The incorporation of food in games has a long history of varying success. Most commonly, games completely reject food, assuming that it's something your character does when you are not playing. A common complaint against the use of food in games, is that we don't want to make you go to the bathroom every 30 minutes, so why should you have to eat either? Of course there are games that model eating, and even games that model going to the bathroom. The Sims for instance, models going to the bathroom, even to the extent of wetting the floor if a toilet cannot be accessed, and no one can say that that game wasn't successful.

I think this much realism probably doesn't have a place in CDO, but there is a certain amount of realism that can make gameplay interesting. Realism is only a 4 letter word if it isn't any fun, and fun is certainly one of our priorities.

The second most common use of food in games is that of replenishing health. I don't know where anyone got the idea that a bowl of dog food, or at least enough bowls of dog food, would heal all of the bullet holes in your chest, (id software I'm looking at you), but it caught on and is everywhere. There is no required eating to survive, but you can use food to heal your wounds. It could be abstracted, in that after fighting (losing health) you get tired, and a good meal gives you enough energy to continue.

Finally there are the games that do make you eat. A common problem with these, is the all too common death by hunger, or just an excessive amount of time spent making sure you have food. This can be seen as annoying, as a money sink, or as something that takes away from other parts of the game. Another issue in rpgs with eating, especially with games such as Nethack, is a fear of eating anything due to the constant possibility of food making you ill or giving you food poisoning, causing you to die yet again.

In CDO, food is going to be an important part of the game. How much and how it all works together is still being formed, and several prototypes have been discarded. The current prototype is most likely not the final form as well, but it is getting closer to the goal.

There are two basic values that we are designing the food system around. First, death by hunger should be rare or impossible. Second, players should always be encouraged to eat a variety of foods rather than sticking to the same meals.

The reason for the first is that being required to eat or eat too often results in a feeling of pressure that turns many players off. It becomes repetitive, rather than fun, to constantly be trying to eat to stay alive. It's more interesting if people want to eat to gain bonuses, and strategize about their characters nutritional health. Players enjoy finding a good set of armor whose bonuses all work together well, it would be interesting if this could work with what foods you eat as well.

Similarly, the reason players should switch up their meals, is to make eating less repetitive, as well as to benefit the cooking, farming, fishing, and hunting industries. If leg of lamb is better in all cases than any other meal, nobody will farm or fish, the world will be covered in sheep farms, and it will get boring fast. Perhaps leg of lamb is best for a specific action, while a salad is better for something else. These differences cannot be too subtle or players will end up finding the best dish that works on average, and you end up with the world of sheep problem again.

Those are the two main guidelines, more guidelines may spring up later on in playtesting or in prototype design, but those are the main ones. Cool special effects from food, as well as poisons or other negative side effects would also keep things interesting, and make you choosy about where you eat. Beware the apple pies from farmer greenhand, the power station nearby dumps toxic waste into his fields! As long as the effects aren't too negative or too long lasting to make people not want to eat anything, then this could work well, as a dangerous element. Since combat is not the main focus of CDO, there needs to be danger outside of combat as well.

At this point in development, the food system is extremely basic, and leaves much room for improvement. Even though the system is basic, it does follow the above guidelines however. Each character has some stats, called nutrients, which define how well they can do various tasks in the game. Each task in the game makes some of the stats go down. Similarly, each food recipe in the game makes some of the stats go up. In this way, when you are doing a lot of a specific action, there are going to be a few foods that help with that action, and a few foods that don't help at all. The way it's set up is somewhat arbitrary, leading to a lot of trial and error, which may need some work. Also, all foods give some amount of standard energy, so there is value to eating anything even if it's not necessarily the correct food for a given task.

The energy system as exists is unique, and as development progresses it will get much better. It is something that will touch most aspects of the game, and be something that keeps crafters interested in contributing. It also will hopefully eliminate some of the negative stigma usually associated with eating in games.