creative with it. The ingredients and recipes in the game are based on real cooking and the cards can be followed as actual recipes in the kitchen.
COOKING WITHOUT MEASURING TOOLS
Measurements on cards are represented by common household objects and easy to visualize things instead of precise measurements. This helps players be able to estimate measurements and base it off of their own cooking equipment.
RESEARCH
Cooking is a thing a lot of people tend to be intimidated by. Most people have the mindset of “I don’t know how to cook” and give up before trying. The goal of this project is to get people to start cooking, and develop skills to become efficient at cooking without relying on complete recipes. Players will build confidence, learn to cook without measurements, alter recipes and create their own based on personal taste, and cook based off of senses such as tasting as you go and visual clues.
Cooking can be intimidating for beginners. This is because people will look at cooking as a natural talent or skill, instead of multiple connected skills that you need to learn and develop. Breaking down cooking into many skills and learning them one at a time through different simple recipes can help players build confidence over time, so that they have less stress when moving onto more advanced recipes and making their own.
Cooking is more of an art than an exact science, and different people have different tastes and preferences. That is why cooking with exact measurements can be dangerous. When following a recipe, the recipe is made with someone else's preference in mind, so the measurements are going to reflect that. The idea of avoiding exact measurements allows you to put more of what you like in, and notice mistakes or things you don’t like in a recipe while you’re making it. It is also a useful skill to be able to eyeball how much of an ingredient you need without having to pull out different measuring tools while cooking.
Having to consistently refer back to recipes while cooking increases the amount of time it takes. In addition, recipes are made with someone else’s preferences in mind. This is why it is more useful to understand a recipe and know how to substitute in thing you like or know what recipes you can combine together and still taste good. Once you understand what different foods go good together, and different ways you can cook different food, you can start getting creative and have fun making your own unique recipes.
Being able to cook using your senses rather than instructions is one of the most important things. Everyone has different kitchens, food, and equipment, so something that takes 4 minutes to cook on one persons stove can take 6 on another, or depending on thickness different meats can take longer or shorter to cook. This is why it is important to tell when food is done based on color, smell, how it feels, and taste. Tasting while cooking is also important for making sure the food taste right while you go through, rather than following exact instructions and hoping for the best at the end.
Cooking is a skill that everyone should be efficient in. Everyone eats, and it’s not always an option to eat out or have someone else cook for you. Being confident in the kitchen, reliable without measuring tools, able to cater to your own specific tastes or others, and able to tell when things are done without specific instructions or specific timing are all incredibly useful life skills, that with proper effort can be achieved by anyone.