1 00:00:00,300 --> 00:00:04,210 This summer, I have been playing a lot of Overcooked. 2 00:00:04,210 --> 00:00:08,600 This is a pair of games about working in a kitchen, and in each level you must fulfil 3 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:13,160 orders by grabbing ingredients, chopping them up, cooking them, and delivering them to the 4 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:14,260 restaurant. 5 00:00:14,260 --> 00:00:18,810 Which would be pretty easy, if only the restaurant wasn’t on a swaying pirate ship, or being 6 00:00:18,810 --> 00:00:23,869 split down the middle by an earthquake, or set on a hot air balloon… which, halfway through 7 00:00:23,869 --> 00:00:28,880 the stage, crashes into a restaurant so you’re now having to make sushi as well as salad. 8 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:29,880 It’s crazy. 9 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:36,430 But, of course, the biggest challenge is simply getting two, three, or even four players to 10 00:00:36,430 --> 00:00:38,030 work together. 11 00:00:38,030 --> 00:00:42,640 Working as an organised team will require intense coordination and communication - unlike 12 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:45,720 pretty much any co-op game I’ve ever played before. 13 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,829 Because, playing games in co-op is always good fun. 14 00:00:48,829 --> 00:00:53,089 From old school run ’n’ gun games like Contra and Metal Slug, to modern day shooters 15 00:00:53,089 --> 00:00:57,809 like Gears of War and Halo, it’s a well established truism that any game is improved 16 00:00:57,809 --> 00:00:59,210 with the addition of a friend. 17 00:00:59,210 --> 00:01:04,690 But most of these games so rarely ask you to truly communicate with your partner. 18 00:01:04,690 --> 00:01:08,650 This is often because the game is symmetrical - which means that the two players interact 19 00:01:08,650 --> 00:01:11,370 with the game in pretty much the exact same way. 20 00:01:11,370 --> 00:01:15,590 Take a game like Resident Evil 5, where there’s not a tremendous difference between playable 21 00:01:15,590 --> 00:01:18,500 protagonists Chris and Sheva. 22 00:01:18,500 --> 00:01:23,290 They both carry guns, can both beat up zombies, and can both carry the same gear. 23 00:01:23,290 --> 00:01:27,630 And so because each character is equally capable, this can often lead to a situation where you 24 00:01:27,630 --> 00:01:31,500 feel like you’re just off playing your own games - and only infrequently joining forces 25 00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:37,540 to revive one another, or perform simple co-op actions like boosting one person over a ledge. 26 00:01:37,540 --> 00:01:42,490 This is very different to the more recently released Resident Evil Revelations 2, where 27 00:01:42,490 --> 00:01:45,390 co-op players control very different characters. 28 00:01:45,390 --> 00:01:50,340 In the first episode, one person picks Claire Redfield who is a typical Resi protagonist 29 00:01:50,340 --> 00:01:52,420 with access to all kinds of firearms. 30 00:01:52,420 --> 00:01:57,090 The other player is stuck with Moira Burton, who is not able to use guns - but does carry 31 00:01:57,090 --> 00:02:00,930 a torch which is used to light up enemies and temporarily stun them. 32 00:02:00,930 --> 00:02:05,070 She can also finish off knocked down enemies with a crowbar. 33 00:02:05,070 --> 00:02:10,000 With this set-up, the two players are forced to work much more closely together as neither 34 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:11,950 can really survive on their own. 35 00:02:11,950 --> 00:02:16,140 Claire needs Moira’s torch, and Moira needs Claire’s firepower. 36 00:02:16,140 --> 00:02:20,640 This massively increases the need for the two players to rely on one another, and creates 37 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:26,340 the sort of coordination and communication that’s lacking in many co-op games. 38 00:02:26,340 --> 00:02:31,250 If Revelations 2 shows how giving players different abilities leads to close coordination, 39 00:02:31,250 --> 00:02:35,720 then Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes proves that giving players different information 40 00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:37,820 can also power teamwork. 41 00:02:37,820 --> 00:02:42,740 In this game, one player looks at the screen and sees a ticking time bomb, covered in wires, 42 00:02:42,740 --> 00:02:45,760 buttons, keypads, and other weird gizmos. 43 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:50,220 The other player has a printed manual of instructions for how to defuse the bomb. 44 00:02:50,220 --> 00:02:52,750 So player one has to describe the bomb. 45 00:02:52,750 --> 00:02:56,490 Player two has to then read out instructions for how to defuse it. 46 00:02:56,490 --> 00:03:00,590 And player one has to listen closely, and follow those instructions. 47 00:03:00,590 --> 00:03:03,730 Literally the only way to play together is to communicate. 48 00:03:03,730 --> 00:03:07,700 And if you don’t… 49 00:03:07,700 --> 00:03:12,480 Asymmetric co-op doesn’t just force communication, but it’s also a great way of allowing players 50 00:03:12,490 --> 00:03:14,870 of different skill levels to play together. 51 00:03:14,870 --> 00:03:18,990 This is something Nintendo has been doing a lot lately with games like Super Mario Galaxy 52 00:03:18,990 --> 00:03:23,620 where one player controls Mario and basically just plays the game like usual - and another 53 00:03:23,620 --> 00:03:28,599 can join in with a much easier role as a floating cursor, picking up star bits and stunning 54 00:03:28,599 --> 00:03:30,440 enemies. 55 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:35,650 But while asymmetrical design can be great for co-op, it wouldn’t work for Overcooked 56 00:03:35,650 --> 00:03:39,410 because the game needs to automatically scale depending on whether you’re playing in a 57 00:03:39,410 --> 00:03:44,819 group of four, with a couple friends, with a pal, or even on your own. 58 00:03:44,819 --> 00:03:48,569 Plus, this is a game that attracts people of very different skill levels, so you need 59 00:03:48,569 --> 00:03:53,200 to be able to divvy up roles on a level by level basis - to make sure those who aren’t 60 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,250 super familiar with games don’t have to perform tricky movements like dodging fireballs 61 00:03:57,250 --> 00:03:59,670 or navigating slippery platforms. 62 00:03:59,670 --> 00:04:05,099 So in this game, all chefs have the exact same abilities, and the exact same information. 63 00:04:05,099 --> 00:04:09,660 And each player is perfectly capable of preparing and delivering a meal completely on their 64 00:04:09,660 --> 00:04:14,209 own - with the only communication being “I’ll make the burger, you do the pizza”. 65 00:04:14,209 --> 00:04:18,169 But that’s not how Overcooked ends up being played. 66 00:04:18,169 --> 00:04:19,169 Why? 67 00:04:19,169 --> 00:04:23,050 Well, in this case, it’s because of the level design. 68 00:04:23,050 --> 00:04:27,509 From the very first stage of Overcooked 1, we can see that the design of the kitchen, 69 00:04:27,509 --> 00:04:31,970 with this long island in the middle, makes it very tedious to get from the onions to 70 00:04:31,970 --> 00:04:35,569 the chopping station to the pot to the conveyer belt. 71 00:04:35,569 --> 00:04:40,240 But with two players working together - passing onions across the table in the centre - the 72 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:42,930 process is much, much faster. 73 00:04:42,930 --> 00:04:47,060 Pretty much every stage is built like this, and later exasperated by things like paths 74 00:04:47,060 --> 00:04:51,900 too narrow for more than one chef, and levels split into two by moving vehicles. 75 00:04:51,900 --> 00:04:57,050 And going faster is important, because the scoring system is all based on time. 76 00:04:57,050 --> 00:05:00,699 Meals need to be cooked quickly, or customers will leave and you’ll incur a penalty. 77 00:05:00,699 --> 00:05:04,039 You’ll get big tips for delivering items more rapidly. 78 00:05:04,039 --> 00:05:08,050 And your final score is based on how many meals you delivered during the level’s tight 79 00:05:08,050 --> 00:05:09,050 time period. 80 00:05:09,050 --> 00:05:13,789 So, the level design and the needs of the scoring system quite quickly splits players 81 00:05:13,789 --> 00:05:19,939 into distinct, and asymmetric roles - in this kitchen, for example, one player might focus 82 00:05:19,939 --> 00:05:24,110 on chopping vegetables and preparing meat patties, while the other cooks the burgers, 83 00:05:24,110 --> 00:05:25,930 prepares them, and delivers them to the restaurant. 84 00:05:25,930 --> 00:05:30,870 And this creates loads of communication at the start of the stage, where players decide 85 00:05:30,870 --> 00:05:35,759 who will do what, and puzzle out - together - the most efficient way to cook the required 86 00:05:35,759 --> 00:05:36,759 meals. 87 00:05:36,759 --> 00:05:40,900 After this, however, Overcooked could have suffered the main drawback of asymmetrical 88 00:05:40,900 --> 00:05:44,189 co-op: that you can fall into a predictable pattern. 89 00:05:44,189 --> 00:05:48,430 You have your role, and you stick to it, and in some games you don’t even need to communicate 90 00:05:48,430 --> 00:05:51,439 that much any more because you’re so used to a familiar set-up. 91 00:05:51,439 --> 00:05:54,120 But that’s not what happens in Overcooked. 92 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,240 Because no matter how well choreographed your kitchen is at the start of the level, 93 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:01,539 it will have turned into a manic catastrophe by the end of the stage. 94 00:06:01,539 --> 00:06:03,639 Why does this always happen? 95 00:06:03,639 --> 00:06:08,349 Well, it’s because there are loads of clever bits of design that disrupt these comfortable 96 00:06:08,349 --> 00:06:11,310 patterns, and force you to keep switching roles. 97 00:06:11,310 --> 00:06:14,430 So one is the wait timers on food that’s cooking. 98 00:06:14,430 --> 00:06:19,229 A burger takes a few seconds to fry, so it’s a waste of time to stand around and wait - encouraging 99 00:06:19,229 --> 00:06:23,860 players to wander off, see if they can help elsewhere in the kitchen, and generally become 100 00:06:23,860 --> 00:06:25,639 a huge nuisance. 101 00:06:25,639 --> 00:06:30,089 Wait too long and your burger will start to burn - causing other players to have to disrupt 102 00:06:30,089 --> 00:06:33,240 their task to come sort out your mess. 103 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:34,800 Then there’s washing up. 104 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:38,860 Which literally everyone hates, but I think it might also be the absolute key to the success 105 00:06:38,860 --> 00:06:40,960 of Overcooked. 106 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:46,439 Because no one is the dedicated plate washer; it doesn’t have the nice, predictable rhythm 107 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:52,120 of the other tasks; it only becomes a thing later in the level; and no one wants to do it. 108 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:57,020 Meaning that every time you run out of clean plates, the flow is disrupted, meals starts 109 00:06:57,020 --> 00:07:00,430 burning, and those comfortable roles get completely shaken up. 110 00:07:00,430 --> 00:07:05,630 And, of course, there’s the most obvious thing: disruptions in the levels themselves. 111 00:07:05,630 --> 00:07:10,689 Moving chopping stations, ingredients on conveyer belts, shifting kitchens, and nuisance rats 112 00:07:10,689 --> 00:07:15,569 break up patterns and destroy your best laid plans, forcing you to constantly talk through 113 00:07:15,569 --> 00:07:17,189 new set-ups. 114 00:07:17,189 --> 00:07:22,189 So Overcooked gets to be an asymmetrical game, without asymmetry, because it uses things 115 00:07:22,189 --> 00:07:27,569 in the level design - like weird kitchen layouts, dirty plates, random fires, and burning burger 116 00:07:27,569 --> 00:07:31,990 patties - to force players to work together, and then constantly change their roles throughout 117 00:07:31,990 --> 00:07:35,180 the stage, leading to lots of great communication. 118 00:07:35,180 --> 00:07:38,770 In the best Overcooked kitchens, you’ll never stop talking to each other. 119 00:07:38,770 --> 00:07:44,000 And, if you ask me, that means it’s a hugely successful co-op game. 120 00:07:45,740 --> 00:07:50,800 Hey, thanks for watching, and cheers to my Patrons for their support, and a special thank you 121 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:55,059 to my girlfriend for helping me get the Overcooked footage in this video. 122 00:07:55,059 --> 00:07:58,639 There’s more to cooperative gaming that we can talk about in the future, like making 123 00:07:58,639 --> 00:08:03,219 choices together, encouraging good behaviour, solving puzzles, or adding a spicy competitive 124 00:08:03,219 --> 00:08:04,219 element. 125 00:08:04,219 --> 00:08:08,889 So watch this space - GMTK has historically been very single-player focused but I’d 126 00:08:08,889 --> 00:08:11,639 love to do more multiplayer stuff going forward. 127 00:08:11,639 --> 00:08:14,770 You can support me and all that I do over on Patreon.