Venba (video Game)
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''Venba'' is a narrative
cooking video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...
developed and published by Visai Games. The story begins in 1988 and follows an immigrant Indian couple settling down in Canada and adjusting their day-to-day lives in the new environment. The player controls the titular character, Venba, an Indian woman who moves with her husband to Toronto, where they eventually have a son. The game draws heavily from
Tamil culture Tamil culture refers to the culture of the Tamil people. The Tamils speak the Tamil language, one of the oldest languages in India with more than two thousand years of written history. Archaeological evidence from the Tamilakam region indicat ...
and
South Indian cuisine South Indian cuisine includes the cuisines of the five South India, southern states of India—Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana—and the union territories of Lakshadweep, and Puducherry (union territory), Pondicherr ...
. The game was released on July 31, 2023, for
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,
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,
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,
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
, and
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.


Gameplay

The core gameplay involves Venba's journey of restoring lost recipes through trial and error. In each chapter, Venba and her son, Kavin, explore their familial relationships through food, which plays out in puzzles. Venba's mother's cookbook has been damaged over time, leading to smudged instructions that make the recipes difficult to follow. The player consults the cookbook to recreate the recipes, as Venba contemplates her own memories to help piece together any missing instructions. They will encounter these obstacles throughout the game when making different dishes and must investigate surrounding instructions and diagrams to fill in the gaps. This obstacle starts off with one or two lines from the recipe missing, to later on becoming an entire page with only diagrams to work with and no legible instructions to tackle cooking the meal properly. Apart from the cooking mechanics, the player picks dialogue options in conversations with other characters. There is replayability in making different dialogue choices or going back to create past dishes without making mistakes.


Plot

The story follows Venba and her husband Paavalan, who leave
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...
, a southern Indian state, to begin a new life in Toronto, Canada. The couple struggles with the new language, culture and a lack of job prospects, but hope that their newborn son has an easier time than them. As Kavin grows up, Venba aims to instil an appreciation for Tamil language and culture in him, but she faces difficulties as Kavin quickly assimilates to Canadian culture. Paavalan passes away, Kavin grows more distant, and without a firm source of income, Venba eventually returns to India alone. After some years, an adult Kavin comes to appreciate the unique culture his parents tried to teach him. He travels to India to visit Venba, apologizing for dismissing his heritage, and hopes she will help teach him more. Each short chapter is a vignette encapsulating a year in Venba’s life.


Development and release

In an interview with ''
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'', lead developer Abhi explained that most media relating to immigrant stories focuses on second-generation children, rather than their parents, but it's the parents who have "a cooler story to tell, because they up and leave their country at the age of 40 or 50, and they move to a brand new place." ''Venba'' is told from the perspective of the mother, showcasing how cooking becomes a way for her to keep in touch with her roots. Visai Games has spoken about the challenge of making a cooking game that is interesting to players who are familiar with the South Indian recipes, while ensuring the game is not too difficult for those who are unfamiliar. Because the game introduces players to
Tamil cuisine Tamil cuisine is a generic term used to describe culinary practices among Tamil language, Tamil-speaking populations, originating from Southern India and neighboring Sri Lanka. It encompasses several distinct styles of cuisine or cooking reper ...
, the developers aimed to ensure the recipes are authentic and representative of the culture. Initially, the developers struggled to design comprehensive puzzles out of the recipes, as Abhi explains: " outh Asianrecipes are usually quite long and complicated and while it was technically possible to make puzzles out of them, it didn't make for very fun gameplay." After extensive research, the developers found that some recipes had puzzles built into them already, and they simply needed to be properly contextualized. The fragmented recipe book mechanic showcases the game's narrative through its gameplay mechanics, in an effort to allow players to feel what it's like to want to express one's own culture from their roots and familial bonds, but not being able to completely translate it in challenging environments. The developers have spoken about the pivotal role sound design played in ensuring players understood the sounds of southern Indian food, explaining that “capturing the recipes accurately was important to us, and so was making the players feel like they were stepping inside Tamil kitchen." ''Venba'' sound designer Neha Patel both cooked the meals and recorded sounds each step of the way, in an effort to capture the most authentic Foley. Beyond Foley for cooking, Abhi has described the lengths the team went to to create the essential background of Tamil cooking, specifically the music on the radio. He recalled his own experiences in his family kitchen with radio or the TV often playing in the background. Visai Games added an in-game radio with a soundtrack scored alongside each narrative era, all tied to the sounds of Tamil cinema from the aligned decade. The game was released on July 31, 2023 for
Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...
,
PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...
,
Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
, and
Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...
. It was initially planned for spring that year.


Soundtrack

''Venba'' soundtrack is inspired by several decades of
Tamil film Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Chen ...
music, bringing together a variety of genres and homages to popular composers, in an effort to accentuate the nostalgia and cultural palette of the game. The
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
lyrics were written with the intention to take the listener on a journey through the evolution of
Tamil music Music of Tamil Nadu has a long tradition and history going back thousands of years. Music is a very important aspect of marriage and temple festival Tamil people. Ancient music The tradition of Tamil music goes back to the earliest period o ...
, using pop-culture references and poetic storytelling to mark each era. ''Venba'' features a track, entitled "Chellakutty", performed by famed Indian film composer,
Deva Deva may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deva, List of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition monsters, an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd edition monster * Deva, in the 2023 Indian film ''Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefir ...
. The soundtrack was released for digital purchase on July 21, 2023 on
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and additionally made available for purchase as
downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...
on
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, alongside the game.


Reception

''Venba'' received generally favorable reviews from critics upon release, according to
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. ''
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'''s Veerender Singh Jubbal praised the game's soundtrack, cooking mechanics, and its execution of themes and story, noted that "having South Asian developers, all with different experiences, means Venba is a narrative cooking adventure about an immigrant mother's life that feels authentic." ''
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'' writer CJ Andriessen praised ''Venba'' exploration of
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
culture and cuisine, but criticized its short length, writing that "the food is lovely to look at, as is the rest of the game, but it's all so brief." Nicole Carpenter of ''
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'' had praise for the game's length, writing that "that sort of pacing is a huge feat for a game like ''Venba'', which packs decades of story into just over an hour. It would have been easy for the story to feel partial or rushed, but the cooking segments really help in slowing down even the most intense moments, letting me linger and feel before moving on."


Clones

In June 2024 ''
Aftermath Aftermath may refer to: Companies * Aftermath (comics), an imprint of Devil's Due Publishing * Aftermath Entertainment, an American record label founded by Dr. Dre * Aftermath Media, an American multimedia company * Aftermath Services, an America ...
'' reported that the mobile game ''Sofra'' by Global Advertising Network LTD was a clone of ''Venba'' that "whitewashed out any of the things that make ''Venba'' incredible" and was a "sloppy mobile cash grab."


Awards and nominations


References


External links

* {{Seumas McNally Grand Prize 2023 video games British Academy Games Award for Debut Game winners Casual games Cooking video games Indie games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 5 games Puzzle video games Seumas McNally Grand Prize winners Single-player video games Video games developed in Canada Video games set in 1988 Video games set in 1994 Video games set in 1995 Video games set in 2006 Video games set in 2014 Video games set in Canada Windows games Works about immigration to Canada Xbox Cloud Gaming games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games