Who's Behind Overcooked? Ghost Town's Fun, Frantic Franchise

Overcooked is a chaotic couch co-op cooking game developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17. It was released in 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and in 2017 for Nintendo Switch. The game is designed for one to four players, who work together as chefs in a variety of challenging kitchens to prepare meals within a time limit. The unique kitchen layouts, with various obstacles and hazards, add to the difficulty and require teamwork and coordination. Overcooked received positive reviews and won several awards, including Best British Game and Best Family Game at the 13th British Academy Games Awards. It was followed by sequels Overcooked 2 and Overcooked: All You Can Eat, which expanded on the original game's concept and offered new levels and features.

Overcooked! is developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17

Overcooked! is a cooking simulation game where players control chefs in a kitchen filled with obstacles and hazards to rapidly prepare meals to specific orders under a time limit. The game was developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17.

Ghost Town Games is a BAFTA-winning, UK-based, three-person independent games studio. Overcooked! was its first release, followed by the highly anticipated sequels Overcooked 2 and Overcooked All You Can Eat. The company was founded by Phil Duncan and Oli De-Vine, who previously worked at Frontier Developments for around eight years. They knew they wanted to make a cooperative game, as they felt that most games treated multiplayer as an afterthought to the single-player experience. The kitchen setting was based on Duncan's past experience working as a barman and waiter.

Team17 is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in Wakefield, UK. It was founded in December 1990 by Michael Robinson and Martyn Brown. The company is known for publishing games such as Worms and The Escapists, and it has won multiple awards for its work. Team17 helped publish Overcooked! in May 2016 and flew the game makers to E3 2016 to showcase the game.

The game was released in 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch

Overcooked was released in 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The game was developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17. It is a cooperative cooking game for one to four players, who work together as chefs in a kitchen to prepare meals under a time limit. The game was initially released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in August 2016, with a Nintendo Switch version following in July 2017.

The game received positive reviews, with praise for its cooperative gameplay and level design. It was also nominated for several awards, including four awards at the 13th British Academy Games Awards, where it won Best British Game and Best Family Game.

The development of Overcooked began with the founding of Ghost Town Games, a Cambridge-based studio. The company's founders, Phil Duncan and Oli De-Vine, wanted to create a cooperative game from the start, as they felt that multiplayer modes in other games were often treated as an afterthought. They settled on a kitchen setting based on Duncan's past experience in restaurants, believing that it was a perfect analogy for cooperation, with its emphasis on teamwork, time management, and spatial awareness.

The game's levels were designed to encourage cooperation, with barriers and separate stations for ingredients, preparation, and cooking. The developers also included kitchen actions that would take time to complete, allowing players to focus on multiple tasks simultaneously. To keep the game simple and reduce pressure on players, they replaced a life-based system with a scoring-based one, minimising the consequences of small mistakes.

The release of Overcooked was preceded by a major shift in focus from recipes to level design, based on feedback from players at conventions. This feedback also helped the small development team identify and fix bugs. Following the game's release, Ghost Town Games and Team17 focused on creating downloadable content and a retail package for the game.

It is a chaotic couch co-op cooking game for one to four players

Overcooked is a chaotic couch co-op cooking game for one to four players. It is developed by Cambridge-based studio Ghost Town Games and published by Team17. The game was released in August 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows, with a Nintendo Switch version following in July 2017.

In Overcooked, players take on the role of chefs in a series of unusual kitchens, preparing meals by managing ingredients, cooking, serving, and cleaning up within a time limit. The game's levels are designed to encourage cooperation and coordination among players, with obstacles and challenges that require effective communication and strategy. For example, a kitchen might be separated by a pedestrian crosswalk, or set on the back of two trucks travelling at different speeds.

The game offers both cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes, as well as a single-player mode where one player controls two chefs. Overcooked received positive reviews for its dynamic and challenging co-op gameplay, receiving awards for Best Creative Gameplay, Best Game by a Small Studio, and Best Multiplayer Game.

A sequel, Overcooked 2, was released in 2018, offering new levels, recipes, and online multiplayer. Overcooked: All You Can Eat, a compilation including both Overcooked and Overcooked 2, was released in 2020 for next-generation consoles and in 2021 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.

Overcooked! received positive reviews and won two awards at the 13th British Academy Games Awards

Overcooked! is a cooking simulation game developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17. It was released in August 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch version released in July 2017. The game received positive reviews for its cooperative gameplay dynamics, with players praising the hilarious and challenging nature of the game.

Overcooked! was nominated for four awards at the 13th British Academy Games Awards and won two: Best British Game and Best Family Game. The ceremony, hosted by Danny Wallace, was held on April 6, 2017, at Tobacco Dock, honouring achievements in video gaming from the previous year, 2016. Overcooked! was one of several games to receive multiple nominations, including Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, which received the most with eight, followed by Inside with seven, and Firewatch with six.

The game's concept was created by Phil Duncan and Oli De-Vine, the founders of Ghost Town Games, who wanted to make a cooperative game where the multiplayer element was the focal point, rather than an afterthought to a single-player experience. The kitchen setting was inspired by Duncan's past experience working as a barman and waiter. He noted that kitchens require "teamwork, time management, spatial awareness and shouting," all vital components of a cooperative game. The level designs emphasised the need for players to work together, with barriers and disruptions in the kitchen layouts that encouraged communication and coordination.

The positive reviews and awards received by Overcooked! led to the development of a sequel, Overcooked 2, released in August 2018, and a remastered version, Overcooked: All You Can Eat, released in 2020 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and later ported to Google Stadia in 2022.

The game has a unique kitchen setting inspired by one of the founder's experiences in restaurants

Overcooked is a cooking simulation game developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team17. It was released in 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The game is designed for one to four players, who work together as chefs in a kitchen to prepare meals under a time limit.

The game has a unique kitchen setting inspired by one of the founders of Ghost Town Games, Phil Duncan, and his experiences in restaurants. Duncan had previously worked as a barman and waiter, and he felt that "kitchens have always struck me as a perfect analogy for a cooperative game: an occupation where teamwork, time management, spatial awareness and shouting are all vitally important."

The initial level designs emphasised the need for players to work together. For example, a barrier in the kitchen meant that it was quicker to pass an ingredient to another player than to walk around with it. The game also includes kitchen actions that take time to complete, encouraging players to manage their time efficiently and work together to complete dishes.

The kitchen setting and gameplay mechanics of Overcooked are designed to promote cooperation and communication among players, reflecting the importance of teamwork in a real-life kitchen. The game's levels become increasingly challenging, testing the players' skills in coordination and cooperation.

The unique kitchen setting of Overcooked, inspired by Duncan's experiences, sets the game apart from others in the genre and contributes to its success and positive reviews. The game has received multiple nominations and awards, including Best British Game and Best Family Game at the 13th British Academy Games Awards.

Frequently asked questions