Upcoming: Koko’s Cafe is a coming-of-age visual novel reminiscent of games like Coffee Talk

Koko’s Cafe is a visual novel coming in Summer 2025 that puts you in the driver’s seat of a newly hired barista. If you’re familiar with games like Coffee Talk, Tavern Talk, or VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, then this will be a familiar set-up for you.

You’ll serve coffee to your customers and get to know them. Through interactions, you’ll learn about their lives all while brewing and mixing up their requested drinks.

There’s not much that I can tell you about the overall story beyond it being a coming-of-age story about the struggles of growing up. But, I can say that this is a passion project from a single developer still in high school. PluviiArt has been working on this game since he was 15 and has done everything himself, including the art, writing, and programming of Koko’s Cafe.

Koko’s Cafe is very clearly a labor of love

Inspirations for Koko’s Cafe range from the Phillipines and Dubrovnik for the setting to Y2K and dark academia fashion for the character designs.

Personally, I’m always impressed when a solo-developer works on every aspect of a game and I’m even more impressed that someone has been able to do the bulk of this game while attending high school.

I think the art style is very appealing and I enjoy the brief glimpse into the varied character designs. To me, the style is very reminiscent of the manga NANA. Some perspectives aren’t exactly perfect, but that’s true for a lot of games.

Check out the Steam page for Koko’s Cafe to see more art surrounding the game and to wishlist the title. Doing so will help out the developer and help get more eyes on Koko’s Cafe.