February Newsletter: How We Developed Cleaver
How We Developed Cleaver
This month we dive deep into creating the guardian who’s always got your back.
Hello Chefs! It’s Ryan (one of the two Cook, Serve, Delicious! series writers) again! Last month we had some fun going deep behind the scenes into the development of Whisk in Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! (if you didn’t get that newsletter, read it in the archive here!) so this month we’re going to do the same of your favorite guardian—Cleaver!
Why does my cooking game contain a robot with a big gun?
The concept of having a robot guardian in the game stemmed from the desire to shake up the series’ gameplay while bringing the lore from the background of CSD2 (told in optional emails) into the foreground of CSD3. No longer would you be able to miss the fact that this series takes place in an alternate reality future, because your two best friends are robots and one of them has a big gun.
In fact, that big gun was originally going to play a bigger part in the game. You see, part of “shaking up the series” originally involved you actually contributing to the food truck battle segments. Similar to preparing food, you would have had to hit the right keys to aim and fire at other food trucks. This aspect of the game was removed during development because it felt like a distraction rather than a new fun feature.
How’d you come up with Cleaver, specifically?
As mentioned in our previous newsletter, David originally envisioned for both the driver and guardian robots to be outgoing and optimistic, but Nick and I decided to make their personalities distinct to allow for more narrative possibilities.
We wanted the characters to be opposites so as to let their interactions highlight each other’s distinct personalities. As such, it made sense for the guardian to be reserved, but we were hesitant to make her pessimistic. We worried that a “glass half empty” character could clash with the “upbeat sadness” tone we were aiming for and we worried a pessimistic robot would come off as cliche in a time when robots in popular media stated bleak facts for comedic effect (think K-2SO from Rogue One).
As such, the guardian became a reserved realist to contrast with the driver’s outgoing optimism. Furthermore, we felt it was very important for her to have a real heart under her tough exterior. She would be quiet and unenthused about events, but she still cared about you and Whisk. Inadvertently, this made the robots’ personalities reflect stereotypical heterosexual parents—Whisk like a nurturing mother figure and Cleaver like a tough but loving father figure. Cliches exist for a reason, I guess.
Cleaver is a cool name AND kitchen utensil! How’d you come up with it?
While I came up with “Whisk” on a whim, I’m embarrassed to say that I initially went with the much less inspired placeholder name “Spork” for the guardian. I knew it was bad when I wrote it down, and the whole team hated it. We got on a chat, went to our respective kitchens, and started listing everything we saw. Some options we came up with included:
Cutter
Cork
Cutler
Skimmer
Shot
Rosemary
Grater
Sifter
Pan
Can-Opener
Those last two were jokes, I swear. Despite our best efforts, it was actually my kitchen-savvy partner who suggested “Cleaver.” “Whisk and Cleaver” sounded good, they were both kitchen tools, and they were about as opposite of kitchen tools as we could think of.
How did Vana get cast as Cleaver?
David sent Negaoryx a short description of Cleaver’s personality and asked her if she knew anyone who could voice act that sounded like a good fit, and Negs immediately thought of Vana. We checked out Vana’s Twitch stream and instantly knew she was Cleaver.
Any fun ideas for the character’s story that went unmade?
While we struggled quite a bit to determine Whisk’s storyline, Cleaver’s story came about very early and easily. In addition to her shedding her tough exterior to become friends with Whisk, we revealed her to be in search of a place to call home. This worked not only in providing opportunities for her to bond with Whisk via discussing possible homes, but also worked well within the setting of the game’s cross-country journey. This decision had a domino effect in helping us answer questions like “why on earth are we taking the truck through an irradiated wasteland?” with “Whisk wants to take Cleaver to her childhood home” instead of “Whisk gets lost all the time” — because yeah, originally Whisk was going to just get lost and end up in an irradiated wasteland ... and also Canada.
Cleaver was a lot of fun to write for, both in scenes where she clashed with Whisk and especially in those where she let down her tough exterior and you got a peek at the real soul inside of her, such as joining Whisk in chanting for their favorite sports team. To me, the latter scenes were the heart of the story, and it was one of the highlights of my professional life to hear those scenes of the characters bonding performed by two incredibly talented voice actresses. There’s no way that Cleaver would have come off as likable and layered without Vana’s incredible performance and understanding of the character.
And that’s how Cleaver was made!
I hope you’re enjoying this new newsletter format! To keep it going, next month we’ll take a peek behind the curtain at how we plotted the route and developed the territories for Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! Don’t forget to tell all your CSD-loving friends to subscribe to this newsletter, and feel free to ask us questions or suggest topics for future newsletters on any of our below social media!
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February Discord Challenge
Our February community challenge is running on the CSD Discord — post your entry for a chance to win great prizes like game codes, the iconic Sundae plushie, or replicas of CSD3's in-game gold and bronze medals!