Bartending at Stud Finders
A pixel-art bartending sim set in Stud Finders, a gay circuit party and leather bar. Work one shift from 6:00pm to 2:30am, serving drinks for tips. Let the crowd get too unhappy and the night ends early.
Clock inServing drinks is the game
Pouring and delivering orders is where the money and the fun are. Everything else pulls you away from it.
Triage under pressure
You can never do everything. The skill is choosing what to ignore for the next 20 seconds.
The crowd is the star
Guests are loud, expressive and specific to this bar. It should feel like it was made by someone who worked there.
One more night
A shift is short, every night is different, and there is always a reason to clock in again.
The Night
One in-game hour takes 100 seconds, so a full shift lasts about 14 minutes. Make it to 2:30am for full pay plus a closing bonus. Each phase brings more guests with less patience, and the house music builds with it. At last call everyone still drinking wants one more. The doors close at 2:15am and you serve the room out.
1. Happy hour
Regulars and the after-work crowd.
Mostly regular, leather daddy and first-timer
2. Warm-up
The DJ is on. Here come the groups.
Mostly regular, leather daddy and first-timer, a busy dance floor
3. Peak
The floor is packed.
Mostly circuit boys, bear crew and go-go dancer, a packed dance floor
4. Last call
Everyone wants one more.
Mostly regular, leather daddy and circuit boys, a busy dance floor
The Bar
Stud Finders is laid out from the real bar. Guests come in the front door into a social area with standing tables, and order across the top of an island bar in the middle of the room. You work the aisle inside it. Wine, ice, the well, the soda gun and the seltzer cooler sit under the top counter; the washer, the glass rack and the beer taps line the back counter. Leave by the side exit at the left end to reach the floor and the dance floor, or by the back exit beside the taps to head down to the back room for stock.
Drinks and Stations
Every drink comes from its own station and takes a different action. Pours are held: release inside the green band of the meter for a perfect pour and a bigger tip. Underpour and the guest grumbles; hold too long and it spills over the bar.
Draft beer
$6Glass, then hold to pour at the taps.
Vodka soda
$9Glass, ice, hold to pour at the well, then the soda gun.
Red wine
$8Glass, then hold to pour at the wine rack.
Hard seltzer
$7Grab a can from the cooler.
Vodka shot
$5With empty hands, hold to pour a shot at the well.
Water
$0Glass, then the soda gun. Always free.
Guests
Guests take a spot at the top counter, show their order in a bubble and start a patience timer. Serve them before it runs out. Where a guest stands over a station, the action serves them when you are holding their drink, and otherwise the station comes first: grab a glass, a seltzer or a shot with E, and clear the empties sitting there with Q. Where a station has nothing for empty hands, E clears the empties. Hand over the wrong drink and they send it back while the timer keeps running. Tips grow with how much patience is left and how good the pour was, and a streak of perfect pours tips extra. From warm-up, groups order a whole round across several stations. Drinks you hand over wait on the counter, and nobody pays until the round is complete. Groups pay and tip more, but if they give up, the drinks already poured are wasted. Once you hand over the first drink of a round, the group waits far more patiently (their bar turns blue) as long as you keep the drinks coming. The bar has a sales target of $440 a night, and your grade weighs it against how many guests you served.
The Vibe Meter
The vibe meter is the room's unhappiness. Walkouts, wrong drinks, bad pours, empty stations, guests left waiting and every mess left sitting fill it. Fast service, perfect streaks and quick clean-ups drain it, and it settles on its own in quiet stretches with nothing left to clean. If it fills, the lights come up early.
The Crowd
Every guest is one of nine kinds, and each plays differently. Looks are rolled separately, so any body, age or style can turn up as anyone; only a telltale piece of outfit marks a drag queen, a pup or the bride. Read the room from their poses: a raised hand is ordering, crossed arms are running out of patience, red and steaming means they are about to walk, and arms in the air means you nailed it.
Regular
On their own · The same drink every visit
Says hello before ordering. Start their usual before they ask and the tip doubles.
Leather daddy
On their own · A beer
Tips better the longer the night goes without a mess.
First-timer
On their own · Anything
Changes their mind once, partway through the wait.
Pup pack
2 to 3 at once · Seltzers and beers
Order one at a time, back to back.
Bear crew
3 to 4 at once · Rounds of draft beer
Drain a keg fast.
Bachelorette party
5 to 6 at once · Six different drinks
Loud, slow to order, and likely to cause a mess.
Circuit boys
3 to 5 at once · Rounds of vodka sodas and shots
Arrive in packs at peak. All those shots make vomit far likelier.
Drag queen
3 to 5 at once · Drinks for the whole cast
Very little patience, but serving her fast lifts the whole room.
Go-go dancer
On their own · Water
No sale and no tip, but a served dancer lifts the room.
The regulars
Each comes in at most once a night, always orders the same thing and always looks the same. Learn their usuals: hand it over while they are still saying hello and the tip doubles.
After their drink
Served guests do not just leave. They hang around for 25 to 55 seconds at a standing table, out on the floor or, once the DJ is on, on the dance floor, and the room fills up with side conversations in little lilac bubbles. Every so often two of them slip off to the restroom together and come back out a lot livelier. None of it needs you; it is the sound of a good night. Those restroom trips do count toward the restroom mess, though.
