Update v0.6.5 is now available for everyone, this update includes fixes for pathfinding (customers getting stuck), ground work for localization, and a new engine. You can read the full details here: Update v0.6.5 Full Details
As part of the update I also refreshed the start screen and updated the Riff Studios logo, I hope you like the new logo and the new screen as much as I do.
About saves and launching the game
A side effect of updating the game engine is that some file paths had to be updated, if you played the beta you might have noticed your saved progress was not there, this was due to the paths having different names, this problem is fixed now and you should see your previous save on the beta and live.
For those curious, your save is stored here: C:\\Users\\\\AppData\\LocalLow\\Riff Studios\\Coffee Shop Tycoon
The beta was incorrectly storing the save here: C:\\Users\\\\AppData\\LocalLow\\Riff Studios\\CoffeeShopTycoon
If you have problems launching the game after the update or if you don't see v0.6.5 simply restart steam.
If for some reason you want to stay with the save file used for the beta, copy the files in the folder named "CoffeeShopTycoon" to the folder called "Coffee Shop Tycoon"
Next Update
I'm currently working on the design and timing for the next update, I don't have specific details that I can share with you but I can tell you this little detail about the update, are you ready? ...
Roasting!!!
...
Yes! I'm working on adding coffee roasting to the game, I'm already thinking on how some systems will need to be changed to accommodate for this, including the employee system and the rating system, which means that while I work on this update there might be a small update in between that improves these systems just to give you something new to play with while roasting is complete, I will be sharing more updates on my social media Twitter(@RiffStudios) and over here when I have enough pieces done to write an announcement. I'm also switching to a different source control which should allow me to post more game updates while I'm working on large features, before, I was using Unity Collab which doesn't support branching, now I'll be using git instead, I've worked on so many nightmare merges that I feel I have sharpen my skills enough to outweigh the cons of git.
Please post in the forums, message me directly on twitter, or email me at riffstudiosgames@gmail.com if you have any problems with the game. Thanks for playing and enjoy your coffee.
Update v0.6.5 on BETA for Windows
Hello everyone, a new version is available for beta testing, this update is focused on fixing some annoying bugs and also has a lot of work that will take Coffee Shop Tycoon to new audiences in the future. I'll start by talking about the bugs that were recently fixed and the two major changes that I've been working on during the past two months. Finally, I will share some exciting news about the music of the game.
Pathfinding
Wow, switching a legacy path-finding system on a released game is really annoying but I think I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. A little history behind path-finding, the game used to have a grid like navigation system, when you placed a chair or a table an area of the grid would be blocked and customers walked around the obstacles, this worked great but it was a very limited system, it didn't really support things like putting tables against walls, or expanding stores. For that reason, I switched to the NavMesh system provided by Unity, this basically calculates a walkable area using the actual 3D models of the objects and a customizable humanoid shape. This new system really opened the doors for a lot of the features and improvements I have added lately, but it came at a cost, now that you can be more flexible moving things around and expanding shops, it is more likely for customer to get stuck. The problem is that the customers in your store are not super smart, so in some cases they don't know what to do when a table is blocked or they end up in weird spots.
For this update I spent a long time looking at these flaws and finding ways to fix them. I don't think the system is perfect yet but it certainly handles most cases gracefully so you should not be seeing those annoying bubbles over your customer's heads that often, here is a comparison of the changes.
[previewyoutube="DF-RgSbPhSM;full"]
As you can see in the video, customers looking for a new table would get stuck if selected table was blocked, and customers that were on their way to a table that was previously reachable would also remain stuck if something blocked the path. Now with the changes, customers have a way to detect if tables are reachable and leave or find another table if that is not the case. Customers now also navigate directly to chairs instead of the middle of tables which should fix other similar bugs. The colliders of all tables were also updated to account for these changes.
Supporting other languages
Another feature that I consider very important for the future of the game, and something that needs to get done before the game keeps growing is localization. The game was not designed with this in mind and I have gradually learned new best practices and how to better support multiple languages. During these months I have worked on building a language system for the game and extracting all in-game text from code, I was able to finish this first phase and have extracted over 400 lines of text. The remaining text that needs to be localized lives in some text resources like the store's furniture and drinks catalog, and UI controls. After I'm done extracting those, I will have a text file that translators can use to provide new languages to the game. Since this update has changed quite a lot of places that handle text, please report any bugs you see related with text, especially if you see text that looks like this "boost.rivalTrend.title", these are strings used to identify localized text, so if you see those instead of the actual text, something is not working.
