Calcifer's Cook-Off!

An exciting cooking adventure inspired by Howl's Moving Castle

Calcifer's Cook-Off is a steampunk-themed arcade game inspired by the cooking scene from the Studio Ghibli movie, Howl's Moving Castle.

Video of Game Run-Through

GameRunThru.MP4

Full game description

The goal of the game is to cook and complete as many dishes as possible before time runs out. Your performance determines how many gears you receive at the end as a reward.

Setting the Difficulty

Before starting, rotate the potentiometer "heat knob" to choose the game difficulty. A higher difficulty shortens the safe cooking time and increases the chance of burning.

Setting the Difficulty

Before starting, rotate the potentiometer "heat knob" to choose the game difficulty. A higher difficulty shortens the safe cooking time and increases the chance of burning.

Cooking Mechanics

Pans exist on a stove slider:

Pan set all the way forward on the stove → Dish is being cooked or burned.
Pan pulled back off the stove → Dish is cooling down or ready to cook.

Game Progress

Each pan has two LED indicators and a progress bar:

Green LED → The pan is in the safe cooking zone. Let it cook to accumulate progress.
Red LED → The pan is burning. If the pan remains on the stove while red:
- A buzzer sounds.
- You must remove the pan immediately to prevent over-burning.

Each dish has two progress bars displayed above it:

A cooking progress bar (fills up as the dish cooks)
A burning progress bar (fills up if the dish is left on while burning)

GameProgressDemo.mov

Game Flow

Cook dishes by keeping pans on the stove during the green phase.
When the red phase begins, remove the pan to cool it down, then return it to continue cooking.
A dish completes cooking when its cooking bar fills.
A dish becomes burnt if the burning bar fills.

The game ends/resets when:

The overall timer expires, or
All dishes are either completed or burnt, or
No input is detected for 20 secs - "ERROR" message displayed

End of Game – Rewards

At the end of the game:

A servo-driven mechanism dispenses gears
The number of gears dispensed corresponds to how many dishes were successfully cooked (and not burnt)

Photos of the game in action!

Game Requirements

Three distinct inputs/interactions

Button to start game (digital)
Pan on/off stove detected by IR non-contact sensing (digital)
"Heat" stove knob for difficulty levels (analog)

Three distinct modes of feedback

Buzzer turns on to indicate burning (electromechanical)
Red and green LEDs to indicate burning/safe-to-cook stoves
LED matrix indicating cooking progress

Game should last 30-60 seconds with display of time progress and should reset after no user input error for 20 seconds

LED matrix displays timer countdown once game begins, starting from 60 seconds
When no user input detected for 20 seconds, game displays error message and then resets to Welcome display

Game must hold at least 50 gears and dispense 1-3 gears once over

Game utilizes a 3D-printed cylinder to hold a stack of >50 gears
Based on the number of dishes completed, gears are dispensed: 0 dishes receives 1 gear, 1-2 dishes receives 2 gears, 3 dishes receives 3 gears

Maximum dimensions of 50 x 50 x 100 cm
- Game dimensions are 37.7 x 41.9 x 51.4 cm

Game Inspirations

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Howl's Moving Castle is an animated film by Hazao Miyazaki, produced by Studio Ghibli. In summary, the film follows a woman facing an age-bending curse while living in a magic, mobile home of a mysterious wizard. As she navigates the uncharted space, she finds herself meeting spirits of all sorts (see: Calcifer's cooking scene) and observing undertones of war surrounding the castle.

The movie is heavily influenced by steampunk, drawing connections to retrofuturism, technofantasy, and fairy tale, all encompassed by an industrial overtone and visual layout.

Calcifer's Cooking Scene

A memorable moment of the movie is a cooking scene, in which the protagonist suddenly feels settled in the castle, as she prepares a meal with a hungry fire sprite named Calcifer. The scene depicts Calicifer being a friendly spirit with an eagerness to not only cook, but eat.

Overcooked (2022)

We take inspiration from the Ghost Town Games / Team 17 game Overcooked, as chefs must maneuver between cooking stations as timers consistently are set off - indicating either a complete cook (preparing for being overcooked), or a cook in progress. Chefs must take the pans on/off the stoves, which served as the basis of our interaction pattern.

Cooking Mama (2022)

Cooking Mama by JP: Taito and Square Enix is a classic Nintendo game that shares the same ethos of beginner cooking as a time-oriented game. Players must coordinate around Cooking Mama's recipes and time constraints, much alike the heat that Calcifer induces with his stochastic nature. We drew inspiration from the focused user interface of this game and sequential nature.

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