The art style, the character design…
The core gameplay and how the numbers play with player psychology…
The layout of the different levels, plus the idea of expanding it with a creative workshop mode…
It also included the experimental angle of how this game would be used to promote the platform.
Lucas didn't go into every detail—he just gave an overview.
After all, it was just a concept draft. The finer points would be worked out later in the actual development.
And since everyone present—from music and level design to numbers, art, marketing, and platform ops—would be involved, diving too deep now would just be counterproductive.
"Any questions?" Lucas asked, scanning the room.
Rachel and Anna shook their heads.
They were mainly handling art and story design.
And from what they saw in the concept draft, the story was basically just a side element—not much for them to do there.
As for art, the concept art already laid out the direction. The cartoon style had more or less been locked in.
All that was left was refining the details later on.
Everyone else also shook their heads. No one had much to say.
To be honest, they were a little surprised.
Because even though it was just a concept draft, it already mapped out the whole game.
All they had to do now was build it based on that plan.
As for whether it would actually work—they'd have to wait until the demo was done to know for sure.
At the end of the day, no matter how polished a concept looks, it's still just theory until it's tested.
The dev team didn't seem to have any major issues. But on the operations side, Ethan had something to say.
Ethan asked, "Boss Lucas, are we planning to launch this game during the Lunar New Year?"
Lucas replied, "More specifically, on Valentine's Day."
Ethan continued, "In that case, I suggest we launch with a coupon promotion. Let players get a better deal if they buy it on the Nebula Games platform."
"At the same time, we can push the idea of it being a couples' game as a selling point. Based on market research, we'd be the first to do that—and the game itself really is designed around co-op gameplay."
"Something like: 'Feel the sweetness of love—play Overcooked!' That could be our slogan."
Unlike the dev team, Ethan wouldn't be directly involved in building the game.
But as a seasoned professional, he'd started to get a read on Lucas by now.
When it came to the game itself, Lucas wasn't open to debate. But when it came to marketing and operations, he welcomed input.
Right now, the total development time for Overcooked was just a little over two months.
In that kind of tight window, nailing the marketing strategy was critical—especially since Overcooked was meant to be an experimental title to promote the Nebula Games platform.
They couldn't just quietly make it and toss it on the market.
If they did that, the game would be completely drowned out during the massive Lunar New Year release season.
So they needed to start locking down a promotion plan now.
"If we're going to offer a discount, let's just go all in and make it buy-one-get-one-free. Overcooked is already a game that's all about multiplayer cooperation. And when it comes to the slogan, don't just focus on romantic couples. Sure, we're launching it on Valentine's Day, but themes like brotherhood, sisterhood, and strong friendships can also be used as promotional angles," Lucas said with a nod.
...
After finishing the presentation for Overcooked's concept and deciding on the marketing direction, the team started preparing for development.
While the others dug deeper into the concept and polished the art, story, and other design elements, Lucas wasn't idle either.
In the office, Lucas used memory capsules to sort through and record some great level design ideas.
The biggest challenge in developing Overcooked comes from the level design and the game's balance.
If it's too easy, the game loses its flavor.
Just like with Souls-like games—difficulty isn't the only core element, but it's definitely a defining one.
If a Souls game turned into a hack-and-slash, then a lot of the game's original design wouldn't feel clever anymore—it'd just feel like extra baggage.
Even though Overcooked is a small-scale game, it's the same deal. If the difficulty curve isn't right, the whole game loses its charm.
Things like chopping, washing dishes, prepping ingredients, cooking, and putting out kitchen fires with extinguishers—these are all part of the gameplay. But even more important is how the numbers are balanced.
If the time limits and score goals are too tight, players will feel like the game's being unfair.
But if those numbers are too generous, then the gameplay elements lose meaning.
That's why Lucas had to really nail the difficulty.
It's a casual game, so players should be able to finish levels without too much stress.
But getting a full three-star score should require solid teamwork between two players.
And then there's the online system—Overcooked is actually Nebula Games' first online multiplayer game.
The servers had to be rock solid.
After all, Overcooked is being marketed as a co-op game with online play as a core feature.
...
Once the plan for the game was locked in, under Lucas's lead, the whole dev department ran smoothly and efficiently.
On the art side, Lucas walked Rachel and the newer art staff through the direction for Overcooked.
"The whole game should use warm colors. Even the zombies in the background should look cute and goofy. This is an all-ages casual simulation game—we don't need it to be realistic or match the setting perfectly. What matters most is that players of any age won't find it off-putting."
"Got it," Rachel nodded.
As an artist, she and Lucas had already worked together on four previous games.
She totally understood what he wanted. But the new artist next to her looked completely lost.
To her, this felt just like working on a production line.
The style, the character sketches, the requirements—they were all laid out in detail.
She could hand this off to an outsourcing team and they'd be able to start producing assets right away.
She had applied for a position as a game artist—so why did it feel like all she needed to do was quality control for outsourced work? No designing involved at all?
Hector and the others were feeling the same.
But thanks to their experience on Outlast, nobody was too surprised this time around.
The general feeling was: this is way easier.
Sure, they still had to work overtime sometimes, but at least there wasn't a bunch of wasted effort.
Any time something had to be redone, it was usually due to small details, not major design problems.
It was almost too easy.
(End of the Chapter)
---
Read +60 advanced chapters on my patre*n
patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya
Free Tier can read 3 advanced chapters
---