Cooking Diary: A Six-Year Recipe for Success
MYTONIA, the developer behind the wildly popular time-management game Cooking Diary, reveals the recipe for its six-year reign. Whether you're a fellow developer seeking inspiration or a dedicated player curious about the game's creation, this behind-the-scenes look offers valuable insights.
Key Ingredients:
- 431 captivating story episodes
- 38 unique hero characters
- 8,969 diverse in-game elements
- 905,481 thriving guilds
- A plentiful assortment of engaging events and contests
- A dash of humor
- Grandpa Grey's secret ingredient (revealed later!)
The Cooking Process:
Step 1: Crafting the Narrative:
Begin by developing a compelling storyline rich in humor and unexpected twists. Populate the world with a vibrant cast of characters. The story unfolds across various restaurants and districts, starting with your grandfather Leonard's Burger Joint and expanding to locations like Colafornia, Schnitzeldorf, and Sushijima. Cooking Diary features 160 unique culinary establishments spread across 27 districts, ensuring a constant influx of virtual diners.
Step 2: Customization Extravaganza:
Enhance the game world with an impressive 8,000 customizable items, including 1,776 outfits, 88 facial feature sets, 440 hairstyles, and over 6,500 decorative items for homes and restaurants. Players can even personalize their in-game pets with 200 clothing options.
Step 3: The Art of In-Game Events:
Introduce a dynamic series of tasks and events, leveraging robust analytics to ensure both creative design and data-driven precision. The key is layering events—each individually rewarding and collectively engaging. August, for example, featured nine concurrent events, offering diverse gameplay experiences.
Step 4: Building a Guild Community:
Cooking Diary boasts over 905,000 guilds, fostering a strong sense of community. Introduce guild events and tasks gradually, ensuring they complement each other and avoid scheduling conflicts. Poorly planned events can negatively impact player engagement.
Step 5: Embracing Lessons from Setbacks:
Mistakes are inevitable, but learning from them is crucial. The Cooking Diary team learned valuable lessons from the initial launch of pets in 2019. Adjusting the pet acquisition system resulted in a 42% revenue increase.
Step 6: Strategic Presentation and Collaboration:
The casual games market is highly competitive. Cooking Diary's success stems from a robust social media presence, creative marketing, engaging contests, and a keen awareness of market trends. Strategic collaborations, such as the partnership with Netflix's Stranger Things and YouTube, significantly boosted the game's visibility.
Step 7: Continuous Innovation:
Maintaining success requires constant evolution. Cooking Diary's enduring popularity is attributed to its ongoing updates, new content, refined gameplay, and innovative event calendars.
Step 8: The Secret Ingredient: Passion!
Grandpa Grey's secret ingredient is passion. A successful game is built on genuine love for the craft.
Download Cooking Diary on the App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Microsoft Store, and AppGallery.
