The entire game is now content complete! Finish the story as Nori travels through Helianthus with Brie as you discover new locations, foods, and tons more challenges!

I'm so proud of the speed of which we were able to get the game to this completed state. We're still going to be adding some new additions such as customizable key binds, and we're now finishing up the game for console release in the summer.

What's Next?

Along with v0.99's keybind options and some small fixes/improvements we're aiming for in June, we're now transitioning over to full speed ahead on Cook, Serve, Delicious: Re-Mustard!, as we're aiming to get the game out this year. I'm working on console ports right now for CSF and those will be out this summer, so look forward to a smattering of delish games this year!

Finally, thank you so so much to all of you who have left reviews. It has helped so much and our goal is to get out of Mixed reviews before v1.0 this summer, and I know we can do it with this last major update, as I'm so proud of all the amazing content you're about to enjoy. From all of us on the CSF team, thank you.


NEW ADDITIONS

• Several new chapters and over 25 new locations, all new Cooking School challenges, and the full campaign/story is now available!
  
• All new Cookbook lets you view your sticker progress once you complete Blossom Square in New Beginnings.
  
• Steam Deck is now fully supported without the need to use Proton Experimental. Please disable "force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" if you were using this to play on Steam Deck prior to this update. We will be submitting this to get Steam Deck verified soon!

CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

• All new Game Maker engine build that should help performance and video playback performance on all devices.
  
• New background of Charlotte and Young Nori cooking for the opening tutorial.
  
• New tutorial splash for Blossom Square (New Beginnings) introducing players to the Cookbook.
  
• Altered the Steaming prep step for a bit more variety.
  
• Improved main menu preload and performance.
  
• Improved controller UI main menu clarity for smaller displays and Steam Deck.
  
• Updated the After Hours initial cutscenes for improved bitrates.
  
• Accuracy is now properly balanced with missed holding steps (your accuracy will no longer be heavily penalized when holding down the wrong button).

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue with certain sounds not properly balanced volume-wise.
  
• Fixed an issue with Cooking School VO not properly tied to VO volume adjustments.
  
• Improved opening fullscreen/window adjustment at game start.
  
• Missed inputs no longer regsiter immediately after unpausing the game with the A button in specific circumstances.
  
• Pressing start while paused now unpauses the menu (if you're in the "top" main pause menu and not in the options screen).

Production on CSF is going great- so great, in fact, that I've decided to combine the next two updates into one, and it's coming out late this month/early May! That means the game will be fully content complete- you'll be able to finish the entire story, enjoy all of the new Cooking School challenges, and more!

Sneak Peek

With this new update comes a cool new feature called the Cookbook. Available after playing Blossom Square in the New Beginnings chapter, the Cookbook is a handy way to check all of your progress in the entire game- you can view your sticker and holo-foil stickers as well as your Blitz medals and Cooking School grades!

This next update will effectively more than double the content that's available in the game now- you'll be getting 24 new locations, over 30 new foods, several new chapters, nine new Blitz locations, tons more Cooking School challenges (29 in all), and the new Cookbook feature!

This update will bring the game to v0.95. After this update we'll be working on console versions as well as adding some additional features such as keyboard binding and full Steam Deck support for the 1.0 release, which we're aiming to release in the summer.

I'm so excited for everyone to finish the story- see y'all then!

-David

Time for another huge new update for Cook Serve Forever! Thanks to everyone who left Steam reviews for the new redesign- it has helped us tremendously and we're immensely proud to have gone up to Very Positive for our recent review score! However now that 30 days have passed our recent review score has reset, so if you enjoy this month's update, please consider leaving a review if you haven't already! It helps us so much!

The next update is targeting early April- stay tuned for updates over on our Bluesky [bsky.app]and Discord[discord.com]!

NEW CONTENT

• The next chapters of the story continue with "North Helianthus" and "Showtime"!
  
• Several new locations!
  
• Fifteen new foods (exclusively in North Helianthus): Angel Cupcake, Arroz a la Cubana, Devil Cupcake, Elephant Ear, Fried Rice, Hot Dog, Laksa, Lasagna, Miso Ramen, Poke Bowl, Poutine, Salchipapa, Soft Taco, Stuffed Mushrooms and Sweet Crepe!
  
• Three new Blitz Levels!
  
• New Mode: Cooking School with eight foods ready for grading!
  
• Added two new songs: Dive and You're Not Alone (exclusively in North Helianthus).

