Chocolatier

**Chocolatier** is the first main game in the Chocolatier series, developed and released by PlayFirst and Big Fish Games, released on May 1st, 2007 for Windows and Mac computers, and 2010 for the Nintendo DS.

## Story

The game starts at January 1, 1880 during the Victorian era. The player assumes the role of a young chocolatier, who is enlisted by Evangeline Baumeister to rebuild Baumeister Confections, which has been ruined by Evangeline's younger sister, Rowena Grimaldo, who scattered chocolate recipes around the world.

## Help articles

### Welcome to Chocolatier!

Travel the world in search of recipes and ingredients at the best possible prices, manufacture and sell your chocolates for the highest profit, and strive to reach the coveted rank of Master Chocolatier!

In **Story Mode**, you will meet friends (and maybe make a few enemies) as you complete adventures, collect recipes, discover new places, and unravel the story of the Baumeister family on your journey to become a Master Chocolatier.

Choose **Free Play Mode** to set your own goals, play at your own pace, and explore the world unlocked through your Story Mode play.

### The World Map

Your map shows an overview of your chocolate empire, marking the ports you can visit with icons that give you valuable information.

* Green pins mark ports you have visited.
* A green circle marks your current location.
* Flashing pins mark newly opened ports.
* Closed ports open to you as you achieve higher ranks.
* Other icons mark your shops and factories.
	+ Steam rises from operational factories.
	+ Stalled factories appear red - check your ingredient supply!

The shelf above the map holds the trophies you can earn while playing Story Mode.

Roll over a port icon for the cost and time of travel to your destination.

### Ports of Call

You will find a wide variety of buildings and places to visit in every port of the world. Interesting characters can often be found in each and every one.

While in a port, click on the buildings to visit and speak with the people who live, work, and relax there.

New ports, full of new people to meet and places to see, become available as you successfully complete quests and reach higher ranks in Story Mode.

### The Marketplace

You'll find most of the ingredients you need in markets around the world. Your purchases will be transported automatically back to your factories.

In a market, the receipt on the left shows the total you will spend when you press any green "Buy" button.

Click on ingredient sacks and key desired quantities into the cash register. When you are ready, click the green "Buy" button to complete your purchase.

Haggling may get you a lower price, but it may sometimes make people angry.

### Chocolate Shops

Sell your chocolates in shops around the world. Vary the products you sell or prices for those products may take a dip.

In a shop, the receipt on the left shows the total you will receive when you press any green "Sell" button.

Click on chocolate platters and key quantities to sell into the cash register, or use the "Max" button to enter your entire stock of that product. Use the green "Sell" button to complete the sale.

As a shortcut, click "Sell All" to sell your entire product inventory at once.

### Your Factories

Your factories manufacture chocolate products for you to sell. Configure them once, supply the ingredients, and let them run while you travel the world.

Click "Change Recipe" to choose a product to manufacture from the recipes you know. You may have to purchase additional machinery or ingredients before starting the factory.

Click "Make Chocolates!" to make chocolates and also set ongoing efficiency for that particular factory. The factory will continue to make chocolates at the rate you've established until you return and change it.

### Making Chocolates

Fire ingredients from the conveyor belt into the trays to match the green recipe template and make as many chocolates as you can in one minute.

The green template on the right shows how full trays look for the recipe you selected. Ingredients that hit the tray snap into the correct slot. The machine turns full trays into chocolates as they pass by.

* Ingredients enter the factory on the conveyor belt.
* Aim the ingredients using your mouse.
* Click to fire ingredients at the trays.
* The machinery speeds up as you fill trays.
* The machinery slows down when your ingredients miss.
* Waste eight ingredients and the machinery will stop completely.

After you click "Start!" you have one minute to make chocolates and must see it through to the end.

Once configured, the factory will continue making chocolates as long as it has enough ingredients.

### Characters of the World

As you travel the world, you will meet many characters in saloons, farms, parks, and landmarks as well as on the high seas and railway lines.

Characters you meet will offer to share information, often for a price. Trade for new recipes, play games of chance, and learn tips about events that may affect supply or demand.

