Retro Barista

Josie wanted to make a game about running a little shop that felt real, after watching Coffee Talk over my shoulder. We deliberately made the customers dumber than the ones in that game (no branching dialogue, no relationships) and put the effort into the loop of reading the ticket, building the drink and handing it over. That's the busywork part of a coffee sim, but it's also the part that's actually fun.

A couple of things help. The ingredients on the ticket are always listed in the same order they go into the cup, so get used to reading top to bottom and just clicking in that order. If a customer's patience meter is running out, serve them something close. A partial tip beats a walked-out zero. And don't ignore the decor upgrades. They look cosmetic, but they actually slow down how fast patience drains, and that adds up quickly once you're juggling three or four orders at once.

What she learned building it

The hardest part was the state machine for the customer queue. Customers have to spawn, wait, react and leave without overlapping each other or breaking the layout. Josie ended up writing it as a simple array of "customer slots", each one with its own status. Experienced developers reach for that kind of thing without thinking about it, but the first time you work it out for yourself it's a real lightbulb moment.