One kitchen or a restaurant empire
"Cooking game" usually means a time-management game: orders arrive, you prepare and serve them before customers lose patience, and you earn tips to upgrade the kitchen. The price question is how many kitchens. One kitchen with one order loop is a focused build. A town of restaurants, each with its own cuisine, stations and recipe tree, is several of those builds joined by an economy.
Our example cooking concept on the cooking game page shows both. Its recommended package is Core + Launch: one retro diner, a short ingredient list, burgers served against the clock. Its screenshots also show a Food Town map with a beach shack, a taco truck and a locked sushi bar. That full map is the Advanced version of the same idea.
Cooking game scope tiers with assumptions
| Scope | What it includes | Price and timing |
|---|---|---|
| One kitchen | One restaurant, one order loop, a short ingredient list, a few stations, levels with star goals, a simple kitchen upgrade ladder, boosters and rewarded extra time | Core Game, $499. Submission-ready build targeted in 10 business days after payment, completed intake and blueprint approval |
| One kitchen with a launch | The same build plus 16 launch creatives (up to 8 short videos and 8 static or story variants) and 30 days of campaign management | Core Game + Launch, $1,299. Ad spend is paid separately to the ad platforms |
| Several restaurants | Multiple locations with their own cuisines and stations, recipe trees, a location map, staff or upgrade trees across kitchens, a deeper economy | Advanced Game + Launch, $2,999. First playable in 10 business days, full build within 30 days |
| Online or unusual | Realtime co-op cooking with other players, user-made recipes, licensed restaurant brands or characters | Custom quote, agreed in writing before you pay |
| Studio market context | Simple casual games $15,000 to $35,000; casual games with progression $30,000 to $150,000 | One studio's 2026 estimates by game type |
Why recommend Core + Launch for this genre? Cooking games sell on short, busy clips: an order panic, a perfect stack, a full line of happy customers. Those moments make good ad creatives, and a focused one-kitchen game has enough of them for a 30-day test. The launch adds $800 to the $499 build, against $1,000 for the launch service bought separately.
Sources: [S18]: Innovecs Games, How Much Does Mobile Game Development Cost in 2026? (opens in a new tab)
What moves the price inside a cooking game
| Driver | Why it adds cost | How to keep it bounded |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | Each location needs a kitchen layout, station art, customers, music and its own difficulty curve | Launch with one. Add the second as an update once the first holds players |
| Ingredients and stations | Every ingredient needs art, a cooked state and a station that handles it. Every station adds timing rules and an upgrade path | A short ingredient list with distinct shapes and colors, and three or four stations |
| Recipes and orders | Recipes multiply with ingredients, and each combination has to read clearly in an order bubble and be tested in levels | Fix the recipe list in the blueprint. The cooking scope guide shows how to count it |
| Customer behavior | Patience timers, moods, special customers and tipping rules all need balancing | One patience model with a few visual variants |
| Upgrade economy | Upgrades for each station, decor and staff need prices tuned against coins earned per level | One upgrade ladder per station in the first release |
Costs outside the package
- Apple Developer Program membership: $99 a year.
- Google Play developer registration: $25, paid once.
- Store commission on in-app purchases: 15% for developers in the small-business programs.
- Ad spend for a launch package, paid through your own ad accounts. One studio's estimate puts user acquisition at 30-100% of the development budget.
If your game is meant for children, tell us at the start. Google Play's Families policies then apply to ads, data and content, and they affect which ad formats and SDKs can be used.
Sources: [S18]: Innovecs Games, How Much Does Mobile Game Development Cost in 2026? (opens in a new tab)[S19]: Apple Developer, Enrollment (opens in a new tab)[S20]: Google Play Console Help, Get started with Play Console (opens in a new tab)[S21]: Apple Developer, App Store Small Business Program (opens in a new tab)[S22]: Google Play Console Help, Service fees (opens in a new tab)[S12]: Google Play, Families Policies (opens in a new tab)
When a package fits, and when to look elsewhere
A package fits when you can name the one kitchen, the dishes it serves and the stations it uses. It also fits a brand or creator who wants a themed cooking game for an audience, as long as the brand assets are yours to use. It does not fit an idea built on many cuisines from day one, realtime co-op with friends, or a recipe catalog that grows weekly through a live content pipeline. Those need a custom quote and a plan for operating the game after launch.
Before you choose a package
- Name the first restaurant and the food it serves.
- List the ingredients and stations; try to keep both short.
- Decide whether other locations are launch content or a later update.
- Decide who the game is for, especially if children are part of the audience.
- Say whether you want the 30-day launch campaign, and what ad budget you can fund.
When you are ready, start your cooking game or compare the three packages on the pricing table.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to make a cooking game?
With DFY Games, a one-kitchen cooking game fits Core Game at $499 or Core Game + Launch at $1,299, and a multi-restaurant game fits Advanced Game + Launch at $2,999. Studio estimates for casual games with progression run $30,000 to $150,000.
Why does each extra restaurant add so much scope?
Each location needs its own kitchen layout, station art, customers, recipes and difficulty curve. It is close to building the core game again inside a shared economy.
Can I start with one restaurant and add more later?
Yes. Launching one kitchen and adding locations as updates is the usual way to test a cooking game before funding a larger build. Ongoing content is not included in Core, so later locations are scoped separately.
Is advertising spend included in Core Game + Launch?
No. The package includes 16 launch creatives and 30 days of campaign management; ad spend is paid directly to the ad platforms through your own accounts.
Can the cooking game feature my restaurant brand?
Yes, if you own the brand or have permission to use it. Licensed characters, brands or music you do not own are excluded from the packages.
Sources
- [S18] Innovecs Games, How Much Does Mobile Game Development Cost in 2026?
- [S19] Apple Developer, Enrollment
- [S20] Google Play Console Help, Get started with Play Console
- [S21] Apple Developer, App Store Small Business Program
- [S22] Google Play Console Help, Service fees
- [S12] Google Play, Families Policies
Written and reviewed by the DFY Games team. Published ; facts checked . Prices and store rules change: check the linked sources before you rely on a figure.