Sugarplum Cafe Updates

In this month's newsletter we'll cover the following:

Trying something new at the Rodo showcase
A sneak peek at a new illustration
An amazing opportunity from another indie game

Trying something new

This month I showcased at the inaugural Rodo Playtesting Event in Fremont, and got to try some new tactics following my insights from the past few showcases!

In my last post, I wrote about the struggles of having a slow-paced tutorial at an in-person showcase where everyone has limited time. I then received a VERY interesting message from Caelus, who works in games marketing + community. They suggested that I print a "how to get started" infographic for folks waiting in line to play, so that when it's their turn they'll be primed enough to try mid-game mechanics.

I immediately fell in love with the idea - not only would it give people waiting in line something to do, but priming them in advance means they could start further ahead in the game. So I made a guide loosely inspired by the layout of cafe menus. I even got it laminated, just like a real menu you'd get at a restaurant or cafe!

A laminated "How to Play Sugarplum Cafe" guide.

(Thank you to gamedevs who advised me to add QR codes. I saw a few people take their phones out to scan the QR codes, so it worked!)

At the showcase, I gave players two options:

1) You could start from the beginning and get the full experience, OR
2) If you felt comfortable enough after reading the guide (or played the demo at a previous showcase), you could enter a demo where you start mid-game, where you'd have met 4 Ladies and unlocked the Tea Room to start hosting Tea Parties. This assumes you know the basic mechanics of merging.

And the verdict? I think this worked great! I got a good mix of people choosing both options, and I got way more people testing out mid-game mechanics than before.

I did forgot to mention in the guide that you could right click to spawn 10 ingredients at a time, so players were still rapidly clicking the mouse to spawn multiple ingredients (this was an issue before that I had forgotten), so I will have to add that in, and maybe think of ways to call that out in-game better.

The mid-game mechanics themselves weren't flawless either. Players were getting confused about how they worked and didn't understand how to unlock new Ladies through Tea Parties. But I know now there is work that needs to be done - couldn't have confirmed that before.

But I still consider this a success, because now if I want to iterate on mid- or late-game mechanics, I can use these guides as a way to run playtests at in-person showcases.

A Spoonful of Sugarplum

I finally finished my illustration from a couple newsletters ago! ✨

Lady Chocolate and Lady Vanilla hold giant golden spoons, each engraved with their respective ingredient on the handle. The spoons are crossed in front of each other and a golden plate frames the two Ladies in the background.

As part of my continuing quest to make my digital art look traditional, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. As for whether I would redraw all the Sugarplum game art to look like this, probably not. It takes a lot of time, and all the added texture might actually make the game look too busy.

I would love to draw more illustrations in this style to promote the game though! Like how Danganronpa has different art styles for promo art vs. in-game art (yes, I am really using Danganronpa as an example)

Sphere to square

I also wanted to share an amazing opportunity I received from the devs of one of my favorite games last year, 1000xResist! Remy Siu, the creative director, commissioned me to draw two characters in my style.

Left: The Allmother Iris in black armor decorated with gold filigree, holding a glowing yellow Familiar.
Right: Healer wears a pink cyberpunk qipao/cheongsam-inspired dress and her signature white face mask.

Once upon a time before I started working on Sugarplum Cafe, I loved to draw high fashion redesigns of characters from my favorite media. It's still a side passion of mine, so it was an incredible honor to put my own spin on two of my favorite characters!

1000xResist is a game that quietly came out last year but has picked up huge traction and praise thanks to word of mouth. The best way I can describe it is "Nier: Automata with Asian generational trauma", and as an immersive visual novel the gameplay is more akin to a walking simulator with no combat, so I think anyone can pick up this game.

Maybe because I am Asian-American myself, I haven't had a story hit me this hard since Everything Everywhere All At Once. I'm beyond floored to have been commissioned by folks who created something that moved me so much. Please play this game, it will change your life!

Ending on a sweet note

I love talking about food, so I thought it'd be fun to end each newsletter with a different dessert. This month's sweet treat is...a smorgasbord of cakes!

Various cakes - some homemade, some from small bakeries. See below for the full list of cakes!

Inspired by the famous Cake Picnic, I wanted to host my own, smaller-scale cake potluck! My friends were like, "it's so kind of you to organize this event for the community!" but no, I just wanted an excuse to eat a bunch of cake lol.

Leland Tea Company, the venue that hosted our cake potluck, specializes in afternoon teas. I really recommend it for the service, the affordability (around $30 per person) and especially if you are a tea aficionado! The owner is so friendly and passionate, he creates all the tea blends himself and there are so many to choose from - sometimes I just walk in to order a cup of hot tea for about $5, which is an easy way to try tea blends without committing to a full bag. My favorite is Billie Holiday, a jasmine rose green tea. If you are ever in downtown Burlingame, please stop by and support them!

If you're worried whether we got overwhelmed by the sweetness of the cakes...we did, but we also had some savory cakes to balance it out! Including the cake that I made - a mie goreng cake made from instant Indomie (seen below)

A table of cakes with savory cakes in the foreground. See below for the full list of cakes!

We had around 16-17 cakes and 20 people, and there was definitely way too much cake for this amount of people - thankfully, the Leland staff happily finished off the rest of the cake. I don't know how Cake Picnic does it if everyone is required to bring a cake to attend, haha.

If you're curious, here is the full list of cakes:

Sweet: