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 and types of fonts in order to improve the flow of information
  
• Added interactive elements highlights, buttons in particular, to speed up the interpretation of elements on the screen
  
• Implemented a more intuitive form of creating a new profile and saving
  
• Minor bug fixes
  

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.

Hello Detectives! We have just updated the game build adding few improvements and fixing minor bugs:

[h3]Patch notes:[/h3]

• 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++ Redistributable to the installation package. Problem with creating a profile on Windows 7 should not occur.
  
• Minor fixes and improvements.
  
• Few typos and grammar corrects.

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.

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!

Your office isnt just for company management. Theres one device in there that will help you organise detective information you collect the Investigation Board. Its made of three sections: clues, characters and connections graph.



In the clues section, theres 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, youll 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, youve got yourself a proper conclusion which automatically goes to the connection graph section, and youre closer to forming the full graph of the events!



This section contains photos of all characters youve heard about or already met during the investigation. Each of them has a description of the person it depicts and the list of clues that are somehow connected to this character. It should help you organize information and understand the contents of the clues in a wider context.



The graph shows all connections between clues youve discovered, and also those youve connected with their conclusions. Significant plots are marked with certain colours to help you see how theyre all correlated and form an intricate story together. Youll progress here each time when you discover new clues and also when you succeed in connecting connectable clues in the clues section. Check out your progress and the full picture here once in a while! As you can see, its a must-have for any modern, neo-noir detective! And of course in Coffee Noir you can afford to have it in your own office. Enjoy!

Say hello to us on Twitter, Facebook and Discord!

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 doesn't have to click "continue" every time,
- Improved the mechanism of the decreasing employee motivation,
- The tutorial was shortened and remade,
- The appearance and operation of Investigation Board was changed,
- UI fixes, minor bugs etc.

Important thing: If you've started playing the previous version od the demo, we strongly advise to create a new profile in the main menu after the update and then start a new game !

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!

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.

Were 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 its 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 thats 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 youll 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 yourself what were talking about! See Twitter, Facebook and Discord.

The investigation begins in September!

Coffee Noir premieres in September this year. Prepare yourself to put on the detectives coat and the salesmans 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 well release more about the game soon: Twitter, Facebook and Discord.

So, you have your coffee, you have your employees, but who will actually buy your products? Someone has to hear about them, right? Thats where the Marketing UI comes in.

In Marketing, you will select campaigns to try to get specific peoples attention. Coffee preferences depend on their age, social status and type of work. Lets 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 theyre 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 can see their names, costs, effects and the option to cancel them. As you can see in the effects description, you need to assign an employee to the campaign in the Management UI. Otherwise it wont work. Remember that inactive campaigns also generate costs, but they dont have effects like the active ones do.

And to the right, theres a pile of inactive campaigns to choose from. Read their descriptions and try to assess which one will suit what you want to promote. Try to think which advertising method will appeal to specific type of person.

Good luck!

Say hello to us on Twitter, Facebook and Discord!

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 tasks that appear when you have a new possible contractor and need to gather information about that person before a meeting.
  
• Project management is for tasks that appear to complete a production or warehouse upgrade, or when you buy a marketing campaign.
  
• Staff trainings is for tasks that appear when you send an employee to a training via the HR UI, they disappear when a training is complete.
  

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 youve already revelead during story part of Coffee Noir.

To the left, you can click on a file with comics, to the right theres 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!

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 warehouse
  
• Client is how much your clients demand in total
  

• Costs shows you a table with all production costs
  
• Chart shows you a chart with amounts of types of coffee produced
  
• Warehouse shows you the quantity, value and costs of each coffee type in the warehouse plus an option to sell them in the market
  
• Classic, Cappuccino and Espresso tabs show tables with quantity produced and costs of production of each of those types
  

• Storage cost is how much you pay for storing the amount of coffee you have
  
• Warehouse capacity is how much you can store and how much of that is taken, which can also be checked at the warehouse status above
  
• Weekly output is how much coffee in total you produce
  
• Production capacity per coffee is how much of each type of coffee you can produce
  

When you play, you might encounter random events. Those events regard damage to coffee bags, accidents at the packaging facility, some workers 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!

Hey, fellow detectives!

