Feedback from group of 3, 20+ hrs

This is collective feedback from my party of three, who just completed the game after ~20 hours.

CUSTOMERS: VIPs need to be reduced in frequency and more guest variety needs to be added. Just some light spitballing here, but you could add guests such as:

Minotaur -- high gold gain, but short order timer (gets angry). If angered, chases patrons out just like zombies and requires a short fight

Witch -- orders potions instead of food. If the order is met, casts a helpful spell (i.e. crops yield double harvest for one day), if the order is failed, casts a curse (can't grow crops for one day)

Fishman -- only eats seafood, requires you to regularly water them with a watering can as they eat (and perhaps offers a benefit to your fishing, i.e. drops bait on the table to allow you to only catch trout/capacian for a 1-minute timer)

Dwarves -- always arrive in a large party requiring a chunk of empty table space be available. Prefer alcohol and will keep ordering it until drunk and kicked out

Bards -- so clearly the jukebox is a placeholder for bards that lets you not animate a musician, but the absence was noticeable. Bite the bullet and animate a bard. Make them hireable for a day -- expensive up front, but they increase your attendance and reputation for the day and hopefully make the money back if you can keep up with orders.

This would offer variety to the serving experience and can help cut back on VIP appearances, which I've noticed quite a few folks seem to have negative feedback on due to the overwhelming amount of VIPs arriving late game. Also, just adding some character models for gnomes/elves/etc into the mix could go a long way towards making the customers feel more fantastical and alive. Let us start with basic adventurers coming in, but keep adding new customer models and types as we level.

COMBAT/BOSSES:

As I'm sure you're aware, a lot of folks have been critical of the combat system and boss fight. I actually think the combat system is totally fine for what this game is, but that's because the emphasis should always be on the tavern -- not fighting monsters. I'd encourage you to rethink the idea of 'bosses' in this game. What if instead of trying to fight cultists, a boss encounter meant an important customer was coming to the tavern? i.e. we can be told we have X days to prepare for a client who poses unique challenges. A fussy Noble who keeps changing her order. A Demon who keeps starting fires. An extra hungry Goblin King who threatens to eat your entire stock...challenge our skills as a tavern, not as warriors!

Remember, the whole conceit is that we chose to run this restaurant INSTEAD of being an adventurer. Then the combat can remain a background component and our desire for a 'boss' challenge is still met, plus it reinforces the game's central theme and gameplay loop rather than diverting to underdeveloped combat scenarios. Play to your strength!

TAVERN CUSTOMIZATION:

Make decorations available outside loot crates. One of the most fun parts of this game is getting to feel like this is your (and your friends) own tavern, and customization is critical to that sense of ownership. Since we can't customize the building itself, adjusting decorations is the most meaningful impact we get to have and it's currently locked behind randomized barrels of loot! I'd definitely recommend adding some alternate ways of earning the decorations (especially since your paintings are fantastic!) -- maybe they unlock based on quest completion, i.e. completing the mermaid's quest unlocks nautical decorations, completing the herbalist's quest unlocks rustic decorations, etc...Let us play with all the cool decor and, most importantly, help us feel a sense of ownership over the tavern by customizing it to our hearts' content.

One additional avenue for some sense of customization would be allowing players to select which rooms they unlock when. There’s no reason to keep them in their current unlock order, so instead of having set rooms unlock at set levels, give us some Renovation Points per level that we can spend to unlock rooms at our preference. In theory this could be a minor change using existing material that still enhances the sense of customization.

Also, I'm sure you know this already, but you've got to make that upstairs area accessible. It was such a disappointment realizing we'd maxed out our tavern and still couldn't go up there. Lastly, please add a decorative fireplace item. Lean into those cozy fantasy vibes!

DIALOGUE:

The writing on the quests badly needs improvement. I won't harp on this too long, but the writing for almost all the npcs is crass, juvenile, and a total mismatch to the theme and tone. Beyond breaking the immersion, you need to remember that this game is primarily a relaxing, cozy life-sim -- a genre with a major presence of female gamers. And trust me, as a femme who just sank 20+ hours into your game, I almost turned it off multiple times just to make the NPCs stop making dumb gross jokes at me. The guys I was playing with were similarly annoyed by dialogue and one refused to engage with any quests just to avoid hearing it. People praise the game for being immersive and cozy, so make your dialogue reflect this! As it stands, the dialogue is a tonal mismatch and alienating a key demographic. Feel free to reach out if you'd like more feedback on writing or some sample scripts; I do this for a living (spreminger42@gmail.com).

QUESTS:

Quests need to progress faster and be more closely tied to the tavern progression. The potion quest specifically took way too long for what amounted to running back and forth and fighting the same two bears over and over again. It's also a lousy feeling to complete a quest line and receive no rewards for the tavern -- again, this where you can add unlockable decor, if not recipes and ingredients. Perhaps after completing their quest, each NPC can become a vendor selling some unique ingredients and decorations (i.e. mermaid sells fish/bait, herbalist sells seeds/mushrooms, etc...). This will make your quests feel more consequential and the world feel more alive outside the tavern proper as there’ll be a reason to interact with the NPCs after a quest.

FINAL RECS:

Lastly, it would be wonderful if we could get some emotes added to our characters. It's a relatively small update that goes a long way in multiplayer games like this -- let me clap and cheer for my friends, or do a funny little dance by the jukebox. It just builds out the social element and is pretty standard across similar games in the genre.

Thank you for sharing this lovely game! My friends and I had a blast overall and all walked away feeling this was worth our money, a good game, and more importantly, a game that has the potential to be AMAZING with some more development! We'll definitely come back if we hear updates have been added later this year.