It's April 1st already in parts of the world but I'm happy to say that this isn't an April Fools' post: Update 1 is now available as an experimental built.

As we announced here, Update 1 is much more substantial than initially planned and comes with a ton of new features, improvements and fixes.

Important: Please only use the experimental version if you want to help us test the features and report issues before it goes live for everyone. If you don't want to deal with bugs and want the fully polished experience instead, we'd recommend you wait until Update 1 graduates from experimental.

If you do want to test this, you can read how to opt-in to the experimental version here.

Here's the changelog:

• Design Mode Color Picker

• Controller Support

• Steam Deck support (16:10 screen, scalable tooltips, controller)

• https://tavernkeeper.com/workshop integration

• Arcane Orders - automagically order supplies.

• Collapsible Build Menu

• More Efficient Simulation

• More Stories

• More Design Items

• New Meal type: Roasts

• Decorate Animated Objects

By popular request:

• Right-click now cancels actions by default (R now rotates furniture).

• Q/E now fine rotates the tavern. Double tap Q/E to rotate in steps.

These are configurable in settings if you prefer the old ways.

• Improved scenario end stories with new options.

• Fire extinguisher now has a setting to disallow using drink barrels as a fallback.

• Fear of the Dark trait is nerfed.

• Staff can now maintain the stove in staff rooms while they are off-work.

• You can now assign manual tasks to staff even if they are asleep (how rude) - they'll then wake up and do them.

• Banned rooms now show a red overlay for clarity.

• Sick Staff can be told to stay in bed until they fully recover.

• Hearth can now be built in hallways.

• Disabling a soup while selected in a pot no longer removes it from the pot.

• If you decline to interact with random stories, characters will no longer spawn indefinitely each day.

• Staff now receives bonus happiness in higher-star staff rooms.

• Updated the Item Workshop with new items.

• Tavern Keeper Workshop "featured items" can now appear as patron-gifts (configurable).

• New auto-save interval settings.

• Larder overview now shows out-of-stock and in-transit items.

• Finance button now shows outstanding loan debt.

• Missing ingredient message now shows needed vs. actual amount.

• Clock now remembers preferred digital vs. analogue setting.

• Decoration Hierarchy now supports Shift-click and Shift+Ctrl-click selection.

• Scroll wheel is now supported in Build Menu.

• New wall mode toggle key binding ('End' key).

• World map now shows shop markers on mini-map.

• General CPU performance improved significantly.

• Game speed 3 no longer oscillates and is smoother.

• Browsing the Build Menu, especially with custom templates, is now a lot faster.

• Game startup is quicker.

• Loading a save file is now faster.

• Performance for heavily decorated taverns increased significantly.

• Performance for players with lots of custom templates increased.

• Crafted items (like soups) were not properly spoiling while in the soup pot.

• Spoilage was incorrectly calculated.

• Serving meals with bread when bread became unavailable could lead to endless waiting.

• Staff sometimes went to far-away taprooms when drinks were available nearby.

• Patrons were sometimes served directly from barrels.

• Patrons incorrectly rated bars and tables.

• Beds were sometimes double-rated after patrons stayed.

• Patrons could sometimes use a scroll rack when no scrolls were remaining.

• Ghost items appeared after building decorations.

• Staff with the Lethargic mental break trait could end up sleeping for a very long time if no bed was available.

• Drinks were disabled on the tavern menu after a fight destroyed a tap which was then replaced.

• Patrons would glitch when walking to a seat for a long time.

• Fires could trigger in starter level from chaos events.

• Patrons complained 'too hot' when drying themselves in front of a heater.

• Low stock alert triggered for items with plenty of stock.

• Build animations left furniture sometimes in a squished state.

• Loading an old save that was in the middle of a storybook could result in an error.

• Tavern log could end up with wrong tooltips.

• Scaling placed decorations with keyboard did not update correctly.

• Dragging in the Schedule UI would leave gaps if you dragged too fast.

• Flag ratings were sometimes incorrect after loading.

• Various typos fixed.

• Not all new content has been translated or has voice overs yet.

• Sound Design on Arcade Orders are not in yet.

• Some UI parts are still a bit fiddly to use with controllers.

If you do give the experimental branch a try, please report any issues you see with F3 or use the experimental Steam sub-forum here.

Thanks for following along :)

We suspect we'll update this version a few times in experimental and will keep further changelogs here.