It is time for yet another update to King of Retail. The primary focus has been on easing the onboarding for new players, and to better explain many of the game's mechanics to those that want to go deep into the micromanagement aspect of the game. So lets get to it.
--- Tutorials ---
Many of you have reported difficulties when starting the game and learning some of the terms and mechanics that exist in the game. Also the existing ones were in much need of an upgrade, as they were outdated. So much has been changed, and replaced with a new system that makes it easier for me to maintain and add new stuff when the need for it arises.
- Business School
At the main menu as well as at the university in campaign mode you can access the business school. Here you find the more explanatory tutorials presented as small courses you can take on various subjects.
- Campaign
Getting into the campaign mode has been a bit confusing for many to find their way around it all, given that the only vague explanations are at the City Hall. These are still there, but now you also have a more bullet point type of tutorial that will assist you along the road, which hopefully will make this experience a lot easier and more understandable.
- In store
The in store tutorial looks almost the same, but it has more tasks now that will bring you more around the store, giving you a better chance to understand what is possible at the store.
- Office
The office tutorial was the last remaining part with looks from the old UI. This has been changed to look like the rest of the game.
--- New Articles ---
Focus in this patch has not been so much on adding content, but we have still managed to add a new pack of shoes to the game. This was a bit underrepresented compared to the rest of the categories in clothing, which is why we decided to complete this category.
--- Logos ---
To the ones that haven't experimented with their own logos, there is now a much bigger selection to choose from when designing your stores, compared to the previous four to select from. Hopefully it will bring some variation to your stores and corporations.
--- Quality of Life ---
As you can see there has not been work on one massive feature alone, but development has been diversified a bit. A part of this was adding many minor changes to existing features and screens,
- Article overlay
This has been updated so you have much more information available when looking at the article. As many has requested it also shows if the article is present at the store, making it easier to find any articles that are only taking up space in storage.
- Set task for all days
You can now set an employee to do one task all week with one button, instead of having to do it individually for each day.
- Options at office
When you press "Escape" at the office, you now have access to the regular menu. Here you can also revisit the office tutorial if that is your desire.
- Minor UI changes
Other than the above many screens have in general received small tweaks here and there. Nothing big and noticeable, but small details that should improve the overall usage. During the next period work on improving existing screens will still continue.
- Bugs
Also some minor bugs have been fixed, and I am very appreciative of bugs you find and report. Even though they are not fixed immediately they all go to my list of things I need to look at, so please continue to report stuff you might find in game.
--- New Art---
With all of these in-game changes, I couldn't leave the game's art behind. We've worked hard with an artist to create this brand new cover art for King of Retail!
--- Whats next? ---
Those were the major changes for this version. And we are already preparing for the next one. It is not fully planned how much it will contain, but I can at least tell some of the things we intend to do.
- Women's clothing
The reason we haven't got that many new articles in this update is because we also have been working on a new category. My super fantastic graphics artist has been spending many hours on making various women's shoes and clothes. There is still work to do on this, as the plan is that it can be playable with a large selection of articles from the next update.
- Options
It might also be the time to expand the in-game options apart from graphics and sound settings. So this will also be added in the next update, and ideas for stuff to add to a "General Options" screen is more then welcome.
That was it for this update. As always, feedback, bug reports and ideas are always very welcome. Both here and on the Discord, which you can join here:
I am off to work on the next update.
Until next time, happy sales.
Cheers Daniel
Store Design Contest WINNERS!
Dear retailers,
We're excited to announce the four winners of our store design contest. This was a very difficult contest to judge -- we honestly didn't expect all of the entries to be this good. After careful consideration and lots of trying to convince each other of our favorite picks, we finally have a list of winners.
Category winners
Below are our favorite stores in the Clothing, Electornics, and Supermarket categories.
Clothing - Kathy's
Our first winning store is Kathy's by Discord user Kathy. We see a lot of stores filled to the brim with articles and posters, but this one favors a clean and simple design. It's reminiscent of those fancy clothing stores that offer quality over quantity in their catalog, making for large, minimalist, and open floor plans.
We also particularly love the staff room, with its trendy wall design.
