"Just Like Amma Used to Make": Venba and Packaging the Aesthetics of Diaspora

The paper argues that Venba, a 2023 cooking and narrative game by Visai Games that depicts a Tamil immigrant family, relies on what the authors term "authenticity-porn," an affective appeal built from peripheral "diasporic ephemera" such as a soap brand, a mirror, and a travel-agency calendar. The authors contend that these props signal to in-group players that the developers share their lived experience, and that this recognition, rather than the game's mechanics, carries much of the emotional message. The argument draws on prior scholarship on nostalgia and accuracy in historical games, extending it to diasporic media, and frames the kitchen as a space that the game turns into a playground of marketed authenticity.

The analysis finds that player agency is minimal, since the linear narrative and constrained controls make perceptual engagement with objects the primary form of interaction. Recipes followed incorrectly prompt retries rather than failure, and resources are presented as unlimited while cleaning is absent from the playable labor. The authors read these design choices as reinforcing a single, idealized version of Tamil motherhood and cooking, which they regard as a narrowing "single game-story" with potential harms for both insiders and outsiders to the diaspora. Comparable superficial accuracy is identified in other diasporic media, including Never Have I Ever and The Big Sick.

The study is a qualitative, interpretive reading of a single game rather than an empirical study, drawing on close analysis of its props, controls, and narrative structure, supported by a bibliography spanning paratext studies, affect theory, and game nostalgia research. Its scope is therefore conceptual and theoretical, presented as a conference paper for DiGRA 2024, and its conclusions are offered as a framework for evaluating how diaspora games construct authenticity through affect and embodiment.