Coffee Shop Game Review

Coffee Shop Game Background

Coffee shop is a simple business simulator where you must run the Café Calypso for 14 in-game days. Earn as much as you can by adjusting prices and tuning in to customer demands.

How to Play Coffee Shop

On the welcome screen, you have two options:

• Select the play button to immediately start playing the game.
• Select guide to open the game’s tutorial. This is recommended if you’re playing the game for the first time.

The day begins with prep mode, where you purchase ingredients, formulate your recipe, and change your prices. Only when prep mode is finished can the day begin.

The coffee sold by Café Calypso requires four items: cups, coffee beans, milk, and sugar. Select the items on the inventory to purchase them. The game illustrates the principle of buying in bulk; the more of an item you purchase, the cheaper it is per unit. If you change your mind about the supplies you bought, select Undo Purchase near the bottom left of the adjustments window.

After buying the ingredients, you can adjust the recipe and price per cup. Select the sliders on the adjustments window to alter the amount of coffee, milk, and sugar goes into each cup. The amount of servings you can actually make with the recipe is shown on the bottom left corner of the adjustments window. The game also indicates how many ingredients you need to finish up the stock. You can also adjust the price per cup while the game is running.

Once you’re done, select Start the Day to begin. Throughout the day, customers passing by will either opt to buy or move on. Thought balloons will show what they’re thinking. The game will play out from 7 AM to 7 PM, upon which you’ll receive a report on the profits or losses you incurred that day. Make the adjustments for the following day, and repeat the process.

You have a starting capital of $30. To make a profit, you must earn back considerably more than what you spent on each day.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Demand is an important consideration when planning your coffee servings. This is influenced by the following factors:

• The weather
• The price
• The recipe
• The café’s reputation

Of all the factors, weather is the biggest. People don’t often buy coffee on hot days and must be enticed by lower prices. Meanwhile, they will be more likely to buy on cold days and pay higher prices for it. The game mentions the weather during prep mode. Prepare accordingly.

The formula determines how much goes into a cup of coffee. In general, the more that goes into your formula, the higher the amount you spend on supplies. However, coffee with more of everything is a hit with the customers, which will bolster your shop’s reputation. So you’ll want to increase the amount that goes into each cup over time.

And as your café increases in reputation, it draws in more customers regardless of the weather. Keep track of your reputation through the meter on the bottom left corner. You can gauge the reactions to your coffee by observing the thought bubbles of the crowd during the day. Adjust the formula and price according to their demands.

If demand is particularly high and you’re you run out of supplies before the day ends, the shop will stop making sales; you’ll have the option to end the day early near the top left corner of the screen. To avoid this from happening, try to keep the ratio of the ingredients as close to one another as you can. Ideally, you should base your recipe ratio on the amount of milk you expect to use up in a day.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

Remember: All the products except the cups are perishable in some way. Milk, in particular, expires the moment the day ends. Deal with this issue by buying only what you need. To ensure that you don’t lose money on milk, in particular, consider increasing the amount of milk used first. To further save on supplies, adjust the sliders so that you don’t put in any more than you need to. You don’t need to max out the recipe sliders on the adjustment screen to achieve customer satisfaction.

Buying in bulk saves you money on supplies, but this means nothing if you can’t use them all up before they spoil. Avoid buying ingredients (especially milk) in large quantities during warm days where demand is expected to be low. Whenever you can, make sure that the supplies are in proportion to the amount of coffee you expect to sell in any given day. On cold days, take advantage of the savings and the expected spike in demand.

Consider selling higher quality coffee during warmer days. This will not only help you use up all your ingredients to minimize spoilage but also help bolster your shop’s reputation early on.

Educational Aspects

This game simplifies the process of what goes on in a food service business in a way that younger players can understand. Here, you must make business decisions that will affect your bottom line. Among the lessons to be learned are the following:

• The principles of pricing based on supply and demand
• Budgeting
• Responding to customer feedback and interests
• The savings gained from buying in bulk
• Losses incurred from spoilage

The game also involves a lot of mathematics, especially involving the proportions of ingredients needed to sell the right amount of coffee. It is a fun way to get kids to see the practical applications of math in daily life.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is fun for both adults and older, school-aged children. We especially recommend it for those who like tycoon or business simulation games.