The first game from Starbeast Inferno Productions brings players into the life of an everyday barkeeper in a fantasy world tinted by the realities of modern existence. Run the tavern, navigate a tax audit, and get to know a cast of (literally) colorful characters, ranging from enchanted humans to guarded demons and enigmatic elves.
Nestled in the heart of the Kingdom, at the foot of the mountains, is the small city of Chilverre. It’s not the sort of place adventurers and warriors would go out of their way to find; it’s a relatively peaceful land, where elves and dwarves, demons and humans, and everything in between can be found living side by side. Amid the inns and apothecaries, there’s a hole-in-the-wall tavern that doesn’t look like much from the outside. It’s been a place for parties of travelers to meet and those of all races to relax and unwind for decades—and even being under new management hasn’t changed that. But the new Barkeep, an easygoing sort, hasn’t been in the industry long, and soon finds his business under scrutiny from the Elven Revenue Service for misfiling taxes. Can the Barkeep muddle through and keep the place running, or will the doors of this tavern be closed for good?
What is Elven Revenue Service?
Elven Revenue Service is a game about love, life, and the mundane existing alongside the fantastical. As players progress through the story, they’ll have to decide how they want to run their bar, handle the audit, and build relationships with the people around them. Players can shape the course of events radically with their choices, ranging from how involved with the audit they get to what characters (if any) they’re hoping to romance. With seven characters planned to be available, this creates a wide array of possible endings, ensuring the game will be enjoyable to play again and again. Players will be able to set the protagonist’s gender without affecting their romance options, providing gay and lesbian options for those interested. And while building relationships is a major part of the game, they won’t necessarily have to be romantic to win, either. Our hope is that Elven Revenue Service will have a little something for everyone rather than simply being thought of as “a dating game.”
Stylistically, Elven Revenue Service has drawn from the golden age of JRPGs in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, using an art style reminiscent of classic series in the genre. Text-based adventure games from the same time period have also influenced the visuals. We’ve taken influence from a variety of other fantasy works, of course, ranging from seminal works to more modern fare. We’ve also learned from popular visual novels, fixing what we thought didn’t work and studying what did. The end result is a complex, anachronistic fantasy setting where the modern mundane exists alongside the magical, bringing with it all that such a situation would imply.
Features:
- 7 characters available to romance, including male, female, and gender-fluid love interests.
- 40+ endings, with multiple endings per character.
- Random bar events occurring each night in-game, offering a slightly different experience on every playthrough.
- Unique pixel artwork, inspired by the great JRPGs and text-based adventure games of the 1990s.
- Custom music composed specially for the game, in a chiptune style befitting its retro aesthetic.
The demo version of Elven Revenue Service is now available to be downloaded above! It covers the events of the first in-game day, offering players the chance to check out the beginnings of as many different routes as they wish. Three of the special CGs have already been implemented, and we hope to have many more when complete! Development of the full version is ongoing, and a crowdfunding campaign is planned to help cover some of the upfront costs, such as the creation of those CGs, so that we can pay talented artists a fair price. If you like the demo, consider supporting the campaign! You might even be able to help influence some of the content in the final game…