by cafestorybook

Bake or Break started in a somewhat unusual place for a board game...behind the counter of my cafe in Osaka, Japan. I run a picture book cafe called Cafe Storybook, where people come not only for the picture-book-themed food and drinks, but also to read books and spend time together. The cafe looks peaceful and relaxed from the outside. But in the kitchen, it is a completely different story.

Inside Cafe Storybook
[heading]From Playing Games to Making One[/heading]
Outside of running the cafe, I like playing board games with my friends and going to board game events. After I opened the cafe, I started hosting board game events there as well. I wanted to create a place where people could meet, play together, and share that happy time around a table. I have always been drawn to cooperative games such as The Mind or The Crew. I like the feeling of having a shared mission, discussing what to do, and working things out together as a team.

But I also noticed that there weren't many cooperative games that captured the kind of chaotic teamwork I experienced in the cafe. That made me think 'What if I could turn that experience into a cooperative board game?'

Hot Cakes made in Cafe Storybook
Have you ever played games like Overcooked? During the busy hours in that cafe, there never seems to be enough time for everyone to keep up with their own responsibilities. One person is preparing a drink. Someone else is making a cake. Suddenly, two people need the same ingredient. Someone forgets an order. And before you know it, everyone is moving in the same direction.

That feeling of “We are all trying to help, so why is everything becoming more chaotic?” became the starting point for Bake or Break. I wanted to make something inspired by that feeling, but not simply recreate it as a board game. I love the way those games turn simple kitchen tasks into complete chaos. But I didn't want to make a game about running a perfect cafe, I wanted to make a game about trying to run one together just like in my cafe.

[heading]Designing the Game[/heading]
At the start of the process I knew I wanted three things :

● First, it had to be cooperative.

● Second, it had to be easy enough for families and casual players to understand.

● And finally, it had to create the kind of funny chaos that happens when several people are trying to work together at the same time.

I wanted the chaos to come from communication and prediction instead. So I choose Simultaneous Action Selection which is simple and has an element of surprise. You can't see what the other players are choosing. You have to read the table, and sometimes you have to take a risk. That made the game much easier to play around a table while still creating the same feeling of a kitchen getting out of control.

Early Sample Token
Everyone chooses an action secretly, and everyone reveals it at the same time. Just like in a cafe when preparing an order. Someone thinks I'm going to help the other person by preparing the ingredients in the last order. Another player thinks 'Someone probably needs to prepare ingredients, so I'll do it too.' And a third player has exactly the same thought.

Everyone reveals their cards. The three players end up choosing the same action. No one completed the order. “Wait, I thought you were doing it!” Suddenly everyone is laughing, and the kitchen is falling apart.

Event Cards of Bake or Break
I also wanted the game to be accessible to children, but I didn't want adults to feel like they were playing a children's game. The solution was to make the rules easy but the decisions meaningful.

A child can understand 'I need to make a cake.' Experienced players can think 'If I choose this action, the other players might choose it too, so maybe I should do something else.' The same rule creates different levels of thinking depending on the player. It became a game that could be enjoyed by the whole family. Which was exactly what I wanted.

[heading]Making It Feel Like a Picture Book[/heading]
There was another part of the project that was very important to me. Since Cafe Storybook is an actual picture-book cafe, when I started thinking about the visual identity of Bake or Break, I wanted to bring the feeling of picture books into the game.

COPECO's Book Display in Cafe Storybook
That's when I thought of COPECO. COPECO is a Japanese picturebook artist and illustrator who focuses on animals and food. She sometimes combines the two in playful and unexpected ways. Her art has a strong sense of childhood, with cute animal expressions and illustrations that seem to have their own little stories.

But there was also a more personal reason why I wanted to work with her. When I first started my Cafe, I launched a crowdfunding campaign to help open my cafe. COPECO supported that campaign, and we later organized a collaboration event together.

From the very beginning, one of the things I wanted to do with the cafe was to introduce Japanese creators and their work to people from around the world. So when I started imagining what Bake or Break could look like, COPECO's art was actually the first image that came to my mind. Her illustrations bring warmth and cuteness to the cafe, while the game mechanics create a little bit of chaos underneath that funny, cozy world.

I designed this game to look like a picture book
There is also a little story behind where the game might go next. COPECO loves Chinese food, which gave me an idea for a possible future expansion. Maybe one day, the kitchen won't just be making cakes. Maybe we'll be cooking something completely different. I already have some ideas brewing in my mind.

[heading]From a Cafe Experiment to a Real Game[/heading]
Bake or Break is my first original board game, and the process has been very different from simply designing something on paper. I started testing ideas with my family and friends, until the ideas matured. I made prototypes and played and tested them with customers, staff, designers, and other players who all became part of the development process.

Bake or Break first design on paper
Every playtest taught me something, from beginners to experienced gamers. At first the rules made it really hard to complete even one order. Now, the final game is much simpler than my earliest prototypes. But I also think it is much closer to the original idea. Sometimes a rule looked incompleted, and sometimes removing a rule made the game much better.

Playtesting the game with staff in Cafe Storybook
The title also came from the idea that the team can make or break everything. When everyone works together, the kitchen runs smoothly. When things go wrong, everything can quickly fall apart.

Can you communicate well enough to keep the cafe running?
Can you predict what your teammates are going to do?
Can you resist doing the same thing as everyone else?

But maybe none of that is really important.
What matters is having fun with your team, laughing when everything goes wrong, and enjoying the chaos together. That is Bake or Break. A small cooperative game about cakes, teamwork, and the beautiful chaos that happens when everyone is trying to help.

I hope you'll enjoy stepping behind the counter of Cafe Storybook.