Cozy Cafe

Cozy Cafe: Designing a Space to Slow

Down

Sara Nartayeva | College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) | Class of 2028 | Design I created Cozy Cafe because I love coffee, cozy spaces, and the feeling of fall. I wanted to turn those things into a small interactive experience that feels like stepping into a quiet coffee shop. Many games focus on competition, fast reactions, and constant rewards, which can sometimes feel overstimulating. I wanted to explore a different possibility: a game that gives players permission to slow down, focus on something simple, and take a break from everything else. Rather than making players feel like they need to win, I wanted them to enjoy the process itself. This game is about relaxation and calming down after a long day. One of my most important design decisions was the warm color palette. I wanted the browns, creams, and autumn-inspired colors to create a sense of warmth. I paired these colors with smooth jazz to make the experience feel closer to sitting in a real coffee shop than playing a typical arcade game. I also chose a hand-drawn interface instead of a more polished, generic game aesthetic. The imperfect lines and cute bear characters make the game feel less digital, like drawings from childhood.

Another decision was to keep the game relatively short and avoid making progression the main focus. I wanted players to enjoy making coffee rather than feel pressured to complete increasingly difficult levels. I was interested in the satisfaction of following a familiar process, not in punishing mistakes or making players compete for a high score.

My collaboration with Claude was most useful when it helped me turn an idea into something functional and suggested possibilities I had not thought of. For example, I had not considered adding 5 cups on top to suggest progression and the rain sound. Claude helped me think beyond the initial concept and make the game more user-friendly. However, the collaboration was not always aligned with my vision. Some of Claude's visual suggestions felt too generic, so I chose to draw the interface myself and make the game feel more distinctive.

I think Cozy Cafe is my game, although I recognize that authorship is complicated when I did not write the code myself. I developed the original concept, decided what emotional experience I wanted players to have, and made the central visual and design decisions. I used Claude to help translate that vision into a working game, something I could not have built independently with my current coding skills. I authored the intention and much of the creative direction, while Claude contributed to the implementation.

The most important prompt I have used is the first one, as it lays out all the main mechanics of the game.

“Build a single-file HTML arcade game called Cozy Cafe.

The player makes coffee for customers by first clicking the espresso coffee machine to grind coffee, then pressing the coffee in the portafilter, then pouring coffee by clicking the coffee shot button, then steam milk with the steam wand, then pour milk. If the drink does not require milk, skip the step, and if the drink requires water then get it from the tap. At the end, everything should be poured into one cup and then given to the customer.

The challenge is the player has a 5 min timer to make 5 random coffee drinks for 5 separate customers, and the drinks should be strictly according to the coffee chart I provided.

A round lasts 5 min and ends when the player successfully makes all the coffee drinks correctly. The feel I'm after is cozy.

Throughout the game, everything must be controlled by the cursor clicks (The player clicks using the trackpad on the computer)

The Game should be very, very similar to “Good Coffee, Great Coffee” game and “Cozy Bear Cafe”.

Requirements: everything in one .html file — no external images, no audio

files, no CDN links, no installation. Draw all graphics with canvas and

synthesize any sound with the Web Audio API. Keyboard controls, shown on

screen. Include a score and a game-over state.”

Then the second most important prompt is integrating my artwork into a functioning game:

“Make the main page in the game look like this. Don't change anything about this design. All the functions should be the same as previously. The header should be exactly the same as in the current game.”

I did this three times for the home,level and game screens. This is where I collaborated with Claude the most.

AI Disclosure:

I used AI to write all of the code and HTML, and a bit to help me write this artist statement (I wrote it myself and then ran it through AI). It took me overall 20 iterations to make the game, most of them small, like getting rid of certain elements like text and images. The idea was completely made by me with zero help from AI and the interface was mostly made by me, except for small details like the header, lock, recipe book when it is open, and the back pop-up.