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3 people found the following review helpful:
The Thickheads Table Tavern, August 3, 2023Introduction:
The Thick Table Tavern (TTTT) is a text-based interactive fiction game that immerses players into a rich fantasy world of strange and eccentric characters. As a fan of interactive storytelling, I was eager to delve into this game and discover its unique narrative and gameplay mechanics, as an entry to the IFComp 2022. In this review, I will expand upon the various aspects of the game, from the writing quality to the gameplay mechanics, to provide an overview of the overall gaming experience.
1. Storyline and Writing (7/10):
The heart of any interactive fiction game lies in its storytelling and TTTT does not disappoint. The writing is engaging, descriptive, and often enthralling, drawing the players into the world and allowing them to connect emotionally with the events and characters.
Starting strong with a prologue designed to pull the player in, it continues by following the days of an overworked bartender in a small-town tavern, serving whimsical and abnormal costumers appearing in random order, surrounded by funny yet annoying colleagues. Even so, the interactions between the bartender and the costumers felt more like a one-sided storytelling (aside from some of them) rather than a dialogue. A different thing could be said about the bantering between them and their colleagues which showed why it is one of the author’s strong points.
However, in some instances, the pacing could have been improved to prevent lulls in the storyline. After a few days, it feels as if the story is dragging needlessly long. There is also the problem, as pointed out on other reviews, of grammar errors present in the story.
I am kind of disappointed on the missed opportunity with the character appearing on the prologue and one of the days in the story. It gives the impression of something fishy happening behind the scenes, yet the small plot goes nowhere. Why does the bartender end up on that condition when meeting them for the second time? What do they need from them? Are they their guardian or enemy? Why the bartender? These and more questions were left unanswered for me.
2. Gameplay and Choice (8/10):
TTTT offers unique gameplay mechanics, standing out among other entries in the IFComp 2022. There are two modes and a simple currency system directly linked with the story’s outcome.
a)Story Mode is the mode the player has to choose if they want to proceed with the story. Each day, the player has to choose whether they go against the bosses wishes. If they feel testing their luck over and over again, the outcome will be the same: Your pay is gonna be reduced. The most fitting quote for them: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Oh, and the player can test their bartending skills through the rush hours, following the recipes provided. Based on how good they do, they get a certain amount of tips to help with their end goal. The customers appear in random order thanks to the random function implemented on the game.
b)Arcade Mode is the mode the player has to choose if they don’t want to bother reading the story, being (lazy) only interested on trying out the bartender life while practicing their drink-making skills. To get the hang of things, the player can try the tutorial (leading to “there is still a bug” page after finishing with it). If they want to test out their skills and be punished at their first mistake, they can choose perfection mode, but if they desire to be punished for not finishing their work on time, they can choose the timed mode. For those players who aren’t gluttons for punishment, they can choose the endless mode.
Regarding choices, I should make one thing clear. The only choices which matter in Story Mode will be the goal you have and how well the bartender can do in saving enough money to reach that goal. All the other choices only affect the flavor text the player gets to read.
3. User Interface and Accessibility (10/10):
The user interface is clean and intuitive, allowing players to focus on the story without unnecessary distractions, though the player should expect a cup of beer and a tavern sign welcoming them in the tavern. The accessibility features are all there for the player to choose, along with the difficulty adjustment for bartending skills test. The aesthetic choices made by the author and game designer are impeccable as usual.
4. Replay Value (8/10):
TTTT boasts commendable replayability, thanks to the multiple branching paths, outcomes and the random function implemented on the game. You never know when or if a character is going to appear. Each playthrough offers a fresh experience and encourages players to explore different decisions to uncover new aspects of the story. However, additional content or achievements could have added more incentive for repeated playthroughs.
Conclusion
TTTT, in spite of its flaws, has provided me with an enjoyable gameplay experience though it needs improvements to be made to it. I would recommend giving it a try, in spite of my review for you to make your own judgement on it.
