This thesis project focuses on the practices of eating and play as I explore using food as a material for interaction design through the context of an analog game. Using the action of eating as the main mechanic, participants of my research project are subject to sensations that can only be explored by eating such as taste, hunger, and satiation. The goal is to create a game where food and its consumption can not be substituted with any other action, sense, or material. Through design based research and a playcentric design process I playtest three experiments of which include two mods. Following that I create an original puzzle game and its iteration with two groups in efforts to demonstrate the affordances of different food materials in games. Finally, I assess my process and games through game studies principles such as the MDA framework, the criteria of design based research, and finally propose a program in design research called Interactive Eating Design.

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“Comfort Food – Comfortable for Who?” – Questions the true comfort of our eating habits, critically addressing our prevalent unsustainable animal-based food cultures by exploring genuine comfort food through design. In my process I have researched why our eating habits are so hard to change, from our psychological attachment to meat to the patriarchal foundation of our food cultures. By exploring the medium of food and cooking as design practice, I have encountered how essential the element of comfort is to human’s eating experience. Resulting in an approach to plant-based eating where the essential comfort factors of our food cultures meet the beyond-human comfort needs.

This research proposes the exploration of intertwining eating and playing in social eating situations. Play theory and literature research in related fields build the theoretical background for exploring how play can unfold in different eating situations. Ethnography, Research through Design and the playcentric design approach are the chosen methods for the practical exploration of the design space. There emerged two sets of experiments. The first set of experiments is concerned with provoking playfulness in different eating situations. The second set of experiments is based on Caillois four types of games and uses flavor as a game design material. Findings suggest further research in the underexplored field and show first ideas on how to intertwine eating and playing through two flavor exploration games.