Travellers Rest

I'm actually paused and in-game (in the middle of the Sat pm rush with a keg full of Pineapple Juice and a killer Lager on tap) as I am writing this review... This is a good game. It goes particularly well with an IPA or two IRL as well ;) . I do recommend it but I have a few thoughts - for what they are worth. My number one observation was that the intro/tutorial was pretty long and did not allow for ANY creative freedom. By the time the tutorial was over, I found myself hoping to NEVER cross paths with that mystical damn cat again. Truly though, I would have felt sooooo much more attached to my tavern if I had actually been part of the grind to get there. For example, I was REALLY excited to begin in a run-down tavern grinding and selling rat meat kabobs and (basically) bat piss beers in a tavern with broken windows, broken doors, broken floorboards... However, the tutorial skipped me all the way into a beautiful tavern with no broken windows, no broken doors, no broken floor boards. I would have liked to have a bit more grind and a bit more customization in that way. I greatly respect the concept as is but I would love to be able to have a no tutorial mode where you start dirt poor and grind to get the beautiful tavern. An option to pay off the loan to buy the place might be a nice difficulty modifier too. But overall Devs, thank you for this little gem. I hope you find my and others' feedback useful. I'm excited to see the full concept in action when all is said and done. Cheers, Slainte, and Skal.

This game is quite boring, and soulless. It's been on Steam for 5 years, and in development for obviously longer than that. Initially, it was described by the dev as "Stardew Valley or Graveyard Keeper with a touch of “Ye-Olde English Pub” theme thrown in, with loads of lighthearted activities to undertake" However, many years later it's still just an empty shell. Outside of the short tutorial intro there is no story. No quests. No interactions with villagers. The staff is just a random sprite. Nothing has a personality, there is nothing to look forward to do or achieve. It's an empty shell of a game. And that after so many years of development! The core skeleton is actually not that bad. You run the tavern, collect ingredients and craft stuff to improve your tavern. It's all very simplistic and there are no complicated systems. I was never surprised by anything, didn't discover anything new, didn't have any moments of joy I have in games such as Stardew Valley. It's a shell of a game, that is lacking the meat around its skeleton. If this was the case for an early access game within its first few months I could understand, but the game has been on Steam for far longer than the entire development of Stardew Valley took! To me, this is a visually nice and concept-wise promising game, that is just lacking any interactions, any story, any characters, literally anything to want me to keep playing. I might check again in yet another 5 years, but this ain't it.

It's quite funny, but unfortunately not Stardew Valley in my opinion, so I don't really feel like playing any more. Plus there are a lot of walking routes and weird and sometimes clunky controls with a controller. You have to be up for it, definitely different.

nice game, but it took so long for the major updates, really needs main plot/story developement

I am really sorry to say this...but with the best of intentions I can't recommend this game as is. Does it have beautiful art, lovely soundtracks, a breathtaking style and engaging gameplay? Absolutely. Is it as of now a hollow, repetitive, pointless mess? Totally. The core gameplay, design and the entire idea are all marvelous but this game released for early access in 2020.....Since then no meaningful way to interact with the world has been added. There is literally 0 sign of any storyline except for the tutorial. The world is small and apart from repeated dialogues and a few first encounters interactions with all NPCs are repetitive and boring. Speaking of repetitive and boring while the tavern building/farming/animal husbandry and food%drink crafting aspects of the game are amazing they become rinse and repeat after maybe 3 season's / 1 year's worth of in-game time. If the NPCs were more fleshed out, if there were seasonal events, storylines or any sign of a plot after 5 years I would totally adore this game as my top 5 on steam but there is absolutely no trace of that. And now after 5 years development and an entire team working on it we got a f*ing extended pet and multiplayer system for a game that has literally no damn storyline, plot or any engagement with anything other then the land during planting, animals and the kitchen and cellar utensils. If it ever gets finished I will highly recommend this game but until then I'd say do not buy it for it has been 5 years without any sign of reaching 1.0 and as it stands now the project will probably get dropped.

