Just over one year ago, Cook, Serve, Delicious! Launched on Steam. Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to have a great community with Steam and streamers alike enjoying the game as more people discover it via YouTube, Steam Curation lists, or just plain ol’ word of mouth. I thought the game would surely dip in sales by now, one year after release (and two years since it originally launched outside of Steam), but it continues to grow, surpassing over half a million dollars in gross revenue across mobile and PC.

Just typing that number makes me shiver. That is bananas. Holy crap.

Anyways, CSD has allowed me to experiment a bit with all kinds of markets, gameplay decisions, community outreach, etc. Now it’s time to step it up into a whole level…I give you Cook, Serve, Delicious: Battle Kitchen Edition! This is a massive expansion for the Steam version of the game designed to not only offer new single player content, but for the first time ever, add local multiplayer as well! Let’s break this expansion down!

Battle Kitchen is a whole new area separated from the main Campaign mode. It’s accessible immediately in the new Mode Select start screen, and is designed much like the Iron Cook challenges, but a lot more detailed and much deeper than any challenge based mode in the past.

Battle Kitchen has been fine tuned to deliver the fastest gameplay experience possible. When you finish an order, another one is immediately pushed out. Recipes are not random in many of these challenges; they are set so that there’s an even playing field and so I can fine tune the difficulty perfectly. All of this is done in service to a variety of new modes and features, one of which includes the new Weekly Challenges.





(you can click any screenshot for a larger version)

Weekly Challenges are designed for players to battle against Steam players and friends by setting the fastest time on new events. Each week a challenge is downloaded that consists of five foods and a wildcard. This wildcard can be something as simple as the same recipe being used for one wave…or a random Shish Kabob thrown in to gum up your time. There’s a ton of different wildcards, and each challenge has preset recipes so that the playing field is perfectly even.

These will not be procedurally generated events, but challenges created by myself, fans of the game, celebrity indie guests and more!

By far the biggest addition to the game, Local Multiplayer spans an array of challenges and modes, allowing friends to compete or cook co-operatively in brutal, devastating events. 2-4 players can play per event, and you can even mix and match control schemes and gamepads, with the appropriate buttons displaying for each player.

So how does it work? First, everyone selects a character from the new 52 character select screen (detailed later in this post). Then the event begins, and player 1 has fifteen seconds to cook. Player 2 should be watching attentively, because once those fifteen seconds are up, the entire game screen freezes and player 1’s controls are locked out. Player 1 now has five seconds to relay everything player 2 needs to do before the game resumes play. Once those five seconds are up, player 2’s gamepad will be activated and they must cook for fifteen seconds before the next chef is selected.

Sounds easy enough, right? Not really. Imagine being midway done with an order, only to be locked out and having to retrace your steps to the next player so they can finish the recipe perfectly. Some foods, like Steak, are impossible to see visually what ingredients are placed on there already, which means communication is absolutely vital. Here’s all the modes you can play via local multiplayer:

Tag Team Strikes (2-4 Players, single player mode also available)

In this mode there are twelve challenges, each with five waves of food. A mistake on any recipe will earn you a strike…and in some cases, three strikes means you’ve failed the challenge. There are three levels of completion per challenge: Standard (perfect/average orders only), Standard Perfect and Extreme Perfect, where you cannot make a single mistake. Completing various challenges earns you random character unlocks, detailed later in this post.

Tag Team Endurance (2-4 Players, single player mode also available)

My personal favorite mode. You will be able to select four of any of the thirty foods to start with, and the game will send out orders randomly, progressively getting faster and faster as you see how many foods you can complete before making a mistake.

Of course, in a fun CSD twist, you’ll get a call from Chef Risotto during the endurance every 20 seconds or so, giving you two options: replace a food from your original list, or upgrade a current food? Sometimes it’ll ask to only replace foods, or upgrade, it’s all random and crazy. If you miss the call, you fail the challenge.

This allows for a crazy endurance run every time you play, and will also have their own Steam Leaderboards to see how far everyone can go before they’re ultimately cooked.

Versus Modes (2-4 Players)

In this mode you must choose a challenge or create your own as you see who can post the fastest time. You can even do a Tag Team Versus mode where it’s two verses two chefs! Great for veteran cooks who want to play competitively.

Up to 12 players can play in these tournament brackets as a random challenge is issued per round, with both players competing for the fastest time. You can even set up Tag Team tournaments! Who will take home the coveted Iron Cook Kitchen Gold Cup?





If there’s one question I always never get, it’s “how do I turn my love for CSD into a pro eSports career?” The answer was always, “never you crazy person, get away from me.” UNTIL NOW.

There will be eSports related challenges for both single and multiplayer Tag Team events, each with their own leaderboards. So now go to your local eSports office and tell em’ you want to enlist in Cook Serve Delicious! ESPORTS!

I have no idea what eSports actually is.





I thought I’d add a fun new way to play the main Campaign for Cook, Serve, Delicious! It’s something called Campaign Co-Op, and you can play with another local player through a standard day of restaurant cooking. There’s no need to start a new save: your co-op friend can drop in and out of days as they choose!

Here’s how it works. One person is the Cook, preparing orders and cooking as usual. The other player is the Expediter, who sends the orders for the Cook to prepare, and also sends out food that is cooked and ready to serve. The Cook does not have any control over selecting orders or sending them out, and the Expediter has no cooking controls, so teamwork is key. At any time either of the players can press the Control key/Back button/Share button to request a switch from Cooking to Expediting and vice versa, and if the other player presses the button as well, the roles are immediately switched. This is great for rush hours or when a player is feeling a bit overwhelmed in their position, or feels they can do better in certain situations if their job was switched, etc.

