It’s with a heavy heart that we must report that Mohammad Fahmi, the creator of the beloved barista visual novel Coffee Talk and a notable figure in the Indonesian game development scene, passed away over the weekend. He was 32 years old. A cause of death hasn’t been specified at this time.
The news was confirmed on Twitter through Fahmi’s account, where a few days ago he posted a video of his cat lovingly munching on his left ear and paid tribute to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died on March 25. A tweet from his account on Sunday, which was written in Indonesian and reportedly came from his sister, announced Fahmi’s tragic and untimely death.
Multiple games industry folks have shared their feelings on Fahmi’s passing. Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail called Fahmi a “wonderful soul,” while Roll7 senior UI/UX designer Anisa Sanusi said he was a “positive influence” for many people. PlayStation Studios Malaysia head Hasnul Hadi also paid tribute to Fahmi on Twitter, saying that the writer-designer was “one of the brightest stars” in the industry and a constant source of inspiration. Then there was guitarist and No Straight Roads guest composer Az Samad, who dedicated a performance of a beautiful instrumental to Fahmi’s memory.
Meanwhile Toge Productions, the Indonesian indie studio which produced Coffee Talk, wrote a brief and heartfelt tribute to Fahmi, saying it hopes all the good he’s created will “live on” with us forever. In a separate statement to IGN, a Toge Productions spokesperson said the studio was “devastated” by the tragic news.
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Fahmi was best known for designing and writing Coffee Talk, a narrative adventure game about a barista slinging coffee to aliens and orcs in a fantastical Seattle. According to his LinkedIn, Fahmi served as a game designer at Gameloft for a little over a year, where he was largely in charge of debugging and maintaining game performance on mobile devices. Fahmi bounced around for a bit, doing some editorial games writing as a managing editor for Tech In Asia Indonesia, before putting his stamp on the industry with Coffee Talk, which came out in January 2020. Fahmi left Toge Productions in December 2019, going independent under the moniker “Fahmitsu” and working with the Indonesian studio Pikselnesia on the ghostly adventure game What Comes After. Fahmi’s next game, a slice-of-life adventure called After Love EP, was slated to drop this summer, though its status in the wake of these events is unknown. Additionally, Toge Productions is currently working on a sequel to Coffee Talk, set for release sometime this year.
Kotaku reached out to Toge Productions, his family, and Pikselnesia for comment.
May Mohammad Fahmi rest in peace.
