Cook Me Back

After a disastrous day at work and a sudden breakup, a spectacularly untalented chef falls into a deep sleep only to get trapped inside a surreal, culinary dreamscape! In this relaxing, cozy twist on the tower defense genre, you must cook and automate your way back to reality.

Take command of a floating island restaurant up in the clouds. Instead of dealing with traditional kitchen panic and time pressure, your mission is to strategically place machines and recruit adorable, humanoid vegetables to run the kitchen for you! Experiment with surreal ingredients, serve quirky customers, and impress the ultimate food critic - Grandma - to unlock sweet new recipes.

Can you discover every hidden recipe, perfectly optimize your dream kitchen, and finally wake up?

This game was made using our own custom engine CookingStation, build on OpenGL and C++.

Key Features:

• Zero-Pressure Automation: Forget the kitchen chaos! Enjoy a relaxing experience where you strategically place machines and vegetable helpers to automate your production lines without any time limits.

• Cozy Surrealism: Immerse yourself in a dreamy, pastel-colored world featuring a soothing ambient soundtrack, ethereal bloom, and low-poly characters.

• The Ultimate Goal: Satisfy your customers, discover all the secret recipes, fully optimize your kitchen, and escape the dream!

Dev team

Klaudia Adamek - 3D Art Lead

Amelia Garnys - Programming

Aleksandra Jakóbik  - 2D Art, Programming

Oskar Konecki- Programming

Adrian Matczak - Programming

Emilia Szczerba - 3D Art Support

The game was a submission to ZTGK 2026 in Game Development category.

Help us shape the future of the game! We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

Contact info:

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Install Instructions

Download the ZIP file, unpack, use the executable to play the game, enjoy!