Venba

Venba is a short narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations, and explore South Indian food in this story about family, love, and loss.

Venba is a casual, cooking and narrative game developed and published by Visai Games.
Released on July 31st 2023 is available in English only on Windows.

It has received 1,881 reviews of which 1,750 were positive and 131 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.9 out of 10. 😎

The game is currently priced at 7.49€ on Steam and has a 50% discount.

The Steam community has classified Venba into these genres:

Casual Cooking Narrative Puzzle Female Protagonist Stylized 1980s Emotional Conversation Cinematic Interactive Fiction Story Rich Visual Novel Indie Choices Matter Soundtrack Atmospheric Crafting Hand-drawn Exploration

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Venba through various videos and screenshots.

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Requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

OS *: Windows 7 Service Pack 1
Processor: 1.8 GHz or faster processor
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Direct X 9.0c compatible video card
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 4 GB available space
Sound Card: Any

Reviews

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Nov. 2024

Venba is a wonderful cozy/narrative game. The story is about an indian family who did imigrate in Canada. Discover indian culture and cook various delicious recipes throught simply puzzles. The graphics are really beautiful and the soundtrack is relaxing. I really enjoyed this game, I highly recommend it!!!! 🍛🧡

June 2024

Although at first(before buying) i though the game was about cooking and how life is for immigrants and their children(my sister moved to Canada with her husband and daughter and is now a Canadian) when i played it i saw that it also showed me things from a parents perspective, their thoughts, struggles, triumphs, love and loss. The attention to details of South Indian culture are good as per a friend of mine. The game can be a tear jerker for some. Also it is set in the 80s.

March 2024

I'll begin by addressing the elephant in the room: Venba is one of the more expensive games you'll have played when priced per hour. You shouldn't resent that. Adding length to it would probably have served merely to bloat, and the level of care in every aspect of its presentation justifies the cost for me - even better on sale. I'll also note that you don't need any personal connection to its themes to be deeply affected by its plot. My family tree has about as much geographical diversity as the Galapagian tortoise. If anything, I benefited more from playing the game: while I had academic knowledge of some of the social and cultural difficulties that can exist for families of immigrants, I feel I now have some level of understanding which I didn't before. The gameplay itself is simple. My mum could probably work it out without instructions. However, what elevates it above a visual novel is the satisfaction of inference: successfully 'solving' how to make a recipe is much like the feeling of entering an answer in a crossword, but with an overlay of the colours of the cooking on your screen and the smells in your mind's eye (mind's nose?). However, it's clear that the gameplay wouldn't stand on its own. The story is what we're all here for. It's tough to say much without spoiling things. I'll try to do so with a clumsy metaphor. Work out the values you hold so dear as to not need to think about them. Remind yourself of the person you love the most. What if the two of those were inconsistent with each other? The final thing: today a 'DLC' was added of a virtual cookbook containing English-language instructions for making some of the dishes you make in the game. I think I'll have to try. 8/10

Feb. 2024

Cute story, fun gameplay. I had thought I would have an advantage considering the fact I make the food featured in this game regularly, but I didn't. I learned how to do a tadka properly. Very humbled. Sorry ma.

Jan. 2024

What I liked - Heartwarming story: I think the less you know about it beforehand the better. It makes you want to call your mom. And puts perspective on the challenges of emigration and immigration. - Mouth watering food: This game will make you hungry for food and teach you how to make it! - Short but good . Only takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes and I think it has the perfect length. The gameplay doesn't outstay its welcome and shifts in different ways while the story leads you wondering what is going to happen next. It’s probably even faster if you are a decent cook. - Great music: Thematic and the right tempo for the scene. - Challenge setup I like the different ways of omitting information that challenges you with the cooking. Like water spills or it being a language you don't understand. Also adding different levels of control or straightforwardness to it. That together with the music and animations can somehow make you feel like you are really good at cooking later in the game. Proving that games don’t necessarily need to increase in complexity as it progresses. - Personality to cooking , ingredients fall over and become clumsy when someone less experienced is cooking. - Callbacks to previous dishes like tomatoes add water or you have to fry the seeds first. What I didn’t like - Better with controller?: Not all the controls are great on pc. Maybe better with controller. Especially when I need to rotate on the screen. - Is this a cutscene?: Is this a cutscene or do I need to click. Cinematic borders would have helped. Sometimes you are also looking at a still image that can make you think the game has crashed. Why others should try it This is a fantastic little game that I can recommend to anyone. It’s easy enough and will probably teach you something new about cooking, and if not, it will teach you something about what it means to be human.

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