The cozy genre has grown increasingly popular over time, with many modern titles blending multiple mechanics and genres to keep gameplay fresh and new. But what happens when you mix RPG elements, cooking simulation, and character progression, all set in a vibrant Hawaiian world? You get Kitchen Sync: Aloha. We spoke with developer Matt Slemon to learn more about the game’s unique concept, its flexible difficulty options, and how its narrative unfolds.
In Kitchen Sync: Aloha!, you’ll step into the shoes of Kai or Kala, siblings determined to revive their family’s once-thriving restaurant. As you rebuild your culinary legacy, you’ll meet and recruit a vibrant team of chefs, each with their own signature skills, and master more than 30 unique kitchens. From lively food trucks to beachfront eateries, you’ll craft various dishes, charm tough critics, and transform competitors into allies.
If you’re interested in checking out this game, it’s already available on Steam and quite affordable. Plus, it’s compatible with the Steam Deck, making it perfect for anyone who wants to keep playing anytime, anywhere.
What inspired you to create Kitchen Sync: Aloha!, and what made you blend cozy cooking with RPG elements?
One of my goals founding Lemonpepper Games was to try and introduce gamers to cooking and a wider diversity of the world’s foods. My interest in cooking really first began when I watched a few Food Anime series, and after that, I thought, “why not games too?” I chose RPG as a genre anchor because I think they’re great games for driving emotional connections to characters, places, and themes. Mix the two together, and you get something like Kitchen Sync!
The game has a strong Hawaiian vibe, what drew you to this setting?
My mom’s family is from Hawaii so it’s a place that holds an important place in my life. It also has amazing food that I felt I could write about at the level of detail necessary to get someone interested in trying it. Combine that with cozy Hawaiian vibes, and the setting was my top choice.
How significant are relationships in the game? Can players pursue romance or even marriage?
Relationships drive Kitchen Sync’s narrative, whether they’re relationships to places, restaurants, family or friends. Mechanically, KSA’s relationships are represented by Support Bonds, a feature Fire Emblem fans in particular will recognize. Each pairing of characters gains Support levels starting with friendship at level C and full blown romance at level S, with each level bringing a special conversation, sometimes also unlocking side quests or abilities.
While not every character pairing can reach an S level relationship, every pairing has at least one conversation. The main character of course can reach S level with anyone. No marriage in this game, the game’s narrative ends before then.
The mini-games look fun! Where did you find inspiration for their designs?
I tried to keep things simple but reflect some of the activities I associate with all my visits to Hawaii. Fishing is huge there for the locals, and Hiking has always been a big one for visitors. I added Swapmeets later on to give a different kind of feel and help the game economy a little bit.
You’ve included multiple difficulty modes, from Cozy to Hard Boiled. What was the reasoning behind this approach?
At first, there was a single difficulty mode, but I found balancing between hardcore management vets and cozy story readers a bit tough. So I let the player choose! I don’t believe KSA is meant to be a truly hard game on any difficulty, but for those who love min-maxing and want to be fully rewarded, Hard Boiled is the way to go. And if players just want to relax, cook, and enjoy the story, Cozy Mode has them covered.
With over 30 kitchens in the game, what was the vision behind this feature? And just how big is the in-game world?
Like most management sims, KSA started with a single kitchen. Originally you’d upgrade the restaurant slowly piece by piece. Someone gave me the suggestion at some point… if I’m putting the game in Hawaii, aren’t I kind of wasting the potential of the setting by just staying locked to that restaurant? I took the idea and ran with it, changing the game’s theme to running a restaurant then making kitchens from all the kinds of places you can enjoy on the island.
It also helped me marry the genres of tactical RPG and kitchen simulator, both of which are level based and use map variety to keep the game fresh. The game loop moves from map to kitchen to dialogue, so the game world is really these levels themselves, but my goal was for the stories that take place around them to make the Island of Maikai still feel lived in.
Could you walk us through the cooking mechanics? How do they work, and what makes them unique?
The original pitch for KSA was “Overcooked meets Fire Emblem”. With that lens, you can probably see where some of the core mechanics came from. You play as the head chef of your pop-up restaurant. Your job is to direct a team of chefs around kitchen venues around the island and cook food for hungry customers. Each customer has HP (hunger points), food you cook has a quality number that removes that HP, and your goal is to remove everyone’s HP before running out of time.
Using that as a simple starting point, chefs and appliances have different abilities that might modify their speed, their quality, their interactions with certain foods, etc. Optimizing character abilities and kitchen layouts allows for a bunch of strategic depth, but so does figuring out how to position your chefs in the kitchen in ways that minimize wasted time and effort.
I don’t think RPG HP/Damage or kitchen task management are novel mechanics on their own, but I think the blend is pretty unique and hope players will enjoy it!
The characters have a charming anime-inspired style. How many are there, and how much freedom do players have in interacting with them?
There are 8 playable chefs, including the main character, who can team up and cook in the kitchen. Each character has a unique ability tree that can synergize with different strategies or other chefs, and have unique stories you can explore through support conversations. My goal was to give every character a sense of development throughout the story and ensure they had time in the spotlight. A level supports in particular come with unique side quests that explore character motivations and character development, and those are some of my proudest features.
Outside of your chef team, there’s also a supporting cast of other characters to meet who help move the story along and provide structure.
The Steam page highlights Steam Deck optimization. What specific tweaks did you make for handheld play?
Opting to target Steam Deck required a bunch of targeted work. The game had to work on a small 10:16 screen; the UI still had to be readable; I needed to add controller support, and a bunch of other things. The biggest one was playtesting, KSA isn’t a short game (estimating 25+ hours per story playthrough), and I played through the entire thing on the Deck before release. I think it was all worth it though. The game feels great on the deck, maybe because the games that inspired it were also handhelds.
What was the biggest challenge you faced during development?
For the product, it was figuring out how to get the genre mix of tactical RPG + cozy cooking management to blend just right. It was also tough to figure out how to talk about the game sometimes. Most gamers haven’t played games like this, so if I started a conversation with “It’s Overcooked mixed with Fire Emblem,” people would just look at me confused. I think coalescing the mechanics and pitch around “cozy cooking RPG” helped a great deal in solidifying the heart of the game. Keep the vibes of a cozy cooking game, and the depth of an RPG.
Hrvatski 
English (UK)