In Octodad, the player is in control of an octopus posing as a human man with a normal, human family. The gameplay largely revolves around the balance of keeping this charade alive while completing household chores, and evading wife, Scarlet's, increasing suspicion of her husband's strange behaviour. The antagonist of the game is a manic Japanese chef who obsessively seeks to expose the octopus' secret or cook him. The chef is the only character who sees through the protagonist's disguise from the beginning.