It all started with having to come up with a game idea for the theme “organize”. I thought about how the word “organize” could be used in a narrative sense. After some pondering, I grew inspiration from the games Lofi Ping-Pong and Affogato. I decided to use a similar narrative structure that is present in Lofi Ping-Pong, while having the setting be inspired by Affogato, a cafe. And thus, the game Cafe:Re was born. The game’s narrative would be centered around the player inheriting a cafe from their late grandfather and having to decide on keeping it open or shutting it down permanently. In which the story takes place between several weeks as the player would have to navigate between serving customers and their undecisiveness. It would be about the player having to organize their life.
The main gameplay would be the player serving customers, having to make different drinks and pastries to suit the customers needs. As the weeks go by, the difficulty ramps up, where the player has to serve even more customers, introduce even more drinks and pastries, fixing malfunctioning machines, sweeping the floor, and more. All while keeping track of the timer!
One challenge faced was implementing the dialogue system within the game, without it becoming overwhelming or convoluted. The solution was Yarn, a Javascript extension that can be used in Gdevelop. A dialogue tree editor similar to Twine that allowed us to implement dynamic dialogue within the game. Such as checking variables or certain flags when triggering different/possible dialogue events. It also allowed implementing other game systems easier as I implemented them to use Yarn as the main foundation. It helped immensely and allowed us to include different endings within the game depending on the player’s performance and/or choices within the game.
Some things to highlight narrative wise is the music. We wanted the music to highlight both the difficulty of the game and the protagonist’s (player’s) thoughts. The background music for the first few weeks represent when not much is happening in the cafe, to match the slow pace of the gameplay. The background music changes however, once there’s a sudden influx of customers and more items to consider. The increased pace of the music to match the feeling of urgency, even if most of the gameplay is technically the same. While the neutral music for the ending(s) represents the protagonist’s acceptance for whatever decision they decide. We didn’t want any of the endings to be perceived as “bad”, rather we wanted to show the protagonist organizing their thoughts, accepting their decision, and starting anew.
Last two things…
Why the name Cafe:Re? I wanted the game title to both represent what the gameplay is about (cafe sim), and the narrative of the game (re). The prefix re has multiple meanings. There were two meanings that I wanted re to be associated with. The first meaning can be seen with emails, where re is the abbreviated word for regarding/response. In this case, it would be in regards to the cafe. What is the player planning on doing with the cafe. The second meaning for re is how it is usually a prefix for the words redo, restart, and renew. To start anew. The goal and conclusion that the player must face, whether to keep the cafe open or to close it, and to find meaning in whichever decision they choose.
I’d like to also thank my two other team members, Michelle Tan for her work on the visuals and art, and Aastha Verma for her work with the sound design. Also with both of them helping with polishing the overall narrative and writing.
Thank you!