(And yes, we are aware that the image has been touched up in post, but that had no influence over the vote!)
Electronics - C'tech
Our winner in the Electronics category is C'tech by Discord user El Caponey. Right away, we loved the attention to detail in creating a 'returns' section. Even though there are no returns in the game, it made the store feel even more alive and realistic.
Second, the little 'alcoves' filled with different articles was a unique approach that we don't see every day. While the color scheme was a bit much on the eyes, the floor plan and article placement cemented this store as our favorite in the Electronics department.
[previewyoutube="qDQt-XD8zZI;full"]
Supermarket - Designer Drunk
And the final category winner is Designer Drunk by Discord user Lemongrass. While the name might imply that some alcoholic beverages were consumed in the making of this store, we didn't notice. The store wears its theme on its sleeve: retro and disco.
From the lava lamp logo on the doors, to the somewhat trippy patterns on the floors and walls, Designer Drunk maintains a very consistent style. You can imagine inebriated customers coming in after a night of clubbing to pick up some more booze (or hamburgers?).
Grand Prize winner - All-in
Drum roll please...
The grand prize winner, our #1 pick, is All-in by Discord user Gastong. Simply put, this store has everything. A consistent color scheme, lots of labeled article sections, tons of custom posters, and the "Please wear a mask" signs were a nice touch. Out of all the entries, this store was most likely to actually exist out there in the wild (well, apart from the poster behind the counter).
[previewyoutube="IuUWEBHad7M;full"]
Thank you to everyone who participated! Again, this was a seriously difficult competition to judge, and every entry had a shot at winning. And to the winners, we'll be in touch soon regarding prizes!
Happy Sales.
King of Retail: Store Design Contest!
Dear Retailers,
As some of you may have noticed, our community has grown quite a bit recently. We’ve been seeing a lot of entertaining Twitch streamers pick up the game and introduce their viewers to our little neck of the Steam store. That’s why we’re organizing a fun contest for you all to participate in!
Store design contest
The title says it all! Being good with numbers is one thing, but a great retail manager also has a keen eye for designing a store. Setting the right price doesn’t matter if your store doesn’t look good in the first place. A great store provides an atmosphere that almost makes it impossible for the customer not to enter the store and suddenly feel they need everything you sell.
Rules
Three categories you can enter in: electronics, clothing, and supermarkets. You can enter one store per category.
Store must be at least 15 blocks large.
Must submit either screenshots or a video in the #store-design-contest channel on Discord (videos are preferred!)
You are allowed (and honestly, encouraged) to use the beta branch cheat menu. This way, everyone can be on equal footing.
You are allowed to make your own custom logos and posters.
You have until Friday April 23rd to submit your store(s)!
To switch to the beta branch:
Right-click King of Retail in your Steam library
Click 'Properties'
Click 'Betas'
In the drop-down menu, select 'beta'
Your game should now update to the beta branch. In game, press Z to bring up the cheat menu!
Note: your usual managers and stores won't be available on the beta branch. Your saves aren't gone, they're just on the regular branch, so don't panic!
What will I be judged on?
You will be judged on two main things:
Design, meaning the overall look of the store. Consider things like:
Do your colors and materials complement each other well?
Are your displays consistently designed?
Are your signs attention-grabbing without being annoying?
Floorplan, meaning does your store make sense?
Is it sorted into minor departments that would make it easy for a customer to use?
Does the layout make for a sensible way for the customers to move around?
Prizes
There will be four winners in total -- one for each category, and one best overall store. No matter how incredible your stores look, you can only win one prize. The managers of the best store in each of the three categories will:
Receive three King of Retail Steam keys to give away to friends.
Get to write a spam e-mail that will randomly appear in-game for other players! Are you a foreign prince looking for a loan, are you part of a pyramid scheme, or a cult? Express your creativity!
The manager of the best overall store will:
Receive five King of Retail Steam keys to give away to friends.
Get a piece of clothing with their own name/design in the game!
Note: we reserve the right to edit your e-mails or designs. No bigotry, misogyny, etc. -- keep things PG 13.
Tips!
Use the beta branch (instructions above!) cheat menu so you won't have to worry about money!
