Springwood Cafe documentation

Forest Park: Springwood Cafe - Player Guide

Welcome to Forest Park: Springwood Cafe.

Configurable controls

The controls in this guide are the defaults. Open Game settings, then Control mappings, to add, replace, remove, or restore keyboard, mouse, and controller bindings. Keyboard controls are stored by physical key position. Relative mouse movement for turning remains fixed.

In Springwood Cafe, you are in charge of a growing coffee shop. You will prepare drinks, cook meals, serve customers, clean tables, choose what appears on the cafe menu, and buy upgrades that make the business easier to manage.

The game is built around sound. Equipment, customers, tables, items, and important events all have their own audio cues, so learning what to listen for is just as important as learning the cafe layout.

This guide covers everything you need to play, from making your first cup of coffee to hiring an assistant and running a busy cafe.

Table of Contents

  1. About the Game
  2. Starting a New Game

  3. Controls

  4. Keyboard

  5. Mouse
  6. Game Controller
  7. Finding Your Way Around

  8. Making Coffee

  9. Preparing Coffee Step by Step

  10. Coffee Temperature
  11. Using the Flavor Station

  12. Preparing Food

  13. Unlocking Recipes

  14. Taking Ingredients from the Fridge
  15. Cooking with the Oven
  16. Reviewing Recipes
  17. Managing the Cafe Menu

  18. Serving Customers

  19. Orders

  20. Customer Personalities
  21. Customer Voices
  22. Coffee Preferences
  23. Complimentary Drinks
  24. Customer Patience
  25. Takeout Customers
  26. Customers Who Leave Their Tables

  27. Score, Progress, and Reputation

  28. Progress and Levels

  29. How Customer Payouts Are Decided
  30. Service Streaks
  31. Reputation
  32. The Local Store
  33. Online Stores
  34. The Service Counter and Cafe Assistant
  35. Looking After the Tables
  36. The Vending Machine
  37. The Jukebox
  38. Newspapers
  39. Free WiFi
  40. The Pause Menu

About the Game

Springwood Cafe is an audio-based cafe management game. Your job is to serve customers accurately and quickly while keeping the cafe clean, earning score, and protecting your reputation.

At first, the cafe serves coffee only. As you gain levels, you will unlock the fridge, the oven, and a large collection of food recipes. You can also decide which unlocked items are available on the cafe menu, meaning you have control over what future customers may order.

A successful shift usually involves several things at once:

  • Preparing coffee and matching each customer's requested flavor
  • Cooking meals without undercooking or burning them
  • Serving orders before customers lose patience
  • Cleaning tables and disposing of dirty tableware
  • Collecting customer payments
  • Buying upgrades that save time or improve earnings
  • Keeping your reputation above zero

You can play a timed game or choose Endless mode.

Available Game Lengths

Timed games can last:

  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes
  • 15 minutes
  • 20 minutes
  • 30 minutes
  • 40 minutes
  • 50 minutes
  • 60 minutes
  • 120 minutes

In Endless mode, there is no time limit. You can still lose the game if your reputation falls to zero.

When leaderboard submission is available, your final score is submitted when the game ends.

Starting a New Game

After choosing a time limit or Endless mode, wait for the cafe to finish loading. Your movement and interaction controls become available once loading is complete.

You begin in the kitchen, facing north.

The first customer arrives after roughly 25 seconds. Use that short opening period to get your bearings, find the shelf, and begin preparing coffee.

When a customer sits down:

  1. You will hear them place an order.
  2. Their table begins playing a beacon sound.
  3. Their patience starts running down.
  4. You must prepare the requested item and take it to the correct table.

At the beginning of the game, customers order coffee. Food and fridge drinks become available later.

How Busy the Cafe Becomes

The cafe starts at a manageable pace and becomes busier as you level up.

After the first arrival, customers initially appear about once every three minutes. The delay becomes slightly shorter with each level, eventually reaching about two minutes before reputation is taken into account.

Reputation also affects demand:

  • Below 50% reputation, customers arrive more slowly.
  • Above 50% reputation, customers arrive more quickly.
  • At the highest or lowest reputation, the difference can be about 10%.
  • Customers will never arrive more often than once every 90 seconds.

The number of customers who may be active at the same time also grows:

Your Level Usual Maximum Active Customers
0–3 2
4–7 3
8–11 4
12–15 5
16 and above 6

Reputation can adjust this number:

  • Below 25% reputation, the cafe allows one fewer active customer, but never fewer than one while tables are available.
  • From 25% to just under 75%, the usual limit applies.
  • At 75% reputation or higher, one additional customer may be active.

Controls

Keyboard

Movement

Key Action
W Walk forward
A Move left
S Walk backward
D Move right
Hold Shift Run while moving

Turning and Direction

Key Action
Q Turn 45 degrees to the left
E Turn 45 degrees to the right
Hold Left Arrow Turn continuously to the left
Hold Right Arrow Turn continuously to the right
F Hear the direction you are facing in degrees

Interaction and Held Items

Key Action
Enter or X Interact with the object in front of you
P Hear the name and description of the object you are facing; if no object is targeted, hear descriptions of the items in your hands
1 Use your left hand on the object you are facing, or put its item down when no object is targeted
2 Use your right hand on the object you are facing, or put its item down when no object is targeted
Ctrl + 1 Hear information about the item in your left hand
Ctrl + 2 Hear information about the item in your right hand

Press 1 or 2 while an object is targeted to interact using only that hand. An empty hand can pick up an object or collect an item from a station. If that hand cannot perform the action, its item stays held; the game does not switch to your other hand or drop the item. Move away from the target before using the hand key to put an item on the floor.

The shelf works differently. Facing the shelf, 1 and 2 store the item in that hand on the shelf. Cups and cleaning cloths cannot go back on the shelf, so these keys put them on the floor in front of you instead, if there is room. With an empty hand, 1 and 2 do nothing at the shelf; open it with Enter or X to take items.

