Burger Bois News

Hello friends and burger lovers!

This month we’ve got something a little different for you. Our newly coined ‘meal-deal’ sibling duo Alex & Jess had the pleasure of being interviewed by the Bargain Bin Gaymers podcast.

If you’re curious about some of the mechanics we’ve been experimenting with, inspirations behind the characters, and what drives our design decision-making, pop the podcast on and give it a listen.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]🙏 Thanks for watching![/h2]
We had a great time yapping about whimsy and the fantasy vs reality of running a burger truck - we hope you enjoyed it too! 😀 Thanks so much to Davey & Mitch for having us. If you’re hungry for more videos like this, you can find and follow Bargain Bin Gaymers here.

Until next time,
Jess, Alex, Jackal & Anthony

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3224290/Burger_Bois/

Hi friends!

This month, we’re diving into the beginnings of Burger Bois—the inspiration and the backstory that brought this game to life. So, grab a snack (preferably a burger) and let’s get into it!

[h2]💌 A Love Letter to Food & Hospitality[/h2]
Burger Bois is our love letter to food, creativity, and the joy of serving up something delicious. It’s a mash-up of everything we adore: the food service vibes of Good Pizza, Great Pizza, the creative challenge of Sticky Business, and the quirky, comedic characters of Ace Attorney. But where did the idea for this burger building adventure come from? Let’s rewind to 2019.



[h2]💡 The Birth of Burger Bois[/h2]
The idea for Burger Bois was first cooked up by Alex, our resident foodie, while reflecting on his sister Jess’… let’s say, complicated relationship with cooking.

Pictured: Jess, trying to cook.

Jess’ disdain for the kitchen combined with their shared love for Burger Wellington—an annual burger festival in New Zealand—and cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants and Bob’s Burgers sparked a thought:

[h3]“What if we could make a game that turns cooking-nonbelievers into cooking-converts through the power of humor, creativity, and a whole lot of flavor?”[/h3]

For Alex, part of the joy of cooking is experimenting—and he’s not alone! We’re huge fans of Roll For Sandwich, Binging with Babish, and Sorted Food. We wanted to capture that same sense of joy and discovery in Burger Bois—trying new things, sometimes failing, and always having fun.

Fast forward to late 2021, and pre-production began during COVID-19 lockdown as a sibling side hustle for Jess and Alex. But things heated up in March 2024 when we secured the NZ CODE KickStart grant, which helped us bring the core Burger Design game loop to life. Now, we’re building out the full game loop, adding fresh content, and gearing up to put out a demo.

[h2]🤔 What Makes Burger Bois Special?[/h2]
You may have heard that Burger Bois is a food truck simulator about flavor, not labor. As Patty, your job is to design burgers that match your customers’ vague, and sometimes downright alarming requests, manage your stock, and build up your truck’s reputation in a world that’s under the deeply incorrect impression that burgers are “mid.”

Most cooking games focus on the “choppy-choppy” (physically simulating cooking) or combining ingredients like “X + Y = preset outcome Z.” But we wanted to do something different. What if we removed those elements and focused purely on the flavors and physical properties of the burgers you design? That’s the core of Burger Bois—a game that celebrates taste, experimentation, and, of course, burgers.



[h2]👀 What’s Next?[/h2]
We’re still hard at work on the game, adding new features, locations, ingredients, and customers (both friend and foe).

In the meantime, if you haven’t already, wishlist Burger Bois on Steam and help us spread the word. Every wishlist brings us one step closer to sharing this flavor-packed adventure with the world.

Here’s to another month of creativity, burgers, and good vibes! 🍔🎮
Jess, Alex, Jackal, Stevi & Anthony


https://store.steampowered.com/app/3224290/Burger_Bois/
Hungry for more? Follow Burger Bois on Steam and stay in the loop with all these juicy updates!

Hello burger lovers! Now that our burger design & customer request systems are in a good place, we’ve been focusing on what managing your truck might look like - aka, the metagame.

[h2]😋 Making the game feel more “full”[/h2]
Keeping the balance between ‘giving the player enough levers to pull’ whilst keeping within our casual management sim genre has been an interesting design challenge.

Our catchphrase with Burger Bois has always been ‘flavor not labor’, so we wanted to make sure whatever we design here doesn’t feel like work to play. This is Patty’s dayjob, but it shouldn’t feel like the player’s dayjob!

