Whistling Wolf Café
A downloadable game
- Recommended: 1 player; age 8+
- Materials: A deck of playing cards and a handful of 6-sided dice. Optional: Printouts of the cards (cut out) and card sleeves
- About: A solo café simulator brought to the table with dice and cards. Customers may not always get the drink they want, but they’ll always get what they need.
Thank you for joining us at Whistling Wolf Café! Our motto is “You might not always get what you want, but you’ll always get what you need.” As you can imagine, serving customers by giving them what they need to feel better instead of what they prefer can be tricky, but I trust that your amazing tea-brewing skills and customer service will win them over. We average three customers an hour, so you’ll have breaks in between.
Oh! Before I forget, there’s a small shop right next door with things that could help you out. Sometimes there are even people looking for a bit of work. Just be sure you use your own tips to purchase them or the owner will be, well, not so happy. Also, I hate to say it, but if you get three bad reviews, it’s really not going to look good for either of us. So do what you can to avoid that.
Whistling Wolf Café is a solo café sim game that takes 10-20 minutes to play. You are a master brewer who is more focused on what a customer might need rather than what they want, and that can complicate things. All you need is a deck of playing cards, a handful of six-sided dice, and something to take notes with.
A very special thank you to Antonio for writing a Spanish translation of this game! He not only translated it, but took the time to fix any potential cultural gaps for anyone outside of the US! Please be sure to visit Café El lobo aullador!
And a shout-out to Newtlings Angel and Beth for backing this project! Thanks to you, more community copies were added!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
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Community Copies
If you don't have much to spare, feel free to grab a Community Copy.
For every dollar, rating and comment on this game, I'll add another copy to the pool.
Development log
- Whistling Wolf Café is now LIVE!Feb 19, 2022
Comments
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Just gave this game a shot on a cozy night in and had an absolute blast! I managed to buy the Maneki Neko after my first hour and hire an Experienced Cashier after my second, which made for an incredibly satisfying and smooth run. I'm looking forward to playing this again, and I would love to see your updates re: events and weather!
I had a blast with this game ! Didn't go all 8 hours because I enjoyed giving every client a little story (melancholic musician staring at the morning fog, anxious mother who dropped her little one at the kindergarden for the first time, hyper middle-aged woman who can't stop talking about her startup project...) and I started being out of ideas. Went all the way to 5th hour though and it was a delight!
I'd suggest maybe add a few random events at the beginning of the hour (something makes noise and all tips are -$1 ; the weather is nice so all TN is reduced by 1 ; something broke and you have to pay $1D6...) for replayability, and maybe additional consequences depending on which tea the client prefers and which one they get (like you did with Herbal/Black) but that's just for additional spice.
That game is cozy, nice, cute, and really fun!
Thank you so much for the feedback and suggestions!
Honestly, I love the idea of the event cards! I talked with my partner, and we now have ideas for Weather cards (drawn at the beginning of the game, and again at the top of the 5th hour) that will affect the game throughout, and Event cards (drawn at the top of every hour) that affect the game for the hour it's drawn on. They'll be optional, and I'm going to run them through the next playtest to see how they work with the balance of the game.
I have some questions. Spades and Hearts written "so move the result of the die roll 1 away from the TN".
1. What TN is there? I think it's probably the card number. However, it doesn't seem to be specified in the PDF.
2. If the die and TN are the same, will the result of the die be corrected?
3. Do both dice receive this effect? If the TN is 4 and the 2d6 results are 3 and 5, will the results move to 2 and 5?
4. Is the die maximum is 6? and minimum is 1? TN is 5 and die result is 6, Will the die be 7?
5. What if I have multiple TNs? 1st Customer's TN is 5, 2nd is 3. Result is 4. In this case, for example, is it possible to correct the result 4 to 3 by the effect of the 1st customer and match it with the 2nd TN?
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Hello!
Reviewing the rules, I can see where it could be more clear. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
1. TN is the Target Number, referring to the number on the card.
2. For moving one away, yes, it will be corrected. It's why those cards can be so challenging and items become so important. For moving one closer, since you can't move any closer, then an exact die roll doesn't get corrected.
3. The affects are applied after you assign the die. I had mentioned to make note of it before assigning the die in the rules so players can take that into consideration before assigning it, but I can see how that order could cause some confusion.
4. The affect would still push a 6 away from the Target Number. So that particular die would become a
5. The individual card affects only effect the die you assign to it. So if I have a 3 card that pushes the die one away from the TN, and a 3 card that pushes the die roll one closer to the TN, and I roll a 3 and a 2, then I'd probably want to assign the 3 to the first and the 2 to the second. That would mean that the 3 on the first one would still score me $2 and the second will score me $5.
6. My biggest tip for the game is to make use of those items. Much like restaurant simulators, they are very useful for affecting dice rolls and helping with changes like that.
I hope that answers your questions. If it helps, Vinca Vinye streamed a second playthrough on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1313335043
I understand. Thank you.
Thanks again for asking. I made notes so I can clarify for the next update :)
It's been a few weeks since I played this game, and I'm still thinking fondly of it. This is a great game for a quiet night in with your favourite brew. It's fun, it's replayable, and it's very sweet. Highly, highly recommend this game to all.
Thank you very much! It was so much fun watching you play <3
This is a wonderful little solo game by a wonderful creator, and it's on sale for basically nothing right now.
You should seriously check it out.
Oh wow, thank you so much! I can't stop smiling after reading this <3
Thank you for allowing me translate and adapt this great game. It’s easy to play on rules but it requires some mental effort to maximise your profits by the end of each working day. It is very thematic and demanding, allowing a big replayability. Such a great game! Antonio