MasterChef: Let’s Cook! (now renamed MasterChef: Learn to Cook!) is a cross-platform cooking game I worked on from pre-production to release (2020-2021) as Game Designer at Vertical/Celsius Online. I then managed the design side of its updates as Lead Game Designer during two years of LiveOps (late 2021 to late 2023).
Preproduction
The project started in 2020 as a partnership between Apple (client), Tilting Point (publishing), Old Skull Games (co-production) and Celsius Online. The goal was to adapt the international TV show MasterChef into a juicy cooking game drawing from both satisfying hypercasual minigames and competitive mobile games.
As the first game designer on Celsius’ side called on the project, I worked with OSG’s lead designer and artistic director to establish the game structure and write the Game Design Document. I also worked with programmers to prototype the first minigames and the one of our key features, the ingredient selection system (see the ‘Setup’ minigame screenshot below).
Production
During the 1 year production, I was one of the 3 to 5 designers on the project. My work involved:
- Designing minigames by finding the right compromises between intuitiveness, juiciness, and depth (since the game features asynchronous competition, minigames should have a clear progression curve for both score and execution time)
- Designing recipes by taking inspiration from real-world dishes from all around the world
- Integration of the designed recipes in Unity, using the tools made by our programmers
- Balancing of the minigames and scoring system
- Brainstorming UI designs with our UI artist (the game had to be playable both in portrait and landscape, and with touch, mouse or controller inputs)
- Writing dialogue, including the many reactions the judges can have to the player’s dish and performance
- Designing the game’s FTUE and tutorial
- Conceiving other various features and following up with the programmer’s needs for specifications
One of the main challenges we initially faced was the poor communication between the different companies involved, which caused design changes on features already in production. We normalized our communication by using a strict Sprint and User stories planification, under which every feature is written as a User Story by a designer, approved during a pre-sprint meeting by the whole team, and then can’t be changed until the end of the sprint.
Live Ops
After the game released in September 2021 on Apple Arcade, I was part of the team that stayed on the project to develop its updates, and I became the project’s Lead Game Designer after a few months.
My responsabilities as Lead Game Designer involved:
- Planning our updates roadmap with the Producer
- Listing every design-related task for the next update
- Managing the (up to 2) other designers on the project, assigning tasks, reviewing work and giving feedback
- Going back and forth with our publisher to improve the design and get players feedback, through meetings and pitch decks
- Onboarding new team members
- Adjusting the updates’ content based on seasonal events, game artists’ availability, etc.
- Regular designer work when possible (design documents, feature briefings, recipes integrations, balancing…)
