This first look at beautiful narrative cooking game Venba will make you hungry

Make space for another beautiful game on your Steam wishlist—Canada-based studio Visai Games have announced Venba, a game about an Indian woman who moves with her family to Canada and tries to keep the spirit of their old home alive in her cooking.

Venba is a narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom, who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. It's a game about food, family, love and loss.Aaaand we have a steam page now! Wishlist us here: https://t.co/Fz9ug1vzzH pic.twitter.com/iXeV7gaI1oDecember 16, 2020

The first thing you'll notice about Venba is certainly its art style, created entirely by freelance artist Sam Elkana. But Venba is interesting for more than just its art—it tells the story of an Indian immigrant family, and wants to talk about the difficulties in starting over somewhere completely new, trying to make a different country your home while at the same time celebrating your roots. It's a topic many people have heard about or have personal experience with, but which isn't often seen in games. 

By using authentic South Indian recipes for you to cook, as well as music "inspired by Indian Musicals", Venba seems to want to immortalise some happy memories of India. The game was featured in Wholesome Games' recent Wholesome Snack games presentation, but Visai Games is quick to point out Venba isn't just meant to be wholesome, but to tell a story about "family, love, loss and more", and include a branching narrative.

I always enjoy a new cooking game, and it would be nice if Venba could actually teach me some new dishes to try. The game is set to release in November 2021, you can wishlist it on Steam, or follow the official Twitter feed for updates.