Barista Express

Barista Express puts you behind the counter of your own café, in your browser and in VR (at the same time). Orders come in, the queue builds and it's on you to grind, brew, and serve fast enough to keep everyone happy. It starts gently: a basic espresso, no pressure. The game tightens the screws from there: more complex drinks with more ingredients, more steps, more customers deciding your pace for you.

The core of the game is the small, satisfying chain of café work: beans into the grinder, grounds into the portafilter, cups onto their spots, portafilter into the machine. Drinks get more elaborate as you progress, and when an order stumps you, the recipe is on the pricing table at the back of the café, you can always look up (pun intended) what goes into it. The challenge isn't just about knowing the recipe. Executing it with two more orders breathing down your neck makes it even more thrilling.

In this time-management game, try keeping a clear head while the café conspires against you.

How to Play

Use your controller's cursor and the trigger to pick items up and place them where they belong. The basic coffee: grind the beans into the portafilter, place cups at the correct spots on the coffee machine, and slot the portafilter into the machine. Every drink beyond that is introduced in-game, watch the recipe table when a new one appears.

Tips

• Drill the basic chain until it's automatic. Grinder → portafilter → cups → machine should run on muscle memory, because the later orders need your brain elsewhere.
• Read the order before you move. A second spent checking the recipe table beats four spent un-making the wrong drink.
• Start the machine, then prep. While one drink brews, get the next order's cups and grounds staged.
• Don't panic-stack. One order done cleanly beats two done wrong. Wrong drinks cost more time than slow ones.

Development

This game was developed in A-Frame and Three.js. Optimization was done using gltf-pipeline.

Credits

development, design, 3D modeling, animation, sounds

Florian Isikci

sound effects, interaction system development, optimization

Jonathan Hale

concept art, logo design, character art

Falk Ridder

music

Markus Gembaczka