Shop sim games are a genre I struggle with. On the one hand, you would think my natural inclination to take any casual game and get frustrated at it because it wouldn’t let me Do A Capitalism would mean I’d be naturally inclined towards casual games that are entirely about The Capitalism. I do, after all, enjoy the quiet tranquility of a casual game, and just ask for something more on top. The reality is, though, that I struggle just as much with shop sim games. There always comes a moment where I step back and reflect on the loop I’m playing and throw myself out of it. It might be that I lack the creativity to see past mechanics and build a pretty little shop, or it might be that, without a concrete goal to strive for, I forget what got me invested in the first place. I usually don’t play shop sims for more than an hour or two before falling out of the loop and moving on.

I played Cat Cafe Manager for six and a half hours, which is a rousing endorsement if ever I’ve seen one.

It might have something to do with how delightful this game is.

Cat Cafe Manager is, as you might expect from the title, a shop sim. You play as a new arrival in the town of Caterwaul, here to continue your grandmother’s legacy by reopening her cat cafe and bringing delight to the people of the town. Along the way, the cafe grows, cats are given forever homes, and the people of the town grow closer and closer to their feline heritage. You make new friends with various townspeople and build a truly special cat cafe.

Or this, if you’re me.

On the surface, nothing about Cat Cafe Manager seems particularly different from any other shop sim. It has the same gameplay loop of serving customers, and using those profits to slowly grow and expand. While Cat Cafe Manager may have the added mechanic of adopting and caring for cats, I would argue this isn’t as core a mechanic as the game suggests it is. I adopted cats, kept the ones with useful traits, and just ensured there was enough furniture to keep them occupied. The cats themselves occupied very little of the time I spent managing my cafe.

And all my cats were beautiful.

The majority of my time was instead spent managing the cafe itself and seeing to all the various customer groups’ needs. It’s here that the game really shines. Rather than simple mechanics of fetching an item or restocking, Cat Cafe Manager instead has the player craft increasingly complex meals delivered to increasingly discerning patrons, each of whom pay for their meal with a particular resource. Instead of trying to attract a wide range of guests, part of the challenge becomes deciding which patrons to welcome on a given day, and prepare the entire cafe specifically for them.

Customers fall into one of six types, each with their own needs and expectations. While the cafe can be built to cater to all of them - as mine eventually was - understanding their needs is key to milking as many resources out of them as possible. Two of this game’s design team have also previously worked on Abbey Games, and it’s in these mechanics that that history shows most clearly. Each group’s needs feel simultaneously overly-complex while also being completely intuitive. Each cat’s interaction with the respective groups, or the way they interact with each other is also more complex than the simple UI and theme would imply, and yet are immediately accessible. The game can be as complex or as simple as the player wants it to be. This can be a game about grabbing cats and haphazardly stocking your cafe with the orneriest barn cats imaginable, or it can be a delicate adventure into room theming and furniture placement. Both are valid, and both are equally possible.

This, I think, is the true beauty of Cat Cafe Manager. While it has the same game loop of stocking, restocking, and growing of any shop sim, it adds mechanics and dynamics that make the world and patrons feel more vibrant and alive. It adds characters to befriend and stories of Caterwaul to learn and get invested in. I played the game as long as I did, not because the game loop was that engrossing - though there is something that will always be satisfying about making four milkshakes in a row and watching the jewels come rolling in - but because the world the cat cafe exists within is one that feels enticing, and the mechanics help make that world feel more meaningful. In many ways, Cat Cafe Manager couches not only on its Abbey Games pedigree, but on the standard of storytelling set by Stardew Valley. While most patrons are nameless and faceless, there is enough character that the story alone can provide momentum and keep the player invested. I wanted to know more about each of these characters, and I didn’t stop playing until I knew where their stories were headed. Only then did the loop fatigue strike, but it felt like the right moment.

Cat Cafe Manager is a gem in a crowded genre. While it does not fundamentally differ from other shop sims, its more complex mechanics and thoughtfully built world help it stand out and remain engrossing.

Developer: Roost Games

Genre: Simulation

Year: 2022

Country: The Netherlands

Language: English

Play Time: 10 Hours

Youtube: https://youtu.be/wbab54qkGgU