In Story Mode you will also be offered adventures and quests as you unravel the history of Baumeister Confections and try to reconcile the estranged members of this once-influential family.

### The Ledger

The Ledger at the bottom of the screen puts the vital statistics of your chocolate empire at your fingertips.

* The Messages tab shows a running history of key events and the To-Do's for your current quest.
* The Inventory tab displays all of the ingredients and finished products you have in storage.
* The Factory Status tab shows the status of your chocolate factories, including estimates based on current inventory levels and production rates.

### The Recipe Book

The Recipe Book displays all of the Baumeister family recipes, organized by type of chocolate. Collect recipes to expand your chocolate empire!

* A white question mark indicates a recipe you have yet to collect.
* New recipes sparkle when they first appear.
* Golden highlights accent each recipe that you have manufactured.

The tabs allow you to see the recipes for each particular type of chocolate. To make each type of chocolate, you will have to purchase the correct machinery for each of your factories.

## Development

Tucson, Arizona based Big Splash Games was formed in late 2005 by three veterans of the videogame industry: Jon Blossom, Stephen Lewis and Michael Wyman. They came together to produce a prototype video game for the casual market. They worked on this for a few months when they were not working (they still held jobs within the industry to support themselves). This prototype was pitched to a few publishers in order to gain feedback. PlayFirst, though not interested in the prototype, issued the team a request for proposal for an economic simulation game, hoping that Big Splash could produce another proposal. The next morning, Big Splash co-founder Stephen Lewis remembered that he had been told that some people, in particular women, "have an almost religious connection with chocolate". Taking this idea he quickly wrote a proposal and forwarded it to his two partners. After brainstorming the idea the team decided that it satisfied PlayFirst's request for proposal, forwarded a copy of the idea and received word from the publisher that they "had hit the nail on the head".

*Chocolatier* was designed to appeal to women aged between 35 and 55, a different market compared to the games previously developed by the trio. However, *Chocolatier* still caught the attention of both genders and all ages, too. In order to immerse themselves in the subject matter during development, Big Splash's staff tasted as many variety of chocolates as they could find and took the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker factory tour, where they witnessed the full "bean to bar" process. The factory mini-game was developed in order to give players a break from the economic side of the game, which involves buying low and selling high. It took approximately the same time to produce the mini-game as it did to create the rest of the game, which drained the developer's resources, though Stephen Lewis believed this was "the right decision". Journalists were sent *Chocolatier*-branded chocolate bars and "golden tickets" which allowed them to download the game for free, in order to promote the game's release. The game's sequel, *Chocolatier 2: Secret Ingredients* was first released on November 27, 2007. *Chocolatier: Decadence by Design* is the third installment, released in 2009. *The Great Chocolate Chase: A Chocolatier Twist* was later released by PlayFirst.

## Reception

*Chocolatier* was awarded Gamezebo's Zeeby award for best strategy game of 2007. GameZone's Anise Hollingshead found the game too easy, noting "there really isn’t a whole lot of thinking involved." Other reviewers called it "a delightfully challenging business tycoon game", and "challenging but not frustratingly so." The game's graphics and sound received praise: Marc Saltzman noted "the game's wonderful art style and delightful music".

Reviewers praised the amount of freedom given to players. Didi Cardoso of website Grrl Gamer enjoyed the flexibility, but noted that sometimes she felt lost and was unsure of how to find the location of the next recipe. The chocolate manufacturing mini-game was also praised as "fun". Peter Cohen of *Macworld* noted that some fans of business simulators might find the mini-game "off-putting", but also suggested that it helped break up gameplay. Marc Saltzman expressed the same opinion, while Anise Hollingshead found the mini-game to be too easy to play.

## In other languages

To play the game in other languages, access the link on the right of a language's row to play and download in your native language. Or challenge yourself and play in a language you don't know - the choice is yours!

## Trivia

* It had a Nintendo DS port - the first and only game in the series to do so.
* There are a few glitches you can find in this game:
	+ The game crashes occasionally, even when you're trying to make chocolates.
	+ Truffle Powder may disappear, even when you've already unlocked all the truffle recipes.
* This is the only game to feature of the following things:
	+ Blimps.
	+ Every recipe requiring sugar.