Venba is an Indian immigrant mother who immigrated to Canada in the 1980s. She’s also the eponymous star of a new video game in which players cook various dishes as they try to replicate lost recipes. Venba, released this summer by the Toronto-based indie studio Visai Games, isn't a terribly competitive game. Instead, it explores assimilation and the immigrant experience in Canada. KCRW recording engineer and avid gamer PJ Shahamat stepped into Venba's shoes and took the game for a test drive.
The game begins in 1988, following a South Indian couple as they settle into Toronto and learn to navigate a new culture. Eventually, they have a son. Craving a taste of home, Venba wants to make her favorite dishes. But there's a problem: Her mother's old cookbook is damaged, and many of the instructions have been smudged out. This is where gamers step in to play as Venba, reconstructing recipes through trial and error.
"She's a very caring character," says Shahamat, who used a Nintendo Switch to play Venba from both the comfort of his bed and on the go. "She expresses a lot of her love by making food for loved ones."
Preparing a virtual layered biryani recipe proved the most difficult but most rewarding dish for PJ Shahamat as he played Venba. Photo courtesy of Visai Studios.
Featuring a linear storyline with some dialogue options, the game's main obstacles are making South Indian dishes. It was all a new experience for Shahamat, who says biryani was the most difficult recipe for him to assemble.
"The sound design makes you feel like you're in the kitchen with Venba making the dish as well," he says. He describes a sequence where he makes the soup rasam masala. Decoding Venba's grandmother's old cookbook, gamers can also play as Venba's son, Kavin. If they fail to make a dish correctly, they must start over. "I guess that's how cooking works," Shahamat says.
The son of immigrant parents from Iran, he related to Venba's narrative.
"This is the sacrifice that my parents made. They decided to go to a new country and try to blend into this new culture," he says.
Venba is available now on Nintendo Switch, Steam, Xbox Series/Xbox One, and Playstation 5.