Good Folk Cafe

Hello, I am a English to Turkish translator and I would like to support your game with free Turkish localisation. Is it possible?

The development team is called "Not Here Not There" - and unfortunately, their name is also a very apt description of this game.

WARNING - the writer of this review is a middle-aged, college-educated Asian male, with a strong inclination toward task-based activity and has had a lifelong involvement with history-themed RTS games (as if it wasn't obvious from my multiple projects on itch.io so far). Keep in mind that this bias may have coloured my expectations and perception of this game.

This game may be your cup of tea, if you are already into the foraging lifestyle - and enjoy seeing what you know (of Irish plants I guess) reflected in this game. But I think I will be passing this and waiting for Haunted Chocolatier or Mandrake to drop first. I am aware that this is meant to be a slow, cosy game - but progress is so slow and seemingly imperceptible that it goes from being cosy to simply just numbing.

At the very bare bones of it, Good Folk Cafe is a game where you forage for ingredients and prepare meals for eldritch creatures, who somehow have managed to scrounge human-designed artefacts which we would otherwise consider as junk hardware parts. 

It's got potential but if things stay the same way as the demo shows, it is going to be neither here nor there.

Perhaps this review is very harsh but I see many red flags.

Number one, the loops. 

The gameplay loops might be interesting but so far they feel monotonous and very much same-y. Perhaps it is because this game is still deep in development so this is all you have to work with. The lack of a proper tutorial also leaves some of us in a state somewhat ... disoriented. You are not told how to prepare ingredients - I closed my first night down early without feeding anyone because I did not know that you had to click the fae spirits who are queueing up to feed. Nor are you told, either, that there's a cooking minigame or that you can use items in the cooking interface to prep food further (we expected that this would be done automatically).

Number two, the writing and the UI design.

There's Fran, the Storyteller. I found his recital too long winded and I mostly skipped to the next day (I'm a reader not a listener), thinking I'd just read the transcript of his first story, the "yellow well" but I found it to be so rambling and inconcise that I might have well been reading the freshest word salad ever to be showcased on Booktok. I understand that not everone in real life must be a polished storyteller .... but I thought this was supposed to be a game, after all, not a philological exercise. The worst part was that there was such a massive wall of text against a colour scheme that obscured UI elements, squashed into a column so narrow that reading what Fran said the other night was nearly impossible.

Less difficult to figure out were what the spirits were asking for - but again, this is dangerous. From reading the transcripts of these creatures' chatter - very beautifully written but alas not very informative - I was asking myself many times over, "Does this customer actually want to try something new, or does it actually want a dish it's had before?" I decided to err on the side of caution although it is hard to say if ever at all what effect my approach had on th game especially after seeing what other players had encountered on youTube.

Hello! I come from China and I work as a translator in a foreign trade company, would it be possible for me to do free Chinese translation for you, no other requirements, thanks a lot!

Hi there!!! How are you? My name is Bárbara, and I really enjoyed your project! I was wondering if you’d be interested in having it translated into Brazilian Portuguese.
If so, feel free to contact me on Discord: @fokkenvarbie <3
Looking forward to hearing from you!

It have lot of cute animationsw :)

this game is like reading on a rainy day with a cold brew

This game has the same kind of warmth coming from it that a game like outer wilds has, you can very clearly see the attention to detail and love that has been put into this game and its amazing. I was SO shocked when I had a visitor and was suddenly listening to an entire recorded story, I was so invested in it I almost forgot about the gameplay itself, such a nice game and I really hope this game gets all the recognition it deserves.

Very calm experience. The atmosphere, the music, and the art fits so well. Really looking forward the full game.

btw, I ran into a bug. When cutting food ingredients, some pieces just hide behind the chopping board after cutting. I sometimes can pick them up with mouse cursor hover around the empty chopping board and saw a popup showing there's a food piece. Sometimes they just vanished without a trace.