For example, with a dirty cup in your left hand and a clean cup in your right, face the coffee maker and press 2. The maker uses the clean cup and leaves the dirty cup in your left hand. The maker still needs ground coffee before it can brew.

Station menus retain the hand you used to open them. Use Enter or X for automatic interaction. Open the fridge with Enter or X to withdraw two drinks; opening it with a hand key limits withdrawal to one drink or one ingredient plate in that hand. Controller hand actions follow the same rules. Information controls only describe the held item.

While browsing the shelf, focus a stocked item and press 1 to take it in your left hand or 2 to take it in your right hand. On a controller, move the left stick fully left or right. These shelf pickup controls override the opening hand for that pickup only; Enter still uses the opening hand. The chosen hand must be empty. The shortcuts do nothing on Store items or Leave the shelf, and never take shelf items while the shelf menu is closed. You can remap them as Pick up shelf item in left hand and Pick up shelf item in right hand.

Information and Menus

Key Action
G Open the game digest
H Hear what you are holding in both hands
L Hear your level, progress, and the next bonus milestone
M Open the cafe menu
T Hear the elapsed time and selected time limit, or hear that the game is Endless
R Hear your current reputation
Y Open cafe assistant settings after the assistant has been hired
C Hear debug coordinates in developer or tester mode
Escape Open or close the pause menu

Mouse

Action Result
Move the mouse left or right Turn; quicker mouse movement turns you faster
Left-click Interact with the object in front of you
Other mouse buttons Used in menus where supported

Game Controller

Movement

Control Action
Left Stick up or down Walk forward or backward
D-Pad Move in the four main directions
Right Stick left or right Turn
Right Trigger Run; pressing farther makes you run faster

Interaction and Held Items

Control Action
A Interact
Press Left Stick Hear the targeted object, or descriptions of held items when nothing is targeted
Y Hear what you are holding
Left Stick left Use your left hand on the targeted object, or put its item down
Left Stick right Use your right hand on the targeted object, or put its item down
Hold Left Trigger Hear item information instead of putting the item down

Turning and Information

Control Action
Left Bumper Turn 45 degrees left
Right Bumper Turn 45 degrees right
B Hear your level and progress
X Hear your reputation
Start Hear the current time information
Press Right Stick Hear the direction you are facing
Back Open or close the pause menu

Game-Owned Menus

X or left click activates the focused item in a cafe-owned menu. Mouse wheel up and down move to the previous or next item, and right click closes or returns from the menu. In the flavor station, 1 announces the current coffee taste and 2 announces the marked order. These shortcuts appear under Menus in Control mappings.

Finding Your Way Around

The cafe has two main sections: the kitchen at the back and the dining area at the front.

The Kitchen

When you begin the game, most of the kitchen equipment is lined up along the wall ahead of you.

From the far right to the far left, the order is:

  1. Fridge
  2. Oven
  3. Shelf
  4. Coffee grinder
  5. Coffee maker
  6. Flavor station
  7. Sink
  8. Garbage disposal
  9. Service counter

The fridge and oven remain locked until level 5.

The Shelf

The shelf holds the basic items you need:

  • Empty cups
  • Cleaning cloths
  • The beans jar
  • The coffee jar

Empty cups and cleaning cloths are replaced when needed. Replacement cups return to the first cup position on the shelf. A replacement cloth returns to the same position from which the previous cloth was taken.

Other Kitchen Equipment

  • The coffee grinder turns beans into ground coffee.
  • The coffee maker brews coffee into an empty cup.
  • The flavor station adds milk, sugar, lemon, bitters, and espresso shots.
  • The sink can be switched on or off for its water sound. It is not needed for preparing orders or cleaning tables.
  • The garbage disposal destroys dirty cups, dirty plates, and used cleaning cloths.
  • The service counter is used by the cafe assistant after you hire them.

A simple way to remember the kitchen is:

  • Move right from the shelf to find the oven and fridge.
  • Move left from the shelf to find everything used for coffee, followed by the sink, disposal, and service counter.

The Dining Area

The dining room contains eight customer tables. They form two columns, with four tables on the left and four on the right. Both columns run from the kitchen toward the front entrance.

The vending machine is on the left side of the dining area, closer to the entrance.

The jukebox is on the right side, also closer to the entrance.

Both devices remain inactive until purchased from the local store.

Navigating by Sound

  • A waiting customer causes their table to beep.
  • A dirty table uses a lower and less regular beacon.
  • A table with uncollected money plays a coin loop.
  • Walking toward the appropriate sound is usually the fastest way to find the table you need.

The cafe has windows along its left and right sides. The entrance is at the far north end of the room, but you cannot leave through it.

Making Coffee

Coffee is the first product available in the cafe and remains one of the most important orders throughout the game.

To make it, you will use:

  • An empty cup
  • The beans jar
  • The coffee jar
  • The grinder
  • The coffee maker
  • The flavor station

Preparing Coffee Step by Step

1. Take an Empty Cup

  1. Face the shelf and interact.
  2. Choose Empty cup from the item list.
  3. The cup is placed in one of your hands.

You do not need to keep the cup in your hand while preparing the coffee powder, so feel free to put it down somewhere convenient.

2. Grind the Beans

  1. Return to the shelf and take the beans jar.
  2. Move left to the coffee grinder.
  3. Interact with the grinder while holding the beans jar.
  4. Wait until the grinding sound has completely finished.
  5. Put the beans jar down by pressing the hand key that corresponds to the hand holding it.

Do not interrupt the grinder before it finishes.

3. Collect the Ground Coffee

  1. Take the coffee jar from the shelf.
  2. Return to the grinder.
  3. Interact while holding the coffee jar.
  4. The ground coffee is transferred into the jar.

The coffee jar can hold up to 10 batches.

4. Fill the Coffee Maker

  1. Move left from the grinder to the coffee maker.
  2. Interact while holding the coffee jar.
  3. Ground coffee is poured into the machine.

A single pour adds up to two batches. The coffee maker can hold as many as four batches at once.

