Devblog #3 - The Heart of the Inn - Mastering the Kitchen

It’s time we returned with news of Crossroads Inn 2. We realize it’s been a while since last updates, but with intense game development underway, it was very challenging to spare any time at all.

Much has changed since our previous devblog: mechanics have evolved, systems got refined, and new features have been added. In the months ahead, we will take you through the newest additions. Today, we begin with the heart of every great inn — the kitchen.

Meeting culinary needs

We gave a new meaning to cooking in the game - now different guests come with varied palates to be satisfied. Depending on who is visiting your inn - their background and social group level - they will have different needs and preferences. If you do well, then they will likely stay at your inn longer, raise their happiness level, spend more guldens and interact with other guests. More on guests another time though! Let’s get to cooking.

Crafting dishes

Every dish consists of at least 2 mandatory ingredients. In some recipes you can add up to 4 ingredient slots in total. Those 2 extra ingredient slots come with additional functionality - they add more quality or traits (or both) to the recipe. The recipe itself can already come with some traits and it always has a base quality.

The dish can have up to 3 traits. The more traits you overlap with certain guests preferences, the more bonus you gain for catering to their taste. There are different guests who can be satisfied with a single well-balanced dish, so it pays off to pay attention to what your patrons are interested in!

In the future, we want the dish traits to also influence guests social reactions, like for example being more sleepy from having a hearty dish or developing a need for a drink after a salty one. This way, if done correctly, you could steer your guests into staying overnight and spending more guldens on drinks.

Unlocking ingredients & recipes

You obviously start with some basic recipes, something like beer and bread to get you going. As you progress with different Backgrounds (Guest types), you unlock more and more recipes and also gain Regional Influence which allows you to unlock much needed ingredients. Ingredients have different quality values that can be run down by spoilage - and in the end influence the overall quality score of the dish - so it is essential to keep your produce fresh.

Farming DLC

In the future, we are planning to add DLC with possibility to grow your own vegetables and raise farm animals. This way, you would not have to rely on market prices and you could get the freshest and highest quality ingredients from your very own backyard.