“Coffee Talk” was a quiet success in a turbulent year

Andrew Jeremy “AJ” Sitompul, Coffee talkProducer and music composer says the score is best described as “chill hip hop”. He used the Ableton Live digital audio workstation to compose the soundtrack. This allowed us to match everything to the lo-fi jazzy songs found in most coffee shops.

Game lead artist Dio Mahesa wanted to take a similar approach and use warm reds and browns on the bricks and dim lamps of the cafe to maintain a relaxed coffee shop atmosphere.

“Another big challenge is the Japanese style of anime and manga,” says Mahesa. “Our art direction is PC-98 A kind of game that is a retro Japanese visual novel. I wanted to add nostalgia to that style. “

Mahesa hits 90’s anime Cowboy Bebop, Perfect blue, Neon Genesis EVANGELION,and ghost in the Shell For inspiration when animating individual characters.

Available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Coffee talk Although it could be popular, the international spread of the game still surprised Toge.According to the breakdown of Coffee talk Steam sales from Toge Productions were mostly directed to users in the United States (29%), South Korea (15%), and Japan (8%). The game was also popular in China, UK, Russia, Germany and Canada.

The game created a lot of “best of” lists last year. Indie And Mainstream, But it also penetrated some global commercial media, and Red Bull called it “2020 indie games you have to play“When Nintendo UK shares on Twitter..Thousands of reviews above vapor Overall “very positive” and now PC Metacritic The rating is 75.

“It was great,” says Hadiputra. “I didn’t expect it to get so much attention.”

But perhaps the most important Coffee talk We have achieved the fandom that developers can expect.The player has been writing Fan fiction About the original character, and abundant fan Art It’s happening all over the internet. The team attributed some of the success of the game to the fact that many people were unable to spend time in a real coffee shop due to global pandemic restrictions.

“Some of the game events actually became like real events in 2020. We didn’t anticipate that. It happened by accident, so many people have games I felt it was released at the right time with the right topic and subject, “says Hadiputra. “In fact, many have said that the game feels like they have helped them in some way during the blockade or pandemic. They feel lonely, have no friends, and have a lot of interaction. When not, the game helped them overcome it. “

Toge has continued to foster a sense of the community that is born around him. Coffee talk It’s been a year since the game was released on January 29th. The official soundtrack is now available as a limited edition. Vinyl record, And the company started its debut Character plush.. In addition to the update, developers will release modding support on the first anniversary of the game to allow fans to create their own character narration and upload it to Steam for others to use.

The end of the pandemic can’t be seen anywhere, reviews from new Coffee talk Players continue to pour online. Like the reviews in the first few months after the game was released, user often reference At least in effect, the catharsis experience of returning to a coffee shop.

Primarily, according to game artist Mahesa, the team was “really relieved. Coffee talk For everyone who is stuck at home because of a pandemic, it could be such a healing game. “

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