Resolution Games, creators of virtual reality games with millions of downloads, is showing off gameplay for its next VR title, Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale. The game is part of the Stockholm-based company‘s continuing quest to make accessible, casual, and humorous titles for the masses to drive mainstream consumer acceptance of VR.
Headed by Tommy Palm, the studio has previously created titles such as Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs, Bait, and Acron: Attack of the Squirrels. The latter has been downloaded more than 3 million times.
“We’re sharing some more detail about our extremely whimsical cooking and collaborative multiplayer game,” Palm said in an interview with GamesBeat. “We’ve always been very big on trying to make VR content that would fit everybody and bring more people into VR. Cooking is one of these things we have wanted to do for a long time.”
Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale is a cooperative game where up to four players can work as chefs in a kitchen. The game will launch later this year on Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift platforms, with additional platforms to come. The title has been in the works for a couple of years.
Gustav Stenmark is the producer if Cook-Out, and he said in a statement that players will have to deal with the pressure cooker of a fast-moving kitchen, where chefs prepare meals but also have to fight off a number of nasty customers who seem absolutely set on making trouble.
“The game has a lot of our traditional humor and a little bit of a cartoony style,” Palm said. “It’s built around needing to communicate with other players. You need to serve customers, but they’re very different types of customers.”
While the game is focused on cooperative play, solo players will be able to enjoy the experience with the help of a simulated partner. The trailer includes three prominent Swedish chefs, including the winner of MasterChef Sweden 2020 Sofia Henriksson, Gabriel Jonsson, and Filip Poon.
Founded in 2015, Resolution Games is privately held and has 60 employees. Palm said the company has a bunch of games in development and will likely ship a couple of titles this year.
While the team has been sheltering in place, the developers have been holding meetings inside the game, so they can talk about any work matters as they play, Palm said. The Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale team includes Mike Booth, a veteran developer who worked on titles such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and Nox. He was most recently creative director at Facebook on VR.
Palm said he really likes the Oculus Quest platform, which has been selling out, because it gets rid of the wires and some of the hassles of playing VR. “The price point is good and it is very comfortable,” he said. “You don’t have to upgrade your drivers all the time like you do on the PC.”
With hardware like the Quest in place, Palm believes the onus is on developers to create outstanding games to attract more consumers to VR.