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The Autumn of Appetite: Games to Satisfy Your Cravings

The Autumn of Appetite: Games to Satisfy Your Cravings

Stephanie Liu
September 18, 2026

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Image via The Rat Zone

Perhaps due to the lingering effects of its sakoku era or the enduring image of its utterly bizarre television shows and commercials, a lot of writing about Japan, from both foreigners and natives, focus on its unique philosophies and phrases. “Thing, Japan” is a joke for a reason, as people often take normal Japanese words and apply deep meanings to them. Lowkey, it does feel Orientalist, bringing to mind the stereotype of the “mystical, inscrutable East Asian concepts and philosophies that are unfathomable to the Western mind,” but that is a conversation for another day.

My point is that there are a lot of practices and phrases that may seem unique and specific to Japan, but it is a concept that’s applicable universally. Take our topic for this week’s newsletter: the Autumn of Appetite! In Japanese, it’s called shokuyoku no aki. A lot of Japanese food content creators that appear on my feed have been introducing their dishes or recipes with this phrase as we shift from summer to fall, and you might have heard it in passing as well online. But what is the Autumn of Appetite?

To put it simply, it’s a period of time when you have a much healthier appetite compared to before, and there are so many delicious seasonal dishes that you end up eating a lot. Hence, it’s the Autumn of Appetite. The summer heat can make people feel too tired or uncomfortable to eat a lot, thus you recover your appetite in the cooler months.

I’d say that it’s similar to how people think of autumn as the beginning of stew season (which you naturally make a lot of every time), and it’s a time of harvest, thus there are lots of ingredients that you wouldn’t normally see (or wouldn’t normally taste good) in the previous months. While we may not refer to all this as the Autumn of Appetite, the general ideas surrounding it are quite similar.

So, as the weather cools and the Autumn of Appetite arrives, how about some food-related games to play while huddled under a blanket and tucking into a bowl of soup or stew? Please note that these prices are in Canadian.

Cookard (Free)
An interesting take on a cooking game in which you run a restaurant by stacking cards. It can take a while to get the hang of it, but once you do, it’s pretty addicting.
Creature Kitchen ($10.49)
In Creature Kitchen, you can explore a mysterious forest and a strange house for ingredients, as well as cook for a myriad of cute critters. It’s a chill, relaxing game that takes under three hours to complete.
Eat Not, Want Not (Free)
A simple and free game on Itch where you’re starving but also deathly allergic to a specific ingredient that changes every playthrough. Your goal is to keep eating to prevent yourself from dying of starvation while keeping an eye on the suspiciously Willem Dafoe lookalike chef who might be out to kill you.
PlateUp! ($19.45 - regular price is $27.30)
This is less a cosy cooking game, and more a fun game with friends. It feels less stressful than Overcooked, and it’s fun to make decisions on your restaurant together. If you and your friends want something a bit more extreme, Happy’s Humble Burger Cult is really fun, too, and it’s also on sale until September 28, 2026.
Venba ($16.99)
Venba is a more narrative-focused cooking game. The story focuses on an Indian family that immigrated to Canada in the 1980s. Because of how much food ties into people’s identity, it can hit hard for those who had experience feeling isolated and different in a new country. If you’re interested in this story, but want to play something that’s a bit more like a traditional RPG, you can try out Thirsty Suitors.

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The Autumn of Appetite: Games to Satisfy Your Cravings

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