Not "to be, or not to be" — tonight's question is to shake, or not to shake. It's the only way to keep your late grandfather's bar alive.
Hey everyone!
We're Sheer Cat, and today we're introducing the game we've been pouring ourselves into: To Shake, or Not to Shake. This first devlog isn't about where development stands. It's about what this game is, what you actually do in it, and why we love it so much.
The Counter Is Yours Now
Your grandfather left you a bar: dusty shelves, a tired counter, a few old regulars and a worn-out recipe book. The town knew this place through him. Now it's your turn.
To Shake, or Not to Shake is a story-driven bar management sim for PC. Every day new faces walk through the door, every order is a small test, and at the end of every night your bar grows a little more.
Anatomy of a Drink
Listen to the order. Pick the ingredients. Layer. Shake. Serve. Simple on paper. Behind the counter, not so much.
You have two hands, so use both. Left click is your left hand, right click is your right. Tip the rum bottle over the glass and let it pour, and your other hand can already be reaching for the mint. On a busy night, that's the difference between a growing line and a good tip.
Pour, drop, layer. Hold to pour liquids, and drop ice and slices straight into the glass. You watch the layers build up. The wrong ingredient means the wrong taste.
Shake it, but just right. Swing the shaker left and right with your mouse. Shake too little or too much and the drink's quality drops. Even with the right recipe, you end up serving something mediocre. Every drink has its own rhythm, and customers taste the difference from the first sip.
Slide the glass to the customer. Their face tells you the rest.
When the day ends, you count the till. You restock, upgrade your bar and get ready for the next night. As you work through the recipe book, new recipes open up, and over time a simple gin and tonic gives way to far more delicate mixes.
Stay Sober and Your Thoughts Start Talking. Drink and Your Hands Start Shaking.
This is what makes the game special to us. In this bar the bartender is human too, and as the night goes on you're asked for two very different things.
Stay sober and the voices in your head never quiet down. Your past, the weight of the day, everything you can't shake off whispers in your ear. Worse, they come at the worst possible moment: while a customer says the name of their drink, asks for an extra or tells you how many they want. Sometimes you don't catch the order at all. Sometimes you mishear it. And sometimes you only think you misheard, and you change an order that was right all along.
Drink and the voices fade. The first sips feel good and cost very little. But the glasses add up. First the edges of the screen blur and your hands start to tremble. Then the world turns yellow and starts to spin, and customers' words stretch and drag. Shaking gets harder and harder.
Neither choice comes free, and we deliberately didn't balance them evenly: the easy way out always looks like the drink. The real question is when that bill comes due.
Not Everyone Who Walks In Is Ordinary
Different faces come into your bar every night, with different hair, different clothes and different attitudes. To most of them, you're just an order. But some of them come back. These are regulars with their own stories, their own troubles and their own favorite drinks. They remember you, and over time you get to know them.
And don't forget that customers drink too. Some ask for more than they can handle. When they overdo it the bar gets rowdy, and handling that noise is your job too.
Others don't come to drink at all. They come to start trouble. Every chapter brings its own rival: someone who sits across the counter and looks down on your work, your recipe book and the legacy your grandfather left behind. How you answer is up to you. You can give as good as you get, or you can keep quiet and pour another one.
A Warm Bar. But...
To Shake, or Not to Shake is a warm place: dim lights, clinking ice, familiar faces. But like every bar, this one has things that only get talked about after closing time. We want to tell a story that unfolds chapter by chapter, softened by dark humor but with real consequences. It should make you laugh, and it should get to you somewhere along the way too.
We're drawing all of it in high-resolution pixel art. No chunky retro blocks. We're building a pixel world with light, shadow and texture, where every drink glows layer by layer in the glass.
So Why This Name?
Because we gave Shakespeare's most famous question a little shake of our own. Hamlet asks "to be, or not to be." The question our bartender has to answer every night is a bit more liquid: to shake, or not to shake? Stay sober, or have one more?
What's Next
Over these devlogs we'll open the game up piece by piece. Next time we'll take a closer look at the counter and show why working with two hands is so satisfying (and sometimes so chaotic).
Follow us so you don't miss what's happening behind the counter. Wishlisting To Shake, or Not to Shake on Steam is the best way to support us. Send us your questions on our socials. We read every one of them.
See you behind the counter,
Team Sheer Cat