MEDIUMS:
Unity, C#, Adobe Illustrator
Background Music: Oneul – 초콜렛 세상 (Chocolate World) : 귀여운 크리스마스 음악, 브…
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Players gather ingredients in the environment, bring them back into the kitchen, process and bake them, and then share food with NPCs. The gameplay loop is comforting and intentional, where repetitive actions like collecting, preparing, and organizing ingredients becomes meaningful rather than tedious.
WHY?
Many crafting systems reduce labour into efficiency, profit, or maximizing output. I was interested in looking past that because for me, food is a love language across cultures. Cooking for someone takes time, repetition, and effort, and I wanted to explore whether a game could communicate emotional labour through repetitive mechanics. Instead of designing around speed or productivity, A Touch of Warmth focuses on experimentation, preparation, and the emotional meaning behind sharing food.
HOW?
I introduced labour through waiting, repetition, and movement. Crops regrow over time, encouraging players to repeatedly explore the environment, gather ingredients, and return to the kitchen. Early prototypes revealed that exploration felt too limited, which led me to expand the world into distinct regions and shift from a static top-down view to an isometric 2D perspective with slower, more intentional pacing.
Food preparation is structured through three verbs: process via the cutting board, boil via the stove and pot, and whip via the bowl. Different ingredients respond differently to each action, encouraging experimentation, recipe discovery, and inventory organization through repetitive kitchen labour.
The gifting mechanic was the most challenging system to design because I wanted food sharing to feel intentional rather than transactional. Inspired by the GDC talk “Kindness Coins,” I designed NPCs to remember previous gifts and respond based on mood and history, focusing less on points and rewards and more on emotional connection and authentic interaction.
For the visual direction, I wanted the environment to feel approachable and comforting without becoming visually overwhelming. I was inspired by Cookie Run: Kingdom and Farm Merge Valley because of their cozy atmospheres and their use of repetitive labour as comfort. This led me to adopt an isometric perspective alongside a warm, cohesive color palette and intentionally soft, simplified visuals.
A Touch of Warmth explores how repetitive actions in games can feel emotionally meaningful when connected to care, intention, and sharing rather than efficiency or optimization.