Overall rating: 8.25 (4/5 in IFDB rating scale)
2 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
Bartending for profit and dream-chasing, with nice atmosphere, December 31, 2022I'm not big on alcohol, in general. I was fortunate to learn quickly that it doesn't work for me, and there were other ways to loosen inhibitions that did more harm than good. Yet as a kid I remember looking at all the drinks in bars and how people might mix them and it seemed like magic or artistry, perhaps even more fun than mixing a root beer float. The reality of bars was drearier, though. I still loved Cheers growing up, but that was much more for the characters. They all had their flaws, especially Sam, the bartender. But it was must-see TV, and my later (slight) experience in bars never came close to that. There were other TV bars, too, such as Phil's in Murphy Brown or McLaren's Pub in How I Met Your Mother or even (if for all the wrong reasons) Paddy's Pub. Again, they seemed more fun than the real thing. Also, there was the occasional illicit game of Tapper, or even Root Beer Tapper, at the arcade, with an amusingly violent end when you failed to schlep brews in time. Then later there were bars in RPG where you found information or new recruits or, perhaps, found experience-gaining fights. That seemed to cover it all. But T3 provides a new perspective: you're an employee who likes where they are, but you want to do better.
The production values for T3 are established early: the "wait, loading" graphic is a neat green snowflakey tesselation on a tan background. There's been a lot of thought put into the design, and it's not just about looking pretty. The whole experience is very smooth, and at the core, it is about mixing drinks, though there's a neat subplot as to why you want the money at your tavern job. And of course the title is very cool. It suggests some rough clientele who dig their knives into the table, just because.
So where does your bartending pay go? What are you saving for? Well, you've got a leaflet about joining an adventure academy, with a 300 coin fee for a course that starts in one week. This all feels a bit fourth-wall. In fact, the scenes at the beginning and end drive this home a bit too much for me, but on the other hand, that's probably my major complaint, and I'm not sure what I'd had the heart to cut out. Overall, T3 fell into the "I was just having fun and really paying attention, so I feel half bad for noticing this missing detail" camp. I recommend you do the same. I enjoyed many moments throughout the game, even ones the author probably did not angle for–for instance, I had a slow internet connection, and so the graphics of the various drink ingredients that appeared behind the bar popped up in amusing fashion. It almost gave the feeling the drinks were about to fall off the shelf, and I think it fit in well with the general lack of organization the author established was endemic to the tavern itself.
The mechanics are simple enough. You're the barmaid, and you mix drinks. Get them right, and you get tipped well. Miss, and you don't. You can decide whether to knock the tavern sign for luck (Roscoe, the owner, gives you a trivial fine) or to leave your tip box out, too. It might get stolen. I made sure to save before making the decision for the first few days, but I got absorbed enough that I forgot later, which is a good sign. (This almost bit me later, but the details are a spoiler.) You have a frenemy relationship with Brom, the cook, and Ez, who serves the food. Roscoe isn't very reliable, but it'd be boring if he was. People play stupid pranks on each other during slow times. Coffee isn't just for the customers.
I played on easy mode, so I was under no time pressure, and I assume the recipes were there for me to take my time with, so I did not miss out. It wasn't just easy mode that made T3 feel welcoming. I particularly enjoyed how certain syrups or fruits would be lumped together. Perhaps this is done behind the bar regularly, but in this case, I think the author nicely avoided clutter. You want it to be busy, but not too busy. The pull-outs for applying garnish were very charming, too, and I liked that I had to use some minimal reasoning to get some drinks working. For instance, there's only a specific section for citrus fruits, but if you're asked for oranges or lemons or limes, you just have to click there. So there's no need for additional futzing! You don't want everything done for you, but it's nice when a game trusts that you do, indeed, get it.
With all this, the first two days, with generic customers, were more than enough to help me adjust to the curve. I was ready for more challenge, and this came (one of those neat moments I don't want to spoil,) and it was pretty clear how this would fit very well into the timed/arcade version of the story. Then there were two special customers. Contrasting their goals with yours worked very well, I thought.
