Jul 31, 2024Reviews
Thank you to Broccoli Games for a copy of this lovely game!
Coffee Caravan by developer Broccoli Games is a wholesome and cozy cafe management game. Think PlateUp!, but with a pastel color palette, you only serve variations of coffee, and there are difficulty levels that affect the whole game. Start your coffee-making adventure with the smallest trailer and basic equipment. Serve a variety of different customers in order to earn money. And experience an enjoyable, but sometimes challenging cozy game with a roguelite element!
This charming game puts you in charge of running your very own, albeit tiny, coffee shop. You start your journey with the smallest trailer possible and with the basic necessities like coffee beans, a grinder, coffee pot, sink, and cups. As you complete levels in Coffee Caravan and earn money, you’ll be able to access the shop to buy upgrades to your equipment, new equipment and helpful items like counters, and add more coffee recipes to your list. If you successfully complete a whole run from start to end, you’ll receive a larger trailer, too! Plus, there are decorations you can buy that offer useful buffs and you have control over how your kitchen, seating area, and decor is set up. So, organize the kitchen to best suit you, and serve some coffee!
I love everything about Coffee Caravan. No, seriously. The start menu is relaxing and easy to navigate. The background music is chill, but upbeat. I enjoy the pastel aesthetic and the faceless character design adds a charm to the game. Being able to select recipes, organize my space, and decorate is a lot of fun too. The choice of easy, normal, and hard difficulties is perfect for different days. Some days I want the easy game, some days I prefer the challenge of hard difficulty. So, I have a save slot for each one!
What I’d never thought I needed was a roguelite element to my cozy games, but I love how it plays out in this one. No game will play the same as your roadmap will be different each time. And how you choose to play one map may differ from how you play others. The unique way Coffee Caravan lays out level choices adds freshness, too. You can choose from a laid-back level, or maybe visit the shop. Unless you prefer the challenge of a more hectic day, then choose that one and then hop on over to a bonus stage that might reward you with a new item, extra money, or even be a chance at another shopping spree at the shop. Or you’ll earn new customers or conditions to play through.
Overall, it’s a great little single player game. Play on whichever setting you prefer, and experience an ever-changing game with fascinating roguelite features. There’s also tea service you can unlock, and coming with the free summer update is ice cream! It’s a perfectly cozy game, or make it as challenging as you want, if you prefer that. Coffee Caravan really aims to provide a varied gameplay experience and they achieve that! I can’t recommend this game enough to the casual gamers out there.
I give it:
You can find Coffee Caravan on Steam now!
If you’re looking for more reviews, check out the one on Rusty’s Retirement, Minami Lane, and Times & Galaxy for a few different game ideas!
May 1, 2024Indie Highlight
Coffee Caravan by Broccoli Games promises an engaging coffee shop management experience. Become a barista in your very own tiny coffee shop on wheels. Immerse yourself in 3D, pastel-colored environments as you design your shop, brew up tasty coffee recipes, and serve your customers. Plus, explore the world through a road-trip type adventure, where no two journeys are the same!
Start the game in a small caravan where you hand-place your equipment to ensure the perfect set-up for you. You also get to choose your coffee recipes for the day in Coffee Caravan, which allows you to cater to your customer’s tastes! Use that money to buy new, more efficient appliances to make your business run smoother and faster. You can even buy decorations like trees, lampposts, flowers, and more to beautify your seating area. There are also different coffee recipes you can buy and experiment with to create the cozy coffee empire you always wanted!
The most exciting thing about Coffee Caravan now is that Broccoli Games announced that the game will release May 20th! That’s just a few weeks away. Then you get to experience the cozy wholesomeness of running your own tiny coffee shop. Until then, add the game to your Steam Wishlist and check out the demo, which has quite a few levels for you to play!
Apr 24, 2024Indie Highlight
Mushroom Musume by developer Mortally Moonstruck Games is a charming, but slightly spooky child-raising sim. Think Princess Maker or Volcano Princess, but instead, you’re raising a mushroom girl! As the story goes, there’s a lonely Recluse who has the overwhelming desire to raise a child of their own. One day, the strange Witch of the Woods wanders by and overhears the Recluse’s wish. She has a twisted sense of humor, though, and gifts the Recluse with a pot of dirt. That pot of dirt turns out to contain a mushroom daughter!
Your job is to guide the Recluse through life as a parent. Parenting a human is no walk in the park, and as Mushroom Musume shows, parenting a mushroom isn’t either! Your choices shape her future and what type of mushroom she becomes as an adult. She’ll make her own choices, too, like angering the fae or falling in love. You’ll even unearth a vast fairytale world through your adventures. Collect memories, colors, music, and more in the Mushroom Almanac. Replay the game to discover all the possible endings, too!
Mushroom Musume is set to release on Steam in Q4 of this year!
Mar 13, 2024Indie Highlight
Immerse yourself in a delightful pastel world of coffee shop management! In Coffee Caravan by developer Broccoli Games, you run your very own mobile coffee shop. Choose your daily menu to cater to customer tastes while experimenting with different flavors. Brew a variety of different coffee recipes. Then, serve up the tasty drinks to your customers. Be efficient in your tasks to earn the best outcomes!
Coffee Caravan offers a great hands-on experience when it comes to running your coffee business. Not only do you choose your daily menu, but you make each drink yourself. Upgrade your machines to increase speed and proficiency so you can fast serve your customers. Serve premium coffee recipes to earn more money, too. And each time you play through the game, you’ll find a whole different experience. Pick customers with higher difficulty levels, discover appliance and recipe shops along the way where you can buy new things from, and encounter special events and challenges that add a uniqueness to each playthrough. Plus, you’ll encounter final boss customers who are far more demanding and have higher standards than your usual customers, adding even more challenges!
