A late-night digital refuge, now in Tokyo. 🗼
Hello, lovely players! Thank you for joining us in our late-night Tokyo café. Whether you’ve followed us across the Pacific from Seattle, or you’re finding us now in a little back street tucked away between neon-lit skyscrapers, we thought we’d start by introducing you to our fine establishment. Why Tokyo? Why the wood-clad interior? Why the records and the sound system? If you’re curious to find out, read on.
There’s just something special about Tokyo at night. If you’ve ever been there, or are even from there, you will know this: the safe, quiet residential streets where parents cycle home, their kid on the back rack, from some after-school class, and right nearby, the bustling roads covered in bars, 24/7 shops, and tipsy salarymen. Underlying all that, layers upon layers of lives are lived alongside each other: the elegant bar Masters, the tired konbini workers, the jobbing musicians. Tokyo at night is a never-ending carousel of colourful characters. It’s no wonder that Midnight Diner, the quirky TV show set there, has had such massive success, to the point that it inspired an indie game you may have heard about: the original Coffee Talk.
In that sense, setting the new game in Tokyo felt like coming full circle, right back to the source. But it was also an opportunity for something new. Japan has a long and rich history of myths and legends, some of which have crossed borders into the Western imagination, powerful dragons, clever kitsune, tricksy kappa, and others that are less well-known. Moving the action to Tokyo meant we could now pick from all this fascinating folklore. Of course, in keeping with Coffee Talk’s tradition, we wanted to use the characters to shed light on some societal issues that are peculiar to Japan; but at the same time, because people are people across time and places, it allows us to explore, beyond cultures, our shared humanity.
With that said, the question remained of the café itself. We could have gone with a modern space, not too dissimilar from the original café, but Tokyo has a wonderful tradition of something called jazz kissa. Set on quiet roads, bathed in dimmed light, with walls panelled with wood, hundreds of vinyl records, and large speakers, jazz kissa welcome avid music listeners, who often sit in near-liturgical silence while the Master, a bona fide jazz expert, plays their pick of the greatest records. Obviously, our café couldn’t have that same silent vibe, but in every other respect, the inspiration seemed perfect. The cosy, timeless atmosphere is the kind of backdrop we want for our stories, and music plays no small part in why players love the Coffee Talk IP, something we’ll return to in a future devlog.
So we found some reference pictures, sent them to our concept artist, Cro-san, and our environment pixel artist, Fuzuzu-san, and Coffee Talk Tokyo was born.
We hope you enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes glance at our inspiration process. We’ll see you soon for another devlog, in which we will introduce a character we love very much.
Until then, happy brewing! ☕️💛 Coffee Talk Tokyo Team