This special encounter helped me scrape by after just five days of the seven allotted. I tallied up my tips, and yes! I had just hit the mark! There were good-byes, and they felt appropriate, as I felt enough of a kinship with my coworkers. But once I'd moved on, I wanted to go back and mess up a bit to see how long things would last and whom else I could meet in those remaining two days, or even how my coworkers would react if I did not meet my goals.
It wasn't until the end of the story that I realized I hadn't used the cognac to mix anything, and I was never called on to use the paper umbrella! As a fan of The Jerk, this made me sad, but now I wonder if adding them willy-nilly might have gotten me bonus coins. The cognac felt like a sort of Chekhov's gun, along with the rattling tip box, and it's moments like this, where something you looked forward to didn't materialize and you still had fun, that make you realize what a smooth, enjoyable ride you had.
T3 established high standards quickly and gave my mind time to wander free. I've often thought of the good-citizen concept of IFComp entry, and sometimes it feels like "you didn't have anything profound to say, and you didn't pretend to! Yay, you!" In a way, yes, but in another way, this is something to enjoy and see things from a different perspective, and you don't need anything profound, and the game never taps its foot and expects you to find profound stuff. You know you don't need tense life-or-death situations to have revelations, or to remember something cool, or to say your own experiences are worth sharing. Plus it reminded me of those baffling bartender books I remembered seeing, and I never actually wanted to mix drinks, but I wondered what was in there. I did find trivia I might like to correct for a post-comp release, but in this case it would be an excuse to generate more deserved publicity. I think it's definitely one of the cheeriest and best-produced IFComp games, and it clearly doesn't rely on its production values only. It's a game about friendship and goals that doesn't get mushy. Part of me wants to try the arcade mode to challenge myself on replay, but the other part is worried I might miss a part of the story I meant to revisit.
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2 people found the following review helpful:
Mixology Simulator, Minus Sad Alcoholism, December 9, 2022Adapted from an IFCOMP22 Review
Ok, take two parts snarky, amusing characters, 2 parts crisp custom graphical presentation, one part grind and a dash of IF. Serve over ice with umbrella, and a sense of wanting more?
Let’s start with the most tangible detail: the graphic presentation is just winning. From the Day placards with flowing beer background, to the text scrolls, the fonts and iconography, even the adorably cartoonish bar area it all just fits together for a complete graphical experience. Like a glacier cool martini with a lemon twist suspended in the hyper-chilled surface tension, the hint of its oils eddying on the icy-taut surface.
The narrative tone and character voices are all welcoming and fun, neither over- nor under-written, and all of it moving along at a snappy, snarky pace. You speed through the text rapidly, a smile tugging at your lips due to the turn of phrase or an outlandish character moment. It pulls you through as steadily and satisfyingly as a tiki drink! (Ok, I’m going to try and resist the urge to end every paragraph with a barely-relevant cocktail metaphor. I don’t want to SOUR you on… ow ow ow ow OW OW)
Triple-T has so much going for it, so why don’t I find it more engaging? Let’s start with the opening - there are fully two different intros, and they are kind of disjoint from each other. After two hours of play, one of which isn’t really justified. Neither opening is short, and both are minimally interactive. Once the table is set (bar is stocked?), our motivations and goals established, and the basic bartending mechanisms taught, we’re finally ready to go. Time to start grinding out drinks from recipe cards. As a simulator of mixology, seems about right. An endless flow of drink orders to service in the most mechanically efficient way possible, until your shift is over. You are at least insulated from having to deal with increasingly obnoxious drunks while you work.
After a gameday of serving drinks, there is some lubricating text and interactions, then you’re back at it next day. And then again. It is unclear whether your choices, either conversationally or actions taken, have any effect on the overall narrative flow. Certainly, neither seem to derail the job you have to do. The situation varies a bit, but your tasks don’t. So far, it felt like a grindy, minimally interactive kind-of-RPG where you are earning pay towards a goal. On Day 3, I achieved enough money to satisfy my goal. However, the game did not acknowledge this, and instead repeated itself for Day 4. Literally. Day 3 was an amusing day, thanks to a character’s screwup, but I guess that screwup happened again? This time jarringly without the establishing text, but otherwise word-for-word identical. And then time ran out.
