When creating KuloNiku: Bowl Up! our team was inspired by a variety of games, all of which we've been proud to name and nerd over in our AMA's...
So we thought it was time we put together a list right here of the games that inspired us and why.
Cooking Mama
It's impossible not to start this list with Cooking Mama! Of course, our cooking minigames were inspired by Cooking Mama, especially how satisfying it feels to chop! We specifically remember playing Cooking Mama World Kitchen on the Wii and loving the neatly designed characters and thinking how much we wished we could befriend them. That's part of why a friendship mechanic was so important to us when making KuloNiku: Bowl Up!
Good Pizza, Great Pizza
The daily comings and goings of customers, overviews of the finances for the day and cooking station was inspired, of course, by the wonderful Good Pizza, Great Pizza. We love the addictive gameplay and hoped to bring a slice of that to our game.
Papa's Pizzeria/ Freezeria
Similarly to Good Pizza, Great Pizza, Papa's Pizzeria & Freezeria's satisfying gameplay and mechanics were an inspiration for our game. Need we say more?
Stardew Valley
I know what you're thinking! How is a farming sim an inspiration for a cooking game? Well, we drew a lot of inspiration from the characters, particularly from the character development in Alex, Hailey and Shane. Though we do keep things a lot lighter, we hoped to bring some of the maturity and realism of Stardew Valley's characters to KuloNiku: Bowl Up!
Persona
We love how in Persona, some of the protagonist's choices can be unhinged... We wanted to bring that into KuloNiku: Bowl Up! and give people fun options of things to say during interactions.
100 Girlfriends Who Really (x5) Love You
Okay, okay, we know this isn't a game, but the comedic and playful writing and fun characters of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really (x5) Love You were a huge inspiration for us. Especially because really, deep down, all of the characters are down to earth and well rounded.
Mega Man Legends
One of our biggest inspirations for visual style and character design was Mega Man Legends. We feel like this kind of character design is more rare nowadays, so we wanted to bring it back.