Howdy folks! Did you know we're remaking Cook, Serve, Delicious? It's called Cook, Serve, Delicious: Re-Mustard! We're hard at work and we can't wait to give y'all all the details, but until then we have a big Q&A that's a great introduction to what we're planning for this huge new game.
Let's get right into it and as always follow me on Bluesky for more updates and be sure to wishlist and follow the game!
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Is Cook, Serve, Delicious: Re-Mustard! a remake, or a remaster, or what exactly?
I would call CSD:R a "re-imagining" more than anything else. It is completely new code, using a lot of our ideas and influences from the sequels, while maintaining the "spirit" of the original game. I'm going to be referring to this game as a remake below, but my goal is to have a game that feels fresh and new but at the same time feels like the original classic CSD at heart. You'll see a lot of the questions below illustrate how much new content will be in this game!
Will the Autoserve mechanics from 3 and the Holding Stations from 2/3 be in the game?
Autoserve will be in the game! It will be a piece of equipment you can buy in the Equipment store, and so far about ten foods can take advantage of the autoserve function (where you can press a button to instantly serve all foods that are ready).
As far as holding stations go, I thought about this for a long time, and ultimately I think holding stations dramatically change the way the game is played to where this wouldn't feel like the first game. So there will not be any holding stations, which allows me to balance the difficulty in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise.
Some food art by our amazing artist Lizzy Dawson!
Will Upgrades be back like they were in CSD 1?
I'm going to have another separate dev update on upgrades because yes, not only are they back, they're a huge part of the game! But I wanted to give you a small taste on what we're planning.
The biggest change is that 27 foods will be upgradeable to 5 stars, unlike the first game where you had a mix of 2, 3, 4 and 5 stars. The only non-upgradeable foods are hash browns, pretzels and corndogs, which will always be 1 star. This means a lot of the foods from the last game, such as salads and baked potatoes, will have new ingredients and recipes for the extra star tiers.
Secondly we're changing a lot of the foods that had upgrades that didn't affect gameplay. My goal is to have every upgrade affect gameplay in some way- it's all about creating some cool new gameplay challenges that weren't present in the original. I'll be covering even more examples in a future dev update!
Will the progression system be the same? (20 days of service, etc.)
I'm not entirely sure if we're going to utilize the same progression system as before, but there will definitely be some changes, as it felt a bit grind-y in the first game.
Will there be pins to earn like the last game?
In CSD 1 you could earn pins for serving 1,500 foods of the same type, like American foods. For this remake we're revamping the entire pin system to be specific to each food. For the burger as an example you'll have 5-10 bronze pins you can earn, that will then be silver pin challenges once you earn all the bronze. Some will be milestone related ("Serve 500 burgers"), some challenges ("Serve burgers in a 50x combo") some specific ("Get a perfect day with the following five star foods: burger, soda, fries and salad"). Earning pins gets you more buzz for your restaurant when its on your menu!
You will also have pins outside of foods that will be general challenges and achievements, such as serving 5,000 foods or getting 3 perfect days in a row, and so on.
Will local co-op return? Will it be like CSD 1 or CSD 2/3? Will there be online multiplayer?
In CSD 1 you could have local co-op where one person would send foods to player 2, who would cook them, which we called the chef/expediter mode. For CSD 2 and 3 we had a more traditional split screen mode where both players could grab foods and cook at the same time.
For the remake we're going to be including both modes for the first time in a CSD game! You can choose the original CSD 1 style or go for a CSD 2/3 style mode! We're also going to be having a lot more customization options, such as allowing player 2 to have keyboard/mouse controls (which was locked to player 1 in CSD 2/3), as I know that was a requested feature for those using Steam Remote Play for multiplayer.
We are exploring online multiplayer but it's likely going to be limited to local multi only like the last few games. It would be a significant addition to add online components to a remake like this that would be outside the scope of this project.
Are there any features you're removing for CSD:R?
This is an interesting question! I feel like it's less about removing and more about renovating what was in the game before. For instance, the Iron Cook Kitchen was a new challenge mode that was completely separate from the main campaign in the original. For this remake I'm going to be integrating it more in the campaign, so while it feels like it's absent from the remake, it's actually more ingrained into the main story/campaign.