NEW ADDITIONS

• Added new window/full screen options: Borderless Full Screen, Full Screen, Windowed, and Borderless Window.
  
• Added resolution options.
  
• Added two keyboard layout options: Mirrored (default) and Cloned (which uses different keybindings for a closer version of the gamepad controls).
  
• Added an all new Order Tracker that shows how many orders you have left (and previous order ratings).
  
• Added some welcoming images for West and North Helianthus in New Beginnings (Eclair Apartments) and Blue War Memorial.
  
• After completing a shift you have the option to continue or restart the day.

CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

• When coming back to the main menu the highlighted level now reflects your progress, rather that highlighting the first level of every chapter.
  
• Changed the way goals are displayed in-game for better clarity.
  
• Changed the song playlist for West Helianthus.
  
• Added specific UI sounds for Delicious/Good/Average/Bad orders.
  
• Changed some dialogue spacing for certain levels.
  
• Adjusted some UI elements.
  
• Added some variety to the After Hours establishing shots.
  
• The background TV in After Hours now changes with the dialogue.
  
• Adjusted the timer tutorial text panel for better clarity.
  
• Improved main menu asset preloading.
  
• Added a UI indicator for new submenu content.
  
• Added five extra seconds for bronze and silver medal times for the Community Garden Blitz level.
  
• The main tutorial now displays the chosen gamepad glyphs in the tutorial splashes.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue with Grill prep that would sometimes cause inaccurate "missed" inputs.
  
• Fixed an issue where choosing an After Hours segment in the Main Menu during game progression could potentially cause you to skip ahead a few levels.
  
• Fixed/removed the ability to view the After Hours submenu before unlocking it.
  
• Improved the handling of levels transitioning to After Hours levels (the potential for a glitch could occur, but as far as I can tell it never did glitch).
  
• Game now returns to After Hours submenu when returning from an After Hours segment you selected.
  
• Fixed issue where keyboard commands could go through when the user tabbed out of the game.
  
• Fixed some audio corruption issues.
  
• Fixed the wrong ingredient being displayed for avocado for the Taco Salad.
  
• Fixed text to reset to "Start Cookin'" after save file deletion.

Hey everyone! First off, thank you so much for all the new positive Steam reviews! Each one helps us immensely and we're so thrilled that the update has been received so well with a lot of players, and we're just gonna keep making it better as the weeks continue!

This update targets a lot of critical components, with more on the way for the next major update. Please let us know over in the Discord[discord.gg] if you have any issues, and you can always roll back to the previous update from last week should you need to. Thanks so much!


STEAM DECK UPDATE

• Currently to play the game on Steam Deck you will need to force "Proton Experimental" compatibility in the game's Properties settings in Steam.
  
• Game Maker has confirmed to us that this issue will be fixed in a Game Maker update, which will remove the requirement to force this setting.

NEW ADDITIONS/CHANGES

• Greatly enhanced input detection- you should be able to speed through preps without missed inputs on both gamepad and keyboard!
  
• Video files updated, which should help with choppy performance on certain setups and Steam Deck. This is a temporary fix and a more thorough fix is coming in a future update.
  
• Rumble support added.
  
• Steam screenshot functionality added.
  
• Updated links to Discord.
  
• Service bell sound added to serving orders.
  
• Minor UI improvements.

I'm excited to announce that the brand new redesign for CSF is available right now! For all the details on what's new, be sure to check out our previous post on all the new dynamics and features: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1928090/view/4540283856248373551

There's so much new stuff and I'm so proud of our team for getting to the finish line on releasing this all new game, but we're not done yet! We have some exciting updates in the coming months that will finish up the entire game. Here's a look at our brand new roadmap:

All dates are subject to change, but we feel like we have a strong foundation to build off on at this point. But I'm eager to hear all of your feedback on this game! I want to make it even better before v1.0, so be sure to leave some comments either on Steam or over on our Discord[discord.com], or message me over on Bluesky[bsky.app]!

From all of us on the CSF team, thank you and enjoy the game!

-David

Hi everyone. David Galindo here, creative lead/programmer on CSF, and I have some news to share regarding the upcoming update we had planned for this week.

Y'all know I'm always trying to be as transparent as possible with every aspect of game development, and this blog post wasn't easy to write as it deals with some personal life stuff that I'm not all that eager to share, but thought it was important in the context of what is now going to be a delay for this update.

