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Coffee Talk creator, writer Mohammad Fahmi has passed away

29 Mar 2022
Steve Wright

The games community has gathered to mourn the passing of Coffee Talk creator and writer, Indonesian game developer Mohammad Fahmi.

Fahmi’s sister took to the developer’s Twitter account with the sad news early yesterday. Coffee Talk‘s Toge Productions later confirmed that Fahmi’s passing was related to complications arising from an asthma attack.

Fahmi entered the world of video games as both a mobile phone game developer at Gameloft. He later became a journalist, working as a freelancer before climbing through the ranks of Tech in Asia, finishing his tenure there as its Managing Editor. Fahmi then moved to Toge to serve as Marketing and PR Manager before leaving to form his own studio, Pikselnesia.

Pikselnesia’s first title, What Comes After, is currently available on Windows PC via Steam. A second title, Afterlove EP, is in development; Pikselnesia has partnered with Melbourne, Victoria-based publisher Fellow Traveller for the project.

According to Toge Productions’ Kris Antoni Hadiputra, Fahmi conceived Coffee Talk during an internal game jam, and using a simple premise.

“He [wanted] to emulate the feeling of holding a warm cup of drink while looking at the rain outside your window and listening to music and… your friends talk or gossip,” Hadiputra said.

Speaking to Stevivor earlier in the month, Fahmi recalled his fears players wouldn’t understand the title or its gameplay.

“Who would play a game where you just sit and drink coffee?” he said with a laugh.

As it turns out, a lot of people. Coffee Talk proved to be quite the success, with IGN reporting the title made RP7.6 billion (approximately $726,000 AUD) within less than one month of its release. It also cracked Steam’s top 20 new releases in its debut month, appearing alongside big names like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.

While Coffee Talk was set within Seattle, USA due to its precipitation and connection with Starbucks, Afterlove EP was created with Indonesian capital city Jakarta in mind. Fahmi said that he wanted the title’s connection to the city to be as strong as the one experienced within The Raid 2, a popular Indonesian film where the capital could almost be considered a character.

Game developers, publishers and industry connections took to social media to remember Fahmi.

Fahmi was 32.

Toge Productions also announced that all proceeds from Coffee Talk will be given to Fahmi’s family between 4.00 am AEDT 1 April until 3.00 am AEDT on 5 April. You can purchase the game for Windows PC via Steam here.

Speaking from personal experience, a short 30 minute chat made it very easy to see just how warm, friendly, funny and compassionate Fahmi was. We at Stevivor offer our sincere condolences to Fahmi’s friends, family and colleagues.

Image at top: Mohammad Fahmi, Twitter

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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Stevivor.com, the country’s leading independent video games outlet. Steve arrived in Australia back in 2001 on what was meant to be a three-month working holiday before deciding to emigrate and, eventually, becoming a citizen.

Stevivor is a combination of ‘Steve’ and ‘Survivor’, which made more sense back in 2001 when Jeff Probst was up in Queensland. The site started as Steve’s travel blog before transitioning over into video games.

Aside from video games, Steve has interests in hockey and Star Trek, playing the former and helping to cover video games about the latter on TrekMovie.com. By day, Steve works as the communications manager of the peak body representing Victorians as they age.