PlateUp! is a fun multiplayer restaurant “simulator”. It has a lot of similarities with the wonderful Overcooked in that there’s always too more to do than time and over time, chaos ensues. It does take a more realistic approach too and focuses on purchasing upgrades and setting up your kitchen where as Overcooked throws you into impossibly wacky situations.
What’s common with both is that you need to learn how to communicate effectively and fast with your teammates if you want to survive in the business and you need to be able to improvise and pick up roles that belong to nobody or everything will go bad real fast.
The progression of difficult is very kind. It starts simple with a single steak option and slow intake of customers but quite quickly it starts to pick up with extra meal options and additional stuff. Like they say in Factorio land: restaurant must grow.
A fun part of the game is that eventually, you start to purchase items that help you automate things and eventually, you are able to build completely autonomous restaurants and you can sit and watch as the money pours in.
As I’m getting bit desperate with my Helmet Gaming Challenge 2026, I chose that a friendship with a colleague is friendship enough to get on the list. The real friendships are the ones forged while playing the game. I think both PlateUp! and Overcooked are great games to play with your team, if you want to quickly get to know each other and learn how to collaborate effectively. Plus they are a lot of fun.