How do you do, fellow gamers? I’m back with another set of video game screenshots! And today’s game is a simulator game. I actually love simulator games; I have a whole category in my Steam library dedicated to them. It’s the only library collection I’ve made that’s specifically for a genre of game.

I got Tavern Manager Simulator on sale yesterday, and whereas there are probably better simulator games in my collection, I did enjoy this one in particular.

It opens with you acquiring a run-down tavern just outside a large castle. The place is boarded up and you need to remove some planks in order to get in the back door and open up the tavern.

The place is in disrepair and you spend some time picking up trash and cleaning stains on the floor before you can open the place.

The large piles of garbage are too much for you to deal with right now, so you just throw a cloth over them to get the place open and running.

You have a small private room just off to the side of the bar room. There’s a bed in here where you can sleep until 6 AM the next morning. There’s also a desk where you do all the “paperwork” for the tavern. This desk is where you can upgrade your tavern and its amenities. The more you level up your tavern, the more variety of foods you can sell, and the larger the tavern will grow. Literally; it will actually expand into a proper dining hall if you upgrade it enough.

Although the most important category is the Delivery tab, where you can order resources (food), furniture, and decorations.

You will need to make regular food orders as your supplies dwindle. You can place an order anytime and it will be at your back door in less than a minute. You can actually watch a horse-drawn cart show up down the road as soon as you order. Almost half the wait time is just watching it turn in a loop before stopping for you to unload it.

Next, you need to fix your sign out front. This is what you will use to signal when you’re open.

When it’s facing the tavern, you’re closed. But when it’s turned to face the road passing by your tavern, you’re open. You can switch it anytime, day or night, to start or stop the flow of customers. You can also customize your new sign. Here is my tavern’s sign, turned to signal that I’m open for business:

To start, you’ll only have ale. Pouring ale is a bit of an art; you have to hold the pour button until it fills to the green line on a bar. Any less and it’s just a “good” ale. In that green, it’s a “perfect” ale and will have a sparkle to it. And if you go over, you will spill on the floor (requiring a clean-up) and it will be a “bad” ale, with a puke-greenish tint to it.

Make sure you hand out as many good or perfect ales as you can to customers! You’re earning reputation to help improve your customer base and upgrade your tavern, so keep those customers happy! I don’t know what the customers will do if you serve them a bad ale. I’ve just been dumping them in the trash and taking the financial loss so I don’t hurt my reputation. Here was my very first customer:

You have a limited supply of dishes, so make sure to clean them as often as you can in the kitchen sink. You can get water from the well behind your tavern, and every dish you scrub counts for 2 cleaned dishes. It’s super easy to clean, just swirl it in the soapy water for a few seconds and all the gunk will disappear from the dish.

You also have to clean your tavern as you go. Most patrons will leave a mess on the table when they leave. Collect their coin and dishes, but also don’t forget to wipe down the tables as needed. Some customers will also leave footprints all over your floors. Don’t forget to sweep them up!

Most customers will only make a single food/drink request, then leave when they’re done. But this guy kept requesting more beers until he passed out on the bar. You can literally pick up these drunk customers by the scruff of their neck and toss them out. You can also ask anyone to leave anytime you want, but it’s more fun to throw them out while they’re black-out drunk. Plus, you collect a ton of coin from all the booze they consumed.

There are also beggars who might come into your tavern. You can give them what they ask for, which will give your tavern a boost in reputation, or you can tell them to scram. Later, you acquire a frying pan, which you can brandish as a weapon against unruly patrons or beggars.

This beggar lady came by pretty often. I had one guy come by saying he was dying of thirst and just needed some water. I went to the well out back and got a pail of water and he was very satisfied with that.

Over time, you start to expand the menu; first to sausage, then vegetable soup, and then grilled meat. It gets more complicated as you go on, because you now have to pay attention to customer’s requests and not just hand out ale to every customer. Eventually, your kitchen gets fixed up as you level up your tavern and expand your menu. It starts to look like a nice place to work!

You will also unlock fairy helpers, whom you can assign jobs in the tavern. Which is nice when you have to cook soup, grill meat, chop firewood for the stove and grill, pour ale, clean the outhouse, and do dishes. PLUS ensuring customers are getting the food they want in a timely manner, cleaning up after them, and ordering more food when your supplies are getting low. It can get intense. Thankfully, I have not been completely swamped with customers yet. I got maybe 1-3 orders at a time, so I have a little time to balance everything. Just having a fairy to do dishes is a huge relief during open hours.

When you’re closed up for the day, if you explore the grounds outside your tavern, you’ll find hidden tributes to other medieval fantasy series. So far, I’ve seen references to Zelda, Dark Souls, Shrek, World of Warcraft, and Lord of the Rings. Let me know if you find any others!

If you catch a break (which I rarely did), you can chat with your customers, which gives you a +1 to your reputation. Although they usually just have either something weird to say, or a medieval dad joke.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable game. I had fun running back and forth, trying to keep food and drink prepared and dealing with customers as they came in. I had to make a lot of orders in the middle of the day to keep my stock up initially, but as I got used to the game, I was able to more effectively plan my food and drink and I was mostly able to make an order at night and be ready for the entire next day. It helps that none of the consumables ever went bad, so I could prep a bunch of stuff and leave it sitting out until customers ordered it.

I always felt there weren’t enough hours in the day, though. Every minute of the day was a real-time second, so I basically had 24 minutes max to host customers every day. I’d run my tavern until I was almost out of everything late at night, then I’d spend the last few hours of the night/morning restocking and prepping for the next day. If I went to bed, it was usually with only an hour or two of sleep before getting up the next day. So far, I don’t think sleep deprivation is a thing in this game. I ran my tavern for 3 days straight without any side effects at one point.

So if you like restaurant managing/waitressing games, this was a pretty fun medieval spin on the genre. Come grab a pint and enjoy!