Devlog #3: You Spoke, We Listened — What’s Next for TavernHold!

Steam Next Fest has come to an end, and we're absolutely blown away by your response! Over 1,600 unique players experienced our demo during the festival week. Watching you all manage your inns, defend against undead hordes, and discover creative strategies has been incredible. While you enjoy the game, these are what we prepared in the meantime.

🛠️ Quality of Life Improvements

The Tab View System

One of the most requested features is now cooking in development! Managing workers across multiple buildings was getting chaotic, so we're introducing the Tab View System:

• See all worker assignments at a glance - No more clicking through every building to find idle workers

• Reassign workers instantly - Easily assign workers between tasks without closing menus

The Save System

No more losing progress. Simple.

Performance Improvements

Lots of players experienced low frame rates. We spent a good amount of time optimizing TavernHold under the hood, and the difference is significant.

• The game now runs much smoothly on a wider range of PCs.

Improved Night Feeling

We realized that special arrows and traps are not that effective and expensive.

• Spike trap now deals damage and has more health

• Special arrows are now cheaper and have more AOE.

🎮 The Future of TavernHold- Major Features Coming

🏗️ Free Defense Placement

Instead of fixed positions, you'll be able to:

• Create defensive lanes with strategic barricade placement

• Position towers anywhere on the battlefield (Yes, even in the middle of everything!)

• Set explosive barrel traps activated when hit by ballista arrows

• Design kill zones by placing all of the available buildings in harmony.

Your creativity is the only limit to your defensive strategy!

🏰 Specialized Tower Upgrades

One tower type isn't enough for the challenges ahead. After the initial upgrade cost, choose your specialization that will buff your:

• Rapid Fire Towers - Faster attack speed for swarm control

• Fire Arrow Towers - Damage over time effects that spread to nearby enemies

• Frost Towers - Slow enemies in a radius, perfect for creating kill zones

• Explosive Towers - Area damage for clustered enemy groups

Mix and match tower buffs to create synergistic defensive networks!

🃏 Day Bonus Variation — Card Selection System

After a successful defense, at the end of each day, you will now get to choose a card that grants a special buff for the next day(s). These choices add a roguelike flavor to each run.

Expect Bonuses like:

• Double wood production

• Guests pay more gold

• More / fewer customers the next day

• Faster working workers

• Increased tower range

• Faster reload for ballista and shooters

• Spike traps burn enemies

• And many more…

Each card will make each day different from the others. Do you double down on gold, produce more resources, or want more defensive capabilities?

This system adds randomness and variety without forcing a restart.

🗺️ Expanding Map System

The longer you survive, the more territory you unlock:

• As you progress into the game, the playable area expands.

• You can only unlock/place buildings once the area is unlocked.

Each new area brings opportunities: more space for defenses, and the ability to see where the enemy is coming from!

👹 New Enemy Types

Basic zombies are just the beginning. Prepare for:

• Runners - Fast but low health

• Tanks - Slow arrow sponges that soak up damage and (maybe) break through defenses

• Tunnel Diggers - Create underground passages that bypass your front-line defenses

• Totem Carriers - Project protective auras that make nearby enemies invulnerable until destroyed

Each enemy type requires different tactics, forcing you to adapt your strategy as waves become more complex.

🐛 Addressing the Bugs You Found

Here are the major issues we're fixing:

• Guests refusing to sleep - No more customers awkwardly sleeping outside rooms they've paid for

• Flying zombie physics - Enemies will now not launch themselves outside of the map when defeated (as they should not!)

• Auto-serve breaking after research - The automation upgrade will actually work as intended

• Customers not leaving the Tavern - Customers will leave the tavern once nighttime starts.

• Various UI glitches - Cleaner menus and more responsive controls

• Random Crashes - We fixed most of the random crashes and are trying our best not to create new ones.

🔍 We Are Aware Of The Following Issues and Feedback

Some of these might not be fully addressed until launch, but we’re actively working to improve or resolve all of them:

• After unlocking Auto Serve, table customers aren’t served automatically when food runs out and is later replenished.

• Ballista hitboxes need clearer feedback when hitting enemies.

• Building progress (construction or resource generation) isn’t visible without clicking.

• Room occupancy is difficult to track at a glance.

• Reassigning workers after every night can feel repetitive.

• The research tree needs more upgrades and a stronger impact.

• The game font could use better readability and visual consistency.

💬 Your Feedback Shapes Our Game

Keep the feedback coming! Join our Discord community to share your ideas, report bugs, and connect with other players. Every suggestion helps us make TavernHold better.

🎯 Ready for TavernHold?

If you haven't already, WISHLIST TAVERNHOLD NOW to be notified the moment we launch!

Thank you for making Next Fest amazing. See you in December!

• Tevniyal Studios

Quick Stats from Next Fest:

• 🎮 1,600+ unique players

• ⚔️ 600,000+ enemies defeated collectively

• 🏠 150,000+ guests served

• 💀 Most common death cause: Forgetting to repair the gate...

WISHLIST ON STEAM | JOIN DISCORD