At the end of two hours, I had powered through an overlong double intro, enjoyed some peppy text and graphics, grinded a LOT, and then got Groundhog-Day’d when I met my goal. The stakes were pretty low to start with – which can be cool actually! Not everything has to be save the world. In this case though, for all the entertaining wordplay the motivations just didn’t click into place. Meaning when the timer expired, the snappy presentation and writing couldn’t overcome the mechanical central mechanism and worryingly repetitive 4th Day.
Sorry, no more for me. I’m driving. (You got 3 cocktail-free paragraphs, take the win.)
Played: 10/7/22
Playtime: 2hrs, finished 4 gamedays
Artistic/Technical rankings: Sparks of Joy/Mostly Seamless
Would Play Again? Don’t think so. Too much grind and Day 4 was a worrying portent
Artistic scale: Bouncy, Mechanical, Sparks of Joy, Engaging, Transcendent
Technical scale: Unplayable, Intrusive, Notable (Bugginess), Mostly Seamless, Seamless
4 of
5 people found the following review helpful:
Bartender Hero, November 28, 2022(This is a lightly-edited version of a review I posted to the IntFiction forums during 2022's IFComp)
Rarely have I encountered as felicitous a coincidence between a game’s theme and my ultimate feelings on it as I have with The Thick Table Tavern, a high-production-value fantasy bartending sim. It comes on strong and heady, with a cool spinning logo upon startup and an enticing bear-foam animation behind the main menu, and the complex-seeming but ultimately straightforward bartending interface put me in mind of the sense of mastery that comes once you’re a few drinks in. The welcome I got from the companionable cast of characters, meanwhile, mirrored the warm, friendly flush you feel once you’re proper tipsy.
From there, though, things started to go awry. Bugs led to story events repeating themselves, making me feel like I was blacking out and losing my memory. Bartending started to become tedious, like when you’re drinking because that’s what you do, not because it’s much fun anymore. And ultimately, while I thought I’d saved enough money to realize my dream, somehow I must have pissed it all away without realizing it, ending the night broke and embarrassed.
Let’s circle back to the good stuff, though, because there’s a lot of it. This Twine game is one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen, with well-chosen colors and icons and an attractive but functional bartending system that makes it easy to pick out the host of alcohols, mixers, and garnishes you’ll use to construct cocktails for the inhabitants of the generic fantasy town you inhabit. Your co-workers are stereotypes – the gruff boss with a not-at-all-hidden heart of gold, the gossipy barmaid, the sensitive artiste of a chef – but they’re appealing stereotypes who are fun to hang out with, and they seem to care about the protagonist with a low-key affection that creates a pleasant, chill-out game vibe (it helps that the author has a good ear for dialogue). In general the prose feels like it’s translated from another language – there are some homophone errors, like “faint” for “feint” – and pretty much every passage could be edited down by 20 or 30 percent, but the writing is enthusiastic without going over the top. Here’s an early description of a hangover, by way of example:
"Still, you do not yet despair from your condition. Instead, you rouse yourself into acting on your behalf, even if blinded and quite alone. Waving your free hand around, you hope to find some sort of light switch to flick or some candle to extinguish, as a way to relieve your fragile glossy organs from this hellish torture."
The structure is a plus too. Each day, you come to work, and get ready for the shift to come – cleaning the bar, restocking it, and bantering with your coworkers. Then you need to fill three or four rounds of orders, with a special event of some kind usually coming around each day’s lunch rush. At closing time, you tot up your tips and measure your progress towards the goal you picked at the beginning – earning enough to pay for membership fees at the adventurers’ guild, buy the bar, or purchase a robot bartender (I think? I’m just judging by the dialogue option for that one so it might play out differently). You’ve typically got a few choices in how you interact with your colleagues and deepen your relationships with them – oddly for a bartending sim, the customers are nameless, faceless abstractions outside of the unique events where you’ll meet a fortune teller, or old married couple doing one last trip, or fourth-wall-breaking spirit dispensing endearingly self-deprecating commentary on the author’s shortcomings.
