Tavern Keeper is a detailed business management simulation, a creative decoration sandbox and a bite-sized interactive story book, all in one. Players will take on the management of their tavern in this humorous fantasy world, being able to dive into every detail or relax and decorate them to their heart’s desire.

Starting out with a shell of a tavern in the backwaters of the kingdom, players will run their own business and build rooms, place items, stock the larders and hire staff to satisfy the demands of the oddball locals and occasional adventurers that stumble through their door.

Nestled beneath the high canopy of giant trees and surrounded by the green hills and rolling fields of Halflington, players will be able to take different path in Tavern Keeper: They can open taverns in unique locations, each with their own environment and culture and their intriguing and humorous interactive story, and try to be the best in town. Players can also decide to take a break and take their sweet time to focus on building, decorating and creating their tavern without any stake, and take all the time in the world to create the ideal establishment up to the last detail, while sharing creations with other players.

Originally planned for November, indie developer Greenheart Games announced that Tavern Keeper is its Steam Early Access launch to 2025.

Sadly, we had to postpone our long-awaited Early Access Release. I know many here are really looking forward to the game so I wanted to take a moment to share a bit more about why we have come to this decision.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the announcement, the game at the moment is actually in a good state! All mechanics are implemented. It is content complete, has full English voice over and all translations should be ready within the week. The tutorial works great, the Early Access campaign (and stories) are fun and you’d likely have a great time playing it IF, and this is the crucial point, IF you know how to avoid a number of existing pitfalls.

Some staff can get stuck forever, some mechanics interact with each other in ways that make them hard to control, some UI elements and mechanics are a little too confusing. There are some performance issues and sometimes errors occur that interrupt or halt gameplay. In short: the likelihood that you would get frustrated while playing is currently a little too high for a great first experience.

The good news is that all these issues - given just a bit of time - are solvable, but if we had tried to stick to the November release plan, we’d likely have burned out the team in the process. You don’t want a burned-out team and you especially don’t want a burned-out team at the end of more than ten years of development and at the start of your Early Access journey. We’d also be launching into Early Access with a list of known issues that would keep us busy and prevent us from properly responding to your feedback in a timely fashion.

So, with heavy hearts but with clear minds, we have made the decision to postpone the release, giving us the breathing space to address the frustrations and to do things right.

We’ll announce a new release window next year, when we are ready.

When Tavern Keeper releases into Early Access, it will hopefully bring you joy, and both the game and the team will be ready for your input!

Patrick

And The Tavern Keeper Team

In the meantime, interested fans can try the Tavern Keeper Demo available on Steam.

This demo is a hand-crafted experience, different from the full game and lets players learn the ropes and run a tavern for a few days while getting a taste of the game’s interactive storytelling and decorative features. During gamescom the demo also features a preview of the Item Workshop, in which players can craft their own furniture and decorations.

Key Features:

• 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.

Tavern Keeper is in development for PC (Steam).