The indie scene has been cutthroat lately. There are new games coming out what feels like hourly and it's tough to break out. With Magical Delicacy, solo developer sKaule is looking to do just that with their debut game, backed by publisher Whitehorn Games.

Developer sKaule has been crafting the cozy Magical Delicacy for awhile now, and while it may technically be his debut he's been in the industry for a little bit. As the indie scene has seen a boom in popularity with "cozy" games it is a fitting debut at that and fits quite well on the Nintendo Switch and PC as well as Xbox.

Playing as Flora you will set out on the town to explore and deliver treats and cook up some of your favourites from within your shop. It really is an interesting blend of genres with the Metroid-vanished exploring mixed with the relaxing joy of cooking using the ingredients you find about town.

Magical Delicacy will also interestingly be launching on Xbox Game Pass when it gets released on July 16th. For any indie game to get onto a service like that is great. For a solo developer it's got to feel even greater to have that cost certainty built in already.

We were able to get a moment to chat with sKaule as well as the publisher Whitehorn to hear about his journey as a solo developer, what his creative process was and what it's like getting the game onto Game Pass and much more. We hope you enjoy:

It's been quite the journey for you to get to Magical Delicacy and this being your first commercial release. Can you talk a bit about that journey and what it was about Magical Delicacy that made you decide it was what you wanted to release to the public? 

I finished my bachelor’s degree in 2019, working on a sci-fi turn-based combat game, but I realized soon after that I had enough of designing combat encounters for the time being. After prototyping in different directions, I was left with style tests and concepts that left me deciding to make a cozy game about witches. Coincidentally, that was also when Wholesome Games and cozy indie games started to get bigger, making me excited to create for that genre. Of course, four years after that, the landscape has changed a bit, but I’m still happy to have made this decision. Something about the no-combat approach really appealed to me at that time. 

As someone who enjoys cooking games Magical Delicacy was on my radar the second I heard the premise. I honestly never thought I'd hear the phrase "metroidvania cooking game" before. It's certainly a creative, ambitious game. What made you go in that direction and what did the game start out as? We're you looking for a cooking game with more depth or was the metroidvania part the focus first?

I started with the usual ideas of the typical farming and management-based cozy games. This quickly shifted when I began to think more about the approach to how I wanted to work as a solo developer. As a fan of countless Metroidvania and souls-like games, I plainly started to take my idea and mold it into that genre, stripped bare of all ties to combat. The cooking part came naturally from the cozy witch setting I chose. Starting with potions, I expanded that to all kinds of food. From there, it was about identifying classical Metroidvania mechanics, especially in terms of map progression, and finding a way to make that work with the cooking and delivery mechanics.

The art style is quite something. I've always admired games with a more creative art style rather than a more realistic graphical look. Perhaps it's because I don't have any art skills myself! What goes behind designing a game like Magical Delicacy from an art perspective? Are you drawing everything out by hand or everything on computers these days?

It certainly helps to have a background and a bachelor’s degree in illustration. The first things I had for this game were pixel art designs of characters, a bit of the building designs, and an initial color palette. But all that took a lot of time. Before starting anything remotely playable, I focused on finding an art style I liked "” talking about multiple months just doing pixel art. That included just making a lot of characters in different variations until something I liked emerged from it. But that’s always been my process; characters are my absolute focus. 

I’m only working digitally. I do very few sketches of anything, with the exception of a building interior here and there or a level layout, but even those are done digitally. I usually start directly with pixel art and iterate a lot on designs; it’s the curse and blessing of perfectionism. 

I'd be remissed if I didn't talk about Xbox Game Pass for a moment. The subscription service has been a hot topic for awhile now with indies in particular. Magical Delicacy is launching day one into the service. Can you talk about how that came about and how it's helped development? 

I feel fortunate to be included in Xbox Game Pass. From what I hear, it’s getting harder for indies to get into that. Luckily, Whitethorn Games did a fantastic job of getting it into the service, but that also happened some time back. So, I can’t take any credit for that, but that’s one of the perks of working with a publisher; sometimes, they just do great things you didn’t think of. It impacted my work as it provided some security for me, even just mentally, knowing that it is in there.

Magical Delicacy Publisher Whitehorn Games Comment

For anyone familiar with some of our investigative work on Game Pass funding that last comment by sKaule about Game Pass funding being more difficult caught my eye. While I wasn't able to get a follow up comment from sKaule on that I did get a comment from the games publisher Whitehorn Games.

Whitehorn Games has a fair bit of history with Xbox and Xbox Game Pass having published many games that launched into Game Pass including Lake and Botany Manor. This is what they had to say on the matter:

"Each year, there are more and more incredible indie games vying for a coveted spot on Xbox Game Pass, and the decision as to which games to include made by the team at Xbox is, in my opinion, a very challenging one! We’re extremely lucky to have had to have the opportunity this year to have not only one, but two games coming to Game Pass on day one. We’re grateful to the team at Xbox for allowing us this opportunity."

I'd like to thank both sKaule and Whitehorn Games for taking the time to talk with us. We look forward to seeing the game when it launches July 16th on Xbox (Day 1 on Game Pass), Nintendo Switch and PC.