Most of what you do, though, is mix drinks. The barmaid will give you a set of orders, which you work through one by one using the aforementioned graphical interface. Everything has a whimsical fantasy name, but you can always toggle on a recipe card to learn that Wyrm’s Piss is just a fancy name for beer, or that the ingredients for Sailor’s Demise live up to their billing – gin, absinthe, grenadine, and orange juice, ugh, that’s a headache in a glass. There are three difficulty settings, and playing on Normal, it was always clear what I needed to do, modulo having to decode the icons to figure out that cherries came under the “berries” category (they’re actually stone fruit) and relying on some out-of-game knowledge to realize that I could get grenadine by clicking the syrup icon. On hard, apparently there are timers, but overall bartending feels like a pacing mechanism to help immerse yourself in your character’s job.
Unfortunately, I do think the pacing is a bit off. The game runs over 14 days, and it took me about 40 minutes to play through the first of them, which included mixing about 16 drinks, which felt like a lot. Subsequent days went quicker as I realized which bits of text were repetitive, and got more used to the interface, but still, I often wound up having to make 15 or 20 drinks to advance through each day, which feels like too much given the essentially repetitive and unchallenging nature of the bartending minigame. Despite this slight grindiness, though, I was enjoying myself as I wrapped up day seven, which involved the bar owner running a special promotion that saw seemingly the whole village come in for a drink (I mixed 31 of them) – especially since at the close of that day I’d managed to accumulate 321 coins, just over the 300 I needed to achieve my goal (I’d run into a strange bug that meant I only earned 3 coins apiece for the first few days, despite the end-of-day-wrapup screens indicating I should have been getting more like 60-70 each night, but fortunately it wound up correcting itself).
Relieved of the burden of focusing on filthy lucre, I was excited to see what the next day’s special event – so imagine my surprise when on the afternoon of day eight, the bar owner decided to run that same promotion, leading to the same ridiculous rush of patrons. And then imagine my frustration when the same thing happened on days 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. On the plus side, that meant I finished the game with over 1,200 coins burning a hole in my pocket – but returning once more to the negative, perhaps that meant a counter looped over or something, since on day 15 I got a depressing ending indicating that I hadn’t earned enough for my guild dues after all, and would have to try again.
From my understanding, the author has since fixed these bugs, so hopefully future players will have a smoother time of it. And the game well deserves the effort – I’m bummed that bugs cut short my enjoyment this time out, but now that it's gotten a few more renovations, I suspect the Thick Table Tavern will be a rewarding place to be a regular.
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
Innovative Bartending Simulator, October 22, 2022 A relaxing bartending game with both story and arcade mode,set in a fictional town with all kinds of characters appearing on the tavern telling their mundane and fantastical stories or who just want to have a good time. Either listen to their stories or challenge yourself and memorize recipes by making drinks in arcade mode. Interactive fiction with bartending elements mixed in it: What more could I ask for?
Now,while i do enjoy playing drink-making games it's rare to see interactive fiction or any type of story to read with them. I personally enjoy games where I can interact with NPC's and hear their stories so that's why I went for the story mode most of the time in my playthroughs. Replayability is a strong point of The Thick Table Tavern along with it's worldbuilding which though it is not extensive, it's intriguing nonetheless.
Having said that,there is a need for proofreading in the story mode. As a previous reviewer said,there are some grammar errors throughout the story that need to be fixed.
A chill game overall with a compelling story mode and great UI.
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
A lengthy and somewhat heartwarming game about running a tavern, October 21, 2022As someone who's never tried alcohol, mixed drinks always seem intriguing; I always imagine they'd be like milkshakes or punch or other sweet things. From what people say, it's not really like that. But I like the way the bottles look and the idea of trying to combine ingredients in a neat way.
This game heavily features a minigame where you have a stock of drinks (represented visually with nice graphics) and have to mix specific cocktails from it. All real-world drinks have been re-named, and some are pretty funny (especially ones that are just nicknames for a single drink).
The main storyline is about you, a young individual, trying to save up enough money to buy out the tavern owner. Simultaneously, you are contacted by a 'watcher', an extradimensional being, who discusses the nature of agency with you.
