Starting up a cafe!

Getting straight to it, I want to start up a cafe. Simple as…right? Well, after searching up “cafe” on Roblox, I have encountered a BIG issue. I scrolled for 10 minutes at fast pace, just through cafes. That’s the issue, new cafes are being made every day and the only popular ones were the first few to actually open. How am I going to make my cafe stand out through those thousands of others? Well, this is the issue. Does anyone have any ideas at all that could help me make this journey easier for me? This has been my dream for a long time and I’d hate to have to put a halt to it. Thanks in advance for any help! :))

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Maybe using advertisements will not be a bad idea, you could also sponsor your game so it could get on the front page.

You would also have to make the cafe unique apart from the regular generic cafes.

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Thanks for the feedback, will definitely take that into account!

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Huh, maybe you could make an ordering system? :wink:
Maybe make actual jobs for the staff, like cooking food and preparing drinks. That sounds neat!

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Well, this is not a bad idea at all, but when I played a cafe once, the service was worse than McDonalds. If you are going to make a cafe game, make it better than the rest out there. Cant wait to play! :slight_smile:

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It’s like starting a real business. Either you will success or lose. However cafes today aren’t best way to make a group huge, and it won’t gather many people and get good revenue. You may still try, you have to have good Staff team, probably a discord server, a cafe (place), group and GREAT advertisment, so you won’t lose like those other cafes.

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I think you should get a game icon, a thumbnail and an ad that’ll make your game have a good first impression. Try to get someone who can create GFX for you.

Another tip is that you shouldn’t go for a clickbait ad because most games that do that usually get tons of dislikes.

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Alright, thanks! More good feedback!

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If you feel that you need help in some form, hire a builder or scripter. If you are new to making games, you should do percentages.

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Well, I made a cafe that was run by bots with a friend because we didn’t have a team of staff.
It was an original idea, and still is :v

If you don’t have enough people to be able to run a full cafe, maybe think about making bots! xd

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They would be unreliable, there’s no way you can make a bot that has an answer to every question someone could think of, and it would just be unappealing. Also, imo, it’s a lot nicer to know a human is taking an order rather than a program.

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Hey, sounds like an amazing idea and I’m down to help if you’d like, I’d recon maybe making some nice UI’s and tech it will do really good and with animations for the food etc and good user experience.

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Cool, that sounds really great. The only issue…at the moment, I’m really cautious about letting people in my roblox studio games as I have not had a good experience sometimes. Is is it possible for you to make the UI into a model, send me the link and I can import it? You could work at your own pace too :))

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Of course they would be. I made my bot(s) with a module that runs all of them; meaning that its easy to change code for all of them.

I added a thing where every time somebody would try to order something with a certain string whether it be “can i get a <object>” or “give me <object>” etc, to make it so its really hard for a bot to not work properly.

It works like actual players, and using pathfinding service, you could make a bot that serves the food to the player; like what I did (except this is an older game, where it doesn’t have as well of scripting. i used a lot of waypoints to make it work.)

Update, 2023: Please don’t do this.
You’ll either spend a lot of time making intricate string combinations or just flat-out have it not work as intended.
Make a GUI menu, or using an existing (or if you have the experience/time, make your own) “AI” text recognition model.

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well, i suppose that’s fair, but you have to admit, making a cafe run by bots isn’t very practical and isn’t good for people starting out.

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Starting such industries in ROBLOX and wanting them to succeed is a hustle. However, I’d be more than welcome to give you some advice. Keep it mind this is the way I did it (and I used to have over 12 people customers, and workers whenever a shift was hosted with only 300 members).

First of all, a catchy name. If you start something like “Beanies Original Cafe shop” it won’t go far. It needs to be as short, easy to remember and also not get tagged if a safechat users says the name (e.g.: safechat users can’t say Fizze, which is a huge downgrade to their company.)

