VENBA

How a small team of Canadian developers came together to cook up a storm

- By NIALL O'DONOGHUE

Venba is in her happy place. Music blares from the kitchen radio as she cooks, harmonising with the sizzle of hot oil. With no recipes guiding her, she works from instinct and with skill, tossing ingredient after ingredient into the pan to make her dish. Before long, piles of food rest upon her kitchen table, laid out carefully in anticipation of a visit from her son, Kavin, her only family member in Toronto since the death of her husband. With a smile on her face, Venba dozes off on her apartment balcony. Hours later, a text message from Kavin wakes her: "Sorry amma! Something came up last minute." As silence falls, the camera zooms out, leaving Venba alone in a double bed.

This is one of several emotional gut punches in Venba, an intimate portrayal of Indian migrants starting new lives in Canada. Yet Visai Games' debut is also a joyous celebration of Tamil culture, and in particular its cuisine.

Whether you're attempting to parse a tattered recipe book to make idli or sifting through Venba's memories of her mother's biryani, preparing a meal is significantly more mindful here than in the likes of Overcooked. "It was meant to be a celebration of these foods, and spotlight them also," designer and writer Abhi Swaminathan tells us.

It proved a successful recipe and went on to receive numerous accolades, including the IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize and the BAFTA for Debut Game. And given how central a role food plays in Venba's story, there's a certain inevitability to where it all began for Swaminathan and his small team of collaborators: in the staff canteen of Canadian mobile game developer Uken Games.