Planned Release Date: Nov 11, 2026

About This Game

☕ Leave the city behind. Open a cafe by the river.

Tired of the city grind, you move to a small town named after its river and settle into a run-down old house. With patience, a little money and some help from the neighbours, it can become the coziest cafe in the valley - and it will look exactly the way you want. Grow the coffee yourself, learn every step of the craft and play at your own pace: there are no deadlines here.

🌱 And there is more

• ☕ From seed to cup. Plant coffee bushes, water them and harvest the cherries, then roast, grind and brew. Every bush gives only a limited number of harvests, so plan your plantation.

  

• ⚙️ Three machines, three levels. Upgrade the roaster, the grinder and the coffee machine for bigger batches and quicker work. The top-level coffee machine brews two cups at once.

• 🧾 A cafe with real customers. Guests queue at the counter, order a cup to stay or to go, sit at your tables, ask for a second round, leave tips and judge you. Every weekday has its own rhythm of rush hours, and every night you get a summary with their reviews. Keep the tables and the floor clean - or buy a robot vacuum.

• 🔧 Fix the place up. Sergei the handyman repairs the chairs, tables, counter, floors, walls, kitchen, bedroom and the front of the house for money and materials. A shabby cafe scares guests away at the door.

  

• 🌳 The street and the park. Chop trees, break stones, plant saplings and till the soil with your axe, pickaxe, hoe and watering can. A side street leads to a park with a fountain and benches you can sit on.

• ⭐ Level up. Earn reputation and spend skill points on a skill tree with three branches: Trade, Character and Customer Service. 13 Steam achievements are waiting for you.

• 🐈 Meet Ostin and Nemo. Ostin is a stubborn ginger cat with a story of his own: pet him, buy him a proper bed and watch him hitch a ride on the robot vacuum. Nemo is Julia's big white cat who runs her house.

• 🌙 A living day. Day and night, a weekday calendar on your phone, light that follows the sun through the windows and music that changes with the time of day and the place.

• 🎮 Comfortable to play. Walk freely in any direction. English and Russian, three save slots, rebindable keys. Mouse and keyboard only for now.

🎨 Make the cafe yours

Paint it, furnish it, rearrange it - then open the doors.

• 🖌️ Julia paints for you. Pick designs for the walls, the floor (cell by cell or in 2x2 blocks), the door, the windows and a sign with your own name and a sticker. Plan it all on a blueprint of the cafe, and Julia comes by with a brush. Once the house is repaired she can repaint the roof, the walls, the foundation and the terrace too. More than 60 ready-made designs - or draw your own pattern.

  

  

  

• 🪑 Decorating mode. Close the cafe, press B and move tables, chairs, rugs, pictures, shelves, plants, the bed, Ostin's bed and the robot vacuum's dock. Every guest still has to reach the counter and a chair, so the game makes sure the cafe stays walkable.

  

• 🖼️ New furniture and decor. Anastasia builds extra tables and chairs to order, Julia sells paintings and little figurines, and a gift of decorations is waiting for you once the repairs are done.

  

• 💰 Your own prices. Set the price of every coffee: a bargain makes guests happy, greed makes them grumble and leave. Better coffee forgives a higher price.

🏡 Three neighbours, three lives

Kate, Anastasia and Julia each live a real day: they open and close their doors, walk down the street, shop, call you, text you and drop in for a coffee - whether you are watching or not.

• 🛒 Kate runs the little shop ALL IN: shelves full of goods, shoppers with bags, a lunch corner with hot water for noodles. She restocks the shelves, sells beans, cups, seeds, equipment, the robot vacuum and Ostin's bed, and on her breaks walks over to your cafe for a cup (Ostin runs to greet her). Once she trusts you, she shares her notes on the rush hours of the week.

  

• 🔨 Anastasia is the carpenter: planks and stone blocks, a workshop that grows with your donations, furniture to order, a supply box in your cafe and a statue that fills the room with a warm glow. On Fridays and Sundays she goes out for coffee, to Kate's shop or for a walk in the park.

  

• 🎨 Julia is an artist and dancer. She first shows up as a guest of your cafe, then invites you to her house by the park: easels, perfumes, her cat Nemo and a studio desk where you order paint jobs and buy paintings. She paints, dances, plays with Nemo and strolls by the fountain.

  

🚧 Early Access

Caramel Creek is in Early Access. The core loop is playable and the town is already alive, but the game is still growing, and you will meet rough edges and unfinished corners. Your feedback will shape what we build next - see the Early Access section on this page for details.

💭 Not in the game yet

These are ideas we would like to explore. They are not in the game today, and nothing here is a promise: seasons and weather; deeper friendships with the townsfolk; the mystery beneath the town.

💛 About Caramel Creek

Caramel Creek is a small, personal project about finding your place and building a home. Pixel art, a warm soundtrack and a quiet town by the river. Inspired by Stardew Valley and Twin Peaks.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Art: part of the pixel art (object sprites, UI elements, icons, some environment pieces) was created with the help of AI tools that wrote procedural drawing scripts; the developer reviewed and edited the results. Other art (including character portraits, NPC looks and some sprites) was drawn by the developer.

Music: all music tracks were composed and synthesised procedurally by code written with the help of an AI assistant; the developer reviewed and tuned them.

Sound effects: synthesised procedurally by code written with the help of an AI assistant; a few effects come from CC0 libraries.

Localization: the Russian translation was produced with AI assistance.

Live-generated content: none. The game does not use AI while it is running.