---
title: "Cooking stations and counter"
package: "@phaser-ae/cooking-counter"
tier: Pro
version: 3.0.0-6
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-20
description: "The rules of a time-management cooking game, with stations that cook and burn, dishes built on plates in order, and customers at a counter who will not wait for ever."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/cooking-counter
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Cooking stations and counter

The rules of a time-management cooking game at a counter, in the style of Cooking Fever. Stations cook and burn,
plates are built up layer by layer, and customers wait with dwindling patience. The kitchen is data and the pack
draws nothing, so your game supplies the art.

## What it does

`createKitchen` opens a kitchen and its shift. Customers, from the `customers` pack, take free places at the counter
by themselves, order as they reach it, and pay as their last dish is served. Your game turns the player's clicks into
four actions: `cook` starts something in a free slot of a station, `toPlate` moves an ingredient from a bin or a
cooked slot onto a plate, `serve` hands a finished plate or a ready item to a waiting customer, and `trash` throws
away a plate's stack or a burnt slot.

Stations are where the pressure comes from. Each cooks one thing per slot for a set time. Some burn what is left in
the slot too long; some pass what they make on to a holder of a few, freeing the slot, the way fries go to a tray;
some start again by themselves while there is room. A dish is either one thing served as it is, fries or a cola, or a
stack built on a plate in order, a bun, a patty, then cheese. The kitchen only accepts what makes a plate's stack the
start of some dish, so a wrong ingredient is refused rather than quietly ruining an order.

`step` advances the shift and `drain` returns what happened: `cook`, `cooked`, `burnt`, `plate` with the dish it
makes, `trash`, and the customers' own arrivals, lost hearts, payments and the end of the shift. `view` gives copies
of everything to draw, `snapshot` and `restore` save the whole kitchen as plain JSON, and
`createKitchenAutopilot` is a cook that always does the most urgent thing.

## Features

- **Stations with slots** — each makes one thing, several at once, in a set time.
- **Burning** — a cooked item left past its time burns and must be thrown away.
- **Holders and self-running stations** — output that moves to a tray or rack, and machines that restart on their
  own.
- **Bins** — ingredients ready at once, with no cooking.
- **Dishes built in order** — a base and layers on a plate, or a single item served as it is, with prices and how
  often each is ordered.
- **Plates that refuse mistakes** — only stacks that can still become a dish are allowed.
- **Customers at a counter** — patience in hearts, orders, payment and the shift's goal, from `customers`.
- **Two kitchens built in** — a burger joint and a café.
- **A cook autopilot** — throws out what burnt, serves the least patient, builds plates and keeps stations busy.
- **Validation and saves** — `validateKitchen` lists every fault, and `snapshot` and `restore` save as JSON.

## Good for

- **Burger and fast-food counters** — a grill that burns, a fryer and a drinks machine, with stacked burgers.
- **Coffee shops and cafés** — espresso and steamed milk built into cups, cakes from the oven.
- **Time-management cooking sagas** — a new kitchen per level, with more stations, slots and dishes.
- **Casual mobile games** — tap a station, tap a plate, tap a customer.
- **Attract modes and balancing** — the autopilot plays whole shifts to show the game and test its difficulty.

## Make it yours

A kitchen is `{ stations, bins, dishes }`. Each station names what it makes, its slots, its cooking time, and
optionally a burn time, a holder size and whether it runs by itself. Each dish has a price, a weight for how often it
is ordered, and either a single item or a base and layers. The options choose the kitchen, the number of plates, the
places at the counter and a seed, and `service` passes the customers' options through: guest kinds, arrivals, shift
length and the money goal.

The built-in burger joint is a grill of four slots that burns, a fryer with a tray, a self-running soda machine, and
bins of buns, cheese, lettuce and tomato for five dishes up to a four-layer deluxe. The café is a different game on
the same rules: an espresso machine and a milk steamer that both burn, an oven with a holder, and cups built up into
espresso, latte and mocha. A sandwich bar or a juice stand would be new data, not new code.

## A quick look

A burger joint with three plates and four places, and a burger made and served:

```ts
const k = game.cookingCounter.create({ kitchen: game.cookingCounter.burger, plates: 3, spots: 4 });
k.cook('grill');
k.toPlate(0, { bin: 'bun' });
k.toPlate(0, { station: 'grill' });   // once the patty is cooked
k.serve(partyId, { plate: 0 });
```

## Works with

- `customers` — required; the guests, their orders, patience and money.
- `walk-serve` — for a server walking round a dining room rather than cooking at a counter.
- `tween` and `particles-2d` — to animate the cooking, the plates and the happy or angry customers.

## Good to know

- One cook's hands: every action happens at once where the player clicks, with no walking between stations.
- Ingredients never run out, and upgrades and several counters are not modelled.
- The pack draws nothing; your game presents the stations, plates and customers from its state and events.

---

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