It’s a real pleasure to work on an experience that aims to not only satisfy the tycoon/sim/management gamer but also makes them laugh occasionally.
A Fantasy Tavern Simulator
in development for PC by indie studio
Greenheart Games
Creators of Game Dev Tycoon
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About The Game
A good tavern is the heart and soul of a community - a place for drama and intrigue, shoddy deals and outrageous meals. A place for peasants to relax, travellers to rest and heroes to plan their next daring adventure. But what of the unsung heroes of it all - the tavern keepers?
In Tavern Keeper you manage a tavern, building, bartering, cooking and cleaning your way to success in a humorous fantasy world. Starting out with a shell of a tavern in the backwaters of the kingdom, you build rooms, place items, stock the larder and hire staff to satisfy the demands of the oddball locals and misfit heroes that stumble through your door. Run your business well and you’ll progress to larger taverns with more demanding patrons where you’ll need to expand your offerings to include new meals, drinks, rooms and services.
Some screenshots from our internal alpha build
Disclaimer: The UI style and icons are development placeholders.
Feature Preview
- Build and run your own unique fantasy tavern.
- Hire, organize and manage your staff and keep them cheerful and efficient.
- Serve a wide variety of eccentric characters, from human peasants to orc nobility.
- Balance merchant supply, patron demand and larder stocks with a truly medieval storage system.
- Keep patrons satisfied with food, drink, services and entertainment as you build your reputation.
- Expand your kitchen to craft ever more exotic dishes.
- Optimize production workflows to stay a step ahead of the growing crowds.
- Plan carefully, spend your money wisely and keep an eye out for chaotic events that could drive you out of business.
Release Expectations
Tavern Keeper is currently at the internal Alpha stage. We don’t have a release date yet - please sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date.
Tavern Keeper is a much more ambitious project than Game Dev Tycoon but in the past two years we have taken the project from idea, to prototype, to alpha and it’s great to be able to focus on compelling gameplay.
Bringing Tavern Keeper to Life
The world we are making is packed full of weird and wonderful creatures, from squat, ravenous halflings to hulking, surly orcs to things we haven’t properly named yet.
A fantasy tavern is ripe with great art ideas and our low-poly style allows us to produce loads of quality content. I love the clean, cartoony, unique nature of the art we’re making.
The classic patron/bartender armchair psychologist relationship is a great way to include stories that fill in gaps left unexplored in other sim games – who are these people, what is their world like and how does your business fit in with all of that.
Here are some story snippets that share the flavour of the world and its characters.
Oh gosh, they were very impressive – a warrior the size of a house, a wizard surrounded by crackling energies, the holiest looking cleric you ever did see and a rogue so charming I would’ve married ‘im on the spot. They huddled around the old parchment, planning and scheming for hours, before shouting a battlecry of agreement. Most effort I’ve seen anyone put into deciding what to eat in an age.
Cecil Longhaunch, bartender at The Questionable Mage
Ye just can’t find the staff these days - I had a halfling who ate all me food, an orc who could nay fit in the building and me last hire was an elf who kept looking in a mirror all day. I fired him six times, but he’s still there gazing longingly at hisself. Anyway, you want the job or not?
Barry Hammerhand, keeper of Tavern #2
I wasn’t two minutes into telling the bartender about those bloody rats infesting my basement when four separate blokes in oversized armour was over, offering to go ‘gain some xp’, whatever that means. Told ‘em to bugger off, all I needed was a shovel and I’d do it myself. Now I have four shovels. Bloody hero complexes…
Miriam Snapchat, patron at The Inside-out Goblin
An animator’s job is to bring characters to life and Tavern Keeper, with its wide variety of races and oddball patrons, is full of opportunities to do that.
Follow the journey!
After two years of working on “Game #2” in secret, it’s a real pleasure to finally unveil Tavern Keeper. While we don’t intend to develop the game “in the open”, we are looking forward to sharing some of the goodies we’ve been cooking up. Stay tuned for choice tales and art on our forum, and of course on twitter and facebook.
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