Soul Bites

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  Each ghostly customer has a set of emotional needs. Can you create a meal that brings them inner peace?

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  Grow the Soul Bites restaurant from a roadside shack to a haunted house of heavenly cuisine!

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  Along the way, fill your Ghostiary with each healed ghost's story

What is Soul Bites?

Soul Bites is a cozy restaurant management game where players serve healing meals to wandering spirits, helping them find peace while building their reputation as the afterlife's greatest chef.

It combines restaurant management, emotional deduction and collection progression into a cozy supernatural experience where success comes from understanding spirits rather than simply serving food.

How it was built

I primarily used Figma and Miro to create the games core loops. Soul Bite's biggest differentiator is the emotional deduction element so getting that nailed whilst also working on the other games systems was integral before moving on. Getting it feeling fun with nothing but annotated squares and emojis was key before moving towards art. I then created a full pre-production package consisting of a GDD, Player Journey Map, Visual Concept Package, and Production Plan. AI-generated concept art and U.I mockups were used to rapidly explore visual direction and communicate gameplay ideas while refining the game's identity.

What did I learn

Developing Soul Bites taught me that meaningful gameplay can come from interpretation rather than execution. By shifting the challenge away from speed and toward empathy, observation, and deduction, I learned how mechanics can encourage players to slow down, pay attention, and think critically about character interactions. The project also highlighted the value of early prototyping and production planning. Testing ideas on paper first made it easier to simplify complex systems and focus on the mechanics that create meaningful player decisions.

The challenges I faced

The greatest challenge was designing an emotional puzzle system that feels intuitive without becoming predictable. Dialogue needed to contain enough clues for players to make informed decisions while still leaving room for deduction and experimentation. Another key challenge was balancing accessibility with depth. The game aims to be cozy and welcoming for casual players while providing enough variety through new ingredients, recipes, customer personalities, and restaurant progression to encourage repeated play and mastery.

What inspired me

Soul Bites was inspired by the idea of combining cozy management gameplay with emotional storytelling. Many cooking games focus on speed and efficiency, but I wanted to create an experience where listening, observation, and interpretation are the primary skills. Artistically, the game draws inspiration from illustrated storybooks and whimsical fantasy worlds, featuring warm lantern lighting and soft colour palettes. The goal was to create a Halloween-inspired atmosphere that feels comforting and warm rather than frightening.

What's next for Soul Bites

With more time, I would expand Soul Bites by deepening both the emotional deduction mechanics and the restaurant simulation. Future updates could introduce recurring ghost customers with evolving storylines, branching dialogue based on previous meals, seasonal events, and reputation systems that unlock rare ingredients and recipes. I would also explore a larger world map featuring multiple supernatural locations, each with unique spirits, cuisines, and cooking challenges.

Built With

• figma
• miro
• paper