Bullet Appétit - Volume One

If there’s something everyone can agree on, it’s a universal love of food and video games.

Far and wide - whether there’s a Wi-Fi connection or not - humanity has always centered around these two happy moments: food and fun. Without one, life is unsustainable. Without the other, what would even be the point?

Building a game universe from scratch is hungry work. This is especially the case when it's set in an apocalyptic food scarce future where one might find themselves eating robots and other questionable substances to survive.

I love this meme, and you should too.

It goes without saying; a hungry dev is an unhappy dev. And after working on a project for three years, unhappy devs can get a bit well… ghoulish. There’s only so far you can go with an eating station and - as an indie game company - it’s not like we were rolling in the Uber Eats.

Be on the lookout for these helpful vending devices. They will produce foodstuffs upon activation, and can often bring a character back from the edge of ruin.

Three years of hard work, late nights, and voracious appetites, we’ve finally arrived. We’ve tested the strongest of stomachs, and it soon became clear that Chewy and Chewella weren’t the only ones with a mean bite. To avoid a mutiny, we started scraping the ends of the internet to find some food figureheads, in hopes they’d teach us how to satiate the voracious minds behind Bite the Bullet.

Actual footage of one of our devs. You do not want to mess with them when they are hangry.

Lucky for us, we crossed paths with some amazing foodies, chefs, and bloggers that shared our passion for food, and love for cooking. Once they heard we were surviving on Bawls and Cheetos on our Discord, they were happy to help us build a healthy, satisfying menu that inspires both the savvy kitchen hero as well as the basic beginner to roll their sleeves up, and learn to create food that nourishes the body and soul.

Writer, traveler, and artist: Casey Barber’s work has appeared on TODAY Food, The Kitchn, CNN Travel, DRAFT, and other national publications. She illustrated the book A is for Absinthe and has not one but TWO cats.

We love her already.

Favorite gaming memory: “As for my favorite gaming memory, I'm going to have to go with Balloon Fight, the most underrated original Nintendo game ever. I think my sister and I were the only ones who ever rented it from our local Blockbuster, but that was fine because it was constantly stuck in our console as we flip-flopped the little balloon-powered men across the screen.

Casey Barber’s Homemade Cheese Wiz

Adapted from Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats by Casey Barber
https://amzn.to/2tQZCZM

Casey Barber: “ Homemade Cheez Whiz for nachos, cheese fries or dipping can be made in 5 minutes without adding scary chemicals or preservatives. You're welcome.”

David Purdon is the owner and author of Belfast based food, home, and lifestyle website BakingBar. For the last ten years Baking Bar has provided simple, easy to follow recipes, reviews, and many featured articles.

Favorite Gaming Memory: “My favorite gaming memory was discovering the Sims, the original Sims when I got my first computer. Hours and hours of time were wasted building fantasy homes (with great kitchens of course!).”

David Purdon’s Banana Bread

David Purdon: “Banana bread is a firm favorite in our household and it is a lot simpler than most people think. The recipe is quick, simple and the results are just delicious! Pop the kettle on and enjoy a slice.”

America ex-pat and Chicago native, Carolyn Davenport-Moncel is a writer, entrepreneur, and Souper-in-Chief at Simply Souperlicious, a food recipe website, app and community devoted to converting veggie “haters” into veggie “lovers” – one local, seasonal, homemade soup at a time.

Favorite Gaming Memory: “My favorite memories always involve my kids’ very first interactions with gaming. For my son, it was sitting on my lap playing Age of Empires together on my PC when he was three years old. For my daughter, it was taking her to an arcade around the age of seven and watching her play Flight Simulator. While my son still loves gaming and plays Fortnight online with friends, it’s my daughter who remains the serious gamer in the house, and she’s just learning to code. She plays everything from 2D games to sports and open-world games. Some of her favorites include: The Long Dark, Red Dead Redemption 2, Witcher, This War of Mine, Life is Strange and Night in the Woods. These days, I just marvel when she plays, but I take pride in knowing that it started at the arcade.”

Grilled Pomodoro Tomato, Jalapeño, Avocado and Basil Soup

Carolyn Davenport-Moncel: “Sometimes, all you need is a quick soup! We found a winner in this grilled Pomodoro Tomato, Jalapeño, Avocado and Basil soup! If you have little ones, remove the pepper.  Pair this with a classic grilled cheese sandwich and what have you got? Magic!”

Emma Christensen is the Editor-in-Chief of Simply Recipes. She has over 10 years of experience creating food and cooking content for both web and print. She was formerly the recipe editor for The Kitchn and is the author of three books on home-brewing, True Brews, Brew Better Beer, and Modern Cider.

Favorite Gaming Memory: “My very first gaming memory is as a kid playing *all* the King's Quest games with my brother on our ginormous PC, and trying to resist as long as possible before looking in the cheat book.”

Emma Christensen’ Lessons on Tuna Melt & Tuna Salad

Emma Christensen: “Cooking yourself good food is so awesome. It can definitely seem like a chore, but I actually think it's pretty empowering. Combine ingredients! Add heat! Eat good food you made yourself! It also doesn't need to be complicated: quesadillas and English muffin melts are fast, easy, and delicious”

Dennis Littley is the talent behind Ask Chef Dennis. Food & Travel Blogger, Chef, Speaker, Brand Ambassador, Content Creator and Digital Strategist; Dennis is  eating his way around the World sharing his adventures & recipes!

Favorite Gaming Memory: I remember playing Frogger and Mousetrap until all hours of the night.  But my first video game memory was pong.  It was such a simple, silly game but we were amazed at how it worked.

Dennis’ Four Bean Beef and Beer Chili Recipe

Dennis Littley: “ Learning to cook is not difficult if you remember that recipes are guidelines.  You should enjoy spending time in the kitchen and if you cook what you like to eat your time will always be more enjoyable.”

David “Old Fat Guy” Farrell is a food blogger, host of a television cooking show, and an acknowledged expert on smoking meat. He had culinary training when he was young but left the industry. However, he never lost his love of food. When he retired, he started his food blog, starred in a community TV cooking show and published the Old Fat Guy’s Guide to Smoking Meat for Beginners. His second book for Pitmasters is in the works.

Favorite Gaming Memory: I am old enough I was around when Pon:g came out and had an Atari 400 computer. In those days, my favourite game was Zork. Now, my favourite games series is the Wolfenstein games.

David’s Cream Cheese Shrimp Rolls

David Farrel: “ I am a retired fat old guy who lives in the Canadian Rockies. I learned to cook in the navy and culinary school but left the industry to make more money in a government job. I continued cooking as a hobby and started my food blog, oldfatguy.ca when I retired seven years ago.”