Travellers Rest would have been great....if the tutorial didn't last like a week in-game. And it's not the kind where you gets tips in between while playing the game, you basically stay mostly in the inn for a couple of days cuz it's important to learn the mechanics of the gameplay, WHICH I understand cuz Travellers Rest is a very overwhelming game to learn and master. This is not like Stardew Valley, this game will feel like a whiplash at the start. If you think it's like SV or have expectations similar to it, you're in for a disappointment cuz it's definitely a unique game and closest similarity is like....Diner Dash. The one thing that I really dislike about this game is the mechanic where I need wood, coal, etc.? just to craft something. Now, normally this wouldn't be a dealbreaker if it was just 1 or 2 workarea that requires to chop or mine wood and coal to be able to craft an item...but with at least 5 or more craft machines that require wood/coal to be able to craft an item? that part is what got me turned away. And I just knew if I keep playing this game, it would feel repetitive and theres not really much growth. I don't think there's character development that gives you. as a player, to sink into the game. It's basically managing an inn with food and bed basically. I don't recommend this game at this stage since it's early access, I believe? I could only hope the developers improve and make better changes before the full game. So I can't give my full review since it wouldnt be fair to give on an early access game

Not recommended (for now) – but full of potential I played this game for around 40 hours with a friend, and we had a lot of fun building up our tavern. Still, I can't recommend Travelers Rest in its current Early Access state. This review is not meant as punishment, but as motivation – because the game could truly shine if it evolves into a more complete experience. The good first: Decorating and expanding your tavern is engaging and flexible. The freedom to choose when and if you open the tavern is a well-designed mechanic that gives the game a relaxing rhythm. The building system is intuitive, though it lacks flexibility when it comes to rearranging purchased structural parts – it would be great if we could move or adjust those without tearing them down completely. Now to the main issue (as others have pointed out): Despite a world that clearly hints at it, there is no story, no progression, no act structure. Not even a single area of the map is finalized as a functional "chapter." At least one or two acts should be completed by now to give players a long-term goal and a reason to keep playing. Another point of criticism is the overwhelming number of crafting stations, many of which could easily be combined or streamlined. It feels clunky to juggle so many. Also, limiting the crafting queue to just five items is unnecessarily restrictive and slows down the flow of the game. And honestly, it's hard to understand why there are so many recipes, when most of them bring roughly the same amount of profit. It ends up feeling like superficial variety rather than meaningful choice – fewer but more impactful recipes would improve the sense of progression and strategy. We played one full in-game year, and there wasn’t even a simple summary screen to wrap it up. Something like: - Total gold earned - Most profitable product - Best month or day - Unique achievements or stats would go a long way to make the passage of time feel meaningful. (Yes, you can check some stats in the menu, but starting a new year with zero feedback feels wrong.) A small but noticeable improvement would be to allow farming grass anywhere, not just in your tavern zone. In summary: If the developers finalize at least part of the map, offer clear goals or acts, and reduce station clutter, Travelers Rest could be one of the best cozy management games out there. But in its current state, I wouldn’t buy it again.

A great game to chill out in. Add more achievements cus that's the only thing that keeps people playing the game, only then you know that you still have something to do, and when you've achieved everything then in theory you've beaten the game. A good project and it's great to see how it develops.

This game is really addicting and trust me when i say addicting i mean it i told myself ill play for an hours and ended up on here a total of 11 hours, not to mention its so much more advanced from Stardew Valley I love that game with ,my whole heart but this is just a tiny bit more organized and better for everyday differences you never have to worry about what can do the next day because all you have to do is run a tavern and make sure you have he resources for it! it may seem hard to understand at first but it will become noticeable when you start doing things alone after the tutorial. FAIR WARNING it just throws you into it.

at the price the game has a lot to be desired. Basically for 17$ you can get your bar marginally better and then youve run out of things to do or buy. There really is no progression of a plot or story. The one cool character that helps you in the beginning just vanishes from the game.. All the NPC seem like theyre going to have cool stories and plots then there is nothing. There clearly areas that you can eventually get to but are currently blocked. I just can't recommend it at this point. Ill check back in later and update my review.

i'm a bit confused, honestly. this game has been in development for multiple years and no one stopped to tell them forcing the player to do exactly what he's ordered to do for over two hours straight is not engaging gameplay? it's a tutorial, at the end of which your tavern is restored, you got every crafting option ever available to you, 75 recipes unlocked and the beacon has been lit to show you're worthy of tending to the tavern. you get free seeds, food and tools. anything you could ask for. i am now through the intro of extreme handholding and am just left not knowing what there's even left that i want to do. like, do i just stay in the gameplay loop of selling things forever? there's no quests for me to do either. i've decided what i wanted to do is quit the game and play something else. part of the appeal of these kinda games for me is starting with nothing and slowly building a comfy place to call my own; explore and figure things out on my own. even if you ignore the not needing to buy tools etc; there's 0 plot characters exist but are shallow as hell you can't interact with 90% of nps who look very cool but are jut animating idly. a world outside of your tavern and the cardboard city is nonexistent it's very buggy and barebones so there's nothing really to explore and the things you do get are unsatisfying to interact with. you can't even save manually, nor does it explain to you how the saving system works. i had to find out through discussions. and even then - it doesn't allow you to sleep during the tutorial. so i had to soldier on until i passed out due to staying up too late to be able to quit the game without losing progress. everything takes way too long - there's no need to pause for two seconds where you freeze my game before a speech bubble pops up. i'm not gonna get jumpscared if it happens immediately. all of this game feels like purely decoration. it's clear the devs care about vibes; the portraits, animations and music are very nice. but i don't think they know how to write interesting characters or stories or actually make a game that's fun.

