Blacksmith Master Steam Charts & Stats

As someone who previously played Tavern Master, I would personally wait a couple of updates before playing this game again. I primarily enjoyed the optimization/planning aspect for Tavern Master and it's not quite as polished in this game just yet. Mainly the Blacksmith/Assistant AI pathing isn't that smart at the moment. For example, a blacksmith will walk across the entire room or even go upstairs rather than wait a few seconds for a workstation to be free. There are other examples of this, but basically it all accumulates to the entire shop being messy and workers walking everywhere unnecessarily, even if you have a good setup for them. If you haven't played Tavern Master, this game fundamentally isn't that difficult. It gives out money quite generously and for me the main selling point for Blacksmith/Tavern Master is experimenting with layouts. It's a relaxing game, and you can easily get 10-25+ hours in this game, but unless you're big on trying out new designs, you likely won't get any more than that since the gameplay loop in itself can get repetitive.

8/10 while trying to get 100%, i enjoyed the game first 10 hours and then afterwards, it became a bit repetitive. but good game overall.

Nice idea but the almost complete lack of logistics control makes it frustrating to play. Examples: - You can specify a smith as store only or orders only, no priority. Likewise for item type it's only a vague 'top' priority. - Complex items need several parts with different skills, but a smith with do it all from start to finish even if they have poor skills or debuffs on a certain section. We can't split up production into stages. - Unable to delegate stations/chests for certain tasks or smiths. - Only one staffer can use a chest at a time, but if you build more than one the runners will ignore all but the one closest to the door and the other items never get moved/sold. I can only see it getting more of a headache if I get to mines/logging camps.

It's quite OK at the beginning and overall has many nice things to like, but the logistics in this game make it a nightmare to play for long. Once you get to smelting and producing your own lumber and ore you have to hire hoards of assistants because they can only move one specific item around. On top of that you cannot just designate stockpiles for certain things or tick some checkbox for them to be refilled, no you have to first hire a carrier from warehouse to an ore box (each item by itself) then hire an assistant to smelt the ore (once again, that assistant doesn't touch any other ore) then hire .. yes you guessed it another assistant to transport that specific ore .. and not just wherever it is needed no, it only picks up stuff from one source to one destination, which is silly and breaks the whole game. Crafting strategy games are all about logistics. How to bring A to B and if this doesn't work, which it currently does not properly, then everything down the line is just extra fluff that's nice to have but really not worth the effort.

I want to make clear first and foremost, I enjoy this game but I cannot recommend to new players at this stage. The reasons for this are because there is elements which make the game frustrating to play and some of the biggest complaints made from the demo weren't addressed. There is a repeat problem with queuing in this game, while the dev tackled and corrected the AI, neglected what people had the actual issue with and this was; stockpile sizes. Ingots for example isn't small and takes up a fair amount of space, combined with blacksmiths only ever taking one at a time, which results in queuing behind the stack, a simple method raised was having quarter/half size ingot storage. This would address the frustration players felt; the AI side of it works, but didn't complete on the problem and this festers still. While you have numerous floors to unlock and work towards obtaining, this creates more issues down the line with delays, build up, leading to more problems coming out with how everything functions and has the adverse effect with creating problems and time wasted to fix what wouldn't be a fault to begin with. The overall size of the playable map for your blacksmith isn't big. While bigger than it's counterpart - Tavern Master - here, you have more items which take up a lot of space and what is one thing which vital but takes up far more room than it should? Ingot space. Next is the downtime for chests, while the animation is nice, when you're beginning to have more and more blacksmiths, doesn't matter how many chests you have. Them each queuing up to unload can take a whole in-game hour(this is about a minute or so but important to note as time stops at midnight). Including assistants coming to empty the chest? It's almost designed to waste time and further increase frustration for the player. The market carts don't have this issue however. Numerous people can dump items at them with no limit, or slowdown, this needs to be applied to storage within the smithy itself. Having more options with various sizes would be better overall for design layout. The inability to control your store opening/closing to customers to grant you time to restock items. - As mentioned above, bigger you get, more you're plagued by lack of space and more floors doesn't equal more fun. It's the opposite as you're forced to deal with queuing, spacing and sorting out so much more which can solved but aren't. Another issue is the fact you cannot turn off notifications and this here leads into the biggest gripe with Blacksmith Master right now; progression. Progress is swift in this game as everything keeps blazing and flashing with notification column down the side too.. You are forced to bow and do things just to make them vanish and stop distracting you. This results in making the game, where the demo showed us a truly relaxing and calm experience but the early-release swept over that fact which is a strong allure to this type of game. Sure, you can't ignore the notifications in the beginning but when you go along the research? You will start to have red notifications pop up from lacking this or that type of resource/workstation/workers. All in all. As much as I am enjoying this game, in it's current condition, I cannot recommend while these issues persist. I understand they won't be looked and moved on instantly as it's a lot to handle and balance around. Hopefully switch this review to positive in future! As the game is fun, truly is, but people can get frustrated so much over minor issues and they're not getting addressed. Longer they persist, more work is created to fix what they product and not the root cause.

