Venba
Game
Documents about Venba
Whitepaper6 pages
Creating and Evaluating "Making Beshbarmak": Games on Traditional Cuisine of Central Asia
This paper presents an exploratory evaluation of "Making Beshbarmak," a computer-based video game about food rituals in Central Asia, focusing on meat preparation and hosting around beshbarmak, a traditional dish of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
- The game "Making Beshbarmak" guides players through preparing and serving beshbarmak, a traditional Kazakh and Kyrgyz dish, while introducing traditional design patterns, historical context, and Kazakh food terminology.
- An exploratory playtest with ten English-speaking North American participants (20–30 minutes of play each) found that participants showed increased interest in Central Asian culture and cuisine after playing, measured through mixed-methods pre- and post-play surveys.
- Participants praised the game's interactive preparation process, flashcards, imagery of items such as yurts and patterned textiles, and its calming, immersive audiovisual atmosphere.
DiGRAApr 2026
Whitepaper3 pages
"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 paper argues that Venba (Visai Games, 2023) relies on "authenticity-porn," an affective appeal built from peripheral "diasporic ephemera" such as a soap brand, a mirror, and a travel-agency calendar, which signal to in-group players that the developers share their lived experience.
- The authors contend that this recognition of diasporic props, rather than the game's mechanics, carries much of the emotional message to players.
- Player agency is minimal: the linear narrative and constrained controls make perceptual engagement with objects the primary form of interaction, incorrectly followed recipes prompt retries rather than failure, and resources are presented as unlimited with cleaning absent from playable labor.
DiGRASep 2024