One Hell of a Coffee Shop
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Android
Good morning! May I take your order?
One Hell of a Coffee Shop is a short, kinetic Visual Novel where you get to order some surely overpriced coffee at your friendly neighborhood coffee shop and have a chat with its barista!
The game was made for the O2A2 (Again!) Game Jam and features:
- one background
- one sprite
- one thousand words
- one music track
But why stop there? Therefore, it also features:
- one plot twist!
- one meta narrative!
- one obnoxiously long coffee order joke!
- and one reference to Genesis 1:1!
So, what are you waiting for? Go get a virtual coffee today!
And we are:
- mossinasi, artist and programmer | itch | twitter
- mlkrn, writer | itch | twitter
- cygni, editor | itch | twitter
- TSotoMusic, composer | website | twitter
Languages:
- English
- Turkish | translated by Melikşah Çivit(@King_Potato3) | itch
- Russian
[Hint] Are you stuck?
If you played the game and didn't find any of the good stuff promised in the description, try to replay it.If you are still stuck:
This is a looped VN incorporating the persistent save file mechanic. You are supposed to replay it several times until the credits roll. After that, the button in the main menu changes from "Enter" to "Restart".Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- 1.5 update: now available in Turkish and RussianDec 14, 2022
Comments
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oooooh i loved it!
我可太喜欢这种风格了，无论是文字还是画面，从一头雾水到拨开云雾，充斥一种朦胧且温柔的美感。
还有这样的恶魔请给我来一打啊啊啊！！！Quite good and creative interpretation of the jam criteria, though the plot twist feels a bit outlandish with such little build up; I feel like a lot of the filler could've been instead used to slowly build up to the twist. That aside, I can find no fault with the writing, and the art is very atmospheric yet sophisticated
a pretty interesting game! didnt expect to be able to name myself in the end
i enjoy the game for your story and translation
Slight spoilers but this is the comments anyway
Rene Descarte, Hannah Arendt
Mary Wollstonecraft(?), Edmund Husserl? Burke?
Zeno of Elea, Philippa Foot
Hypatia of Alexandria, Ayn Rand (bleh)
Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre
Soren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus
Karl Marx, Adam Smith
Rosa Luxemburg(??), Peter Singer(??)
I really love how you placed some pairs together, like de Beauvoir and Sartre, Kierkegaard and Camus, and Marx and Smith. Overall it's a really nice game!
Hey! Thanks for playing and for noticing :D You're right, Mary is indeed Wollstonecraft, and I meant Edmund Burke. By Peter I meant Kropotkin, tho!
thanks for the reply!! I thought Singer was a bit out of place as a contemporary philospoher! Philosophy and history is an interest of mine and I'm glad to see some people reflected here!
Hi, I played your game it was amazing and emotional , I enjoyed it, I have an offer for you
I am studying English-Turkish Translation and Interpretation If you wish, I can translate whole texts into Turkish so you can reach more players. I don't want payment, just want to be part of a game, gain experience and be known more as a translator
You can reach me via this email address: meliksahcivitt@gmail.com Thanks for time!
Very interesting and very fun!!
you know, I'm something of a coffee drinker myself
I'm so glad I played this, it was so fun and super great! Wasn't fully expecting the twist at the thing, but it was super funny and great! The art style, music and story really blended together well and made it a really great experience, especially how the game 'restarts' and that's incorporated into both the story and the gameplay, really well done! Congrats on making it and good luck for future projects, this novel was really fun!
oh my, the devil playing the game with the devil! thank you for playing, your unholiness, we mere mortals are very glad you had fun!
It was indeed very fun and a super great game!
Really amazing game and i love the illustration ~ wish to see more!
Thank you so much! Glad you especially enjoyed the visuals, as well as the game in general <3
Amazing work! Especially with the loops and everything, I especially like how the atmopshere felt flat and one-dimensional...
SPOILERS
.... especially when it should be since it was the MC's personal hell. I also like how Lucille wasn't all that malevolent for a Devil, she's just playing along hoping you'll wake up to your senses. I do wish that each visit corresponds to the circle of Hell, like in the 2nd visit the MC is heartbroken because they were cheated by their lover and in the 3rd visit they were like a hungry beggar who was able to scrounge up enough money to buy some food in the cafe. As each visits progress the MC slowly gains awareness so the ending didn't seem sudden.
But those are just my personal thoughts, I loved the ending and especially when we can choose different names. Great game! Love it~!
This was really interesting. I liked the atmosphere of the coffee shop, the dim, melancholy feeling it gives off. I liked Lucille's demeanor too, the way you can tell she knows something more, even though you don't find out what it is for awhile. Though the part that got to me the most was probably *spoilers* when you're asked to type in your name. And afterwords, seeing it incorporated into the text, after using so many other beforehand, seeing your own name acknowledged in the text felt really powerful.
I really enjoyed this game. I knew that it was a loop but why were the names changed every day?
