High Times is a cooking game and a dating sim by indie developer Yanyang Mobile, released earlier this July.
If you, like us, missed the memo of its original launch, the good news is is that High Times will be on its biggest discount since launch, at 25% off.
In High Times, you make donuts (or doughnuts, if you prefer the British English spelling) to serve to customers, with a twist. These orders are not only custom made for each customer, but they are also not ordering donuts made of specific ingredient, flavour or toppings, either.
Rather, this is a world where donuts have mood-altering effects, and customers come in with complex emotional problems which they hope a good treat will solve it all. The right donut made with the right ingredients will specifically solve one specific customer’s problems. You’re not just going through the motions and providing service in a service simulator, you have to puzzle out cryptic orders to serve them the right mood-altering donuts to get them sorted out. Or have them suffer from more problems if you get it wrong, just like other mood-altering substances. But these are just donuts.
Over time, more tips, tools and recipes for donut-making will be unlocked, with optional store decorations available.
In short, High Times is sort of like Coffee Talk but with extra steps.
Speaking of extra, High Times also feature over 30 different customers you interact with visual novel-styled, and six of them are romanceable.
Each of the customer’s story have multiple endings, so your donut making decision can have various consequences. But for the most part, you’re here to listen to their problems. The cast of characters, some of them being dateable, are essentially here for therapy.
High Times has a full English voice cast with quite the star-studded list of cast members, a popping comic book-style art drawn by hand and an original soundtrack composed of rock, city pop and lo-fi music.
Yangyang Mobile are experienced in visual novels and narrative-based games including The Letter and Love Esquire. Their next title, Spirit Rancher, is taking a whole different, and interesting, direction.
If you’re sold on High Times reading this, please hold that donut: the 25% discount will go live from October 13-20 as part of Steam’s Cooking Fest promo.
High Times is out now on PC (Steam).