croakitori

this is a game where food is illegal, and you do crimes.

Taishi (Jeremiah Jr.) opens a sketchy underground chinese restaurant much to Dazhi’s dismay, Now Jeremiah (Taishi) must venture off to prove the beauty of chinese cuisine to his father and venture from his home in Guandu, to Wulai to make his father proud.

Source Code:

The source code for this game is avalible at https://github.com/arborium-dev/croakitori

Cast:

• Jeremiah Taishi Wang Jr. - The son of Dazhi who owns sketchy Chinese restaurant (yellow, fat)
• Jeremiah Dazhi Wang Sr. - Rejected his Chinese heritage when Japan conquered Taiwan (comically big eyebrows, massive)

Gameplay:

• Explore the underground world of food in Taiwan using your tongue.
• Cook extravagant dishes to impress your father and gain respect in the culinary world.
• Finally seek your fathers approval and prove that Chinese cuisine is worth celebrating.

Controls:

Cooking Minigame:

• Use your mouse to select 3 spices and start the cooking process
• Arrow Keys (or WASD) to cook the dish

Platforming Minigame:

• Arrow Keys (or WASD) to move
• C or Z to jump
• X to extend your tongue (release to pull yourself to the point of contact)
• There is technically (UNTESTED) controller support for the platforming, the controls are those of Celeste

Misc:

• P to skip cutscenes

How to Play:

Cooking Minigame:

• Select spices that match the order with your mouse and place them in the cooking pot.
• Click Cook to start cooking the dish.
• Use the arrow keys to cook the dish, following the on-screen prompts.
• Rinse and Repeat until you have completed the full meal.
• Do all this before running out of time

Platforming Minigame:

• Move around the level collecting spices and avoiding obstacles.
• Use your tongue to reach higher platforms and grab ingredients.

Inspiration:

UNBEATABLE and Dave the Diver inspired the Cooking section, specifically UNBEATABLE's bartending minigame (this was also the main inspiration for the music!)
Celeste (and Celeste Classic 2) inspired the platforming section.

Credits:

• arborium did programming for main menu, platforming and cutscenes, and did the writing, the cutscenes, and art
• Khan did programming for the cooking minigame, did the music, and came up with the story concepts
• Random images on Google for cooking art
• Various asset packs for platforming art

notes for hack club reviewers:
if you want to see specifically arborium's part, look at the main menu, platforming, and cutscenes, as well as the player art.
if you want to see specifically khan's part, look at the cooking minigame and the music during the cooking cutscenes and the cooking minigame itself.

Very Tentative Roadmap for 2026:

• Remove placeholder music and replace with original music
• Recompile current cutscenes at higher resolutions and with less visual artefacts
• Next Platforming Level: Cherry Blossom Festival
• Next Cooking Minigame: Remake the cooking minigame with rhythm mechanics
• New Platforming Mechanics: Stamina, Climbing, Wall Jumping, and more
• Restructure gameplay loop to originally intended alternating cooking and platforming levels
• TBD

fun fact:

the name croakitori is a combination of the words croak and yakitori, which is a type of Japanese skewered chicken.