Meet Keg & Crypt

Welcome to the first devlog for Keg & Crypt, a cozy co-op tavern game with a dungeon underneath it. We’re Scott and Son, a very small studio of exactly the two people that name suggests, and this is where we’ll write about the game as it gets made.

What the game is

You inherit a tavern. Your Uncle Barnaby Morel has stood behind its bar for sixty years, and he’s finally handing you the keys. From there it’s yours to run: lay out the room, brew the drinks, cook the food and keep a town full of particular people coming back.

You can play alone, or with up to three friends online sharing the same tavern. One of you at the taps, one in the kitchen, one keeping the dice table from getting out of hand.

The guests are the heart of it. Each one is a simulated person with needs, tastes, a budget and a memory. They notice how long they waited, what they paid, where they sat and whether the cider was any good, and they remember it next time. Bards, dice, darts and stories by the fire keep them lingering.

A new name

If you’ve seen early screenshots, you might know the prototype as Morel & Mortar. It was a fine pun, but the game grew past it. The tavern itself is now called the Keg & Crypt, and so is the game: one half is the tavern you build and run, the other half is what’s under the floor.

Uncle Barnaby keeps the Morel surname. Some things you don’t change.

What works today

The current build is rough around the edges, but a surprising amount of the tavern already runs:

• Building. The hall starts empty. You place, turn and move furniture on a grid: benches, tables, rugs, candelabra, keg racks and the bar itself. Layout affects comfort and how long guests stay.
• Brewing by hand. Drinks are made at stations, not bought. Mash malt and hops, set the keg to ferment over in-game days, then tap it at the bar and pour. Better ingredients and practice mean better stars.
• Guests. They walk in off the street, find a seat, order what they like within what they can afford, and leave with an opinion.
• Uncle’s quests. Barnaby walks you through your first days with a set of tasks, and he talks: his dialogue is voiced.
• The town. Outside the door there’s a square with a grocer, a maltster and an herbalist, and a day-night cycle that decides when the doors open.

What’s next

Next up is the tutorial: Barnaby’s first opening night with you, step by step, ending in the night it burned. The tavern goes up in flames, and in the morning your uncle is gone. That’s where the story really starts.

After that comes the crypt. Below the cellar the stairs keep going, into a place older than the town. It’s where the rarest ingredients and the best loot are found, and it’s coming in a later update. We’ll show more when there’s more to show.

If you’d like a letter when there is, leave your name at the bar. We only write when there’s something worth reading.