My Steam wishlist grows daily, I know showcases definitely hate to see me coming. So when Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim, a game I’ve had wishlisted since early 2024, came my way, I was eager to dive into its early access build.

In Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim, you play as an adorable fox opening a cafe, brewing coffee, decorating your shop, and befriending charming forest creatures. As you progress, unlock new items, recipes, villagers and skills. 

Gameplay

Tailside is a daily management game where most of your tasks are on a loop. Each day, you’ll brew a variety of coffees, manage inventory to keep your shelves stocked, and clean up after a steady flow of customers. After closing time, you can spend your earnings on new items and decorations, customizing the café and other unlockable areas to match your style.

The intro takes you through all the steps of brewing coffee, but also helps you gain 10 levels. Even if you skip it, you’ll still gain the levels, though it’s highly recommended for your first playthrough.

Brewing coffee is pretty simple. Most drinks use espresso as the base. Grind coffee, put it in the moka pot and tada, you’ve got espresso. The same goes for other ingredients. It may take a bit when starting, but leveling up lets you spend points to speed up production. You can also spend points to skip a piece in the making of drinks, like the foam mini game for lattes. Although there is an open to close time for the café, there isn’t a punishment for not finishing tasks or incorrect coffee orders.

Each day you choose not to close before the work day is over, you get a plushie token. Tokens can be used in the claw machine to unlock plushies! I am absolutely obsessed and I need Coffee Beans Dev to make them real life right now please! Especially the moth with the coffee cup! 

Purchasing stock when yours is depleted is huge in this game. No coffee = no customers. Make sure you manage your money and don’t spend it all on furniture. Although supplies don’t cost too much, when you’re replacing them multiple times a day, things start to add up. As you level up, you’ll unlock pastries. Though they’ll add to your overall expenses, buying them isn’t necessary, but does bring in extra money.

Decorating is therapeutic in Tailside. As you level, unlock new furniture, and areas to decorate. At the beginning of the game, the café is the only room available to decorate, but finishing the tutorial unlocks the bedroom. Once you hit level 20, the terrace opens up, and you can expand it further with coin-based add-ons. There is even a sandbox mode for those who just like to decorate. You have no budget, and all décor is unlocked. 

Characters 

From Coffee Beans Dev, the creator of Tailside, comes a charming lineup of adorable characters waiting to meet you. Upon entering your cafe you’ll meet Toffee who leads you through the introduction. You’ll also meet Leila the local bakert, Maple the Carpenter, and more. New levels also unlock little creatures who come in for coffees and treats. 

Over time, you’ll meet more animals, including Aurora who publishes a daily newspaper chronicling the cafe and events around the forest. The newspaper isn’t critical to progression, but it occasionally offers useful hints and insights

You can upload your very own character right into the Tailside world. By uploading a few files, you can become the barista of your dreams!

Music and Art

Tailside features a pixel art style with muted colors, creating a cozy and inviting atmosphere throughout the cafe and forest. Adorable characters, decor and simple but fulfilling animations. 

The music is cozy and reminiscent. I feel like I know exactly what it feels like to walk into this coffee house just by the ambiance of this game. The smell of roasted coffee and buttery pastries, a comfy seat, a warm drink and you feel like you can stay a while.

Roadmap to Full Release

Like I said before, I’ve had Tailside on my wishlist since early 2024. Playtesting has been going on since August of that year, continuing to October when a demo was released. In that time a fundraiser with continual Alpha updates in Q1 of 2025, until its Beta launch in Q2 of that same year. Tailspin plans to release in full in 2027, with early access now available.

Features for full release include a greenhouse with the ability to grow and sell plants, weather system, level expansion up to 50, 500+ decor items, NPC collectibles, the possibility of visiting other players’ cafes, and so much more. Developer Coffee Beans Dev is also taking suggestions from the community on what they want to see in the game claiming “a game created by the cozy community, for the cozy community”

Coffee Beans Dev is a solo developer on Tailside. They’ve been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure this game has been made for the community. How do I know this? Well upon receiving the game, I put a few hours into my first save. Well, the next day I returned to find my saves had disappeared. Starting over and trying again, I found that it also didn’t save. Panicked (because I needed to write this lovely preview) I reached out to the dev who was more than helpful. Sending over pictures of my files, walking through troubleshooting,  we found that changing my Steam name triggered a bug. I was happy we solved the problem, and they knew what needed to get fixed before its release.

Many developers claim to listen to their community, but I can tell Coffee Beans Dev truly does. From taking player feedback on the demo to personally replying to my email, even during the final countdown before the early access release, they’re genuinely paying attention.

In conclusion, even in early access, Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim is well worth picking up. The current content already shows a clear vision, and the upcoming roadmap, along with the developer’s evident care for the game, makes its future especially promising.

You can pick up Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim now in early access on Steam for $10.99 USD with 10% off until January 28th.