Sushi on Wheels is a new cozy game by indie developer Greene Rapture, where players start up a life in Japan to run a food truck.
The game is set to release on PC via Steam in November of 2026, but ahead of its launch we here at Netto's Game Room were given the chance to speak with the developer Neil to learn more about the title.
Hello, my name is Ben and I'm one of the co-founders of Netto's Game Room! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me about your new project. Before we begin, could you let our readers know a little more about yourself?
My name is Neil, I’m 29, and I’m a game developer from Ireland. I’ve been making games for about six years now, and Sushi On Wheels will be the second game I’ve released.
I originally got into the industry as a 3D prop artist, then moved into character art, technical art and eventually art lead roles at different indie studios. I’ve always made my own games alongside that work, though, and over time I found myself wanting to put more and more of my energy into my own projects.
Sushi On Wheels is a game that was actually inspired by your time living in Japan. One of our writers here, Sagi, actually lives there part time! But putting that aside, how would you describe your own experience in Japan, and what region were you located in?
I loved my time in Japan. I was living in Tokyo, in an area called Otsuka, which I absolutely loved and would happily go back to.
I also tried to travel around as much as I could while I was there. I visited places around Fuji and the Izu Peninsula, and travelled further down to places like Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima, Itsukushima and Kyoto.
It was a really refreshing experience. There was constantly something new to see or do, whether that was the history, the food, the different communities or just meeting people. Even traveling a relatively short distance could give you a completely different experience of the country, which was something I found really interesting.
For your game, you chose to use the Izu Peninsula itself rather than creating a fictional setting inspired by it. Why is that, and what challenges did you encounter while attempting to bring it to life?
I really wanted to use Izu because the area had so much character when I visited it. Once you leave somewhere like Tokyo, the atmosphere in a lot of the smaller towns changes quite dramatically. Some places are quieter and a little more worn down, and you can see the effects of younger people moving towards the major cities for work.
I thought that could make for an interesting setting for a game where you're travelling between these communities and, in a small way, bringing some activity back into them.
The difficult part has been deciding where the line is between representing the real place and creating something fictional. The game isn't a one-to-one recreation of Izu, so I've had to work out what geography I can change while still making the area feel recognisable.
One of the ways I've approached that is through the landmarks. There are some amazing places around the peninsula, so a lot of the locations where you sell sushi are based around those landmarks. It gives players a reason to travel around and hopefully lets some of the character of the real area come through.
Before beginning development on Sushi On Wheels, you worked as a technical artist on multiple indie projects. What projects have you previously worked on, and what made you decide to become a solo developer instead?
A lot of the indie projects I've worked on actually never made it to release, which is probably a fairly familiar story for people who have worked in indie development. I've worked across a number of projects in different stages of production, including some that received crowdfunding and others that were never publicly announced.
Some of the work I can point to includes working on the VR platform ENGAGE, some work on the upcoming War and Wheels, and my own previous game, Knights of the Parking Lot.
That experience was actually a big part of why I wanted to try developing something on my own. I was always making my own games alongside my studio work, and I found myself increasingly interested in the bigger decisions that determine whether a project works, the scope, design, art direction and overall direction of the game, rather than only being responsible for one part of it.
After putting a lot of time into projects where I ultimately didn't have much control over where they ended up, I wanted to see what would happen if I took responsibility for the whole thing myself. With Sushi On Wheels, I get to make those decisions and steer the project from beginning to end, which was something I'd wanted to try for a long time.
What was your main inspiration behind Sushi On Wheels' art style?
It's a mixture of quite a few things. Games like LittleBigPlanet were definitely an influence, alongside cozy games like Coffee Caravan, Lemon Cake and Animal Crossing.
The main idea I had in my head, though, was that it should almost feel like you're a kid looking down at a playset. The world is made up of these little toy-like models, the animals have this soft knitted appearance, and the camera looks down over everything almost as though you're playing with the characters and imagining their little lives.
Films have obviously influenced it as well. Things like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service are always going to creep into how I think about colour palettes and environments when making something cozy.
When it comes to the gameplay itself, the title is a cozy management game where you run a food truck. Can you tell us a little about the core gameplay? Also, why did you choose a food truck as the main focus, rather than following traditional "cozy" gameplay mechanics such as farming?
There are definitely games that involve sushi, but I hadn't seen as many games really focused on the process of making it yourself while also running this small mobile business.
The food truck was important because it means you're not stuck in one location. You're buying your ingredients, preparing everything, making sushi, serving customers and managing the business, but then you can pack up and travel somewhere completely different.
That opened the game up quite a bit. You're decorating the truck, keeping it clean, improving your equipment and gradually gaining access to new places around Izu.
I also saw quite a lot of food trucks while I was living in Japan, particularly around events and public gathering places. Sushi trucks themselves obviously aren't something you see everywhere, but I liked taking that culture and doing something slightly fictional with it.
As for farming, I think there are already so many developers making fantastic farming games that I didn't feel like I had anything particularly new to add to that. I'm sure somebody will come along with another brilliant way of reinventing farming in a cozy game, I just don't think that person is me!
A traveling sushi truck was something where I immediately had a much clearer idea of what I could do differently.
As a cozy game, can we expect to see any social aspects?
There isn't multiplayer, but there is a social side to the world and the other food vendors you meet.
Festivals are a big part of that. You'll meet other vendors there, talk to them and see how they're getting on, and some of the way they react to you changes as your reputation grows.
