Tutorial on Master Chef ArtiGame

Jan 30, 2014

We created an ArtiGame titled MasterChef, about which I wrote about a week back. Thanks to all of you who played the game and provided us with feedback. 

We have put in place a tutorial on how this game was created, we hope and wish this would benefit others who would like to do something similar.

Also this is not a perfect game, so would love to have people critique and suggest what else could have been done better or what could be other ideas.

14 Replies
Jeffrey Riley

All games must have instructions. When I started to play this game, I had no idea what I was supposed to do, how I was supposed to do it, and what was the point? It was all trial and error and this is really not the best way to go even for a game.

Look at all published board games and online games. They all have instructions. If the player decides to ignore the instructions and just play that is up to them, but as game maker, there should be instructions so the person knows how to play and score.

Stratbeans C

Dane James said:

I had fun, put a smile on my face . I can see how this type of game could be used for identifying material needed to complete a job. An Example: Put all the the tools a lineman would need to climb a pole into the truck bin. You could have them pick climbing hooks, climbing harness etc.....and drop them into the truck bin.


Dear Dane, its a good feeling know that you enjoyed the game. Thanks for sharing the idea for the climb-the-truck game, I would share this with my team. Do let me know if you would want to participate in co-designing this game - it would be fun !

Stratbeans C

Jeffrey Riley said:

All games must have instructions. When I started to play this game, I had no idea what I was supposed to do, how I was supposed to do it, and what was the point? It was all trial and error and this is really not the best way to go even for a game.

Look at all published board games and online games. They all have instructions. If the player decides to ignore the instructions and just play that is up to them, but as game maker, there should be instructions so the person knows how to play and score.


Dear Jeffrey, you are right, the conventional wisdom does suggest that games should have instructions so that firstly the user is able to understand the gameplay and secondly would giveperformance dynamics .

I remember having a *heated*  debate in house, when Rohit (game play designer) suggested we stay away from instruction and the game play should have callouts which guide the player just in time.

However, in retrospect, I think putting instructions would have been a good idea.

Thanks for taking time out to try out our game, if you get time do put in your comments on our blog, it would surely encourage our team further.

Dane James

Prasoon N said:

Jeffrey Riley said:

All games must have instructions. When I started to play this game, I had no idea what I was supposed to do, how I was supposed to do it, and what was the point? It was all trial and error and this is really not the best way to go even for a game.

Look at all published board games and online games. They all have instructions. If the player decides to ignore the instructions and just play that is up to them, but as game maker, there should be instructions so the person knows how to play and score.


Dear Jeffrey, you are right, the conventional wisdom does suggest that games should have instructions so that firstly the user is able to understand the gameplay and secondly would giveperformance dynamics .

I remember having a *heated*  debate in house, when Rohit (game play designer) suggested we stay away from instruction and the game play should have callouts which guide the player just in time.

However, in retrospect, I think putting instructions would have been a good idea.

Thanks for taking time out to try out our game, if you get time do put in your comments on our blog, it would surely encourage our team further.


Some of the latest ideas for learning are leading by asking questions to the students (Self Organized Learning Environment) and letting students work in small groups to figure it out on their own...An example: What is that frying pan? Why is there a list of ingredients? What are all those ingredients? What do you think you should do? I guess It depends on what you want the student to grasp. There are many ways to teach, try looking beyond what most know as traditional teaching methods and you may find something revolutionary.

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