20th March 2024

BOARD GAME CAFE - GAMEPLAY OVERVIEW

Last month we officially announced our next game, Board Game Cafe! Now that we’ve put out the announcement and you all know exactly what we’re going to be doing, we wanted to share some information about how exactly the game is going to play, and what you can look forward to experiencing once you get the game in your hands!

We’ve put together a gameplay overview trailer, which you can check out below:

But if you’re one of those people who prefer words over moving pictures, we’ve got you covered too! Please note that we’re currently still working towards an early access release for Board Game Cafe, so while these mechanics might be implemented in the game already, we’ve still got a lot of polishing up to do!

And most importantly, make sure you add Board Game Cafe to your Steam wishlist!

Day to Day Cafe Management

In a game called Board Game Cafe, you’d expect to spend most of your time managing a board game cafe right? Right!

The bulk of your gameplay experience in Board Game Cafe will be spent keeping an eye on your customers and staff, making sure that everyone’s needs are met when it comes to cardboard and coffee.

As customers walk past your cafe, they’ll either be intrigued and walk in off the street, or they’ll pass by. It’s up to you to make your cafe as appealing and inviting as possible to make sure customers keep coming in and you keep making income!

Staff Management

While you’re looking after the big picture and ensuring your business runs smoothly, your hard-working (hopefully!) staff will be keeping the cafe clean, keeping your customers happy and making sure that all the board games are properly stacked onto the shelves at the end of the day!

With different stats and areas of expertise between each staff member you can hire, you’ll need to ensure you have a well-balanced team to cover all the bases you’ll need to have a smoothly functioning cafe.

Choosing Your Board Games

With all the different types of board games out there (at least 10,000 according to BoardGameGeek!), there are absolutely tons of genres, niches and themes you can choose from when making your own board game collection. And in Board Game Cafe, we’re going to make sure you’ve got just as much choice as you would in the real world!

When you’re not busy running your cafe, you can browse a wide selection of different games from different publishers, and then order them in for delivery. Your games will take time to ship though, so you’ll have to keep an eye on your customers habits to make sure you’re anticipating what they’ll want!

Unboxing Games

As Board Game Cafe is going to feature a whole ton of different licensed board games, we wanted to give players the ability to inspect all the manuals, beautiful game pieces and more for each game in their collection. Which is where we came up with the unboxing feature!

With any game in your collection, you’ll be able to examine all the components at your leisure.

Managing Your Inventory

As part of running your cafe, you’ll be stocking a wide range of board games for your customers to not only play, but also to purchase! If you’ve only got one copy of a certain board game, that’ll be the copy your customers will play. Any extra copies you’ve got in stock will be purchasable, so you can make a steady stream of income from selling your extra games.

Just make sure you stock the kind of games that your customers are interested in buying! Because no matter how much they save up their pocket money, chances are the kids that come to your store aren’t going to be interested in the massive, £200 co-operative RPG.

Keeping an Eye on the Event Calendar

As you go through each day of running your cafe, you’ll need to keep an eye on your Event Calendar so that you’ve got a good handle on what’s coming up! Different events, weather and more will effect the numbers and types of customers you get in your cafe.

You’d better make sure you’ve got plenty of tea and biscuits for when the old folks pop into your cafe after their weekly walk!

Once your cafe is popular enough, you’ll also be able to host monthly tournaments for specific games! If one of your regulars represents your cafe in a tournament (either hosted by you or at a much bigger event!) and wins, you’ll gain prizes and fame for your cafe. Cool!

Customer Stats

Keeping up with your customers is a key part of the Board Game Cafe experience, and we’ve made sure to give you plenty of information on each and every customer, so you know exactly what’s making them happy (or not!).

Check out their favourite genres, their favourite types of snacks and how often they’ve come to your cafe - building up a good reputation with your regulars is key to getting more returning visitors and spreading through word-of-mouth and positive reviews!

Place Your Furniture and Decorations

Nobody wants to play board games in an empty beige void, which is why it’s important to decorate and design your cafe to reflect the experience your customers can look forward to.

We’re going to be travelling to a wide range of board game cafes up and down the UK to get inspiration, as we know there as many possible styles for board game cafes as there are games!

As we’re also going to be including real-life board games in Board Game Cafe, that means we can include real-life promotional materials too! So expect to see standees, cool displays and massive posters dedicated to your favourite games.

Recommendation System

We wanted to give players a reason to learn about the different games in their library, so we implemented our ‘Customer Recommendation’ system, where occasionally customers will ask for a board game recommendation on what they should play. Based on the criteria that the customer gives you, you’ll need to pick the game that matches closest to their tastes.

If you manage to make a good recommendation, not only will your customer have a better time in your cafe, but your knowledge of that particular game will also increase. Increasing your knowledge will make it easier for you pick out better recommendations in the future. Of course, if you think you already know the perfect 2 player fantasy board game with dice rolling, then you can go ahead and recommend it!

Daily Reports

Being a manager of a board game cafe isn’t just keeping the games in good stock and the coffee flowing, you need to manage your daily finances too! Every day, you’ll get a breakdown of where your income came from, so you can identify where you either need to improve or where you can double-down to make even more profit!

Different locations will have different audiences, so you can’t expect one money-earning tactic to work everywhere! You’ll need to keep on your toes if you want to keep the earnings coming.

Spending on Advertising

People want to know about your cafe, but they won’t be able to if you don’t get the word out! By putting money into advertising via social media, local newspapers or on TV!

Spending money on advertising might seem expensive, but the increased footfall in your cafe that it will lead to means that in the long run, your investment will pay off. Just make sure you’re ready for a big rush when your cafe goes viral!

Challenging Challenges

As you progress through a variety of cafes in your quest to become the ultimate board game cafe tycoon, you’ll be faced with various challenges that you’ll need to complete.

From getting enough customers into your cafe within a time limit, to selling a certain number of boxed games before the end of the month, there will be plenty to keep you on your toes, and great rewards if you’re able to accomplish them!

We can’t wait to share more with you, so don’t forget to follow us everywhere to hear all the latest news about Board Game Cafe!