Another example are the ten foods after the game's original launch, such as sushi and coffee, were never in the Iron Cook Challenge, Catering or Hungry Festivities. That will change with all new challenges for those portions of the game!
Are the Crazy Dave bets going to be reworked or rebalanced to account for the current restaurant status?
Crazy Dave bets, and the CookBet system in general, is getting reworked for sure. I'm going to lean away from the "bet" vocabulary we used in the first game and instead lean more towards challenges as there's an awful lot of problems indie devs are facing with ratings boards that see the word "bet" and automatically assume you're gambling in the game. Ugh!!
But yes, I'm thinking you'll get "served" challenges from CookBet and Crazy Dave when you complete milestones, like upgrading a food or getting your first 30x combo, rather than having very randomized challenges that could sometimes be impossible with your current restaurant.
Will there be more options to customize your menu?
I'm adding in "randomized" options from CSD 2/3 that allow the game to pick a random food from your pool that's not menu rotted! I'm also adding way more features that I'll talk about in a future update. Here's a quick tease- the "Daily Special" is the very tip of what you can do with your menu.
Will the original soundtrack be available?
You will be able to not only have the original soundtrack, but all the soundtracks from CSD 2, 3 and Forever in a custom playlist! You can read more details about it in our previous dev update.
Will the emails be the same from the last game?
We will have hundreds of new emails, and some "classic" fan favorite emails! There's also some new bonuses that can come in the form of emails, so it will pay off to check your emails every day.
Will there be a demo? Is this still coming out this year?
I was hoping to have a demo ready by October for the Next Fest, but honestly I felt like we'd be rushing to meet that deadline and the last thing I want is to have a sub-optimal debut for this game. So we're aiming to have a demo by the end of the year- we'll see how it goes.
As far as the game's release, we're working as hard as we can! I know how long the wait has been for this game, and we want to make this the most polished release we've ever launched. It's more likely to be released in Q1 2026.
A sneak peek at our new UI redesign for the game! The background sky/restaurant is temporary art from CSD 1.
Any plan on continuing the chef story on CSD 4? Will there be a Cook Serve Forever 2?
I'd love to keep makin' CSD games! Let's see how this remake does first. ːcsd2smileː
Cook Serve Forever was a fun experiment but we're not going to be continuing that story or gameplay dynamic, that was a one time only thing. But I'm glad people enjoyed what the game turned into at the end!
RAPID FIRE ROUND!
Here's some quick answers to quick questions!
Can you add windowed mode to the game? (Yes, we will have full screen, borderless window, and window modes!)
Can you add in analog stick support like in CSD 1 for the controls? (I'll look into alternate ways of controlling the game!)
What is your WPM speed, chubigans? (I just tested it and I got 76 words per minute! Not too shabby!)
Have you beaten CSD 2 with all gold medals on all restaurants? (lmao I wish, I'm not nearly good enough!)
Will there be more Re-Mustard-ing of games, like a CSD 2 remake? (it all depends on how this game does, but I imagine if we're doing more CSD games, the next one after this won't be a remake...so we'll see!)
Can we have chill modes and zen modes like in the sequels? (yes, we will have new modifiers that will make the game more relaxing to play if that's what you're aiming for!)
Is this going to be on consoles? (We're releasing first on PC and then releasing on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch after!)
What about Steam Deck? (We plan on having full support for Steam Deck on day one!)
Will this use any kind of AI generated art or voice? (hell no!!!!!!! I will never use AI generated anything for my games)
Will this be on mobile like the first game? (I hope to do just that, it would be nice to have some kind of mobile presence- we'll look at that after the console versions are released)
There were some bugs that never got fixed in the original (like certain Cook4Love dates), is that fixed? (CSD:R is brand new code, so none of the original "legacy" bugs will be present in this game! Instead we will have all new bugs for players to discover and yell at me about!)
How much will this game be? (We're targeting $19.99 USD, however we'll have a discount for PC at launch and we'll also have a limited time bundle where you can get a further discount if you've purchased the original CSD 1 on Steam!)
Whew, that was a lot of questions! I'll be back in October for our new UI redesign reveal and even more awesome updates on the game, cya then!
-David
