Fruitbus

Fruitbus (2024) is a lighthearted adventure about running a mobile food truck in a vibrant anthropomorphic open world. Play is as much about exploring for ingredients and customers as it is about preparing and serving recipes from your custom kitchen on wheels. It stands out for its feel-good spin on shopkeeping games, diverging from tight financial management to focus on uplifting interaction and chilled exploration.

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You take over your late grandmother's food truck and must keep the business thriving by serving customers across the Gustum archipelago. You drive from town to town, opening up shop and preparing dishes as the orders come in - chopping, mixing, and cooking ingredients in different ways to create the perfect meal. On top of this, you also explore on foot, foraging for new fruit and veg to add to your recipes. In this way, the entire process is a one-man show that not only keeps the gameplay diverse, but also harbours a deep sense of satisfaction as you see your food bring joy to customers.

As you progress, you unlock new tools to harvest different ingredients and add to your kitchen setup with ovens, stoves, blenders and other utensils. You can also modify the appearance of your truck, personalising its paint job and adding somewhat silly accessories. As you accrue a cast of regular customers, you turn over a nice profit, but more importantly, you hear their stories and make lasting friendships.

The result is a wholesome blend of shopkeeping, cheffing, and resource gathering with a focus on the joy of the process rather than stressful finances. Running throughout is a touching narrative that explores bittersweet themes of loss and self-confidence.

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Our examiner, Jake Kendall, first checked Fruitbus 4 months ago. It was re-examined by Ollie Robertson and updated 4 months ago.