Tavern Talk News

Dear Innkeepers,

we've made it! Tavern Talk is now verified on the Steam Deck. 💯 But how did we do it? Let's take a look at our latest improvements to the game:

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Adjusted the Journal pages to improve readability: The recipe and character pages have improved layout and font sizes 📖
  
• Improved the font size of the Guestbook Entires 📏
  
• The character name now scales with dialog-text size 🧝
  
• Fixed the layout for notification pop-up❗
  
• Improved the font- and button sizes in the Main Menu 👀
  

As you can see the journal with all its font sizes and appearance is now bigger for the Steam Deck! If you want to activate this, you need to go to the settings menu and check mark the "Large Journal UI"-box! And there you go. 💜



And now we need your opinion for our next talking point.

[h2]Widescreen decoration[/h2]



The next bullet point on our roadmap is the "widescreen decoration" for everybody who doesn't want those lame black bars on the side.

We have two different options ready for you and what to know which one you personally prefer. Let us know in the comments down below. ⤵️

That's it for now, until next time, 💜
Tommy

Currently, we have a sale going which saves you 10% if you still need to get Tavern Talk or one of our DLCs like the Lorebook, the Soundtrack, Pen & Paper One Shot and Battle Maps. So grab one of your favorites while you can! 💜



Some of you may have spotted the updated Dev Roadmap on our Steam page already, but it's time to take a closer look!

We now have everything that was already implemented on the first page to the left. These changes are now also part of the Nintendo Switch version of the game! Thank you all again, for the feedback, suggestions and ideas that helped us improve the Tavern Talk experience.

On the page in the middle, we have everything that is coming next month!
Starting with the Steam Deck verification. 🤞 As of now we are listed as playable, which is a big step in the right direction. Right now we are working on improving the readability of the Journal UI, to get the verification button. Many of you who are playing Tavern Talk on the Steam Deck actually suggested that as well!

Another suggestion that is coming from the community, is that the black spaces that appear when playing with a wide screen are taking away from the immersion. This is why we want to implement some decorations on the side to make it more coherent to the visual style!

These are some of the Quality of life updates we are aiming for in October, so stay tuned for that!

The last page, is the November updates and here comes the big deal! 💯

Not only do we want to highlight the Trinkets better upon reception, but we also want to add more Lore in the journal! Giving you even more to sink your teeth in during the time in the Wayfarer's Inn.

Last but not least, yes, we are actually working on a Story based DLC for Tavern Talk! 🔥 While we can't tell you what is about just yet, we can tell you some benchmarks!
The Story will be about 2-3 hours long, it will introduce a new character to the world of Tavern Talk, a new drink for you to mix and a new background will be added to the scenery!

As soon as we can, we'll give you more on that! We are looking forward to expand the world of Asteria and can't wait to give you more.



Not to long ago we crossed the 1.000 reviews on Steam benchmark! Thank you all for taking the time and writing a review, We highly appreciate it and read through everything. Some of our changes are based on reviews. So, if you haven't yet please consider writing one!


Cheers,
Tommy

Yesterday, our tiny debut game, Tavern Talk, was awarded „Most Wholesome“ game at the Gamescom 2024 awards. 🏆

We are incredibly humbled and blown away to receive this honor as it is based on a combined vote of the jury and YOU, the players.

Never had we imagined taking home an award from Gamescom. But sometimes even your wildest dreams are being surpassed it seems. 🥹

We'd love to thank you, our amazing community, who all got us here: Thank you for this super special moment! You rock! 🙏🏼💖

Check out all of the Gamescom 2024 Awards winners here!

Cheers,
Michel

Dear Innkeepers,

Before we start, we have one big news and this could be one for the ages! You can make it happen - the Andu Plushie! 💜



Yes, you heard that right, together with Makeship we want to produce an Andu Plushie and the procedure is pretty similar to Kickstarter! 🔥

Our petition for the Plushie Campaign starts right now!

We need 200 people or more to pledge to the project. Pledging means you Pay $2.00 and Makeship charges the remaining $27.99 + shipping and tax when the production launches after November 19, 2024. If the petition fails, you'll get a refund. So, there is no risk on that front. 💝

The pledge of 200 people is one of the most important steps, because after that we are going to manufacture a prototype and once this is done, we'll launch a full-blown campaign, where everybody will be able to pre-order an Andu Plushie during the campaign run of 21 days! 💯



Everybody who supports us now by pledging to the petition or buying the Andu Plushie during the campaign will also receive an E-mail after the campaign ends. In this E-mail, you can fill out a form to tell us your Discord name. Thus receiving the exclusive "Plushie Wizard"-Rank in our Discord server! 🫶

And now we're getting to something highly anticipated ✨



It is truly an honor to be a part of this year's Wholesome Games Steam Celebration! 💯

Make sure to come by and play our demo or get the full game at a 10% discount and add Tavern Talk and so many other incredible wholesome games to your wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/wholesomegames

Always remember, wishlisting is free and it helps every game and developer to be seen!

We'll also be streaming our broadcast of Tavern Talk with a special guest during this event. Quincy from Quincy's Tavern will play the game for you in a prerecorded session. He is also part of the Tavern Talk Cast so check it out and say hi in the chat!

