Kitchen Station Handoffs
Each player holds a station and passes food on, turning the kitchen into a human conveyor.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Co-op play
- Design focus
- Cooperation · Spatial · Optimization
No.046Overcooked! 201The core loop
Action → feedback → next choice- 01Claim a station
- 02Process your step
- 03Hand off to the next
- 04Rebalance at bottlenecks
↻Feedback changes the situation — the next round starts from there.
Walk through one round
A simplified design example. Situations and numbers illustrate the mechanic, not exact rules from a reference game.
- T1
Turn 1 · The situation
Two players are split by a pass counter: left can chop, right can cook and plate; the order needs 3 chopped tomatoes.
- T2
Turn 2 · The player chooses
The left player chops all three onto the counter while the right player washes plates.
- T3
Turn 3 · The feedback
The counter holds only two, so the third has nowhere to go and the left player idles 6 s.
- T4
Turn 4 · The next decision
Next order they chop-and-pass one at a time, and the right player clears them promptly, eliminating the wait.
How it plays
The kitchen is split into zones so no one reaches every station, and items must be set on counters or thrown to teammates. Efficiency depends on smooth handoff points and who covers which step. Piled counters, idle teammates and dropped food all signal it's time to reassign.
What the player weighs
- Fixed roles reduce chatter; flexible roles handle surprises.
- Throwing is faster but may miss and drop the item.
02Start small
Scope is an editorial estimate for the minimum prototype, not the reference game or a production schedule.
03One mechanic, different implementations
Overcooked! 2
Many levels split the kitchen into separated or shifting zones, and the added ingredient throw makes handoff timing and aim central to co-op.
PlateUp!
Between days players rearrange appliances and can link stations with conveyors and machines, gradually replacing human handoffs with automated ones.
The difference worth noticing
Overcooked! 2 hands you handoff problems to solve live; PlateUp! lets you design the handoff lines yourself.
Case notes are Yoroll editorial summaries; rules may change between versions.
04What could you combine?
Start with manual handoffs, then give a small conveyor budget so players replace only the most congested link they observed.
Prototype this combo in Yoroll→Follow the next idea
Staged Prep and Assembly
A dish breaks into chop, cook and plate steps, and their order decides how fast it ships.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Solo decisions
- 01Break the order into steps
- 02Process ingredients in parallel
- 03Assemble the dish
- 04Serve and start next
Drone Logistics Network
No belts needed: flying units deliver where needed, but you have to keep them supplied.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Solo decisions
- 01Build ports and storage
- 02Set requests and supplies
- 03Drones deliver automatically
- 04Expand or refuel the network
Conveyor Routing
Moving items from A to B is easy; keeping every line from tangling is the game.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Solo decisions
- 01Plan source and destination
- 02Lay belts around obstacles
- 03Watch flow and jams
- 04Reroute or add layers