This can be a fun way to tackle the Extreme Difficulty mode, but as mentioned you can use it in your current save with no penalties or adjustments to gameplay…it’s just another fun way to play CSD with a friend. And again, you can mix and match control schemes- so one player is on mouse/keyboard while the other is on a 360 pad, or you can do a PS4 and XB1 pad together, etc.

With all of these new modes and multiplayer additions, I knew some kind of character selection feature had to be added in. So at the start you’ll have 26 chefs from around the world ready to represent you in the kitchen. Upon loading your save you’ll be asked to select one for Leaderboard avatar displays across all modes, but you can change your choice at any time.

When I first started designing this new feature I thought it’d be fun to get a few of the best indie games on the market to make cameo appearances. Fast forward to today, with 24 of the best indie games ever representing their devs in Battle Kitchen. This is, to me, a celebration of some of the biggest titles to date, and a look at upcoming games that hold a ton of promise. I can’t thank the developers enough for being a part of Battle Kitchen! Here’s your Celebrity Indie Battle Kitchen Lineup:



Indie Blockbusters

Lethal League, from Team Reptile (PC)

Rogue Legacy, from Cellar Door Games (PS4/Vita/PC)

Nidhogg, from Messof (PS4/Vita/PC)

Hotline Miami, from DENNATON (PS4/Vita/PS3/PC)

Joe Danger, from Hello Games (available on multiple platforms)

Shovel Knight, from Yacht Club Games (Wii U/PC)

Steamworld Dig, from Image & Form Games (available on multiple platforms)

Pixeljunk Monsters, from Q-Games (PS3/Vita/PC)

Dust: An Elysian Tail, from Humble Hearts (PS4/PC/360)

Risk of Rain, from Hopoo Games (PC)

Luftrausers, from Vlambeer (PS3/Vita/PC)

Tetrobot and Co (PC/soon for Wii U)

Early Access and Upcoming Hits



Nuclear Throne, from Vlambeer (PC Early Access)

Gang Beasts, from Boneloaf (PC Early Access)

SpeedRunners, from tiny build GAMES (PC Early Access)

Seasons After Fall, from Swing Swing Submarine (Coming Soon)

SUPERHOT, from the SUPERHOT team (Coming Soon)

Ghost Song, from Old Moon (Coming Soon)

Honey Rose, from Pehesse (Coming Soon)

Cuphead, from Studio MDHR (Coming Soon)

Assault Android Cactus, from Witch Beam Games (PC Early Access)

Nom Nom Galaxy, from Q-Games (PC Early Access)

There Came an Echo, from Iridium Studios (Coming Soon)

Stealth Inc 2, from Curve Digital (Coming Soon)

You can unlock these characters randomly by playing through Battle Kitchen challenges via local multi or single player, and by participating in Weekly Challenges as well.





There’s been a ton of fan requests that I’ve been wanting to get to, so what better time than now? Here’s a few of the most requested features added to Battle Kitchen:

New Statistics Menus- Many asked for better statistics menus as there really wasn’t one in CSD. New with this expansion is a three page menu of statistics, utilizing your old saves to give you new data that hasn’t been surfaced before in CSD but has been tracked since launch. Page one shows a count of all the foods you’ve cooked. Page two shows some fun food volume facts, and page three is an upgraded look to the Pin Achievements page.

Practice Recipes- Another addition is the ability to practice specific recipes with each food, allowing you to hone in on some of the more complex food recipes in the game.

Load Game within Main Game- Many asked for the ability to load a save from within the main game menu without having to quit and restart the game, so it’s been added!

New UI Overhaul- I know there were quite a few that were a bit confused at the menu layouts (not realizing the chef’s hat was a button, and I can understand why). So the entire UI was redesigned for all of the menus to better display information and what elements can be interacted with. The leaderboards have also been given a complete redesign.

New Controller Handling- The way the game detects controller input has been redesigned. Now all you have to do is start up the game with the controller plugged in, and the game will automatically switch over to gamepad controls. You can still set up your preferred button prompts (360/PS4/XB1) in the options menu.





Finally, a new updated engine by GM Studios has been utilized in this build, allowing for much better graphics in windowed mode and hopefully resolving the performance issue that affected a small number of users. In addition, support for 2K/4K upscale has been added. A number of bugs have been fixed as well, and a ton of food have been given visual refreshes and updated icons to better represent their deliciousness.





So how much will this expansion cost, when will it be available, etc?



How does the price of FREE sound? That’s right, this will be a free patch added to the main game on Steam! Originally set for October, I still need more time to develop everything, so unfortunately the release will be early November at this point. There will be a public beta beforehand, so be sure to follow me on Twitter @chubigans and this Tumblr for the latest info.

I’d like to thank all the developers who allowed their characters to be in the game, the Steam and streaming community for supporting it, and the composer (Jonathan Geer) for adding new tracks to this expansion. I’d also like to thank the new lead artist on the game, Camille Kuo, who drew up all these awesome characters and new art elements going into this expansion, and thanks to Sara Gross, the original CSD artist who has a ton of other projects going on right now. This is gonna be an awesome ride, and I can’t wait to see what people think once it’s released.

Prepare for battle!