Coffee Caravan is coming to Steam this year!
Want more coffee shop fun? Try Capybarista!
Nov 30, 2023Snack Size News
The planet has become hostile to humans, but they persist despite natural disasters and harsh living conditions. Your job in Synergy is to develop a thriving city while facing those natural disasters head on, making choices that will affect your people, and meeting the needs of those people. You’ll need to explore, analyze your surroundings and things you find, and experiment!
Analyzing your environment will be necessary for survival in Synergy. You’ll learn information about the plants and other elements of the world that will help you survive. This information will help you obtain new resources, as well as providing safety for your people. Plus, your new knowledge can help you build a more sustainable city suited for the environment, thus improving survival odds. You’ll also be able to assign jobs to your city-dwellers, like research! Their research will help further your goals of building a thriving city. Even exploration parties will help you discover necessary information.
Your choices matter in this strategy city-builder, so be sure to choose wisely!
Synergy is coming to Steam at the beginning of 2024! You can currently add it to your Wishlist to keep up with it, though.
If you prefer brighter colors or pixel graphics, dotAGE is a great option for survival city-builders!
Nov 23, 2023Reviews
Spells & Secrets is a magical roguelite adventure where you must free the Academy of Greifenstein from the magical creatures that have overrun it. You’re a young wizard who’s just gone off to school at the esteemed academy to learn more about your magic. However, on your first night there, something strange happens and now the school is a mess. Magical creatures run amok in the halls, your fellow students are lost in the ever-changing rooms of the school, and there’s something a little more nefarious going on.
Spells & Secrets sets up a very basic story from the beginning. Again, you’re a young wizard who has arrived at the Academy of Greifenstein to learn about magic and improve your abilities. You’re then dropped right into the problem of the school being overrun with magical creatures. After that, the story unfolds as you progress through each dungeon level and encounter fellow students and even some of the bad guys. It’s a pretty standard “good vs. evil” situation. Someone has caused chaos at the Academy, it’s just a matter of sussing out who did it.
The question I have is why am I, a literal magical novice and child, the one who’s responsible for fixing the issue. I’m traversing the dangerous hallways of the school in search of my fellow students, fighting monsters, and encountering the bad guys. Meanwhile, the Spells & Secrets adult teachers are chilling outside in the courtyard prepared to sell me spells and upgrades so I can get further in my dungeon crawling. Surely one of the experienced people should help me! Silly adults.
Overall, I enjoy how the Spells & Secrets story unfolds as you progress. You don’t have all the answers, and you don’t always get them quickly. It takes time to earn enough for new spells and upgrades. Plus, without those upgrades and new spells, it can be difficult getting through dungeon levels. Some of those creatures are unforgiving! I also appreciate the lack of hand-holding. There is a tutorial, but you’re not interrupted frequently by cutscenes or new game mechanics. You just get to blast through some rude creatures.
I won’t pretend I’m incredible at fighting games, and Spell & Secrets has only proved that further. It took me several runs of the first floor before I managed to progress to the second floor. It can be frustrating, but that’s part of the draw of roguelites. It’s certainly easy to see when you’ve made upgrades to your repertoire, too. I went from struggling to blasting through creatures like they were nothing. So, it offers a very satisfying experience, despite the repetition. You feel like you’ve earned it once you progress.
I enjoy the variety of spells in Spells & Secrets, too. Each one has a different effect, while also deploying in a different way. Magic Missile is just a bullet of magic you shoot at the enemies. Freeze comes out in a spray of icy clouds, and so on. It’s easy to visually see which spell is which when scrolling through them or deploying them against enemies. Being able to build on their capabilities is satisfying too. Improving the power of Magic Missile absolutely made my runs easier to complete. And adding different spells that have different effects allows you to combine the powers of your arsenal to more efficiently defeat enemies. It lends a sense of creativity and strategy to the game.
enemies. It lends a sense of creativity and strategy to the game.
Besides the fighting, you can join what appear to be like school clubs. There are four for you to choose from, and it helps give you an objective outside the main storyline and dungeon crawling. You can even earn different clothing items to further customize your character. Spells & Secrets is overall a roguelite dungeon crawler with a sprinkling of socializing and other fun. I personally think it’s a fun combination!
I’d recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the idea of being a magic-slinging wizard. Overall, I’d give it:
You can find Spells & Secrets on Steam, Switch, and PlayStation now!
Aug 17, 2023News
Welcome to the fabled Grimoire Groves! The witches just couldn’t wait to move to the beautiful magical forest. According to old myths, the forest is full of magical creatures and plants. But when the witches arrived, they realized something was off about their new home. The forest spirits are absent and there are only a few plant creatures around. They should be abundant! Not all hope is lost, though. With some dedication, a little investigation, and useful magic, the witches ought to be able to restore the groves!
Play as one of those witches and embark on a journey in a fantasy world to restore the forest of Grimoire Groves. Spend time unlocking magical spells to complete your very own grimoire. Mix and match the spells to find the perfect combination of magic for you. Even work on mastering the balance between all four elements.
Then, use your magic to grow a variety of plant creatures. They look cute, but they’re certainly demanding! You’ll need to master control of your magic, learn critical timing, and even use careful positioning. It’s your job to learn and understand the needs of the creatures of Grimoire Groves in order to harvest the fruit they produce. That fruit will be used in crafting new spells and items.
It’s also up to you to find the hidden mystical spirits of Grimoire Groves. They need a new home, and your cottage is awfully cozy! Decorate your home to help boost their powers, and yours, so they can bring balance back to the forest. Perhaps even unravel the mystery of the fabled rainbow sock!
Grimoire Groves is coming soon to Steam and Switch!
Craving more witchy games? Wylde Flowers, Witchy Life Story, and Witchbrook are all great options!