Towards the end of November before Thanksgiving we had a family member suddenly get sick and admitted to the hospital. The doctors were telling us that there was a road to recovery and we felt generally positive about his stay. I spent Thanksgiving in a hospital room with him, unaware that it was going to be my last time I was going to spend with them.

He passed away this month, somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly. We recently had the funeral and while I've been trying my best to not let this affect my work and game dev, it has all but been impossible over the last week, especially with the holidays being so soon. It's been extremely rough y'all, as you can imagine.

I'm so thankful for family and friends for this difficult time but the unfortunate side effect of me being back in the programming role is major setbacks like this that have me miss self-imposed deadlines. I so wanted to get this update out before the Steam sale, but at the same time I absolutely do not want another botched launch. Y'all deserve better than that.

I am going to be working hard on the update every day until it's ready to go. I simply ran out of time for releasing it this Weds. with everything that was going on in my life. I'm so frustrated with myself because we are so close to finishing. It's a beautiful game and EONS above what we have released right now, and I'm so excited for y'all to see it.

Thank y'all so much for your understanding and please feel free to reach out on our Discord[discord.com] if you have any more questions, I'm always in there ready to answer. Take care and I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. Much love,

-David

Hey Chefs! I’m Ryan Matejka (Bluesky[bsky.app] | Instagram[www.instagram.com] | Substack[scrawlthroughthevoid.substack.com]), Co-Writer of Cook Serve Forever. As David recently announced, you won’t have to wait much longer to experience the full game and story of Cook Serve Forever in all its redesigned beauty! That’s awesome for everyone, including me, because I started work on the story with Co-Writer Nicholas Kraak all the way back in 2021 and I am dying to talk to everyone about it.

One of my favorite things about peeking behind the scenes at any work of art is learning just how different everything could have been – Back to the Future could have used a refrigerator and nuclear explosion to travel through time instead of a DeLorian, Homer Simpson could have secretly been Krusty the Clown, and Bioshock Infinite could have delivered on the conflicting promises of its first trailers.

So I’m going to share with you two of the biggest things that could have been different about the story in Cook Serve Forever, why they were considered, and why they ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor.


Nori and Brie Almost Weren’t Partners

Nori and Brie’s relationship and playful banter are a huge part of Cook Serve Forever, contributing to the tone of the game and providing an emotional anchor for players as the story unfolds. However, early story outlines gave them a completely different dynamic.

Once we determined that Cook Serve Forever would have a voiced protagonist, we knew they’d need someone to talk to. We made a list of the traits this person would need to have both from a gameplay perspective (they should cheer the player on like Whisk does in Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!) and from a storytelling perspective (they should balance out Nori’s personality). The character we created from this list, and her relationship with Nori, was very different from what appears in the final game.

Initial story outlines featured a Nori who lived by herself in Moraine on the edge of the law. She would have worked at a SubSolutions food cart but gotten fired, then stolen the food cart and high-tailed it to Helianthus to become the best chef. There, she would have met an older and more laid-back woman named Brie – whereas Nori would be driven by ambition, this old, wise Brie would have no long-term goals and instead live in the moment, seizing opportunities and collecting experiences as they present themselves to her. Naturally, Lone Wanderer Brie would have seen Nori struggling with the food cart and offered to help. Lone Wanderer Brie would become a sort of big sister to Nori, imparting wisdom and guidance, and at the end of the game, Lone Wanderer Brie would walk off into the sunset in search of her next experience.

There are at least a dozen good reasons that we weren’t happy with this approach, many of which are probably obvious. One of the biggest problems with this version of Nori and Brie was that their connection didn’t feel very strong, which simply wasn’t very compelling. Furthermore, it would have been unnecessarily difficult to balance a story about Nori trying to be the best with a simultaneous story about her meeting and befriending a new person. It just became too complex.

Cook Serve Forever is supposed to be a feel-good game about cooking, and we decided that making Nori and Brie long-term partners from the start (and changing a bunch of other things about them) was the best way to reach that goal.


The Plot Almost Focused on a Recipe Book

Nori’s goal in Cook Serve Forever is the same as the player’s goal in the Cook, Serve, Delicious! Trilogy – she wants to achieve culinary greatness. After all, that worked for the previous games so why waste time trying to fix something that isn’t broken? Well, we were tired of doing the same thing over and over again, so we tried to fix it anyway by exploring alternate possible plotlines and character goals in the initial story pitches for Cook Serve Forever.