Game has been out since 2020 with no fixes to the glitches in the city. I literally walked up to a guy, talked to em', then couldn't move or click anything to get me out. Which.. Sadly results in a reset of the day.

One of my go to steam deck games. Lots of freedom to design your tavern and grounds. I'm very excited to see where this game goes and would definitely recommend this game

Tipping negative, because of snailspeed EA, lacking personality and depth. Feels like shallow Coop-bait. Interesting concept, but doesnt do to much with it. Would have expected more similarities and content since it seems that it borrows so heavily from the SDV format (but doesnt where it counts). Examples for this are: -lackluster skilltree with little specialization that makes you think 'i wanna go there' -tech upgrades mostly block path to resources not qol & automization -only pet 'relationships' instead of townees or special customers (huge oversight) -no social interaction and progression (e.g. a RIVAL for kingship... hello?) -no special events / problems (bar fights, drunks, beggars, sick, robbers) -locked into single progression path (just money), no spelunking / tavern specialization -map has (currently) no areas that can be 'influenced' and is pretty small -fishing and foraging currently borderline waste of time with limited resources (this should provide microprogression but doesnt) -plays with concepts like light & warmth but not smell (just .. why?) -no mercantile opportunities (like marketing, selling provisions, party hosting, biergarden)

Looks good and interesting, but really ends up being shallow. Has the potential to grow.

This review is negative primarily because the game is in early access and it's not complete. This game could be a Stardew Valley killer if they continue to work on it. It's very fun to focus on managing your tavern, but I think the game is lacking in overall polish and the progression feels like a huge grind and it's sometimes also very clunky (it's confusing to figure out where to buy all the recipes or when you should actually buy them). There's a decent sized map that leads to several inaccessible areas which haven't been added to the game yet. There's a skill tree you can upgrade but it seems like it's impossibly slow to level up beyond tavern level 15 to unlock more skills. I think the game would be more fun if they implemented some kind of mining or dungeon exploration areas to occupy your time because after you unlock your employees at tavern level 6 there's an obvious lack of game content (aside from grinding materials for upgrades) to do while your tavern is being run. I think the game also requires some balancing in terms of making products sell for progressively higher value. It seems like you can buy meat day 1 of your playthrough and sell 20 pieces of it cooked for 3 silver each meanwhile in year 2 you're still selling products like wine that you grew, harvested, processed, and aged for basically the same value. The amount of effort you put into creating different higher level recipes just doesn't seem to be worth it and it can be very confusing to spend the few precious recipe points unlocking recipes that turn out to be too complex to craft early on or not profitable enough. I think another huge bottleneck you face in the game is that everything is scalable, except for the amount of products you can sell. You can make your tavern bigger, fancier, have more cooking and brewing stations, fill your basement with barrels-- but you can't sell more than 8 stacks of drinks at one time and you're still limited to those drinks being sold slowly over time. So in the end, you're stuck waiting for the day to progress and for that income to trickle in slowly and it's kind of boring gameplay in that aspect. The game is also in desperate need of a more comprehensive tutorial. I put 25 hours in this game before I found out there was fishing by reading about it on the wiki. They also don't tell you that you can purchase animals or build farm buildings-- you're just kind of left to discover the npcs for these game mechanics which is bizarre. I can't give this a positive review considering the state that the game is currently in, but I will say it has the potential to become one of my top favorite cozy games. It's a very well executed business management simulator like many of those popular shopkeeper genre games. All the game is missing is some kind of repeatable exploration mechanics that give you a much needed hit of dopamine for discovering new items or recipes. Right now the only way to discover recipes for cosmetic items is by digging random spots on the ground-- it's not particularly exciting to get some of the coolest recipes from such a mundane activity (and you're really limited because there's not may dig spots available).

Got soft locked twice in the tutorial, once when trying to enter the cellar, and the second a brand new save later in the cooking part of the tutorial. Reported bug, but the game was effectively unplayable for me.

