Delicious (game)

"Delicious" is a series of casual games, developed by GameHouse Studios, and published by Zylom. The games tell the story of Emily, a waitress who aspires to one day run her own restaurant, and who works in several other restaurants in order to earn the money to make her dream come true.

Delicious - Emily's Teagarden, the latest game in the series, was released on September 25, 2008.

History

The idea for Delicious was thought of in 2005, by Jakko van Hunen, who was the producer for the first game. Although he has not worked on any of the sequels, he is still put in the credits.

Delicious

"Delicious" was released in July 2006, and challenged players to succesfully run seven restaurants of five days each. The first delicious game did not have much of a storyline, and focussed only on the gameplay. Restaurant decorations were also automatically rewarded.

In November 2006, a special edition of Delicious was released: "Delicious - Winter Edition". This was essentially the first game, but with a special winter / christmas theme.

Delicious 2

"Delicious 2" was released in June 2007 and offered players a number of new features, such as decorating your restaurant yourself, the possibility to put items on your plate ahead of time rather then when it was ordered, trophies for special achievements and a storyline with cutscenes. Delicious 2 contained five 10-day restaurants to play through.

In Delicious 2, Emily is asked by her Uncle Antonio to help him when his son Marcello runs of and leaves Antonio with no one to run his restaurants.

Delicious - Emily's Tea Garden

Delicious 3 was released on September 27, 2008 as "Delicious - Emily's Tea Garden". The game held on to the solid basis of Delicious 2, and mainly offered a bigger variety in dishes.

In Delicious - Emily's Tea Garden, Emily wants to pursue her dream of running her own tea garden. In order to apply for a loan at the bank, Uncle Antonio helps her to get a waiting job at a friend's restaurant so she can earn the money needed. Through refferals, Emily gets to work at 3 other restaurants before she can finally open her very own tea garden.

Gameplay

In the Delicious-games, players take the role of Emily, and are given the task to run a restaurant. Customers come in, alone or in a group, and choose to either sit down at a table or take out. Emily must serve them their order, and accept payment, before they become impatient and leave. Order sizes vary from 1 to 2 items for a single customer, and up to 4 items for a group. Fast service and entertainment, along with creative restaurant decorating, can keep the customers happy and result in a bigger tip.

Serving orders

There are a number of types of items that customers can order, which increases in number and complexity as the game progresses.- Items that are ready to serve, and have no limited capacity. When ordered, these items can be served right away, without preparing or restocking.- Items that need to be combined, and restocked after a few servings. Nacho's, for instance, need to be combined with a dip before they can be served. The Nacho-machine holds only a number of servings, and needs to be refilled when or before it's empty, before nacho's can be served again.- Items that are first combined, and then stocked up to 9 items. Ice cream for instance is made by combining basic vanilla ice cream with a choice of fruit.- Items that are first grilled or baked, and then prepaired. Crepes for instance are first baked a few seconds, and are then combined with ice cream. Steaks can be prepaired as medium or well-done, depending on how long it's grilled. These items will burn if they are baked too long though.- Items that are prepaired using a timer that must be stopped in time, such as crème brûlée or profiteroles.- Tea is served by combining tea leaves with water. When Emily is out of a certain type of leaves, she must pick new ones and restock them.

Cleaning

Aside from serving customers their orders, Emily must also keep the tables in the restaurant clean, when customers have used them. If there are no clean tables available when new customers -that were planning on sitting down- come in, they will leave again.

Althoug cleaning the tables is just a matter of one click, it does take up valuable time. During the later days of a restaurant, a help is hired to clean the tables.

Entertainment

Customers can be very impatient. This is why after a few days of a restaurant, Emily requests the help of an entertainer. When an entertainer is sent to a table with customers, this will make them happy and give them more patience while they wait to be served. Happier customers also leave bigger tips.

Decorating

Aside from the profit Emily makes during a day, she can earn a certain amount of money that can be spent on decorating her restaurant. These decorations vary from new furniture, to esthetic items like paintings and plants. A well-decorated restaurant keeps the customers happy and patient, and result in bigger tips.

Recurring characters

Emily is a young woman with a love for cooking, who hopes to one day open her own restaurant. She is the game's main character, and is kind-hearted, though sometimes a little naive. No one would dare say she's not a hard worker though and when she has her mind set on something, she really goes for it.

Uncle Antonio is a somewhat older man, uncle of Emily and father of Marcello. He owns a number of restaurants, but when his son bails on him, he needs Emily's help to get things back on track. When Emily wants to open her own tea garden, he helps her with advise and gets her a job so she can apply for a loan.

Francois, a young man of about Emily's age, is Emily's best friend. Francois is an interior decorator, and he advises and helps Emily with decorating her restaurants. In Delicious 2, he also helps Emily in the restaurant by cleaning tables. In Emily's Tea Garden, Francois takes the role as an entertainer, playing his flute for Emily's waitin guests.

External links

* [http://www.delicious3.co.uk Official website]
* [http://www.us.zylom.com/deluxe/game/3558/delicious-emily-s-tea-garden-deluxe.html Delicious - Emily's Tea Garden at Zylom]
* [http://www.us.zylom.com/deluxe/game/717/delicious-2-deluxe.html Delicious 2 at Zylom]
* [http://www.us.zylom.com/deluxe/game/453/delicious-deluxe.html Delicious at Zylom]
* [http://www.us.zylom.com/deluxe/game/710/delicious-winter-edition-deluxe.html Delicious winter edition at Zylom]
* [http://www.gamehouse.com/gamedetails/?game=delicioust&navpage=downloadgames Delicious - Emily's Tea Garden at GameHouse]