Once it was decided that the story would be more important in Cook Serve Forever than in our previous games, we were eager to take the narrative in a direction that wasn’t possible in the Cook, Serve, Delicious! series. We tried to think of every possible story that would make sense in a cooking game that didn’t involve the protagonist working their way up to winning a cooking competition – for example, we pitched the idea that Nori’s goal would be simply to get a spot at the local farmer’s market, or that she was drowning in debt and was trying to pay it off while on the run from a debt collector. None of these ideas lingered for very long, but there was one that felt like it was worth serious consideration.

We had already solidified the idea of the game starting with young Nori as a child living with her mom and then skipping ahead to Nori as an adult after her mother passed away. From there, we thought it would be cool for Nori to uncover her mother's handmade recipe book and take it with her to Helianthus, where she would be determined to make a living as a food cart chef while trying to learn and perfect all her mother's recipes. In the purest version of this idea, the player's sense of progress would come from slowly making their way through the recipe book and Nori's food cart would grow more famous with each recipe she learned. This fame would have naturally led her into cool opportunities as well as gotten her mixed up with some unsavory characters willing to steal the recipe book to further their own agendas.

While we liked the idea of the recipe book being a tool Nori could use to reconnect with her mother, we didn't like the implication that her (and the player's) success and skill were owed entirely to following someone else's recipes. We also ran into complications trying to figure out how the events of a plot centered around learning recipes from a book could be handled exclusively through food cart cooking gameplay – the story just didn’t align perfectly with the gameplay.

In the end, however, the scrapped recipe book-focused storyline proved to be a valuable step in the right direction. Without spoiling anything, it gave us a clearer idea of the type of character Nori needed to be, why she wanted so badly to be the best chef, and what the emotional core of the story was.

One of the most important parts of the writing process, whether during the earliest brainstorming session or while writing the final draft, is experimenting with different ideas. In our writing meetings, we held firm to the belief that there is no such thing as a bad idea. Sure, an idea might seem bad on the surface, but it can still give you a clearer picture of what a good idea might be, or some part of it may be worth using even if the whole of it doesn’t feel right. It is only by fearlessly exploring every inch of an idea that you can find out if it holds up to scrutiny or breaks under pressure. While the above ideas (and so many others I cannot talk about without spoilers) were interesting, we eventually moved on to ideas that we felt shaped a more compelling story full of humor, thrills, and heart.

I’m eager to find out if you agree!

Hey everyone! I'm so excited that Cook, Serve, Delicious! is part of the Steam Cooking Fest, available now thru November 18th!

Don't forget to wishlist our upcoming Cook, Serve, Delicious: Re-Mustard! remake! Coming 2025!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2139040/Cook_Serve_Delicious_ReMustard/


Cook Serve Forever

A huge new gameplay overhaul is coming to Cook Serve Forever later this month- you can grab it on discount now and be ready for the all new gameplay systems when it drops soon! For more information on all of the new gameplay features be sure to check out our big news update.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1928090/Cook_Serve_Forever/

The CSD Series

Pick up the CSD series at a low 80% off! In fact you can grab all of these tasty games in one big bundle right here:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13553/The_Cook_Serve_Delicious_Trilogy/

Or grab CSF along with it for even more savings!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32041/The_Cook_Serve_Series_Bundle/

I can't wait to share more news on the future of the CSD series next year, including the Re-Mustard remake that celebrates the entire series as a whole with tons of fun and exciting surprises. Woo!

From everyone on the CSD team, thanks so much for all of your support through the years, and here's to another round of delish games!

-David Galindo
Creator of the Cook Serve Delicious series
Also on BlueSky!![bsky.app]

Hi everyone! My name is David Galindo and I’m the creator of the Cook, Serve, Delicious! series as well as the director on Cook Serve Forever. You can find me over on Bluesky[bsky.app] these days, so feel free to follow me there for updates on CSF and Cook, Serve, Delicious: Re-Mustard!

When we first launched Cook Serve Forever it was my first time overseeing a large project without programming any part of it (we attempted a small experimental project, ChefSquad, that was a fun Twitch only game). I was wearing a ton of hats all at once, overseeing all the production pipelines, and as a result the gameplay didn’t get the attention that I normally give the CSD titles. As a result the game opened to mixed reviews.

