Originally, I wanted to develop Chef's Choice as an analog card game. Doing so would have solved several problems: for one, I already spend way too much time in front of a screen for my day job. For another, I regularly attend a board game club that hosts dedicated playtesting sessions for prototypes by aspiring game designers. Plus, testing, balancing, and submitting to publishers would have been much easier; instead of painstakingly coding every tick and effect, I could have just written my effects on blank white cards and explained the rules verbally—and off we would have gone.

I spent about five months tinkering with the concept and gameplay mechanics, but eventually, the complexity simply became overwhelming, and I found myself leaning more and more toward developing it as a video game. Essentially, players have 5 cards in hand, 3 kitchen staff cards, 3 kitchen utensil cards, and several preparation cards that need to be combined cleverly. This means that after every round, a player has to sum up at least 12 cards, with various effects, bonuses, and flavor combinations requiring even more arithmetic. That’s when it really made sense to take the game into the digital realm.

The biggest advantage I see in the video game adaptation is the ability to implement new, randomized effects. The game can now (theoretically) become exponentially more complex without negatively impacting the player—at the end of the day, the computer handles all the math for you. As a game designer, this aspect turns my previous mechanics upside down, allowing me to look at the game with fresh eyes and integrate brand-new features. For example, the keyword "especially fresh" for leafy greens like arugula or spinach: "If I am not played by the end of a round, shuffle me back into your deck as 'spoiled vegetables'" [Spoiled Vegetables: "When you draw me, reduce the Satiety of your other hand cards"].