You probably have played your fair share of restaurant and cafe tycoon games, and maybe one or two idle pet games. Well, Cat Cafe Manager combines the best of both of these game genres. Rebuild your grandma's old cat cafe from the ground up, adopting strays along the way. You might even befriend some attractive townsfolk.
Cat Cafe Manager does a great job of creating a stimulating challenge without bogging the gameplay down with needless mechanics. That being said, there can be a small learning curve to becoming a cat cafe tycoon pro.
10 Your Starting Trait Matters
Upon first arriving at your grandma's cat cafe (or lack of one), you are greeted by her old friend Bonner. During your conversation, you are given the opportunity to label yourself with one of three traits. There is Gourmand, which gives you "plus two" to your Cooking skill. Next, we have Gentle, which adds "plus two" to your Cat Care stat and "plus one" to Stress for Release for cats. Lastly, there is Social Butterfly, which will grant a "plus two" to your Service stat right off that bat.
Of the three, Gourmand and Social Butterfly are likely the best starting traits, since you will be starting off with only one cat anyway and should not struggle with Cat Care until a bit later. Don't sweat it too much though, because you can make changes to all these stats later on in the game.
9 Different Recipes Appeal To Different Types Of Customers
One of the things that makes Cat Cafe Manager unique is that there are six different subgroups of customers. Vagabonds, Artists, Punks, Witches, Fisherfolk, and Businesspeople are all likely to frequent your cat cafe. Each type of customer pays a different sort of currency, from Fabrics to Gold.
Customers are also more likely to favor certain foods and beverages based on their subgroup. Try to make sure your cafe menu has something on it that appeals to everyone. If a Punk walks into your shop and you don't have any Herbal Tea at hand, this will affect your rank at the end of the day.
8 Increase Your Odds Of Attracting Certain Customers With Advertisements
Advertising is important! While there is a chance for every type of customer to wander into your cafe, using the Advertising Menu can increase your chances of attracting a certain subgroup.
Let's say you are really low on Gold and Fabrics. If you advertise specifically to Vagabonds and Businesspeople and take the rest of your ads down, you have better odds of getting more Gold and Fabric that day.
7 Use The Shrine To Learn New Things
The Shrine is one of the first mechanics you will be introduced to in Cat Cafe Manager. This is the skill tree mechanic that helps you progress in the game, from unlocking recipes to expanding your cat capacity.
You can only have one Shrine objective active at a time, so make sure you always have one selected. The best time to do this is whenever you complete an old objective.
6 Opening The Town Map Pauses Your Day
No one knows true fear quite like a coffee shop owner who just realized they ran out of beans. Luckily for you, you never need to know that terror. Unlike real life, opening the town map pauses time.
Use this to your advantage, taking a moment to restock on necessary ingredients at Bonner's Market or getting more Lures from Carla-lala at the Pet Goods store.
5 Make Friends For Cool Rewards
The longer you run your cafe, the more Regulars you begin to meet. Regulars are named customers with whom you can grow your friendship. The more you talk with them, the higher your friendship level climbs. You can even call Regulars and invite them to visit using the payphone just outside your cafe.
Do this whenever you get the option to, as inviting Regulars not only increases your chance of obtaining Friendship rewards like free furniture but also guarantees you will earn some currency from that Regular's customer subgroup.
4 The Stock In Gruff Decorations Changes
Maybe you had your eye on that Big Hydrangea and started saving up your Gold, only to find that the next day it was gone from Gruff Decorations. Unfortunately, the stock in Gruff Decorations does rotate every day.
Besides your basic functional furniture, found under the refrigerator icon tab, decorations will change frequently. But fear not, anything you see in the shop will come back eventually, so just keep your peepers peeled.
3 Train Your Cats
You might not be able to train your cats how to do tricks in Cat Cafe Manager, but you can earn Cat Training Points to increase their Skills. "Skills" for your cats refers to how well they fulfill the needs of a certain Customer subgroup.
When you adopt a cat, they will automatically come with a Trait and a Cat Skill equipped. After increasing your cat's level, you will also get an opportunity to choose more additional Traits for your cats. So don't forget to spend those points!
2 Train Your Staff
It turns out you cannot just throw a person into a cat cafe and expect them to make a perfect macchiato that same day. You might have noticed that if you "inspect" a customer in your cafe, sometimes their "Hunger" need is more complex than simply a pretzel.
Some customers expect recipes made with a certain cooking skill, for example. As you progress through the days, you will also earn training points you can put towards yourself and any staff you hire. Use these to upgrade your Cooking, Service, Cleaning, Repair, and Cat Care stats to better meet your customers' needs.
1 Can You Pet The Cat?
Yes, you can pet the cat. Petting strays is actually how you obtain more cats for your cafe, so don't forget to stock up on Lure at Carla-lala's Pet Goods.
You can also pet cats that wander around the cafe. Just don't grow too attached, because the ultimate objective of this game is, after all, to find these strays their forever home with the Caterwaul Way locals.