At WX, Wakefield over 50 games will be demoing, along with 400+ developers, game industry publishers, investors and platforms in attendance for GaMaYo 25! Join us on the 13th of November for a day full of demos and round tables.
This event is brought to you by Game Republic along with their Official Partners Barclays Games and Creative, Xsolla and Red Kite Games, with event sponsors Plus Accounting, Escape Technology, HP and AMD.
Today we are looking at ‘MEAT’ which is confirmed to be at the event, from Zovbi Games!
MEAT by Zovbi Games
What would be your description of your game?
MEAT is a chaotic and silly cooperative culinary adventure where you, and up to 3 friends, must work together to run your own burger restaurant. Featuring rude customers! Dirty work environments! and a lot of shouting… the 3 pillars of a good fast food restaurant! Can your small business survive in this economy? Probably not, but it’s worth a try!
How did development start? (Were there any key inspirations or ideas that drove you?)
Before we talk about MEAT’s development, we must talk about what came first: this being a small game by the name of Cocktail Connections, made for a university game jam with the theme of “The Power of Connection”. This game was inspired by games such as Coffee Talk and the general interactive visual novel style of games that can be found in abundance around the internet. This game became the predecessor to MEAT, due to it including a very similar art style and very similar gameplay and functions, allowing us to adapt them to a more gameplay-focussed format, rather than story-focussed. Now for the MEAT(y) bit, Being inspired by games such as PlateUp! and Overcooked!, MEAT’s initial development was just supposed to be a third year team project, but we soon came to the realisation that this idea could be adapted to become more, and as our time at Uni came to an end and we were nominated for Game Design and Best Team at Game Republic Student Showcase 2025, we knew we had a good idea on our hands, that just needed polishing and refining. After talking to professionals and students alike at the student showcase, this was confirmed to us. From then we knew what we must do and decided to go forward working on MEAT as Zovbi Games.
Tell us about the team behind the game?
Zovbi Games is a close team of newly graduated friends & students, hoping to provide enjoyable experiences to groups of friends and families throughout the online space. We specialise in 2.5D games, meaning we combine both 3D and 2D into one, blending Unreal Engine’s 2D and 3D tools to create a unique art style that makes us stand out from typical cooperative experiences.
Our team currently comprises of: Joel Clowes – Artist & Producer
Lain Hobson – Sound Artist & Sounds Implementation Specialist
Arminas Lietuvnikas – Game Designer & C++ Programmer
George Martin – Networking & C++ Programmer
Bradley Barker – Level Designer & VFX Artist
Chloe Derbyshire – Marketing
What kind of experiences do you hope to bring players?
We hope to provide players with a simple pick-up and play game that encourages teamwork and communication in a fast-paced environment, providing a streamlined and effective online experience for all. We also hope to provide a polished and finished experience that lives up to the standard of modern video games.
In 10 words or less, highlight the appeal of the game?
Chaotic online co-op simulator, focussed on communication and teamwork.
Any links to access/wishlist the game?
Not right now, but we hope to have the game available to wishlist by the middle of October at the latest.
The Game Republic Awards are open until the 30th September – Winners will be revealed at GaMaYo 13th of November. You do not need to be a member to submit a nomination. To make a nomination you can so via our nomination form.