I introduced Overcooked to two of my friends one day back in 2016. One day being the key phrase here. The Overcooked games are on our list of the best co-op games, but the series has a reputation for ruining relationships—in China it’s apparently known as “The Divorce Kitchen”. I don’t recall actually fighting with my friends, but the tension was thick enough that we quickly went back to playing Jackbox instead.
That makes Stage Fright, which is being published by No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games, kind of an interesting pivot for Ghost Town Games. It’s the next co-op adventure from the makers of Overcooked, but it’s aimed at building relationships with your play partner instead of leaving you irked at them.
Here’s what Stage Fright’s developers have to say about the tonal shift a decade later.
“Overcooked broke you apart and Stage Fright is there to put you back together,” said co-director Oliver De-Vine, when we spoke over Zoom in September.
“I think there’s a sense of us trying to be constructive with co-op, and trying to be a constructive and positive force in the world,” De-Vine said. “Not that there’s anything negative, necessarily, about having a fun argument with your friends! But we’re trying to foster community in our games. [They’re] about communication between people, and less about being very good with the fidelity of a controller.”
“It’s exciting to us, the idea that the people who are good at our games are the ones who are good at communicating,” said games designer Phil Duncan. “Certainly with Overcooked, one of the things we found with [demoing it at] conventions is that you would find a bunch of teenage boys would come and play it, and play in complete silence, and they’d fail the level horribly.
“And then you’d get two people, we had a little girl come up, and she was like eight years old, playing with her friend, and they’re chatting the whole time. And they smashed through it, and they played absolutely effortlessly.”
Couch co-op, even without a couch
To make the co-op vibe of Stage Fright even more chummy, Ghost Town Games wants its players to feel like they’re sitting on the couch with their friend—even when they’re playing over the internet.
“I think it’s a unique experience, local co-op particularly, versus playing games online,” De-Vine said. “Even though our game is both local and online, we are trying to make the experience of online as similar to the local experience as possible. So the game is splitscreen online as well, because it does depend on being able to see what the other player is doing and communicate about what they’re seeing in the environment.”
“The ideal situation is that you’re sat next to someone and you’re nudging them and you point at the same thing. So it’s as close as we can get to that online,” Duncan said.
In Stage Fright, two players will guide a pair of kids through a Luigi’s Mansion-style adventure where they’ll have to tackle puzzles, avoid threats, and solve a mystery, with nothing to rely on but their partners. While there’s more complexity in the adventure than in their chaotic kitchens, the devs didn’t want to lose the accessibility of Overcooked’s single-button action.
“Imagine family-friendly Silent Hill”
“When we talk about puzzle aspects or escape room aspects, we’re trying to avoid having a game where you have to get a notepad out and write things down,” De-Vine said.
“Everything is communicated between the players verbally. It’s got adventure game elements, but without an inventory. There’s no inventory management. Everything is physical items you’re carrying around in a similar way to Overcooked, sort of quite large, obvious, chunky items, and that is again trying to make sure that everything is out loud in communication.”
I asked if it was a linear type of game, where players need to solve puzzles in order, or if they’ll be able to try a different puzzle and come back later when they get stuck.
“Similar to how you would find an escape room experience, where you’ll find a clue, and it won’t necessarily be linked to the thing [you’re solving], you’ll have to remember that for later,” De-Vine said.
“It’s linear in the way that Silent Hill is linear. Which is a weird comparison because it’s not much like it,” he said, laughing. “But you know, imagine family-friendly Silent Hill.”
