Deep Space Tavern: Pouring beers in the outer cosmos
Business simulation has never elevated so lofty and entertaining a cause: getting blackout drunk in space
Simulation games, at their apogee in the mainstream, started getting pretty weird. Once the business simulation formula was fine-tuned, developers started testing it with pretty much anything that stuck. There was Bullfrog, whose sims went from hospitals and theme parks to dungeons and aquariums. By the time the concept was getting worn out in the 2000s, players could manage, well, you name it: beach resorts, banana republics, space colonies, to all of capitalism itself!
The history of wild simulation games has long passed that era, but Deep Space Tavern is a game reminiscent of finding a fun hook for a simulation. Players are the 'onsite recreations manager' at a deep-space mining outpost, and required to establish and set up a tavern to keep the bored miners occupied. Starting from scratch, players build the infrastructure to attract a horde of booze-loving patrons.
Gameplay is nice and simple. Patrons come in, and the player passes a shot of liquor, although a little more literally than you would think! Manually serving drinks to customers requires a point-and-click to have a turret shoot the drink into their hand. Players use the same approach to clean up the place, shooting down any trash that may appear. Both actions earn tips that add to the tavern's funds.
Once a steady income is flowing in, there's plenty of ways to enhance the tavern. Current construction options include seating to accommodate more patrons, entertainment options to satiate their boredom, decor to spruce it up, and bots to perform manual tasks, such as collecting coins, serving drinks, or destroying trash. With enough money, the player can also expand the tavern by opening new rooms.
Like any good business simulation game worth its salt, there's plenty of personality added into the proverbial cocktail. Each patron has a unique name and model. Their walk cycles are varied, but I like the hunchbacked trudge that nails the derangement of getting on the piss. The audio is also quirky, with the player's management guided by a conspicuously Scottish robotic assistant, and patrons interacting with each other in amusingly incoherent simlish gibberish.
The tavern entered a state of chaos. I'm not sure if I played the demo correctly, but my strategy was to get the patrons as drunk as possible, as soon as possible. Even their inebriation was a money-maker, for when they threw up everywhere, I was raking it in every time I cleaned the vomit up. It became a foul den of poor souls trapped in a constant drunken stupor, and I made great profits from their misery.
Deep Space Tavern is being developed by World Away Games, a London studio founded by developer Nick McKenzie, who created the studio alongside a tenure of study at the National Film & Television School in 2022. Deep Space Tavern is the second game from World Away Games after the 2023 release of Speedonauts, a sci-fi skiing runner game that looks a bit like a much more jacked-up Line Rider.
A demo of Deep Space Tavern is available on Steam, with the full game expected to be released in September 2024.