The Staff
You are not alone behind the scenes. Your coworkers come and go through the night, drifting between their usual spots. They are part of the room, not part of the job, and never get in your way.
You
Shirtless in a black bar apron with a towel over your shoulder, so the crowd can always spot who is pouring.
Vee
Works the coat check on underwear night, one coat at a time and not quickly. When her line backs up she will holler; check a coat yourself to help, and the tip is yours.
Bob
Big, ginger and bearded. Drifts between the end of the bar, the DJ booth and the back room, checking in on guests as he goes.
Heathcliff
Rainbow cap, grey beard, brewery tee. Checks on the social area and the floor, and greets every regular by name.
Stock and the Back Room
Every station runs out, and its gauge shows how close it is. Stock lives in the back room, out through the back exit and past the DJ booth, so every restock is time away from your guests. An empty station does not stop the night; it just means every order for that drink waits until you fix it.
Kegs
The taps pour 20 beers a keg. When it blows, hold the action at the walk-in for 3 seconds to swap it, the slowest restock in the bar.
Bottles and cases
Vodka and red come by the bottle (6 and 4 drinks each), seltzer by the case of 8. Grab twice from a shelf to carry two bottles. Grabbed the wrong thing? Q puts it back from anywhere, or press the action at its shelf once your arms are full.
Ice
The ice bin holds 12 scoops, one per vodka soda. Fill a bucket at the ice machine for 6 more.
Glassware
The bar owns 16 glasses. Guests leave their empties on the bar; clear up to 4 at a time and load them into the washer, which hands them back clean after 6 seconds. Run out and no glass drink can be made. A guest who has to stand at someone else's empties starts out short of patience.
Messes
Messes earn nothing and drain the room every second they sit. None of them are random: each has a cause you can read, so a good bartender prevents them as well as cleaning them. Hold F (the Clean button on touch) on a mess to clean it.
Spill
Wipe it up with empty hands.
Cause: Your overpours, drinks you dump on the floor, and guests knocking theirs over. A sticky floor makes more spills likely.
Vomit
Mop and bucket from the mop closet.
Cause: Vodka. Every vodka soda served raises the odds, more so with a full bar. It fades as the night goes on.
Restroom mess
Clean it with paper from the back room.
Cause: Traffic. The restroom needs attention after every so many guests and trips to the restroom, and it drains the room faster the longer it waits.
The Run
You work night after night until you are fired. A night that ends early is a strike, and 3 strikes end the run. Every night after the first is busier: more guests, less patience and more mess. Tips are banked between nights, and the run is saved in this browser, so you can clock out and pick it up later.
Themed nights
The first night is always a house night. After that each night rolls a theme, never the same one twice in a row, and every theme has its own music.
House night
A regular night at Stud Finders.
Leather night
Mostly leather daddies and beer. A patient, generous crowd, and fewer messes.
Circuit party
A guest DJ and a huge rush at peak. Shots and vodka sodas everywhere, and the most vomit of any night.
Drag show
Shows at 10pm, midnight and 1:15am. The bar empties during a number, then floods after. Queens get impatient before a show.
Bear night
Draft beer in volume. Kegs blow twice as often.
Underwear night
Everyone checks their clothes at the door. Vee works the coat check, slowly. When her line backs up, lend a hand.
Pride weekend
Everything at once: a crowd half again as big, and double the tips.
Slow Tuesday
A handful of guests, every one a regular with exact expectations. Anything less than a perfect pour costs the tip.
Perks
After each night, 3 perks are on offer. Buy one with your banked tips, or save up for a better one later. Perks last for the rest of the run.
Speed rail
$40Grabbing, icing and the soda gun take no time at all.
Faster taps
$50Every pour runs 30% faster.
Better shoes
$40Move 15% faster, and never slip on a spill.
Bigger ice bin
$30The ice bin holds twice as much.
Second well
$40The well holds twice as much vodka.
Bus tub
$35Carry one more bottle or bucket per trip, and two more empties.
Barback
$70A barback works the back room: every 45 seconds he carries stock out to the emptiest station, kegs included.
Porter
$60The porter cleans the restroom 20 seconds after it gets messy.
Door host
$50Slows arrivals at peak by an eighth.
Bigger tip jar
$45+20% tips all night.
Happy hour pricing
$35A dollar off before 9pm brings 30% more guests in early.
Top-shelf vodka
$60Vodka sodas and shots sell for $3 more.
Controls
On a phone, play in landscape: a joystick under your left thumb, and the action and dump buttons under your right.
Roadmap
1. Prototype Done
One bartender, the bar counter, four drink types with pour quality, solo orders, patience timers, the clock and the vibe meter.
2. Pressure Done
Stock limits and the back room, then three messes: vomit, the restroom and spills.
3. Full night Done
Group orders, the four phases in full and a richer end-of-night summary.
4. The crowd Done
Layered guest sprites, archetypes such as regulars, bear crews and drag queens, and mood animations.
5. Replay Done
An endless run with three strikes, themed nights and perks between nights.
6. Community
A seeded nightly party shared by every player, with a leaderboard on the site.
7. Co-op
Two to four bartenders sharing one bar, one vibe meter and one tip pool.