- Moving on with style! - 14 December 2021
Hello Detectives! We've released Coffee Noir on September 30th and over the past 2 months we've been reading your posts and reviews, watching your gameplay videos and streams. It's been insanely satisfying for our team to see the story we've prepared unfold before your eyes. Now it's time to gather the feedback and think about making Coffee Noir even a better experience! In today's post we'll be looking at the latest changes in Coffee Noir and the future that lays ahead. Here's a couple of things, mostly related to the improved main menu, that we're cooking up for you: Improved the quality of graphics and colors in all sections of the menu Introduced a more consistent graphical representation between all interface elements Introduced a more consistent arrangement of button groups and data to improve UX Refined functioning of lists and buttons to improve UX Fine-tuned variety of colors a…
- Who made Coffee Noir artwork? - 5 October 2021
Ever wondered who is responsible for the visual overhaul of the new edition of Coffee Noir? Meet Ola - our marvelous artist, who made numerous illustrations, animations and majority the UI visuals! We wonder how many cups of coffee she drank during this whole time? You can see an example of her fantastic work here. See more artwork from Coffee Noir at Twitter, Facebook and Discord.
- Coffee Noir Patch 1.0.2 - 2 October 2021
Hello Detectives! We have just updated the game build adding few improvements and fixing minor bugs: Patch notes: Changes in confirmation screen when new chapter is available. Now it differs way more from the next week confirmation screen. The consequences of moving to the next chapter of the story are much more highlighted. It is now possible to exit to the game menu during the tutorial. Previously if you wanted to exit the game while tutorial was on, you have to permanently skip it. Now, during the tutorial you can always display small pop-up game menu by hitting ESC, and go back to the title screen. After hitting "Continue" from the game title screen, the tutorial will be continued. Management section fix - occasionally the screen with employee tasks was freezing, forcing you to close this window and display it again. This bug shouldn't occur any more. We've added latest Visual C++ R…
- Watch the stream and learn more about Coffee Noir! - 30 September 2021
To celebrate the game release, we've prepared a dev diary and gameplay walkthrough for you to learn more about the game and how to play it. Jump in and feel free to ask questions - if the team is not asleep, we'll be happy to answer them. ;) You'll be able to find our stream on the store page for Coffee Noir, or via Broadcasts tab in our Community Center.
- Coffee Noir - release day! - 30 September 2021
This is the day! Coffee Noir is now available for purchase. We'd like to thank everyone who supported us during the game's development. Your support and excitement for Coffee Noir helped us so much! We'd also like to thank the entire team, who's been working on the game! If it wasn't for this team of top detectives, we wouldn't be celebrating the release today. Welcome to Neo-London, enjoy your stay, but prepare yourself for a hard to solve mystery!
- Dev Diary: Investigation Board - 25 September 2021
Your office isn’t just for company management. There’s one device in there that will help you organise detective information you collect – the Investigation Board. It’s made of three sections: clues, characters and connections graph. In the clues section, there’s a list of all clues collected at a given point that needs to be connected with other information gathered during your investigation. When you click on one of them, you’ll see the description with some highlighted details you should pay attention to. You can connect clues you think have something in common, and if you succeed – congratulations, you’ve got yourself a proper conclusion which automatically goes to the connection graph section, and you’re closer to forming the full graph of the events! This section contains photos of all characters you’ve heard about or already met during the investigation. Each of them has a descri…
- Demo Update - 22 September 2021
It's time for some demo update, right? If you're wondering how Coffee Noir's gameplay feels - try out the new demo! It shortly shows the improved flow and other upgrades we've managed to prepare before the official launch. But remember - it's the mere beginning of the investigation case, so it might seem simple and cheerful - but we can promise that we've prepared quite a bumpy road for Arthur Oliver in the full version! Sorry, not sorry - the private detective life can't be too easy! For now - Joseph invites you for a negotiations round! What we've improved: - The demo storyline is moved forward, Joseph van Haven is the first contractor and we present the sequence of actions here, - The entire conversation scene in van Haven's office is refreshed graphics-wise, - The flow and dialogue dynamics have been improved. Longer exchanges between characters take place automatically, the player…
- The investigation begins on September 30th! - 19 September 2021
Coffee Noir premieres on September 30th, that means Arthur Oliver will begin his investigation very soon! Enter Neo-London to find out what this case means to him personally, what happened to Richard Kersey, the city's main coffee tycoon, what's the key to success as a coffee salesman; and much more! If you're ready to delve into the dark secrets of the city - like into the aroma of the darkest cup of espresso - mark this date in your calendar! PS We also want to thank you all for your continuous support during the game development!
- Manual saving - 14 September 2021
Want to test different negotiation techniques on the business partners, but you're afraid that they might not be willing to cooperate with you afterwards? No worries, manual saves go you covered! It's like a time machine, but Arthur is not really aware, so you can save and reverse time as many as you want. No one's judging, if it's all for the good of the investigation, after all.
- On the way! - 9 September 2021
We’re on the way to the premiere… see you in September! Coffee Noir has been through a much longer journey than we had initially planned. It started as a game to teach economics at universities, purely serious game with educational purpose. As it turned out it’s a really enjoyable tool, the team started thinking about making it a product for the general public. We began to develop the detective storyline. Before, it was only a background, just some context to show the economics. It evolved into a rich noir crime visual novel that’s equal to the business part of the game, not just an addition. The team also made a complete overhaul of the graphics. Most characters and all UI was redrawn. What you’ll see in September is a completely refreshed, more cohesive game. We show the updated graphics and content on our channels on a regular basis, so follow us in the upcoming weeks to see for your…
- The investigation begins in September! - 27 August 2021
The investigation begins in September! Coffee Noir premieres in September this year. Prepare yourself to put on the detective’s coat and the salesman’s suit and delve into the latest crime mystery of Neo-London. Stay tuned to learn the exact date of the release! Follow us on social media, as we’ll release more about the game soon: Twitter, Facebook and Discord.
