Summary
It can be the difference between life and death for your character, signal you’re on a hostile planet or in a sumptuous world, or can even give you the whole basis for a game.
In this week’s Food Chain we hear where the ideas for some of the most disgusting and delicious foods in games come from, and how to recreate them in real life.
Video game creator Tim Cain tells us why food was such an important tool in his games Fallout and The Outer Worlds. Author and gamer Cassandra Reeder tells us why she started making entire recipe books based on food from video games, and how important is food in gaming? Video game enthusiast Harriet tells us why it's an essential tool for escapism.
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producers: Izzy Greenfield and Hannah Bewley
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm no longer ravenous. I'll no longer eat until I fall asleep. The Hunger Game, |
| 0:05.9 | a new five-part series exploring the meteoric rise of weight loss drugs. It's been an incredible |
| 0:10.7 | story with these drugs. The uptake, the amount of product that's been sold, the amounts of money |
| 0:15.1 | is cost. What the drugs do, how they work, and the knock-on effects of their widespread use. |
| 0:20.5 | We'll be sitting here in three years' time going, oh, it caused problems that we're now going |
| 0:25.3 | to have to fix. The Hunger Game with me, Professor Gilesio. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | From pixelated apples to healing potions, food in video games does far more than fill up your health bar. |
| 0:44.2 | It tells stories, builds worlds, and sometimes makes you really hungry. |
| 0:50.1 | This is the food chain from the BBC World Service with me Ruth Alexander, |
| 0:54.9 | and this week we're exploring how video games use food to immerse players in a fantasy world |
| 1:01.2 | and how that might make them look anew at food systems in the real world. |
| 1:06.4 | Joining me are three guests from the gaming universe, two looking particularly pleased to be here. |
| 1:13.0 | I understand Cassandra and Harriet you are very excited to be in the virtual room with Tim. |
| 1:20.1 | Yes. Yeah, this is gaming royalty. Oh gee. Tim is like games industry royalty. |
| 1:31.3 | I hope you don't mind me saying that, but we're big fans at this house. |
| 1:35.2 | I'm about to start my 45th year of making games. |
| 1:42.0 | So I'm probably older than all of you and everyone listening in just my career. |
| 1:43.1 | And a legend. |
| 1:46.4 | A legend. |
| 1:47.7 | Experienced. |
| 1:55.7 | Tim is Tim Kane from Seattle in the United States, who started out as a video game developer in 1981, back when Pac-Man and Donkey Kong reigns supreme. |
| 2:05.8 | He's best known for the role-player games, or RPGs, Fallout and the Outer Worlds. |
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