Want to create beautiful posters, but don't own Photoshop? Use free alternatives like Gimp or Photopea.
Check out the tutorial below to truly master the poster maker!
[previewyoutube="4ayMB6DevbY;full"]
And that's it! We hope you're as excited as we are to see everyone's creations. Don't forget to have fun with it, and don't stress yourself out too much -- there's bound to be more contests in the future.
Happy sales.
Ready for v. 0.13.0? Need anything for your computer?
Dear retailers!
Time has come for a new update for King of Retail which will primarily focus on adding new articles as well as a few new features to the game.
--- Electronics ---
First of all my great graphics artist have been working on expanding the electronics category to a whole new level. This means that a lot of new articles have been added to the game, mostly computers and accessories.
So now there are also laptops, monitors, keyboards and many other things that would go to a proper electronics store.
This is of course only a small selection, as the total number is over 150+ new articles, and even with some to be added later when certain implementations have been made.
--- Discounts ---
To top this off a much requested feature has been implemented. You can now discount each display individually, meaning it's possible to create sales and discount areas and so on.
This also uses the poster system, so it's easy to see which displays are discounted, and which are not.
These can of course also be customized by posters of your own.
--- Parcel Companies ---
I am also beginning the steps of adding some more flesh to the campaign experience itself. Initially this is done by adding various parcel companies to the game. In the current build, all of your articles are delivered when your store opens. This will become more of a luxury after this patch, as each delivery company will have its pros and cons.
They can now be late, forget some of your articles, deliver at specific hours, carry different amounts and some might not allow extra deliveries. The better companies are more expensive to make a deal with, so find a solution that isn't too costly for your current business. You can find this inside your HQ.
Those of you already playing campaign mode might want to negotiate thias as soon as possible, as it now contains limitations on the amount of articles that is delivered.
--- Negotiating system ---
To do this I decided for an improved negotiation system. This will also feature in some of the future implementations as well.
--- Minor Changes ---
- Article advertisements
Basically already added to the game, as it got uploaded in a hotfix. But it's now possible at your office to advertise specific articles in the magazine, creating a hype to try and boost the sales for that particular one.
- Talent speeds
Some mentioned that it was too easy to get highly talented staff in high population areas. So now this has been taken into account, making it require more actions from your staff to increase in level when populations are higher.
- Adding day when leaving game
There has also been a persisting bug that added an extra day if you left the game while in the store. This should also not be happening any more.
- Proper use of exits
The AI's should be better at using the proper entrance and exits now.
--- Community ---
The discord is becoming a more and more active place to be, with many contributing of various kind. It's very humbling to see all of this energy you are using to create various stuff.
For instance we have this amazing tutorial on how to use the ingame poster system.
Both in English
[previewyoutube="4ayMB6DevbY;full"]
and in German
[previewyoutube="vIoiUW4wWhM;full"]
I have also seen some interesting stores being made. Some of them even push the possibilities much further than I thought possible, so it's a true pleasure to see the love that have gone into them, and I thought I would share them with the rest of you :)
This image is from a player that has taken the employee management to the next level.
Also a very generous discord user has also taken up the challenge and translated the game into Italian as well, so this language will also be featured from now on.
If you also want to join the Discord, you can do so here:
This was the news regarding this update. I can say that we are already preparing new shoes for the next one, as well as again planning new and exciting features for you to enjoy.
Until next time, have a great sale. //Daniel
V. 0.12.0 is released! Have you seen my new store?
Dear Retailers
The last update arrived just before Christmas, and time sure does fly. It's already mid February! However we didn't have a long vacation, but have instead been working hard on bringing you a big update featuring a lot of improvements to the game. But let me go into the specifics of it.
--- Store fronts ---
Now that I have the assistance of a graphics artist the graphics of the game will get a lot more attention than before. One of the largest areas where this already came to show, is the rework of the store fronts.
So instead of having to deal with the simple facade, there is now a wide variety of store fronts to select from. All of them customizable in various ways, to allow you give your stores an even more unique look. In the future even more customizablility will most likely be added to these store fronts.