- Dev Diary: Marketing - 25 August 2021
So, you have your coffee, you have your employees, but who will actually buy your products? Someone has to hear about them, right? That’s where the Marketing UI comes in. In Marketing, you will select campaigns to try to get specific people’s attention. Coffee preferences depend on their age, social status and type of work. Let’s see how to use that to your advantage. To the left, you have a list of products you have. Each of the products has two numbers, basic demand and campaign effect. Basic demand is the number of coffee units the buyers will purchase even without launching any marketing campaigns. Campaign effect is the additional number they’re buying because of the campaign you chose. Each product also has a description, where you can learn what kind of people like it. In the middle, there are active campaigns. You can have up to two active campaigns at the same time. Here, you c…
- Dev Diary: Management - 17 June 2021
After you sign contracts, buy upgrades, decide to research information on possible new contractors, someone needs to take care of those things. Here comes the Management UI, where you assign your employees to tasks. To the left, you have a column with the staff. If you hover on their avatars, you'll see a quick summary of their special skill, workload and work satisfaction. If the satisfaction drops low, go to the HR UI to fix that. In the Management UI you have five columns for five types of tasks. Tasks appear in them when you do something that creates a new process to manage. Production management is for tasks that appear when you start producing a new type of coffee, they stay for as long as you produce it. Post-sale account management is for tasks that appear when you sign a contract, they will stay there as long as you keep that contract. Lead acquisition & due dilligence is for t…
- Dev Diary: Comic Bank - 13 May 2021
What if you forget about something told in the story, need a refresh after a break in playing, or simply want to replay a comic or rewatch a cutscene? In your office, you have a comic bank where you can see all comics and scenes you’ve already revelead during story part of Coffee Noir. To the left, you can click on a file with comics, to the right there’s a film spool with the scenes. After choosing either of them, there's a list of available content. Preview of available comics Preview of available scenes Visit our social media: Twitter, Facebook and Discord!
- Dev Diary: Production - 8 May 2021
To provide your contractors with enough coffee and the type they prefer, you need to produce enough of it. That's what the Production UI is for. Here, you can control the production, storage and upgrades. Which coffee and how much? The switches and sliders to the left are for the coffee types: classic, espresso and cappuccino. Here you can see the brand level, production, stack and client demand for each of the types. The brand level can be standard, premium and superior. You can only develop the coffee further, never go back to a lower quality. You do it by clicking one of the three switches. Doing that is possible at certain points when you progress in the story, otherwise the switches are unclickable. Below the brand level, you see three windows with information about production, stock and client. Production is how much you produce Stock is how much you already have saved up in your…
- Dev Diary: The random events - 29 April 2021
When you play, you might encounter random events. Those events regard damage to coffee bags, accidents at the packaging facility, some worker’s failure etc. To prevent them, you need to skilfully manage your staff. Others require you to make a decision. You will be presented with a couple of solutions to choose from. You will have to figure out which solution is best, of course, but the game will reveal the right answer after you pick one so you can get proper feedback. Depending on what you choose, you can get a bonus or loss, the results can also differ in scale, so be careful! Unexpected can happen at any time, but when it does, take it on! Wishlist Coffee Noir to follow all the Dev Diaries!
- Sorry, we're latte - 29 December 2020
Hey, fellow detectives! We want to inform you that we’ve decided to move Coffee Noir’s release to 2021 and an exact premiere date will be revealed in Q1. We did it for several reasons. First of all, thank you for all the feedback about our demo released during Steam Autumn Festival. It’s been both a great success and a valuable lesson on what to do with the game in the next months. We’ve received a ton of comments - about the things you liked, suggestions on what should be changed, as well as some technical issue reports. What we perceive as a success is that since we’ve launched our demo, only a minor percentage of you reported critical crashes. It shows that the game is in good condition, though it obviously still requires some adjustments and bug fixes. Currently we’re finishing the last stage of development (the rest of voiceover recordings, engine balancing, final graphic touches)…
- Merry Christmas! - 23 December 2020
The Doji Games team would like to wish you Merry Christmas! We hope you are and will be healthy and safe, and that you’ll be happy, even though you probably celebrate in smaller groups than usually. We wish you a lot of time to play all the indie games you always wanted to play but had no time (we have a guilty pile of unplayed games too!), a lot of coffee to make your days better, and that you’ll get that extra pair of sweatpants among the gifts - to enjoy home office more. See you after Christmas!
- Dev Update 03/12/2020 - 3 December 2020
This autumn has been very busy for us! Apart from doing some final touches on the game, we’ve participated in showcases and shared our demo with the community and media. We encourage you to try a cup of Coffee Noir and play our free demo if you haven’t yet! It’s available here. We streamed the Coffee Noir gameplay during the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition (7-13th October) and that’s also when we launched the demo itself. We’ve received a lot of feedback from you, via Discord, Steam, Facebook and Twitter; we’re thankful for any opinions and suggestions you gave us. If you play the demo and have something to say about it, please contact us. When the festival ended, we found out that Rock Paper Shotgun has highlighted our demo as one of the best demos participating in the event. They described Coffee Noir as “Part noir mystery visual novel, part (very) detailed business management set…
- Coffee Noir at the Escapist Game Showcase - 10 November 2020
Coffee Noir will be part of the Escapist Games Showcase that starts at 12pm ET (6pm CEST) today! Watch it here: Youtube: https://youtu.be/7EH9opDjRdY Twitch: https://twitch.tv/escapistmagazine LGLoyal: https://twitch.tv/lgloyal We can't wait to see you there!
