Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 16

"Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series YouTube Playlist

Welcome to Part 16 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series!
For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes!
For this episode, I used some of the demos I had grabbed from the Cooking Fest and Cozy Quest Steam Events! I think. I grabbed a bunch during those events, and outside of them, so I don't know anymore…

Today, I played 4 demos for your enjoyment:

1. Cornucopia® – Early Access Game
   A nostalgic 2.5D farm sim with 74 exotic crops, loyal pets bred for amazing genetics, and 34+ marriage candidates—from spirited youths to wise elders. Master NPK compost, raise magical kids, conquer dungeons, and delight in whimsical scratch-card arcade fun. Your cozy story starts now!
2. Hipster Café – Early Access Game
   Ever wanted to design, build and manage a café on your very own home computer? Really? OK then… welcome to HIPSTER CAFÉ. Make stupid food, serve it on a skateboard, and impress your friends by drawing in your coffee.
3. Let's Café – Early Access Game
   Food makes everything better in this cozy café business simulator. Discover recipes and set your menu to rake in those tips and five-star reviews. Solve your fuzzy clientele’s problems with the power of good cookin' and earn the favor of satisfied customers.
4. Spells & Secrets – Available
   In this rogue-lite adventure, you free the Academy of Greifenstein from magical creatures by using your spells creatively. Explore this modern magical world alone or in local co-op mode with friends and family, customize your character, solve mysteries, and find powerful artifacts.

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.
Spells & Secrets is also available on itch.io!

The verdict? Via the "Layered Compliment Sandwich":

Cornucopia®'s art style is ABSOLUETLY adorable! If you've been here a while, you know I LOVE pixel art! AND the tutorial felt like a tutorial. And was, also, a bit of a time waster. And made no sense, since we couldn't see the passage of time. On the way back from the hospital, we are asked to clear the roadblocks. How long were we in the hospital that we needed to clear up growing bushes in the middle of the road on the way back? Why was there a pile of giant rocks in the middle of the road? Why weren't folks in town keeping the roads clear? The tutorial could have, and should have, been done on the farm itself. The best part about it was the dog! And the mailman has a little chick following him around!

Hipster Café gets bonus points for being unique. The fact they incorporate promoting your café on social media is brilliant! HOWEVER, it needs to provide more guidance. Figuring out what customers need can not be left to symbols. And, when we click on them to fill their coffee order, what they want needs to appear in the "Coffee Creation" screen. Being expected to remember is an unnecessary addition to the cognitive load. The art style is simplistically cozy. We could also say cozily simplistic. The Research mechanic was a bit overboard. What made me keep playing as long as I did, however, was the obvious jab at capitalism. We are specifically told we were able to get the café started with a trust fund. Brilliant!

Let's Café was so damn cute! And, I didn't mention it in the video, it was another of those "make your own recipes" games that had me leaning on Maid Café on Electric Street for ideas. I would never have thought to make the different types of lattes, which lead to the different types of chai, otherwise. Also, their lack of a tutorial and throwing me in was ACTUALLY effective. The initial "here's what's going on" needs a font size increase, though. If I, with my glasses on, had a hard time reading it, I can imagine how others might feel about it. Also, this is a café, why isn't coffee ALWAYS being sold? Other than that, it was a lot of fun! And it looked like I could keep playing the demo; I believe I will!

Spells & Secrets' art style was impressive, but the tutorial not only felt like a tutorial, it also wasted my time. And we are in the most irresponsible school ever. Why would you leave a first-year student (I wonder what the inspiration for the game was) to deal with intruders? Why wouldn't a professor, after finding a student, not teleport them to safety? And why would only certain items be able to be lifted with telekinesis? There were entire sections that could have been skipped. One thing I will give it, in regards to the intruders, was finding out I could use telekinesis to hit another enemy with them and kill them both. It was a happy accident. Why wouldn't any of the professors have a griffin's feather? Why would the teachers be perfectly comfortable sending you back into the castle to find the rest of the students? Why don't I have a party of professors going along with me? This game makes no sense. Hades and Harry Potter were combined horribly. Looks good, though. Work was clearly put into that.

Overall, I want Cornucopia® and Let's Café, and they are on my wishlist.

As a reminder, Cornucopia®, Hipster Café, and Let's Café are all in Early Access while Spells & Secrets is available.

And that's it for Part 16! Thank you for reading!

If this series of videos is something you're interested in, they're available on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, Odysee, and Ko-fi!

Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

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The Monday, January 20th, and 673rd, Artist Shout-Out goes to Chyam!
Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Welcome Gamers!
2:01 - Artist Shout-Out
6:09 - Demos' Intro
9:36 - Cornucopia® - Early Access Game
45:11 - Hipster Café - Early Access Game
1:18:20 - Let's Café - Early Access Game
1:50:49 - Spells & Secrets - Available
2:31:03 - Demos Line Up + Quick Desktop View
2:33:28 - Artist Shout-Out
2:34:38 - Thank You/Links
2:37:04 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug
2:37:54 - Up Next/Farewell

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• Pilot: CrossCode, Dumpy & Bumpy, Ynglet, Zero Ranger
• Part 2: A Dance of Fire and Ice, 2064: Read Only Memories, Death and Taxes, Underhero
• Part 3: TEKKEN 8, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Secrets of Grindea, Forspoken
• Part 4: Death's Hangover, Fae Farm, Fate/Samurai Remnant, Mini Settlers
• Part 5: All-Star Fruit Racing, Indivisible, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Visions of Mana
• Part 6: Glorious Companions, Tales of Arise, Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge, Cozy Island
• Part 7: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Cursebane, Dex, The Lady Puppet
• Part 8: Detroit: Become Human, Little Goody Two Shoes, Luma Island, Tinkerlands
• Part 9: Backpack Battles, Glaciered, Ratopia, Slime Rancher
• Part 10: Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory, Maid Cafe on Electric Street, Neon Noodles, Tiny Glade
• Part 11: Critter Café, Grimoire Groves, Pixel Cafe, Wizdom Academy
• Part 12: AdventureBarStory, Bone's Cafe, DELTARUNE, Mudborne
• Part 13: Food Truck Simulator, Magical Bakery, Magical Delicacy, Seaside Cafe Rush Hour
• Part 14: Chef's Tail, Espresso Tycoon, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, Tavern Talk
• Part 15: Chicken Journey, FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, Terra Memoria, Until Then
• Part 17: Doloc Town, Feed the Cups, Manitas Kitchen, Mushroom Picnic Party, Rift of the NecroDancer
• Part 18: Meadgard: Beer and Plunder, BOKURA: planet, Teeny Tiny Town, Tower of Babel: Survivors of Chaos
• Part 19: Dungeons of Hinterberg, The Mildew Children, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, Yaoling: Mythical Journey
• Part 20: AI LIMIT, Harmony's Odyssey, Last Time I Saw You, Whiskers & Wizardry
  
• Part 21: Constance, Dragoon Ascension, Kara Fantasy, Welcome to Elderfield
• Part 22: Crowncity, Dungeon Alchemist, Parliament of Hell 1796, Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars
  
• Part 23: Tuesday, March 11th
  
• Part 24: Tuesday, March 18th
• Part 25: Tuesday, March 25th

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT

- About MonriaTitans | WGS
- Rendezvous Point Bookshop
- Artist Shout-Outs Criteria
- The Titans' Discord
- Throne Wishlist
- #SubOffTwitch
- YouTube
- Rumble
- Odysee
- Twitch
- Steam

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Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on January 21, 2025.