Delicious (series)

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Delicious is a series of time management casual games, developed by Zylom Studios, and published by Zylom. The latest release of the series Delicious Honeymoon Cruise is developed by Blue Giraffe. The Blue Giraffe team largely consists of the original developers, designers and artists. The games tell the story of Emily, a waitress who aspires to one day run her own restaurant, and who works in several other restaurants in order to earn the money to make her dream come true.

After releasing three first games, Zylom decided to "renew" the series by adding some factors to make Emily's world become more memorable and natural. As a result, from the fourth game, the series have been receiving high appreciation from casual game critics and gamers. The seventh game, Delicious: Emily's True Love, received a full 5-star review from Gamezebo.

History

The idea for Delicious was thought of in 2005. Delicious 1, winter edition and 2: Gamedesign by Jakko van Hunen Delicious 3 (Emily's Tea Garden): Gamedesign by Jakko van Hunen & Sebastiaan van Waardenberg Delicious 4, 5, 6 (Emily's Taste of Fame, Emily's Holiday Season and Emily's Childhood Memories): Gamedesign by Sebastiaan van Waardenberg Delicious 7 (Emily's True Love): Gamedesign by T'jíen Twijnstra

Delicious

Delicious was released on July 13, 2006, and challenged players to successfully run eight restaurants of five days each. The first delicious game did not have much of a story line, and focused only on game play. Restaurant decorations were also automatically rewarded.

In November 2006, a special edition of Delicious was released: Delicious: Winter Edition. This was essentially the first game, but with a special winter / Christmas theme.

This is, so far, the only Delicious game that does not have trophies.

Gamezebo originally rated the game 3.5 out of 5 stars.

In 2007, Delicious was nominated for the Best Casual Game of the Year 2006.

Delicious 2

Delicious 2 was released on June 29, 2007 and offered players a number of new features, such as decorating your restaurant yourself, the possibility to put items on your plate ahead of time rather than when it was ordered, trophies for special achievements, and a storyline with cut scenes. Delicious 2 contained five 10-day restaurants to play through.

In Delicious 2, Emily is asked by her Uncle Antonio to help him when his son Marcello runs off and leaves Antonio with no one to run his restaurants.

Like Delicious, Gamezebo rated the game 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden

Delicious 3 or Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden was released on September 24, 2008. The game held on to the solid basis of Delicious 2, and mainly offered a bigger variety in dishes, reservations and a mini-game in which you collected mice.

In Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden, Emily wants to pursue her dream of running her own tea garden. In order to apply for a loan at the bank, Uncle Antonio helps her to get a waiting job at a friend's restaurant so she can earn the money needed. Through referrals, Emily gets to work at four other restaurants before she can finally open her very own tea garden.

This game introuded a new mini-game and reservations. (See gameplay below.)

Like other first two games, Gamezebo rated the game 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame

Delicious 4 or Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame was released on June 3, 2009. The game takes the series to the next level by challenging players with special events that change daily, and need to be completed besides the normal time management gameplay. For instance, while running a restaurant, you will need to take packages from the postman, help a lady find her pearls, or keep the place clean while a car mechanic is fixing your car.

In Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame, Emily is offered a chance to host her own cooking show on television. Players follow her as she travels to the studio, but her car breaks down on the way and as she tries to find help getting her car fixed, she lends a helping hand to others.

One of the new features in this game, which is a first in its genre, is how the story is not told through classic cut-scenes, but during gameplay. Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame has a cast of more than 30 characters, the largest cast of talking characters and the largest number of emotions per character of any casual time management game.

Gamezebo rated the game 4.5 out of 5 stars, marking the first critical acclaim for the series.

Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame was nominated three times by the 2010 GameHouse Great Game Awards in these categories:

Game of the Year.
Game of the Year: People's Choice Award.
Top Time Management Game.

And won a 2010 GameHouse Great Game Award in the category "Top Time Management Game".

Delicious: Emily's Holiday Season

On November 18, 2009, Delicious 5 was released as Delicious: Emily's Holiday Season. Emily settled in a little town called Snuggford to celebrate the holidays together with her friends and family. Besides that, two handsome young men are being introduced to Emily’s life. The names of these young men are Paul and Richard, whom Emily finds herself having to choose between, as well as dealing with problems among friends and family.

