This game is not complete, and this review reflects game play up to and including the fishing function of build 0.6.4.

Traveller's Rest is a wonderful addition to the tavern management genre, and has compelling game play for days and days. The main building (the tavern and inn) is expandable on three floors. The main floor with the tavern and kitchen, the upper floor with the inn rooms, and the cellar which allows players to age beer, spirits, cheese, and pickled foods. Outside, you're able to add a barn and chicken coop, which produces milk, eggs, and meat.

The main mechanic is running the tavern. You brew beer and spirits, press fruits into juice, make tea, and prepare foods and desserts--or if nothing else, you serve water and gruel. Quickly, you build various workshops outside, allowing you to manipulate stone, wood, and metal to create furniture, equipment, decorations, and everything you need to expand your business. As you continue to level up, you're able to get more recipes for better and higher income generating foods and drinks, and eventually to add rooms to the upper floor for weary travellers to well....rest.

One game play mechanic that allows you to save a lot of money is farming. Although it can be a bit tedious to water crops every few days, it is very helpful in making a larger profit than ordering fruits and vegetables through delivery. Farming does get tedious and repetitive (just like in real life), and hopefully the develpers eventually allow you to hire a farm hand to plant, water, and harvest food, and tend to the chickens, cows, sheep, and pigs. Speaking of animals, when you need some meat for a dish, all you have to do is beat your animal to death by smacking it with a mop 3 times. Its not exactly my favorite game mechanic, as it looks painful

Recipes are still a bit unbalanced, and it makes more sense to craft the most expensive foods than worry about what is "trending" for food. I'd like to see different price points on dishes depending on how skilled you are at making them, and some price variation so that there is more benefit to making different dishes. Maybe allowing players to construct a menu with appetizers, soups, main courses, and desserts would be more challenging than litreally dumping prepared dishes into a storage book. Ingredients never expire, so that fruit you harvested in spring of year 1 is still perfectly good to eat in Fall of year 3. Same with prepared dishes--they don't expire.

Beer and spirits all need to be aged in the cellar to be served, and can reach their final level of "grand reserve" if stored long enough. In theory, it allows you to serve customers at different price points, but instead it turns out to be beneficial to age everything to the max to extract the largest profit. Having diffferent types of customers (and budgets), and the ability to attrack better customers via upgrades to the building would require a little more strategic planning than the current mechanic.

Now lets talk about underwear....and boots. For some reason, the people of this land are absolute trash, and regularly discard boots and underwear all over the map. Much of the junk can be traded to a man named Wilson, who lives at the beach. Trade enough junk and you can buy some sea side decor for your tavern. I'd like to think at some point, they may change this to allow players to trade useful or requested items to Wilson because how many pairs of dirty underwear can this guy possibly use? I think mini quests (bring me 10 oranges, or bring me a grand reserve vodka with cherry) would be more fun than the current system.

Now the beach itself is pretty neat. Theres opportunity to scavange on the beach, harvest fruits from trees, and most importantly, fishing. The newest mechanic to the game is the ability to fish, and therefore craft recipes that require fish, eel, seaweed, and the bounitful harvest from the rivers, lakes, and sea. There are multiple forms of bait you can use, and about 30 different fish to collect. I like that some fish are available in certain seasons, and in either fresh or salt water, but I'd like to see a benefit from fishing in different lakes and rivers, and at different times of day and night. It would make it more of a challenge to find different fish if there were more variables that just season and water type. I suspect that future updates may bring about more challenges as additional places are opened up on the map, and as newer and stronger tools are available to craft, purchase, or earn. Right now, the only tool that has more than one level is the fishing rod, but there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between them. Having higher quality rods should make it possible to catch new and more challenging fish. All the other tools are simply copper tools. Given they're referred to as "copper shovel, pickaxe, etc", I imagine at some point we may see iron, steal, and other tools that are more efficiant, allow harvesting of new resources, or open up new sections of the map--like places that are currently blocked by bolders.

Right now, a lot of the game play mechanics aren't fully polished--which is exactly what one would expect of an early access game. However, even in its current state, the game provides hours of quality game play, requires strategic thinking, and has a comfortable learning curve. The two most important things are that the game is not filled with bugs, and that they continue to regularly update the game. Nothing is more disappointing than beta games where you don't understand the underlying principles of the game mechanics, or developers make a bunch of money with a great idea, and then it never comes to fruition because they abandon the game. This game has been pre-release for a number of years, and continues to have regular updates, expansions, and a clear road map. None of the things I have to say about the game should be considered complaints, as the developers listen to feedback, and continue to improve and expand the game as they head towards an eventual full release. In its current state, though, I can state that this game is far more polished and playable than many final release games on Steam. The graphics are terrific--having a nostalgic 16 bit game feel, but at the same time are pleastant to look at and change with the seasons.

There are plenty of signs that this fun and good game will eventually be great, and a top contender in its genre.

