Bullet Appétit - Volume Five
The whole is greater than the part, and a video game is all about immersion. A video game is more than just code.It is its story, its art, sound design, gameplay, its localization, its challenges. To create a great game, each of these pieces have to come together in harmony.
Without question, it’s the same with any great recipe. It’s not just about the recipe, but the quality of ingredients, the effort behind the making, and the passion to create something delicious.
When we began working on Bite The Bullet, we wanted to pay homage to great games of the past while incorporating modern game design and polish that our fans would love. The world-building and game mechanics are all built around eating. Expressing our universal love for food and elevating the beloved retro feel we’ve come to be known by was fulfilling as it comes for our team.
We also understood that we were in a fantastic position to affect change, which led us to partner with Feeding America. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment has soared and food insecurity is on the rise. In 2020 more than 54.3 million people may face hunger because of coronavirus. In the apocalyptic universe we created in Bite the Bullet, we couldn’t help but see the parallels, and set off to rally our fans and partners to come together to make an impact.
The intersection of food and gaming culture has more in common than we’d ever imagined. Throughout our journey, we met so many amazing brands that took the same level of passion into their domain to create something shareable and delicious to bring happiness the world over.
We cordially invite you to come meet some of the fantastic food purveyors and tasty treat artisans that also shared our vision, mission and palette.
5 Generations Baker
Scott Baker is President and founder of 5 Generation Bakers. He oversees a young but rapidly growing company that manufactures gourmet cinnamon swirl breads for retail and food service outlets. Locally the bread is marketed under the Jenny Lee brand name. As the name of the new bakery implies, Scott is the 5th generation of the Baker family in the baking business.
When Jenny Lee Bakery closed a few months shy of its 70th anniversary in 2008, Scott’s first move was to secure the trademark rights to the Jenny Lee brand name and soon began creating a business plan for his new bakery. Nearly 2 years later,, he fired the ovens up once again. Since then, 5 Generation Bakers has reached customers in over 4500 supermarkets, retailers, restaurants and food service operators from Chicago to the East Coast, France, Japan and Trinidad! Throughout Scott’s business career, he has been very involved with the community. Scott founded the Run Your Rox Off 5K in 2009 which has raised tens of thousands of dollars while creating a popular community event that attracts hundreds of runners and spectators to McKees Rocks annually. He has been recognized and awarded for his volunteer efforts by Rotary and the University of Pittsburgh and has been involved with many other charities and fundraising events.
Favorite Gaming Memory: ”I remember reading (I think) PC World Magazine in 1988 and creating some Olympic programs on my TI-99. There was a running game, a pole vaulting game and I think hurdles. I got pretty fast at toggling two buttons back and forth very rapidly!!”
Scott’s Cinnamon Swirl Bread French Toast
Scott Baker: “People eat every day. It’s one of the few things that we can do for both necessity and for pure joy. Learning to cook allows a person to control and fulfill both. This is the recipe that made our cinnamon swirl breads famous!”
Onesto
Onesto means "honest" in Italian. After having children, Jane Ciccone and her husband, Jesse wanted to continue the same Italian tradition they both grew up with: gathering in the kitchen as a family around 5 o’clock and sharing an antipasti platter before dinner. However, their young daughter at the time seemed allergic to gluten. Rather than give up the delicious combination of crackers, cheese, olives and roasted veggies, Jane began searching for gluten-free crackers that her daughter could eat. Discouraged at the amount of overly-processed and preservative-filled options on most grocery store shelves, Jane began tinkering with her own recipes and promised to never use less than honest ingredients.
Favorite Gaming Memory: “Playing Frogger in my living room on Christmas morning after BEGGING my parents for Atari (yes, I am totally dating myself!).“
Jane’s Onesto Cookies and Crackers Guide
Jane Ciccone: "There is nothing else that can nourish your body and soul more than sharing delicious, healthy food (that you cooked) with your family and friends. It doesn't have to be fancy or overly complicated. Just sharing your love of others through food speaks volumes."
The Happy Vegan
Sharon Gregory adopted a vegan and gluten-free lifestyle in February, 2014 after a shocking Big “C” (cancer) diagnosis in January, 2014. She learned that she could help herself by taking better control of her health through a lifestyle transformation. After some fun kitchen-time, she began to realize how amazingly delicious this lifestyle could be…not to mention how fantastic it made her feel!
This led to the creation of her company, The Happy Vegan, LLC that initially focused on education and cooking demos for plant based foods. Throughout this journey, she realized that transitioning to a plant based diet was easier than anticipated, EXCEPT giving up cheese!
When she was unable to find a dairy-free cheese sauce product in the local stores, she was inspired to create her own. The challenge to create something that was nutritious, uber-delicious and had an amazing “cheesy” flavor resulted in the unique product, Notcho Nocheez™.
Favorite Gaming Memory: “In 1977 Atari hit the market and I can remember sitting for hours playing the binary-looking game with my brother; shortly followed by my addiction, and near mastery of Pac-Man!”
Sharon’s Chocolate Power Balls
Sharon Gregory: “ Cooking at home can be super simple, healthier, and actually a bit fun! When you cook at home not only do you control what is in your food, you can have a sense of accomplishment for making a nutritious meal or snack and even save some money! Here’s a delicious chocolate power ball snack that takes only 7 ingredients and 5 minutes to create the perfect blend of nutrition and taste to keep your energy while playing even the most intense games! These are definitely a gaming-friendly snack!"