Chef It Up
Card Game |
Game Design,
Illustrations, Visual Identity, Packaging
A fast-paced, family-friendly card game that turns cooking into a competitive adventure. Designed to show how the same ingredients can create different dishes.
Goal
Research
Ideation
Create a family friend game that teaches a lesson.
In developing this game, I studied the structure, pacing, and playability of different card games to understand what makes them engaging and easy to learn. This research helped shape a format where cooking concepts could be taught through simple, intuitive gameplay. By connecting the flexibility of ingredients with the strategy of card play, the game introduces players to the building blocks of different cuisines while maintaining the fun, quick rhythm of the games that inspired it.
Concept
Chef It Up is a fast-paced, family-friendly card game where players race to complete recipes using shared ingredients, highlighting how the same components appear across different dishes and cuisines. Drawing inspiration from the intuitive mechanics of my family’s favorite card games, players draw, trade, and collect ingredients through clear visuals and straightforward rules making cooking concepts fun, interactive, and easy to understand while turning culinary basics into a lively, connected game-night experience.
Create a family friend game that teaches a lesson.
In developing this game, I studied the structure, pacing, and playability of different card games to understand what makes them engaging and easy to learn. This research helped shape a format where cooking concepts could be taught through simple, intuitive gameplay. By connecting the flexibility of ingredients with the strategy of card play, the game introduces players to the building blocks of different cuisines while maintaining the fun, quick rhythm of the games that inspired it.
Concept
Chef It Up is a fast-paced, family-friendly card game where players race to complete recipes using shared ingredients, highlighting how the same components appear across different dishes and cuisines. Drawing inspiration from the intuitive mechanics of my family’s favorite card games, players draw, trade, and collect ingredients through clear visuals and straightforward rules making cooking concepts fun, interactive, and easy to understand while turning culinary basics into a lively, connected game-night experience.
After researching a variety of card games, including the ones my family regularly plays, I identified the mechanics, pacing, and interaction styles that felt most engaging. I combined these elements into an early prototype and began an iterative process of playtesting with students, using their feedback to refine the rules, balance the gameplay, and resolve logistical challenges. Once the core system felt solid, I moved into developing the visual identity: sketching out card layouts, icons, and typography before translating everything digitally. From there, I printed, cut, and hand-assembled the full game, including more than 175 ingredient cards, 8 player shields, an instruction manual, and a custom box.