Gourmet Heaven hands-on - "Very promising start"
- Created by University of Northampton students
- Asian-inspired cooking game
- Updates coming soon
As a fan of cooking games, I am always on the lookout for new ones to try. Gourmet Heaven is an Asian-inspired cooking sim, where you play as a fox character, running a restaurant all on your own! You will need to take your customers' orders before entering a variety of mini-games to cook, then serve what you've created.
It's on the simple side, but there are four different mini-games that are used to create the various foods that you are cooking. One of them has you dropping items in pho by tapping when the ingredients are perfectly above the bowl. Another has you turning off some bao buns before they burn, correctly rolling sushi by placing the right ingredients in the right order, or swiping to chop up some mango for mango sticky rice.
I do like the variety in the different mini-games in Gourmet Heaven! You can only really take one order at a time, then go to the highlighted mini-game, make the dish, and bring it to the table.
I find it a bit confusing that there are always tons of people (even some who didn't order anything) at the tables, which makes it a bit challenging to figure out where you are going. Sometimes, when you drop off a food item, the person at the table actually orders something more from you as well!
Your ultimate goal in Gourmet Heaven is to feed your customers and try to meet the goal each day. At its current stage, there are two days total, and both need to be accessed from the main menu. If you finish a day, your only option is to "replay", though if you do end up back at the main menu, you can see that they are working on a shop to add in.
The original team behind Gourmet Heaven are actually students from the University of Northampton, where the game came to life through a group project assignment last year. It has continued to be worked on and maintained by the lead designer, who has been adding in changes as they learn new mechanics in their course.
This is a live showcase of their progress as a student, as they adapt and add in their own skills as their skillset changes. It's interesting to see a student go from development to publishing on Android like this.
