Co-op is playable. Today. On the beta branch. There's a whole new shop to rob, too.
I was genuinely tempted to just ship this as a normal update. I didn't, and I want to be honest about why: multiplayer touches every single system in this game, and a sim game has a lot of systems. It works. It's fun. It is also very much a beta, and I'd rather you go in knowing that than find out the hard way.
So: opt in, break it, tell me what broke.
> Read this part before anything else <
BACK UP YOUR SAVES. Seriously, right now, before you opt in.
Paste this into your file explorer address bar or search bar or you can use in-game save folder button:
%userprofile%\\AppData\\LocalLow\\saknedev\\Coffie Simulator
The beta writes save data the stable branch doesn't understand. If you play a save on beta and then switch back to the normal branch, that save can come back wrong or not come back at all.
Please start co-op on a fresh save slot. Don't take your 40-hour cafe into the beta as your first test. I'm asking nicely.
The host's save IS the world. When you join a friend, you're playing in their cafe, on their save. Money, upgrades, research, day count, all of it belongs to the host. Your own progress doesn't come with you and doesn't get written back when you leave.
If something eats a save anyway, tell me, and keep the broken file. Broken files are useful to me, they tasty.
> How to get in <
1. Opt into the beta branch
Right-click Coffie Simulator in your Steam library
Open Properties, then the Game Versions & Betas tab
Pick multiplayer_beta from the list
Let Steam download the update, done
2. Turn co-op on
Multiplayer is a toggle, not a separate mode. Switch it on before you load a world. If it's off, you get the normal single-player game exactly like before, new stuff included.
3. Host or join
Hosting: load your world with co-op enabled. You'll get an 8-character lobby code. Share it.
Joining: Join Game on the main menu, type the code, in you go. You can get the codes by clicking invite code at the top left on pause menu.
Steam invites You can invite other users only if they are online, you can invite them from pause menu, top left.
Up to 4 players.
> What's in co-op <
Short version: almost the whole cafe.
The whole coffee loop. Every machine syncs. Espresso, grinder, dispensers, filter coffee, hot water, tea, cold brew, ice, blender, steam wands. Cups, lids, milk, pitchers, portafilters and syrups all carry their contents across the network. Two people can genuinely build one drink together, and it's chaos.
Customers and orders. Everyone sees the same customers, the same queue, the same orders. You can see who's serving who, so you're not both sprinting at the same person. Special customers, tips and the thief all work.
Shared everything. Money, XP, reputation, bills, bank loans, the research tree, upgrades, skills, unlocks, prices, the day cycle, time of day, weather. One economy, one world.
Build mode and deliveries. Place, move and sell furniture together. Cargo orders go on the same truck for everyone, so stock is a group decision now, and so is who has to unload the pallet.
Cleaning. Mop, dirt, litter, trash, cleanbot. Someone has to do it.
Proximity voice chat. Built in, no Discord needed. Push-to-talk or voice activation, mic picker, sensitivity slider, live mic meter. It's positional, so you can hear where people are shouting from, and walls muffle it.
Nameplates, ping, mute and kick in the pause menu, plus invite and copy-code buttons.
More players means more customers. Order pressure scales with how many of you are in the shop. Not linearly, because you're all still fighting over the same espresso machine.
Host sets the world rules. Difficulty, thief on or off, machine durability. Those are the host's settings for everyone. Guests still control their own graphics, audio and controls.
> Also new: the Market <
There's a corner shop in town now, and it's the in-person alternative to ordering from the truck.
Cheaper per unit than the truck, because you're the one carrying it home. The truck is still how you buy in bulk. The market is how you buy the one bag of beans you forgot.
Real shelves with real stock. Every facing on the rack is one item. Take it, it's gone, and the shelf restocks at the start of the next day. If you clear them out, that's on you.
Products you haven't unlocked yet sit there greyed out, telling you exactly what you need to unlock them. Window shopping as a progression system.
An actual checkout. Put your stuff on the belt, it rides up to the cashier, you get charged. The cashier talks to you, blinks, and follows you with their eyes.
Food too, not just supplies.
Very Beta, still work on progress and new things will be added along the way until the full release! Also fixes too.
And yes, you can walk out without paying. I'm not going to tell you what happens. Find out with a friend, ideally one you don't like very much.
> And new way to waste an entire shift <
There's a pitch with two goals that keeps score. Works fully in co-op. But only thing you'll earn is taste of victory.
My playtester and I lost a genuinely embarrassing amount of testing time to this. Consider it a feature.
> What's NOT in it yet <
Beta means beta. Known, and on my list:
Workers are host-only. This is the big one. The whole employee system isn't networked yet, so hiring, firing and managing staff is the host's job, and guests may see workers behaving oddly. Full worker networking is its own big pass, and it's next.
The market is brand new and this is its first time in front of actual players. Expect it to be the buggiest thing in the build.
Some effects and sounds are host-only. Little completion particles and pops that guests won't see or hear. Cosmetic, but noticeable.
A machine or two may not show up for guests. Working on it.
Desyncs happen. If something looks wrong for one player and right for another, rejoining fixes most of it. If it doesn't, that's a report I want.
> How to report bugs <
Please include: were you host or guest, how many players, what you were doing, and whether the others saw it too. That last one tells me more than anything else.
To directly send bugs to me or directly talk to me, don't forget to join to discord or use the in-game mail icon for feedback and bug reports!
If the game crashes, this file helps a lot:
C:\\Users\\YOURNAME\\AppData\\LocalLow\\SAKNEDEV\\Coffie Simulator\\Player.log
or just:
%userprofile%\\AppData\\LocalLow\\saknedev\\Coffie Simulator\\Player.log
> What's next <
The plan from here, roughly in order: networking the worker system, hunting down whatever you all find in this beta, then polish until co-op stops feeling like a beta. When it's stable, it goes to the main branch for everybody as a proper update.
No date. I'd rather be late than push a build that eats cafes.
And the single-player game is unaffected by all of this. If you never touch the beta branch, nothing changes for you, and the bugs you've reported are still getting fixed alongside the network work.
> Thanks <
Building multiplayer solo is a stupid amount of work, and I'm only doing it because you all kept asking for it and kept showing up for this dumb little cafe. Now go throw boxes at your friends.
See you in the beta. <3