TapBlaze, the maker of Good Pizza, Great Pizza, has branched out with the launch of Good Coffee, Great Coffee on mobile devices. It launches today on iOS and Android.
The game is a free-to-play title where players can buy cosmetics with real money. You may eventually be able to customize your shop and equipment.
After all a whole decade refining the pizza game, it’s about time for TapBlaze to try something new. But the company was patient. For the past five years, CEO Anthony Lai and a small team have been working on the coffee game in the same artistic universe as Good Pizza, Great Pizza.
It sounds like an awesome game in the tradition of Good Pizza, Great Pizza, which has been downloaded more than 300 million times across the globe and it is played daily by over a million players.
Los Angeles-based TapBlaze has been cooking up its latest story-rich cooking business simulator with the coffee expertise of Lai, who gets a lot of joy out of making coffee and latte art. In the game, you experience the art and hustle of running your own coffee shop.
“Pizza is something I grew up with. And then my other obsession in terms of food has been coffee for the last decade at least,” he said. “I used to go to all the coffee shops in LA, you know, and I will observe and how people shop. And I even have my own set up at home. I practiced latte art for like five, six years.”
Lai thinks of making cool latte foam images the same way he thinks about putting ingredients on top of a pizza.
“It’s like an art,” he said.
The game hand-drawn 2D art with soft pastel colors, capturing the warm, inviting feel of a local mom-and-pop café. Mary Le created a narrative to go with the game.
Yuni Cho, marketing manager, “The idea of personalization is very big in the game, where you can decorate, make your drinks and have avatars where you can decorate yourself.”
You brew success by mastering intricate orders, refining your equipment, and experimenting with bold new ingredients—all while competing against rival Brewists in a city fueled by caffeine. With a perfect blend of time management and puzzle-solving mechanics, this game serves up a robust narrative, a cast of quirky characters, and a satisfying shot of strategy and creativity.
“Good pizza, Great pizza was at a pretty good stage in terms of business side,” Lai said. “The process of doing content updates and live events is still a lot of work. But it’s not like four or five years ago” where the studio was still finding its way.
“We were just throwing stuff at the wall,” he said. “Now we have a kind of formula and the feedback from players is good. I thought it was a good time. I wanted an internal challenge. And as a company, we are at the stage where it’s financially possible to do this.”
Starting in 2020, Lai worked with one other team member on the game. Then they brought in part of the larger team, but many of the employees continued to work on Good Pizza, Great Pizza. Lai was risk averse, so he didn’t really create two different teams. All told, the team has just 13 people.
When the team came up with the first design for a shop, the milk steamer was a separate machine and it was on the far side of the shop from the coffee machine. Lai had to quickly have them fix that.
After years of asking for a new game, players are finally getting what they want. They can craft delicious drinks, experiment with unique flavors, decorate your café, and master the art of coffee-making to become the best Brewist in town. ☕✨
Good Pizza, Great Pizza is still a global hit with 1.3 million daily players, and top-charting success worldwide (No. 1 in China, Korea, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Egypt, and top charts in the U.S.).
Players can customize their café with a wide range of adorable decorations and create aesthetic coffee drinks using 14 different toppings. Test your barista skills and impress the judges with your unique creations. It’s a cozy game with endless customization, and relaxing yet engaging gameplay.
As you rise to become a Master Brewist, you’ll also get to know and befriend neighborhood locals through the Side Stories feature. Complete these quests to earn rewards and strengthen your connections, all while balancing friendly competition and café growth. After a while, you can test how fast you can make coffee as the shop gets more and more crowded.
During each game day, the number of customers depends on how efficiently players complete orders. Story-driven players may have fewer customers, while those focused on the restaurant sim aspect can serve more orders for higher profits.
Players earn funds to upgrade equipment, buy decorations, and unlock new ingredients. By visiting the Cafe Tab daily, they can explore interactive Quests, Achievements, and the Side Stories app. Serving drinks with the perfect balance of coffee grounds and espresso shots results in cost-efficient profits, as improperly made drinks waste ingredients at a higher flat rate.
As far as the competition goes, Lai saw an opening for a more realistic title.
“We didn’t really see any sim games that had a very realistic coffee experience. I think they’re very simplified versions,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, this is something we can take advantage of and really show them like this new mechanic.’”
The fan community offered the idea in the first place and it has been expecting the title for a while. The fans went crazy when the company released its first trailer. The game has been in open beta for six or so months, starting in the Philippines and other places in Asia.
As for marketing, the company will be conservative about spending and will shoot for organic growth, Cho said. There are a lot of VTubers who have played the game recently and South Koreans in particular lvoe their coffee, Cho said. There’s also some hope that Apple will feature the game.
“Paid user acquisition is never a main focus, but it’s starting to become part of our business strategy in terms of marketing,” Lai said.
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