After Baldur's Gate 3, this cozy bar sim where you play as a D&D innkeeper is exactly what I need, and it's doubled its Kickstarter goal in 3 days

This visual novel is the perfect cozy follow-up to Baldur's Gate 3, and it's managed to reach double its Kickstarter goal in just three days.

Tavern Talk is an upcoming barkeeper sim set in a Dungeons & Dragons-style tavern. The project has been live on Kickstarter since October 17 and managed to reach its funding goal in just six hours. Now, three days later on October 20, the project has doubled its €20,000 / $21,190 / £17,427 target with 27 days still to go. Suffice to say, a lot of people are excited about this game.

Similar to Toge Productions' visual novel Coffee Talk, in Tavern Talk players will be tasked with serving an assortment of drinks to a variety of patrons who are all inspired by tabletop role-playing games. As the owner of Wayfarer's Inn, it's your job to keep the locals of Asteria hydrated and to listen to their stories. With your magic-infused beverages, you'll be able to influence customers' fates by sending them on new quests based on what you've heard around the bar.

It won't be as simple as mixing a few drinks and sending people on their way though, as the trailer above alludes to, you'll also need to connect the dots and uncover the secrets of an ancient evil that's threatening Asteria. Oh, you'll also be able to decorate your tavern using trinkets that adventurers have brought you from their quests, so you can make the place feel even more cozy and welcoming.

If this sounds like exactly the kind of thing you want to play - perhaps after putting way too many hours into another D&D-inspired adventure like Baldur's Gate 3 - you can try out Tavern Talk for free via its demo on Steam. Here, you'll be able to try out 1 hour's worth of its 10-hour playtime and meet five of the game's interesting characters. There's also still plenty of time to pledge to the game's Kickstarter campaign with several more stretch goals still to unlock - including new characters, a Nintendo Switch port, battle maps, and more.

Tavern Talk's developer Gentle Troll Entertainment is planning to release its game in Q2 2024 and is hoping to get it released on both PC and Nintendo Switch. To keep up with the game's progress, you can follow the developer on Twitter and wishlist the game on Steam.

Need something to play in the meantime? Take a look at our best visual novels list.

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.