Greetings, innkeepers! After announcing Crossroads Inn 2 a year ago, we're still on the journey to its release and excited to share our progress with you. Despite the challenges facing the gamedev market, we've weathered the storm and continue to make steady progress. Today, we'd like to give you a brief update on what we've been working on, which will be followed by more detailed devblogs for each area.


We've been focusing our efforts on developing and refining the essential elements of the inn management experience:

1. Code and Game Architecture: It’s the heart of our game, ensuring it’s great now and will stay that way. This is why with Crossroads Inn 2 we continuously improve stability to ensure that it won’t be a buggy mess but a smooth, enjoyable experience.2. Building and Furnishing: In CINN 2, we’ve introduced Creation Mode—a complete system that lets you build, furnish, decorate, and manage external structures. It’s the core of your inn-keeping journey. We’ve fine-tuned this mode to provide better feedback while maintaining creative freedom and ensuring everything works seamlessly.3. NPC’s AI: We’ve made your staff and guests smarter and more responsive, creating a more immersive experience. You’ll have a clear understanding of why your workers behave the way they do, and you’ll be able to influence their actions, both directly and indirectly.4. Inn Management: Whether it’s crafting menus and selecting dishes, managing workers, or ensuring guest satisfaction, we’ve enhanced and intertwined every aspect of inn management to deliver a more immersive and engaging experience.5. Resource Management and Crafting: We’ve refined the systems for purchasing, crafting ingredients, and managing storage, giving you greater control over your inn’s resources. How you use these resources to craft dishes will directly influence your guests’ satisfaction and judgments.6. Guest Feedback: We’ve enhanced the way guests communicate their needs, satisfaction, and reviews, giving you clearer insights into your inn’s performance. You’ll have access to all the information left by your patrons, allowing you to continually improve and adapt to their evolving expectations.

There are still many systems in design and development that we’re not quite ready to fully reveal. For instance, we’re currently working on a new tag system for building and decorating that will add even more depth to the Building and Furnishing experience. However, we’re thrilled with the visual and technical improvements we’ve made so far, and we’re excited to share some in-game footage showing off the current state of the game’s visuals:

[h4]Lighting Update[/h4]

We introduced volumetric lighting system to the game which enables us to have a more immersive feeling of natural light, mimicking dust particles in the air. We’re still working on refining the system under different angles and dynamic outside lighting situation, but we’re on a good track to create a richer, cosy feeling to the atmosphere of the tavern.

Placing windows gives a cone of light

Placing lighting enhances the volumetrics of both light sources

[h4]Guest NPCs Update[/h4]

We managed to update the game with a wide variety of different Guest NPCs - people of different regions, genders and social status that will be reflected on their clothing and preferences. More complex animations are still in the works, but we can already enjoy a more vibrant and colorful inn full of diverse guests.

[h4]Worker NPCs Update[/h4]

We are also aiming to keep the workers diverse and easy to be noticed among crowds of guests - some of our ideas are already implemented - like tall hats for cooks and head covers for servers in order for them to be recognized from a distance. We will work further on more engaging animation for taking orders, cooking and various idles.

[h4]New Wall & Floor Textures[/h4]

As we keep adding new content and assets to the game, we try to upgrade the visuals even more each time. With the new light support, here come also some new textures for the walls and floors of your inn.


As we continue our journey with Crossroads Inn 2, we’d like to take a moment to introduce ourselves. The team working on CINN 2 is a fresh and passionate group, dedicated to bringing out the best of the Crossroads Inn legacy. Our core team consists of just four members—Robert (production, game design), Nikita (programming, system design), Maja (art direction, 2D art concepts), and Łukasz (QA and sound design)—but we’ve been fortunate to have the support of many talented individuals over the past year. These include Maxime (game design, UI/UX design), Thibaut (game design), Adam (writer and narrative designer), Daria (3D character artist), Marcos (3D artist), Ola (2D UI artist), Denis (programmer), Michał (tech artist), and Ola (animator), all of whom have made significant contributions as part of our team.

While we are a new team, we carry a deep respect for the original Crossroads Inn. We’ve embraced the heritage of the game and are committed to making CINN 2 a great experience that builds on what players loved while avoiding the pitfalls of the past. We’re excited to bring a fresh perspective, learning from the past, and striving to create an even more engaging and polished experience for all of you.

Thank you for your continued support and patience. We can't wait to share more updates with you as we get closer to release!

