Emma Withington gets hands on with Hipster Café…
Feel like the world is just too mainstream? Hipster Café is here to help – providing you with a hipster-haven, where you will always be ‘on trend’. You still have time to like it before it’s cool – so let’s get stuck in!
Happy Hipsters, Make Happy Baristas
The aim of the game is to manage the Hipster Café. Simple, right? Not quite – a hipster is, as a hipster does so that means your café must evolve with the changing trends to maintain that coveted five star (or in my case 1.5) rating. This means adapting the menu, changing the decor, and keeping an eye on the in-game Social Media to ensure you don’t ever cater to the mainstream groups *shudder*. From ball-pits and Amazon Lockers, to pop-up shops and axe throwing – it’s all here and accents the culture perfectly.
Feed the Hipster, be the Hipster
Before we were let loose in the café, we were shown the Menu Creator. My aim seemed to be making the most awful food known to man, as I attempted to stuff buns full of leaves and avocados in the hope of making something wonderfully pretentious. I wasn’t the only one being stingy with my tiny avocado slices; someone beside me had placed a solitary chip in their bun. A real tickler is the generated names that appear on the menu, once you have created your hipster-friendly (hopefully) dish. I lost it at: ‘Unripe Incongruous Grilled Pineapple Burger’ – which actually did quite well with its ‘seismic hash brown’, as ‘lumberjack hipsters’ started to make an appearance.
Made in Dalston
Created by Technical Artist Vegard Myklebust from Useful Slug and showcased at EGX Rezzed by Loading Bar, Hipster Café hearkens back to classic humour-based simulators Pizza Tycoon and Theme Hospital – filling the funny bone void that few have successfully achieved in a business-management simulator since – and tops it off with tower defence elements to keep you on your toes!
Hipster Café was born in Dalston and is inspired by its ever changing landscape. Using Scenario as an office, before and since it became a Loading Bar, we spoke to Vegard about Hipster Café’s inception: “We’ve been working in Dalston for a few years, which is a very hipster-centric place,” explains Vegard, “a lot of the elements that are in the game are things that have happened in Dalston, one way or another! For example, the ball-pit used to entertain the hipsters in-game is in reference to Ballie Ballerson, which originally opened a couple of doors down from the Loading Bar!”
Wait, what? What do you mean there’s a real-time reflection in the cash register?! Not only is Hipster Café a clear winner in the fun department, it is also beautifully animated; making technical achievements that are rare, even in the AAA department. Vegard’s day job as a Technical Artist has spanned projects ranging from the Obama Administration to work for Iron Maiden; and he is now using custom techniques which make Hipster Café shine, quite literally. Oh, and did I mention that what you see here is, essentially, the result of three months worth of work? No? Well I have now.
If, like us, you can’t wait to see more of Hipster Café, watch this space! Until then, check out the teaser below and add Hipster Café to your Steam wishlist…
Emma Withington – @EWithingtons
Follow the gaming team @FMyth_Gaming
