Hello from Coffee Talk Team!
If you are reading this… Hi!
I’m Sarah from Toge Productions. First joined as Community Manager, and now I’m the Head of Marketing (Woohoo!) for the studio! If you’ve never heard of Toge Productions before, we are an indie game development and publishing studio based (mainly) in Indonesia, focusing on premium PC and console games. So yes, we make our own game and we also publish games made by talented people from the region. Toge Productions has been around for over 14 years already. Some of our biggest titles are Infectonator series, A Space for the Unbound, and Coffee Talk.
As written in the title, we’re gonna talk more about Coffee Talk.
Coffee Talk is basically a visual novel combined with a coffee-brewing mechanic. In this game, you play as a barista who owns a late-night coffee shop in an alternate-Seattle called Coffee Talk where you listen to your customers’ stories while serving their favorite warm drinks.
And what’s special about this coffee shop?Your customers are not just human. You will meet quirky orcs, business-oriented succubi, fashionista vampires, cat-eared idols, and other mythological denizens, each with their own stories to tell and their own favorite drinks to order.
If I have to say anything about this game, it’s a cozy narrative game that you can play while sitting down on a rainy evening while enjoying your favorite coffee or tea (or hot chocolate!) accompanied by chill-hop lo-fi soundtracks composed by our audio designer, Andrew Jeremy.
Coffee Talk was released in January 2020 when the pandemic hit. What we didn’t realize was that, around mid-2020 we suddenly got a lot of messages and emails from the Coffee Talk players that they were helped by the game during the hard time, and how the game comforted them and made them feel less lonely. We were so happy and we never knew that the game that we made could actually give impact to people and actually help them.
Coffee Talk was Toge Productions’ very first cozy visual novel which idea came from our late-friend Mohammad Fahmi who was our PR & Marketing Manager at that time. He submitted the idea for our internal game jam, and actually I did the character design for the game jam build. I remember I drew a businessman elf, a nerd orc, and a shy succubus. If you’ve played the game, you probably know who the characters are now in the game. People loved the game he made and Toge decided to create a team and continue the project. Of course, I didn’t join the team because I was working as the community manager, but I’m glad they let me contribute a small part in the game! They had Dio as the lead artist, Fredrik as the lead programmer, Andrew Jeremy or AJ as the project manager and audio, and they also got help from Kris, Hendry, and Jovan.
After the success of the first game, we decided to create the sequel but with a new writer as Fahmi decided to leave Toge and started his own indie game studio. Unfortunately, in early 2021, we heard from his family that Fahmi passed away. It broke our hearts… Even as I’m typing this right now, I’m trying to hold back my tears… Through his game, Fahmi helped and saved a lot of people’s lives. Many were heartbroken when they heard the news.
And that is why, in the second game, while bringing the same spirit that Fahmi had given to the first Coffee Talk, we developed Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly with Junkipatchi joining the team as the new lead writer and narrative designer, hoping that this game too will help and comfort many through its story, music, and gameplay. We finally launched the second game on April 20th, 2023 on PC and consoles and so far we’ve been receiving positive feedback from the players and we are truly happy that they all enjoy it! And most of all, we hope that Fahmi will be proud of us.
Whew! I didn’t expect the article that I wrote would end up gloomy. Anyway, I think I want to personally say thank you to Fahmi because I wouldn’t be able to take part in this game if he didn’t ask me to join his game jam team that time. And to the team at Toge Productions, they all had worked so hard these past 5 years for both Coffee Talk and Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly. You all did great!
I guess that’s all?
Oh! Right! Promotion time!
OK, so, Coffee Talk and Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly are available to play on PC and consoles! If you are looking for a wholesome, cozy visual novel to play after a long day, I recommend you to play them.
Take care!
Sarah
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