When we started designing the interface we knew that we needed to improve on the UI from the original game. We wanted it to be more functional and clearer in conveying information and feedback that the player needs. However, we wanted it to retain a Mediaeval-like feeling, so that it remains in line with the game and the general visual aspects of it.

Crossroads Inn vs. Crossroads Inn 2As you can see, the new UI design is lighter, and smoother, while also being much clearer as to its functionality, details of objects, and so on.


As it often happens during a creative process, we went to some of our favourite games to find inspiration for the new UI. First of them was Anno 1800. With its clear division of elements of the UI, it creates a functional system that’s not obscuring the game itself, while the colours, textures, and slight decorations create a visual feeling bringing the setting to life.

While completely different in mood, Two Point Campus is another of our inspirations. The UI is not overly stylized and it conveys all the important feedback and information in a clear way, never leaving the player wondering what exactly is going on and where, how, and what they can do.


Another game worth a mention is The Witcher: Monster Slayer. While it’s a game aimed at a different platform, the use of clearly defined icons and brackets, combined with aptly chosen textures and ornaments, creates a perfectly clear and yet climactic UI.


There are a couple of things that we wanted to change from the UI design of Crossroads Inn, and one of those is the colours - and textures. We also wanted to avoid design choices typical for most Mediaeval-set games wherein choices of colours and textures create a very heavy and morose atmosphere.

There is no denying that that does fit many games, but in case of Crossroads Inn 2 we wanted the UI to be something that’s pleasing to look at not just within the setting of the game, but also aside from it, for when the player needs to forget for a moment about world immersion and focus on purely managerial, technical, and strategic elements.

Colour palette and textures.

Of course, keeping the Mediaeval tone of the UI was still very important for us. But to make it lighter, we decided to avoid overabundance of dark colours or metal and stone textures. Instead, we chose beige and dark, navy blue, combined with paper, wood, and textile textures. We’ve also added some Medieval-inspired ornamental patterns to finally achieve a clear, functional, but also era-appropriate UI.
And, since the art direction is overseeing UI, 2D, and 3D graphics, it all fits together nicely, having been designed together simultaneously from the start.


Taking into consideration all that we’ve learned from Crossroads Inn, and with new people on the team bringing new ideas, we’ve decided to step away from the UI of the original game which seemingly favoured visuals over functionality. The visuals themselves also did not fit our vision for Crossroads Inn 2, so, in the end, we went in a completely different direction, creating a much clearer UI that makes the navigation much easier, while making the visuals equally stylized, but in a more complex fashion.

Placing furniture in Crossroads Inn and Crossroads Inn 2.

As you can see, the UI is much clearer, while also offering much more data and feedback to the player.

Guest list and guest details in Crossroads Inn and Crossroads Inn 2.

Aside from offering more information, the design ideas behind the new UI included avoiding creating empty spaces often present in the UI windows from the first game.

Worker list and details (and worker promotion window) in Crossroads Inn and Crossroads Inn 2.

As it’s been said - more details, more data, everything much clearer.

And last, but not least: event windows:

Crossroads Inn and Crossroads Inn 2 events.

Again - less empty space, clearer, and stylistically pleasing.


According to Maja, our Art Director, the aim of the design team and the art direction is ‘to create a unified but unique feeling of all the artistic aspects of the game - UI, 3D assets, and 2D illustrations. We are trying to find a sweet spot between the gray and grim medieval world and colorful and free realm of fantasy.’

Thanks to this clear vision, Crossroads Inn 2’s visuals are all working in tandem, bringing to life the same vision of the world, no matter if it’s through the guests that arrive in the inn, the graphics representing different elements, or the interface through which the player navigates.


And keep an eye out for our next dev blog - there’s a lot more that we’d like to share with you!

We've got one more thing, Here are some questions you've often asked:

FAQ:
Question: Is the new system going to be more responsive than in the previous game?
Answer: Yes, one of our main goals was to make the UI clear and intuitive, while also providing the player with all the feedback they may need.

Question: Have you improved the readability of text from the original Crossroads Inn?
Answer: Yes, it was one of the more important items on our Fix-It list, since it is a management game with narrative elements, meaning the player needs all the information and feedback served in the most coherent way possible.

Join us on Discord where you can ask devs directly about Crossroads Inn 2: https://discord.gg/gmrTUWsgpq