Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: Whipped And Steamy • Cosplay Café and Hermit the sluggish caterpillar of the sea
Return of the Browsers
Get it? Because both can be played in your browser. I’m clever, I swear.
Whipped And Steamy • Cosplay Café is a store management and narrative game created by Whales and Games, the international studio that created Super Sellout. This time, instead of poking fun at superheroes, we are getting a large serving of latex and hot glue as our protagonist Caffie tries to keep a cosplay cafe afloat for two weeks.
Whipped And Steamy plays a bit different than most management simulations. That’s due to its efforts to balance out its narrative with the gameplay. Each day at the cafe is broken down in to three sections: a Management phase, a Report phase, and an After Hours phase.
Management is where the majority of the planning comes in. Caffie needs to figure out the menu and decorations for the day. Each drink, snack, and decoration (three decos total) includes a modifier, like increased tips from a certain cosplay group, increased sales of a food, increased possible customers and more. These are all displayed in a ratio circle to give players a better understanding of the expected demographic that will appear, split between the three cosplayer groups, Exotic, Vanilla and Fantasy, and a fourth group of Non-Cosplayers that I just assume stumbled in and freaked out. Non-Cosplayers are not actually a ‘good’ thing, as they notoriously tip less than cosplaying customers. Keeping their numbers low is usually for the best.
Once all items have been selected, the results of those decisions comes in with a little graphic, showing small miniatures representing each group approaching the counter, and giving a breakdown of the daily sales, customers and tips for each group. This screen also compares the current results to the previous days to show the growth (or decline) of each group as the player tries to change things up every day to avoid stagnation.
The After Hours aspect is where the players dive in to the world of the cosplayers themselves. After a day’s work there might be an individual hanging around that matches the theme that the player was catering too. Such individuals are larger than life and stay in character the entire time, even as Caffie completely stonewalls them with her complete nonchalant and confused attitude (which is brilliantly aware of how cosplayers can appear to those not in the know). Each one will discuss who they are after Caffie’s confusion overtakes them and forces an explanation, which will be added to a glossary — this is also where dozens of words relating to cosplay and kinks are added for those who may not be entirely aware of what they mean.
After they leave for the day, a relationship stamp will appear to signify that the player has achieved a simple understanding with the cosplayer. Each day that they come back will add to this stamp, and permanent rewards can be gained by appealing to them. After day two, each cosplayer will give a permanent buff to the shop tying in with their character, which can be seriously helpful in making back some of that cash after appealing to only one group for a bit. Relationship level three lets players learn more about individual cosplayers, seeing how they became a cosplayer and how their struggles have shaped them in to the person they are today. Some look up to their character as a rolemodel, while others use them as an escape. But all of them love them dearly.
In case it wasn’t obvious, Whipped And Steamy is definitely not for everyone — and I don’t mean gameplay wise. It deals in themes that definitely cater to an adult audience, and even then some players may not be entirely comfortable with the contents. The game is filled with sexual humor or innuendos. It’s called “Whipped and Steamy”. It’s not exactly subtle.
But that’s what makes the game so much fun for those who want to see some silly sexual nonsense wrapped in the cosplaying scene. It takes a bit to catch on, especially since some days will be super negative in the earnings department, but the fun is in the adventure itself and seeing all the colourful individuals.
If you are looking for a coffee management simulation that focuses less on the coffee and more on the silly fun of cosplaying, then this is definitely for you.
‘Hermit the sluggish caterpillar of the sea’ is an action arcade game created by Sharped Stone Studios, an indie team out of Switzerland, for Global Game Jam 2019. In this short tale under the sea, players will be Hermit fighting for his life, just trying to find a good home without all of these pesky predators constantly harassing him.
Hermit will be struggling forever unfortunately. This is an infinitely scaling title that goes on until Hermit falls victim to a single hit from an angry enemy. To avoid that, players can jump over the fish and hope but that is not where his strengths lie; these come from his ability to hide in shells. Two types of shells will fall from above every so often, granting Hermit shelter from attacks and the ability to counter back and gain points. Once a shell has been acquired, Hermit can either use it as a defensive shield and hide in it, taking away one of its HP in the process, or use it as a weapon to take a fish out completely.
The first style of shell, a circular one resembling the golden ratio, gives Hermit 4 HP, but also the ability to attack horizontally to remove the crabs that run back and forth. The spear-shaped spiral shell only has 2 HP, but launches above to take out the fish that swim down from above to attack.
Getting hit while doing neither of these moves will lose the shell, but keep Hermit alive to find another shell. This is the basis of the gameplay, constantly searching for a new shell and weighing the pros and cons of deciding to throw the shell away to remove enemies, or shield oneself within to keep the game going. The new fish that get added over time will make this decision even more challenging. They will have different patterns, making Hermit’s life even more stressful.
It’s not much, but Hermit the sluggish caterpillar of the sea creates a small arcade experience with a steel drum watery flair. It’s easy to pick up and play — especially thanks to the browser support — and can be easily restarted thanks to how addicting it is to lose just shy of a certain point threshold. There’s no progression system that I could discover, but it was hard enough at times to not really need one. If you are a fan of infinitely scaling survival titles, this might be a title worth checking out.