--- Showcasing ---
However these store fronts have been added for other reasons than just looking good. Almost every store uses the possibility of adding focus to various articles by showcasing them in their windows. This is also possible now, as each store front have several areas where you can showcase a specific article. This will add more hype to articles, making the customers want to buy them even more. In this way you can better influence the customers to buy what you want them to. But also remember to change your window once in a while, as the customers at some point will have seen and purchased that article making it less effective over time.
--- Build system ---
One of the first things that was added to the game, was the system that built the floors, walls and the store itself from various data. And that system has just been built on and built on until now. However as that system was built in the early phase, where I knew a lot less than I do now, that system had a lot of limitations. So to be able to do some things I wanted to add, this system needed to be completely rewritten, which has taken quite some time.
But why was this actually done?
Well first of all to support the new store fronts of varying sizes, which can also be moved around. But also to allow for something a lot of you has asked for, for some time now. That is placing walls wherever you would like. So now you can add walls and split up your sales areas in smaller compartments if you would like to.
And since the UI of that menu also needed an upgrade as many found it difficult to use, I gave it a complete overhaul also, making it lot easier to use.
This also now allows for you to change floors and walls in stores you can't expand, so you still have some possibilities in that regard.
--- Other graphics upgrades ---
Since the looks of the store recieved this upgrade, I decided to focus on upgraded more areas such that the looks of the store would change completely
--- New ceiling ---
First of all the ceiling of the store has been upgraded to a much better look, as well as allowing you to select its color.
--- New walls & floors ---
Also there has been a large addition to the selection of floors and walls you can select from to customize the looks of your store.
--- Smaller implementations ---
There have also been made some smaller changes to other areas of the game
- Selection of floor plans in campaign mode The biggest flaw of the old build system, was that it didn't support transitions of floor plans in an easy way between being in and out of the store. With this fixed, you can now select between various floor plans before you buy or rent a store in the campaign mode.
- Single store category selections Before you start a single store game you are asked which categories you wish to sell. As having more articles requires more performance from your computer, I hope the possibility of selecting more articles will help those of you who have trouble running the Single Store mode.
- Outer materials As a minor preparation to give the areas your stores lie in various looks, the outer wall of the building you reside in will now have a random material, instead of only having the same dark gray color for all buildings.
There are plans of adding unique environments for all major areas in campaign mode, however this is quite a task, so it is held off for a bit.
- Bigger area The new system required a change in the available area of the store, so this area has been made a bit bigger.
Minor Changes - Audio settings now saves when changed - You can change the name of your store from your office in Single Store mode - You are now asked if you want to leave the store when using the HUD. - In some areas the currency was not used properly. - Adjusted collision on displays so they fit better against each other.
--- Save games ---
All of this comes with a bit of bad news. All of these changes weren't fully compatible with your save games. So when you load your stores the next time, you will notice a few changes.
- First of all your walls and floors will be painted in the default materials, as these are reset to support the changes.
- Some of your doors might have been moved. The new system couldn't easily figure out where a door was when loading an old store. So a door between your areas will be placed at random, which might lead to down packing of inventory, and areas that are hard to access.
- In some of your campaign levels you have the possibility to expand your store even though you shouldn't be able to.
I always try to make all of your saves compatible from update to update, and spend a large amount of time in doing so. Unfortunately these changes were too big, so I am sorry for this, and the inconvenience it causes.
--- Translations ---
The translations to the various languages are also improving at a steady rate.
Danish, Dutch and Russian are translated in house, so these languages will not be updated as frequently form the translate as the rest.
To help with translations, go to https://translate.kingofretail.com.
--- Active users on discord ---
There have been a good amount of activity on the discord lately, and especially in regards to testing the beta. A lot of bugs have been found and great feedback have been given, making my work much easier. And in this regard there have been some users who provided an exceptional amount of help, so I would like to give these an extra appreciation. These are:
wfa, CrspyChcknLickn, El Caponey, eclipsifuggs and exapsy.
Thanks a lot for the help :-D
Make sure you join us on Discord!
This was it for now. I hope you will enjoy the new changes and possibilities, and as always i am very interested in listening to your feedback, ideas and any bugs you encounter. I will head off again to start work on the next batch of improvements.
