So I released a small cooking game that’s playable in the browser recently. It’s pretty simple. The player gets order tickets with toppings like ketchup, mustard, lettuce etc. and they assemble burgers. They’re scored on how quickly they complete the orders and how neatly the burgers are stacked. I didn’t expect a lot of plays for it, but as of now it only has 21 plays and 90 total page views, which is a lot less than other games I’ve released on Itch.
My original thought was that there are similar cooking simulator games on Steam and there seems to be a small but significant number of gamers that like these kind of simulators. I guess now I’m second guessing that, and I’m trying to understand what I need to do better next time if I develop another game.
Posting the game trailer on Reddit got basically no engagement at all. Maybe that’s the problem? Is the trailer just boring? I figured it would appeal to players that like cooking simulators but maybe not. I’d really be interested if anyone has some advice on how I can improve.
Was the extent of your marketing posting a few times on reddit? Maybe there’s some other ways to try and get some more traction. Devlogs are very popular and are a way creators build momentum up to release, blogs or video format seems good.
Even regular posts on a forum like here would have some kind of impact, that game wombo is a good example as its in the recent posts on forums all the time because of the creator is posting updates and commenters from people trying it.
Maybe a revised trailer with a game title (so we know what to search for after seeing it) or other details on what makes it exciting.
If nobody knows about your product, no one will buy it. -some tacky marketer
Yep, positng on reddit was basically my only strategy. I didn’t expect much from it but I’m still a little perplexed as to why I didn’t get any upvotes. Thought I’d get at least a few. I’ll see about trying some devlogs next time. I like the idea. Anyway, with that being said I appreciate the response!
Too bad about reddit, maybe a different outlet would do better. I don’t use it but tiktok and reel format on IG and YouTube are pretty popular outlets and seem to be a common way for marketing these days.
Personally I always find post-mortum posts interesting reads when people talk about challenges during their games development, and how they overcame it. That said someone interested in game dev may not be as into cozy games and a cozy gamer may not be into game dev deep dives.
Maybe reddit is a good place for you to share but maybe you could reach your audience in different channels than what you targeted? R/Cozygame/cooking game/fastfood.
It really nice to see you trying to learn from this experience, I think a lot of people would get discouraged in this situation and not try and learn from it to improve their situation next time or for a re-release/update to the project.
I have watched your trailer a few times, but not played your game. Here are my thoughts.
A game like yours needs ‘juice’. Every interaction, placing a burger, flipping, etc, needs a nice bit of VFX and SFX, and this should be visible/audible in your trailer. It looks like you have a really nice prototype and now you need the final 80% - polish. (You might have SFX but this is not audible in the trailer due to the music.)
The fade-to-black transitions are boring. Straight cuts would be better, and maybe more often to make the game seem more hectic if that is what you’re aiming for. Also your trailer doesn’t seem to even show a logo or name. I would have that upfront and also overlaid in a corner the whole time.
Have a look at YouTube for ‘game juice’. It is a lot of fun for both the player and you the developer.
There are lots of different cooking games of various types and I guess that makes it a bit more difficult to get people’s attention. You have to make it stand out from the competition. The mechanic with scores for stacking is not something that i would have known about just from looking at the trailer, so I would focus a bit more on showing whatever is unique about your game.
If i were you i’d maybe try to give it some kind of twist. Just something to make it stand out a bit more in terms of presentation without having to rework any of the base mechanics.
Your game hasn’t necessarily flopped. The quality of the game and marketing are very different beasts.
Having said that, in 2026, most indie game trailers have a lot more video editing. Try adding some smooth transitions between clips, maybe some text to highlight the main features of your game, things like that.
Also, you’ll need to market your game consistently. If reddit doesnt work, try Youtube devlogs/shorts, Tiktok, Twitter (not calling it X), and see which platform works best for you. I think its wildly different for each game.
Focus on games you love and make games inspired by that. You don’t seem like a cooking game enthusiast. So how will you know how to make a game that cooking game enthusiasts will click on?
I saw a game called Tower of Kalemonvo. It reminded me of Runescape Classic and Diablo 1. I have hundreds of hours in Rsc and Diablo 2. That’s what got *me, the target audience* to try the demo. tldr I bought it and played 50 hours (a lot for how short it is).
That’s why I’m trying to make a Diablo-like game. Because I have a good idea of what that target market wants. I know what alvl is, why players want to use perfect gems on alvl 91+ gc’s (and why that’s not necessarily a good idea for alvl 91+ sc’s), how to use a loot filter, what fcr breakpoints are, why players recommend getting maek and laek, etc.
