With a name likeThe Diner at the End of the Galaxy, it isn’t surprising that the upcoming restaurant management sim takes some sizable inspirations from the works of British author Douglas Adams. And while the writer’s comedic stylings helped shape the game, its inspirations run far wider. Adams is best known fortheHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxyseries, of which the second book was titledThe Restaurant at the End of the Universe–a title General Interactive was obviously winking at with its ownThe Diner at the End of the Galaxy.
Mark Fillon, founder of General Interactive, sat down for an interview with Game Rant where he explained how Adams was influential in the development ofThe Diner at the End of the Galaxybut that the inspirations range far beyond his work to things likeCrusader Kings,Oxygen Not Included, andFuturama.The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Can you start by introducing yourself?
A:I’m Mark, the creative director and the founder of the studio. It’s based here in Singapore, and it’s been so since 2016. We’ve released two games. The first one is this wine-growing tycoon game calledTerroir, which was released on Steam. And last year, we had the privilege of releasing oursecond game withChinatown Detective Agency. This game,The Diner at the End of the Galaxy,is our third. It’s sort of us going back to our roots of management and tycoon-style games. You can considerChinatown Detective Agencyto be sort of an ambitious little side quest. A point-and-click adventure wasn’t really something we were planning on doing, but we did. Our third game is going back to our roots in management, base building, and economy-centric games.
Q: The title,Diner at the End of the Galaxy, definitely feels like an obvious Douglas Adams reference.
A:Absolutely, and we’re not shying away from it. It’s something we’re definitely embracing; it’s part of the game’s tone of voice. I’m a huge fan of his work. It’s a reference to theRestaurant at the End of the Universe. But beyond the work of the great Douglas Adams, it’s alsoinspired heavily by other humorous sci-fitakes and filled with references from popular culture, things likeFuturamaandRick and Morty. That kind of humor is quite apparent in the writing and the narrative of our game. But yes, Douglas Adams is definitely a central figure, and he is a very important reference for the game.
Q: You talked about some of the things that inspired the tone. What are some of the other inspirations behindDiner?
A:We’ve always been huge fans of base-building games of all kinds. I mean, the ones that are just off the top of my head aregames likeOxygen Not Included, which I’ve played for hundreds of hours, and more tycoon-style games likeTwo-Point Hospitaland its ancestorTheme Hospital. It’s those kinds of games that inspiredTheDiner at the End of the Galaxy. What we took from those inspirations is this almost hypnotic quality of building up a base and just watching the agents–your customers, your patrons–milling about the whole thing on autopilot. It’s just such an alluring feeling when you’re playing a game like that, and that’s something we wanted to capture withThe Diner at the End of the Galaxy.
We wanted players to build up their diner, watch a colorful cast of characters walk through the door, order food, interact with each other, and just have something like what I always refer to as a living aquarium. Right? It’s something you can just sit back, watch, and let the AI work on autopilot. That’s a sign ofa great base building/management/tycoon gamewhen you put in a lot of effort, you put in a lot of love into building this creation, and then you’re allowed to sit back and watch it run its course.
Q: You mentioned the colorful cast of characters. What are some of the characters that will meet in the game?
A:Central to the game are these powerful factions. I think this is where our tone of voice references really come into play. These factions are incredibly eclectic, they’re diverse. They’re sometimes bizarre. The factions that are going to ship with the base game include the Bani Shamal, who are the indigenous inhabitants of the planet that you’re on. They’re like a Trade Federation. They’re inspired by the ancient civilizations of the Silk Road, they’re very mercantile, and they’ll do anything for profit.
There’s also this person named Prince Vernon, the last living member of this once-powerful royal family that once ruled a planet that got destroyed during the war. Before it did, he took all his followers aboard this ship and escaped, and now they’re the last remaining people of that civilization. That faction is called Prince Vernon’s Court, and they’re very hedonistic, right? They believe life is all about the pursuit of pleasure. They’re quite decadent that way, and Prince Vernon himself is a bit of a fool. He’s not a very intelligent guy. He’s sort of like a man-child. He’s this spoiled, very arbitrary kind of persona.
Then, the last faction is called the Caracal’s Army. The Caracal is this rebel leader, and she’s super badass. She’s this military genius that’s basically conquered what remains of this post-apocalyptic galaxy.
