If you’re like me, you love games AND you love cooking. No game night is complete without a few snacks or treats themed around what we’re playing. But what if you could combine both things into one and actually play a game with your food?
Jenn Sandercock did just this when she created the Edible Games Cookbook. She designed 12 different games centered around food and put it together into a beautiful 300 page hardcover book. And starting today, you can pledge for a copy of this book on Kickstarter! The book itself contains recipes, game rules, and modifications for both. Are you a beginner cook? A vegan? Playing with kids? Playing with grown-ups? There’s something for you. There’s even a game completely centered around getting kids to eat their veggies in a fun way!
I sat down with Jenn to talk a bit about the book and what led her to create it:
Why edible games?
It’s more like why not? It just seems so natural to me. As soon as I got into game design I was always trying to think of different ways to push games or use other things in my life I like, like dancing and food. Whenever I showed people the ideas I had around food games, people thought they were amazing, so I wanted to keep doing that. A cookbook is the best way to let other people play these games, because I just want other people to have fun at your Party Hosting restaurant space.
What’s your favorite game in the cookbook?
The Patisserie Code. It’s the most annoying to make (it takes the most amount of time) but it takes cream puffs or profiteroles. My family, we called them petit choux. We ate them from quite a young age. My mom got them from a nearby bakery and when it closed, she started making them. I knew I wanted to make a game with cream puffs and I’m really happy with the game that ended up coming out of it.
What would you say to someone who’s intimidated in the kitchen?
A lot of the games don’t require cooking at all, just go to the market and buy some ingredients. Even for the more complex games (like The Patisserie Code), I’ve got a lot of cheat ways you can get around it, like you can buy things from the store. Even if somebody’s a total amateur, I ‘ve got options to help people be able to make them.
When you’re not playing with food, what are your favorite games?
At the moment my favorite tabletop/card game is Just Desserts, so staying on theme! I bought it because I wanted to see what other people were doing around food games, but I really enjoyed playing the game.
In terms of digital games, I was recently playing a game on my phone called Hexologic, and that’s a really lovely puzzle game.
I’ve been playing through LA Noire on the Switch, I worked on LA Noire and never had the time to finish it, so that feels really good.
Check out the Kickstarter today and download a sample chapter of the award-winning “Order of the Oven Mitt” game. Let me know in the comments if you back it!
