You can try this new co-op open-world tavern management game for free, and players love it

While Stardew Valley and its fellow farming games are a delight, there’s something special about seeing others enjoy the end product of your labors, and the tavern management sim is a great solution. Alongside the likes of Travellers Rest and the upcoming Tavern Keeper, we’ve even seen the likes of turn-based RPG Wartales step into the management game. But if you want to bring your friends along, Ale and Tale Tavern might be just what you’re looking for, and a demo available now as a free Steam game is already proving popular.

Ale and Tale Tavern packs together all manner of genres, blending the open-world hunting, fishing, and exploration of Valheim with the ability to build and decorate your very own tavern. Along with cooking up all manner of tasty treats for your customers, you’ll also fight to protect your turf in this colorful fantasy world, making this a real blend of survival, sandbox, and management games.

With support for up to four-player co-op, Ale and Tale Tavern puts you in a compact yet gorgeous handcrafted open world where you can build out your very own ale house. You’ll need to get all the busywork done yourself, however, from gathering basic resources to crafting and placing all your various furniture and decorations.

That means growing plants, breeding animals, hunting and fishing, and then gathering everything together to cook delicious meals for your clientele. Once they start rolling in, it’s also up to you to take orders and make sure everyone is satisfied. As mentioned, however, this fantasy land can be a dangerous place at times, so you’ll want to make sure you’re well-equipped to take on any threatening monsters.

Available right now, First Pints is a free preview version of Ale and Tale Tavern, featuring a limited area to explore and a small handful of the characters and story quests you can expect from the full game. It includes online co-op support, so if it sounds like something you and your pals might be interested in, this is a perfect way to try it out at no cost. It’s already landing well so far, too, racking up a ‘very positive’ 94% user rating on Steam.

Ale and Tale Tavern: First Pints is out now on Steam as a free game. It’s a demo version that gives you and your friends a limited look at the full release, which is set to launch in the third quarter of 2024. You can download it now on Steam, where you’ll also find a link to wishlist the full game if you want to stay up to date with when it arrives.

Once you’ve given that a shot, take a look through more of the best free Steam games for plenty more things to try without spending a penny. Alternatively, here are some more of the best co-op games for you and your besties to check out together.

You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.