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Tavern Talk is "Most Wholesome" game at Gamescom 2024!

Sometimes incredible things just happen out of the blue...


Yesterday, our tiny debut game, Tavern Talk, was awarded โ€žMost Wholesomeโ€œ game at the Gamescom 2024 awards. ๐Ÿ†

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. ๐Ÿฅน

We'd love to thank you, our amazing community, who all got us here: Thank you for this super special moment! You rock! ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ’–

Check out all of the Gamescom 2024 Awards winners here!

Cheers,
Michel

Wholesome Games Steam Celebration & Andu Plushie is coming to you!

The day has come! We are going to make the Andu Plushie a reality!


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! ๐Ÿ’œ



Yes, you heard that right, together with Makeship we want to produce an Andu Plushie and the procedure is pretty similar to Kickstarter! ๐Ÿ”ฅ

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. ๐Ÿ’

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! ๐Ÿ’ฏ



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! ๐Ÿซถ

And now we're getting to something highly anticipated โœจ

Wholesome Games Steam Celebration starts now!!!


It is truly an honor to be a part of this year's Wholesome Games Steam Celebration! ๐Ÿ’ฏ

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

Gotta go fast! - There is now a Fast-Forward button & less Swift Strike! ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’จ

The day has come! The Fast-Forward button is in the game!


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 โ€“ 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! ๐Ÿ˜ฒ 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. ๐Ÿ’ฏ

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! ๐Ÿ’

Farewell Swift Strike mania! ๐Ÿ‘‹


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! ๐Ÿน

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. ๐ŸŽฎ 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. ๐Ÿ’š

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. ๐Ÿซถ

So let's order it one last time, shall we? A Swift Strike to go, please! ๐Ÿธ



More secrets in the game ๐Ÿ˜ฒ


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. ๐Ÿ‘€



Can you guess what it is? Let us know in the comments! ๐Ÿ’œ

Roadmap update


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. โœจ 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.

A 10% discount is up!


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! ๐Ÿคฉ

Keep the suggestions comingand please consider leaving a review!

Until next time,
Michel & Tommy

TAVERN TALK is part of the SimFest!

We are so happy to be a part of this year's SimFest Steam Event! ๐Ÿ’œ

Make sure to come by and play our demo or get the full game and add Tavern Talk and so many other incredible simulation games to your wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/simfest2024

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

We'll be also streaming our broadcast of the final version of Tavern Talk during this event, so check it out and say hi in the chat!

Cheers,
Tommy

Bye bye color coding - Hello there hint-on-demand-button! ๐Ÿ‘€

Dear Innkeepers,

we're back with exciting news: we're putting the puzzle back into the rumor mini-game!

We have heard your calls...


... and with today's patch, rumor snippets that belong together will no longer look alike - except for random accidents, of course. We understand that the rumor mini-game as it shipped on release may have felt overly easy and unchallenging while the original demo suggested a more puzzly approach. So we made haste to find a suitable solution for all of you: to those who love themselves a good challenge and to those who just want to breeze through the story or who find the sheer amount of snippets in the later parts of the game overwhelming.

For those who want it easy, we have now added a new "hint-on-demand"-button that will appear should you fail putting together a quest for the first time. It is then up to you to use that button to ask the game for a hint about which snippets belong together. If you do, it will highlight all of the relevant snippets for the current round of quest-making. If several quests need to be found, the game won't tell you which snippets belong together, but since it will allow you to focus on a clear sub-set of rumors we are sure you will manage.

If you belong to the first group and prefer to rack your brain given no clues at all simply ignore that button and go for it! This is what it now looks like in the game:



We're quite happy with the solution we found here and we hope you feel the same. May it let you all enjoy the game even more! We will update the demo with this big adjustment, as well, so it also shows the updated gameplay.

Now, let's have a look at the other improvements and fixes this patch brings with it:

Improvements & Bug fixes


  • Expose monitor-dependent resolutions and add a monitor selection option: You can now select the resolutions fitting to your monitor. Do you have a 4k screen? No Problem. Or maybe a widescreen? We've got you covered! Even if you have a second screen plugged into your machine, you can now choose which screen the game should be displayed on. If you should encounter any issues with this, please get in touch through the support link on our Steam page. ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ



  • Added some SFXs missing for controller inputs ... to give you an even more immersive experience. ๐ŸŽฎ
  • Added new names to the guestbook entries & updated names for the Credits Kickstarter backer: Some names in the credits and in the guestbook entries were still missing. Digging in we found there was quite a hiccup in our export. Sorry for that! We're confident we finally fixed it for good. All backers who wanted to be named should appear in the credits now. โœ…
  • Fixed typos in German: Thanks to your keen eyes we found more typos in the German translation. It's a bit ironic since we're a studio from Germany, we know. We should have done more aufpassen in the Schule back in the day! We cleaned everything up and it should be a way smoother read now. Dangefรถn! ๐Ÿซถ
  • Melina now detects HOT CHOCOLATE just when she actually gets one: Hot chocolate is Melina's favorite drink and for some reason, she thought every drink was hot chocolate. Can't really blame her for that wishful thinking, right? ๐Ÿซ
  • Fixed some pronoun issues: Some pronoun variables got mixed up, so we fixed them! ๐Ÿ˜Š


Glimpse into the (near) future


That's a wrap concerning today's patch! But we have more changes lined up for the near future and on the remote horizon so we decided to give you a tiny roadmap for what's coming up:



As always, thank you for your feedback and suggestions through the reviews and the discussions on the Community Hub and of course in our Discord! We love to look for ways to improve our debut game based on your feedback as we continue to grow as a studio and as a community. Thank you for your engagement and for being a part of this journey! ๐Ÿ’œ

Keep the suggestions coming!

Until next time,
Tommy