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[Yolan]

Hi all!

I'm working on a micro-CRPG / sim called Innkeep. It's a bit of Ultima 7 style classic CRPG, meets a modern day-by-day narrative survival sim like This War of Mine, with thematic ideas taken from Les Miserables (think, the crafty master of the house character, Thenarndier).

Basically, I wanted to try and capture elements of what I like about CRPGs (narrative progression, interesting characters, the feeling of being in a world), but with a static location. The idea I had was to have a game set in that classic RPG location, the humble inn, where you are the one wearing the apron, and the people of the world come to you. You serve them food and drink. You tell them about recent rumors, and maybe share a joke or two. You hire bards to play music and keep everybody having a good time until late. And then you rob them. In their sleep. A little bit...

The game will have some light sim elements. You need to manage your stock of food, drink, firewood and candles. There is serving to be done, and you will need to do a bit of "creative" cooking. But the core focus of the game is really about "looking after" your guests. In the evening while serving, you are on the lookout for identifying which guests you want to try and steal from in the night. You need to eavesdrop on conversations, observe them at a distance, and use your silver tongue to try and wheedle out some clues. Once you have your mark, then, in the dead of night you can let yourself into their room, prying open backpacks, wiggling rings from fingers, slipping chains from necks. If you have done your job properly, they should be far too drunk to notice a thing. And with that extra cash you can keep this show on the road, despite the difficulties of wartime scarcity.

The idea is not to force you to play a mustached villain, but to have a bit of fun, and at the same time to try and push you towards having to make choices about who you will or will not rob, and why (a bit like with Papers Please).

Ever since I started part time work on the project a few years back I've kept track of my progress via dev diary videos on youtube. Maybe check out an early video to see where I was starting from (like, can-use MS Paint but don't know what a layer is computer drawing skills), and drop in on the most recent video to see where things stand today. It can help you get a sense of how far I've come, and what kind of game it is shaping up to be. Then if you are on twitter, consider giving me a follow. I also have a site for the game here, (although I'm still in the process of upgrading it so it might be missing a few links). I'll keep an active eye on this thread so I can answer any questions you might have, but I also have a discord channel if you want to chat more directly. Finally, you can learn more about ongoing development and get access to extra stuff like music tracks (by John Halpart) at the Patreon page.

Cheers!

Daniel

[Tellemurius]

My years of fantasy role-playing a tavern master has finally paid off.

[Araph]

Looks like an interesting idea, and I'm a sucker for dev blogs. I'll be keeping an eye on this!

[Yolan]

Thanks. ;-) I'm a sucker for dev blogs too.

I've got quite a lot of notes and ideas written up already, but I'm going to try and release it more gradually alongside updates showing actual progress.

Yesterday I finished fully incorporating the background art into the game room (all the railings block you properly). For the rest of the week I'm focusing on smooth character movement and sliding against walls instead of getting caught. By the time of the next dev video I would like to show the first outlines of the drink serving system, but we shall see. I might get side tracked by animating the Innkeeper.

[Moogie]

Posting to watch. This is a really cool idea.

[Neonivek]

Hmmm, usually fantasy inns are sources of information.

Would be interesting if the drinks you stock are obtained by receiving rumors. So you get a rumor about the elves and you get elven wine... but it isn't REALLY elven wine.

They order it, and get that info from you.

[Yolan]

Hmmm, usually fantasy inns are sources of information.

Would be interesting if the drinks you stock are obtained by receiving rumors. So you get a rumor about the elves and you get elven wine... but it isn't REALLY elven wine.

They order it, and get that info from you.

That sounds like a nice detail I could work into a quest. There will be some political intrigue going on that you may play a role in.

EDIT: Thinking about it some more, I wonder if Fallen London style rumors and secrets could work as multipliers on how much people pay you for drinks or food. You would want to save up the better multipliers to use for the richer guests. These rumors and secrets might be collected via the quests and sub-quests, rather than simply having them reward you directly with money. Something to think about...

[Metalax]

Interesting. Kind of like an Inn based Reccetear. I'll keep an eye on this.

You say that the campaign will be a month or two long, will it progress to a free play situation after that?

Also, potential for new game+?

Finally, any intention of modability for the game?

[Yolan]

Interesting. Kind of like an Inn based Reccetear. I'll keep an eye on this.

You say that the campaign will be a month or two long, will it progress to a free play situation after that?

Also, potential for new game+?

Finally, any intention of modability for the game?

Yes on the free play. Something like the "endless mode" that you see with Papers Please. Basically running the inn with a gradual and on-going ramping up of difficulty. Maybe a hard-core mode with more limited funds. It would be cool if the complexity of the different components leads to the potential for generation of some deeper strategies, allowing people to compete for high scores (days lasted) etc.

Modability sounds nice, but I'm not a modder myself, and don't have any experience/understanding in this area. So if it ever happens it would probably be something I looked into adding at a later stage.

[Zireael]

PTW. Sounds amazing!

[Neyvn]

I love these types of games so yeah please...

[EuchreJack]

Love the concept.

I'll ask what all freeloaders looking for new games would ask: Will this be free, or will you be charging for this?
(These days, it won't matter much to me, but it used to be Question #1 for me)

I understand it's downright offensive, but people will want to know asap.
(If you don't know, that is ok).

[Sensei]

Here's an idea: you learn about quests from listening to guests that drink in your tavern. Adventurers also come through looking for quests, and if they take one and succeed they share the reward and/or drink at your tavern more ofyen. But, you have to judge how difficult the quest is, because if you give a hard quest to an inexperienced adventurer, they'll be killed Or return unsuccessful.

[nenjin]

Must have: bouncers as characters who are basically like your fighters in any kind of combat situation that would arise.

[Yolan]

Here's an idea: you learn about quests from listening to guests that drink in your tavern. Adventurers also come through looking for quests, and if they take one and succeed they share the reward and/or drink at your tavern more ofyen. But, you have to judge how difficult the quest is, because if you give a hard quest to an inexperienced adventurer, they'll be killed Or return unsuccessful.

Actually, that is a really cool idea. I already had plans for a "broken adventurer" variant of the regular adventurers. Somebody who had seen his whole party get killed. Maybe he comes to visit after a failure scenario because you gave them a quest that was too hard (or maybe you tipped off the evil wizard).

Must have: bouncers as characters who are basically like your fighters in any kind of combat situation that would arise.

Under consideration, depending on in what form combat is incorporated. If I go the whole hog and have street fighter style combat going on then that would be nice (but that would be a "stretch goal", as they say).

Will this be free, or will you be charging for this?

Ideally I intend to charge for it, unless unforeseen circumstances push me towards abandoning/early release. While I am an amateur still learning as I go I want to put in quite a bit of polish and provide something that people would feel happy paying for. That includes actual art and music done by other people. So maybe it won't be ready in a final form for a couple of years. I hope people will be enjoying it long before that for play testing and so on of course.