Part of this process has involved researching reference games like Good Pizza Great Pizza, Sticky Business, Potionomics, and Potion Craft, to get a feel for what might work well with a Burger Bois flavor. Our notes from those sessions helped us brainstorm the wider game loop!

Top secret game loop design work, ooooooo

[h2]😅 Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should[/h2]
Once we’d prototyped these new features & tested them with our core audience, we asked ourselves: are these the right fit for our casual management sim game?

When we started the project we established three core pillars:

• Real-world transferable ingredient knowledge
  
• Reward experimentation
  
• Weird and delightful

Comparing each part of the new metagame to those pillars helped us to identify what to keep, and what to cut. 🔪🔪🔪

One feature we were considering cutting fell squarely into the ‘weird and delightful’ bucket, so we decided to keep that on and re-tool it to better fit the game. Another feature accidentally punished players for experimenting, so that hit the chopping block! (Maybe we’ll bring it back for an optional game mode though, who knows.)

[h2]👀 So what’s in the metagame, then? [/h2]
We’re keeping the details hush hush for now, but the ideas we’ve been exploring include:

• Time management without timers
  
• Finding the balance between practicality and the joy of discovery with stocking new ingredients
  
• Ways to influence your business beyond just serving customers
  
• Social media’s role in indie hospitality success
  
• The intersection between your truck, and the places you park it
  
• Goofing off at work can be good for you, actually

When we’ve got more to share on that front, you’ll be the first to know!

[h2]🙏 Thanks for reading![/h2]
We hope you’ve enjoyed this lil exploration of our process, and thank you for your continued support of Burger Bois. 🥰

Until next time,
Jess, Alex, Jackal, Stevi & Anthony


https://store.steampowered.com/app/3224290/Burger_Bois/

Hi friends! 2024 was a sizzling year for Mischief Makers Studio, and we’re excited to share the highlights with you. Here’s a quick look at what we cooked up in the past year:

[h2]Securing the Secret Sauce: NZ CODE KickStart Funding[/h2]
In March 2024, we were thrilled to secure NZ CODE KickStart funding. This support was the special sauce that helped us bring Burger Bois to life.

The funding allowed us to prototype the core loop of the game and dive into visual development for our characters, ingredients, and the food truck with our talented artist, Jackal. Plus, our sound engineer and composer, Anthony, crafted some juicy SFX and an original track that truly slaps! We also built our first demo for private playtesting, and set our sights on PAX AUS.



[h2]Burger Bois at PAX AUS[/h2]
One of our favorite moments of the year was serving up Burger Bois at PAX AUS in Melbourne. It was an incredible experience to meet fellow gamers and developers, and to finally share a little taste of our game with the world.

During the three-day October event, more than 180 players got their hands on the game, collectively serving up a whopping 775 burgers! Among all those players, only 21 managed to unlock a secret collectible #foodpic, so consider this a challenge for our next playtest. 👀 Exhibiting was the highlight of our year, and we loved every minute of it!



[h2]Wishlist Whopper: Over 1,000 Strong[/h2]
Thanks to your appetite for "flavor not labor," we ended the year with over 1,000 wishlists. It’s been amazing to see so many people take an interest in our game. Each wishlist helps us spread the word and the hype. Here’s to stacking up even more in the coming year!

[h2]Looking Ahead to 2025[/h2]
For 2025, we’re keeping the grill on full heat. We're prototyping and building out the meta loop of the game, and there’s a whole menu of new assets on the way. Expect fresh locations, exciting ingredients, and new customers both friend and foe. We’re also gearing up for more playtests so keep your eyes peeled for playtester callouts in the coming months. 👀

We’re on a mission to connect with more burger lovers, and on that note, we’re stoked to welcome Stevi to our team as Junior Community Manager and Games Writer. Stevi loves to eat, yap, and write, and they’re ready to dig in! 😌

Hungry for the latest scoop? Join our mailing list and stay in the loop with all the juicy updates from Burger Bois!

Here’s to another year of flavor-packed fun! 🍔🎮
Jess, Alex, Jackal, Stevi & Anthony

To celebrate Steam Cooking Fest, we're serving up a sizzling Steam broadcast with the help of our friend uMontyu.

Tune into the Steam page from now until the end of Steam Cooking Fest for a first look at the core gameplay. 👁️👄👁️