Updating the game engine
Another big item that needed work was switching the Unity version used by the game. There are many problems that are caused by bugs in the engine code, especially crashes. Targeting an old engine version was also bringing a lot of problems when building for Mac, as the backwards compatibility between macOS and old Unity builds is pretty terrible. Now that Coffee Shop Tycoon uses a pretty recent Unity build, I will be able to use the latest tools for building the game, support more platforms, and hopefully have less problems with random crashes caused by the engine.
Game launch settings is going away
As part of the engine update, the launch window where you can select the game graphics settings is going away. Instead, you can now change the resolution from the settings menu in the game.
Original music coming to the game
As some of you may know already, there is new original music coming to the game! The current music used in the game is under a Creative Commons license and is not original music. Chris A. Yenney will be the composer behind the music of Coffee Shop Tycoon, he is currently working on the new songs and I am looking forward to sharing them with you when they are ready, follow Chris on twitter (@chrisayenney) where you can find more about his awesome work.
I'm going to be working on polishing this build and getting it ready to go out of beta, meanwhile if you find any issues while playing the beta please post your problem under the pinned thread, I will be taking special attention to those bugs and getting them resolved before the beta is over.
As always thanks for all your support, and enjoy your coffee.
Follow me on twitter (@RiffStudios) for more updates, and feel free to DM me if you are having issues or simply if you are having fun with the game.
Spring update now available for Mac! v0.6.1
Hello everyone! After completely formatting my mac, rolling back to the fabric macOS, and reinstalling everything, I was able to build Coffee Shop Tycoon for Mac! I hope everyone enjoys the new update and start creating some cool Spring drinks!
Hello everyone! I hope you are ok in these complicated times. I have been working to bring you a small Spring update, having been quarantined at home for the past month has given me extra time to work on the game and hopefully you will enjoy the new changes.
New Spring ingredients
I’ve heard your feedback about the lack of Spring ingredients for the drink creator, this update adds 4 new ingredients, allowing you to finally create Spring drinks! Two of the new ingredients, honey, and honey swirls are available right away, while edible flowers and wild berry syrup are unlocked with the Creative Barista research.
Notification system rehaul
While this is not really visible as a player, every notification and message in the game is now using a new simplified system, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while as it was a mess every time I needed to add new dialogs and messages, this change will simplify adding new content and it was needed in order to support multiple languages and localization.
Rebuy hotkey
This has not been requested yet, but I though it was really needed. You have probably come across a time where you bought a table and now you wanted to put chairs around it, to simplify buying the same item multiple times I added a button to the right of the screen a while ago. Now with this update, this button also has a hotkey, so pressing “B” will act as clicking the button allowing you to buy things way faster.
[previewyoutube="laasK5o66MA;full"]
Sped up drink evaluation
The drink evaluation process in the HQ is way faster now, the three judges drink the coffee at the same time and give their score together.
[previewyoutube="O4bj74dCClk;full"]
Drink Boost relative to menu
Now all drink boosts are relative to the season of the menu you are currently modifying, so if the current season is Spring but you are modifying your Winter menu, all boosts will be as if Winter was the current season. This is probably the way it should have worked in the first place but I guess better late than never.
[previewyoutube="35yGKy0M-W8;full"]
Impact of featured drinks has been reworded
The impact percentage that appeared in the “Market” category of a featured drink was not really helpful, I changed this percentage to a description instead, “Market” basically tells you If the drink you are featuring resonates with the market of your shop, and affects how much hype is created. So, if your market is mostly teen customers, launching a drink targeted to teens will have a higher hype.
Bug Fixes
And finally, some bug fixes.
Airpots could appear as in use with zero coffee, this was caused by replacing you working station while a brewing process was active.
Fixed a problem where an out of season drink effect was not properly shown in the customer information.
Fixed a case where navigation arrows were visible in the store category page.
Fixed a problem where the shop’s 3D name could block the customers’ paths in Akihabara.
Adding missing syrups to the syrup bottles visible over the working stations.
Next updates
The roadmap stays the same, I will also probably add "Upgrading the game to the latest Unity version", as that should prevent the issues with mac and will also update to the latest pathfinding system which should fix some of the issues that are being reported.
More locations and mechanics
Cloud Saves
Steam Workshop support
More Achievements
Support for more languages
Help Section
Optimizations
As always thank you for all your support, and enjoy your coffee.
New location, items, achievements, and missions available now!
Hello, update v0.6 is live now! This has been one of the most challenging updates to develop so far, but hopefully you will enjoy all the new things that were added to the game. This update expands the game in many ways, it adds a new location with new challenges, improves existing systems, and adds rival companies with cool rewards.
Akihabara
Akihabara is the 4th location of Coffee Shop Tycoon, inspired by the real location in Tokyo and other cities like Osaka and Kyoto. This new location is one of a kind as it allows you to build your coffee shop on top of a building, the available expansion unlocks a nice rooftop area where your customers can enjoy the views of the city and a cherry blossom park below. Prove your management skills on this new location, and help Akari turn this shop into a trending spot.
New Items
You will also find many new items inspired by Japanese culture ready to turn your store into a unique and interesting place.
New Ingredient
If that is not enough you can also brew new drinks using matcha, to delight any customer on your new shop.
Rival Companies
Another major feature is "Rival Companies". These AI controlled companies will grow along you and try to become the best coffee shop around, thankfully these are public companies so anyone can buy their stocks, that includes you!
Try to make wise investments and buy stocks from promising companies. The stock price from these companies will change over time depending on the companies' value, this gives you a chance to gain profits by buying and selling stocks or simply by waiting for the company to pay dividends. Beware, companies might go bankrupt any time, so look after your investments.
Some companies have unique logos and rewards that you can unlock by buying out the company.
If you choose so, you can sell a company that you own and recover the value of stocks and any money in that company's bank. But you won't be able to receive any more dividends from that company.
New trending system
With the addition of rival companies, the trending system has been updated. When an ingredient is trending, launching a featured drink with that ingredient will start a popularity boost.
Failing to react to a trend can allow other companies to take advantage and launch a trending drink of their own, this will impact your store's reputation and give you a negative popularity boost.
New Achievements
Nine new achievements are available for you to unlock! Prove you are a true tycoon by getting all of them!
Max level increased
With all the new items to unlock the max level you can reach has been increased to level 10.
Other improvements and fixes
There are other minor improvements that are part of this update.
A new banner was added to keep track of ongoing market balance campaigns from your store, useful for one of the objectives of the new store.
Solved a bug where non existing ingredients showed up as trending, like 'Candy Dust' or 'Strawberry'
Improved pathfinding will prevent customers from getting stuck in most situations.
Fixed a bug that prevented placing wall decorations in some corners.
Fixed some race condition crashes.
This was a major update of the game but won't be the last, I have more plans for new locations and more interesting features and content, you can follow me on twitter @riffstudios to know more about the development of new features and updates. Thank you for all the support you have given me as it has helped me to keep working on the game, as always, I'm open to all your feedback and I will be looking closely for any bug reports.
Next updates
Finally, this is a list of some of the new things I have in mind for future updates, I will be giving more details as I make progress on the next update.
More locations and mechanics
Cloud Saves
Steam Workshop support
More Achievements
Support for more languages
Help Section
Optimizations
Enjoy your coffee.
Final beta update before v0.6 release
Hello everyone! If you have been following the development of v0.6 you may know that the list of remaining work has been getting significantly shorter every week, today I'm very happy to announce that the work for the update is complete! The final part of the update is live and you can play it by selecting the beta branch.
This last update fixes important pathfinding bugs, and adds the final pieces of content, specifically two more rival companies with their own unlockables, (Sasquatch, and Ingot Roasting Co.)
The two unlockables for these companies are very interesting, one allows you to add gold to your drinks giving them that extra fancy look.
And the other shop unlocks a new service "Compostables" which increase the reputation produced by your customers.
This update also adds the option to sell companies you fully own. By selling the companies, you will recover the value from the stocks and the money in the bank. I also added a new filter to the companies' screen where you can see all companies, companies you have sold, or any company that you owned stocks and went bankrupt.
And finally, matcha is unlockable through the Creative Barista research.
This update also includes a fix for a bug where it was impossible to put wall decorations near the corner of some walls, and other minor bug fixes.
Getting to this point has been a fun and sometimes stressful ride but I am happy with the results and the feedback that I've gathered through the beta. The only thing remaining is to write a very long update announcement and check that there isn't any release blocking bug for the update. So, if everything goes smoothly expect that announcement and the V0.6 official release this Tuesday. Thank you for all your support and as always, enjoy your coffee.
New update for the BETA (includes tutorials and mission's dialog)
Hello everyone, I'm back with another update to the beta build, this time the update includes dialog for the Akihabara mission and tutorials for the new systems, specifically the Stock Market and the new Trending system. I also improved the way in which these new features are unlocked.
The Stock Market is unlocked right after you unlock the second shop, this is early in the game but it allows you to start investigating how the companies' worth change over time and you can check out the cool rewards of some companies. Trending doesn't kick in until you learn how to create a drink and feature it. After this point you will start seeing trending ingredients and rival companies trying to take advantage of the trend, you will also see two new guiding messages from Mr. Danger to better understand how trends work. NOTE: there is still a bug where ingredients that you haven't unlocked can go trending, this will be fixed soon.
Another small change, is the addition of a useful tooltip in your shop, that shows the active market balance campaign, this is especially useful when playing the Akihabara missions.
Finally, I fixed two important bugs, a crash when trying to customize the floor of Akihabara and a bug where ingredients that are not actually in the game yet like 'Candy Dust' and 'Strawberry' show up as trending ingredients.
The to-do list is shorter every day and now these are the remaining items to fully release the update.
Add two more rival stores with rewards(ingredients/cool item)
Add option to sell company, recover value of all stocks plus money in bank
Register stock purchase in expenses
Add level restriction to AI trending
Have stores trend affected by ownership
Make detail descriptions expand for all items but stations
Hide buildings in new location based on camera
Add matcha
A Japan shop without matcha? I don't think so, so I decided to add the new ingredient to the to-do list.
These items don't take that long, only the rewards for the other two rival shops, but every other thing is mostly code changes that should be done pretty quickly. Thanks to everyone that has reported bugs and given feedback, I hope you are having a good time. I will see you soon with another update, enjoy your coffee.
New update available for the v0.6 BETA
Hello everyone, as part of the ongoing work to release v0.6, a new update is out for the BETA, this update includes a new area for the new coffee shop location, allowing you to progress the shop's missions.
The update also includes 7 new achievements, and descriptions for all the new items launching with this update.
The update is almost done, I have narrowed the remaining items to the following list, this list also includes some of the feedback I have received from players.
Add introductions/tutorials
Add option to sell company, recover value of all stocks plus money in bank
Register stock purchase in expenses
Add market balance campaign to store UI
Add two more rival stores with rewards
Add level restriction to AI trending
Have stores trend affected by ownership
Hide buildings in new location based on camera
Bug fixes
The most time intensive items remaining are the introductions/tutorials for the new mechanics and the two additional rival stores, while all the other items are very quick and simple.
Based on the remaining items, it is likely that there will be one more update to the beta and then the update will be fully released.
I want to thank everyone for your feedback and making this a great project to work on, and as always enjoy your coffee.
Try the latest update! v0.6 BETA is live!
Hello everyone! It’s been some time since I posted the last update, but I wanted to have something cool for you before that, and that day has come. V0.6 beta is live now! This marks a big step for Coffee Shop Tycoon and it’s been one of the most challenging updates so far, it adds a lot of new content and simulated AI companies which meant learning a lot of AI principles on the fly, but I am happy with the end result and I hope you are too.
Why Beta
So… why beta? Well it is simple, first I want to have more people playing this update to stabilize it and fix any possible bugs that I haven’t caught yet, and second, the update is currently 90% complete which means I still need to finish some work before I can fully release it to the world, but don’t worry, the beta is open for anyone, so if you want to try it out there is nothing stopping you. Instructions on how to opt into the beta at the end of this post.
What is new
I’ll start by talking about the rival AI companies, starting on this update, you will see a new button in game, this takes you to a screen with a list of other companies in the business of selling hot cups of heaven or “coffee”, as most people call it. These companies have their own dreams and goals and will try to survive as much as possible in the market, simulated companies will grow by selling coffee and trying to snatch those trends in the market before you do, they will also go bankrupt if they make bad decisions. If you play close attention you will see their net worth increase as time goes by and they level up or buy more locations.
As a successful Coffee Shop tycoon, you can buy stock from those companies, this will give you extra cash in your pocket when those companies decide to pay dividends. Among all the companies there are currently two strong rivals, Triton, and La boulangerie du parc, these two coffee shops are the top when it comes to pleasing their customers and they can end up being very valuable companies, if you decide to get rid of those rivals and be the only barista in town you can buy the full company, this will give you access to their logo and a cool reward.
Macarons from buying all stock from La boulangerie du parc
The rival companies will change with time as some go bankrupt and new companies emerge, so pay attention to the stocks you own as some of the companies might go bankrupt and you can lose your money if you don’t sell in time.
The second big addition is a new location! FINALLY! I know right? Well following the same train of thought, this has also been the most elaborate location of the game. The new location is called Akihabara and it is inspired by the real location in Japan, you will find your brand-new store between the lights of shiny buildings and restaurants. Along the new location I'm also adding many new items inspired by Japanese culture and increasing the level cap of the game. You will find new decorations, tables, and even a new working station. This location also includes new missions. One thing to consider is that on the beta version won't be able to go past the objective "Buy a new expansion" as I'm still working in that.
What is missing
So, what is missing to fully release v0.6? To answer this question, I'll post a list of tasks I'm currently working on and that I believe are needed for calling this update complete.
Akihabara Store expansion
Tutorials/Story conversation
New items' descriptions
Tweaks on AI behavior
Adding market balance campaign to store UI
Achievements
Some animations
Two more main rival companies with rewards
Add option to sell company (to recover value of all stocks plus money in their bank)
Tweaks to lighting in Akihabara
The list might seem intimidating but many of those changes are very straightforward and don't require me to read a book on AI. Taking into account the holiday season and the list of work, I believe the full v0.6 update will be ready and released close to the third week of January. I will be updating the beta branch as I go so you will start seeing some of these things come to life before that date.
Thanks for the support and love for the game, I always appreciate any feedback bad and good, and I will keep trying to make this game awesome so everyone can have a good time. I will share an updated roadmap once this update is done so you can know what to expect from the coming months. If you find bugs in the beta, please post them in the pinned channel, as I will be fixing those while working on the update.
How to play the beta
Go into your library, select Coffee Shop Tycoon, click on the settings icon and select Properties.
From there simply go to the beta tab and select beta from the dropdown.
Thank you for playing and enjoy your coffee!
Working towards update v0.6
Hello everyone, I wanted to give you an update on the upcoming version of Coffee Shop Tycoon, for those that follow Riff Studios on twitter this might not be news, but for all those who don't, here is a sneak peek of some new things coming to the game and the current state of the update.
New location
Update v0.6 will feature a brand new location, with new challenges and items to personalize your store. The new location is inspired by the city of Tokyo Japan, so you can expect new items and ingredients appropriate to the region, yes, Matcha lattes will be a thing! The new location is looking awesome and hopefully you will enjoy brewing some hot drinks surrounded by the bright lights of the city and the picturesque streets.
Light and other minor details still need some work, but we are close to finishing the new location. Let us know what you think of it.
Rival Stores
The other big feature coming to the next update is rival stores, these are stores driven by AI that will either succeed or fail just like you, you will have the option of buying and selling stocks to make some revenue and eventually buy out the top Coffee shops in the world, unlocking cool rewards and new achievements. Here is a screenshot of what the UI looks like when interacting with a company.
Full details will be available once the update is released, but don't worry, a new update is coming and it is huge, thanks for everyone that has supported the game so far and as always, enjoy your coffee!
