Today, we’d like you to meet the Barista’s right-hand person, their trusted assistant, Vin!
Vin was born because we wanted players to have a character in the game who felt like a constant presence at the café; someone who creates a thread throughout the story, even as other characters come and go. At the same time, we wanted them to feel different from Freya’s presence in the first Coffee Talk, both in personality and in role. That’s how the idea of an Assistant Barista came to be.
Then, as we spent more time with Vin, they became much more than that, as characters tend to do. Vin is a human with a peculiar backstory. They’re a sweetheart who puts others first, a hard-working person who’s been through the wringer, a music lover, a dog person AND a cat person (why not both?), and many things besides. They live in a loft above the café and are the Barista’s close friend.
Like all our characters, Vin’s looks are the work of cro_iz, our concept artist, who took the writers’ brief of a “classical, with a bit of cyberpunk vibe” character and came up with Vin’s barista outfit, a mix of the traditional jazzy vibes represented in the cafe’s interior, and the neon lights shining outside. We also wanted Vin’s looks to reflect their creative personality and their non-binary identity.
Our character artist, Dan, then brought Vin to life with a whole array of facial expressions, some of which are specific to this character only and represent their unique personality, an enthusiastic face at one end of the scale, an exhausted look at the other.
We hope you enjoy getting to know Vin as much as we did, and discovering what makes them tick!
In the meantime, stay tuned for our next devlog, where we’ll discuss the themes in our story (spoiler-free, of course.) ☕️💛
Coffee Talk Tokyo Team