Witch's Brew: Love and Lattes (AppID: 3621170)

Will you spill the tea about the secret, cozy magical cafe on the college campus? Brew potions and romance on coffee dates with your new friends!

Witch’s Brew: Love and Lattes is an interactive cozy romance novel by Cay Macres. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, 426,000 words, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

After years of hiding your magical powers, you’ve been accepted into Peridot Pines University—as well as its secret society of magicians! Better still, you’ve got a sweet job as a barista at Witch’s Brew, the cafe where Hecate Society meetings take place. The catch? Witch’s Brew is struggling: even on a college campus, it’s hard to keep a coffee shop open. They need all the help they can get to keep it open—especially yours. The other catch? Magic is supposed to be secret—and the new university chancellor suspects that something is up. 

Can you make the grade in both your mundane and magical classes, while still putting your best effort towards making your customers happy at the coffee shop?  What will you do when specters start appearing all over campus? Or when spells go awry and the chancellor gets suspicious, how will you cover it up: with quick-talking persuasion, more magic, or with the combined effort of all of your friends? 

Or, maybe you’re starting to fall for one of those friends? Pierced, punk, red-headed Rowan has hard-to-control magic that crackles with electricity—but when that same magic leaves a trail of daisies behind, it shows that Rowan has a softer side, too. Alchemist Mel’s mother runs the coffee shop, so Mel always has an energy potion on hand for those late-night study sessions, and creative ideas for how to boost the shop’s sales—not to mention, the softest brown curly hair and dreamy brown eyes. Then there’s whimsical Tomi, who has a sweet sense of humor, sparkling hazel eyes, and an endless collection of academic-looking sweatervests. Every time you run into this journalism major, it feels like something out of a romcom. But Tomi is a non-magical mundane! Can you keep your biggest secret from someone who’s becoming so important to you?

Or…maybe you don’t want to keep the secret anymore? Maybe the world—or at least Peridot Pines University—is ready to hear about magic. 

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, or bi.

• Romance a barista who spikes their coffee with potions, a hot-headed elemental magician, or a non-magical journalism student who asks a lot of questions.

• Choose a type of magic to concentrate in—alchemy, divination, transmutation, or elemental magic—and learn arcane secrets from your knowledgeable professors. 

• Bond with your childhood best friend, or build new relationships with your college classmates.

• Figure out a way to keep your struggling cafe from being closed. Potions to match the customers’ moods? Gimmicky sales? Appealing to the university community? Or just excellent service?

• Explore mysterious ruins, have a relaxing day at the beach, and cheer for your favorite team in an intramural game of Divination Dodge!

• Adopt the world’s snarkiest cat as your familiar. Or maybe you’re the cat’s familiar? The cat certainly thinks so.

Order’s up! Cappuccino, with a dash of magic.