Tavern Master Preview

The tavern is often the forefront of classic adventuring in tabletop and computer RPGs in the West. Adventurers regale each other with their heroic tales, thieves meet in secluded corners to share the spoils of their crimes, and bards jump on the tables playing the lute (usually to the despair of their other party members). It’s the hub of all good adventures, and so it’s a shame that we never see the workings of these hives of intrepid deeds in games. Tavern Master aims to change all that, by making the tavern the sole focus of attention and giving you the chance to quench the thirst and satiate the hunger of adventurers far and wide. 

As you might expect, Tavern Master is a business simulation akin to games like Theme Park or Prison Architect. You start with a small amount of money and your goal is to turn that into a much larger amount of money by tempting the locals with various drinks and food, as well as attractive decor and amenities. The concept is very simple, but with a branching research system, it allows for a variety of different ways to maximise your income and keep the punters coming in. This is limited at the moment, but a lot of the research tree is visible if not learnable and it seems that the full game will have a plethora of things to add such as extra floors, exotic food, and luxury decor amongst others.

Your menus can be adjusted according to what tastes the locals have, and as your chef makes different recipes, they earn valuable experience on a dish-by-dish basis, meaning that your menu items can “level up” to higher quality versions, demanding a higher price for your patrons to purchase. This is seen visually as the game progresses, with simple wooden plates of meat being replaced by elegant silver platters and swanky cutlery.

All of this is presented in a charming low-poly style, with characters reminiscent of a cel-shaded title in the late 90s, just in a higher res. Some games demand a realistic style, but this isn’t one of them and the simplistic art style fits the serene feel of what is a wholly relaxing title to play. There’s not a huge challenge in the game as it currently is, with customers returning time after time regardless of waiting time or food quality, so I found it relatively simple to see all the demo had to offer in a short time, but the game does keep some quite detailed statistics of all that goes on so I would expect the difficulty to ramp up in the final release. As it is currently, it has a relaxing quality to it in a manner like Stardew Valley and similar titles. That’s certainly not a bad thing, but I often find that the endgame is a little lacking in such games so I’d like to see a bit more depth later on.

If you’re considering playing Tavern Master, I hope you like medieval style fiddle, flute and lute music, as the jaunty tune that the game plays to you is, at this point, the only sound. It’s a little eerie if you turn the sound off to be greeted with utter silence, but I would assume this is only temporary while the game is in development. It doesn’t detract too much as the music, whilst not award-winning, is nice enough, and the gameplay is what matters here. 

Overall, I’m very excited for the full release of Tavern Master in November 2021, it’s looking like there’s a lot of promise here. It’s a simple to play but very addictive title that I played right through in one sitting. I dread to think how many hours I’m going to lose to the full version, but I feel I should apologise in advance to my family and friends who may not see much of my face when the completed game arrives.