Cooking Diary, the successful time-management style culinary game from Mytona, is regularly among the top global games and is invariably in the top three of its genre. On top of that, the game celebrates its 7th birthday this month! Cooking Diary was launched on August 6, 2018, and is available in the App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Microsoft Store, and App Gallery Huawei! In honor of the big day, the team is sharing the 7 reasons why the game has achieved success and maintained its leading position in the genre for 7 years now.

The Wonderful Tea Party restaurant

The 1st reason is the rich, thought-out lore. When they open Cooking Diary, players immerse themselves in the captivating culinary world. 31 districts with 184 restaurants offer recipes from around the world. The most popular restaurants are the Burger Joint, the Pizzeria, and the Wonderful Tea Party! As they explore district after district, players meet colorful, charismatic characters, find themselves in adventures, and, of course, prepare dishes. There are currently over 470 episodes with dazzling humor and incredible plot twists! Players themselves become full-fledged members of the world, getting the opportunity to equip establishments to their taste and influence how the game world develops.

The ability to customize is the 2nd reason for success! The over 10,000 customizable items make Tasty Hills the ideal space for self-expression! Players can create their own look out of 108 sets of facial features and experiment with style, with 464 hairstyles and 2,060 outfits to choose from. But the appearance of players' avatars isn't the only thing that's customizable. Design enthusiasts can already choose from 6,460 pieces of restaurant furniture and 1,085 pieces of furniture for the player's home. Even pets are part of the customizable fun! There are 235 outfits available for cats, dogs, and exotic animals that allow them to stand out!

Space cat and other pets

The 3rd reason for the game's success is paying attention to players' wishes. Players share their ideas and preferences for the game, especially when it comes to pets. There are currently 69 different animals players can own in the game, ranging from cats and dogs to a lion, a swan, and even a unicorn! In 2024, a contest was held on the game's Facebook page to create a unique pet design. The winner was the space cat, who soon appeared in the game and became a player favorite and a shining example of how user feedback helps develop Cooking Diary.

The 4th reason for the game's success is the various events and tasks. New activities are regularly added to the game, and out of the many events that have been held, 16 of the most successful have become permanent. A well-thought-out schedule of events helps keep players engaged and makes their gaming experience even more exciting and fulfilling. The weekly schedule is published on the game's official accounts on Instagram and Facebook so that players can start planning as soon as possible.

Unique assistants

Reason #5 for success is the game's non-stop development and continuous updates. The system of unique assistants that was introduced into the game in October 2022 is one of these successful innovations. Prior to that, assistants only performed a social function, with friends and guildmates sending characters to help one another. But the project needed something new and large-scale, and the mechanics of unique assistants fit perfectly into the gameplay and system of collecting. As part of the big Tasty Hills Secrets event, the team introduced players to assistants' background stories and gave them the ability to receive assistants as a reward for completing the event's main stage. The new feature saw widespread interest, resulting in a 15% spike in players' activity. When Tasty Hills Secrets gave way to Tasty Airlines, the beloved unique assistants mechanic was smoothly migrated over to the new event and remains a permanent part of the game.

Guild window

The 6th and most important reason for the game's success is the players! Over the past 7 years, Cooking Diary has been downloaded more than 61 million times, and players have spent over 104,000 years in Tasty Hills and served over half a trillion dishes! That was all made possible by the tight-knit community. These years have seen the creation of more than 950,000 guilds, where players can boast about their achievements, help one another, and chat. The guild chats are never quiet! Every day, approximately 1.78 million characters are written in them. That's about 1.5 times the size of Herman Melville's Moby Dick! Cooking Diary has become more than just a game. It's a place that brings people together from all over the world.

And finally, the 7th and last reason for Cooking Diary's success is the team behind it! Their creativity and hard work have allowed the game to continue to develop and bring joy to players. Project producer Nikolai Gurev shared his thoughts:

"Our project has had many ups and downs, but our team's well-coordinated work has made it possible to overcome all the difficulties. Every team member who maintains the project's highest level of quality is responsible for Cooking Diary's success. I'm confident that even more achievements await us. The team's not resting on its laurels, and our favorite game is developing along with us! Cooking Diary has huge potential to remain at the top and delight players for many years to come!"