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Back in my day, coffee wasn’t a big thing. You would either get a cup of instant in the morning, loaded with sugar to get rid of the taste, or you would scavenge something from the local cafe or from a machine in town. And it was just ‘coffee’ then too, cappuccinos or espressos would have been seen as dreams from the big city.
But then the coffee culture exploded, all manner of shops popped up and you could suddenly get your favourite hot beverage in a hundred different ways.
It’s what Espresso Tycoon focuses on, as you get the chance to run your own coffee enterprise and see if you can become the best in the business. It’s another sim game but hopefully, it has the fuel to survive.
You play a young entrepreneur who has just graduated from university and decides to build a coffee empire. This plays out through a main campaign and multiple scenarios, providing objectives to tick off, selling coffee on the go. There are little narratives in each of these places too, with a nice reference to the sitcom, Friends, in the second one. But it’s good to start from the beginning and Espresso Tycoon gently guides you through the process, starting small.
You start by making your brand which requires you to come up with a good name. I chose “TheXboxHot” (obviously) and had a robot font and a green look for my little coffee stand in South Africa.
When you have that in place, it’s time to start simple with just a couple of options to sell in your shop. You have to get a few tables and chairs outside so people can sit down, deciding your shop front from a wide range of styles and colours. Money is a thing and the sooner you can start to get customers in, the sooner you can cover your costs.
You can choose the prices you need your coffee to sell for and how much profit you will be making. And as those drinks start to sell, you’ll be best off diving into customer profiles, trying to get an understanding of their likes and dislikes. Do they find the prices a bit high? Do they hate the decor? Would they like the place to be a little more tidy? Your job is to then try and cater to people’s desires – but remember, you can’t please everyone.
Soon you’ll be hiring more elite workers, pulling from their schedules the hours they prefer to work. You will also need to keep an eye on your supplies, as getting the best coffee might appeal but it’s also expensive and may mean a hit on your profit margins. You can also invest in takeaway cups to keep that market going, whilst creating your own brews and latte foam designs is a nice test. Whatever you do, keep those profits healthy, because as soon as you get too far into the red the game is over.
Espresso Tycoon looks good and has a nice palette of cosmetic items available for your shop. I like the different locations and setups in the campaign and if you can play this game without wanting a coffee, then hats off to you. There are problems though and sometimes the camera is slightly annoying, tricky to completely nail at times, whilst long term appeal is going to be hit or miss. The soundtrack is smooth and coffee shop-like though – yet as with most sim games, you’ll probably want to just stick on your own playlist as you rise the barista ranks.
Has there ever been a proper coffee shop sim before? I don’t know, but if you are after a little sim-styled campaign that will happily take you through various locations and stories, Espresso Tycoon is probably just about worth a shot. It’s up for debate as to how long that barista life will appeal though.