Upcoming tavern management sim Tavern Keeper has been delayed to an unspecified point in 2025 so that developer and publisher Greenheart Games can work on ironing out bugs and performance issues.
In a post on Steam, Greenheart says that Tavern Keeper is “actually in a good state”; it’s content complete, all of its gameplay mechanics have been implemented, and it’s got a full English voiceover, with translations due “within the week”.
However, Greenheart says it’s only currently possible to have a “great time” playing Tavern Keeper “if you know how to avoid a number of existing pitfalls”.
Greenheart points to a number of existing issues, including tavern staff getting “stuck forever”, mechanics interacting with one another “in ways that make them hard to control”, and confusing UI and mechanical elements.
Additionally, the studio says it’s encountered performance issues and errors “that interrupt or halt gameplay”. As such, Greenheart has determined that the chance you’ll get frustrated while playing Tavern Keeper in its current form is “a little too high for a great first experience”.
It would, Greenheart says, have technically been possible to have all of these issues solved by the originally-intended November release date, but that would have burned out the development team and prevented the devs from responding to player feedback quickly.
As such, Tavern Keeper has been delayed to an unspecified point in 2025, and Greenheart says it will announce a new release window “next year, when we are ready”.
Tavern Keeper is, as you’ve probably guessed from the name, a “charming fantasy business sim” in which you can manage and develop your very own fantasy tavern.
Originally announced all the way back in 2016, Tavern Keeper has been in development for over ten years, so it’s been a long time coming. With that in mind, this delay doesn’t seem quite so devastating.
You’ll be able to check out Tavern Keeper when it launches on PC via Steam Early Access sometime next year.
