Chocolatier

Gone are the days when we could fire up a game of our choice and spend hours toiling away, now we seem to game in stolen moments here and there. With that in mind, perhaps it is no wonder that casual games have become such a popular gaming choice (especially with women who make up the vast majority), as casual games allow us to either jump in and get those quick fixes of gaming bliss or either play them for as long as we want when we do have the time. In honor of casual games, we have Chocolatier, where a chocolatier sim that has you jet setting around the world, trying to find the best ingredients, and selling off your product to make the highest profit you can. Thanks to Sheya for the game =)

The story is that two sisters who have been fighting over their family's chocolate business, but neither could decide on what the other wanted to do. So, they splintered off, becoming business rivals, though one wants to restore the honour to her family. To do so, she is passing along what she knows to you, so that you may make the family business grow and prosper once more. In the beginning you will be handed a factory and a recipe for simple chocolate bars. With the recipe in hand, you will need to gather and maintain ingredients, ensure the fatory is in production, and sell the products to increase wealth and ranking in the chocolate world.

Ingredients can be found at every port city in the game that you can land at, though they would not offer the same goods. Though sugar is constantly prevalent, other ingredients like cocoa beans, coffee beans, cashews, lemons, vanilla sticks etc. can only be found at certain specific ports. You can choose to pay the full price for what the merchants are asking for, or you can attempt to haggle with them, but too much haggling can anger them them and cause their prices to soar. Prices at the various markets are also determined by things such as shortages or too much supply. Get news of demand and supply shortages or hikes from random characters at the bars or inns. In the factories, you will get to determine how many chocolates of that type that factory will make each week. You will have various revolving circles on a machine moving around, and how many complete firing of the required ingredients into each circle determines how many boxes of chocolate that factory will produce each week, as long as you have all the required ingredients. With the goods on hand, you can now head to the chocolate boutiques to sell them off. Now, there are several factors at play when selling your goods. For starters, sometimes people just get tired of eating your same chocolates over and over, so the longer you have one single chocolate bar going over and over, the lower and lower the cost you will be able to sell them at. Also, though people from an area might still love a specific type of chocolate, another port like London might be tiring of them. Throughout the game, you will be able to purchase some shops as your own, and there you will always get better than usual prices.

Along the way in the game, you will be stumbling upon odd quests, such as delivering a letter to someone or producing certain amount of chocolate boxes for a person and delivering them to them. Completing quests will net you more money or things like new recipes. Recipes come in four different flavors, such as bars, squares, infusions, and truffles, with each generally more valuable the one before. Still, you will have to spend quite an amount at each factory for upgrading to allow the making of more valuable candies.

Switching between ports costs you money and weeks , so plan your inventory full of supplies before you wander on an adventure. Graphically and visually the game is alright, simply doing what it needs to do to get its gameplay across. Music comes in several forms, such as the tense "factory out of cocoa beans" quickened paces to the more leisurely "explore as long as you want" background sounds. The sounds are pretty good though, featuring things like trains and ships going on voyages, the sound of a ringing cash register, and others. I found myself throwing away hours (one full day =\) to this game when I really should have been doing some work. I'm sure that not only will you have fun with this casual tycoon game, but you might just learn something too (chocolate history and facts).

I have also tried a few hours of the sequel to Chocolatier, which is called Chocolatier 2 (obviously). You can even get to create new recipes in Chocolatier 2 using secret ingredients from hidden ports around the world. And the game now track prices of chocolates and ingredients for you so a mouse-over would reveal past transactions. Also, instead of spinning circles in the factories (which made me dizzy), the circles don’t spin and instead flow differently on the product line. The game is as addicting as chocolate, and I’m all for a third edition of the game if it’s done right.