Metroidvania-lite Meets Cooking Game Magical Delicacy July 16th!

Befriend a Divers Cast of Characters, Explore the Cozy Harbor Town of Grat, and Cook Mouthwatering Meals This July

Erie, Pennsylvania (June 4, 2024) — Preheat your ovens to 350^oF, set up your mise en place, break out your grimoire and get ready for a scrumptious and wholesome adventure! Today, Whitethorn Games — publisher of inclusive, accessible, easy-going games including APICO, Calico, Botany Manor, and Lake — and solo-developer sKaule are thrilled to share that their upcoming Metroidvania-lite-meets-cooking game Magical Delicacy is coming to Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox — available day one with Xbox Game Pass — on July 16, 2024. 

Check out the Magical Delicacy release date and Nintendo Switch announcement trailer

A wholesome adventure set in an enchanting world, Magical Delicacy invites you to play as the young witch Flora, who travels to the adventurer’s town of Grat to grow her magical skills and fulfill her dream of becoming a fully-fledged witch. Upon arriving, she takes up shop to cook meals and potions for the diverse cast of characters, from the charming townsfolk and mysterious travelers to forgotten figures of legend and masters of their craft. As she traverses the cozy harbor town, she’ll discover the stories of the townsfolk and learn that there is more to Grat than meets the eye. 

Collect an assortment of inspiring ingredients from shops, foraging through the town, and by growing them in your garden, cook up a storm in your upgradeable kitchen using a variety of tools and deliver your meals to fulfill the orders from hungry townsfolk. Explore the unfamiliar town of Grat, learn new ways to traverse, discover secrets, and experience a unique and witchy world one dish at a time.

Key Features of Magical Delicacy include:

• Collect new recipes and ingredients through trade, questing, growing vegetables in your garden, and exploring throughout the town of Grat. 

• Learn an extensive cooking system, allowing for flexible, creative choices to fulfill even the oddest orders.

• Build the kitchen of your dreams by commissioning new equipment to help you create even more delicious dishes.

• Experience a wholesome linear story filled with witchy wonder and intrigue, with many optional encounters and free play opportunities.

• Traverse a 2D platformer inspired by Metroidvanias, gain new abilities, reach new areas, and unlock shortcuts.

Magical Delicacy is coming to PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One and Series X|S on July 16, 2024. Magical Delicacy will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass.

Accessibility features for Magical Delicacy can be found here: https://whitethorngames.com/magicaldelicacy/accessibility. 

To stay spellbound, be sure to follow Magical Delicacy on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram, and visit the official website. Follow sKaule on Twitter and their official website.

Keep up to date with Whitethorn Games on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, join the official Whitethorn Games Discord, and visit https://whitethorngames.com.

About sKaule

Based in Hamburg, Germany, independent developer and illustrator Steven Kaule (sKaule) has been making games since 2014. They strive to create works that blend artistic beauty with fun and enjoyable gaming experiences, that can be enjoyed by everyone. Magical Delicacy is the solo developer’s first commercially released game. Learn more by visiting skaule.com.

About Whitethorn Games

We’re an indie game publisher focusing on pleasant, easy-going games, including APICO, Botany Manor, Calico, and Lake. Our games can be played in pieces, require no special skills or knowledge and are accessible enough that anyone can pick up and play. We’re believers in accessibility, inclusion, and widening the audience that gets to play. We like to consider ourselves the defenders of easy games. While our games might challenge you, they’ll respect your time, they’ll make sure you can play, and most importantly, they’ll never punish you. Learn more at whitethorngames.com. 

Article by: Susan N.

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Botany Manor - PC Review

Botany Manor by developer Balloon Studios and publisher Whitethorn Games—PC (Steam) review written by Valerie with a copy provided by the publisher. 

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Yay! A puzzle game fell into my lap recently and I'm here to say I did finish to 'The End' and roll credits!

In Botany Manor, you are Arabella Greene of a long line of Greenes and a retired botanist. In this puzzler game you play in first person view. No you don't have an actual hand in view to pick up and inspect items, just the key commands and click of the mouse.