You made some space and science games. If that is what you love, then lean into that! If you are passionate about that stuff, and if you listen to player feedback (which it sounds like you do), then your chances of finding a nice cult following are higher than if you make a cooking game, or a Diablo game (unless you also happen to love Diablo games).
Also, the font on your cooking games pages are a bit hard to read.
I appreciate the thoughts and will definitely see about how I can add some juice to the game. It could be a lot more polished. I’ll have to think on it.
Right, if I can make the scoring system look better (right now it’s kind of just presented as a label3d in the style of handwritten customer feedback) it’d be nice to show off in the game trailer. I’ll think about adding a twist to make it stand out. It probably would appear kind of generic to someone who already played some cooking simulators. I’ll see if I can come up with something.
Good points, I might try to buy Cooking Simulator or Fast Food Simulator on Steam and play it long enough to get a good idea of what it’s really about. I do really enjoy cooking in real life but I may find it’s just not the type of game I would play. In which case, it’d be difficult for me to make a good game in the genre.
I haven’t seen this but I’m a big fan of simulators. For me if it’s mostly burgers I wouldn’t touch it. I already have sims that have burgers and dozens of other recipes as well. What I would suggest is that if you want to do a cooking sim with a small amount of food options, do a different cuisine that’s less common in these games. Sushi or Indian for instance.
One idea is to involve the complexity of real life cooking into a game. e.g. for making pizza, the type of flour you use, the hydration level, and whether you cook it at 500F in a regular oven or 900F in an outdoor pizza oven all determine the flavour, among other things. Not to mention stretching the dough without making holes. And there’s probably a lot more recipes irl. Is there a market for that kind of game?
Based on what I see on Steam, I would say there’s probably a market for it at least when it comes to pizza. It’s definitely worth thinking about if there’s a way to add some interesting mechanics that are more in depth than the typical cooking games. Although I don’t know if I’m a good enough programmer to create a dough stretching mechanic. Seems a bit complicated. Maybe with a bit of creativity it could be “good enough” to where the player gets a feel for what it’s like to stretch dough without it being hyper-realistic.
I played it a little bit and here’s my first impression and honest opinion:
The game is not polished and feels like a demo.
The game loads but the loading screen stays at 0%, giving the impression that it isn’t.
The aim mark / words are too small. The mouse control is too slippy slide-ish, I could be looking at the everywhere else except the stove.
I picked up some objects and they disappear. I don’t know if the stove is on or not. I tried to flip the patty and it doesn’t. It also doesn’t get burned if I left it too long I think. The head chef animation keeps restarting if I keep hitting the bell.
Visually not appealing. Just a room.
Those are just some, there many more things here need to improve.
My opinion on what can be improved.
Visually try to either make it more realistic or stylize it. Good visuals got people in the door.
Fix control motions, do players need to look at ceiling or floor when cooking? When you point at something it should only shows the options available to use eg. I got option to flip burger even though I’m not holding a flipper.
Add more mechanics, turn stove on/off, timer for each dish, send dish out to waiter, manager rushing you while you cook..etc.
Add more FX as visual indicator, eg. smoke when cooking / burned food.
I appreciate you checking it out and the feedback. The disappearing as far as I could tell from testing on my end only happens if you let an ingredient cross the blue lines at your station. But still I can see how that would be confusing because it can happen when it just barely crosses the line to the point where it’s hard to tell it even happened. I sort of just got used to it and also was rushing to finish it of course. And there may be some other input bugs that I thought were fixed, but now I know I should probably take a look at them again. I’ll be thinking on all your points as I try to plan out a complete overhaul of the game. Again, I appreciate it.
Yea, just like watching videos, the very first few seconds of player’s engagement are crucial and you have to make it count. When I first tried moving the mouse around and I couldn’t aim correctly I thought “well this is gonna rough”. Then the first thing I picked up was the baseball bat I expected to be holding it but it disappears I thought “this game has bug already?”.
As you can see the first 2 impressions are negatives already. You have to turn them into positives otherwise player would not be engaging for longer.
I hope I don’t come out as rude, you have successfully published a few working games that I have none yet, but I always try to give out my honest valuable information for others, and even myself, so they know what to improve.
This is also opinions of one person though, there are for you to consider because maybe others like it the way it is I don’t know.
I don’t take it personally. I’m glad you were honest. If I’m ever gonna make a good game I need to get a real objective assessment of where I’m going wrong. If it turns out I made a boring/crappy gaming, it is what it is. I’ll just try to learn from it best I can.
Definitely gonna try out some other platforms like you mentioned if I can get some polish on the trailer and game.