The dialogue in the game is written with an accent, which is always a risky choice, as it can come off pretty goofy or hard to read. This one was fairly simple, though, so that's good.
There is some strong profanity in the game (I have a filter that turns it off, because why not?), and some mild references to sexual situations.
Overall:
-Polish: I had a couple of times where a major event repeated itself (making a buffet, passing out, etc.) and there was some fiddliness with things like the tip box, where you made a choice whether to put it out or not, then when doing the 'getting ready for the day' menu, you had the choice again, repeated word-for-word. Just things like that I feel could be fixed up a bit.
+Descriptiveness: The game is very descriptive, especially with the imaginative cocktail names.
-Interactivity: Like several other reviewers have pointed out, the main minigame can get monotonous. I got to flinching when I'd get another round of 9 orders. But I think the core idea is good, maybe it just needs a few tweaks. I wish there was a sense of progression in skill, or something to learn, but after the first few it's mainly repeating identical actions.
+Emotional impact: I found it heartwarming the way the group could hassle each other but also bond in positive ways.
+Would I play again? With a few changes, like those mentioned above, I think it would be fun.
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
Bar game of my dreams, October 20, 2022I have a thing for bar/tavern management games - not sure why - and this pives up to all my childhood-bostalgia-fuelled expectations.
I play bar games for the strangely therapeutic feeling of mixing randomised drinks, colorful colleagues and characters, and snark - and this game has it all. The creative drink names were an added bonus. Came to love our boss at the end of the game, and saying goodbye was genuinely a lil sad.
Coding-wise, the game was genius - I was incredibly amazed by how many functions were in the game (not to mention beautiful UI/graphics). Loved the little touches of vibrations and bright light, the bar counter/ingredients were well done, and the day-to-day summary was neat.
All in all, a great, compact game that packs a punch and never overstays its welcome, reminiscent of bar oasis, another game I love. Only thing I had questions about was the meta-angle which, though provided some of the BEST snark and dialogue in the game, made me wonder a bit why it was there apart from some fourth wall breaking fun? It WAS an enjoyable element though, no complaints, really.
2 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
Lots to like with this one, October 9, 2022This was a pleasant enough game. You play as a bartender who is saving up money for a goal of the player's choosing. You interact with customers and mix drinks in a mini-game. It has a colorful and well-themed UI that makes use of lots of little tricks to add detail.
The story is divided up into days, and depending what you choose, you may see different scenarios on different days, my favorite being the visit with the elderly couple. However, I found that there were a lot of repetitive tasks that never varied. I expected the drink-mixing mini game to get more complicated over time, but the only change is to add a timed element. Even when I increased the difficulty, there wasn't any challenge to it. However, if you really enjoy mixing the drinks, you can opt to play an Arcade mode that just focuses on challenges involving the mini game with no story running through it.
It is a fairly upbeat story with comical characters and playful scenarios. However, as it stands now, the grammatical errors are pervasive and jarring. They are on every page, and they disrupt the rhythm of the passages. I usually try to overlook them and focus on the story, but there was no getting around it. Some extensive proofreading and editing is sorely needed.
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
Beautiful Gameplay, Fun Mixing Minigames, October 7, 2022This game has really gorgeous UI, a story mode, and several arcade modes. You play as a bartender in a fantasy universe (think typical fantasy TTRPGs) and serve clients drinks.
The story mode needed a little more attention when I played. There were still a few bugs, but these will likely all be fixed soon, if they haven't been addressed already. The author has been extremely responsive to all reports of errors.
The arcade mode, though, and the core drink-mixing mechanics, are an absolute triumph. The UI really shines here, with colorful bottles, a variety of recipes, and gameplay that is just difficult enough to be challenging (the timed modes are especially fun).
There are also a few clever UI implementations in the story mode gameplay itself, which add variety to the randomized patron encounters (one involving Tarot Cards was really delightful).
All-in-all, definitely a game I would recommend. Whether you play around in arcade mode for a few minutes, or take some time and delve into story mode and meet the Tavern's customers, you're in for an entertaining experience.
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