It was fun in earlier iterations, but now it crashes way, way, way, way too often. It took 4 tries to get through the tutorial. So many soft locks from just - not realizing the tutorial was advancing and trying to talk to someone/do something. Or accidentally doing something out of order. I'm just tired of redoing things when you can't save mid-day. Calling it quits on this game.

every update adds more to love! support the developers by grabbing it in early access, on sale if that's all you can afford. great to kick back and relax, the gameplay loop is very fun, and the art style is charming as all hell. been playing after every update and supporting for years, and i'm proud of it, because this game is wonderful. drink up!

Stardew like, i see social addition is coming soon, very addictive... love this game

Fun, addictive, and once you've got the hang crops and brewing, you'll find hard to stop. This game is so good. You get so invested that when the game day ends, you'll always have something you have to do the day after. You'll be so hooked that when you want to stop playing for a bit, you'll always find a reason to play one more day.

cozy game! a little bit of a slow burn but it lets you play at your own pace and you don't feel bad about it. The game is very free-form so sometimes I feel a little lost on what to do but there's no pressure. I can't wait for more updates :)

Locking multiplayer behind a 2 hour tutorial or forcing the player to start a brand new game is not it.

Very fun in both single and multiplayer mode, even tho in sgp it can be a bit difficult to manage everything that needs to be done. Can't wait to be more complex than it is <3

This game is absolutely great. An engaging pixel art rpg for fast reactions, while you serve order after order for your "polite" guests. It offers immersive variety of cooking recipes and satisfying feel after the guests leave a good review on yelp for you. A possible step for improvement could be some touristic animation - hiring a jester, a juggler a bard or a wizard storyteller to entertain your guests. Or perhaps a planned birthday event for a group of your guests, etc. etc. The pixel art is very, very professional and charming! 64x64 pixel characters is the sweet spot between classic pixel art and art that goes more towards linear art and this game nails it. All in all a very, very beautiful game and an exciting experience. You will enjoy it! And it will only get better.

I have been enjoying the game so far. It is extremely fun and I can't wait to see what they do with it in updates. Hoping for a nice romance system.

This game is so cozy and fun and the longer I play the more I find to explore and decorate! If you're a fan of Stardew Valley or Ale & Tale Tavern you'll love this!

It is very cosy cross between stardew and graveyard keeper. Exactly what I was expecting from this game. 100% recommend

This game is so cute! It really makes me feel like I'm running a tavern with a lot of moving pieces. It balances everything fairly well. There are times when the fact that it's EA shows up, like minor bugs and content lacking in some places, but overall it's a great foundation. I hope it continues to be updated.

Enjoying it so far! Even though it's in early access there's a lot of content. A bit grindy but I don't mind. :-)

I like the game so far, but the sound design for the running and walking sounds is wrong. When running, the footstep sound plays back at a slower pace than expected, while walking sounds as if I'm walking quickly. It would be more cohesive if you changed the walking sound to be slower than the running one.

I never imagined I'd find a game so fun with so little story. To think there will be more story added later? Amazing. So fun, so relaxing, and I can't wait to see what more they'll come out with.

I'm addicted, please many updates, improvements and expansions!

Fantastic game, with a game loop that just shuts your brain off and lets you relax and enjoy. I'd recommend this game to anyone with anxiety or just a lot of stress. Plus, the updates the developer has planned look to really add on to a game that already has A LOT of content to devour already. Simply fantastic!

You know all those games where you go stop by a tavern for the night and carry on? Have you ever wanted to be the tavern keeper? Now's your chance! But how's the game? It's overall good; the graphics are decent, the music is ok if a bit repetitive, the system is smooth, there's plenty to do, there's progress, you get new toys, you can expand and exploit, and the system can be mostly automated with employees to free you up to move around during the day. It sounds pretty decent...and it is! But there's a catch: I picked up this game in early development about a year ago, and they've only moved forward a bit on it; there are many things that are missing. To whit: - There are no relationships with people. There's no ability to romance or woo anybody. They might choose not to include this, but given how standardized it is for all other similar games, it seems like a significant oversight. - Most roads are blocked. There's a frozen person before a mine, a stone blocking a cave, construction signs preventing movement forward, a guard who holds up a hand, and then directly the right of your front door a road where you just can't go despite everybody else passing through all the live-long day. There's a lot missing. And this is over a year after release, mind you. More on this later. - I've played about 25 hours on my main save, and I'm to the point where a game week will see two levelups, possibly one. I'm at level 20. Given how many skills there are (over 80) and how long it takes to reach the next one, the exponential curve here is a blatant delaying tactic to keep players moving forward at a snail's pace so they can finish developing the game, and it becomes dried-out and lackluster. - There are still two skill categories that are "coming soon!" The game IS fun, please don't mistake my intent. But the entire concept of pixelated graphics comes from the SNES and Sega Genesis generation, both of which were released in 1990 and played by gamers until roughly 2000; any gamer who went through puberty in this time (born between 1975 and 1995) usually likes pixelated games, which means the youngest average player for this niche market is currently 30 years old. At the speed they're finishing this game, I'm guessing it'll be done sometime around 2035, when their youngest players are 40, and will have probably found other games like Stardew Valley which simulate a pixel game but do it very sneakily to make it look better. It's worth playing for about 20 hours, not more. Pick it up on sale, play through the first 10-15 levels, then leave it in your list until the "early release" tag disappears. The game might get as many as 4 stars when it's done; for this L-O-N-G-term "early release" effort, I give 2.6 stars.

