Working on Sugarplum Cafe, a game about running a dessert cafe and serving fashionable customers inspired by sweets.
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Sugarplum Cafe Newsletter: January 2025
Published 5 months ago • 4 min read
Sugarplum Cafe Updates
Happy 2025!
For those of you who received demo access at Ursa Major, a gentle reminder that the feedback survey is still open! I don't have many responses right now, so I appreciate any and all feedback. You should have received a link to the survey from my email, so search your inbox for thelettergii@gmail.com. Thank you to those who've already filled out the survey!
In this month's newsletter we'll cover the following:
If you want to read my past writeups but don't want to search through your inbox, or you want to read them as a proper article/blog post, you can find all my past newsletters at https://thelettergii.kit.com/!
In January I continued to share more information about Sugarplum Cafe on social media! Here's what I shared.
Q&A
I held a Q&A on Instagram Stories and compiled all the answers as a highlight. You can check it out here! Learn about the inspirations behind this game, my release plans, and more!
Alternatively, I wrote out some of the major questions as a proper post on Tumblr, if you'd prefer to view that format instead.
I wanted to make this an aesthetic game, so the backgrounds and UI are gonna have lots of pastel and frilly filigree ~
Top: Lady Mint, Lady Chocolate, and Lady Vanilla stand behind a gold and white counter. Above their heads are speech bubbles with their desired dessert inside, indicating what they want to order. The background is an elegant cafe, cream walls with pastel pink and teal color accents and gold filigree. Bottom: A kitchen with a large display window, where you can see three customers and their orders through the glass. On the counter, there are three culinary tools: a mixer, a steeper, and a pot. Above the mixer is a tooltip that reads, "Drag items into the tool." At the bottom of the screen is a grid with several desserts and an "x" button on the bottom left. At the top of the screen is a row of glass cloches, each with a unique ingredient inside.
You’ll navigate between various rooms. In the main room (top image), you'll talk to customers and serve them their orders.
In the kitchen (bottom image), you'll make their desserts.
There's a giant window so the customers can watch you work, but you can also check customer orders through the window so you won't have to go back and forth!
If you notice some of the art looks sketchy, a lot of what you see is placeholder art that I plan to redraw closer to launch. You know how I am with constantly redrawing my art 🤣 So don't worry, it'll be smoothed out eventually!
About desserts and colorblind accessibility
A close-up of the Sugarplum Cafe grid, with various mint-flavored desserts. A konpeito-shaped cursor hovers over the mint leaves, displaying a tooltip for the item that reads: "Mint Leaves. Lv. 0 Ingredient. Drag 3 or more together to merge into mint desserts. Merge desserts to discover new types of sweets!"
The mechanic for crafting desserts was inspired by mobile merge games. You’ll merge ingredients into desserts, then merge those desserts into more complex desserts. I always thought it was super satisfying to see things “evolve”! Here, the basic merge line is Ingredient -> Madeleine -> Macaron -> Petit Four -> Cake. For accessibility, I’ve included little ingredients in the corner because there will be a lot of flavors and the colors can look very similar even if you’re not colorblind. What’s the difference between apple red and cherry red, really??
About tea parties
Lady Vanilla (wearing a lacy cream dress) and Lady Jasmine (wearing a dress with patterns of blue Chinese porcelain) in an elegant tearoom, enjoying a tea party with a white teaset with gold detailing. The desserts on the tiered tea tray are pastel shades of pink, blue, and green. Above the tea party is a speech bubble with the tea set inside, indicating that they are ready to order.
Once you unlock a special room, you can host Tea Parties!
There are many Tea Sets to discover, each with its own theme. Different themes are associated with different flavors - for instance, a magical girl tea set could feature pink ingredients. Some Ladies will only appear if you figure out what Tea Party themes would match the flavors they like, so it’s up to you to find the right Tea Set to lure them in!
Of course, you can’t have a Tea Party without tea, and this lady next to Lady Vanilla will show you how it’s done.
Meet Lady Jasmine!
Lady Jasmine, The Designer. Favorite Flavor: Jasmine Tea. Intro Quote: "I suppose your work uniform is not bad. Pity you have to wear clothing you can move in."
Lady Jasmine loves all things tea, especially the tea parties at Sugarplum Cafe. Yes, her outfit is porcelain. No, it is not comfortable. To her, clothing is an art form and should not be constrained by practicality.
A green cylindrical cake with a large dollop of yellow-green cream on top. A cup of tea is in the background.
This matcha cake was filled with whipped vanilla mascarpone and raspberry coulis and topped with matcha ganache. I didn't really taste the mascarpone part, but it was good! I didn't expect matcha and raspberry to go together, but you learn something new every day :)
Maison Alyzee is pricey, but this patisserie is my favorite for ambiance and aesthetic, so I will sigh and shell out the money until I find one more up my alley...
That's it for this month - see you in the next one!
Sugarplum Cafe Updates In this month's newsletter we'll cover the following: How the Oakland showcase went UI updates (newsletter exclusive!) Click here to read past newsletters! Click here to follow my socials! The MADE Showcase If you saw my previous newsletter, I got to show off Sugarplum Cafe at an indie game showcase in Oakland, hosted by the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment. This was the first time people have been able to play my game in person since Ursa Major in December. I...
Sugarplum Cafe Updates Hello, and apologies for not sending a newsletter last month! Before I explain why, I have some exciting news for East Bay folks - you can play my game next week! I will be showing off Sugarplum Cafe at the MADE in Oakland at their indie dev showcase. Come play my demo alongside many other demos and maybe even some retro games - they have tons of vintage consoles you can play with! Where: Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, 921 Washington St, OaklandWhen: Friday,...
Sugarplum Cafe Updates Click here to read past newsletters! If you're not getting this newsletter straight to your main inbox, and it keeps going to your spam/promotions folder, here's how you can change that on Gmail! Find any of my past newsletters and right click > Label as > Uncheck all boxes. I circled "Promotions" here because that's where I found my newsletters, but you wanna make sure all boxes are unchecked. This way, future newsletters should go straight to your Primary inbox! A...