?hi, thank you for playing!
on name changes: it is basically a one prolonged reference to philosophy in general. Because it's implied that the player is an amnesiac god of sorts, name options are based on famous philosophers for their main pursuit was to observe life and existing reality, but they were also capable of writing their own fictional pieces. The name changes also were there to give the player an unsettling vibe from the very beginning of the game to add suspense and hint that the coffeeshop is not just a coffeeshop, it's a place outside reality the player is visiting inbetween their lives.
It was my first time playing vn and I enjoyed it. I love the art and music. Thank you for creating this game ♡♡♡
Man its like Ai dungeon you wont know what she will say next.
Unique and atmospheric - I loved it!
Thank you!
I was caught off guard at first but, I love that bit of surprise as I played through the game. I was confused about the names and was hoping they would somehow tie together or have some specific meaning. I however was pleasantly surprised at the direction the plot went in. I feel the use of music and atmosphere was well done.
oh, thank you!
well, yeah - the names kind of have a meaning? they are a one prolonged reference to philosophy, they're meant to give the player an 'off' vibe, and then Lucy tells the player that the coffeeshop is essentially a place the player visits inbetween their lives. I thought it would be obvious to spot since games like Nier:Automata made philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir pretty well-known :D
if you're curious about how they were chosen, I've answered that in the discussion below.
thank you for playing!
Oh, I see, thank you for explaining! It was unsettling and different to pick a different name each time. I like what you were doing with it. I'll definitely take a look at the philosophical meaning a bit more as that sounds interesting. Great Visual Novel overall!
At first I was confused, but then I got curious and at the end I was "ooh" 👌
I really enjoyed this game. The loop was clever and made the story feel longer. At some points, I really felt like spending days in that cafe which made it easier to create a bond with the characters.
Really cool game❤️
Thank you!
I loved the art and atmosphere of this game, and I'm definitely going to play again and see what details I missed! Great VN!
Thank you!
The art is very pretty and the simple but effective gameplay hooked me right away! I've also found the music playing in my head multiple times since I played the game, it's quite cozy.
Thanks!
Great game :)
Thanks!
Great job! What happens near the end I won't call a plot twist , since it's more like an Epiphany to me.... I like the work a lot, and as usual for the good stories I like, I love to imagine myself in it, and indeed during my 15min of break I crafted a beautiful journey through your beautiful coffee shop!
(Possible Spoilers!)
What would I say each time I visit it? As someone who has committed all the sins as in the nine circles, maybe I would drop some casual comments on my past sins. But still, I had my conscience. And it was because of this I was left in constant inaction, constant regret, forever trapped in this circles of self-reproach, and therefore unable to create my own world. Once I realized all this, I also realized I had only the coffee shop left. Ah Lucifer, how cunning of you to disguise yourself as the charming Lucy, enslaving me in your kingdom! In great pain, I decided to erase my only happy memory of the coffee shop. The world crumbled and I saw a beam of light in the cracks. Ahh, how splendid. In the end, it was a beautiful journey through hell.
oh wow thanks
i'm not the writer but it's very flattering to read that you engaged and empathized with the story so much!
i'm sure lucy'd be sad to let you go... yet she also won't accept keeping you here forever
good luck with your journey onward, outside the comfy coffee shop walls!
Just finished playing to the end. I really enjoyed the music and I love the design of the character's sprite. Thank you for making this visual novel.
Thank you!
This was an unusual experience for a VN but it was amazing in every way.
Thank you!
This was so so good! I do love a VN meta-narrative, and it had such an intriguing atmosphere thanks to the art and music. The writing was really fun to read too!
Thanks!
Nice and unique. I like the artstyle.
Thank you!
This was one hell of a ride, this game gave me goosebumps. The art and the music and the writing are all amazing. I don't think I understood all the references, though (or not all the names are references?)
ohhh your words flatter my heart!
on name references: it is basically a one prolonged reference to philosophy in general (because it's implied that the player is an amnesiac god of sorts, I thought about giving name options based on famous philosophers because their main pursuit is to observe life and existing reality, but they are also capable of writing their own fictional pieces). so, they're all references, I wanted to represent men and women equally but I also didn't want them to be seen as a "pick your gender" choice in every run so for some runs I paired two women or two men.
the names are: Rene (Descartes), Hannah (Arendt), Mary (Wollstonecraft), Edmund (Burke), Zeno (of Elea), Philippa (Foot), Hypathia (of Alexandria), Ayn (Rand), Simone (de Beauvoir), Jean-Paul (Sartre), Soren (Kierkegaard), Albert (Camus), Karl (Marx), Adam (Smith), Rosa (Luxembourg) and Peter (Kropotkin). Some of them were paired because the theme of the day fit (like Rosa Luxembourg and Peter Kropotkin for the one that mentioned the USSR and they were the communism/socialism ideologists; and Soren Kierkegaard and Albert Camus for the one with an absurdly long order because they were the absurdists), some of them were just out of the blue because I needed to fill the gaps (I mean I had a philosophy course in university but I was definitely not a philosophy major).
anyway, thank you for the comment and for playing!
This was really weird entry, but in a good way.
Thanks!