I am impressed by the puzzles which gave me a feel like I was in a derivative of a Myst game (another all time fave series of mine). Even though the puzzles were fast to get through, I still had an enjoyable time reading and learning about the plants in England.

You start the game in the conservatory where you are given a book to record your research. You seek out the seeds, clues, and locations where they are from which gets entered into the book. With that seed you plant it in a pot and figure out how to make it blossom! As you complete the page about that particular plant, you go on to the next one. The book you record your research and clues in is divided into chapters. A great way to introduce more brain teasing puzzles to solve and progress you along. At the very beginning of the book is a maps section which is a big help in solving the puzzles.

The setting of the game is in a Victorian English Manor, quite the sprawling building of rooms with peaceful outdoor areas. The gardens, conservatory and orchard net some nice surprises as you progress through a book that you fill out with your research/clues on the various plants. There are not one, but two ponds here where one is enclosed in cement, while the other is in a natural setting.

Life back in the 1800s was a lot of hard work and peaceful times. Botany Manor brought back memories of my anticipation of receiving a letter in the mail. Something I still experience with a couple of friends who feel the same way. I loved the use of these letters to impart clues and the story of Arabella with her passion for botany. Throughout the game you realize Arabella had the drive and did all that hard work only to hit a barrier that a lot of women faced during that time period.

The music was so relaxing that I must admit to 'resting' and taking in the views a lot. Many screenshots have been taken too! With the music was an abundance of sound from running water to birds singing that brought out some olfactory memories of a manor I had visited years ago, and the smells associated with that time.

I absolutely loved that section with the camera and flash powder! Awesome as that's my trade and I adore any photographic paraphernalia! I remember at a museum here in my town where they had a similar setup and the story of how the flash powder caused the photographer to sneeze and knock his setup over.

I loved the artwork both in the game and of the game design. The artist that I also embody as I paint in watercolor from time to time was a joy to see around the manor. I long for my own painting room, alas, not to be had for a while, but I can dream as I played the game. Throughout the game I experienced that calm that comes with an organized life of a scientist appealed greatly to me throughout my progress through the game.

A few times I went overboard in picking things up and placing them in other spots, but that made me feel right at home! Part of gardening to me is creating an asthetically pleasing and peaceful area to sit and enjoy. One can ponder one's own life and what is to come next.

All in all, if you want to relax and enjoy a few mental challenges for a couple of hours, go get this game. Balloon Studios put out an awesome game and Whitethorn Games gave us all the means to buy a copy to play. My only little wish is that there were more puzzles as I am a puzzle hound! Great story suitable to the times, and the location and scenes were soothing to my ragged and haywire senses the day this dropped in my lap. I forgot all about my problems each time I opened the game to continue on after my regular daily tasks.

Score: 9.5 / 10

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EnglishJapaneseChinese Trad-------- [ All ] --------AfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAssameseAymaraAzerbaijaniBambaraBashkirBasqueBelarusianBengaliBhojpuriBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese SimpChinese TradChuvashCorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDhivehiDogriDutchEmojiEnglishEsperantoEstonianEweFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrisianGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHill MariHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIlocanoIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKazakh (Latin)KhmerKinyarwandaKonkaniKoreanKrioKurdish (Kurmanji)Kurdish (Sorani)KyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLingalaLithuanianLuxembourgishMacedonianMaithiliMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMariMeiteilon (Manipuri)MizoMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianOdia (Oriya)OromoPapiamentoPashtoPersianPolishPortuguese (Brazil)PunjabiQuechuaRomanianRussianSamoanSanskritScots GaelicSepediSerbianSerbian (Cyrillic)Serbian (Latin)SesothoShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTagalogTajikTamilTatarTeluguThaiTigrinyaTsongaTurkishTurkmenTwiUdmurtUkrainianUrduUyghurUzbekUzbek (Cyrillic)VietnameseWelshXhosaYakutYiddishYorubaZulu

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