Hey everyone, Emil here.

We (Kane, Sian, and I) have decided to remove Chef Wanted from the backburner and cancel its development.

Chef Wanted originated as a submission for the first Fangames at Freddit’s Game Jam, over two years ago (near the end of 2018). The game started as a very simple idea, which we wanted to make into a game. Of course it is the fewest of ideas that come out complete from the get-go, so we brainstormed for much of the development time, which led to us becoming more and more interested in the game as time went on. This is why the game ended up becoming bigger than any of us had expected when we first set out to develop it.

However, there are several factors which have led to the decision of cancellation:

• Inadequacy
  Aside from new and/or previous work taking over our time, we had in late 2019 begun to realize issues with portions of the game’s design. The visuals of the rooms were too bland, the code became unstructured as the game evolved, and the music wasn’t up to our standards.

• Time
  As many of you probably already know, Kane and I became a part of the Fazbear Fanverse which put some extra work on our tables (work which we were more than excited to do!) I have FNAC 4 to see to, and Kane has POPGOES Evergreen (and even though those are our biggest projects currently, there are smaller potential things growing beside them). This means, were we to continue developing Chef Wanted in the future, it would likely be a couple of years away, which would only exaggerate the first point.

• Fanverse
  There were discussions on Chef Wanted potentially partaking in the Fazbear Fanverse, however it would likely have been difficult since the game is quite large and uses a different engine than Clickteam Fusion, and since the game contains references to alcohol and bad language.

Though, cancellation in this particular case does not mean that all of our effort is wasted. 

There is still a possibility of using the game’s code-base and part of the game design for a different project in the future, which would save a lot of work! Aside from recycling the project, working on Chef Wanted has taught the three of us a lot when it comes to working on games, and as a team. I can certainly say I have become a much better game programmer and sprite animator because of Chef Wanted, not to mention it was my first time coding a turn-based battle system and designing a larger game structure as needed for an RPG! Kane got to write interactive character dialogue and design expressive characters, and even composed the entire OST. Sian had her first proper go at making pixel art and made all the backgrounds, among other things. My point is that we all came out with more experience in game development than when we started. With this, we are certain that cancellation is the best path for Chef Wanted, as opposed to just prolonging its hiatus.

Lastly, Kane, Sian, and I will discuss and reveal the gameplay and story of Chef Wanted in an upcoming livestream! We will make an announcement with the date and time later on, and we've also added all the game's soundtracks to the game-page, as well as a few more images, so be sure to check them out!

~Team EKS