Command janitors and survive… taxes! The hidden depth of Tavern Keeper.

[p]Hello future Tavern Keepers! 🍻[/p][p]We are honoured to be featured in this year's Tacticon - celebrating strategy video games on Steam.[/p][p]When people think of tactical games, they often think of grand strategy and military strategy games and while those are certainly giants of the genre, Management/Simulation games like Tavern Keeper have plenty of reasons to be here too. [/p][p][/p][p]In Tavern Keeper, instead of commanding an army of soldiers, you manage a ragtag team of servers and janitors. But make no mistake: behind the cozy charm of running a tavern lies a deeply strategic game of choices and consequences. If you are curious about a tactical game with a slightly unusual setting, read on. [/p][p][/p][h2]♟️ Tavern Tactics[/h2][p]Running a tavern consists of countless decisions, big and small, planned and improvised.[/p]

• [p]Which staff do you hire?[/p]
• [p]Do you take a loan?[/p]
• [p]What products do you offer at what price?[/p]
• [p]When do you expand your services?[/p]
• [p]Which customers do you want to attract?[/p]

[p]These high-level decisions manifest your overall strategy on how your tavern evolves. Do you take a risky loan to expand early or play it safe and slow? Do you set your prices aggressively to focus on profit or keep customers happier with more appealing offerings - the choices are yours.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]🔥 Gently managing chaos[/h2][p]No strategy survives contact with reality and the world of Tavern Keeper is no different. Many game systems gently influence each other, and what might look like a well-polished machine that happily ticks along minting you gold coins could go up in flames - sometimes literally - just hours later.[/p][p] [/p][p]Reasons for disasters can be varied. Perhaps you forgot to pay attention to your staff happiness and an overworked staffer finally snapped, or perhaps you were so busy serving as many customers as possible that you neglected to repair that dangerously broken lantern spraying sparks on your flammable furniture.[/p][p]And even if you did everything right, sometimes unexpected things happen, requiring you to switch gears.[/p][p][/p][p]As a manager, you need to balance many things and dealing with different battles is just part of the job but don't worry, in Tavern Keeper you will have the tools to master any crisis.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]🌪️ Relaxed, Balanced or Challenging[/h2][p]Tavern Keeper comes with three difficulty presets (plus the ability to customize your own) so you can play at the pace and challenge that suits you.[/p][p]Maybe you enjoy a more Relaxed experience - ideal for creating a cosy haven of chill vibes, or a Balanced approach where all details matter but mistakes are easier to recover from, or perhaps you are after a tougher challenge, requiring tactics and planning. Whatever you choose, you will always make all the decisions.[/p][p][/p][p]The Challenging mode, in particular, gives a whole new experience for players who want to plan and strategize.[/p][p]In Challenging, all mechanics of the game just become a little more important.[/p][p]Goods spoil faster, dirt & filth appear more often, fires are more dangerous, customers are less patient and, perhaps the worst enemy of all: the crown's new sales tax has defeated many-a-promising tavern keep.[/p][p][/p][p]Suddenly, simple tasks - like buying barrels of drinks - gain another level of strategy. Where you'd previously stock up and cruise along on a large storeroom full of goods, it now requires a bit more finesse. Is the storeroom in a cool location? How many barrels can you safely keep for how long? Do you have enough staff to carry in barrels when they arrive, or will they sit in the sun? What if a sudden heat wave hits?[/p][p]Nearly all such small mechanics gain new layers of nuance when playing on Challenging.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Running out of money, even briefly, can now send you into bankruptcy, and loans suddenly have unreasonably high interest rates. Perhaps you need to trade your bad loan with two smaller ones, or perhaps you have to make the difficult decision to let go of some of your staff, sell some of your furniture and overcharge your patrons! [/p][p]Perhaps if you micro-manage some tasks to be more efficient, you can make it - after all, maybe you just need to survive one more day to turn your fortune around.
[/p][h2]👋 Hey, Boss[/h2][p]In Tavern Keeper, you are the boss, and with the right tactics and strategy, you can master any situation. It's your choices that matter! 
[/p][p]Tavern Keeper opens its doors in Early Access later this year. You can wishlist it here:[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink] [/p][hr][/hr][p]If you want to get all the latest news on Tavern Keeper, make sure to follow us on your favorite channel: [/p][p]📧 Newsletter Discord X Bluesky TikTok
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