You like coffee? You like sim games? Ever dream of owning your own Starbucks? Well here is your chance, sort of… With Coffee Tycoon from Trisynergy you can create, own and run your very own coffee store and never have to worry about sleep again! Really though, Coffee Tycoon is a sim type game where you get the chance to run your very own coffee shop, and build it into an empire of coffee shops all over the place, sounds familiar huh?! Well read on to check this game out…
Coffee Tycoon
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: Trisynergy
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Build a Coffee Empire!
Coffee Tycoon gives sim a jolt of caffeine! It’s packed with awesome graphics, tons of features, and lots of fun! Starting fresh with your first store, customize you coffee business by choosing a name, logo and store design. Launch your store in the location of your choice, such as New York, Los Angeles, or perhaps Seattle, the coffee capital of the world!
Coffee Tycoon is filled with dozens of charming characters who will offer up opinions, good or bad, on the quality of your store. Choose from dozens of store upgrades and coffee recipes to customize your business and build you coffee empire.
Game Features:
-5 different company logos and coffee store styles
-5 starting cities: new York, Miami, Chicago, L.A., and Seattle
-Dozens of game characters and personalities
-Dozens of store upgrades and coffee recipes
-Hundreds of unique events and bonuses
How to Play:
Step 1 – Name Your Company:
First, you’ll need to choose a name for your coffee company. It can be anything you like.
Some examples of names are: "Sally’s Coffee", "Cup of Joe" or "Cream and Sugar."
Step 2 – Choose Your Company Logo:
Each logo has a store design associated with it. Click on the "View Store" button to see the store design!
Next you’ll choose a logo. Each logo has a store design associated with it. Click on the "View Store" button to preview each store!
Step 3 – Choose Your Company Location:
Choose a city to start your coffee business!
Finally, you’ll need to choose a city to start your coffee empire. Once you do that, you’re ready to go!
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info Continued:
Introduction from the Coffee Tycoon website:
I’ll give you a quick overview of how to play Coffee Tycoon!
First, there are 4 main screens:
EMPLOYEES:
I’ll give you an overview of the Employees screen later in the tutorial.
MENU:
This screen is where you will add new drinks to your coffee lineup.
UPGRADES:
This screen is where you will buy items that will improve your coffee shop, from super espresso machines to a corporate headquarters.
CUSTOMERS:
This screen is where you will see all the different customers who will frequent your stores
Tutorial:
Next we’ll go over the game stats. There are 4 main stats:
MONEY is the currency in the game. You earn money each day by selling coffee to your Customers. You will also need Money to add coffee recipes to your Menu and to buy Upgrades.
CUSTOMERS are how many people visit your Stores. The first number is the Customers you have. The second number is the amount of Customers you need to Level Up!
STORES are the number of Stores your company operates.
LEVEL is your current level in the game. Watch the progress bar to see how close you are to Leveling Up!
Employees:
Finally, the "Employees" screen is where you’ll manage your workforce. There are 3 types of Employees:
BARISTAS main job is collecting the Money and making the Coffee.
MANAGERS run the Stores and help draw in more Customers
EXECUTIVES are busy trying to expand your company by opening Stores.
Adjust the percentage of each type of Employees to meet your daily need. If you need more Money, make more Employees Baristas. If you need more Customers, make more Employees Managers and so on.
Winning the Game
Reach 1,000,000 Cutomers to win the game!
System Requirements
Windows 98 /2000/2003/Me/NT/XP
Pentium 400mhz
64MB RAM
16MB Video Card
DirectX
A Better Look at Things
:
The box for Coffee Tycoon is done in a fun cartoonish style, on the front we can see a generic coffee shop with a family getting coffee.
The front folds out to give you some nice screenshots and an overview of the game itself.
The back of the box has a basic description of the game along with a couple more screenshots and listed features.
Included in the box is just the CD in a paper sleeve, no book needed.
Installation, Testing and Gameplay:
Once the game is installed you can click on the desktop icon and start the game. You are greeted with a short menu of options. New Game, Load Game, How to Play and Quit.
Clicking the ‘How to Play’ menu item takes you to a brief summary of how to play the game.
Back to the main menu and click New Game, Step 1 is to name your company.
After you name your company you can pick the logo and the location of you new coffee empire.
Then the game begins, you can follow along with the tutorial or skip it and just jump right in, it is recommended you follow the tutorial as there are few things that need to be known before playing the game.
Installation, Testing and Gameplay Continued:
The main screen is your employee screen, here you can adjust the percentage of employees doing what in your store, each has their own function or role to play in keeping your store and customers happy.
The Menu screen is where you can customize your coffee shop to your liking, here, once you earn some money, you can purchase coffee recipes/drink recipes for your coffee shop. Different types of drinks are more suited for different types of customers, you need to make your store attractive to everyone.
The next screen would be the Upgrades screen, here there are things you can do to help your business thrive such as opening more stores, keeping your employees happy, buying new equipment, buying buildings like plantations, warehouses and such. You can also expand you main company, and purchase advertising to get the word out about your wonderful store.
The last screen is about the customers that might come into your store, you can scroll through them all and select them to learn a bit more about them.
As far as gameplay goes, there isn’t much of it really, you need to set you percentages for employees and then if you have enough money get upgrades or new menu items, after you are finished you click ‘Start Day’ and the game plays automatically. While you watch the day go by sometimes things happen that cause you to loose money or gain money. As you stores expand, you’ll see the store fill up with people or customers.
There isn’t really to much action involved in Coffee Tycoon, don’t expect it, it is more of managerial duties than anything. For me this type of game is not my thing at all, I like action type games, even some sim games I do like, the kind where you actually do more than watch the day go by like this game. Don’t get me wrong, some people might actually like this type of game, I know people that stay up for hours playing The Sims, and I hate it, so it all depends on what you like.
For what it is is is a very simple game to play, playing is very easy to learn and do. There are things that you will figure out, like having more baristas helps keep the customers happy, or having more executives is actually a bad thing (huh, ya think so?!) they like to be spoiled and pampered and you end up losing money by squandering it on gold bath fixtures and such things. The managers kind of go both ways, sometimes they do help out, then other times they cause problems themselves.
Unless you are a hardcore fan of sim/tycoon type games then you might not like this game, if you love sim/tycoon games then I can say that you will love Coffee Tycoon.
Summary:
Coffee Tycoon is actually a pretty cool game, if you like these types of games then you’ll love Coffee Tycoon. For me, this is not my thing, I like to be more involved in my games, they are a way for me to escape and relax, for me Coffee Tycoon is just rather boring.
DragonSteelMods gives Coffee Tycoon a 4 out of 5 score.
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Pros:
-Cool concept
-Nice graphics
-Fast moving
Cons:
-Gets boring real fast.. for me anyway
I would like to thank Trisynergy for the chance to review Coffee Tycoon and for their continued support of DSM.