There is an age-old question about what came first, the chicken or the egg. The origin of Coffee Shop Tycoon is a bit similar. You might wonder, what came first? The love for coffee or the game. Funny enough, the game came first.
My name is Hector, and I'm the designer behind Coffee Shop Tycoon and co-founder of Riff Studios. The idea behind the game has deep roots in classic tycoon games I played as a kid growing up. The one that comes first to my mind is Roller Coaster Tycoon. I remember thinking about how amazing it was to feel like you owned an amusement park and how fun it was to build only half of the roller coaster and see the cart fly out of the rails ( •̀ᴗ•́ ) [evil laugh]. Still, in all seriousness, I think that the first time I discovered this genre, I started viewing games and life in a completely different way.
The story for this game starts in 2013, that is around the time when all the rage about the famous mermaid coffee started in my birthplace, Mexico City. I found myself going to these nice coffee shops to study or hang out with friends. At that time, I was in college and studying computer science. The more I spent in these places, the more I started thinking about those classic tycoon games I loved when I was younger, I didn't love coffee at that time, but I loved the ambiance of a coffee shop, comfy chairs, nice stylish decoration, and the smell of coffee. That made me write the first concept of a Coffee Tycoon game in July 2013.
Let's jump forward to 2014; this is the official year I started working on the project. I only knew a little about making games then; I was fresh from college and had a couple of small game projects under my belt, but nothing as ambitious as a tycoon game. I was also getting married and moving to a new country. However, during that time, I had a couple of months free where I was able to create a small demo of my vision, enough to make a Steam Greenlight campaign, back when games had to be voted by the community before they could be published in the marketplace.
[Link for old crowdfunding campaign with very early screenshots]
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/coffee-shop-tycoon#/
I don't remember the exact date, but the Steam Greenlight campaign started during the first months of 2015, and after some months of silence, I received an email with the following headline: Your title, "Coffee Shop Tycoon", has been Greenlit! I can't really express how excited I was when reading that email and what it meant for me as a game designer trying to get some traction for my idea.
Almost a year and a half later, the first version of Coffee Shop Tycoon saw the light of day in December 2016. I was doing the role of designer, programmer, and artist while not having any real professional experience making games. Naturally, things took a while to get done, and I had to learn a lot about game development on the fly.
One of the most important aspects for me was building a tycoon that focused on coffee and the culture around it. I started reading more about this mystical bean and fell in love. What I considered "just coffee" opened a new world of flavors and aromas I had not experienced before and a passion for shiny, noisy machines and glass contraptions.
To keep up with the ambitious concept of the game, I had to start doing less of everything and find someone to help me build this idea. The first person that contributed to the game besides me was Gaby. She is a fantastic artist who started bringing way more life to the world of Coffee Shop Tycoon and filling it with new items to decorate your shop and new locations to explore. Later, Chris came along and composed original music for the game, putting more ambiance and vibe to your coffee shops.
I started realizing that if I wanted to finish the project for real, I needed a partner in crime. I had already been friends with Roberto for a while, and I knew he was passionate about games and looking for a way to start working in the industry, so I felt it was a perfect fit, and I am very grateful for that decision. Roberto joined as the first "full-time” contributor, I put this in quotes because we both have full-time jobs and build this game during any extra time we can squeeze out of the week, and together we officially founded Riff Studios LLC in December 2020.
Since then, another artist Britany has helped us build new achievement icons and assets for the roasting update, and more recently, Juan has been working on the new model for the last location of the game and other surprises we are preparing for you. So many other people have contributed in some way to the game and where we are at, and we can't be thankful enough for all their help.
It has been a long journey, filled with valuable learnings, exciting new experiences, and a lot of great work from many creative minds. We couldn't be here without all the support the community has given us over the years, and we hope that you have enjoyed riding along with us.
In the end, Coffee Shop Tycoon is not the most perfect, realistic game about coffee or business management, but it is a game built with love by people who care about making fun and lasting experiences for you.
Please join us to celebrate this last milestone and share the love and good vibes. Wherever you are, hot and cold, day or night, thank you for reading this far, and enjoy your coffee.
