Bone's Cafe
- October 29, 2022
- Acute Owl Studio
- 9h median play time
Get on Steam"Bone's Cafe" is a narrative-driven game where players manage a cozy cafe while uncovering the mysteries of a small town. Interact with quirky characters, serve up drinks and pastries, and decorate the cafe to create a welcoming atmosphere. The game features a unique blend of time management, puzzle-solving, and visual novel-style storytelling.
Reviews
- Bone's Cafe offers a unique blend of cooking and automation mechanics, allowing players to customize their restaurant layout and menu while managing undead minions.
- The game features adorable graphics and a charming soundtrack, creating a fun and engaging atmosphere that balances cute aesthetics with dark humor.
- Players appreciate the flexibility of gameplay, being able to enjoy it solo or with friends, and the developers are responsive to community feedback, promising future updates.
- The controls can feel clunky and unintuitive, especially on PC, with players expressing a desire for customizable key bindings and improved targeting mechanics.
- Some recipes are poorly explained, leading to confusion and frustration when trying to recreate complex dishes, which can detract from the overall experience.
- While the game is enjoyable, some players feel it lacks depth and may become repetitive after a few hours, with a desire for more content and challenges in the future.
- gameplay27 mentions
- 41 % positive mentions
- 48 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by unique mechanics, such as programmable assistants and minion automation, which enhance the experience and provide a fair progression system. Players appreciate the engaging, fast-paced nature of the game, with enjoyable co-op elements and a satisfying gameplay loop that balances simplicity with strategic depth. While some design choices may lead to grindiness, the overall experience is fun and offers a variety of challenges.
“The gameplay is engaging and fast-paced, making it a blast to play.”
“The gameplay here is radically different, with a unique mechanic of programmable assistants that makes the game stand out.”
“A fun gameplay loop that gets more stressful as the days go on.”
“Keeping it short, it's a really simple game with simple mechanics, yet can be demanding if chosen to be so by regulating the pace at which you play the game, regulating the amount of customers.”
“Gameplay loop is what you'd expect from this genre: cook, prep, serve, ... then serve the customer for other customers.”
“While there can be some tense moments due to the clock or other situations, overall I found the gameplay loop to be surprisingly relaxing.”
- music18 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 28 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its delightful and relaxing qualities, featuring a mostly lo-fi soundtrack that complements the cute graphics and overall vibe. While some players noted the repetitiveness of the music loops, many found the sound effects and soundtrack to be enjoyable and fitting for the game's atmosphere. Overall, the combination of charming visuals and pleasant music contributes to a fun and engaging experience.
“The sound effects are delightful, and the music is fantastic.”
“The game features a very pleasant (mostly) lo-fi soundtrack.”
“Awesome upbeat relaxing music, a fun story, challenging strategy, freedom in how you set up your cafe, lots of different recipes to learn, super, super fun!”
“(just listen to your own music if you don't want to listen to the same loop repeatedly)”
“As usual in these factory-like games, the sounds of a completely automated system are music to my ears.”
“I sat in the main menu for 20 minutes just listening to the loading screen music.”
- story14 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as charming and entertaining, featuring lighthearted humor and an engaging narrative that enhances the overall experience. While some players noted minor frustrations with controls and endgame content, the visuals, music, and consistent updates contribute positively to the storytelling aspect. Overall, the story mode is seen as a delightful introduction to the game's challenges, with a satisfying progression and enjoyable themes.
“It's an incredibly charming game with an enthralling storyline.”
“Awesome upbeat relaxing music, a fun story, challenging strategy, freedom in how you set up your cafe, lots of different recipes to learn, super, super fun!”
“The story is complete and updates were released as we played which greatly improved gameplay.”
“Innocent PG-13-ish aesthetic with really light storytelling, basically made up of slightly funny one-liners.”
“Tldr; decent story mode, very poor PC controls, disappointing endgame.”
“The story is complete and updates were released as we played, which greatly improved gameplay.”
- graphics13 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a charming and cute aesthetic, featuring delightful pixel art and whimsical character designs that contrast with its darker themes. While some players find the overall visual presentation to be basic or lacking in detail, the artwork and humor are praised for their appeal, making it particularly enjoyable for fans of cooking games and adorable visuals. The combination of cute graphics and engaging gameplay contributes to a fun and lighthearted experience.
“What I really like about this game are the cute graphics, the simplicity of play, and the challenge.”
“The artwork isn't the game's strong suit - most sprites look fine on their own (though the front-facing mouse is a tragedy/comedy) but the big picture looks kind of meh in a way that is hard to describe.”
“Graphically, the game looks very cutesy, especially all the little characters roaming around—a nice contrast to the game’s otherwise gruesome themes of necromancy and cannibalism.”
“The graphics may seem basic, but there is a lot of gameplay and a whole lot of character.”
- humor9 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's humor is characterized by its charming and light-hearted storytelling, featuring amusing one-liners and a unique premise that blends cooking with dark comedy, such as a necromancer enforcing cannibalism. Players appreciate the game's fun, chaotic co-op experience and the delightful pixel art that complements its comedic elements, making it an enjoyable and laughter-filled adventure. Overall, the humor is a standout aspect that enhances the gameplay and keeps players engaged.
“The artwork and humor are particularly noteworthy.”
“I love this game too much, the fast-paced style cooking sim as a necromancer who enforces cannibalism on their own customers is the best strategy to win, and it's hilarious.”
“Local co-op is painless to start, buttery smooth, and hilariously chaotic.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be somewhat tedious due to certain design choices, particularly the daily programming of cooks. However, once players acclimate to the mechanics, the gameplay becomes enjoyable and engaging, leading to a sense of fun in the farming and ingredient collection process.
“It feels grindy because of weird design choices, but the gameplay once you get rolling is pretty fun for sure.”
“You have to program your cooks every day, which can be tedious and boring.”
“So I keep doing farming days to get ingredients, lol.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is criticized for its lack of support for online co-op, with the remote play feature being described as buggy and unreliable since launch. While the core gameplay concept is enjoyable, it suffers from various programming issues that affect the overall experience.
“The game does not support online co-op; the remote play together feature on Steam is buggy and hasn't worked since day one.”
“The basic gameplay is fun, but the programming is buggy and affects the overall experience as the campaign evolves.”