We want to inform you that weve decided to move Coffee Noirs 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. Its been both a great success and a valuable lesson on what to do with the game in the next months. Weve 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 weve 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 were finishing the last stage of development (the rest of voiceover recordings, engine balancing, final graphic touches) and investigating all reports as well as your suggestions, still from our home offices. The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously changed the way our work is organized and things are taking more time than we couldve predicted at the beginning of the year. Coffee Noir game is our self-published product, while were still working on B2B projects for corporate clients to keep our company going. We often mention the huge amount of work we have in our small time, but we always try to avoid crunching at all costs. That is another reason why we let ourselves work on Coffee Noir for longer, to allow good working conditions for all of us in this tough year, and more time to add or fix things you, as our community, have mentioned. We really want our game to be as polished as possible on the day of the release, so we hope youll understand our decision. Thank you for your patience and all the kind words we received in the last few months.

Demo of Coffee Noir is still available on Steam, so if you havent played it before, nows your chance! All your feedback is very precious for us!

See you all in Neo-London in 2021,
Doji Games team

The Doji Games team would like to wish you Merry Christmas! We hope you are and will be healthy and safe, and that youll 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 youll get that extra pair of sweatpants among the gifts - to enjoy home office more. See you after Christmas!

This autumn has been very busy for us! Apart from doing some final touches on the game, weve 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 havent yet! Its available here.

We streamed the Coffee Noir gameplay during the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition (7-13th October) and thats also when we launched the demo itself. Weve received a lot of feedback from you, via Discord, Steam, Facebook and Twitter; were 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 in an alternate 2021 where everyone loves a) the 1920s and b) coffee. which is perfectly true. So exciting news for us!

At the beginning of the next month, November, we appeared at The Escapist Games Showcase to talk about the game. Our showcase and interview begins at this moment, but we encourage seeing the rest of the stream as well. This time our team has explained more why weve decided and how weve managed to merge such distant genres into one game. Some of us couldnt participate in the interview, but they were lurking on the chat! Thanks for all your commentaries during the interview.

After all those events and during them we are fixing and producing the last elements of the game. Its things like processing audio files of the voiceovers, recording some of the last lines, polishing the clues for the Investigation Board. While some of us are working on those, others adjust the animations so that theyre more smooth and look better, or work on creating some UI files that still need to be added.

In the meanwhile, we also released a short Coffee Noir video to share during Pitch Ya Game. Youve probably seen most of whats there, but take a look and share it with your thoughts, if youd like.

Well keep you updated on our progress with Coffee Noir. See you here and at Facebook and Twitter!

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!

An introduction to the story of Arthur Oliver, a hard-boiled detective who works undercover as a Coffee Salesman. Demo version gives a taste of gameplay and shows the game flow with a full tutorial.


The demo offers:

• Around 60 minutes of gameplay
  
• English voice-over for characters
  
• Most of game mechanics unlocked
  
• Package of first cutscenes, intro and demo outro.
  
  

Hello Detectives!

If you are good at your craft, you have probably already figured it out, but just to make it official Coffee Noir - Business Detective Game is releasing its FREE demo during the Steam Festival!

Take all the tools that are required to conduct an investigation, including a warm cup of coffee of course, and join our STREAM on October 7th!

Please feel free to ask us anything in the comment section, and in case you like what you see, feel free to wishlist the full version of the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/855550/Coffee_Noir__Business_Detective_Game/

Thank you!
DOJI team

Hello detectives,

We've got a good sip of exciting news for you today!

Below you can find some voice-over samples for Coffee Noir. We want you to immerse yourself into the atmosphere and life of the Neo-London, so every character in the game will be fully voiced.

We all like to find characters that we identify with. Voiceover will definitely boost our characters' unique personalities, so you can relate with them and experience their stories.

So plan your strategy as a coffee salesman and carefully manage your business while interacting with other inhabitants of Neo-London at the same time. Enjoy the exceptional combination of visual novel and business management game.

[previewyoutube=9ZfkDMQ-SYs;full][/previewyoutube]

Please tell us, which character from the above video you find most interesting?

Let us know in the comment section or join us on Discord, Facebook, or Twitter to chat with us about literally anything!

See you at the next one!
DOJI team

We have a new piece of UI to share with you!

If you remember, Coffee Noir's story unfolds in the form of comic panels. The case file you see at the top, allows you to go back to the specific panel, and re-experience the story. This would be extremely helpful if you need to refresh your memory.

The film frames, on the other hand, depict the key points of the story you've discovered so far. Now, you'll always be up to date with your investigation!

Hey, detectives! Our team is systematically moving towards the end of the game development process. Heres what weve been up to:

• Some of us work on ensuring that the whole storyline is cohesive and that clues, dialogues and comic are properly connected without conflicting information. Were having some fun drawing detective schematics!
  
• While checking the whole plot, we also conduct a general grammar check and translation check.
  
• Voice actors continue recording new batches of voiceovers.
  
• Since loading screen graphics are ready, its time to add more trivia about the coffee-filled world of Coffee Noir to display on them!
  
• Were carefully crafting the ending of the game so that it delivers the best it can story-wise and graphics-wise.
  

We hope everyone is safe and healthy! Doji Games is still developing Coffee Noir from home and this is what weve been doing recently:

• We finished the UI in the main navigation screen and graphics in notifications about random in-game events.
  
• Loading screens are almost done! Were working on the graphics and text that will show on them.
  
• Another batch of materials is being recorded by voice actors.
  
• Were also working on in-game marketing and translating descriptions of coffees for sale and campaigns to promote them.
  
• All graphics apart from the few loading screens and the last comic are complete.
  
• We are currently developing the last, non-standard mechanics for some scenes.
  
• Were preparing a demo for testing.
  

And its April! Time really does pass quickly. Heres what we have done last week:

• We are working on polishing the UI in the main navigation screen and notifications about random in-game events.
  
• Loading screens are in progress! Both the graphics and text that will show on them.
  
• Another batch of materials is prepared for the voice actors.
  
• Were working on additional, interactive story scenes with additional mechanics (implemented in the game only for the need of these scenes).
  
• Were almost done with all the story comic graphics!
  
• Were also working on in-game marketing, preparing and translating descriptions of coffees for sale and campaigns to promote them.
  
• Graphics for all clues are complete.
  

We switched to remote work last week due to the current global situation. We hope all of you are safe and at home if you can.

• The notifications and the pop-up system in the detectives office are ready. We made sure they are visually accessible and not too heavy.
  
• Currently, were working on random events that will show up throughout the game. You know, many things can go wrong during production and sometimes, business world just gives you some unexpected opportunities. Such events require the player to make a decision, which may result in additional income or. increased costs.
  
• Were updating our trailer to include new graphics and UI in it.
  
• The Finances section is rebuilt. It is more user-friendly and less academic now.
  
• We have finished all storyline texts in the game.
  
• Now its time to polish the details of the investigation and clues.
  

Hello, today we bring more news about polishing and finishing things!

• The Investigation Board will be ready any time now. Currently, were working on the way the clues are linked to each other and how thats communicated to the player, but other than that the Board is done.
  
• Were polishing the SFX in cutscenes and comics.
  
• Final texts in the game, including dialogues in comics, are almost finished.
  
• Were implementing a mechanic that warns the player about possible problems in production if the player has a shortage of coffee at the end of a chapter.
  
• We also have to prepare the alerts about the production problems. The graphics are ready, we just need to prepare the text and general style of the alert windows, so well show an example soon!
  
• Character descriptions are almost ready just a few of them missing and the finished ones are also translated.
  

Good to see you again! Its that time of the week time to share what our coffee energy is spent on.

• We are working on an unique (and secret!) mechanic that will appear in late stages of the game.
  
• Graphics are being adjusted and still drawn. Some of these are not that secret, so well share something soon. Stay tuned, detectives.
  
• Investigation board is further developed, description of clues and phrases for clue linking are being prepared.
  
• We are also preparing a list of all quests by chapters in the game to achieve the clear and understandable path for the player.
  
• Characters are ready to do business with you, but they need some in-game descriptions, so that you can read about those who want to rip you off and buy your coffee as cheaply as possible!
  

February is more sunny and warm than ever, almost hot, and so is the work on Coffee Noir now!

Were working on the final batch of the game and refining some of its elements. We were also able to confirm that we have solutions to some concerns mentioned on Twitter.

• The work on the Marketing UI is continued, currently we focus on the mechanics and their descriptions for development.
  
• We confirmed that well be able to implement audio accessibility with an option to switch it off and on. Read more here.
  
• The Lead Artist works on one of the comics that appear in the last part of the game. Exciting noir stuff we obviously wont spoil!
  
• Meanwhile, a new website for Doji is being developed. Its actually going to be much more simple and working more smoothly than it is.