It is needless to say that in India a cup of tea is an emotion. But whenever you sip an aromatic flavourful cup of tea, do you wonder what goes behind the making of it? The efforts that a farmer puts in to transform the leaves into aromatic, consumable blend for us? If you are one of those who do wonder, then you are in for a treat as Kolkata based Flying Robot Studios’ upcoming game Two leaves and a bud is inspired from the tea estate.
In conversation with AnimationXpress Flying Robot Studios founder Satyajit Chakraborty shared, “Tea is a fascinating thing. They are the most consumed drink only after water. The culture of consuming them started around the third century BC. Interestingly, they come majorly from a single species of plant called Camellia sinensis. The same plant can produce tea from $60 a pound to $600,000 a pound. This is due to two factors, the terroir or the farm and environment, and also the processing techniques. These processing techniques were well-guarded secrets of the tea farmers. The farmers used to make tea from intuition and hypothesis and not by studying the chemical processes, which only started recently. So, exact processes are farmer-specific and still shrouded in mystery. We are inspired by the age-old farming techniques and mastery of tea processing. We tried to capture this passion through this game, we hope the players will discover that too.”
Two leaves and a bud is a tea garden simulator is a tea farm and factory management game. The main task of the player is to produce a variety of tea and since creating the perfect blend involves craftsmanship, therefore, a player needs to craft their own processing technique, expand and manage their own tea estate. Managing tea estate is not an easy task; it involves various factors such as pests, weather, and labor management, which can either make or break the business. According to Chakraborty, the game allows the player with an opportunity to experiment with the agricultural possibilities, starting from-
- Choosing a tea clone by analysing their parameters.
- Analysing soil test reports to select and buy farmlands.
- Pre-treatment of the soil before planting
- Clone planting and plant management
- Post plantation soil management
- Weather analysis and choosing the plucking week of the year.
- Granulated pluck management
- Choose a specific leaf combination.
- Process tea leaves in a factory equipped with equipment and machines, from traditional to automated.
- Observe the change of leaf temperature, aroma, and weight over time to decide when to switch the processes.
- Brew and taste your Tea, analyse the flavor profile, and various other tea taste report parameters.
- Understand the basics of processing and then move towards experimenting with formulising your own technique and timings.
- Study worldwide market trends to decide on your next production.
- Rise up to the tea manager’s challenge of producing a specific Tea flavor to unlock high mountain terroir, advanced tools, and facilities.
- Surprise your community by replicating the flavor profile of world-renowned teas.
“All of these choices affect the final outcome. The way forward is to experiment and learn how each and every step affects the final result while maintaining the cash flow of your farm and factory. The game is not only a management game but an open-ended sandbox, where you can spend an endless amount of time experimenting with your clones, farms, and processing techniques. Gradually these techniques will become your own secrets and you will become a Tea Master,” Chakraborty added.
The game will be available on PC, Mac, iOS, Android. The game is developed in partnership and technical consultation of Chengmari Tea Estate. They have used their knowledge of farming and processing tea to their game design. Chakraborty expressed, “It was quite a challenge to abstract the real-life techniques into a game. To make the tea behave and respond properly to different processing techniques, we had to study hundreds of research papers and build a chemical model of the tea leaf. This took a lot of time. And we are happy with the outcome. The game is not about optimising logistics. It’s also a chemical laboratory where you can experiment and come up with your own tea with a new and unique flavor. After the basic sandbox was ready, we focussed on the fun factor of the game. Polishing the UX with user feedback. That work continues until its release and also after that.”
The game is 60 per cent done and they are planning to launch it soon on Steam. So far the response for the game is great and their community is building up. Their target audience for the game is 16-35 year old players with interest in simulation and strategy gamers from US, Europe and parts of Asia Pacific.
Their 2021 plan is to create more games for them and their clients. And they are planning to continue work on the simulation genre.Therefore, more intricate and sandbox-style games are bound to come in the future.
