Overview:
Chef’s Adventure is a 2D Action/Adventure Platformer that takes place in the fantasy world of Gorme. The player takes the role of Chef, the master chef of the human race, and is thrust into a quest to save humanity from near extinction. Gourmet contains seven realms, all associated with one of the seven sentient races. Each race lives independently and, until recently, peacefully. The beginning of Chef’s Adventure tells of a human race that is overcome with a deathly plague. Of the seven races that exist, Chef must defeat the high ranking chefs of the other 6 to acquire each race’s specific magic cooking tool. With the Titanic Tenderizer left by his master, and a recipe for the ultimate pan pizza, Chef sets out against the world to save his race from imminent extinction.
Platform: PC
Genre: Fantasy, Actoin/Adventure, 2D Platformer
Development Time: 12 Weeks
Team Size: 3
Role: Producer, Game Designer, Level Designer
My Take:
Chef’s Adventure was my capstone project that I developed as part of the curriculum for my senior project for George Mason University’s Computer Game Design Program. This project gave us the most freedom, but also taught me the most. For this project, we essentially took on the role of an independent studio looking to get the green light to develop our game fully. As such, it was my responsibility as the producer to make sure that our team met all of our deadlines with a fully functioning product. This was an invaluable experience for us. My team and I got to see our game go from prototyping and vertical slicing all the way through alpha and beta, and eventually all the way to a finished product. Every week, we would meet with our professor and discuss our weekly progression. In order to successfully prove that our team was moving in the right direction, I scheduled the entire semester in advance in order to give us a guideline. Of course, things changed throughout development and I adjusted accordingly. This process as a while taught me the dangers of scope inflation, and the importance of flexibility as a producer. Finally, I learned that working as a cohesive team is the most important part of game development.
Tyler Buczek: Video Game Producer 