Put the coffee jar down when you no longer need it.

5. Brew a Cup

  1. Make sure you have a clean empty cup.
  2. Interact with the coffee maker while holding that cup.
  3. The machine takes the cup and begins brewing.
  4. Wait for the brewing sound to finish.
  5. Interact again with an empty hand to collect the full cup.

A dirty cup cannot be used in the coffee maker. Dispose of dirty cups and take clean replacements from the shelf.

6. Add the Requested Flavors

  1. Carry the full cup to the flavor station, which is left of the coffee maker.
  2. Interact while holding the cup.
  3. Add ingredients until the coffee matches the customer's request.
  4. Close the flavor menu when finished.

7. Serve the Coffee

  1. Listen for the beacon from the customer's table.
  2. Walk to the table.
  3. Interact while holding the correct cup.

The customer will begin drinking once the order has been accepted.

Coffee Temperature

Fresh coffee begins at 100 degrees. Coffee and food lose one degree every three seconds while they are left out, unless the item is specially protected from cooling.

Temperature Condition Effect on Score
75 degrees or above Very hot Best temperature bonus: 1.15×
55–74 degrees Hot Normal value: 1.0×
35–54 degrees Room temperature Reduced value: 0.75×
1–34 degrees Cold Heavily reduced value: 0.45×
0 degrees Stale Removed on the next temperature update

An item can disappear after reaching zero even while you are holding it.

Serving hot drinks and meals is better for your score, but you still have enough time to navigate carefully and prepare orders accurately.

Using the Flavor Station

Coffee customers may ask for different levels of sweetness, milkiness, sourness, bitterness, and strength.

The flavor station offers five additions:

Addition What It Changes
Sugar Adds one level of sweetness
Milk Adds one level of milkiness
Lemon Adds one level of sourness
Bitters Adds one level of bitterness
Espresso shot Adds one level of strength

Flavor levels range from 0 to 5:

Level Description
0 Not flavored in that way
1 Slightly
2 Somewhat
3 Standard description, such as “sweet”
4 Very
5 Extremely

To use the station:

  1. Hold a full cup of coffee.
  2. Keep your other hand empty.
  3. Interact with the flavor station.
  4. Choose the additions you need.
  5. Check the current flavor profile shown at the top of the menu.
  6. Press 1 in the flavor menu to hear the coffee's current taste.
  7. Press 2 to hear a marked coffee order, provided you marked one in the game digest.
  8. Choose Close when the coffee is ready.

A perfect flavor match earns a large bonus. Near matches still receive some credit, while badly mismatched coffee can reduce your score.

Customers comment on the drink after tasting it, so listen to their feedback and use it to improve.

Preparing Food

Unlocking Recipes

Food becomes available once you reach level 5.

At that point:

  • The fridge unlocks.
  • The oven unlocks.
  • Your first recipe becomes available.
  • More recipes are added automatically as you continue leveling.

The game includes 98 recipes. They range from simple snacks to more involved meals and desserts, including:

  • Margherita Pizza
  • Rustic Garlic Bread
  • Triple Cheese Melt
  • Spiced Chicken Skewers
  • Honey Glazed Salmon
  • Creamy Mushroom Pasta
  • Golden Fried Onion Rings
  • Sweet Berry Fusion
  • Caramelized Apple Tartlets

Every recipe has:

  • A list of ingredients and required amounts
  • A recommended cooking time between 40 and 120 seconds
  • A difficulty rating from 1 to 10
  • Its own description

Taking Ingredients from the Fridge

To prepare a food plate:

  1. Interact with the fridge.
  2. Browse the ingredient categories, such as meat, vegetables, or dairy.
  3. Select the ingredients and amounts required by the recipe.
  4. Review the score cost.
  5. Choose Withdraw selected items.
  6. Confirm the withdrawal.

The ingredients are placed together on a plate in your hand.

The plate can be cooked when its contents match one of your unlocked recipes.

Taking Drinks from the Fridge

If you withdraw only beverages, the fridge gives you drink items instead of an ingredient plate.

  • One drink requires one empty hand.
  • Two drinks require both hands to be empty.
  • Fridge drinks can be served as main orders when they are stocked and added to your cafe menu.
  • They may also be offered as complimentary drinks.
  • Drinks do not need to be prepared on a plate or cooked.

Cooking with the Oven

The oven is to the right of the shelf, between the shelf and the fridge.

Placing a Plate in the Oven

  1. Hold the prepared plate.
  2. Interact with the oven.
  3. The oven opens and takes the plate.

Setting the Cooking Time

  1. Use the oven's Time control to choose the number of seconds.
  2. Choose Start.
  3. Listen for the cooking sound.

Checking the Food

You can interact with the oven while it is running.

The oven menu shows how much time remains and offers two choices:

  • Stop pauses cooking but leaves the plate inside.
  • Return closes the menu while cooking continues.

After stopping the oven, you can add more time or remove the plate.

Cooking results depend on how closely you follow the recipe time:

  • If the plate has not cooked long enough, it remains undercooked. Its description tells you how many more seconds it needs.
  • Up to 10 extra seconds still produces a properly cooked meal.
  • From 11 to 30 extra seconds makes the food overcooked and lowers its value.
  • More than 30 extra seconds burns the food and ruins it.

Removing the Plate

  1. Stop the oven if it is still running.
  2. Make sure one of your hands is empty.
  3. Choose Take plate out.
  4. Carry the cooked or overcooked meal to the customer who ordered it.

Burnt food cannot be served successfully.

Reviewing Recipes

You can review unlocked recipes in either of these places:

  • Open the pause menu and choose Display unlocked recipes.
  • Use the recipe shortcut in the fridge.

Each recipe entry includes its ingredients and cooking time.

You can also mark a recipe so it is easier to check while playing.

Managing the Cafe Menu

You decide what future customers are allowed to order.

At the start of a new game, the menu contains coffee only.

