Pupil Entertainment

Here are Some Minigames Inside ‘COCOA’!

Hey eyeballs!

This week, we’re excited to share a sneak peek of COCOA’s minigames!
Our goal with these minigames is to immerse you in the daily grind of Issa and Asante as they process cocoa beans.

We designed these experiences to feel realistic, grueling, and even despairing. Each minigame is in first-person perspective, where you’ll use your mouse to control a point-and-click game. The tasks are repetitive, yet the time limits leave little room to pause, forcing quick decisions under pressure.

At the INTI Festival, we had to rush our build and simplified all minigames to a basic point-and-click mechanic. You simply clicked a randomized button whenever it turned green, while avoiding it when red. Although this system was functional, it was barebones and didn’t fully capture our vision.

And if you’d like, you can still play the rushed INTI Festival build here!

(Warning: It’s unpolished, with outdated colorful graphics quite different from our current style. Play at your own risk and keep your expectations in check!)

Now, we’ve finally been able to refine these minigames into what we originally envisioned. Currently, only the graphics for Harvesting and Bagging are finished. Breaking and Drying are still in the works but will be added soon. Once these graphics are fully implemented, it’ll mark the completion of the game’s core systems. From there, we’ll focus on adding content!


Harvesting

In harvesting, you’ll be using or sickle to harvest some cocoa beans. The sickle has a force pulling it downwards. We made this to reflect Issa and Asante’s struggle on harvesting the pots. Since in reality they’re pretty short while the cocoa beans hanging up in the branches.


Bagging

This is a minigame where you’ll have to sort extracted cocoa beans to only put good ones to the bag. All in the pressured by the time limit at the top slider bar. (The time slider is still WIP).


Breaking

You’ll have to click when the selector has reached the correct spot. This minigame requires timing and prevision. Sometimes, the selector’s movement direction will be inverted, making you have to be extra cautions when clicking.

Like we’ve said, breaking’s graphics is in progress, due to its complexity.


Drying

In Drying, you’ll be using the rake to slide over a carpet filled with cocoa beans ready to be dried. You do so by clicking carefully between left and right click. The clicks are randomly generated so you must be careful!

Like we’ve said, drying’s graphic haven’t been implemented by the time that this post is written.

Initially, we planned a “cleaning” minigame, where players would clean the cocoa beans by shaking them in water. However, we had to replace this idea with bagging due to the technical challenges of creating realistic 2D water physics under time constraints.

As for the chocolate factory section, it’s still a work in progress. This part of the game will lean more toward mechanics than storytelling, so we’re not ready to reveal much just yet.

We’re planning to release a demo during Steam’s February Next Fest, with the full game set for March or April. About a month before each release, we’ll publish a full behind-the-scenes video on the making of COCOA. To stay updated, consider wishlisting the game on Steam and subscribing to our YouTube channel!

What do you think of the graphics so far? Share your thoughts in the comments!


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