After you got some that sorted out, before creating your group make a discord server, including the higher ranks which will assist you to run it. Once that’s done you may organize everything you need with your team.

Some extra pro tips:

  • Making a handbook in google docs isn’t the brightest idea, I’d suggest making one in #bulletin-board.

  • When developing a game/buying a cafe from your developers make sure to scan it to make sure it isn’t a free model. Not only will you lose a ton of robux and most likely the scammer will not face consequences, but you’ll also lose reputation, which is a great must-have.

  • Your MRs and HRs don’t need to be perfect (like the ones in bigger groups), as long as they’re active and they learn from there mistakes don’t fire them until you have tons of active Baristas.

  • An active communications server (Discord). I CANNOT stress this enough, your Discord must be extremely active, you’ll thank me later.

  • Good and original simulations/game content. The more original the game is, the more entertaining it’ll be for customers to come and visit again. Trust me on this one.

  • Go to GRP and launch ads as frequently as possible.

Please keep in mind that that’s mainly targetted towards the management side and not development wise, and you can always take different routes. Good luck!

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Maybe cafes specifically are dying, other industries like Juice Bars, and bakeries are starting to trend amongst the community.

Also,

True, in the beginning cafes don’t make a good revenue, but it’s mainly because the gamepasses are poorly made and overall unnecessary. People usually don’t make cafes to make a quick buck.

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Like you said, the cafe is one of the most crowded genres on Roblox, and your cafe is going to need to do a couple of things to stand out from being “just another cafe”

This includes straying from the cafe style a bit. Why would I want to waste ten minutes of my time just to eat virtual food. A lot of cafes are just for quick money by selling merch and nearly useless gamepasses.

1. Give your cafe a theme

A lot of cafes are very generic. Give your cafe a certain aspect. For example, a 90’s style cafe, that looks retro? A tropical jungle cafe? Poll people about different cafe styles, and see which one they like best. By giving a theme like “Cloud City” to your cafe, and giving it the appropriate build style, people will have a more memorable experience there. This causes more people to be attracted to your cafe.

2. Build a unique menu

This goes along with giving the cafe a theme. A lot of cafes have very generic menus, which make me less attracted to any cafe game out there. For example, for the jungle theme, you could put coconut juice, exotic salads, etc. For the arcade theme, you could put triple glazed donuts, all-topping pizza, etc. Put memorable foods that you wouldn’t find in many other cafes. This once again comes with the goal of building a memorable experience.

3. Create a strong work ethic

Any cafe needs workers, but I feel all other cafes take the hiring process and the job itself in very horrible ways. Some cafes overwork workers, others treat them as “just another worker”. This is not okay. It is important to make every worker feel as special as possible. You can do this by giving them benefits, like discounts on the food and making sure they can get paired up with friends while working. Use the power of scripting to make a great experience for anybody who works at your cafe, and at the same time give a great customer experience. Also, don’t act like hours are mandatory. Tell them you prefer that they work 30 minutes a day, but in the end it is their choice. Encourage your workers to find people who are abusing others, and you should be fine.

4. Give the customers activities

I feel this is the main problem all cafes have. While working there can be fun, you can’t make working fun if there are no customers. Keep a good retention rate by providing alternate activities. Maybe some fun games, sports, and nice hangout zones. By giving all these activities, people want to be at your cafe.

Hope this helped!

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From what I have read, most of the answers given are irrelevant, as those “new cafes” are already doing most stuff that people have answered.

If I were looking for a cafe, I would look for something that is innovative, and something with cool new features that have never been seen before on the Top Search cafes.

Along with this, you have to do something that will make people want to come back, and keep playing your game. Most cafes that I have seen give some daily reward that you can spend on in-game items, but this is not the best option for good player retention.

In reality, you won’t see very many players after the first few months, but keep pushing and coming out with new things, because that’s how you get players. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I would play those games. And try to come up with something that is cool and original to add to your cafe so people play it.

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