Help an introverted frog find tea for her tea party!

Teacup loves nothing more than spending cosy afternoons at home, reading a book and sipping on some tea. That isn’t going to happen today, though, because her tea party is tomorrow, and she’s all out of tea! Oh no! It’s time to go into town and stock up on supplies. Teacup forgot that the town carnival is today, and people are everywhere. This is going to be more challenging than she first thought!

Gameplay

Teacup is a short, easy game to play. Talk to villagers and see if they can help you with your tea dilemma, most of them will, but they need you to do something first. Usually, it involves a mini-game to help them complete a task. This ranges from organising a vegetable stand Tetris style to a hidden object game. Once completed, they’ll offer you some tea for your party.

Each tea variety has a page in Teacup’s tea encyclopedia. There is so much to learn about tea from this book! There’s even a biscuit recipe at the end. Once you’ve found the relevant tea, the page is coloured in with a lovely illustration, and it’s time to move on to the next tea.

A tetris style minigame in Teacup — A Tetris style mini-game in Teacup

Teacup is a lovely experience, but a few issues let it down. There is no options menu at all, which means not being able to change music volumes, text size or key bindings. This is a little frustrating when you use arrow keys to move but occasionally need to use the mouse. You end up having to switch from mouse to keyboard for controls. This could easily have been avoided if WASD had been used for movement.

There is also no quest log, which doesn’t matter too much for a game of this length, but I took a break between short sessions and days later, I couldn’t remember who I was supposed to talk to. It also meant occasionally getting stuck because I wasn’t sure what to do next.

Art and audio

Teacup has a storybook feel to it. I can easily imagine it being a children’s picture book that tells the story of Teacup’s tea party, though without the interaction that a game brings, of course. It’s quite charming and adorable, and I’m sure it would appeal to children and adults alike.

The soundtrack is light and whimsical, just as you would expect a soundtrack for a game about tea to be. It also brings a little sense of adventure as we venture out of Teacup’s comfort zone to find all the tea she needs. The sound effects are minimal and sometimes overused, but not so intrusive as to ruin the experience.

Final thoughts

Teacup is a lovely way to spend an afternoon, especially if you’re interested in tea. While I’m not a big tea drinker, it was interesting to learn about the different varieties and how to use them from the encyclopedia. I also had fun with the mini-games and curious characters you meet. The only real issue I had with Teacup was not being able to rebind keys. They didn’t sit naturally for me, and it would have been great to be able to change them. Fortunately, the devs have mentioned they plan on adding this in an upcoming patch. If you love wholesome games with adorable characters and lots of tea, I’m sure you’ll love Teacup too.