Open the cafe menu by:

  • Pressing M during play, or
  • Opening the pause menu and choosing Cafe menu

The menu has two tabs:

  • Available contains unlocked items you can add.
  • Currently on the menu contains items customers may order.

Adding or removing a dish keeps you on the same tab. Focus moves to the next dish at that position, or the preceding dish if you removed the last one. When no dishes remain in that tab, focus moves to its empty-state message.

You can offer:

  • Coffee, available from the beginning
  • Fridge drinks, once the fridge unlocks and the drinks are stocked
  • Food recipes, after each recipe has been unlocked

Removing something from the menu affects only future orders. Anyone who has already ordered that item will continue waiting for it.

When the menu offers more than one item, customers avoid ordering the same item more than three times in a row. A one-item menu can repeat that item without a limit.

If the cafe menu is empty, newly seated customers cannot choose an order. Instead of becoming angry, they wait for you to add something and try again afterward. Their patience is paused while they are waiting for the menu.

Use this feature to control the workload. For example, you can temporarily remove difficult recipes when the cafe is already busy.

Serving Customers

Orders

Customers enter the cafe, choose an empty table, and announce what they want.

A table beacon begins once an order has been placed.

Customers can order:

  • Coffee
  • A stocked fridge beverage that appears on the cafe menu
  • An unlocked food recipe that appears on the cafe menu

Coffee orders include flavor preferences. Food and fridge drink orders do not.

Customer Personalities

Every customer is a person. Each has a name, a gender, an age, an occupation, a build, a temperament, and the mood they walked in with. Nobody is quite like anybody else, and a customer stays the same person for the whole visit.

Announcements use the customer's name: "Emma Clark just ordered a coffee." A waiting table is named after its customer, such as "Table with Emma Clark, waiting. Order: coffee." The game digest lists customers by name, and telephone orders name the caller.

To learn more about someone, face their table and press P to hear its description, or open the game digest. Both tell you who is sitting there, for example: "A hurried lawyer in his fifties, tall and slim. He seems in a bad mood."

There are six temperaments: cheerful, grumpy, easygoing, hurried, shy, and formal. Who a customer is changes how they behave:

  • Patience. Easygoing and cheerful customers wait longer. Hurried and grumpy customers leave sooner. A good mood adds a little patience, a bad mood takes some away, and retired customers are in no rush. See Customer Patience.
  • Payment. A generous customer pays up to about 20% more for the same service, a stingy one up to about 20% less. Cheerful customers, customers in a good mood, and well-paid professions tend to be generous. Grumpy customers and students tend to pay less.
  • Taste in coffee. Formal customers, grumpy customers, chefs, and baristas notice a flavor that is slightly off. Easygoing customers are easier to please. Older customers tend to order bitter and strong coffee, younger ones sweet and milky.
  • What they order. A builder is more likely to want a meal, a programmer or a journalist a coffee, a student a cold drink.
  • How they talk. Each temperament has its own way of speaking. Cheerful customers chat a lot, shy customers say little and speak quietly, hurried customers speak fast.
  • What they do while waiting. Younger customers reach for their phones, older ones for the newspaper. Cheerful customers are the first at the jukebox.
  • How they move and sound. Older customers walk more slowly, tall customers take longer steps, and a heavier customer's footsteps and chair sound lower. A man's sips sound a little lower than a woman's.
  • Their table. Formal and shy customers rarely leave a mess. Easygoing ones often do. A customer who is particular looks for a clean table and walks past the dirty ones; a careless one sits down at the first free table.

A quick look at who just sat down tells you whom to serve first: the hurried lawyer in a bad mood will not wait as long as the easygoing retired farmer.

Customer Voices

Customers speak out loud, using the text to speech voices installed on your computer. Each customer has their own voice for the whole visit, and you hear them from where they are: at their table, on their way to the vending machine or jukebox, or outside the front door. A woman speaks with a female voice and a man with a male voice when your computer has one installed, and how fast, how high, and how loudly someone speaks follows who they are.

When a customer places an order, your screen reader announces it as a notification, such as "Emma Clark just ordered a coffee. Flavor preference: very sweet and milky." The customer says the order in their own words at the same time, so you also hear which table it came from.

For everything else, what a customer says replaces the announcement your screen reader would otherwise make for it:

  • Complaining that the cafe menu is empty
  • Their opinion of the order after the first sip or bite, including what was wrong with it
  • Starting a fridge drink, and reacting to a complimentary drink after tasting it
  • Giving up and leaving after waiting too long

Customers do not talk with their mouth full. They take a sip or a bite, say what they think of it, and only then carry on eating or drinking.

Telephone callers speak too; see Delivery Telephone.

These lines are loud enough to hear from across the cafe, and the direction of the voice tells you which table is speaking. Nothing is lost if you miss one: the usual announcement text is still added to the Game speech buffer, and a waiting table's name still lists its order.

Announcements that include a number, such as a payment or a score penalty, are still made by your screen reader.

Customers also chat. They greet the cafe when they arrive, mutter while they wait, react to the newspaper or their phone, comment on the music, their food and the state of their table, and say goodbye. This chatter is quieter, only carries a short distance, and thins out when several customers are talking at once. When a customer is talking to themselves rather than to you, their voice drops lower and speeds up a little, so you can tell a mutter from something meant for you.

What customers say is true. Nobody remarks on the smell of coffee unless some is brewing or a hot cup is nearby, nobody praises the sound of a coffee machine that is standing still, and nobody mentions a job they do not have. This makes their chatter worth listening to:

  • "That was quick" is only said when your service was in the fastest speed tier, and "Finally" only when it was in one of the two slowest.
  • A remark about a hot or a cold order tells you its temperature when it arrived.
  • "Keep the change" comes from a generous customer.
  • A customer who says the cafe is busy, or quiet, is counting the other seated customers.

Two things customers say are useful cues that had no announcement before:

  • A waiting customer speaks up when half of their patience is gone, and again, more sharply, when about a fifth is left.
  • A customer comments on food after the first bite: that they enjoy it, or that it is cold, overcooked, burned, or undercooked.

