How We Brought Real Food into Our Cooking Game

When you're making a cooking game, there are two ways to go:
1️⃣ Use cartoony icons and floaty physics that “look like food” — or
2️⃣ Go deeper, and actually treat food like a real, interactive system.

We chose option 2. And to do that, we hired a real chef.
Yes — for a kids cooking game.

Why Our Game Needed a Chef, Not Just a Designer

We’re building Food Festival 3 — a colorful, cozy, family-friendly mobile game where players cook meals in a vibrant burger maker and cooking simulator world. But we didn’t want it to be just another tap-and-drag burger cooking game or cooking game for girls.

We wanted something tactile. Intuitive. Real — not in visuals, but in how the food behaves.

• How should ground beef feel when you chop it?

• What happens when you stack too many soft ingredients on a burger?

• Can a burger builder game still feel like real food, not just icons?

Instead of guessing, we brought in a professional chef who worked hand-in-hand with our game designers to build a cooking system based on real-life food preparation, kitchen skills, and culinary logic — perfectly adapted for touch gameplay in a mobile cooking simulator.

🔬 Building a Food System That Feels Right

Here’s what changed thanks to that collaboration:

🥩 Meat physics — We studied how raw meat moves when chopped, squishes when pressed, and sizzles when grilled. Your hamburger patty behaves differently if overcooked, undercooked, or dropped mid-flip — just like in real kitchens.

🍔 Layer stacking — Cheese melts over time. Lettuce slides. Sauces drip naturally. Our burger stacking game logic now reflects real food structure — not just cartoon chaos.

🧀 Visual feedback — Buns compress under pressure, and sticky sauces stick to surfaces like they would in a real burger restaurant. It’s not hyper-realism — it’s playable realism that makes kids think: “Wow, that feels real!”

We combined tactile logic with creative fun — the perfect mix for kids cooking games free of pressure, perfect for preschoolers, toddlers, and the whole family.

👪 More Than Just Play: Cooking With Your Kids IRL

Food Festival 3 is more than a game. It’s a cooking experience for families — with no ads, no timers, and no fail screens. That means it’s a perfect cooking game for kids, whether they’re 3 or 9.

Parents told us they love playing it with their kids on the couch — and then heading into the real kitchen to recreate the burger, pizza, or breakfast sandwich they just made together.

All in-game meals are based on real recipes. After launch, we’ll even offer downloadable recipe cards so families can cook together IRL — turning a burger maker game into a real cooking class at home.