Dead Plate

What is Dead Plate?

Dead Plate is a short, story-rich indie horror game about work, hunger, obsession, and the terrible things people do in the name of love. You play Rody Lamoree, a lively waiter who takes a temporary job at La Gueule de Saturne, a high-end bistro owned by the successful and unsettling chef Vincent Charbonneau.

At first the job looks simple: seat customers, take orders, deliver meals, clean tables, collect tips and survive the rush. Then the restaurant starts to feel wrong.

The game blends classic restaurant management pressure with visual novel storytelling, point-and-click exploration and compact RPG horror design. It is not a long game, but it is dense: every shift, conversation, room, menu item and ending adds another piece to the story.

The story

Rody Lamoree needs money. After a breakup with Manon, he takes a waiter position at La Gueule de Saturne, hoping a single week of work will earn enough for the kind of dinner that might fix things. He is energetic, awkward and painfully devoted - and he keeps reaching for a relationship that may already be gone.

Vincent Charbonneau owns the bistro. To customers he is a charismatic chef; to employees he is blunt, exacting and difficult to read. His restaurant is elegant, but the elegance has a sterile edge.

Across seven days, the distance between Rody’s hope and Vincent’s private fixation closes. The more Rody works, the more the restaurant stops behaving like a workplace and starts feeling like a trap.

Core actions during a shift

• Seat customers at the correct tables
• Take orders when menus go down
• Deliver tickets to the kitchen
• Pick up finished dishes from the service window
• Serve every course before patience runs out
• Answer customer questions when needed
• Check out and clean tables for the next rush
• Take out the trash when plates can no longer be cleared
• Spend tips on useful items from Rody’s apartment catalogue

Between shifts, the game becomes more exploratory: inspect objects, talk to Vincent, notice changes in the environment and make choices that decide which ending becomes available. The goal is never to simulate a restaurant in depth - it is to make you feel the rhythm and exhaustion of service work while the story quietly turns hostile.

Endings and replayability

Dead Plate has four endings. The first can be reached by completing the week normally. The others require more attention: specific conversations, optional interactions and key choices open the path to the deeper story.

The endings are not just alternate outcomes - they reframe the story. A first playthrough gives the shape of the week; later routes expose the machinery behind it. For the strongest first experience, play once without a guide, then replay with the ending requirements in mind.

The world of Dead Plate

Dead Plate is set in a heightened version of late-1960s France, built less for realism than for mood. The background gives the game its refined surface: a formal bistro, strict service expectations, elegant dishes and a chef whose reputation matters.

That polish is essential, because the horror depends on contrast. The restaurant is controlled, but the emotions underneath it are not. The food is beautifully prepared, but the motives behind it are grotesque. Expressive character art, detailed maps and BellKalengar’s score make the game feel far bigger than its runtime.

Before you download

Dead Plate contains mature horror content. It is best suited to players comfortable with psychological horror, violent implications and dark character themes. It is a horror game first, even when it looks like a stylish bistro drama.

It is not recommended for anyone looking for a cozy restaurant management game, a pure romance story or a light cooking experience.

Tips for new players

A blind first run is the best way to play, but a few habits make the early shifts much smoother:

• Face an object or person before you try to interact with it
• If an interaction does not work, adjust Rody’s direction and position
• Watch each customer’s patience closely during a rush
• Collect several orders before returning to the kitchen
• Check whether the trash is full so you can keep clearing plates
• Buy helpful catalogue items - cologne, skates, a watch - when you can afford them
• Treat optional dialogue as important: it shapes which endings open up
• Save when possible before major decisions
• Expect later days to be far more demanding than the first

Step behind the counter

Take the temporary waiter job. Serve the guests. Earn the tips. Watch the chef. Check the freezer. Dead Plate is a free, name-your-own-price download for Windows and macOS.