If your computer has an English voice, customers use every English voice installed. Otherwise they use every installed voice. A customer who comes in gets a voice that nobody else in the cafe is using. Two customers share a voice only when every voice that fits them is already taken, so the more voices you have installed, the easier it is to tell customers apart. If no voice is installed, or the voices stop working, customers stay silent and every announcement is made by your screen reader as before.

The voices are prepared when a game starts. This usually takes about a second, and can take several seconds for a voice that has not been used for a while. Until they are ready, your screen reader makes the announcements. If a voice is ever too slow to say a line in time, your screen reader announces that line instead and the voices carry on.

You can turn customer voices off, or change how loud they are, in Game Settings.

Coffee Preferences

A coffee order may describe five qualities:

  • Sweetness: 0–5
  • Milkiness: 0–5
  • Sourness: 0–2
  • Bitterness: 0–5
  • Strength: 0–5

Examples include:

  • “They want it plain,” meaning every flavor is at zero.
  • “Slightly sweet,” meaning sweetness level 1.
  • “Very bitter and somewhat milky,” meaning bitterness level 4 and milkiness level 2.
  • “Extremely strong,” meaning strength level 5.

Listen carefully when the order is announced. You can also find current customers and their orders in the game digest.

Food and fridge drinks do not need flavor matching.

A complimentary drink uses flavor matching only when it is offered to a customer whose main order was coffee.

Complimentary Drinks

You may offer one complimentary fridge drink to each customer.

This is optional and does not replace the customer's main order.

To offer one:

  1. Withdraw a drink from the fridge.
  2. Carry it to the customer's table.
  3. Interact while holding it.
  4. The drink is placed on the table.
  5. The customer consumes it after the main order has been served.

Important points:

  • A customer accepts only one complimentary item.
  • The main order must still be served.
  • Coffee customers give a better bonus when the complimentary drink suits their flavor preference.
  • Food and fridge-drink customers give a smaller general bonus without flavor matching.

Customer Patience

A customer waits for about 180 seconds. Their personality stretches or shortens this: the most impatient customers leave after a little over two minutes, the most patient stay for a little over four.

Food orders receive extra time equal to the recipe's cooking time plus another 60 seconds.

Customers may also gain more patience from cafe upgrades:

  • Reading a newspaper adds 30 seconds.
  • Using Free WiFi adds 20 seconds.

The patience countdown starts when the customer sits down.

It pauses when:

  • The customer temporarily leaves the table to use the vending machine or jukebox.
  • The customer is waiting for you to add an item to an empty cafe menu.

If time runs out:

  • The customer leaves angrily.
  • You lose reputation equal to your current level plus one.
  • A negative stale-order score is applied.
  • A dirty table makes that penalty worse.
  • The customers raged total increases.

Takeout Customers

Takeout orders become available from the local store at level 9. These customers wait in separate positions outside the front door instead of taking a table. Their arrival timer, queue limit, and patience are separate from seated customers.

Takeout customers order coffee or food. The packaging station remains locked until you buy either the delivery telephone or takeout orders. Prepare the order normally, then carry the cup or plate to the packaging station on the south side of the kitchen, east of the telephone. Interact with the station to package and seal it. A packaged item's description identifies it as a takeout order.

Carry the order to the delivery front door at the north end of the cafe. Its beacon repeats while any takeout customer or telephone delivery is waiting. The door chooses between both order types. For coffee, it prefers the waiting customer whose requested flavor profile is closest to the cup's flavor profile. The customer pays immediately, walks north to the edge of the sidewalk, and leaves. Takeout customers do not block access to the door and do not leave dirty cups, plates, or tables.

The door accepts an unpackaged order, but only 25% of a positive payout remains. Packaged cups and plates cannot be served to customers at tables.

Takeout customers lose patience 1.5 times as fast as seated customers. If one leaves angry, the normal level-based reputation loss applies, but the stale-order score penalty is cut in half.

Takeout customers do not use the vending machine, jukebox, or newspapers. They may use their phones after you buy Free WiFi, gaining the same 20-second patience bonus as seated customers.

Customers Who Leave Their Tables

After you buy the vending machine or jukebox, a waiting customer may stand up and use one of them.

While the customer is away:

  • Their patience does not decrease.
  • You may place the main order on their table.
  • They automatically receive it after returning.
  • Their final payout is worth 15% more.
  • They may use each device only once.

The vending machine and jukebox both collect coins that you can withdraw later.

Newspapers and Free WiFi work differently. Customers remain seated while reading or using their phones, and they receive extra patience instead of a payout multiplier.

Score, Progress, and Reputation

Three values are especially important:

  • Score is your spendable money and your leaderboard result.
  • Progress, spoken as XP in the game, raises your level.
  • Reputation determines whether the cafe remains open and influences customer demand.

Progress and Levels

Good customer visits increase both score and progress.

Poor service can reduce your score and slow your progress.

Buying local-store upgrades or withdrawing ingredients from the fridge costs score, but does not take away progress you have already earned.

You begin at level 0.

The amount needed for each new level rises gradually:

Level Reached Progress Needed Since the Previous Level
1 100
5 300
10 550
15 800
19 and above 1,000

The requirement rises by 50 for each level until reaching the maximum of 1,000 at level 19.

Leveling brings several benefits:

  • Customers begin arriving a little more often.
  • Food becomes available at level 5.
  • More recipes unlock automatically.
  • A bonus item appears at level 3 and then every two levels afterward.

The current bonus item is a full coffee cup that never cools.

How Customer Payouts Are Decided

A customer's final value depends on several parts of the visit:

  • How quickly the order was served
  • The temperature of coffee or food
  • The accuracy of a coffee's flavor
  • The difficulty and cooking quality of a meal
  • Whether the table was dirty
  • Bonuses from complimentary drinks, the vending machine, and the jukebox
  • How generous the customer is

Generosity is part of the customer's personality. It is applied last and scales the whole payout by up to about 20% either way. A generous customer also takes less away when the result is negative.

