End of Year Developer Update

(Note: I’ve brought this post over from Steam. It was originally written on December 2nd.)

Greetings Tavern Dwellers!

It’s been a super busy year for the development of Innkeep, and I wanted to get an update in for you all before we hit 2025. There is a lot to cover in today’s update, so hunker down and grab your tastiest brew, in your finest tankard of course.

Wishlist Milestone

We recently reached a major milestone for Innkeep with 35,000 wishlists (and at time of writing this is actually even higher than this). I want to give a big thank you to the community for their continued support and I cannot wait to share more of the game with you in the coming months.

Dev Diary Videos Incoming~!

Speaking of sharing more of the game, I’d like to get more frequent with development updates in 2025. This will be me sitting down, talking you through some of the features we are implementing into the game and sharing a deeper dive into the Innkeep development process. (EDIT: After some discussion with team members, we think shooting for 4 videos a year at decent quality might be a good pace.)

An Innkeep Let’s Play

In the meantime, in case you missed it, recently I recorded a playthrough of the Innkeep prologue for broadcast during the Steam Cooking Fest. Some beer was consumed out of the tankard shown above during the production of this one. 🙂 (Many thanks to UsefulFromWood over in the Ukraine for producing these.) Keep in mind that the footage you see is of a development build, and doesn’t necessarily represent what the final game will look like (expect even more polish, and possibly some different mechanics!)

A Little Info on Eavesdropping

Speaking of shifts in mechanics, one area that we have been working on is eavesdropping. In

Innkeep, the player character is able to listen in on the conversations that guests are having, looking to collect new rumors, jokes and stories, or clues about their guests and what precious trinkets they might have on them. Originally, I conceived of table dialogue occurring in real time. This would mean the player can only ever hear snippets as they move between tables, serving ale and clearing up used bowls and tankards. The playthrough I recorded is of an older version of the development build that still uses this mechanic.

Through further testing and development, however, it’s become clear that a real time system has serious drawbacks. Most importantly, everybody reads at different speeds. What is fast for one person may be slow for another, or vice versa. Our solution is for eavesdropping to occur during a kind of ‘liminal’ state, where the game is technically paused, but a small amount of time passes whenever a line of dialogue is clicked on to move to the next. Snatches of conversation are now also clearly telegraphed when they begin, or end, rather than always running in the background. This means removing the need for writing ‘filler’ conversation between clues, and also that the player clearly knows when there is something interesting being talked about. It’s working really nicely, and it will be interesting to see how it fits in with the charming and conversation mechanics in the future.

Innkeep has a Publisher!

On the funding front, in case you missed it, earlier this year I announced that we have signed with Mythwright, a publisher recently founded by industry veterans. Mythwright’s people have decades of combined experience, having worked with titles such as Alan Wake II, PC Building Simulator, and Going Medieval. For a very long while I was soldiering along on Innkeep in my spare time, which has made progress hard going at times. With Mythwright’s support I’ve been finally able to launch my own little game studio, Boot Disk Games, and shift to full time development! It also means I have had the budget to bring on new team members. Including an assistant programmer, and a couple of very cool artists. Last but not least, I have access to very experienced people at Mythwright to consult and collaborate with on all kinds of Innkeep related things, including but not limited to the development of the various game systems.

And a Government Grant!

Also on the funding side of things, I’m happy to announce that Boot Disk Games has been selected for support in the form of a grant from ScreenWest! ScreenWest is a local state government body here in West Australia that is looking to help the local game industry grow. Boot Disk Games has four team members here in West Australia, including myself, so we’re very much a proud West Australian outfit!

And a Composer!

As I mentioned above, we’ve been able to bring on a number of new team members. This now includes a composer for the game, Filippo Beck Peccoz! Filippo is an award-winning composer currently living and working in Munich, Germany. He worked as the Audio Director and Composer for games like Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3 and Shadow Gambit by Mimimi Games as well as Tavern Talk by Gentle Troll Entertainment. Filippo’s mantra is: I make music for games I love – and Innkeep sure is shaping up to be a great new adventure in music and sound design! As a passionate player of all things string instruments, Filippo is already tuning the 12 strings, setting up the Hurdies and getting ready to make Innkeep’s world come alive.

I’m on Bluesky

By the way, you can now find Innkeep over on Bluesky. I made the transition to Bluesky recently and the community has been super supportive – you may also find a cheeky dev update or two there, as I’ve been sharing some of the inspirations behind Innkeep.

And Don’t Forget to Join Our Discord Channel

As we move into an even busier 2025, it is also a great time to join our Discord – you’ll be able to chat with existing community members, and be kept in the know if we are hosting small private playtests with our core community later down the line.

That about wraps it up for now. I hope everyone has a great end to the year. Stay tuned for more updates in January! 👍

Daniel