WEBVTT

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This summer, I have been playing a lot of
Overcooked.

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This is a pair of games about working in a
kitchen, and in each level you must fulfil

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orders by grabbing ingredients, chopping them
up, cooking them, and delivering them to the

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restaurant.

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Which would be pretty easy, if only the restaurant
wasn’t on a swaying pirate ship, or being

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split down the middle by an earthquake, or set
on a hot air balloon… which, halfway through

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the stage, crashes into a restaurant so you’re
now having to make sushi as well as salad.

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It’s crazy.

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But, of course, the biggest challenge is simply
getting two, three, or even four players to

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work together.

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Working as an organised team will require
intense coordination and communication - unlike

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pretty much any co-op game I’ve ever played
before.

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Because, playing games in co-op is always
good fun.

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From old school run ’n’ gun games like
Contra and Metal Slug, to modern day shooters

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like Gears of War and Halo, it’s a well
established truism that any game is improved

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with the addition of a friend.

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But most of these games so rarely ask you
to truly communicate with your partner.

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This is often because the game is symmetrical
- which means that the two players interact

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with the game in pretty much the exact same
way.

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Take a game like Resident Evil 5, where there’s
not a tremendous difference between playable

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protagonists Chris and Sheva.

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They both carry guns, can both beat up zombies,
and can both carry the same gear.

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And so because each character is equally capable,
this can often lead to a situation where you

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feel like you’re just off playing your own
games - and only infrequently joining forces

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to revive one another, or perform simple co-op
actions like boosting one person over a ledge.

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This is very different to the more recently
released Resident Evil Revelations 2, where

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co-op players control very different characters.

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In the first episode, one person picks Claire
Redfield who is a typical Resi protagonist

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with access to all kinds of firearms.

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The other player is stuck with Moira Burton,
who is not able to use guns - but does carry

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a torch which is used to light up enemies
and temporarily stun them.

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She can also finish off knocked down enemies
with a crowbar.

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With this set-up, the two players are forced
to work much more closely together as neither

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can really survive on their own.

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Claire needs Moira’s torch, and Moira needs
Claire’s firepower.

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This massively increases the need for the
two players to rely on one another, and creates

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the sort of coordination and communication
that’s lacking in many co-op games.

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If Revelations 2 shows how giving players
different abilities leads to close coordination,

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then Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes proves
that giving players different information

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can also power teamwork.

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In this game, one player looks at the screen
and sees a ticking time bomb, covered in wires,

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buttons, keypads, and other weird gizmos.

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The other player has a printed manual of instructions
for how to defuse the bomb.

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So player one has to describe the bomb.

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Player two has to then read out instructions
for how to defuse it.

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And player one has to listen closely, and
follow those instructions.

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Literally the only way to play together is
to communicate.

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And if you don’t…

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Asymmetric co-op doesn’t just force communication,
but it’s also a great way of allowing players

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of different skill levels to play together.

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This is something Nintendo has been doing
a lot lately with games like Super Mario Galaxy

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where one player controls Mario and basically
just plays the game like usual - and another

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can join in with a much easier role as a floating
cursor, picking up star bits and stunning

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enemies.

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But while asymmetrical design can be great
for co-op, it wouldn’t work for Overcooked

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because the game needs to automatically scale
depending on whether you’re playing in a

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group of four, with a couple friends, with
a pal, or even on your own.

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Plus, this is a game that attracts people
of very different skill levels, so you need

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to be able to divvy up roles on a level by
level basis - to make sure those who aren’t

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super familiar with games don’t have to
perform tricky movements like dodging fireballs

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or navigating slippery platforms.

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So in this game, all chefs have the exact
same abilities, and the exact same information.

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And each player is perfectly capable of preparing
and delivering a meal completely on their

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own - with the only communication being “I’ll
make the burger, you do the pizza”.

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But that’s not how Overcooked ends up being
played.

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Why?

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Well, in this case, it’s because of the
level design.

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From the very first stage of Overcooked 1,
we can see that the design of the kitchen,

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with this long island in the middle, makes
it very tedious to get from the onions to

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the chopping station to the pot to the conveyer
belt.

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But with two players working together - passing
onions across the table in the centre - the

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process is much, much faster.

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Pretty much every stage is built like this,
and later exasperated by things like paths

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too narrow for more than one chef, and levels
split into two by moving vehicles.

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And going faster is important, because the
scoring system is all based on time.

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Meals need to be cooked quickly, or customers
will leave and you’ll incur a penalty.

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You’ll get big tips for delivering items
more rapidly.

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And your final score is based on how many
meals you delivered during the level’s tight

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time period.

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So, the level design and the needs of the
scoring system quite quickly splits players

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into distinct, and asymmetric roles - in this
kitchen, for example, one player might focus

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on chopping vegetables and preparing meat
patties, while the other cooks the burgers,

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prepares them, and delivers them to the restaurant.

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And this creates loads of communication at
the start of the stage, where players decide

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who will do what, and puzzle out - together
- the most efficient way to cook the required

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meals.

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After this, however, Overcooked could have
suffered the main drawback of asymmetrical

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co-op: that you can fall into a predictable
pattern.

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You have your role, and you stick to it, and
in some games you don’t even need to communicate

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that much any more because you’re so used
to a familiar set-up.

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But that’s not what happens in Overcooked.

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Because no matter how well choreographed
your kitchen is at the start of the level,

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it will have turned into a manic 
catastrophe by the end of the stage.

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Why does this always happen?

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Well, it’s because there are loads of clever
bits of design that disrupt these comfortable

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patterns, and force you to keep switching
roles.

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So one is the wait timers on food that’s
cooking.

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A burger takes a few seconds to fry, so it’s
a waste of time to stand around and wait - encouraging

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players to wander off, see if they can help
elsewhere in the kitchen, and generally become

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a huge nuisance.

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Wait too long and your burger will start to
burn - causing other players to have to disrupt

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their task to come sort out your mess.

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Then there’s washing up.

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Which literally everyone hates, but I think
it might also be the absolute key to the success

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of Overcooked.

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Because no one is the dedicated plate washer;
it doesn’t have the nice, predictable rhythm

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of the other tasks; it only becomes a thing
later in the level; and no one wants to do it.

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Meaning that every time you run out of clean
plates, the flow is disrupted, meals starts

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burning, and those comfortable roles get completely
shaken up.

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And, of course, there’s the most obvious
thing: disruptions in the levels themselves.

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Moving chopping stations, ingredients on conveyer
belts, shifting kitchens, and nuisance rats

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break up patterns and destroy your best laid
plans, forcing you to constantly talk through

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new set-ups.

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So Overcooked gets to be an asymmetrical game,
without asymmetry, because it uses things

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in the level design - like weird kitchen layouts,
dirty plates, random fires, and burning burger

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patties - to force players to work together,
and then constantly change their roles throughout

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the stage, leading to lots of great communication.

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In the best Overcooked kitchens, you’ll
never stop talking to each other.

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And, if you ask me, that means it’s a hugely
successful co-op game.

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Hey, thanks for watching, and cheers to my Patrons
for their support, and a special thank you

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to my girlfriend for helping me get the Overcooked
footage in this video.

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There’s more to cooperative gaming that
we can talk about in the future, like making

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choices together, encouraging good behaviour,
solving puzzles, or adding a spicy competitive

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element.

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So watch this space - GMTK has historically
been very single-player focused but I’d

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love to do more multiplayer stuff going forward.

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You can support me and all that I do over
on Patreon.