Hey! I stumbled across your game and it caught my attention, so I had to check it out. I was curious, are you handling everything yourself, or do you have an artist, developer, or animator working with you?

need the full release immediately so i can quiet quit my job and open a fairy cafe in the woods fr

Bless devv!

Am I the only one that had troubles guessing how cooking works? The game is really cool tho I think once I get it I will be addicted lol

I absolutely love this game! I definitely wish I had her occupation haha, the only issue is that for some reason the game really hates cutting dandelions, and it will freeze for a full few seconds. That's really the only thing, everything else is smooth, the music and style is beautiful, and the demo is tons of fun!

This is one of my favorite game, the grafic is so beautiful, the game make's you relax so much, but if i need to say somthing i don't like is that for now there is only english for language. if in future make the game has more language, this game can probablity peak (oviusly i say of it only words, no linguage dialouges).

Such a beautiful and cozy game! I like the idea of needing to guess the tastes of each creature! The only thing that needs to be fixed imo is the part in which we listen to the old man's stories, the voiceover is kinda distracting? it would be so much better if the voice were more subdued and there was calm bg music to soften the echo effect. Other than that this was a super pleasant experience! Can't wait for the full game release^_^

Ohman do i love this demo, i love the art style and how when you go foraging it shows what you stopped at and not just a sprite of the plants grouped into one little mini game, the only complaint is that its a little hard to understand what each spirit wants in there salad (im assuming there spirits) but other than that its wonderfull :D

aaa this was sooo beautiful!! tragically short demo, cant wait for the full game ;D the music and stories hit home for me lol.

This was really fun, the only glitch was that the food would sometimes disappear while being cut up but I'm so excited for the full game to come out

this lowkey addictive

Its very good game, i played it on linux through lutris and it crashed few time (i think could be fixed by some config) but overall very good experience .

So cute and cozy! Can't wait for the full release!

This is amazing! Can't wait for the full game!!

Too cozy~

I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ittttttt

cool game

Great aesthetics!

I'm in love!! Everything about this game feels comforting and simple (but in that good simple way, you know?). I did encounter one bug where the plants would glitch below the cutting board after being sliced. Sometimes they had only gone invisible and I could still pick them up, other times they were wholly inaccessible. It didn't ruin the experience though, just thought I'd bring it to your attention! I hope that more Irish culture is shared in the future versions (maybe some information on each creature? Unless it's already there and I just missed it). I'm super excited for a full version; wish listed it on steam the second the demo ended. Thank you for this lovely game!

Walking through lush greenery to calming music, finding plants, and looking them up in a field guide was a really great experience!

I'm not sure if I was searching in the wrong place or if it was some kind of bug, but I couldn't get to the cooking part.

I'll also post my gameplay video just in case it's helpful.

my playthrough

I’ve been loving this game! I also love the stories, which brings to mind maybe you should have an option for subtitles there. Also, a little hint button may be nice because I was a little lost on what to do in the beginning. But I really did enjoy playing, especially after I figured it out lmao! It has the same cozy vibes as Creature Kitchen to me.

nice game!

Perfect, I absolutely love it. Shout-out to the artists and designers who made this masterpiece! 

This game is absolutely lovely! Hope for a saving option asap!!!

This game is super fun and I love playing! But can someone tell me how to save? Every time I leave I have to reset and I can't find a save button. ;-;

Lovely game, I especially enjoyed the overnight animation and getting tested on the plant IDs after foraging - I thought that was an interesting way to get me to pay closer attention. Music and ambience are really sweet and enjoyable! 

Tech report: I'm on Mac and was able to play via the itch app. Only issue was that when I went to Cook, my computer crashed - my screen turned gray with music still playing and I wasn't able to exit out of the app. The same thing happened to me with the game Tiny Bookshop when I accidentally changed the settings to make it more high-res, so I think it's partly an issue with my outdated macbook and low RAM, but figured I would share so you had the information!

will there be a mobile version in the future, i dont own a pc