Image via Valve Corp, Purple Door Studios, and 2 Nerdy Nerds
If the amount of time I spend creating recipe guides is any indication, I’m a bit obsessed with a good cooking game. Naturally that means that when we get a slew of exciting demos, like with Steam Next Fest, I head for the cooking section.
This October, the list of free demos for Steam Next Fest is truly staggering. If you need help narrowing down what to check out, here are the best cooking games I tried this time around.
Most Exciting Cooking Game Demos for Steam Next Fest
As well organized as the demo lists for Steam Next Fest are, they can still get overwhelming quickly. This Steam Next Fest runs from October 14-October 21, which means we’ve only got one week to make our way through the list of hundreds of demos.
Not to fear – our team at Bonus Action are deep diving into our favorite genres to help you pick the best demos to check out. Here are our top picks for the cooking-related game demos available to check out this October.
Critter Cafe
Critter Cafe combines the cute critter collection elements of Pokemon with the joys of scrambling to quickly serve customers. The demo gives you a little taste of decorating the cafe, serving up drinks and baked goods, and befriending critters. It’s just the right length to give you a sense of what the gameplay loop will be like and left me feeling excited to really dig in to the full game.
Cooking-wise, you’re mostly serving up drinks and snacks rather tahn prepping them, but the ever-increasing menu should keep things interesting. You also get to spend some demo time in the character creator, and I already can’t wait to revisit my avatar when the game launches in November.
Supurr Cat Cafe: Sandwich Rush
For many of us here at Bonus Action, playing Disney flash games like the Stitch sandwich stacking game is a core memory. When I saw Supurr Cat Cafe: Sandwich Rush I dreamed of feeling that kind of sandwich stacking joy again. And friends, this demo delivered.
You get right to it in this game, stepping into your new cat cafe and letting the cats just sort of knock ingredients down at you. Catch them on the plate to serve up sandwiches to customers. They’ll have likes and dislikes that impact the final price they pay for each custom creation. As you play, you can unlock more ingredients, cafe items, and cats to give you special boosts.
It’s straightforward simple pixel art fun that creates an addictive gameplay loop. I was genuinely devastated when I reached the end of the demo content because I wanted to unlock every. single. ingredient.
The full game comes out on November 11, so I only have to wait a few weeks. I can’t promise I won’t play the demo some more before then.
Call of Boba
When I downloaded the Call of Boba demo, I expected a straightforward cafe management game where you serve up boba. You do get to do that, but this game has a twist – you’re recovering from the stress of corporate life, and it haunts your dreams. At night, you fight your way through a nightmare office, which is also one of the ways you collect ingredients to make new boba recipes.
The demo is a great introduction to both the boba shop and battle arcade elements of the game. I could tell there was much more world to explore, and I am ready to explore it. There is no release date for Call of Boba just yet, but you can I’ll be keeping an eye out for that news!
Fruitbus
Fruitbus finds you inheriting your grandma’s old fruit truck, taking her on one last adventure to host a farewell feast. Fair warning – Grandma is an urn in the passenger seat, and the game deals with grief right from the get go.
I enjoyed playing the demo to get a sense of what the gameplay looks like for this food truck game. It’s first person, and you get to chop up all your ingredients, a personal favorite cooking mechanic of mine. Oh, and you get to drive the Fruitbus! The full game drops on October 28, so we’re not far off! Perfect timing to test drive that Fruitbus and see if you want to commit to the journey.
Magic Inn
As the name suggests, Magic Inn puts you in the role of magical innkeeper. You can customize your character, then roll right into the first several days of story mode in this demo.
The game is still a little buggy as it’s being developed, but even so, I had a blast with this one! It’s such a thorough demo that really gave me a look at what’s to come, and I honestly could’ve played it for hours. There are some interesting twists on the innkeeper/cafe management genre here with conversation cards for interacting with NPCs. My favorite part? Probably making plates fly magically to customers.
No release date yet for this one, but it’s planned for roughly Q1 in 2025.
Some of these demos will stick around after Next Fest, but many will expire when the event ends on October 21. So, if you’ve got your eye on one of these cooking game demos, be sure to give it a go as soon as you can!
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