Odds are you probably haven’t yet heard of Cheapass Games, the independent game company — operated by James Ernest — that has been striving since 1996 to deliver a plethora of cheap and innovative games. They have produced such novel board game as Devil Bunny Needs a Ham, Kill Doctor Lucky, Unexploded Cow, Spree!, and James Ernest’s Totally Renamed Spy Game (formerly known as Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond). These were distributed to players either as free PDFs that they could download and print, as minimum physical editions that included only the necessary parts that couldn’t easily be borrowed from most other board games, and also as an occasional fully deluxe edition.
James Ernest and crew are now seeking to bring their cheap — yet innovative — brand of board game fun to iOS users everywhere, via their current Kickstarter to produce an app version of Fish Cook. In it players take the role of a French Chef — circa 1909 — whom has just graduated from a prestigious cooking academy, but unfortunately the same is also true of all of their rivals as well. Thus an epic cook off commences wherein players must compete to earn the most fame — prestige — and respect, which is conveniently measured — due to the fact that Fish Cook is a board game — all by whom rakes in the most cash.
In order to do this players strategically compete across a set number of days; during which they do their fish shopping in the morning, and their cuisine creating in the afternoon. While creating the ultimate secret recipe might make your take in the big bucks at night, the real secret to winning at Fish Cook comes from seeing which player can most effectively manage their budget. After all, any fish you haven’t used by the end of each day has become far too rotten to serve and must ultimately be tossed out (along with all of the capital that the player invested in the process of obtaining said fish).
Further complicating matters is the fact any species of fish currently in high demand will end up becoming scarce in supply, further driving up their marketplace value as a result. Even if a player manages to secure the last available hot commodity fish, they might later find themselves forced to waste it on an inferior dish if no high-end orders should arrive that afternoon. Thus true success in Fish Cook will go to those whom best manage the balance between their potential risks and rewards, rather than merely whom figures out how to put together the most luxurious fish dinner imaginable.
If funded, then the digital version of James Ernest’s Fish Cook will include the ability for multiple people to play together on one iOS device — for one person to play against AI opponents — or even for multiple people to compete against each other online as well. However — in order for the programmers at Cat Duo to produce a fully featured mobile port of Fish Cook — their recently launched Kickstarter will need to secure $15,000 in development funds, of which over $6,000 has so far been collected. Things are — with a staggering 26 days still remaining — currently looking to be quite up for hopeful French chefs everywhere, but that doesn’t change the fact that much work still remains undone.
Currently, keeping in line with Cheapass Game’s moniker, you can secure a launch day copy of Fish Cook — on either iOS, Android, Windows, or Macintosh — for a donation of just $5. Meanwhile — for those whom further donate to the cause of aspiring chefs everywhere — additional rewards include: beta access, an official backer coin, physical deluxe copies of the original Fish Cook, and even getting to appear in game as an avatar! Those interested — however — need to be sure to chip in their donations before September 6th rolls around, or else all of Cat Duo’s plans to port James Ernest’s Fish Cook to the iOS will spoil before they can ever be completed.