Speed

Time Taken Speed Points
Under 45 seconds 100 - Excellent
45–90 seconds 85 - Good
90–135 seconds 70 - Average
135–180 seconds 50 - Slow
More than 180 seconds 30 - Very slow

Coffee is judged from the moment the customer sits down.

Food orders receive some additional allowance before their speed result is decided, since cooking naturally takes longer.

Temperature

Temperature Value
75 degrees or above 1.15×
55–74 degrees 1.0×
35–54 degrees 0.75×
1–34 degrees 0.45×
0 degrees or missing order No temperature bonus and a stale-order penalty

Fridge drinks are not judged by the coffee temperature system.

Coffee Flavor

The game compares the drink you made with the customer's requested taste.

Match Result
Perfect, total difference 0 +150
Good, difference 1–5 About +90 to +50
Acceptable, difference 6–10 About +20 to 0
Bad, difference 11–15 About −44 to −60
Terrible, difference 16 or more −65 or worse

A picky customer treats the same difference as up to about a third larger, and an easy customer as up to about a quarter smaller. A perfect coffee is perfect for everyone.

For coffee, flavor accuracy has a major effect on the result.

For food, the recipe's value, difficulty, and cooking result matter more.

For fridge drinks, the value of the selected drink is used.

A dirty table reduces the payout before bonuses are added.

The combined bonus from the vending machine, jukebox, and complimentary drinks cannot raise a payout beyond 1.75 times its normal value.

Complimentary Drink Bonus

A complimentary drink may increase the payout.

  • Coffee customers reward better flavor matches more strongly.
  • Food and fridge-drink customers give a smaller general increase.
  • This bonus still shares the overall 1.75× limit with the vending machine and jukebox.

Service Streaks

Each successful service adds one step to your streak.

Every streak step adds 5% to your cash bonus, up to a maximum of 25%.

Streak Cash Bonus
0 None
1 5%
3 15%
5 or more 25% maximum

Any negative result resets the streak to zero.

Reputation

You begin with 50% reputation. The maximum is 100%.

Reputation increases when customers are served successfully. The amount gained depends on the quality of the order and, where relevant, its temperature.

High reputation brings more business:

  • Customers arrive faster.
  • At 75% or higher, one extra customer may be active.

Reputation falls when:

  • A customer loses patience and leaves.
  • A customer eats or drinks at a dirty table.
  • Service quality is poor enough to harm the cafe's standing.

Low reputation makes the cafe quieter to give you a chance to recover:

  • Customers arrive more slowly.
  • Below 25%, one fewer customer may be active.

If reputation reaches zero, the game ends with the message:

You no longer have any reputation among your customers.

The Local Store

Open the pause menu and choose Check out the local store.

Store upgrades cost score. Buying one does not reduce your level progress.

Every item has a required level. You can see locked items before reaching that level, but you cannot buy them yet.

Only one of each upgrade is available.

Jukebox

  • Cost: 180 score
  • Required level: 2

The jukebox:

  • Begins playing music in the dining area.
  • Gives waiting customers a chance to visit it.
  • Makes the final payout of each visitor worth 15% more.
  • Collects the coins customers insert, which you can withdraw later.

Free WiFi

  • Cost: 140 score
  • Required level: 3

Free WiFi:

  • Adds a WiFi sign to every table.
  • Allows each waiting customer to use their phone once.
  • Adds 20 seconds to that customer's patience.
  • Plays phone notifications, typing, deleting, enter-key, sent-message, and received-message sounds.

Soda Vending Machine

  • Cost: 150 score
  • Required level: 4

The vending machine:

  • Allows waiting customers to leave their tables briefly and buy a soda.
  • Makes each visitor's final payout worth 15% more.
  • Stores the coins customers insert.
  • Lets you review usage information and collect the stored score.

Newspapers

  • Cost: 160 score
  • Required level: 5

Newspapers:

  • Add a newspaper to every table.
  • Allow each waiting customer to read once.
  • Add 30 seconds to that customer's patience.

Tissue Boxes

  • Cost: 120 score
  • Required level: 6

Tissue boxes:

  • Add tissues to every table.
  • Reduce the chance that a customer leaves the table dirty.
  • Let you clean a dirty table with an empty hand instead of carrying a cloth.

Cafe Assistant

  • Cost: 300 score
  • Required level: 7

The assistant:

  • Collects table cash and tips.
  • Keeps 20% as wages.
  • Learns additional tasks as more wages are collected.
  • Makes the service counter available for prepared orders.

Delivery Telephone

  • Cost: 225 score
  • Required level: 8

The telephone is on the south side of the kitchen. It remains locked until purchased. Buying it announces the unlock without playing a separate unlock sound.

After purchase, incoming delivery calls ring at the telephone. A caller hangs up after 75 seconds if nobody answers. Missing the call reduces reputation by half of the normal level-based rage penalty. It does not change score or the current service streak. The normal delay starts before another caller can ring.

Answering a call picks up the receiver. The caller then tells you what they want, and the receiver is hung up as soon as they have finished speaking. Whoever answered stays in place until then. The order is accepted only after the receiver is hung up; no separate order-received sound plays. Up to three telephone orders may be active at once.

If you answer, you hear the caller in the receiver, with the narrow, slightly distorted sound of a telephone line. They say their name, the order, its coffee flavor preference when applicable, and how far from the cafe they are. After the hangup, your screen reader announces only the order number and the caller's name; the full order text is added to the Game speech buffer.

If the assistant answers, you are not on the line. You can faintly overhear the caller from the handset when you stand near the telephone, and the full order is announced by your screen reader after the hangup: the order number, the caller's name, the order, the customer's distance, and the coffee flavor preference when applicable.

Callers are people like the customers in the cafe, with a patience, a taste, and a generosity of their own. See Customer Personalities.

When customer voices are turned off or no voice is available, the call lasts three seconds and the full order is announced after the hangup, whoever answered.

Prepare the requested coffee, food, or fridge drink in the usual way. Coffee cups and food plates should be packaged and sealed at the packaging station before handoff. An unpackaged cup or plate receives only 25% of its positive delivery payout. Fridge drinks do not use the packaging station. Carry the ready item to the delivery front door at the north end of the dining area. Wind chimes loop from the door while a front-door order is waiting. Interact with the door to hand the order to the delivery driver.

Telephone customers have the same patience as customers inside the cafe: 180 seconds for coffee and fridge drinks, with the normal recipe cooking allowance for food. If an order is not handed to the driver before that time runs out, it is canceled. You receive the normal stale-order score penalty, lose reputation equal to your current level plus one, and the customers raged total increases.

The driver takes 10 seconds per kilometer to reach the customer. The customer is between 1 and 5 kilometers away, so payment arrives 10 to 50 seconds after the handoff. Preparation quality, temperature, speed, service streaks, and assistant wages use the same rules as cafe-customer payouts.

The game tracks telephone orders received and telephone orders served separately. Both totals are included with the submitted score. An order counts as received after the call is hung up and accepted. It counts as served when the prepared item is handed to the delivery driver.

Takeout Orders

  • Cost: 250 score
  • Required level: 9

This upgrade starts the separate takeout queue. Takeout customers arrive faster than seated customers, but their active-customer limit is usually two lower. When the seated-customer limit is too small for that difference, one takeout customer may wait.

All upgrades begin working as soon as they are purchased.

Online Stores

Open Online stores from the pause menu.

These shops use account credits rather than cafe score.

Springwood Cafe Food and Coffee

Ever-Hot Coffee Cup

  • Cost: 70 credits
  • Adds one full coffee cup to the shelf.
  • The cup never cools.
  • It can be purchased once every 60 seconds.

Ready-Cooked Recipe Plates

  • Cost: 50 credits per plate
  • Adds a cooked meal to the shelf, ready to serve.
  • Only meals for recipes you have already unlocked are shown.
  • You may buy one plate at a time.
  • Each plate has a three-minute purchase interval.

Springwood Cafe Helpful Tools

This store is reserved for helpful tools and other useful items that may become available.

The Service Counter and Cafe Assistant

The service counter is always present in the kitchen, but it becomes useful only after you hire the cafe assistant.

The Service Counter

The counter can hold up to four prepared orders.

It accepts:

  • A full, clean coffee cup that still has temperature
  • A fridge drink linked to a customer order
  • A cooked or overcooked food plate that is still warm

To place an order on the counter, interact while holding it.

To retrieve an order, interact with an empty hand. You will take the oldest item currently waiting there.

The counter accepts only the kinds of orders the assistant has learned to deliver. For example, food cannot be placed there until food delivery has been unlocked.

The Cafe Assistant

The assistant moves around the cafe and performs any jobs you have allowed.

They begin by collecting positive table payouts and tips. They keep 20% of what they collect as wages.

Those wages are not wasted: they are what allow the assistant to gain levels and learn new abilities.

Open assistant settings by:

  • Pressing Y, or
  • Choosing Cafe assistant permissions from the pause menu

The permissions screen shows:

  • The assistant's current level
  • Total wages collected
  • Available abilities
  • Requirements for locked abilities

Any unlocked ability may be switched on or off.

Turning an ability off does not interrupt the task the assistant is already doing. The change takes effect the next time the assistant chooses work.

Assistant Abilities

Assistant Level Total Wages Needed New Ability
1 0 Collect cash and tips
2 40 Deliver coffee and fridge-drink orders
3 85 Deliver food orders, once food has been unlocked
4 135 Remove dirty cups from tables
5 190 Remove dirty plates from tables, once food has been unlocked
6 250 Clean tables with a cleaning cloth from the shelf
7 320 Give deliveries priority over less urgent cleaning work
8 400 Pick up dirty cups from the floor
9 490 Dispose of used cleaning cloths left on the floor
10 590 Clean with table tissues after tissue boxes have been purchased
11 750 Make coffee, match customer flavors, and place finished cups on the service counter
12 900 Answer delivery calls after the telephone has been purchased
13 1,050 Package and deliver front-door orders after takeout orders have been purchased

The level 13 front-door ability covers packaging and handoff as one permission. The assistant packages cups and plates taken from the service counter. Coffee made by the assistant for a takeout or telephone customer is flavored, packaged, and taken directly to the front door. The game announces the handoff whether you or the assistant delivers the order. Answering calls remains a separate level 12 ability.

As the assistant grows more capable, they generally answer ringing calls and handle deliveries before cleaning and coffee preparation.

Looking After the Tables

A table's sound and description tell you what state it is in.

Table States

Empty

  • No beacon is playing.
  • The table is available for a new customer.

Customer Waiting

  • A normal table beacon is playing.
  • The table description includes the current order.
  • Coffee orders also include the requested flavor.

Customer Served

  • The waiting beacon stops.
  • The customer is eating or drinking.
  • The table is described as a table with a customer.

Dirty

  • A lower, uneven beacon plays.
  • Dirty cups or plates may still be present.
  • The table description says Dirty table.
  • Serving someone at a dirty table can reduce both score and reputation.

Payout Waiting

  • A coin loop plays.
  • A positive customer payment is ready to collect.

Marked Order Waiting

  • A second indicator beep accompanies the normal waiting beacon.
  • This means the table's coffee order or recipe matches something you marked in the game digest.

Cleaning with a Cloth

  1. Take a cleaning cloth from the shelf.
  2. Find the dirty table.
  3. Interact while holding the cloth.
  4. Listen to the scrubbing sounds.
  5. When cleaning finishes, the table is ready again.

The cloth becomes used after cleaning. Put it in the garbage disposal. A clean replacement returns to the shelf.

Cleaning with Tissues

After buying tissue boxes:

  1. Approach a dirty table.
  2. Make sure at least one hand is empty.
  3. Interact.
  4. A tissue is taken from the table's box.
  5. Cleaning continues automatically.

