How fun do you think it would be to actually run a warung? While we could definitely see certain parts of it being enjoyable, like chatting with customers and satisfying them with cheap and delicious meals, we’re pretty sure there are plenty of stressful aspects as well, like dealing with complaints, staff, purchasing ingredients, razor thin profit margins, hygiene issues, etc.
Fortunately “Warung Chain”, a recently released game for both iOS and Android smartphones, doesn’t dwell on any of the messy details of actually running a warung. Instead it makes running one of Indonesia’s beloved local restaurants into a fast-paced game of reflexes and time-management.
If you play a lot of smartphone games, you’ve probably seen similar cooking/restaurant games in which you have a limited time to put together dishes to satisfy your customers such as “Diner Dash”.
“Warung Chain” was created by local developer Touchten, which is also based in Jakarta. They previously produced the highly popular games “Ramen Chain” and “Target Acquired”.
In “Warung Chain”, you’ve got to quickly fulfill people’s orders by filling their plates with warung staples such as ayam goreng, tempe, ikan bakar and, of course, rice (always rice). In later levels you get to serve up more special treats, like martabak, to your customers, who range from hungry students to impatient police officers.
The game doesn’t do much to innovate the genre, and it also relies on the familiar hearts/coins system to limit the amount of time you can play to keep users hooked and hopefully get them to make in-app purchases.
But “Warung Chain” is extremely polished and well-produced. The controls work well, the graphics and animations are cute and it’s awesome to see Indonesian imagery rendered in Touchten’s unique cartoon style. It’s also plenty of fun in short bursts (though be careful, this game will definitely make you hungry).
Having been released just in early May, “Warung Chain” already seems to be doing quite well, judging by the 70,000 plus people who have already downloaded it on iOS and Android. We’ll definitely be playing it for a while, so if you’re wondering why we’re late with an update, that’s probably why.
