“Stormy Maid” Surges Ahead Thanks to STOVE Indie’s Genuine Support 2025-04-03

“Do you like maid café?”

I was curious—had the two co-founders of BurgerDuck Games, the studio behind the maid café management game, been regulars at such places? So I asked them as soon as we met.

“I had always been curious, and during a trip to Japan, I dropped by one for fun. It felt like a theme park. That’s when I thought, ‘What if I turned this into a game?’” said Noh Seung-jin, co-CEO of BurgerDuck Games, breaking the ice.

“Stormy Maid” is a tycoon game where you run a maid café. Its charming pixel art helps dispel the shady stereotypes often associated with maid cafés—stereotypes that some may secretly expect or wish—and instead creates a cheerful, playful atmosphere.

Players can enjoy episodes unfolding in the café, intense business competition, and a variety of mini-games.

Co-CEO Lee Hee-seok drew inspiration from the mini-game “Cabaret Club Czar” in the Lilke a Dragon game series. On top of a basic tycoon structure, they added systems for directly managing and assigning staff, along with human elements like emotion and condition to set the game apart.

To authentically recreate the service experience of maids, the team even studied real-life maid café practices. “In maid cafés, they cast a ‘moe moe kyun’ spell on omelet rice and serve drinks with dancing and singing,” said Noh.

“We incorporated all of that into the gameplay,” he explained. Lee added, “Having players take orders and draw with ketchup on plates adds a charming touch, making it feel like you’re really running a maid café.”

After quitting their jobs to pursue game development, the duo quickly ran into financial difficulties so much that they even considered giving up on “Stormy Maid” and returning to corporate jobs. It was in that moment that they crossed paths with Smilegate’s indie game platform, STOVE Indie.

The opportunity came through a discount promotion program run by STOVE Indie.

Lee explained, “The promotion was technically only for released games, but I was desperate and reached out anyway. That’s how we ended up participating in ‘Wise Demo Life.’ At the time, we lacked development funds, but thanks to the program, we were able to explore more exciting directions for the game and make improvements. That eventually led to a publishing contract with STOVE Indie, and now we’re preparing for the game’s official launch—it feels like a dream.”

Wise Demo Life: A STOVE Indie demo program where indie game fans can play various demos each month, complete surveys, and directly interact with developers.

The two co-founders described STOVE Indie as “honey” “graceful rain,” and “an oasis,” highlighting its vital role in the indie game development journey.

BurgerDuck Games also took part in Burning Beaver, an indie game festival hosted by Smilegate Future Lab. At this event, Smilegate covered all expenses—including venue rental, booth fees, and equipment costs. Last year’s festival was held in late November at Dongdaemun DDP.

Through both Wise Demo Life and Burning Beaver, BurgerDuck Games was able to gather extensive user feedback. This, in turn, led to qualitative improvements in their game.

Lee commented, “Without STOVE Indie’s meticulous support, we wouldn’t have been able to complete the game. They are very indie-friendly and gave us incredibly detailed feedback. Even though just the two of us were developing the game, it felt like we had a whole team thanks to STOVE Indie.”

Noh also praised STOVE Indie’s support. “What helped most was how deeply they understood subculture. If users gave feedback that something we thought was fun but wasn't, we dared to cut it. What matters isn’t what we think is fun—it’s what players enjoy. There was so much valid feedback, I can’t even list it all.” 

BurgerDuck Games plans to continue developing creative and entertaining indie games. The remarkable synergy and imagination of the two founders—who’ve been friends since high school—make their future projects all the more exciting.

Noh stated, “We plan to expand the universe starting with ‘Stormy Maid,’ and we want to keep making games that we find enjoyable.”

Lee added, “There’s still a lot of content I want to add—we’re planning updates that go beyond maid cafés, like arcades and cat cafés.”

“Stormy Maid,” developed by BurgerDuck Games, will launch on STOVE Indie on the 7th of this month. It will be the first title in STOVE Indie’s new subculture expansion project, “Heart-Pounding Heroine Universe.”

The “Heart-Pounding Heroine Universe” project aims to strengthen connections between subculture games sold on STOVE Indie and generate synergy between their respective IPs.

Each month, a popular heroine from STOVE’s leading visual novels and subculture games will be selected to collaborate with “Stormy Maid.”

Going forward, STOVE Indie plans to spotlight a “Heroine of the Month,” offering special DLC collaborations, themed events, and limited content in partnership with popular titles to meet fans’ expectations.

<Check Out Stormy Maid>