Kostas Mitsis

Learn to cook healthy meals on a train traveling through an apocalyptic wasteland. Role: Lead Designer / Developer Responsibilities: Lead / Game design / Coding / Pixel graphics / Animation / Player metrics / User experience Development details: Biosim Lab, 4-person team, GameMaker, Nov '18 to Jun '19 Express Cooking Train is a roguelike kitchen simulation game that aims to promote food and nutrition literacy in young adults. I was involved in design and development and drew the pixel graphics and animation. We based Initial game design on a conceptual framework that was inspired by relevant serious game publications. We conducted three major testing iterations to improve our overall user experience. We used the final version in an experiment searching for links between player engagement, heart rate variability and sitting position. I was responsible for the experiment design and creation of testing scenarios.

Cooking Train Express : The player takes control of a train that travels in a dangerous post-apocalyptic setting that is generated procedurally.

Monsters: The train must travel from one destination to the other while avoiding hungry monsters that roam the land.

Kitchen Wagon: To achieve this, the player cooks healthy and nutritious meals and launches them with a catapult on the monsters, in order to satisfy their hunger.

Inventory Wagon: Resource management is vital to this process.

Discoveries: As the player explores and cooks they discover new recipes, complete achievements and discover new resources to travel even further!