Trailer Review - Coffee Talk

"Coffee Talk is a game about listening to people’s problems and helping them by serving up a warm drink out of the ingredients you have in stock."

This is a great trailer which provides a slow drip of information about the game in a way which is engaging, clear, and leaves us wanting to know more. It's not flashy in any way, but I think it's a great example of how a simple looking narrative game can successfully present itself in a trailer.

The first ten seconds are lines of dialogue on black fading in and out:

"I fought with my father"

"I'm a grown up that can take care of herself"

"You know we are perfect for each other"

"You know our families will never agree!"

The presentation of white text on black isn't super engaging, but the stark presentation does a good job of focusing us on the words. Part of me wishes there was at least some sort of environment art or color behind the text, but this is just nit-picking. Each line works well because they all tell a little bit of a story.

One person had a fight with their father, an adult woman is trying to prove herself, a couple is having a romantic moment (or one is trying to convince the other they're great together), and another couple's families don't get along.

It's very easy for trailers to use lines of dialogue which don't stand alone, but while these lines don't tell elaborate stories, they tell just enough for us to know there are a variety of stories being told. Since the trailer doesn't dig deep into any one story, we can assume this is an ensemble cast of characters who each will get their turn in the sun.

Starting the trailer with only text tells us the stories of the characters are what's most important. Starting by showing the game's characters, UI and environment might've distracted or lead us to believe the character interactions are a small part of the game instead of the whole game; starting with text places importance onto the words.

This screen is very busy, but it's only on screen for a short period of time, which indicates we're not intended to completely parse the whole screen.

Next we get our first view of the game with a character named Freya who says: 

"I'm going to write a story about this café and the people who come here."

This dialogue nicely transitions us from the introduction, because now know the words were spoken by people who visited the cafe. The next few shots are jump cuts to different customers. One talks about the changing times, a policeman talks about fighting with his kids, and there's a split screen scene between a couple which I think might be indicating the player is toggling between the right and left side. If that's the case, they're both showing dialogue and introducing a game mechanic to keep things fresh.

After this montage of characters and their plights, the trailer segues to a section about the game's drink making mechanic by showing a character ask for a cup of lemon tea. The game's drink making UI flies in, and then there's a small montage of drinks cut to the beat of the music.

Credit to the game's UI design here which highlights the drink on the right side of the screen, and darkens the rest of the screen. If everything on the screen was at the same brightness, our eye wouldn't be immediately drawn to the drinks (the most important part of the shot). This means despite everything on screen, the montage isn't an overwhelming amount of information. Our eyes can drift to the rest of the UI, but mostly comfortably sits on the drinks.

If you squint, your eye is immediately drawn to the drink, which means this screen does a good job of drawing your eye to it!

The last drink in the montage has an option for latte art, which is then selected. The montage could've easily included several drinks with the latte art option, but it smartly saved it until it was ready to move on. Otherwise the latte art button would've been extraneous clutter on the screen.

Just like the drink montage, the latte art screen highlights the most important element, while leaving the rest dark and unobtrusive. Again, if we choose to do so, our eyes have plenty of time to look to the left and right to look at the game UI. The latte screen fades out to reveal the Seattle skyline.

The first read here is the latte art, and the secondary one is the game UI.

Here the trailer starts wrapping up with some story art and text underneath:

Seattle 2020

It is a city that holds the many dreams and stories of its people.

Most of these stories are left untold.

But some few find solace in the embrace of bricks and wood and closed doors.

This is a lovely way to end the trailer. The setting gives the previous scenes specificity. This ending feels like an invitation to learn about these untold stories. I could easily imagine someone editing a trailer for this game which starts with these scenes, because a lot of trailers tend to want to start with context, and then follow up with the content. That would've made the audience impatient as they wonder to themselves: "What is the gameplay though!?" By cutting the game elements in this order, the setting gives context to the gameplay and makes it more interesting.

The story scene here provides some more story context if you pay attention.

At the end the title fades in, and here is where I have my one critique: What platforms can you play this game on!? There's no call to action, no logos or ways to find or follow the game. Is it even out? If this video were taken off of YouTube and reposted on Twitter with none of this information, the omission of the pertinent info adds unnecessary friction for the player to find the game!

Other than that, this is a lovely trailer which is well thought out and put together. I want to wrap this world around me like a blanket, which sounds like the perfect feeling for a game about talking to people and serving hot drinks.