Nom Nation
Open the game- Brand
- Channel 4
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Playerthree
Objective
Channel 4 Education commissioned Nom Nation to reach 14- to 19-year-olds with lessons about food, nutrition and balanced eating — without resorting to lecture-style pop-ups. The broadcaster brought in nutritionist Dr Rebecca Lang of the Medical Research Council to keep the science behind every food accurate. To meet teenagers where they already were, the game launched simultaneously on the open web, iOS and PlayStation Network, including a spot among Miniclip's staff favourites.
Solution
Playing as Chef, you open on a world map and work through 11 levels across five worlds — a forest, fire caves, ice mountains, a candy world and a factory — to recover the stolen Book of Nom from Jabber the Gut. The core choice on every screen is what to eat: your stomach holds only two noms at a time, and each food group grants a different power, from punching through walls on protein to flying on gas after eating greens to sprinting on a sugar-and-energy-drink turbo. Overeating fast food packs on weight, which backfires into an asset — a heavier Chef falls through flimsy floors and tips weight-sensitive platforms. Three meters run throughout the level — energy, vitamins and a heart that clogs irreversibly with cholesterol from fatty food — and a session ends when any of them runs out or the level is cleared. Between runs, the Temple of Nom lets you browse every food you've unlocked and the trophies you've collected.
- 1
The player opens the game—on browser, iPhone/iPad, or PlayStation—and navigates a menu with directional controls, confirming with one button and cancelling with another.
- 2
The setup casts the player as a chef whose Book of Nom has been stolen by Jabber the Gut, head of the McFatass corporation; the goal is to recover its scattered pages. A world map lets the player choose among 11 levels spread across five themed worlds: a forest, fire caves, icy mountains, a candy world, and Jabber's factory.
- 3
Within a level, the player runs and jumps with directional controls, eats nearby food items (noms) with one button, and picks up or throws objects with another. A HUD tracks which noms are currently digesting (the stomach holds only two at once), the chef's heart-shaped health, and a vitality bar fed by vitamins.
- 4
Noms are grouped by food type, each granting a distinct temporary power: protein gives wall-breaking strength, greens produce a gas-powered flight boost, sweets and drinks trigger a speed dash, and vegetables restore energy. Energy constantly drains, so eating is a required resource loop rather than an optional bonus—left unchecked, the chef dies.
- 5
Eating two noms in succession blends their effects into a combined power, such as a gas-plus-strength mix that lets the chef lob fart bombs through brick walls, or two sweets triggering a vomit fountain. Noms can also be carried unconsumed and delivered to a spot elsewhere in the level where their effect is needed, forming the game's core puzzle.
- 6
Eating fast food visibly inflates the chef's body, letting him break through fragile floors and press down weight-sensitive platforms to reveal lower sections of the level; shedding that weight—by dancing to a boombox or petting a cat—lets him squeeze through narrow gaps, with an on-screen warning if he gets too thin. Each portion of fatty food also permanently chips away one quarter of a heart (fading from red to beige to black), and filling all four segments ends the run.
- 7
Small enemies called burnt bits patrol the levels; the player stuns them with a jump to the head, then picks them up and throws them into other enemies.
- 8
Alongside book pages, levels contain collectible rice grains as the game's currency. Finishing a level shows a summary screen tallying rice collected and any noms found for the first time, each paired with a short real-world nutrition fact.
- 9
A hub called the Temple of Nom is accessible at any time, displaying every nom and trophy the player has found; four hidden rooms there let the player sample foods and observe their effects without risk.
- 10
The final two levels sharply raise the difficulty, adding circular saws, spiked walls, underwater mines, and instant-death pits en route to the factory from which Jabber floods the country with fast food.