Gamezebo rated the game 4 out of 5 stars, and praised the well-written story and dialogue. In fact, the story and the dialogue are not only a decoration to the game but an important part of it,involving actively the player into the dialogue. Emily becomes a character with feelings and hopes.

Delicious: Emily's Childhood Memories

Delicious 6 or Delicious: Emily's Childhood Memories was first released as Premium Edition on February 3, 2011.

This time Emily is going to the house she grew up in as child because her parents are about to sell it. While there, she along with her sister Angela, father, mother and friend Francois remember all the things that happened to them at the house, from Angela's baby days till meeting Francois for the first time and until Emily's prom night.

At the end Emily discovers the real reason as to why her parents are selling the house - they have financial problems but after obtaining the money they need they still sell the house so a new family could create their own memories there.

Gamezebo rated the game 4.5 out of 5 stars, marking the second critical acclaim for the series.

'Delicious: Emily's Childhood Memories' won the 'Best of 2011 award' in the Time Management category on Jayisgames.com

'Delicious: Emily's Childhood Memories' won 'Best Casual Game 2011'- Dutch Game Awards.

Delicious: Emily's True Love

Delicious 7 or Delicious: Emily’s True Love was released as Premium Edition on November 30, 2011. The new Delicious game takes place one year after Emily has opened her own restaurant. Her restaurant is doing well, then a love letter arrives and turns her world upside down. Emily must travel the world to find her true love, helping out at restaurants along the way.

Gamezebo rated the game 5 out of 5 stars, and it is the first game in the series to get maximum rating.

Delicious: Emily's Wonder Wedding

Delicious 8 or Delicious: Emily’s Wonder Wedding is the first game in the series to be divided into "episodes". On every Friday starting from June 29, 2012 and ending on November 23, 2012, a new episode was released. Resulting in a total of 25 episodes and 50 levels with 2 levels in each episode. The full game was later released as an episodic-format to purchase as a whole. In this game, Emily is getting ready to marry Patrick when Patrick's mother, and ex-girlfriend Iris show up and complicate things for the couple.

Delicious: Emily's Honeymoon Cruise

Emily and Patrick are going on a cruise for their honeymoon! The full game was released on September 26, 2013. The option of playing the full game is only available once the game is bought before October 4, 2013. If bought on 4 October or later, the customer would then have to wait for a new episode each week.

Gameplay

In the Delicious games, players take the role of Emily, and are given the task to run a restaurant. Customers come in, alone or in a group, and choose to either sit down at a table or take out. Emily must serve them their order, and accept payment, before they become impatient and leave. Order sizes vary from 1 to 2 items for a single customer, and up to 4 items for a group. Fast service and entertainment, along with creative restaurant decorating, can keep the customers happy and result in a bigger tip.

Serving orders

There are a number of types of items that customers can order, which increases in number and complexity as the game progresses.

- Items that are ready to serve, and have no limit capacity. When ordered, these items can be served right away, without preparing or restocking.

- Items that need to be combined, and restocked after a few servings. Nachos, for instance, need to be combined with a dip before they can be served. The Nacho-machine holds only a number of servings, and needs to be refilled when or before it's empty, before nachos can be served again.

- Items that are first combined, and then stocked up to 9 items. Ice cream for instance is made by combining basic vanilla ice cream with a choice of fruit.

- Items that are first grilled or baked, and then prepared. Crepes for instance are first baked a few seconds, and are then combined with ice cream. Steaks can be prepared as medium or well-done, depending on how long it's grilled. These items will burn if they are baked too long though.

- Items that are prepared using a timer that must be stopped in time, such as crème brûlée or profiteroles.

- Tea is served by combining tea leaves with water. When Emily is out of a certain type of leaves, she must pick new ones and restock them.

Cleaning

Aside from serving customers their orders, Emily must also keep the tables in the restaurant clean, when customers have used them. If there are no clean tables available when new customers that were planning on sitting down come in, they will leave.

Although cleaning the tables is just a matter of one click, it does take up valuable time. During the later days of a restaurant, a help is hired to clean the tables.

Entertainment

Customers can be very impatient. This is why after a few days of a restaurant, Emily requests the help of an entertainer. When an entertainer is sent to a table with customers, this will make them happy and give them more patience while they wait to be served. Happier customers also leave bigger tips. In the first Delicious there are chocolates instead of an entertainer.

