Sometimes when I browse Steam for a demo, I find absolute gold. I’m not sure why I looked at this game and thought it was a good idea to download it, but I did anyway, and I am extremely gladI did. This week’s game puts you in the shoes of the most demanding job in the world: a chef at a university.

This week is the Omelet You Cook Demo.

Omelet You Cook is a cooking roguelike from Dan Schumacher, Hjalte Tagmose and  SchuBox Games. The game was released into early access in June for the PC and retails for $8.

The last chef couldn’t make it in the apparent wasteland of serving omelets to Middlesville Central Cafeteria, so to keep your job, you must satiate the masses and be judged by Principal Clucker.

Think Balato, but with eggs, vegetables, meat, and sweets. People are in line waiting for their omelet, and they have specific conditions, like starting omelet size, what items lose points when added, and the required points to attain to win the round.

An ID card is slapped onto the screen, a cafeteria tray is slid in front of you, and it is time to make the best possible omelet with the ingredients that you have. The conveyor belt on the bottom feeds random ingredients through, and you have the choice of one, then the rest get trashed. After 5 rounds points are added up, and you either pass or fail. Pass and get some money, and move onto the shopping section to buy more ingredients or passive buffs that help you along the way with the food deck you are trying to make.

BUT THE GAME AIN’T THAT EASY, BUD.

Ingredients have a type, whether it be crunchy, baked, sweet, etc. They also have abilities attached to them. It may be like the green pepper that gains more points the more meat that it touches, or the pepper jack cheese, where it gives you a multiplier based on what is covered by it. After all is said and done, the player may have a coconut, green pepper, bacon, and cupcake omelet to give someone.

Visitors have tastes and will punish you if you do not abide by their demands. Minus multiplier/points, a random event like eggshells taking up space on the omelet, or even a smaller omelet, can occur. It adds a really nice challenge to the game.

Placing ingredients is also really oddly satisfying because everything is seemingly on ice. Place a piece of bacon, and it’ll slide a little bit. Then you’ll have to fit a green pepper next to two pieces of bacon to get the extra points. Any more movement and the points can be absolutely ruined.

It is really hilarious to imagine what I would have looked like to these students as I am sweating, trying to see if I could fit 3 green peppers next to 3 pieces of bacon.

Goofy-looking animal students and a weird bird that wears a top hat, instructing me on how to not get killed by the principal, is peak pixel art design. I love the way the game looks. The ingredients are pixel replicas of the real food, and the cafeteria tray, plate, juice box, and color scheme in the background really pulls me into the “cook for a school” it has going.

Omelet You Cook is an absolute blast for a demo. It has everything you want from an addictive roguelike, especially the big numbers racking up. I really like the vibe the game is giving off, the gameplay and just how quirky it is.

Let’s just say I have in on the docket to play the Early Access game.