Welcome to the Coffeemill Cafe

Sit down, relax, have a cup of joe, and catch up on the latest Coffeemill Games news.

General News, September 2024

General News, September 2024

A Slow, but Eventful September

As the school year begins to speed up, work on Trader’s Journey and Coffeemill Games has begun to slow down, as expected. However, there are still some major things happening! Coffeemill Games is now in the process of becoming an officially recognized LLC, and Trader’s Journey is in the process of being quoted by a few different manufacturers!

Update: Coffemill Games on Social Media

Coffeemill Games can now be found on: TikTok (@coffeemill), Instagram (@coffeemillgames), Facebook (Coffeemill Games), Reddit (Ok-Faithlessness8120… we didn’t choose the name, lol), and BGG (in process). For BGG, we are currently working on getting some images sent in that accurately and professionally represent the game, so stay tuned!

TRADER'S JOURNEY SEPTEMBER 2024 UPDATE

TRADER'S JOURNEY SEPTEMBER 2024 UPDATE

Critters & Curses Mini Expansion

With the base game of Trader’s Journey just about wrapped up, our sights are now fully set on designing and creating artwork for our first mini-expansion: Critters & Curses!

In this bite-sized expansion, you’ll be able to ‘catch’ your own critters to fight for you against the new status effect, ‘CURSE,’ a unique status that forces players to roll a series of ‘unlucky’ dice depending on how cursed they are…but not every outcome is as unlucky as it seems!

Lean into the high risk, high reward gameplay of a curse-ridden trader, or fight back against the grueling new monsters of the land with all new cards of every type, including new journeys, dungeons, bosses, weapons, spells, and everything else in between!

And hey—if you want to reserve a copy of Critters & Curses for yourself, you can sign up to be a VIP Cafe Member for just $1, and get a list of other rewards as well!

An Armor System Spiced Up

A new layer of depth to a basic armor system! This newest addition to Trader’s Journey has armor cards becoming more than just "damage reducers." Now, equipping 3 armors of the same set will grant a player a bonus specific to that set. This both gives more value to the armor cards themselves, and further incentivizes trade with other players to get the cards you want. Some armors will remain how they were before with no special abilities, and these will be called "basic" armor cards. What are your thoughts? How do you feel about this new system? Let us know!

A Dedicated Solo Player Mode

Instead of simply going through the game alone, now you can fully immerse yourself in the world of Trader’s Journey by playing as an “Archivist,” a unique trader looking to document and piece together the many mysteries of the land of Arden. As an Archivist, you’ll use the Archivist Journal to jot down and keep track of your character (carried over multiple playthroughs), the enemies you’ve defeated, and the journeys you’ve completed.

When you finish a game, record your equipped cards in the journal or a separate sheet of paper--these will be kept. Then, gather the cards in your hand and combine the total prices of every card; these cards will be discarded, but the total will be how many coins your character starts the game with next playthrough.

What we’ve been doing…

After making a few posts to reddit asking for some critique on our designs, we got some really valuable feedback on where to push the game next. So, here’s a brief list of minor changes to Trader’s Journey:

  • All card text fonts modified AGAIN to mix both the pixelated fonts and serif fonts for a design that is both cohesive in theme, and more accessible.

  • Journey cards are now less “wordy,” and offer more meaningful, lasting decisions and consequences. Some journeys have also been updated specifically with solo play in mind.

  • The “damage” sword icon has been slightly changed so that the pixels don’t need to be rotated.

  • The game board was slightly modified to include a few unique trade rounds that incentivize different things, like spending or saving coins. Boss and final boss card cues have also been implemented.

  • Rules were slightly altered to suit the new armor card “set bonuses.”

  • Enemy, boss, and final boss cards got a color-design upgrade.

  • Some enemies and bosses were replaced with newer versions.

  • Various different tokens added to help keep track of turns, who’s attacking, and player actions.