A fantasy cooking competition. That's a short description of what Battle Chef Brigade is. We had a chat with Trinket Studios' Tom Eastman to learn more about the work that's gone into and its mechanics.
"You've got Orcs, and Elves, and Humans as chefs", explains Eastman. "They hunt monsters for their ingredients. They bring those ingredients back to the kitchen to make dishes for the judges. So sort of like a Food Network show, but with fantasy and magic and a lot of crazy gameplay genres all at once."
As you cook your dishes, you're actually using the ingredients to match other tastes in what amounts to a rather addictive take on the match-3 puzzle genre.
"We wanted to not just do match-3 with a twist, but give it the feel of actual cooking", says Eastman. "So further into the game it becomes more and more about managing your different containers, which are magical, and using your spells, as well as managing with bone and poison, and giving you that feel of managing your pantry by hunting. Having things simmering on the pot while you go hunting or coming in and building up a really cool dish. Or as judges get added to the competition, satisfying their preferences or using a required ingredient sort of like Iron Chef."
There is no firm release date for Battle Chef Brigade, but it's been in development for quite some time, a result of the ambition to make lots of characters, each with their own storyline for the game. The game was recently confirmed for Nintendo Switch, in addition to PS4, Xbox One and PC.