"6-Year Cooking Diary: Recipe for Success"

Celebrating its sixth anniversary, Cooking Diary by MYTONIA has become a staple in the world of time-management gaming. Whether you're a game developer seeking inspiration or a fan eager to peek behind the curtain, here's a look at the recipe that has made Cooking Diary a megahit.

Ingredients

• 431 story episodes
• 38 hero characters
• 8,969 elements
• 905,481 guilds
• A generous portion of events and contests
• A soupçon of humor
• Grandpa Grey’s secret ingredient

Cooking Instructions

Step 1: Make the Lore

Begin crafting the game's plot, infusing it with humor and unexpected twists. Introduce a wide array of vibrant characters to enrich the narrative. Segment the story into various restaurants and districts, starting with the iconic Burger Joint owned by your grandfather, Leonard. Expand this with additional districts like Colafornia, Schnitzeldorf, and Sushijima, hosting a total of 160 dining establishments across 27 districts, ready to welcome a diverse range of guests.

Step 2: Customize

Enhance the game's personalization by offering up to 8,000 items. This includes 1,776 outfits, 88 sets of facial features, and 440 hairstyles. Add over 6,500 decorative items to let players customize their homes and restaurants. For pet lovers, include pets with 200 clothing options to further personalize their gaming experience.

Step 3: In-game Events

Strengthen your game with engaging tasks and events. Utilize top-notch analytics to refine game design, ensuring each event is both rewarding and enjoyable. Create distinct yet harmonious event layers, each standing strong alone but enhancing the overall experience when combined. Take August's event lineup, for instance, where nine different events, from Culinary Experiments to Sugar Rush, offered players diverse and enriching experiences.

Step 4: Guilds

With over 905,000 guilds, Cooking Diary fosters a vibrant community. Introduce guild events and tasks gradually, ensuring they are well-integrated and timed to maximize participation. A thoughtfully planned event can attract more players than one that clashes with other major activities.

Step 5: Learn from Your Mistakes

Embrace mistakes as opportunities for growth. The Cooking Diary team learned this when their initial pet introduction in 2019 didn't meet expectations. By shifting pets to the Path to Glory event, they not only increased revenue by 42% but also boosted player satisfaction.

Step 6: Presentation

In the competitive casual gaming market, standout presentation is crucial. Utilize social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and X for a robust marketing strategy. Engage in collaborations, like the one with Netflix's Stranger Things and YouTube for the Path to Glory event, to elevate your game's visibility and appeal.

Step 7: Keep Innovating

Maintaining success requires continuous innovation. Cooking Diary's ongoing updates, from event scheduling to gameplay balance, keep the experience fresh and engaging. Yet, the essence of the game, its soul, remains constant.

Step 8: Use Grandpa Grey’s Secret Ingredient

The secret ingredient? It's soul. Passion for the craft is what makes Cooking Diary not just a game, but a beloved experience. Explore Cooking Diary on the App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Microsoft Store, and AppGallery to see this recipe in action.