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Manage a cafe by day, go to bed and fight in your dreams in a world without sleep by night in Hips N Noses
Rock Paper Shotgun previews Hips N Noses, an upcoming indie title blending a cafe management sim with a Vampire Survivors-style roguelike, set in a world where only the player character can sleep. Players run a coffee shop by day and descend into dream-based combat by night, giving the game an unusual hybrid structure that combines cosy daytime service work with action-focused nocturnal battles.
By day, players take the role of Mela, a barista working for a character called Beri, brewing magical coffees in an Overcooked-style system that restores customers' lost memories by mixing ingredients to match specific requests. By night, Mela enters dream sequences where she fights waves of enemies to earn powers and gather flowers needed for her coffees, aided by support characters whose usefulness depends on relationships built during the day. The reviewer found the demo's combat and management mechanics competent but somewhat derivative, while praising its distinctive lo-fi visual style, soundtrack and thematic pairing of coffee with memory; the game is heading to early access, though no release date has been confirmed, and it can be wishlisted on Steam.
In short
- Hips N Noses mixes cafe management with Vampire Survivors-style dream combat.
- Demo shows promise but leans heavily on familiar roguelike mechanics.
- Game is planned for early access, no release date yet.
Explained simply
Living in a world where nobody sleeps except one person changes the whole rhythm of daily life, and that's the setting for Hips N Noses, a new independent video game. The story follows a barista named Mela, who works at a coffee shop for a character called Beri, and it's the fact that Mela alone can dream that gives the game its unusual two-part structure.
During the day, players manage the cafe, mixing ingredients to brew coffees in a fast-paced style similar to the cooking game Overcooked, with each drink tied to restoring a customer's lost memory. At night, Mela falls asleep and the game switches into combat, sending her through dream battles against waves of enemies in a style associated with the game Vampire Survivors, where she collects powers and ingredients needed for the next day's coffees.
The game is still in development and does not yet have a release date, though it is expected to launch into early access and can currently be added to wishlists on the digital games platform Steam. It has drawn attention mainly for its distinctive visual style and music, and for the way it links its two very different modes of play around the shared theme of coffee and memory.