Thanks to everyone for your help in reporting bugs! Here's the changelog:

• Fixed a graphical bug where Ying and May still appeared outside the inn after the introduction.
  
• Fixed a graphical bug where the wrong trophy appears when Paul wins second prize in the Chocolate Festival .
  
• Fixed a bug where fulfilling Sophie’s request and talking to her again would lead to infinite gold.
  
• Fixed a bug where reserving a room for Zara would cause the game to crash.
  
• Added a couple checks to prevent the situation where, on occasion, pressing the big red X in menus could cause the game to exit.
  
• Clarified that starting a new game plus from an NG+-enabled savefile carries over achievements from that savefile.
  
• Corrected some typos.

If you find any other bugs, please report them in this Steam discussion thread. Thanks!

I'm excited to announce that The Hidden Art of Innkeeping will be released on Sep 3, 2024!

It's been about three years since I started working on this game, and almost a year since I published the first devlog here. I had a lot of fun making this game - creating the story, coming up with new characters and writing the dialogue, designing the maps and menus, and thinking of different ways in which Elinor can solve problems or find things.

I really appreciated getting feedback from people who played the first game, The Lost Art of Innkeeping, and the demo too. It was especially useful hearing which characters people liked in the first game and wanted to see again in the sequel - I had no idea that Johan was so popular!

It was also a pleasure working with two artists: Fatti, who did the paintings, and hiddenone, who created a number of the pixel art characters and animations. We know that the hotel guests and villagers play an important role in the game, but you'll be interacting with a number of animals too! Consider this tiger... it's just a big cat, right? So what happens if you give it a box?

Anyway, I hope you're as excited as I am about the upcoming release! I'll probably remove the demo when the game is released, so if you haven't tried it yet, you can get it here.

It's been a while since my last devlog! It was great to get feedback from players of the demo (thanks to everyone who tried it out!), and I've been busy incorporating some of the suggestions. I recently completed the main storyline of the game, and am finishing up some of the side quests related to the guests and villagers. After that, I'll be playtesting - this usually takes longer than I think it's going to, because not only do I have to fix the bugs I find, I sometimes get ideas for more things to add! - and then I hope to send the game to other playtesters within the next month or so.

In the meantime, I wanted to highlight some of the things you'll see your guests doing if they stay at the inn. This gives me the opportunity to showcase the work of hiddenone, a pixel artist who created a number of the cute sprites you see in the game, and who did a wonderful job animating them and providing useful suggestions for the game as well.

If you can find a room for Arlecchino and his family, you can see them perform at the beach. They may be a little wobbly at first, since they've been out of practice, but if they stay multiple times, you can help them get better and watch their chest of tips grow!

Meanwhile, at the inn itself, you can choose to build a gymnasium and watch some of your guests work out. Chin-ups are not easy, but Trenton here gets faster and higher over time if he gets the chance to practice! Hiddenone added a red flush to his face and some sweat drops to show what an exertion these chin-ups are.

That's all for now, but I'll post another update soon!

The Hidden Art of Innkeeping is participating in Steam Next Fest on Feb 5-12! This is the second livestream where I'll play the demo and answer any questions.

The Hidden Art of Innkeeping is a cozy management game where you'll transform an old farmhouse in a seaside village into a luxurious inn. Meet interesting guests, unlock delicious dishes, discover new areas and hidden treasures, configure rooms and amenities, uncover secrets, and rejuvenate the struggling village!

You can play the demo and wishlist the game now!

Steam Next Fest is taking place next week! Since I've never livestreamed before, I'm doing a practice run before the actual event. This will be a low-key event where I'll play the demo and get used to the interface, but everyone is welcome to watch, chat, and provide feedback if you like. Apologies in advance if there are any glitches!

The actual livestreams for Steam Next Fest are scheduled to take place on:

• 7:00 pm PT on Tue, Feb 6 (03:00 UTC on Wed, Feb 7)
  
• 12:00 pm (noon) PT on Sat, Feb 10 (20:00 UTC on Sat, Feb 10)

The Hidden Art of Innkeeping is participating in Steam Next Fest on Feb 5-12! This is the first livestream where I'll play the demo and answer any questions.

