Hazelnut Latte

What Hazelnut Latte is

Hazelnut Latte is an adult LGBT visual novel dating sim from RadLord Studios, and it is still being built episode by episode. The studio's own wording calls it its flagship title: a game in which the player takes on the job of helping a struggling cafe that sits under the control of a sinister gangster. An Android version is promised for when the game is finished, and its newest content is sold through monthly supporter subscriptions rather than handed out free.

How it plays

The setting is Jade City, which the game's page invites the player to explore. The player takes on the task of helping the cafe, and the About page boils the plot down to three tasks: meet charming characters, go on dates, and keep an eye on the looming deadline. The page lists the draw as meeting cute characters, exploring the city, developing steamy romances, going on dates and saving the struggling cafe, with the line "Your Choices Matter" among them.

The FAQ fills in the shape of that. The story is written from the point of view of a cis man named Isaac who gets his horizons broadened, and the developer says the player character cannot be changed in appearance or made trans or gender non-conforming, because that would mean redoing every scene and animation and would alter how Isaac sees every event in the story. One character, Dave, is named as not being a romanceable main love interest.

The game is built for replaying. The developer says it is designed so that each playthrough feels different, and for that reason there will be no hint system for missing scenes. A reader who likes to see everything in one run will need to plan on several passes. The FAQ also gives away one small mechanic: at one point the player has to enter a door code, a character named Hazel says it a few lines earlier, and the game keeps a dialogue history that can be scrolled back to find it. Lewd scenes and animations are part of the work, and the About page credits an animator on the team.

The planned length is stated. As of October 2026 the FAQ says the game will have 24 episodes, plus a post-final build called Episode 25. The developer says the game is in flux and that earlier episodes are often revisited to refine their dialogue, which is also why a translation is not offered yet. The publisher is involved as well: the developer says the two of them will talk about wider early sales once the game is about halfway done, around Episode 12. The music is licensed from artists rather than written for the game, so there is no soundtrack release, though the developer says it will try to work something out once the game is finished.

Content and themes

Hazelnut Latte is an adult game with an LGBT focus, and it calls itself a dating sim, so most of the content is romance with a cast of characters the player gets to know. The About page describes the cast as charming characters, and the game page promises steamy romances. The FAQ confirms lewd scenes and animations exist. The FAQ is specific about whose story it is: a cis man, Isaac, whose horizons are broadened over the course of it, which is where the LGBT label and the dating structure meet. The studio's pages carry no list of content tags beyond that.

The developer's FAQ says the studio strongly opposes generative AI and that it is not involved in any part of the process, and it describes the game's art and animation as made by a team of people, listing illustrators, an animator and programmers on the About page.

Platforms and where to get it

The game page on the studio's site ends with a "Download Now!" prompt, and the studio's home page says the game is offered through monthly subscription platforms. The FAQ names two: Patreon and SubscribeStar. The studio's pages name no operating system for the build. The FAQ says an Android version will be sold on itch.io once the game is finished, and that a Steam copy can be played on a phone with Steam Remote Play. It will not be an official game on the Play Store. The FAQ also says the game cannot be played on an iPhone, because Apple does not authorize adult games.

Steam is planned but not live. In October 2026 the FAQ says the Steam release will come at version 1.0, which it says will take a few years, and that there will be no Steam Early Access. An itch.io Early Access is planned sooner, once Episode 6 is done and an alpha of Episode 7 is published for backers.

Price and model

The model is supporter funded. Patreon and SubscribeStar are monthly subscription services, and the FAQ explains that a subscription gives access to the page for that month and only to the content at the subscriber's tier. Subscribing when a build comes out lets the subscriber download that build, and once the subscription ends, access to those posts ends. A single Patreon post can also be bought on its own, with no extra perks.

In October 2026 the studio's SubscribeStar page lists a tier at $20 USD monthly, called Latte, which gets the newest build first. According to that page, on the first Tuesday of each month the tier receives the newest and roughest version, and it also includes a special version with a built-in walkthrough, the Backer Guided Mode. That page adds that Backer Mode is not enabled yet. The FAQ describes how lower tiers follow, with the game released to each tier every week in the order $10, then $5, then $3, and the version number rising as bugs found by backers are fixed. The planned itch.io Early Access price is $10 to $15, which the FAQ says will rise every couple of episodes as content is added. No price is stated for the finished game.

Development state

The studio says it was founded on October 19, 2022, with the release of v0.01. In October 2026 the FAQ lists v0.11.7 as the last free version with new content, and says a v0.11.8 would come in 2025 to fix bugs, add some content to earlier episodes and improve play, with no major content updates free after that. The FAQ also says the studio normally creates a new version every two to three months, and the news page shows a progress report dated 8/19/25. The developer says this is a full-time job and that the game has not been abandoned.

Who it suits

This suits a reader who wants a story-driven LGBT dating sim, enjoys replaying for different outcomes, and is willing to follow a long episode-by-episode development, or to wait for the finished version.

The caveats are real. Free new content has ended, the newest builds sit behind monthly tiers, and there is no hint system. The player character cannot be customized, there is no iPhone version, and the game is not translated yet. A reader who wants a complete game on Steam today will have to wait for the finished release.