This was not acceptable to me. I had a lot of time to reflect on what I wanted my life to be- what direction I want to take my career, how involved I want to be, or if I just wanted to handle the managerial aspects forever. And that sounded truly terrible.

And so, I decided to make the decision to throw away the entire codebase of Cook Serve Forever and start from scratch, going back to being the sole programmer I was in Cook, Serve, Delicious! 1 and 2. And let me tell you- it has been a blast getting back to programming. Being able to focus on the gameplay design and make huge strides in days that were taking us weeks previously was such a huge motivational push to keep going, as there were certainly days that I felt like I wasn’t sure it was all going to come together.

A little over one year later, I’m excited to reveal the new gameplay dynamics of Cook Serve Forever, with the first update coming next month in November!

Keeping the Dynamics

When I first started re-designing the game, I had no idea what direction to take the game. Since we were starting over, should I make it more like CSD? Or maybe a rhythm game? A strategy game? Ultimately, I realized that the core fundamentals of the game- a chill, relaxed cooking game that perhaps had a larger ceiling to get more difficult as the game progresses through the story- was the right one to pursue.

CSF is a very different type of cooking game- you’re cooking one dish at a time, utilizing button prompts for each type of cooking action you want to do. Chopping will take sixteen hits of L1, while Stirring will have you holding down R1 while tapping the face buttons in a circular motion. What’s unique about this game- the one key element that sets it apart from the original EA release and other cooking games- is that CSF allows you to do both preps at once. Utilizing a split gamepad or keyboard control layout, you can chop onions on the left side of the gamepad/keyboard while grilling with the right side. While you’re holding down a patty with A you can grate cheese with L2. It’s very much like playing a piano, and as you get more familiar with all 15+ prep functions you’ll get faster and faster, clearing goals and earning holographic stickers for each level.

Here’s a first look at the gameplay in action to give you a better idea of how this works:

Progression

I have found that the gameplay is a lot more challenging and fun to play- getting better and better at levels opens up the opportunity to have a new goal based system where you have to earn a certain amount of Good and Perfect orders to win the holo sticker, or just one of the goals for a regular sticker. But even if you don’t earn any goals, you can still progress to the next part of the story.

I’ve completely changed the grind based nature of the game currently to a more linear path that serves the story, as ultimately CSF is a story based game and I wanted to give the player as much story as possible in a play session. No more grinding out levels over and over- you’ll be able to get a perfect clear on your first run in a level, should you be good enough to get both goals!

As a result of the new gameplay and linear progression, I’ve realized that there was no way to import old saves into this new system, so you’ll need to create a new save for this update. I want to stress that it’s much faster and more fun to progress back to where the story currently ends now, and we’ll still have the original EA version available in a Steam branch should you still want to play that release. We will also have an unlock all levels in the options menu for the EA release that will be removed for v1.0.

Update Cadence

Our first update will bring the game all the way up to the current story beat with the newly revised gameplay systems and game overhaul (I haven’t even mentioned all the bugs and issues that are remedied with this new build!) and will be released in November. Our second update will introduce the next large chapter of the game which we’re aiming for January. Finally, the last section of the game is targeting Feb/March of next year, with console releases and v1.0 releasing soon after that.

I want to thank everyone for their patience- I’m happy to say that with this game I’m also building a backend system that allows us to use many of the features in this game with other future titles we’re making, so that production will be sped up quite considerably for games like Re-Mustard!
Thanks again and I can’t wait for y’all to play this brand new game!


FAQ

Will I still keep my old achievements?
Yes, all achievements will stay the same except for two: Hi-Five and Speedrun, which reference the old XP system that is no longer in the game. These may get changed into a new achievement or deleted entirely.

Will there be a demo?
We plan on offering a new demo before our 1.0 release!

Do I really have to play through the entire game again if I already did so the first time?
We will be adding an unlock feature in the options menu that allows you to unlock all levels should you desire- this will be removed in the second update in January. But I must stress that the game is dramatically different than it was before!

Is this a gamepad only game now?
No, you can use keyboard of course! It does feel quite nice on the gamepad and Steam Deck however.

Is this Steam Deck compatible?
The new release will be fully Steam Deck compatible.

What’s next?
Right now we are 100% focused on finishing Cook Serve Forever, though in my off time I’m working on Re-Mustard docs and planning things that I can’t wait to share with you all next year! And after that, who knows…well I know, but I ain’t saying just yet. :D

Thanks again y’all!

-David