#venba game

[midautumngame]

If you're looking for more narrative indie games by Asian devs and exploring Asian diaspora experiences check out Venba!

Venba is a narrative cooking game where you play as an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more.

It just came out recently and is available on all major platforms, including Steam and console!

[courtana]

GAMES I PLAYED IN 2023, PT. 1 of 2

[artseniccatnip]

i got rly excited that the venba account started following the chicory account and drew this

[tobiasrieper]

Venba (2023) | Visai Games

[blindcarnation]

Thread of Cozy Games!

I wanted to go ahead and make a list of all the cozy games I've played and enjoyed ♡ pls feel free to send me any recommendations you might have as well!

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

Minami Lane $4.99 ~ build and customize a street for villagers to move in & shop ~ 5-6 hrs long for main story ~ has a sandbox mode for continuous play ~ has cats you can pet ! (very important)

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

Unpacking $19.99 ~ organize objects into different rooms and houses as your character goes through life changes ~ 4-5ish hrs long for main story ~ very cute and cozy with a sublte but meaningful story!

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

Venba $14.99 ~ cook recipes as Venba, a South Indian Immigrant mother who tells her story through her cooking ~ 1-2 hrs long to complete the story ~ art style is GORGEOUS ~ will give you all the feels!

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

Love Choice $1.99 ~3 different short stories with multiple endings ~ length varies on if you want all endings ~ actually so adorable and so clever !! ~ very much so worth the price!

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

Coffee Talk $12.99 ~ run a coffee shop exclusively open at night, with unique customers coming in to tell their stories ~ 4ish hrs to complete the full game ~ You mainly make drinks and read through the dialogue ~ cute game and very fun characters! LOVE the storytelling!

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

Assemble with Care $7.99 ~ carefully restore items that have been broken whilst learning the history of the people from Bellariva ~ about 1-2 hrs in length ~ beautiful art style and fun mechanics ~ a beautiful and sweet game that I hope has a part two eventually!

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

A Little to the Left $14.99 ~ organize drawers and different levels ~ 4-5 hrs for the main storyline ~ cute and satisfying levels with beautifiul colors ~ very fun and lighthearted!

ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*.ﾟ˖⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ˚₊‧⁺˖ ꕤ*

end of thread! pls let me know if you have any recommendations of any fun cozy/indie games!!

[videogamepoc]

VENBA (2023) dev. Visai Games

[zombiepillar]

VENBA MY BELOVED

The first and only video game I actually got obsessed with

[runningpsychic]

Why Venba resonated with me so much

First of all, I want to preface this article with who I am. I am not Indian nor Tamil, but I am an Taiwanese immigrant living in the Netherlands, and I also spent some of my childhood in the US.

Using food as the through line for the story is genius. Food really represents so much about a culture. By moving abroad, I feel I am broken from that lineage. My grandmother worked as a chef, and my mother learned from her too. But now that I am abroad, I don't have access to the same ingredients, and often it is just easier to cook the same way as the locals do. There's a very limited number of dishes I remember how to cook, and it's hard to even get inspiration. I only wish I could've learned more from my mom, or have a cookbook passed down from my grandmother. Seeing Venba and Kavin try to remember their home dishes reminds me of trying to recreate a flavor I had in my childhood, with nothing but a blurry memory, and my general knowledge of Chinese cooking principles.

When I was born, my parents felt that Taiwan didn't offer enough chances, and they want me to be a global citizen, so they taught me English, by only showing me English TV shows, and later on, we got to live in the US for a couple years. But when I returned, I no longer fit in. Even though I spent most of my childhood in my own country, I felt like a foreigner. I related to internet culture more than my home culture. 

I cried a lot when Kavin said he felt like a fraud, because he tried not to be Tamil when it was inconvenient. I also wished that I was born in western europe. I thought it would make things much easier. I'd already know the culture, the language, the way of life, and have citizenship. I do not blame Kavin for wanting to distance himself from that culture. If anything, the fault lies in the locals not being accepting of foreign cultures.

This game reminded me that there is something unique in having a foot in both doors. I have a unique perspective on cultures that most people don't have. And that is why it's so important to tell these stories in games. Like Rosa's trans immigrant story from Goodbye Volcano High, it helps others understand my experience, and it helps me understand and accept myself.

[cryptidinthetheatrecellar]

Somtimes life means you gotta just sit there and play through the entirety of Venba on your switch in one sitting and just. Feel the shrimp emotions

[zombiepillarz]

SHE SPINS!!!

[annieyuki-arts]

Home is where good meals are made 💜

Thumbnail commission for the awesome Leafy0 on Twitter 💚 thank you so much, i had a lot of fun drawing this !!!

Venba made by the talented @venbaGame ✨ please do support the devs and their wholesome work!!

[pixlime]

So I recently snagged Venba in the Wholesome Games bundle on Humble and I highly recommend. It's a couple hours max, looks amazing, and I only cried a little bit :)

[gamingmemoir]

First completion (and platinum trophy) is Venba.

This was story telling at its finest and follows a Tamil family that immigrates to Canada along with food, culture, and identity.

[courtana]

Y’all, please play Venba (2023)

I’m gonna hug my mom tomorrow first thing in the morning

[tobiasrieper]

Venba + meals

[heldenraider]

Venba - It's beautiful, it's delicious, it's like an instagram of food photos, but sooo short.

Storytelling is incredibly fast. You kind of get attached to the characters, but not much. Storyline idea is interesting (Family migrates from India to Canada). Cooking Part is also cool, but the game lacks recipes, more interesting ideas could have been implemented and give the player more puzzles to solve, one of the stages just gives a recipe and tells you to follow it, which spoils the intent... They could have been made more difficult and would have been the "last frontier, the last obstacle" to the ending.

IMHO, credits contains the most boring song in the game, although there is some incredible music throughout the game and the credits should have been the peak of musical possibilities, but there aren't even vocals, just "bink-bonks".

Don't expect anything extraordinary from it, but it's quite good in its genre of casual and cute games.