Game Cafe Tycoon

An idle tycoon game about running a board game cafe. Greet walk-ins for coins, set up tables, and grow from one folding card table to a festival. No ads, no purchases, no sign-up: your cafe is saved in this browser.

Coins: 0 coins

0 a second

Tables

Upgrades

New upgrades appear as your cafe grows.

Goals

Each goal you finish adds 2% to everything you earn.

Open a new location

Start over with stars. Each star adds 10% to everything you earn, for good. Your goals and totals stay.

Settings and stats

Starting a new cafe wipes everything, stars included. Tap twice to confirm.

How to play Game Cafe Tycoon

Greet walk-ins. Tap the green button. Each group you greet pays a coin.
Set up a card table. At 15 coins, buy your first table. Tables earn coins every second, even while you do nothing.
Keep buying. Each new table type appears once you own one of the type before it. Every copy costs 15% more than the last, so mixing table types beats piling up one.
Grab upgrades. They cost more but last for good: a Game shelf doubles card tables, the Snack counter raises everything by half, and hosts greet walk-ins for you.
Come back later. While the page is closed, the cafe earns at half speed for up to 2 hours.

Tips for a faster cafe

Watch the "ready in" times. Each shop line says how long until you can afford it at your current rate. If the next table type is minutes away, buy cheaper things first.
Aim for milestones. Owning 25, 50, 100, 150 and more of one table type doubles that type each time. The shop shows your next milestone.
Buy upgrades that double a table type when that type earns most. The shop line shows what share of your income each table type makes.
Hire the Late-night host before a long break. It turns the 2-hour away limit into 8 hours.
Open your first new location when the offer is 10 stars or more. Ten stars add 100%, so from a start with no stars your second cafe earns twice as fast. Later, wait until the offer at least matches the stars you already have.

The numbers behind the game

Here is all of the math, so you can plan.

Table	First one costs	Earns each second	What it is
Card table	15	0.3	A folding table, a deck of cards and four chairs.
Family table	100	1.5	Big enough for a family and a box of dice games.
Tournament table	1.1K	8	Weekly brackets bring the regulars back.
Private game room	13K	45	Booked for birthdays and long strategy games.
Rooftop game garden	160K	250	Giant yard games under string lights.
Convention hall	2.2M	1.4K	Room for a whole weekend of open gaming.
Board game festival	35M	8K	Your own yearly festival, with a game library tent.

Prices rise 15% with every copy. Milestones at 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400 copies each double that table type. Goals add 2% each and stars add 10% each. Time away pays 50% of your normal rate. For stars, take what this cafe has earned in millions of coins and find the cube root, rounded down: 1 million gives 1 star, 8 million gives 2, a billion gives 10.

All 18 upgrades

Upgrade	Cost	Effect
Name badge	40	Greeting walk-ins earns 1 more coin.
Game shelf	150	Card tables earn twice as much.
First host	350	A host greets one walk-in group a second for you.
Snack counter	800	Everything earns 50% more.
Lending library	1.6K	Family tables earn twice as much.
Teach-a-game script	2.5K	Each greeting also earns 5% of a second of income.
Weekend hosts	9K	Hosts greet two more groups a second.
Scoreboards	16K	Tournament tables earn twice as much.
Espresso machine	40K	Everything earns 50% more.
Late-night host	60K	While you are away the cafe keeps earning for 8 hours instead of 2.
Soundproofing	200K	Private rooms earn twice as much.
Loyalty cards	500K	Each greeting also earns 10% more of a second of income.
Game guru	1.2M	Hosts greet four more groups a second.
String lights	2.5M	Rooftop gardens earn twice as much.
Full kitchen	8M	Everything earns twice as much.
Stage and speakers	35M	Convention halls earn twice as much.
Merch table	150M	Everything earns 50% more.
Library tent	500M	Festivals earn twice as much.

We balanced the game with a test that plays it automatically, buying whatever gives the most income per coin. With the test player tapping about 4 times a second for the first 5 minutes, it checks that the first purchase comes within 10 seconds, that there are at least 8 purchases in the first two minutes, that every table and upgrade is worth buying at some point, and that after the first minute no single purchase multiplies your income by more than 2.5.

From the cafe to your own table

The tables in the game are named after the games people play in real cafes. When you want the real thing:

Card table: card games for two players
Family table: dice games for the whole family
Tournament table: our tournament bracket generator
Private game room: game night ideas

Game Cafe Tycoon questions

Does Game Cafe Tycoon save my cafe?

Yes, in this browser only. Your cafe is saved on this device every few seconds and when you leave the page. Nothing is sent to us, and there is no account. Clearing your browser data or using a private window starts a new cafe.

Does the cafe earn money while I am away?

Yes, at half speed, for up to 2 hours. The Late-night host upgrade stretches that to 8 hours. The game also stops while the tab is hidden and counts that time the same way.

Is there anything to buy with real money?

No. There are no ads, no purchases and no premium currency. Every upgrade is bought with coins you earn in the game.

What does opening a new location do?

It starts your cafe over with stars. Each star adds 10% to everything you earn, for good, so the second cafe grows much faster than the first. Stars come from how much this cafe has earned, so the longer you wait, the more you get.

An original game made for Tally & Table. It runs entirely in your browser; nothing about your cafe is sent anywhere. It pauses when the tab is hidden and respects your device's reduced-motion setting.