‘I briefly burst into tears’: After 11 years of work, the dev of this fantasy sim is ‘elated and grateful’ to reach Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam only 3 days after launch

Fantasy management sim Tavern Keeper has only been out on Steam for three days but it goes back a ways—quite a long ways. Developer Greenheart Games, maker of 2013’s Game Dev Tycoon, has been working on its pub sim for more than a decade.

Looks like all that hard work has finally paid off: Tavern Keeper launched into early access on November 3 and has already clambered over one impressive milestone: an “Overwhelmingly Positive” review score on Steam. All those votes of approval from players haven’t gone unnoticed by the team who have been pouring their efforts into the game for the past 11 years.

“Today, we reached an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ review score and it was an immensely emotional moment for us,” Greenheart Games co-founder Patrick Klug posted on Steam. “We were elated and grateful to reach this milestone among the bug-fixing and support spree.

“A bit later, I had a moment for lunch by myself when I briefly burst into tears. 11 years we have worked on this game, giving it our all, with no guarantees,” Klug wrote. “While obviously these are very early days and this game won’t be an overnight success (nor a guaranteed one), it was a moment of brief validation.”

That’s pretty darn heartwarming to hear, and on a personal note, I’ve been playing Tavern Keeper this week and I heartily agree with those Steam reviews. So far, I’m loving the mix of cozy tavern management, comedic storybook events, and oddball characters. Heck, there are even RPG-style skill checks for certain events and a full-on design system for creating your own decorations and items. There’s an awful lot going on in Tavern Keeper beyond just serving ale to orcs and halflings.

If I like it so much why haven’t I written about it yet? To be perfectly honest, I’ve had trouble tearing myself away from the game to even start writing about it—though I will have an actual article about it later today. Tavern Keeper is 20% off on Steam until November 17 if you want to belly up to the bar yourself. Here’s the launch trailer, too: