Introducing my new project! (Patreon)

Sugarplum Cafe is a merge-3 cafe game for mobile and PC. You merge ingredients to make desserts and try to attract customers whose designs are inspired by different cakes and other desserts. 

This is the game I'll be developing for the discernable future! I've actually been working on it for quite some time; I didn't share until now because I wanted to make sure it was The One.

What happened to the fashion game with the Glams?

After sitting down and writing up a proper design doc for the fashion game I realized it was pretty ambitious, and I've been told many times that your first game should be something small. As a life sim the fashion game would require a lot of different mechanics to not only code but also develop. It was also going to be very narrative heavy and require proper fashion design knowledge. While both game design, writing, and fashion research are skills I want to develop, learning those skills will greatly increase the amount of time it takes to finish that game. Sugarplum Cafe is not going to be story heavy and it's meant to be a casual mobile game, so I can just focus on the skills I already possess - art, fashion design, and coding. It could eventually grow in scope, but its most minimal version is still more doable than a minimal version of the fashion game.

Also, I was having a hard time coming up with a visual style for the fashion game. I think it was because all the characters were supposed to have different fashion styles, so it was hard to pick one style for the academy that would be best for encompassing all the styles. Whereas with Sugarplum Cafe, I immediately knew what kind of aesthetic I wanted the game to have - pastels, filigree, everything that my art style is known for. I even came up the name of the cafe immediately, and I'm still trying to come up with a name for the fashion school.

I hope to come back to the fashion game once I have more experience under my sleeve. I'm still keeping the merging element alive, which is great because I can reuse code from my fashion game prototypes.

Still, I'm sorry for flip flopping constantly on game ideas OTL
I think I'm pretty set on Sugarplum Cafe being my very first game so hopefully no more flip flopping. But thank you for your patience, I do think making a game is the best creative outlet for me right now and I've been really happy working on this.

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Back to this game, the prototype I shared last week has gone through quite a few changes. Last week's version was more to get an idea of the visual style I wanted, but the current version is closer to the final gameplay. 

Right now, the game is split into 3 screens, each with a different step in the process of running a cafe.

Merging ingredients into desserts

(Ignore the cursor, something went wrong with my screen recording software)

This is inspired by my original fashion game and existing merging games such as Merge Dragons. You'll be creating desserts for your cafe by merging ingredients. Merge lines are separated by flavor, so a dessert of one flavor can be merged into a more complex dessert of the same flavor. 

The sample merge lines I'm working with - left is Vanilla and right is Chocolate. The order of stages for both is:
1. Ingredient
2. Madeleine
3. Macaron
4. Tart

Harvesting ingredients 

This is the main way to gather ingredients to merge. It's a mix between a garden and a gelateria; I was inspired by the elaborate decorations that adorn gelato trays. Over time ingredients will spawn on their respective gelato, and you can mouse over them to collect them and add them to your kitchen.

As you earn more money you can purchase new flavors for your gelateria, which is how you'll be able to make new desserts with new flavors.

Technically a garden would be more accurate, but I really liked the gelato idea and I don't mind incorporating a bit of magic in the game...please be honest and tell me if you prefer a straight up garden or gelateria as opposed to the fusion.

I also drew a version of this screen that's just baskets that would restock over time. Maybe this would be easier to explain? What could I call this screen hmm....

Serving and collecting customers

Over time, customers will appear and order specific items from your kitchen and pay you in return. The goal is to collect all the different customers in the game. The more new desserts you discover, the more likely you'll get new customers visiting your cafe.

Right now, each customer is based on a different dessert flavor. These designs aren't final, but it should give you an idea of what I have in mind. I think each customer will have their own personal style, but all of them should fit the theme "tea party". I'm really excited to design more of these!

This is what these designs were for, by the way!

You might be able to tell from the name "Sugarplum Cafe" that the game is loosely inspired by my Nutcracker collection, so you might see some of those designs and motifs coming back for this game.

Other mechanics TBD, suggestions welcome!

There's more that I want to add to the game, but I'm going to focus on coding this for now and adding more later. :)

That said, if you have ideas on what you'd like to see please leave a comment!

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Since this is now my new fulltime hobby (+ the Sailor Moon artbook) I'll post an update on the game every month. I would really appreciate any feedback at any time, and I hope this is a game that you would play! 

(Also definitely tell me which version of the Gelateria you prefer)