Hire patrons for dungeon-crawling by earning their trust at the tavern bar. Serve empowering drinks, negotiate pay rates, and leverage profits to upgrade your heroes and facilities — all while satisfying the King’s demands. Now on Kickstarter
Lore / Story
The King of Tractlandia is known for mistreating any member of court who fails the kingdom in acquiring loot. He’s turned to you to fill the royal vault, but you’re a barkeeping quartermaster, not treasure seeking hero! Use your wits instead of your reflexes to recruit heroes, send them dungeon crawling, and use the loot gained to improve and expand your dungeon crawling business operation.
Gameplay
Controlling your squad from within the tavern, you will recruit heroes, scout for dungeons, research the dungeons to identify weaknesses, then crawl the dungeons using heroes suited to exploit those weaknesses. Then use the profit from your adventures to upgrade the castle and appease the King!
Key Features
Turn-Based Deckbuilding Combat
Each hero’s deck is determined by their equipped gear. With 60 various ability cards (and counting), there are dozens of playstyles, combos, and strategies to employ. There is no limit to how many heroes you can recruit, and thus no limit to how many builds and strategies you can try.
Management Gameplay
Dungeon crawling is a business, and businesses require management! Consult personnel records and charts to determine which heroes are performing well. Negotiate with your heroes to cut costs or, if you’re feeling generous, offer a pay increase to boost morale.
Lighthearted Story and Dynamic Conversation System
Most heroes aren’t simple sellswords — you’ll need to earn their trust before they’ll work for you. Make choices in branching conversations with tavern patrons to gain their favor and services, as well as open new story avenues and quest objectives. A storyline replete with side quests and branching narrative elevates Thirsty Heroes beyond a management and combat grind.
Procedurally Generated Heroes, Loot, and Dungeons
There are 45 different weapon, armor, and accessory types in Thirsty Heroes, each uniquely procedurally generated to encourage different strategies and playstyles. Heroes have a wide range of personality traits that dictate how they behave in conversations and crawls. Dungeons vary each time, with 50 different encounters to fight against.
Get to the Good Stuff
All design decisions aim to “cut the fat” — allowing the player to play their way and get to the fun parts quickly: Linear dungeons so you keep crawling and don’t waste your time in mazes, endless inventory space and custom filters to sort it all, and cross-platform saving to play where you want.
About the Developer
Bit By Bit Studios is Sean Sanders (Programming and Design) and Kelly O’Donnell (Art and Design).
Founded in 2012, they previously released Fiz: The Brewery Management Game after a successful Kickstarter and they have decades of professional games industry experience between them, having worked on major properties like Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk, and Borderlands.
Their goal in making games is to express themselves artistically, earn a living, and improve the lives of their players.
Release date & platforms
Steam (PC) and Mobile (iOS and Android) early 2023.
