Game: Cats & Cups
Genre: Simulation, Casual, Indie, Strategy
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Rogue Duck Interactive
Controller Support: None
Price: US $9.99 | UK £8.50 | EU € 7,50
Release Date: November 1, 2025
Review code provided, with many thanks to Rogue Duck Interactive.
Cats & Cups is an adorable cafe simulation game where you play as a cat running their own little coffee shop. You must serve customers before they become agitated with waiting, repair broken items, bake, and more to keep yourself making money.
The Gameplay of Cats & Cups
The gameplay loop of Cats & Cups is a fairly simple one. Every in-game day, you need to open up the cafe and wait for customers. The faster you complete the order, the more of a tip you will get. You can put that money into unlocking upgrades for all your machines, new ingredients, and buying supplies. Once you start the day, you can no longer get any supplies or new flavors until it is over.
When a customer comes in, the item they want will be floating above their head. You have to take their order, mix it together, heat it up, etc. This sometimes requires a mini game of some sort, like steaming milk and placing a straw in their cup. After the drink or item is completed, you hand it over and get tipped based on how quickly you handed it to them after taking their order.
In between days, you bake croissants with the mix-ins you have purchased. At this time, you can also buy ingredients, upgrades to your machines, new ingredients, pay to have laws passed, and furnishings to decorate your cafe. Then you start a new day and do it all again.
Depending on which difficulty level you choose, you will either have a casual experience, a normal one, or an extra challenge, making sure every level of gamer has a chance to have a great time.
The Pros and Cons of Cats & Cups
Cats & Cups has a whole lot going for it. The animation style is very cute and polished. The sound design and music is great, and I think the whole vibe is great. I had no issues with the game other than a few minor miscommunications that I don’t think were covered in the tutorial, but overall, I enjoyed my time in this little cat-filled city.
But unfortunately, there were a few places where Cats & Cups fell apart. One is how easy it is to be incredibly unlucky while you are playing. There is a dog that comes by to collect rent, and if you don’t have enough money, the dog throws a tantrum and breaks all your machines. This will most likely lose you some customers if you can’t make the item they wanted, while also not being able to afford fixing the machines at the same time.
I liked the barista mechanic, but I feel like the croissants could have been done better. In between days, you have to bake exactly six of them, but you don’t know what kinds your customers will want the next day. They can order ones you don’t have on hand, so it feels a little like you are punished for having too many add-ins that can be baked in your croissants. If you have more than six types, you have to make a choice and hope you make the right one.
There is also a quest system that gives you lottery scratch tickets to earn additional money. Without these, it does feel like it’s hard to have enough money lying around for anything. All the items are pretty pricey, and it would be better if the overall prices of things were a little lower.
The last thing I didn’t like about Cats & Cups was the RNG of the thief and the rent dog; since it appears completely random when they show up, you can have your wallet absolutely wrecked if they show up at the same time, completely ruining any chance of getting ahead financially. This makes you not want to spend all your money between days, which slows down the process of buying upgrades even more.
Conclusion
Cats & Cups is a lot of fun, and I found my time in my little cafe to be a lot of fun. It was a little repetitive since it took a long time to buy upgrades. However, if this is your type of game, it’s worth the $10 USD to pick it up. There are several things I didn’t like about it, but it was worth a playthrough. I got about 4 hours into a playthrough, and I didn’t want to stop playing to write the review! I unlocked a lot of items, but there was still a lot more to be done. I didn’t even get a chance to try out the furniture because it was too expensive for my income.
With more upgrades, Cats & Cups will be the kind of addicting simulation game that has you serving up coffee for hours and hours on end. If you like these types of games, I recommend trying out this one. It is simple, but it is also polished and requires that you move quickly to satisfy those customers.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
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