Forged in Fire lovers unite. We can now own and operate our own medieval smithy where we manage staff, process orders, buy goods, decorate and build the smithy of our dreams. [h2][u]The Story & Gameplay[/u][/h2] One of my favourite shows of all time is Forged in Fire. I have seen all the seasons, love all the judges and still get excited after ten years when Doug says “it will keal” (his famous catch phrase meaning Keep Everyone Alive). I ended up naming my smithy It Will Keal just for the hoot of it. I played [i]Untitled Studio’s[/i] other game Tavern Master and thought it was a pretty good game so I was happy to see them take on the theme of a medieval smithy sim. ❗ Keep in mind in this game you manage your own smithy but you do not do any crafting yourself. It would be nice if it had both aspects but in this game you're simply the management. The gameplay has you managing your smithy by hiring workers, buying materials and in the beginning filling orders for merchants to make money and level up your workers. The tutorial is great, step-by-step instructions as you play. Everything in this game is unlocked by levelling up your shop and selling items to merchants (merchants sometimes reward blueprints and cosmetics). You cannot skip ahead and buy everything in one day, everything is earned by levelling up so at each level you have a sense of progression and objectives to aim for. It makes for satisfying gameplay to work towards unlocking the more elaborate items and materials as you play. There is a sandbox mode as well if you just want to get creative without getting progress locked. [h2][u]Settings & Features [/u][/h2] Settings & features include; Time format, language, quality, UI scaling, display mode, resolution, frame rate, VSync, audio controls, keyboard layout, and the ability to turn on or off icons and other indicators. The game also has a photo-mode for taking screencaps! ✨ The game auto saves but also has manual saves that you can name. [h2][u]Personal Wishlist[/u][/h2] * Let storage crates be accessible from both sides and make larger sizes (we have so many small chests all over the place-allow us to upgrade our chests). * More engagement with the workers besides them sitting on a bench at the end of the day (eating can give them temporary buffs for example) * Assign workers to specific stations (if they specialize in carpentry let us assign them to just those stations, why specialize if they do everything?) * The game can get overwhelming if you grow your smithy with multiple floors and have dozens of employees. You have to grow your smithy to a point as merchant orders get more demanding the higher level you go. So keeping a balance as you progress can be a challenge. [h2][u]The Visuals & Audio[/u][/h2] The game is primarily a top-down view but you can zoom right in to watch your workers hammering away or designing blueprints. The small details when you zoom in are really well done. Finishes like stone and wood look good and the lights give a nice warm glow to your smithy. There are even animations like steam and sparks coming off of your metal forge or steam rising up when you quench the hot blades. I took these pretty early on when my smithy was smaller, to show some of the up-close details. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3491086172 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3491084637 [h2][u]Overall Experience[/u][/h2] This game will give you a lot of hours for being in early access. Once you start making money and hiring more staff the game plays itself to a point where you can check in for upgrades (the game notifies you of any potential upgrades or workers that are ready to be levelled up). However it does get overwhelming at later stages with a whole host of employees to manage and none of them able to be assigned specific tasks (outside of the design person). However the game is in early access so a lot will change, including balancing and mechanics over time. I tend to keep my smithy on the smaller side (I have unlocked the second floor but have not built it yet). You can also dabble in the sandbox mode to just relax and create so you can have the freedom to do both. For me there is enough content to justify early access but take the pros and cons that others have reviewed and see if it is for you to jump in early. 🔨 [hr][/hr] [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote] [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

I have spent 277 days in game and unlocked all 72 achievements so I think I will have a unique perspective on the early access. I was looking forward to this more compared to Doom the Dark Ages so yeah I spend some time with the game and I have some pointers for it and information for potential buyers and I will try to remain as objective as I can! Pros+ price you do not need a battle station to run it manually control a worker I did not come across bugs variety of items to craft at your shop (overall I think I counted 97 items) Cons - Merchant commissions lack variety (most are consisting of requiring wood + iron ingot/ steel ingot or copper ... I did not come across like a single silver or jewelry based item for that big cash reward so overall I kept shipping like 15 items again and again) In later game, you cannot set up zones and dedicate staff, this means that your production becomes bottle necked or your blacksmith and assistants work very inefficiently or you cannot set up like clay zone or wood work shop. Like 20 blacksmith trying to get iron ingot from one ingot storage, even if you put up smelters on different floors, rarely you will see the staff go there) You are unable to expand your iron/copper/silver mines (This means that especially later in game when you need a lot of Iron, your miners will keep mining but will not deposit the mined ore off the ground to be shipped.) This forced me to have to buy iron ore for smelting, I had no efficient space to place elevator to ship the goods, you just have to hope you get a good map seed but this sucks because half way through the day you run out of raw ingredient which you need 97% of all times while silver sits there and is just collecting dust) Weird crafting for your store... (So for some reason I had a massive full floor shop, yet the blacksmith refused to make wood based items like bows, it was more like they just tried crafting what ever was the last recipe I unlocked... this meant I had a s**t ton of silver just sitting by, and some items were never crafted, no matter what settings I applied to (like preference for crafting) Teapot, backing tray, katana, scythe... this was always at my shop, yet hoping that like a silver cup or jewelry even the basic one just for silver did not get crafted unless I took control of the blacksmith) Overall the game is fun, but eventually it becomes crazy repetitive and you just have to be stubborn to grind it out... If they will work on this more and add some features and more variety, this will be a hell of a fun game... My suggestion wait a bit for more features or for a sale... 6/10

