A short game made for the Seasons of RMN event! I downloaded and reviewed the updated version.

Story: Lighthearted



With such a beleaguered expression as the game icon, you know it's gonna be fun.


If you want to spend your afternoon in a fun time, join this cast of fun characters! Every season, we get to make a new friend, and their bios are reflected in the talents that they bring to the tavern.

Rina: Famous clumsy maid combo determined to make her late mother proud. Rina's father sold-
Mish: Sell the soul back, earn interest, have fun! The imp also enjoys fine dining.
Austin: He's only got eyes for Rina, but he’s also a reliable guy to keep the tavern in shape.
Jeanna: Wanted criminal who loves a good drink. But I'm not the arsonist, trust.
Elwynn: I'm an Elvish Bard, But Because of Reasons I Have a Debt of 500 Million Gold~



Giving a gift to help his love interest's business? Austin is very definitely a good guy...


And what's a tavern without patrons? There aren't any named "regulars" that frequent the tavern (e.g., that rascal Jorji from Papers Please), but we get a mix-and-match for different types of customers (like farmer and trader) and various moods (like cheerful and drunk).



Don't worry – this here is a 20-star tavern.


Oh, and during the preparation, we can hear some conversation about upcoming events, like the weather, during a trip through town.

Music: Upbeat and locally grown

What better way to celebrate the RMN event than with music by RMN artists? I found theirs and other music blending well with the game and easy on the ears. Even spent a minute on the title screen!

Gameplay: Management simulator

There's a preparation (a.k.a. "business") phase and a management phase.

The business phase involves making sure there's enough ingredients (the requirement increases as seasons pass) by heading out to town and making purchases and checking up on the state of the tavern and employees. It's also a great time for the occasional story or heads-up at the town square.

Ingredients: What's the menu? Soup? Bread? Steak? Water? Tea? Wine? I played through the whole game with a menu exclusively of steak and wine, since I figured: 1) gotta spend money on quality to make profits; 2) it wouldn't negatively affect the clientele; and 3) no Prohibition or observances like abstaining from meat as game mechanics. So, I never had any tension with ignoring the vegetables, herbs, and bread (maybe these were the "starter ingredients" due to a different funding setup in the contest entry?). By the way, prices change based on the season. Sometimes, buying from the market is cheaper; other times, hiring the guild to gather ingredients with a one-week delay is better.



Looks like meat's ALWAYS on the menu, boys!


At the tavern, there's an opportunity to level up a skill for a character or upgrade the tavern itself. Tavern upgrades are pricy but pay for themselves quickly. Reasonable options during Spring and Summer, the first half of the game, are extremely limited; it feels like there’s only one, true way to spend the business phase to even have a chance of surviving. All of my game overs happened in the first half. Prices generally rise over the year, but the windfall starting in the second half felt like it outpaced inflation.



Most businesses fail soon after opening. I imagine their owners feeling like this.


The actual management phase is as easy as clicking a button on the nice UI and praying to RNG. That is, an event occurs, such as a customer ready to order or a local crisis occurring. If it's a customer, figure out what they want by reading the text. Or bandits attack. Whatever the case, click on a worker to have them deal with the event (the game waits for a decision, which is nice), and they'll deal with it and expend some health. The patron pays up and the tavern reputation (which I assume is a multiplier for payouts) is recalculated based on the character’s skill level for that type of event.

Without health, the character can't perform additional work for that phase. Certain patrons might pay more (e.g., trader), and their moods make them easier or harder to handle (e.g., drunks impose a burden on the health bar). There's an ignore button to calculate the event (poor reputation for the tavern), but generally, there’s enough HP to handle come what may.

In practice, management is balanced to be easy - just send the right person for the job. But if the devs really wanted to, a hard mode might find a way to rebalance each decision into a cost-benefit analysis across multiple factors: 1) patron estimated expected payout; 2) mood; 3) best worker's current HP; 4) service's effect on reputation; and 5) number of remaining decisions this session. The in-game tips seemed to have hinted at something like this as the intention. Maybe these factors were more pronounced with the contest version, although I didn't check.



Yes! I barely made it across the finish line!


Aesthetic: Cutesy-colorful

A good choice to match the lighthearted style, and I really liked the characters' designs and expressions (not just the textbox – cut-ins for training and working are quite nice, and Rina has a couple seasonal outfits). There's also a few CGs! I finished the game in a good mood.

As an event entry? A management sim taking place over the various seasons, with each season affecting management, was a great idea, and I liked the execution.