One little mechanic I really like is that you can actually buy and eat the food the other vendors make, and doing that gives your character Inspiration that can eventually be used towards improving your own abilities.
I liked that idea because it's something I experience myself when making games. Sometimes I'll play somebody else's game or see something another developer has made and it gives me this huge burst of motivation to go back and work on my own project. I wanted to turn that feeling into an actual mechanic.
What about other activities? Is there anything additional that players can partake in outside of "work?"
The game is definitely still centered around running the business, but there are other things you can do.
There's fishing, for example, which has its own little minigame. It can also be useful if you've run low on fish or money and need another way of getting yourself going again.
You can spend time talking to the other vendors, eating their food and exploring the different locations as well. Some of the landmarks aren't just backgrounds, if you travel somewhere like Mount Omuro, for example, I wanted you to actually be able to go up and see it.
There's also a player home and some smaller activities there, so there are opportunities to switch off from running the truck for a while. That said, I'm making a management game, so I won't pretend you don't spend quite a lot of your time working!
One key feature many fans love about this style of game is the customization aspect. Will players be able to modify their Food Truck or character? And if so, how does it work, and how much freedom will we have?
Absolutely. The food truck has quite a bit of customization.
You can change its colours, patterns and wheels, as well as buy different decorations and generally make it feel like your own little sushi truck rather than everyone ending up with exactly the same one.
The player character can also collect and equip different outfits, so there's customization on that side as well.
I wanted both of them to give the player something visual to work towards alongside all of the practical upgrades they're making to the business.
The game is set to release in November of 2026, which is surprisingly less than a few months away. I'm sure at this stage in development everything is being finalized, but do you have any post launch plans currently lined up? Maybe new features?
I have plenty of ideas, but I'm trying not to promise specific features before the game is actually out.
The thing that interests me most for post-launch content would probably be expanding the places you can visit. There are so many interesting parts of Japan that could work with the structure of the game and give you completely different scenery, food and landmarks to experience.
And who knows, maybe the sushi truck eventually ends up somewhere in Ireland!
For now, though, the priority is making the base game as good as I can before November.
When you started development, I'm sure you already had a general vision for how the game would go, but was there ever a moment where things progressed in an unexpected way?
Surprisingly, the overall game has stayed quite close to what I originally pictured.
When I come up with a game, I tend to have a fairly strong image of it in my head. I can almost play a version of it mentally, so a lot of development has been trying to translate that thing I can see in my head into Unreal and gradually watching it become real.
Where it has changed is in the smaller ideas that appear along the way.
Being able to eat the other vendors' food and gain Inspiration from it wasn't originally part of the design, for example. The player having their own home and being able to do little self care activities there wasn't part of the original idea either.
So there hasn't been one enormous pivot, but there have been lots of smaller additions that have given the game more personality than I initially expected.
Putting aside the Food Truck aspect, compared to other cozy games, what would you say makes Sushi On Wheels stand out among the others?
I think it's probably the combination of its setting, art style and the fact that the business itself is mobile.
Visually, I'm trying to make the game feel like this little tilt-shifted toy world full of knitted animals and miniature environments, which gives it quite a distinctive look.
But I also think travelling around a real region of Japan changes the feeling of the usual cozy management loop. You're not building one farm or one restaurant and staying there for the entire game. Your sushi truck is your business, and you're taking it with you as you travel from place to place.
That means the management side, the hands on sushi making and the exploration of Izu all feed into each other. Hopefully that combination gives Sushi On Wheels its own little identity rather than simply being another cozy game with sushi added on top.
Has working on the game made you miss Japan, or do you find comfort in being able to return to your own representation of it?
It has made me miss Japan like crazy.
Although the funny thing is that when I was actually living in Japan, I missed Ireland a lot too, so apparently I'm impossible to please!
There is definitely something comforting about being able to go back into my own little version of Japan every day while I'm working. At the same time, because I loved my experience there so much, there's also a bit of pressure I put on myself to do the place justice.
Obviously it's my interpretation rather than a perfect recreation of Japan, but I want it to feel like it was made by somebody who genuinely loved being there.
Is there anything else you'd like our readers to know about Sushi On Wheels?
Probably that Sushi On Wheels is quite a personal game for me.
A lot of it has come from things I enjoyed while travelling around Japan, the food, the scenery, the smaller towns, the festivals and just the experience of discovering places I hadn't seen before.
Underneath all of the management mechanics, that's probably the feeling I'm trying to recreate. I want playing it to feel a little bit like going on a tiny holiday: travelling somewhere new, eating some good food, meeting some strange little characters and hopefully coming away feeling a bit happier than when you started.
And finally, we like to end things on a "for fun question." In this case, what is your own personal favorite cozy game?
This is incredibly difficult because there are so many.
I love Minami Lane, Coffee Caravan and Tiny Bookshop. There are also games that aren't necessarily marketed as cozy that I personally find incredibly relaxing, Cairn is a good example of that.
But if I have to pick one, it's probably Minecraft, specifically Minecraft with the Farmer's Delight mod and a good shader pack.
There's something about just building a little house, farming, cooking food and slowly creating your own place in that game that's basically the perfect cozy experience for me.
I can completely imagine still playing Minecraft when I'm 80, so I think it probably has to win.
I'd like to once again thank Neil for taking the time to speak with us, and for those who are interested in checking out Sushi On Wheels, you can head over to the Steam Page to wishlist the game today.
And for more exclusive interviews like this, you can head over to our Interview Page!
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