Medieval StartUp

Very satisfying game loop with a poly art style similar to Stolen Realm. The hiring and assigning of tasks to employees occurs about ten minutes into the game, not locked behind an endgame door. This enables automating tasks right away as well as helps build the character of your establishment. Playing on steam deck, haven’t encountered many issues besides clicking sometimes doesn’t work or the cursor doesn’t know where to navigate in menus. Developer is doings great job at resolving issues and transparent about updates. Great job!

I'm giving this a thumbs up for now as this is just about the only solo dev project I've bought into that actually feels like a fleshed out game. Most of them have felt like they have entire parts of the game completely absent and shouldn't have released for a good long while. Medieval startup is still missing features that would presumably get added as time goes on, but you still feel like you're getting an actual full video game with this one. The base is there for a good game and there aren't any wildly bad design choices or game mechanics that take away from it. (except maybe one, more on that later) So the game has a great base that also feels like it shouldn't take a TON of time to expand it and finish it too. Unfortunately that's all the positive points I can make about the game because it does have a TON of issues in it right now that mean after about 8 hours I'm going to move on to something else and check it back out a year from now or something. Because if I can come back a year from now without seeing much change then I don't know if I could actually recommend it anymore. For starters there are a lot of localization issues with translations either done poorly or just missing completely. This led to a few times where I wasn't sure exactly what to do and just had to guess. because a prompt was in a different language. Tons of glitchyness and jankyness with textures and game behavior. Any kind of mechanic that has a progress bar such as planting resets to zero if you save and quit when you return to the game again. This can mess you up pretty bad with keeping supply up to meet demand. As this can extend the total in game time spent actually finishing the task. This seems to be an issue with the save process itself as multiple things will reset such as customers, so when you load up a save file it could be the middle of a day and there are zero customers, this is disappointing because it kinda wastes your time as this will lower your income for that day and thus slow your progress. So don't play this if you can only play in short bursts as that save and reset process will kill your progression if you have to do it a lot. Dishwashers in particular seem like they just don't work sometimes. Several job types feel like they are missing certain tasks that force you to do certain things inside of a production process even though you have employees that can cover every other part of that process. On a few occasions this forced me to fire certain employees and just handle the process myself because paying all the money for their wages feels like a waste when you're having to jump in and handle parts of it yourself because they either don't do it at all or seemingly just stopped doing something for no reason. Ultimately that's why I'm going to stop playing right now because I'm kinda tired of having to go back and supplement my employees work and thus still stuck doing some of the more mundane tasks. There are multiple balancing issues right now especially with money as you can EASILY expand too aggressively and basically expand yourself into a corner and ruin your game. The skill tree is one of the few design choices I do not like at all and it's for one reason. You will not be able to play and see everything this game has to offer on a single world/save file as the skill tree will have multiple skills that force you to choose one upgrade or another. Meaning the one you do not choose will be something you do not have access to for that entire playthrough. I don't think thats a good design choice as it would be really lame spending a ton of time meticulously building and designing this Inn and tavern only to have to do it all over again a second time just to experience the features you were forced to skip on. Building is severely lacking and right now you really can't dig into the design side of a game like this because there just aren't any tools or items to decorate and customize. Several upgrades/buildings end up being pre-built and placed for you which just adds to that even more. This issue needs to be fixed for sure as this game goes for a bit more of a sandbox feel by allowing you to run and manage many areas outside of the tavern itself, but again its kinda ruined that it's all built and placed for you. Right now there are basically zero options for design and themes. Even if there were it wouldn't matter because the over-all size of the tavern (even the upgraded version with the Inn) feels insanely small. This also lead to multiple issues with employees getting stuck on tables and chairs and just walking in place forever, also preventing them from doing their job. Both because of the pathfinding and also partially because of how much I had to cramming tables and items in. So, I do hope you will buy and support this as it's a great start but just know there is a good amount of work left to be done here.

Fantastic game and the fact that it's created by a solo developer is just amazeballs. I rarely play sim games and was not expected to like this. Got a free demo first and my initial impression was "well, this is kind of dumb, you just go around picking digital flowers and mushrooms?" :) But by the end of the demo found myself wanting more. You start the game as a proprietor of a small tavern in the woods. There is a day-based cycle and you can do as much or as little as you like. Initially, I hassled to make progress in the knowledge tree and get revenue flow. But the real beauty of this game reveals itself when (very shortly) you outsource the basic tasks to the trusted employees and then are free to enjoy your tiny capitalist paradise. I spent real life weeks simply waking up in the game and running to the river to fill up the water buckets, picking up flowers on the way back and making it just in time for the first wave of patrons ordering their 7 am beer and "suspicious soup". Then as soon as the staff arrived, I was off to wander around the forest. The map is large enough to be interesting but small enough not to get completely lost. There are very nice surprises hidden all over for you to find. I was absolutely blown away when behind one corner there was suddenly a view of beautiful serene hills beyond the map. I have a mentally intensive job and suffer from migraines. On the days, when it hurts to think, this game is a life-saver. There is nothing rushing you or being obstructive or annoying. Food never expires, storage levels are almost endless, and customers are willing to sit and wait for a long time (and there isn't any penalty for not serving them). Soundtrack is lovely. No notifications that you have to clear, no disasters, no urgency. At the same time, the game never feels merely performative or grindy. It's a truly amazing achievement, well done!

J'ai beaucoup aimé ce jeu. Graphiquement parlant, c'est très joli, ca change de tout les jeux de simu qu'on peux voir. La taverne est agréable a gérer, les ressources sont collectés intelligemment, et mise à part quelques petit bug de déplacement des pnj, rien à redire d'autre. Il me tarde de voir les prochaines majs, que je suivrais avec intérêt, Je recommande si vous voulez passer un moment chill et amusant.

It's one of the best simulation games I've ever played. And I've been playing a lot of them lately. I love the variety and the bustling atmosphere. There's certainly room for improvement, but for an early access game, it's already very advanced. I'm looking forward to more updates and will definitely be losing myself in it for many more hours :)

13 heures de jeu et je suis arrivée au bout. le jeu n'est pas encore très développé, quelques bugs pas trop grave. il est sympa et j'aime bien les mécaniques de jeux, le marais est un endroit sympas plutôt bien dessiné la direction artistique est agréable. il y a de la promesse dans ce jeu pour l'instant pas aboutie mais le dev à l'air d'être sur le coup donc un petit jeu à suivre de près

schönes spiel zum grinden

Simple little tavern simulator, but I've enjoyed playing it. It currently still has a demo available, so you can easily try it yourself.

Really good game! Looking forward to more content!!

Abbastanza piacevole e ricco di cose da fare. MOLTO SORPRESO