My favourite cooking effect is definitely frying - I simply did some quick hand drawn sprite sheets to animate the popping, plus some tails and secondary particles. It came together so well.
The chopping effect had to be satisfying yet general enough to accommodate the wide range of ingredients.
The pantry was a joy to layout, and a fantastic challenge. It's meticulously planned chaos, a perfect cluttered arrangement of every ingredient possible.
A compilation of some of the interactions present in cooking.
Simon Baker set up food chunks which would get smaller the more the player chopped. The particle effects help smoothen this transition and make it even more satisfying.
Cooking is a central part of Tales of the Shire. I created particle effects which enhance each interaction - chopping, frying, pickling and more. Simon Baker and our animation team did a fantastic job implementing the chopped chunks which my effects complemented. The key was to keep the effects simple and stylised, but make them poppy and satisfying.
I also created the pantry layout, modifying the existing architecture to accommodate containers, shelves and jars required to hold every single ingredient in the game. The pantry is a physical representation of the players ingredient inventory, so it had to be laid out in a specific yet pleasing and cluttered way. For example no ingredient could rest on a different ingredient, in case the player did not stock the lower ingredient. Many thanks to the programmers including Melissa Haydon for implementing this. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it's so satisfying to see your ingredients appear there as you store them!