The Hidden Art of Innkeeping is a cozy management game where you'll transform an old farmhouse in a seaside village into a luxurious inn. Meet interesting guests, unlock delicious dishes, discover new areas and hidden treasures, configure rooms and amenities, uncover secrets, and rejuvenate the struggling village!

And if you can't make the first livestream, the second one is scheduled to take place on Sat, Feb 10 at 12 pm (noon) PT (20:00 UTC).

You can play the demo and wishlist the game now!

I'm happy to announce that you can now try the demo for The Hidden Art of Innkeeping on Steam!

If you have any feedback on the demo, I'd love to hear it, and you can post it in this discussion topic on Steam. You can post any bugs you find there as well (I really hope there won't be any!).

I'd also like to highlight the paintings in the game. I've been working with a talented and very nice artist named Fatti (https://twitter.com/fqttiii) who created the title screen below. You'll see a couple of other paintings in the demo as well. It's been amazing to watch the transformation of the 2D top-down maps in the game into these beautiful paintings.

Finally, Steam Next Fest is coming up next month (Feb 5-12), and I'm sure you're going to see lots of exciting new games in that! I'm participating as well and planning to do a couple livestreams. I'll also try to do a practice run before that, to test things out. Here's the tentative schedule if you want to check them out (you'll be able to see them on the game's Steam page):

• Practice run: 12:00 pm (noon) PT on Sat, Feb 3 (20:00 UTC on Sat, Feb 3)
  
• Steam Next Fest Livestream 1: 7:00 pm PT on Tue, Feb 6 (03:00 UTC on Wed, Feb 7)
  
• Steam Next Fest Livestream 2: 12:00 pm (noon) PT on Sat, Feb 10 (20:00 UTC on Sat, Feb 10)

I'm very nervous because I've not livestreamed before. I would say it'll be more of a casual get-together where I'll play the demo and answer any questions, rather than a slick, professional production (it's totally not going to be anything near that). Anyway, I'd love to chat with players/gamedevs if you can make it!

Hope 2024 is shaping up to be a good year for everyone!

As you might expect from the title, The Hidden Art of Innkeeping is going to have some hidden art. But that's not all that you'll find. While you explore the village and the surroundings, you may come across some mysterious mounds of dirt.

It turns out they contain buried artifacts, and you'll meet an archaeologist who can tell you more about them and their historical significance to the local area. (If you've played the prequel, The Lost Art of Innkeeping, you'll have a very good idea of who this archaeologist is.)

In addition, you'll be able to find books by a famous author scattered around the village - see if you can collect them all!

By the way, what I try to do in all my games is that the player can take items only if they don't seem to belong to anyone else, or if you have the owner's permission. This is based on a valuable life lesson I learned playing one of the Ultima games when I was very young: you can't just take things from people's houses! (The guards came after me after I happily looted everything in a village, which had seemed like a very normal thing to do in video games back then!)

There's more to discover in The Hidden Art of Innkeeping, and you're going to get a chance to try it out soon... I'm participating in Steam Next Fest on Feb 5-12, so I'll be releasing a demo for that. The demo is going to be about 30 minutes long, and I've been busy putting the final touches on it. I finally had someone else playtest part of the game a couple days ago; this is the first time someone else aside from me has actually played it and I always find that a little nerve-wracking, though it's useful to get feedback and see someone else's perspective of the game.

Stay tuned for the demo!

I'd like to highlight an exciting new feature in The Hidden Art of Innkeeping: you get to choose what food to serve to your guests!

Not only will the dishes add to your guests' happiness, some of the guests will have cravings for certain foods and they'll reward you if you serve it during their stay. You can also try experimenting with specific combinations of foods - how about some cookies and tea?

Needless to say, you'll unlock more dishes as you get to know the villagers, meet new people, and discover new areas. Food will also play a key role in the main storyline, so I hope this sounds fun!