Solid, enjoyable management sim with plenty to do, especially around food and cooking. I had a good time playing it.

Almost got 100 hours in and it is still in early access!! Can't wait for updates. This is a very lovely game.

I adore this game. It is fun, relaxing and adorable. It has lots of recipes to collect and make, so many ingredients, lots of pets, hidden references to things. I thought it'd be cute, but it is way better than I thought it would be. Highly recommend. 5/5

Early Release and the game already has so much and looks like we're gonna be EATING! I do need some sounds when the buoy goes underwater for the fish catch, but I can hardly think of anything else to really criticize! It's so good and I'm enjoying it so much!

Nice premise, cute graphics, and interesting unlocks throughout playing. The story that opens the game is intriguing, and I think I would like more story. Ultimately, I've stopped playing this game in lieu of other cozy games. The fast-paced service of the tavern and limitations of when and where I could acquire resources created more stress than enjoyment for me.

I LOVE THIS GAME!!! In Travellers Rest, you’re not just running a tavern — you’re brewing, farming, cooking, decorating, and making your inn the heart of the village. It’s like Stardew Valley but with beer and cozy pub vibes. Chill, satisfying, and lowkey addicting. Perfect for when you want to manage chaos... but in a cute way. 🍞🍺🛏️

This game is SO much fun! I love that there are aspects similar to Stardew Valley, but there is also a lot of originality and fun designs and concepts. This game captures my attention greatly and I often find myself getting lost in how much fun it is overall. I can't recommend this game enough to other people, it's so much fun and so rich in it's storytelling and ambiance.

The gameplay loop in this game is absolutely addictive. Does it have an intricate story, huge open world, rewarding tech tree, lots of unique NPCs with interesting backstories, unlimited replayability? Absolutely not. If you come to this looking for Stardew, you'll be disappointed. But it is my favorite cooking/tavern sim that I've played (and I've tried most of them).

Can't tell if the devs have abandoned this one or not, because some of the bugs I'm running into have posts going a year back... but overall the managing of your tavern is a blast. I got it on sale 25% off and I'm happy with my purchase. Could see myself easily sinking at least 50 hours into this game.

I'm a big fan of the overall game play and details, but definitely go in knowing that this is early access and has been for years. The story is vague and doesn't progress. If you go in thinking of it as a farming/inn keeper sim, it's quite good. The mechanics are nice, it's pretty intuitive and clearly it's kept me interested for a long time. However, at 80 hours of game play I've accomplished most of what there is to do. I am a little worried that the devs have given up on the story itself since they just released a big "pets" update instead of moving the story forward in any way, even after five years of development.

So far I have always played single, I have not had the opportunity to play coop, but as far as I have played so far, it is a game that I find very entertaining, since it is early access, I think new updates are on the way, I will update my comment again when new updates arrive.

Are you sure it's an early access? This game is totally awesome! It looks great and its full of wonders inside. Everytime I think I saw everything, I find something more! So many cooking and crafting recipes, plants, decorations and etc. Charming. I love digging and gathering. Gameplay is comfortable in general. Well done.

Lukewarm recommendation. I was very hesitant to get the game because it's been in early access for 5 years, but I was lured in by the local co-op feature. I'm a sucker for management games and hanging out with my husband, and this delivers both: a cozy game to shut your brain off for a couple hours while running a virtual tavern with your player 2. At rep level 10, things are still pretty bare bones (serving, decorating, farming, renting), so I hope I find more things to unlock in the coming levels. Otherwise, it's an okay game to sink time into if you want to chill. I hope the devs can share when they foresee a 1.0!

Slow start but once you start getting into the game there is a lot to do. looking forward to the full release.

Great game. I couldn't really find any dislikes about it except I wish there were more interactions between user and npcs.