Tissue boxes also make customers less likely to leave a table dirty in the first place.

Removing Dirty Cups and Plates

After a customer leaves:

  1. Interact with the table using an empty hand.
  2. Pick up the dirty cup or plate.
  3. Carry it to the garbage disposal.
  4. Interact to destroy it.

A dirty plate cannot be prepared, cooked, or served again.

Collecting Customer Payments

When a customer leaves a positive payment:

  1. Their table begins playing a coin loop.
  2. Interact with an empty hand.
  3. The first interaction collects the payment.
  4. The score is added immediately.
  5. Further interactions allow you to collect dirty tableware.

Negative or zero results do not leave coins behind. They are announced and applied immediately.

The Vending Machine

Buy the Soda vending machine for 150 score after reaching level 4.

Once active, the machine plays a steady hum.

A waiting customer may:

  1. Stand up from the table.
  2. Walk to the machine.
  3. Insert a coin.
  4. Receive a soda.
  5. Return to the table.

During the trip, the customer's patience is paused.

A customer who uses the machine is worth 15% more when the visit ends. Each customer may use it only once.

Interact with the vending machine to:

  • Hear how many customers have used it
  • Hear an estimate of the value it has added
  • Collect the score stored inside

The vending machine becomes more valuable during longer games because it has more time to pay back its purchase cost.

The Jukebox

Buy the Jukebox for 180 score after reaching level 2.

Once unlocked, it begins playing music.

A waiting customer may:

  1. Leave the table.
  2. Walk to the jukebox.
  3. Insert a coin.
  4. Return to their seat.

Their patience pauses while they are away.

A jukebox visitor is worth 15% more, and each customer may use it only once.

The jukebox keeps the inserted coins until you collect them.

Interact with it to:

  • Hear the currently playing song
  • Collect stored coins
  • Open music customization
  • Play the available songs
  • Enable or disable individual songs
  • Confirm your music selection

At least two songs must remain enabled. If fewer than two are selected, the panel stays open until the selection is valid.

If you disable the song that is currently playing, the jukebox immediately moves to another enabled track.

Trying to use the jukebox before buying it tells you to unlock it from the local store.

The jukebox gives you two kinds of value: stored coins and improved customer payouts.

Newspapers

Buy Newspapers for 160 score after reaching level 5.

After purchase:

  • Every table receives a newspaper.
  • Each waiting customer may read once.
  • Reading takes about 10 to 18 seconds.
  • You will hear the paper being picked up, pages turning, and the paper being put down.
  • The reader receives 30 extra seconds of patience.

Newspapers do not directly add score. Their value is the extra time they give you to finish an order.

Free WiFi

Buy Free WiFi for 140 score after reaching level 3.

After purchase:

  • Every table receives a Free WiFi sign.
  • Each waiting customer may use their phone once.
  • Phone use takes about 18 to 26 seconds.
  • You may hear notifications, typing, deleting, pressing Enter, sending a message, and receiving a reply.
  • The customer receives 20 extra seconds of patience.

Free WiFi does not directly increase score. It makes customers easier to manage by keeping them patient for longer.

The Pause Menu

Open the pause menu with:

  • Escape on the keyboard
  • Back on a controller

The menu contains the following options.

Resume

Return to the game.

Tutorial

Manage tutorial hints:

  • Turn hints on or off
  • Review tutorial history
  • Reset tutorial progress

Display Unlocked Recipes

Read all recipes currently available to you, including ingredients and cooking times.

Game Digest

Review what is happening in the cafe.

The digest has two tabs.

Customers and Orders

This tab:

  • Separates cafe customers and telephone orders with menu headers
  • Shows each customer's order
  • Includes coffee preferences
  • Tells you where cafe customers are and how far away telephone customers are
  • Shows whether a telephone order awaits preparation or is traveling to the customer
  • Lets you mark coffee orders and recipes
  • Tells you which orders your assistant has taken on. Such an order ends with "assistant is working on it", for example "Mark coffee, assistant is working on it". This covers an order the assistant is preparing or carrying right now, and a coffee it has left brewing or set on the service counter for that customer while it does something else

World Items

This tab:

  • Lists objects around the cafe
  • Describes each object
  • Reports where each one is
  • Gives a practical location for both tall and low objects so they are easier to approach
  • For objects that must be used from a particular side, tells you which side to approach and which way to face

Cafe Menu

Choose which unlocked items future customers may order.

Cafe Assistant Permissions

Available after hiring the assistant. Use it to review progress and allow or prevent individual assistant jobs.

Check Out the Local Store

Buy cafe upgrades with score.

Learn Game Sounds

Practice identifying sounds that may not be immediately obvious.

Read the Game's Documentation

Open this guide.

Game Settings

Open Springwood Cafe's local settings. These controls let you enable or disable object interaction guidance, customer voices, and tutorial hints, set the customer voice volume, review tutorial history, reset tutorial progress, or restore every Springwood Cafe setting to its default value.

Object interaction guidance is enabled by default. When enabled, colliding with an interactable can announce its collision prompt, and entering interaction range announces the side and direction required to use stationary equipment. Disable it to keep the in-range object name while omitting those collision and facing instructions. Whatever this setting, once a stationary device is announced as in range you can use it, and if you interact with one while facing the wrong way, you are told which side to use and which way to face.

Customer voices is enabled by default. Disable it to silence the customers and have your screen reader announce orders, reactions, and departures instead. While a game is running, this setting also tells you how many voices are available, or why voices cannot be used.

Customer voice volume sets how loud customers speak, from 10 to 100 percent. The default is 80. A change applies from the next thing a customer says.

Global Settings

Adjust settings that apply throughout Marvel Realm.

Exit to Main Menu

End the current game and return to the main menu.

Thank you for playing Forest Park: Springwood Cafe. Learn the sounds, settle into a routine, and turn your small coffee shop into a cafe your customers keep coming back to.