Hello tavern owners! I wanted to write a bit about the next update and to share some information since it will be by far the biggest update since launch. As you know from the roadmap, in February I was supposed to work on bigger area to build, weather and some other smaller things but I decided to spend more time on disasters, customers and economy. So far it is going amazingly well, I am super satisfied how things are going but I am only half way through with development, so I don't expect to release until end of March or mid April. Since the beginning of February I have worked on many things and in this post you can read a very short preview of things to come!
First thing that was on my schedule was to improve customers visiting your tavern. They really stood out as unnatural because they were very stiff while sitting, looking only forward and doing only 2 animations - for drinking and eating. Now there are animations for talking, listening, looking at other people sitting at the table, laughing, cheering and so on. You can see the results in the gif below where 4 people at the table are talking with each other.
Next in line was improving the staff popup. With the addition of custom waitress spot came the problem of having more staff than before, and old popup was already pretty bad. You couldn't see a lot of information on it, and it was tough navigating through it. I have reworked it in a way that you see much more info for every employee (floor that they serve, responsibilities and priorities, salary). You don't even have to open each employee now to change that information, you can do it much easier straight from the staff popup. Besides that there is a special highlight for staff that is ready to level up and you are automatically scrolled to that person so you don't have to search yourself. It is also now much more intuitive how to change staff names and you can now do it for the guard too. Below is the screenshot of the new popup:
After this I worked on improving the shop user experience. Icons were huge in the shop, it was not clear how to move carpets and with constant addition of new decorations and items it became really hard to find what you are searching for. I decided to rework the whole shop so icons are smaller, and when you choose an item you can read more information in the highlight section on the top. Carpets are now in a completely separate button so it's clear how to move them around and you no longer have to go back between switching build modes. You can directly go to carpet menu from building walls menu in one click. Besides these changes there is a new button for painting so it's much easier to paint multiple items at once. You just select the color and then drag across all furniture that you want to paint.
Next thing was something many people requested from day one, and that is doors :)
I always felt like kitchen is too simple, so I am now actively working on adding more depth to the kitchen and cooking. First in line was having upgradable furniture in kitchen. You can now upgrade 4 items - kitchen counter which allows you to place more plates on it, crate which allows you to store more ingredients, cauldron which allows you to store more soup in it and grill which allows more chefs to use it at once. There are 3 upgrade levels for each item.
Final big thing that I have already finished developing is the first big disaster - fire! Before I continue, I just want to be clear that I want to keep Tavern Master a stress free game for people who like it that way which means that I am paying extra attention to not make fires a stressful thing :) At start I wanted to make a very simple system where fire could break out in the kitchen but only grill and cauldron could burn down. I decided to give up on that since it felt too boring and I moved in the direction where your whole tavern could burn down if you don't pay attention to the risk of fire. I created a system where any wooden furniture could burn (bars, kitchen, tables, seats, decorations etc) and I introduced medieval fire extinguishers or otherwise known as buckets with water :) This means that fire can break out on any floor now and it will be triggered by using low quality wax and oil for candles and torches. If you improve the quality of those which increases maintenance costs, you will also reduce the risk of fire.
When fire starts, game will pause and you will have to choose which staff is going to try to extinguish it. You will have to tell each employee which fire extinguisher to use and they will do their best to stop the fire before it spreads. Fire extinguishers can also be upgraded to have more buckets which enables more employees to participate in extinguishing. Below you can see a gif of all tables burning at once:
There are also some smaller things that I did like using a new font for the game so all characters are consistent in all languages, added a lot of new researches, new seats, new lux long table...
For the next 30-45 days I plan to add a lot of new content as well :) My end goal is to increase play time by 50-100% with this update. Here is also a short preview of things I am yet to implement:
- Toilets
- Various tavern games
- More plants
- More disasters like poisoning, rats, bar fights etc
- Improve economy so you don't have too much money in late game which you don't know where to spend
- Add difficulties so people who want more challenge in the game can get it
Everything that I am yet to develop is subject to change of course. As I develop I try to get a feeling of what seems fun or doesn't so I will not add features that bloat the game and don't have any meaning.
Please also note that after this update your tavern will probably need some redesigning :) You will need to find space for toilets, maybe add some more space between furniture so in case of fire it doesn't spread super fast.
I also want to say once again that I am reading all the suggestions but I don't answer to everything :) I think 90% of features that I added so far have came from the suggestions board. As always, please write your thoughts and feedback in the comments! It helps me immensely to create a fun game for everyone!
Until next time, cheers!