Venba on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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Venba is a short narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations, and explore South Indian food in this story about family, love, and loss.

Venba is a cooking, casual and narrative game developed and published by Visai Games.
Released on July 31st 2023 is available in English on Windows and MacOS.

It has received 2,577 reviews of which 2,379 were positive and 198 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.8 out of 10. 😎

The game is currently priced at 14.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.

The Steam community has classified Venba into these genres:

Cooking Casual Narrative Puzzle Female Protagonist Stylized 1980s Emotional Conversation Cinematic Interactive Fiction Visual Novel Indie Story Rich Choices Matter Soundtrack Atmospheric Crafting Hand-drawn Exploration

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Venba through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

OS *: Windows 7 Service Pack 1
Processor: 1.8 GHz or faster processor
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Direct X 9.0c compatible video card
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 4 GB available space
Sound Card: Any

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Jan. 2026

A touching, though very ordinary, little story about a family of immigrants. There's not much gameplay, and it's very short (about an hour and a half to finish), but very well made. I wouldn't get it at full price though.

Nov. 2025

More interactive story than a cooking game. Not a whole lot to it, sad story that you should probably experience yourself. The art style is beautiful, music is lovely, the food looks absolutely delicious and made me want to try every dish! Worth a play through when on sale (currently 60% off right now 11/22).

Nov. 2025

This game made me sad, and now I need to call my mom. Zero stars. ... This is far more of an interactive story than a cooking game. Go play Overcooked or Cooking Mama if you're looking for frantic kitchen action. This is not that game. ... It seems to me this was a very personal game for the developer, but while the individual events may have been unique so many of the beats and emotions are universal. The connections we develop with our family through food, the shame and regret of our mistakes, the desire to fit in as an outsider to a new place. I played this game with my 6-year old son, and as a parent and child it strongly resonated with me. ... On to the gameplay itself, pros first: -I love the use of music for each segment, and as the game progressed I couldn't help but get excited when I saw the radio turn on -I love the art and the slow reveal of the family history driving the story -If there were such a thing as Smell-o-Vision, this game would be 10/10 -Love that actual recipies are included at the end. I could really go for a dosa right now... And the cons: -It's definitely short (<4 hours to complete for me), but the price (I bought on sale) was absolutely reasonable -I would have appreciated more cooking gametime, but as noted above this is far more story than game -As it is so story-heavy, it would have been nice to have more dialogue branches instead of just pressing "A" repeatedly. ... Overall, I loved this game and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys cozy games with low stakes, low frustration, beautiful art, and a strong story. Like humans, games come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors and there's no universally "good" or "bad" game - just a game that you enjoy playing. I enjoyed playing this game, and that's what matters to me.

July 2025

beautiful game that made me tear up :') not indian but as a second-gen american this had me thinking about my own parents. short but lovely story

June 2025

This is what indie games are for – a work of pure love, passion and heart. In only 100 minutes of playtime, Venba achieves easily what AAA blockbuster titles can’t in 100 hours – a cast of sympathetic, well-written and fleshed-out characters, an emotionally resonating story, important and well thought-out themes and a fresh and unique perspective on life from a cultural background that we so rarely get to explore in video games. I say rarely but I mean… is there any other video game out there depicting the Tamil culture in any way? I gotta be honest with you and, knowing full well that I am betraying my own ignorance here, I’ll admit that I had no idea Tamil culture was even a thing. I didn’t know about this ethnic group at all, their language, history and values. When a game makes you look up information about something on Wikipedia to deepen your understanding of the world, it has done something right, hasn’t it? Venba taught me not only about the Tamil people but also about the significance of food. The process of cooking and sharing meals goes way beyond providing sustenance. Food bears cultural meaning, it connects people with their ancestors, with their history and personal memories. It’s part of one’s identity too. Identity is a core theme of Venba. The story about two Indian immigrants who move to Canada in the 1980s to seek their fortune and provide a better life for their child, is a tale about values, personal development, and cultural roots. It touches on so many aspects that immigrants are confronted with on a daily basis to this day. The story of Paavalan, the father of the family, really got to me. The way he is treated at work, his name being spelled “Pavluhn” and the fact that he had to give up writing to pursue a “career” in sales really made me feel for him. That moment with him on the park bench… I felt that, man, I felt that so hard. I love how the game makes you adopt different perspectives on the same things throughout its relatively short runtime. As you play as the mother, Venba, for the majority of the game, you also perceive the world through her eyes and empathize with her. When she tries to teach her son the Tamil language or encourages him to try Tamil food and he rebels against that, you’re completely on her side and cannot understand the behavior of her son, Kavin. Later in the game though, you take control of Kavin and he opens up about how he always felt pressured by his parents, how he always felt like a tourist and never like his own person and how even the smell of Tamil food made him nauseous. All of a sudden you understand that he wasn’t just an ungrateful little brat but had his own, very understandable reasons to behave the way he did. It's moments like these where the quality of the writing really shines through. This story feels authentic because it is. Nothing in this game is over-dramatized for cheap effect, every character feels like an actual person behaving naturally. This sounds simple but it’s really not. Writing believable characters that players empathize with but who also have flaws and problematic views is a feat only few writers can pull off. I wasn’t only enamored with the writing alone. The audiovisual presentation and interface design of Venba are stellar. This watercolor-meets-paper-cutout look is so gorgeous and unique, I immediately fell in love with it. This game is colorful, beautiful, readable and the music [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEyPQ8Xb35k]absolutely fuckin [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpqCu-Cau30]slaps . When the credits rolled, I saw they had a UX designer on the team which is not super common for small indie studios but it absolutely shows. The developers put their resources exactly where they needed to be. Venba is a very short game and it is a mechanically simple game. You spend most of your time reading text and occasionally start cooking meals based on a rough outline of a recipe where you have to fill in the blanks and improvise a bit. On a purely game-mechanics level, this is not really super engaging. For me, it doesn’t need to be. At its core, Venba is a narrative game about life as an immigrant and the importance of food as a cultural entity. It’s about human connections, the burdens of life and the sacrifices we make in pursuit of happiness. It’s a game about perspectives, about growth and letting go and it’s a one-of-a-kind experience that will stay with me for a long time.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Venba is currently priced at 14.99€ on Steam.

Venba is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 14.99€ on Steam.

Venba received 2,379 positive votes out of a total of 2,577 achieving a rating of 8.83.

😎

Venba was developed and published by Visai Games.

Venba is playable and fully supported on Windows.

Venba is playable and fully supported on MacOS.

Venba is not playable on Linux.

Venba is a single-player game.

There is a DLC available for Venba. Explore additional content available for Venba on Steam.

Venba does not support mods via Steam Workshop.

Venba does not support Steam Remote Play.

Venba is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.

You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Venba.

Data sources

The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.

Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates

Steam data	23 January 2026 22:35
SteamSpy data	28 January 2026 03:01
Steam price	28 January 2026 20:48
Steam reviews	28 January 2026 04:00

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