An Interview With the Creator of Cinnabunny, a New Cozy Bunny Baking Game

As someone who enjoys curling up with a cup of tea and a great low-stakes game, I'm no stranger to the cozy gaming community on various social media. I love seeing cute pastel setups on Instagram, gushing about the latest Stardew Valley update on Twitter, and of course, chatting about and troubleshooting various games in the genre on r/CozyGamers on Reddit.

While scrolling there recently, I came across this post from Patrick Gauthier, the developer behind Reky Studios, talking about his newest cozy game, Cinnabunny. This absolute gem of a video game revolves around players taking control of bunnies as they try to run a bakery in the small town of Sugar Creek Burrows.

I reached out to Patrick on Reddit and he was kind enough to sit down and chat with me.

SUPERJUMP: Tell me a little more about the game. What's it called? And what's the premise, beyond adorable bunny ag sim?

Patrick: The game is called Cinnabunny and is essentially a bunny-baking game. I modeled the game design and gameplay loop after Stardew Valley (because it's awesome) but, if you're a cozy gamer, you probably know that farming sims are becoming a bit saturated right now. I wanted to put a more unique spin on things. Hence, baking instead of farming, bird-watching instead of fishing, mushrooming instead of fossil collection, etc.

Narratively the game starts off when your fellow bunny family is experiencing a drought. Your mother tasks you with finding a new place to settle and you come upon a lovely bun village called Sugar Creek Burrows. Here you get to meet lots of other buns and start your new bakery 😄

SUPERJUMP: Oh my goodness that sounds precious!! What made you think of baking as the alternative you wanted to go with? Is it something you have a passion for IRL?

Patrick: I definitely am a recipient of wonderful baking (my wife does most of our breads from scratch) but I myself am not a huge baker. I just wanted something that sounded fun and cozy 😄

SUPERJUMP: Fair and understandable, haha. Okay, so tell me a little more about the development process so far. The game is on Kickstarter now, right?

Patrick: Correct! I've been developing for about two years alongside updating my previous game, Bunhouse.

There have definitely been some interesting design challenges to tackle but I've slowly been able to overcome all of them and I'm pretty happy with the state of things right now! Lots more work to do for sure but the vast majority of the major systems are complete.

SUPERJUMP: How exciting! Bunhouse looks like just as fun and cute a romp as Cinnabunny is set to be. Have you used any of the lessons you learned in making that game in the development of this one? As an aside, are the in-game worlds connected?

Patrick: Bunhouse was my first major game release so yes, I've learned a ton! There were a lot of things I wish I could have done with Bunhouse that I'm definitely including. Not to mention the codebase is a thousand times cleaner. Development is definitely something that just requires a certain degree of experience to know exactly how to approach things and, while I'm not a master by any means, I definitely have a lot more perspective on how to achieve that now.

For your side question, I'd say that Bunhouse and Cinnabunny aren't directly related but are in the same bunnyverse. 😄

SUPERJUMP: Okay, so now for some of the fun stuff. What's your personal favorite game mechanic, character, or feature in Cinnabunny?

Patrick: Visually, I think the animation of the bunnies mixing the dough when adding ingredients is so freaking cute. Their little ears go back and it's just...too adorable haha.

As far as mechanics, there are a couple I'm pretty happy about, but I'll narrow it down to two:

1. In Cinnabunny you can learn up to twelve base recipes which require things like flour, yeast, milk, etc. But there are also things called supplemental ingredients. That would be items such as herbs, chocolate, nuts, or fruit. You can add up to three supplemental ingredients to any baked good. Now here's where it gets fun and interesting. Each supplemental ingredient has a flavor profile. Like salty, earthy, sweet, bitter, etc. Every villager in Cinnabunny has a specific flavor profile they prefer. So, in order to unlock new ingredients, recipes, and such, you have to keep gifting baked goods to the villagers and learn what they like. I think it's pretty neat! It makes experimenting rewarding.

2. Cinnabunny has no inventory management. Everything loads into a master inventory and is categorized to find things easily. You never have to worry about sorting chests or anything like that!

SUPERJUMP: It sounds like you've created a really fun game! For our readers, where can they find out more about your work or this game in particular?

Patrick: Rekystudios.com is a good place for linking to all the socials and stuff, but honestly, the Kickstarter and Steam pages are more than enough!

Patrick: I've got one interview question for you though!

Cat: Ohhh fun, okay! Shoot!

Patrick: If you could shrink down any animal so that it fits into your pocket (assume you don't have to feed it and it won't get squished or anything), what animal are you carrying around?

Cat: Now that is a great question. I think I'd probably carry around a tiny cheetah. They're so cute and gangly and I think opening my pocket to see a little cheetah asleep and purring would make my day.

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