Game Designer
MealChaos!
Project Type
Game, Godot Engine
Date
Oct.-Nov. 2024.
Role
Dinner's Ready, Take Your Seat!
Immerse yourself in the vibrant atmosphere of traditional Chinese banquets, where you'll be gobbling down delicious food while catching up on the latest neighborhood gossip.
Amidst the clinking of glasses and warm chatter, you'll rediscover the tender human connections and everyday warmth that life's mundane experiences tend to smooth away over time.
Kaili (me) - game designer
ShiMingYiXia, AKong - programmar
Wei, Meng - Artists
Download Link
Game Features:
-You need to competitively pick up meals in the round table to fill you stomach!
-The NPCs will also have their meal pick preference and you have to be faster than them! NPCs will have skills weather to help you or not. Nevertheless, you can also use your own skills (Time Stop, Going to Toilette, Call for Service) to gain advantage!
-NPCs will ask you questions randomly during the level, which are based on their conversations, so listen to them carefully!
-NPCs have answer preferences, which will build up the intimacy level and influence the final ending.
Design Background:
Imagine a game that's like your favorite comfort food—warm, nostalgic, and packed with flavor. This isn't just another game; it's a love letter to those chaotic, loud family dinners that define growing up Chinese.
Remember those endless banquets where you'd roll your eyes at the adults' chatter? We're turning those moments into a playful exploration of memory and connection. It's like flipping through an old family photo album, but you're actually part of the story.
You know how we all have those memories that really stick with us? When we were brainstorming game ideas, we wanted to tap into something that people would instantly connect with. That's when it hit us – Chinese banquets! Everyone has memories of sitting around those big tables, whether it was celebrating someone getting into college, moving to a new place, or getting married. It's basically our version of throwing a party, but with way more food!
As I was designing the game, I really wanted to capture that unique banquet experience. Our first prototype lets players grab food from a spinning table– just like at a real Chinese banquet. You've got your veggie dishes, meat dishes, and those awesome ones that mix both. But here's the fun part: you need to balance what you eat (just like how our parents always nagged us about eating our veggies). So players have to hit their daily quota of both meat and vegetables, turning those childhood dinner table lessons into actual gameplay!
I had so much fun creating the NPCs, drawing inspiration from those instantly recognizable characters we all seem to know. There's this chemistry teacher who's totally that teacher: with his polo shirt always perfectly tucked into his pants, and a shiny bald head from years of explaining chemical equations. Then there's neighbor Wang, basically the neighborhood's walking news channel! She's got this warm, chatty personality and somehow knows every little detail about what's happening on the block, from who just got a new pet to whose kid just got into med school.
The dialogue in the game hits that spot between comedy and social observation, capturing that complicated feeling about home – you know, when you're both missing it and feeling suffocated by it. I packed in all those classic moments: parents and neighbors firing off questions about grades like it's an interrogation, asking if you're working out enough, and of course, the eternal "Are you dating anyone?" Sometimes their concern is touching, but other times... it's like, can I breathe for a second?
Take Sister Zhao's storyline – it's both funny and painfully real. Here she is, crushing it as a manager in her 30s, but at the banquet table, all Grandpa Zhao can talk about is when she's going to "find a nice boy." The irony is thick: he doesn't even know she's not interested in men, and he's so busy pushing the whole marriage agenda that he can't see she's already got her hands full with work. It's that classic clash between old expectations and modern realities, served up right next to the sweet and sour pork.
