The Cupbearer

The First Smell Based Video Game. The Cupbearer is a scent-driven puzzle game where you must protect a medieval king from assassination using nothing but your nose.

The Cupbearer GDD: The Cupbearer GDD

My Contributions

1 / 3

I created our tutorial system which includes our dialogue system I also created using scriptable objects and my voice acting skills.

2 / 3

I wrote all the dialogue in the Cupbearer, which features a fantasy murder mystery plotline. I then created all systems related to dialogue in our game, which will be used throughout all 4 chapters. On top of this, I voiced all 6 characters which was a very fun challenge to tackle.

3 / 3

As our frontend developer, almost everything shown on screen was assembled by me, including UI design, lighting, particles, post processing, and scent descriptors.

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Role: Game Designer, QA Engineer, Programmer, Voice Actor, and Sound Designer
Tools: Unity 2D, Visual Studio, Jira, Audacity


Key Takeaways:
This game was initially made in a weekend for the Global Game Jam 2026, which featured the OVR Omara scent display as an optional diversifier. When I learned that this revolutionary scent technology would be in my hands, the gears got turning instantly as I designed this game to be the first of its kind to be a game centered ENTIRELY on scent. OVR loved our game and we got to showcase it at PAX East 2026. The game is also launching with their kickstarter for their device. We worked hard over the course of a month to polish our game, add a storyline, and refine scent mechanics before our PAX showcase.

The Cupbearer is a scent-driven puzzle game where you must protect a medieval king from assassination using nothing but your nose. You play as the king’s expendable cupbearer, tasked with smelling every drink before it reaches the royal lips. With the help of OVR’s Omara Scent Display, players physically sniff scents released during gameplay to identify poison hidden within the king’s chalice. One mistake means death—either for the king, or for you.

This was a very QA heavy development cycle, as we were not only testing our gameplay but also how it worked with the Omara device. I worked very meticulously to test every single scent combination and make sure the right scent was released at the right time. I kept track of all our bugs in Jira, communcated with OVR to troubleshoot issues with the device, and tracked which scents were most distinguishable to our playtesters.