Two guilds of adventurers, archenemies who will strike at each other on sight, travel down parallel roads. In the middle stands a brand-new inn. A humble building to begin with, this tavern aims to serve the needs of one of the warring factions – or at least that’s what they think.
Dungeon Inn, located at the mouth of a dungeon frequented by adventurers, actually wants to cater to both guilds, all while appearing to be exclusive. The two sides of the building are kept separate, with visitors needing to be carefully guided in, lest the warring factions meet at the entrance.
This strategy and management game has you overseeing the ragtag team in charge of ensuring the inn remains both profitable and peaceful. You’ll be given access to different marketing strategies, a couple of sidelines to boost your profits, and some emergency methods for preventing fights outside the front door. Oh, and did we mention the backer for the project? It’s nothing to worry about, he’s a friendly enough fellow, spectacular scales, and the smouldering fires around his lair are barely noticeable. He lives close by and has access to a large pile of gold for funding repairs, just so long as your profits are funnelled back to him. He mentioned something about maintaining a hoard?
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Dungeon Inn from developer Cat Society is part strategy, part management, and part puzzle. You’ll need to use your resources wisely to filter in streams of visitors from the different guilds in order to meet each week’s goals. Getting guests is easy, getting them not to fight is much more difficult. If the two guilds meet at the gates, a battle will ensue. If this happens too often, your double-dealing will soon be discovered, and you’ll be out of a job quicker than you can say “next, please!”
When I first began, I felt pretty confident that I could keep these patrons happy. After all, I just needed to entice visitors from each pathway in turn. The items you have offer food, drinks, or a room at the inn to passersby. People move a specific number of places down the path, depending on their energy levels, and during each turn they can be redirected by your items and signs. These stay in place for a set number of turns, then need at least one more turn to reset before they can be used again.
A sign to point the adventurers to our empty rooms did the trick. They are simple people and most are easily persuaded by the sign. The Seaside Guild were first to visit, and seemed to enjoy the humble lodgings. Meanwhile, the Mountain Guild carried on by, unaware of our presence. So far, so good.
To fulfil the weekly goals, and stay in good standing with our dragon friend, I also needed to attract adventurers from the Mountain Guild. So I moved the sign onto the other path, before realising that a couple of stragglers still wanted to come in. I hoped nourishment from the food stall would quell their need for my tavern, but it wasn’t enough. I panic-placed the lucky wheel, which stops a queue completely, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Then all hell broke loose.
The lucky wheel expired, which unleashed the small crowd of Seaside Guild members it had been holding back. They were not persuaded to change their minds about visiting, but had simply been delayed. Now they were coming to claim their beds, at the exact same time as the last group of Mountain Guild members who had been enticed by my sign.
With the lucky wheel now on cooldown, I could do nothing but watch as a battle broke out. While I could lend a hand to a specific faction – which can tip the balance if a certain guild is more suspicious of you than the other – it will do nothing to stop suspicion rising. In fact, sometimes interference can make things worse. It’s far better to avoid the battle altogether, but that’s much easier said than done.
The system of set moves and turn-based play means that you don’t actually have to panic, even though I absolutely did. Don’t roll your eyes, those red flashing crosses and swords are scary!
You can take your time and plan out your choices, adding a cosy edge to the management aspects of your tavern. You’ll need to balance the resources you have in order to keep the inn as full as possible, while avoiding conflicts. It’s like a giant puzzle where you need to move the pieces around to fit them all in, just make sure you don’t cross the streams! We all know how that one ends.
The tools you have are simple but, as you expand your enterprise, more complex situations begin to arise. The tavern will need to be upgraded, which will require you to both earn gold and remain in good standing with both factions, and the new facilities will also bring new problems.
Loud patrons from the bar next door, flat beer, broken plates, and a strange man waving a sword about are just some of the situations you’ll need to smooth over, funnelling resources away from things like marketing, or placing your lucky wheel to avoid bloodshed.
Dungeon Inn starts off calmly, and eases you into dungeon-adjacent tavern management simply, glossing over the specifics of your financing deal and focusing on pep talks and getting to know your team, which is composed of adorable anthropomorphic cats. The graphics have a familiar handcrafted cute style common in cosy games, the basics are easy to grasp, and the gold seems easy to earn.
However, once you get past your opening week, things will take a turn. New challenges start to come thick and fast, goals begin to ramp up in difficulty and, before you know it, your brain is flitting between enjoying the humour in the situations you encounter, getting to know the staff you manage, playing 3D chess in your head with road signs, and enjoying the story that underpins it all.
There’s more to Dungeon Inn than meets the eye, and as you progress you’ll uncover a few things that will have you wanting to know more about this community. The challenge of managing an ever-expanding, double-dealing tavern is a lot of fun, so I’m putting out my signs to invite you all to come and play Dungeon Inn, no matter which guild you side with.
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