Members of these factions are basically the people that walk through your diner’s doors. Your customers will always belong to a certain faction. Patrons of a certain faction means earning fame points with them, which you can use to unlock new items, unlock new rooms, and all of that stuff; it gives you a reason to engage or specialize in serving a particular kind of patron if you’re looking to please one particular faction.
Q: This is more than just a restaurant management game. What are some of the other dimensions? And what do they add to the core management experience?
A:That question is going to unpack the depths of the game or, at least, our vision of the depth of the game. We like to describe the game as a diplomacy game masquerading as a diner management game. Even though the core gameplay loop is diner management–you’re growing crops, you’re cooking food, you’re serving it to customers, and you’re making money–the end goal is actually much bigger than just being profitable. It’s having the means to influence the fate of the galaxy.
You influence the fate of the galaxy through diplomacy. We’re inspired bygrand strategy games likeCrusader Kingsbut on a much smaller scale, where seemingly random events will pop up that give the player a choice of how to react. A faction leader might come to you for help with a particular problem, and you can choose to aid that faction leader, you could choose to stay out of it, or you could choose to sabotage their efforts. These choices will always result in something tangible, whether it’s a reward that you’ll earn from helping, a penalty that you’ll have to live with if you don’t, or a decrease in the flow of patrons from that faction. Not only are you influencing the storylines of the factions, but the factions are influencing you in the sense that they can affect who goes to your diner and therefore how profitable or how successful your diner becomes. Diplomacy is super important.
One key feature of the game is expeditions. If you have a starship, you can assemble a crew, you can handpick the best of your employees, stock it up with rations and fuel, and send it into the unknown. You want them to explore different worlds and different places around the galaxy in the hopes that they’ll bring back loot, whether that’s money or rare objects. But in the process, your crew is subject to very risky and dangerous events; they could run out of fuel, which means that they could get lost in space and you could lose your ship. They could run out of rations, and there’s a chance that this might result in cannibalism onboard this ship. Or everything might go smooth sailing, they arrive at their destination, and they do what they have to do and bring back some really, really cool loot. This will not only make your diner richer but also better equipped to serve your customers and your patrons.
Q: What can you share about the backstory of the galaxy and the Nusa system?
A:Nusa, yes, it’s based on this term called Nusantara. Nusantara is a word we use to describe the archipelagic Southeast Asia, right? That’s Indonesia, Malaysia, and part of the Philippines. The reason we chose the name is because Southeast Asian culture is a part of the lore. We took inspiration from Southeast Asian history and heritage and infused it into our lore. Sometimes, names of places, names of people, and names of civilizations will be based on Southeast Asian culture.
Nusa is this star system’s sun, where the planet Al Khali, the desert planet where your diner is located, revolves around. Now it’s part of a bigger galaxy called the Pataliputra Galaxy. The galaxy has just beenravaged by this galaxy-wide war, called The Great Disagreement. The Great Disagreement has destroyed much of the galaxy’s civilizations. What you have left are these rag-tag remnants of the civilizations. Case in point: Prince Vernon, the last remaining monarch of his once great civilization. This is a galaxy that’s picking up the pieces of a really devastating war. They’re trying to build, they’re trying to rebuild, and your diner is the hub of all that activity because your diner is neutral ground for everyone in the galaxy to come together and trade, interact, and exchange information. You are right in the heart of this bustling galaxy trying to recover from a really devastating war.
I liken it to the Continental in theJohn Wickmovies. It’s this hotel where it’s neutral grounds to the world’s deadliest killers, converging on this one place to wine and dine and stay at the hotel. No one’s allowed to kill or hurt each other. It’s like a sacred safe space. That’s the way we see the diner. It’s this safe space where everyone can come and enjoy a dubious dish, but no one can harm each other. It’s governed by these unwritten laws of civility and all that.
Q: You’ve mentioned some of the influences from Southeast Asian culture. What kind of influences are we going to see beyond just names?