This game is not complete, and this review reflects game play up to and including the fishing function of build 0.6.4. Traveller's Rest is a wonderful addition to the tavern management genre, and has compelling game play for days and days. The main building (the tavern and inn) is expandable on three floors. The main floor with the tavern and kitchen, the upper floor with the inn rooms, and the cellar which allows players to age beer, spirits, cheese, and pickled foods. Outside, you're able to add a barn and chicken coop, which produces milk, eggs, and meat. The main mechanic is running the tavern. You brew beer and spirits, press fruits into juice, make tea, and prepare foods and desserts--or if nothing else, you serve water and gruel. Quickly, you build various workshops outside, allowing you to manipulate stone, wood, and metal to create furniture, equipment, decorations, and everything you need to expand your business. As you continue to level up, you're able to get more recipes for better and higher income generating foods and drinks, and eventually to add rooms to the upper floor for weary travellers to well....rest. One game play mechanic that allows you to save a lot of money is farming. Although it can be a bit tedious to water crops every few days, it is very helpful in making a larger profit than ordering fruits and vegetables through delivery. Farming does get tedious and repetitive (just like in real life), and hopefully the develpers eventually allow you to hire a farm hand to plant, water, and harvest food, and tend to the chickens, cows, sheep, and pigs. Speaking of animals, when you need some meat for a dish, all you have to do is beat your animal to death by smacking it with a mop 3 times. Its not exactly my favorite game mechanic, as it looks painful Recipes are still a bit unbalanced, and it makes more sense to craft the most expensive foods than worry about what is "trending" for food. I'd like to see different price points on dishes depending on how skilled you are at making them, and some price variation so that there is more benefit to making different dishes. Maybe allowing players to construct a menu with appetizers, soups, main courses, and desserts would be more challenging than litreally dumping prepared dishes into a storage book. Ingredients never expire, so that fruit you harvested in spring of year 1 is still perfectly good to eat in Fall of year 3. Same with prepared dishes--they don't expire. Beer and spirits all need to be aged in the cellar to be served, and can reach their final level of "grand reserve" if stored long enough. In theory, it allows you to serve customers at different price points, but instead it turns out to be beneficial to age everything to the max to extract the largest profit. Having diffferent types of customers (and budgets), and the ability to attrack better customers via upgrades to the building would require a little more strategic planning than the current mechanic. Now lets talk about underwear....and boots. For some reason, the people of this land are absolute trash, and regularly discard boots and underwear all over the map. Much of the junk can be traded to a man named Wilson, who lives at the beach. Trade enough junk and you can buy some sea side decor for your tavern. I'd like to think at some point, they may change this to allow players to trade useful or requested items to Wilson because how many pairs of dirty underwear can this guy possibly use? I think mini quests (bring me 10 oranges, or bring me a grand reserve vodka with cherry) would be more fun than the current system. Now the beach itself is pretty neat. Theres opportunity to scavange on the beach, harvest fruits from trees, and most importantly, fishing. The newest mechanic to the game is the ability to fish, and therefore craft recipes that require fish, eel, seaweed, and the bounitful harvest from the rivers, lakes, and sea. There are multiple forms of bait you can use, and about 30 different fish to collect. I like that some fish are available in certain seasons, and in either fresh or salt water, but I'd like to see a benefit from fishing in different lakes and rivers, and at different times of day and night. It would make it more of a challenge to find different fish if there were more variables that just season and water type. I suspect that future updates may bring about more challenges as additional places are opened up on the map, and as newer and stronger tools are available to craft, purchase, or earn. Right now, the only tool that has more than one level is the fishing rod, but there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between them. Having higher quality rods should make it possible to catch new and more challenging fish. All the other tools are simply copper tools. Given they're referred to as "copper shovel, pickaxe, etc", I imagine at some point we may see iron, steal, and other tools that are more efficiant, allow harvesting of new resources, or open up new sections of the map--like places that are currently blocked by bolders. Right now, a lot of the game play mechanics aren't fully polished--which is exactly what one would expect of an early access game. However, even in its current state, the game provides hours of quality game play, requires strategic thinking, and has a comfortable learning curve. The two most important things are that the game is not filled with bugs, and that they continue to regularly update the game. Nothing is more disappointing than beta games where you don't understand the underlying principles of the game mechanics, or developers make a bunch of money with a great idea, and then it never comes to fruition because they abandon the game. This game has been pre-release for a number of years, and continues to have regular updates, expansions, and a clear road map. None of the things I have to say about the game should be considered complaints, as the developers listen to feedback, and continue to improve and expand the game as they head towards an eventual full release. In its current state, though, I can state that this game is far more polished and playable than many final release games on Steam. The graphics are terrific--having a nostalgic 16 bit game feel, but at the same time are pleastant to look at and change with the seasons. There are plenty of signs that this fun and good game will eventually be great, and a top contender in its genre.