- Pace94 · frantic
- A dinner rush with no let-up: a volley of stars every second, ten-second tickets, a drumline of pots and pans climbing from 150 to 176 beats per minute, and barely three seconds to breathe between courses.
- Difficulty69 · rather merciless
- A sliced eye or a ticket that runs out breaks a plate; three broken plates and the course starts again from its first ticket, about a minute and a half lost. After two failed courses the tickets give a little more time, without saying so.
- Tone85.9 · unsettling
- Two days before Halloween, you cook for someone you can't see: dozens of eyes in the dark behind the pass that follow your blade, stars that open an eye in mid-air, a hand that comes to take the plates, and one last ticket you'd rather not read.
- Story11 · silent
- Almost nothing to read: a title, one line saying what to slice, tickets drawn in pictures and a few words when the plates break. The story is the customer growing in the dark, and the last ticket.
- Scale87.8 · cosmic
- The kitchen fits on one screen, but what you cook is the universe: moons and asteroids, comets and nebulae, ringed planets, stars and galaxies, and then the Sun itself, carved in fourteen cuts.
- Form32.2 · rather familiar
- The slice-what-flies game everyone knows, with one kitchen rule on top: the ticket says what to slice. One trap remains: some stars open an eye in mid-air.
- Look95 · lush
- A frame packed to bursting: a row of roaring gas flames, copper pans, steam, the juice of every star spraying in coloured bursts, the trail of the blade, a nebula behind, and the customer, a wall of eyes blinking in the dark. Toned down on old phones.
The theme
Two days before Halloween, a restaurant kitchen floats at the edge of the void, and tonight there is only one customer. He sits in the dark behind the pass, and all you can see of him are his eyes, more of them every course. He orders the universe, dish by dish: moons to start, comets in the soup, planets, stars for dessert, and finally the Sun. Once the Sun is served, the kitchen goes dark and the printer pushes out one last ticket.
The mechanics
Slice the heavenly bodies thrown up from the stove with a swipe of finger or mouse (or a tap, or Space on the target picked with the arrow keys). The ticket at the top says what to slice and how many before its time runs out; slicing anything else costs nothing. Never the eyes: a sliced eye, or a ticket that runs out, breaks a plate. Three broken plates and the course starts over. Five courses, faster and faster, and then the Sun, which takes fourteen cuts.
Palette
A void #07060b strewn with stars and a plum nebula, stainless steel #8b9399 and dark steel #2a2f35, copper pans #c8743a, blue gas flames #3fa9ff that flare orange #ff7a1a, cream tickets #f4ecd8 in red ink #d8263a, pearly eyes #f1e9dc with violet irises #7b3fe0, and the juice of the stars: moon milk, magma, comet ice, pink gas, starlight. Bowlby One SC for the title, Special Elite for the tickets. Scorching, loud, watched.