A:I think there’s a tendency to fall into this trap of tapping into culture as an inspiration in the narrative only for it to be at a superficial level, right? ForDiner, the lore behind certain civilizations mirrors real historical events. For example, one of the civilizations in the game is made up of these creatures called Pugita. Pugita in Tagalog–the language of the Philippines–means octopus, so it’s like this octopus-Cthulhu-looking creature, but beyond that superficiality, their history mirrors the colonial history of a lot of Southeast Asia. They were once ruled over by a much more powerful, capitalistic Empire, but then they rebelled. Because of their successful rebellion, they’ve taken it upon themselves to spread this revolution across the galaxy to free more oppressed peoples.
I mean, you’re hearing echoes of Vietnam’s own modern history there, right? Even beyond Vietnam, these are episodes that echo what’s happened across colonial Southeast Asia in the past few centuries. Beyond just a superficial level, just the names and even the visual style, it’s really in the narrative and the lore of the game itself as well.
Q: You mentioned the dubious dishes. What are some of the creative foods that can be on your menu at your diner?
A:One of the things that you have to do in your Diner is salvage because the space in which you’re building your diner is an abandoned trading outpost. It was long abandoned after the war, and it’s overcrowded with garbage, debris, and just leftover junk from the war. In order to make space to build rooms, you have to clear out space. When you salvage, you recover materials that you can use for building. Sometimes, you’ll also recover something called Mystery Meat. The thinking there is because this place has long been abandoned, some type of alien vermin has already infested the place. You can think of them as space rats. Whenever you’re clearing space, whenever you’re clearing junk, you will be–and I’m using air quotes here–“harvesting Mystery Meat” as well.
This is Mystery Meat, nobody knows where it’s from, and it’s best not to tell your patrons. It’s super useful because proper meat from farmed animals is much more expensive, and you won’t be able to afford it in the early game. Patrons have preferences for the dishes they want to eat. Some patrons will want something seasoned, while some patrons will want something sweet. Many patrons will want a meat-based dish, so in the early game, just to get your diner going, you may have to resort to using Mystery Meat to serve to your discerning patrons.
Q: Therole of food in gameshas exploded.
A:You know, you’re absolutely right. Just recently, another game from another studio based here in Singapore just released the game calledCuisineer. Food plays a central role in that, too. I like to think–it’s not an empirical observation, it’s more anecdotal–but I like to think that games that are being produced out of Asia have a certain emphasis on food because food and cuisine are such an important part of our culture. I’m sure it’s true in the West as well, but at least here in Asia, food dominates daily life. In fact, in many cultures here in Asia, it’s absolutely normal to greet someone by saying “Have you eaten?”
The central role that food plays in our lives finds its way into our game design as well. There’s something cozy, something welcoming about a game where you’re able to craft and serve food, and that’s certainly our intention. I know it’s got a twisted humorous side to it, butDiner at the End of the Galaxyisgoing to be a cozy game. There’s no visual violence at all. It’s mainly focused on serving tired hungry patrons from all over the galaxy.
To answer your question, I totally agree. This explosion of food in games is real. It’s a real thing.
Q: When are we getting the Diner cookbook?
A:Well, that sounds like an amazing idea. I think, to me, that sounds like an amazing idea for a digital art book, and that idea of having a cookbook is great. It’s something that I’m going to keep in the back of my mind. Cookbook eventually.
Q: What’s the roadmap toward release looking like?
A:We just released an alpha trailer just to give people an early sense of what the game is and what the core gameplay loop is. We do have a roadmap to finally hitting an Early Access build sometime in Q1 of next year. Q1 2024 for an Early Access release on Steam, accompanied by an Early Access trailer, which will show off a more polished version of the game, and hopefully, have all of the key features and mechanics built in.
Now, our intention ofreleasing it on Early Accessis motivated both financially–because, of course, we’re a small studio and having the financial security of a game that’s selling on Steam is super important–but also beyond that, you hear a lot of devs say this, but we genuinely mean it: we’d also like to see how players react to the way the game is being developed and listen to what they’re saying and have that influence, or at least play a part in, how we develop the game to Version 1.0.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A:We also do have plans to port to Xbox because Xbox has reached out with interest in bringing the game to their storefront, but as of this moment, it’s purely on PC. It’ll be in the major PC storefronts, including Steam, Humble, GOG, and Ich.
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The Diner at the End of the Galaxywill enter Early Access in Q1 2024 on Steam.