Relaxing and enjoyable game 8/10 BUT: It forces you to play exactly as it want's you to play. If it says "Do this now please." you can't say 'Thank you' and click away the message to do it later because right now you have so much fun with something else. Instead it grabs your attention with non-removable, blinking, colorful and obstructing warnings. Suddenly, you don't feel relaxed but stressed. Then you realize, wow, this otherwise good and enjoyable game just took away your agency. Too bad.

It's an OK at the start, but gets extremely monotonous in the later in the game due to the hoards of assistants you need to keep up with ingot production and the entire concept of "ingot transfer" assistants. There's also a lot of completely unneccessary micromanagement of employee skills because the "level up strategy" option is poorly designed. Ingot transfer is a micromanaging nightmare once you get a few floors (a handful of hours into the game) and not remotely fun. The game gives you no good tools or information to deal with routing once you have a few. You can't really stockpile extra ingots without making it way worse on yourself because you just compound the number of ingot transfer routes you have to setup, often not knowing how many you really need without staring at the stockpiles. Extremely frustrating. Only way to deal with the mess is carefully sift through the ingot routes, which has no useful UX/UI, or wipe and redo them all entirely which may result with the player tossing their keyboard through their monitor. They should just make ingot stockpiles one of two types. Smelting destination (only ones where smelters can drop ingots), or blacksmith source (only place blacksmith can pick up an ingot, period) Then assistants can simply be hired globally as "transfer ingots" that automatically move ingots from smelting piles to blacksmith piles, based on "least stockpiled" logic and be done with it. Absolutely, positively no settings on "transfer ingot" assistants whatsoever, this should just happen. I do not want to micromanage this, it sucks. And give me a UI that shows every ingot count from "blacksmith" piles and "smelting" piles. 50/100, 23/150, like SOMETHING. The options for auto-leveling employees don't make sense. Just let me set a priority per skill: off, low, or high. That's it. You don't need a "level up strategy" that long term causes problems by over-leveling skills certain workers' assignments because they're NEVER used or you're stuck micromanaging them all. Smelters get nothing from carry capacity. Designers get nothing from.. anything but the design skill. Please, for the love of all that is holy, remove level up strategy. I question why blacksmith types are designers at all, considering the game wants you to just park them in front of the design table forever and never, ever skill up carpentry, smithing, or pottery, which also leads to useless micromanagment, leveling up design by hand until max when you can finally take a deep breath and set the level up strategy to "do not level up." But well, fixing the skill up system as above would fix this anyway. Also, there is no replay value.

Full disclosure - I don't typically write reviews. I think I've done...five? Something like that. But I'm writing for this time because I see a lot of negative comments that are not justified. First thing - If you bought, played, liked Tavern Master, you will likely enjoy this one as well. It's not the same game per se - there are similarities in all shop games, however in this one you actually have a mine (several actually), and a forest that you own and will have workers there sending raw materials to the warehouse to the shop. First you start filling orders for goblets, weapons, what-have-you. Hire a handful of folks (don't go into too much debt (yes you can go into debt - I haven't gone bankrupt yet to see what happens but I'll let ya'll know if/when I do)). You can hire more people, fill more orders, then open your own little store in the corner to sell individual items as effectively a side-hustle (orders eventually rise to a hundred+ items that takes time to fulfill). As you master iron you gain the ability to make items with copper and silver, for more money. There's more but that's the basic idea. I've seen a lot of criticism in the reviews but I would urge everyone to do two things - First, consider this is Early Access. The Dev is responsive and checks what we put out, and has already started acting on feedback. In less than a week. That isn't common and should be commended. The second thing is that this "Indie Studio".......is one lonely dev. Have some patience folks. I can tell you, as a former software tester by profession, putting out any piece of software that is not a bug-ridden mess (which this is absolutely NOT!)....is a feat worthy of everyone's praise. The dev surely has mine, and I look forward to what's coming next. Cheers! C|_|