Check also out his Twitch channel!



Cheers,
Tommy

Dear Innkeepers,

did you know Tavern Talk has three different endings and one additional secret ending? No? While we have read a few comments reflecting that choices don't seem to matter, they actually do. Especially in the long run over the entirety of the four acts – it may not be as noticeable in the first hours of the game. But trust, us, the drinks you brew and how you treat your patrons leave a mark on the path you take through Tavern Talk.

Tavern Talk takes between 12 and 20 hours to complete a single run, so, now that you know, you may be wondering how you're supposed to see all of these endings without rereading each and every dialog bubble on every run. Well, some of you actually went all the way to do just that and we're mightily impressed by your effort! WOW! 😲 For those who couldn't bring themselves to do so, we have the bestest of news:

Fast-Forward button to the rescue!

This patch brings a new button to your in-game UI you need to activate in the settings: the Fast-Forward button (see screenshot below). This button will have you jump super fast through dialog bubbles and halt at the next decision or drink-mixing for you to make.



Again, please note that you need to activate the button in the settings in order to use this feature. We chose to do this since this feature doesn't make sense for people new to the game and we didn't want to clog the UI.

This feature alone should give you a big hand plowing through the content at the speed of light. But it gets even better:

[h2]Fast-Forward known dialog bubbles only![/h2]

While the game has no way of skipping bubbles you've read before this patch, because the game didn't track them, yet, it now starts tracking and offers an option to skip tracked dialog in future runs. This means that once you decide to rerun a certain section no matter which savegame you're playing you can activate the "Only skip read dialogs" checkbox in the settings (see screenshot below) to have the game speed run bubbles you know but go slow on the one's you haven't seen yet.



IMPORTANT NOTE: if you're a Tavern Talk veteran and want to see the other endings, skipping known dialog won't work, yet, because tracking starts only now. Please go to the settings to activate the Fast-Forward button and make sure "Only skip read dialogs" is turned OFF! Since there is no tracked dialog to skip, yet, it would seem to you the Fast-Forward feature is broken, while it's not. You need to feed the tracker first by manually using the Fast-Forward feature for sections you already know. Once you have completed your first run, you can turn on the "Only skip read dialog" feature to make your life easier because it will then have data to work with. We understand it's not entirely convenient, but it was the only approach we could have implemented this feature post-release.

If you need a bit of help, here is a video tutorial for you:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We hope you appreciate the new Fast-Forward features and they will bring you joy in sunny breezing through the entirety of the Tavern Talk story without missing an outcome or dialog unknown to you. 💯

You can keep track of your previous playthroughs yourself or use the "100% Achievements Guide"-guide Magi752 has kindly provided here on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3274505211

That way you know exactly which dialog road you haven't traveled down, yet, which drink you need to make next, or which dialogue option you haven't chosen before.

Happy reruns, everyone! 💝

Farewell Swift Strike mania! 👋

It became a meme in our community, that there were too many Swift Strike orders in the game and it became obvious we had to change that. And now we have! 🍹

While Swift Strike will remain Fable's favorite drink (we couldn't convince them otherwise) this patch introduces more varied drink requests at the Wayfarer's Inn and the game should not feel as repetitive anymore. 🎮 We had to rework some of the dialog for this, mainly because Swift Strike is the only dexterity-based drink in the early game and that remains a bit of a problem and isn't easily fixed.

So now, characters often ask for alternative drinks. Jade, for example, will now order an intelligence-based drink rather than a dexterity one and Fable wants to try out something new from time to time. 💚

Thanks to everyone hinting to this issue and that the game could use a little variety here and there so we could go and investigate. Some things simply get overlooked with development blinders stuck to our heads. 🫶

So let's order it one last time, shall we? A Swift Strike to go, please! 🍸

More secrets in the game 😲

Thanks to the amazing support on Kickstarter, we were able to implement a secret into the game and it has something to do with this Fable sticker on the main title screen. 👀



Can you guess what it is? Let us know in the comments! 💜



We planned those changes a bit later in August, but made haste and finished them earlier than expected, thanks to our amazing team! We still have some improvements for the end of the year, so let us share the current state of the roadmap:



As this journey continues, we want to grow with all of you and make the Wayfarer's Inn cozier and better with each update. So thank you for sharing your improvement suggestions in the Steam Community Hub and our Discord server. ✨ This way we can engage easily, ask questions, offer transparent info on why we made certain decisions, or find solutions for reoccurring requests. We love to make Tavern Talk a better experience for you to enjoy and while we cannot implement each and every request out there we're always sensitive to things that come up frequently and align with our creative vision for the game.



Last but not least: we are running our first discount after launch. The game and all DLC are discounted by 10% for Wholesome Sale and if you are in for a very special deal, make sure to check out the Innkeeper Bundle featuring a nice package of the game, Lorebook, and the wonderful OST for an even better deal. So, if you were waiting for a good chance to grab Tavern Talk, for yourself or to gift it to a friend, now is a good time! So grab the discount while it's up! 🤩

Keep the suggestions comingand please consider leaving a review!

Until next time,
Michel & Tommy