Decorating

Aside from the profit Emily makes during a day, she can earn a certain amount of money that can be spent on decorating her restaurant. These decorations vary from new furniture, to aesthetic items like paintings and plants. A well-decorated restaurant keeps the customers happy and patient, and result in bigger tips.

Mouse Mini-Game

Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden introduced two new features. One is the mouse mini-game. A mouse is hidden in each level, popping into view every now and then. To catch it, the player must click on it, adding 100 points to the day's score. The player will hear a squeak when the mouse appears on screen. The mouse can be easy or hard to find. This mini-game has continued into every game after Tea Garden.

Reservations

The other new feature Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden introduced is reservations. At one level in the game, a telephone will appear. The player can click on it when it rings and after the player clicks on the phone a bar will appear showing the size of the group and when the customers will arrive. The player must then grab a reservation card, under the phone, and place it on a table with enough seats for the group. No other customers can sit at a table with a reservation card. When the timer is empty, the customers arrive. If they can take a seat at a table with a reservation card, the player gets a 100 point bonus.

Recurring characters

Emily O'Malley is a young woman with a love for cooking, who hopes to one day open her own restaurant. She is the game's main character, and is kind-hearted, though sometimes a little naive. No one would dare say she's not a hard worker though and when she has her mind set on something, she really goes for it. Managing your personal life can be quite a challenge. Especially when you have to manage your own restaurant on top of that! At the end of Delicious: Emily's Wonder Wedding, Emily marries her husband Patrick.

Francois, a young man of about Emily's age, is Emily's best friend. Francois is an interior decorator, and he advises and helps Emily with decorating her restaurants. In Delicious 2, he also helps Emily in the restaurant by cleaning tables. In Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden, Francois takes the role as an entertainer, playing his flute for Emily's waiting guests. In Delicious: Emily's True Love, Emily puts him in charge of her restaurant while she is away.

Patrick O'Malley is Emily's husband, a florist who had a long-standing crush on her before revealing his feelings in Delicious: Emily's True Love; he and Emily became engaged at the end of that game. Patrick had an important role in the sample game Delicious: Emily's Big Surprise and he and Emily are married in Delicious: Emily's Wonder Wedding. While he has not helped out in Emily's restaurants in any game to date, he often shows a willingness to do so.

Angela is Emily's younger sister. While she is extremely flirtatious and irresponsible in her early appearances, she settles down and gets married in Delicious: Emily's True Love. In Delicious: Emily's Childhood Memories, Angela is shown to be just as much of a troublemaker when she was growing up. Despite their differences, Angela and Emily are very close, though Emily is frequently exasperated with her sister's antics. Angela has helped out in several of the restaurants before - however, several "crisis events" involve Emily trying to prevent Angela from causing trouble in between serving her customers.

Edward and Evelyn are Emily's parents, who are retired. Edward is laid-back and enjoys his retirement, while Evelyn is a bit more high-strung: many of her early appearances focus on her attempts to get Emily a boyfriend. Edward and Evelyn are shown to have very similar personalities to their older selves in Delicious: Emily's Childhood Memories, and both have helped out in Emily's restaurants - Evelyn as a cleaner and Edward as either a cleaner or entertainer. Evelyn tends to over-protect her daughters, while Edward tries his best to stay out of his wife's way.

Uncle Antonio is a somewhat older man, uncle of Emily and father of Marcello. He owns a number of restaurants, but when his son bails on him, he needs Emily's help to get things back on track. When Emily wants to open her own tea garden, he helps her with advice and gets her a job so she can apply for a loan.

Brigid is Patrick's mother. She dislikes Emily and does not want her to marry Patrick in Delicious Emily's Wonder Wedding but in Delicious Emily's Honeymoon Cruise it seems that she warmed up to emily as she kind of comforted her when she couldn't find Patrick

In Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame, it is revealed that Emily and her family and friends live in the imaginary town of Snuggford. While Snuggford's actual location is not ever revealed, it is a town that experiences all four seasons and is in the mountains (considering it has a ski slope and an annual skiing contest). In Delicious: Emily's True Love, Patrick asks Emily to attend the Sundance Film Festival with him, which strongly implies that Snuggford is located in or around the U.S. state of Utah.

External links

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