Chef’s Arcade: A Cooking Simulation Game for Beginners with Ideal Portion Sizes for Daily Meals

Cooking is a fundamental life skill, yet many individuals, particularly beginners lack confidence and knowledge in preparing healthy meals with the correct portion sizes. There is also limited awareness regarding what constitutes a balanced daily intake, which can lead to poor eating habits. This project will focus on the design and development of a learning application based on a game that will encourage novices to learn about healthy cooking habits and the idea of optimal daily meal sizes. The project is called Chef’s Arcade: A Cooking Simulation Game for Beginners with Ideal Portion Sizes for Daily Meals and is designed to provide an interactive and entertaining platform that will teach people through gameplay. This project was developed using the Agile methodology, which enables the project to be improved in an iterative manner during the design, development, and evaluation stages. The game recreates a cooking setting that has three primary meals that include breakfast, lunch, and dinner that are customized based on the Body Mass Index (BMI) category of the user. Through simple controls and step-by-step instructions, players will have to finish meal preparations according to these categories. The results of pre- and post-test assessments of 35 respondents indicated a significant change in the knowledge, confidence, and awareness of portion control and healthy eating among the participants. The mean percentage score increased from 61.25% to 88.75%, and T-test analysis confirmed statistically significant gains in all areas measured. Future improvements can involve the addition of multiplayer or leaderboard functionalities, culturally diverse recipes, and dietary customisation options, as well as more detailed animations and feedback systems to enhance user engagement and learning effectiveness.

cooking simulation game, digital game-based learning, eGameflow model

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