So until next time, happy sales. //Daniel
Letter to our retailers (12)
Dear Retailers
A month into the new year, and it's time for an update about what the last month was all about. As I mentioned in the previous letter, I am now assisted by a new graphics artist who will help create a lot of new assets for the game. This should make the production faster than before, as I now can focus more on programming new and exciting features for the game. It is also nice to have someone else join on the development itself, so this is a much welcome addition.
- Note - This stuff is not available for play yet, but will be when the next update arrives.
--- Store Fronts ---
She has also been thrown right in the middle of things from the beginning, and has already created lots of new stuff that will be added to the game. First of all, a whole new lot of store fronts for you to select and choose from, for customizing your stores even more.
They also look much better than the previous facade, so should bring a general lift to the overall look.
The facades themselves can off course also be customized in various ways, by customizing colors, the sign and the store name.
--- Showcasing ---
Another new feature of the facades is the ability to showcase desired articles, such that you can influence your customers even more. Want to start a trend of selling a specific computer or sports jersey? Show it in your window and watch the sales of that article increase. But remember to change it once in a while, as the customers also will grow tired of watching the same article in your windows over and over again.
The window displays themselves are rather simple in looks, but will also be upgraded.
--- Floors & Walls ---
To accompany the general graphics improvements, the selection of floors and walls will also be expanded, and give you many new possibilities to design your stores.
I cant share an image of the new walls as they are being made right this moment, but they will definitely also be an improvement to the game.
--- New build system ---
Most of the above is graphics. So what have I actually been spending my time on?
To allow for much of this, a pretty significant part of the game had to be recreated from scratch. The system that managed procedural building of your stores was one of the first things to be added to the game, and was created when i was still tumbling about, learning how to work properly, resulting in a system that was... less good.
This will not in itself be that visible in game, as its core functionalities that have been changed. However it was changed for a reason which allows for new and interesting stuff.
First of all the UI when building store was made more intuitive. I have had many reactions and questions on how to build the store, so hopefully a proper menu will make it much more straightforward.
This also allows for moving the facade to a different location, as well as a feature which many of you has requested for long. Free placed walls
This means that you can now separate your store up some more, and get rid of the "Big Room" look that always came along with running a big store.
One of the major flaws of the system, was that the game didn't knew how the floor plan was arranged before the level itself was actually loaded, which made for lots of limitations.
However with this new system it also make for possibilities in areas you might not think of. So now when opening a store in your corporation you will now be able to select from multiple floor plans when opening a store, making it less of a lottery on what you get.
-
This also allow for some interesting feature possibilities when it's time to take a look at improving Campaign mode.
--- Next Up ---
So this is basically what one month of work has looked like. A few things still remain to be added to the next update. This will be the new walls, and an upgraded look for the ceiling, so it also will be upgraded with the rest of the store.
When this is done a Beta will be released, so the bugs that I miss can be caught before the actual release of this version.
So this was the info I had to share for now. Feedback, comments and ideas are always much welcome.
Make sure you join us on Discord!
Until next time: Have a great sale
Best regards: Daniel
V 0.11 is out! Posters, Currencies and new UI
Dear Retailers!
Two months have already gone by, time flies by fast. But these two months has not gone idly by. Again a lot of new updates and changes have made it into the game.
--- New Updates ---
--- Currency converter ---
Many of you have mentioned that prices are rather unrealistic in EUR or USD or other local currency. But in game currency has always been in DKK (Danish Krone) as that made it much easier for me to relate to that value, and when we started programming, we didn't give it much thought. However, this is now finally changed with the arrival of the currency converter.
With this you can select from some predefined currencies, or define your very own. So hopefully it will allow for a more relatable experience.
--- Poster System ---
A couple of updates ago posters were introduced to the game to lift the visuals of the stores. However as I have learned some new tricks since then, this have been upgraded even further.
First of all you can now create your own posters in-game with the Poster Editor. Add and transform shapes, add various patterns and select their color. Add texts, add an image of an article, and so on. You can also upload your own images and use these as in-game posters.
These posters can be placed different places. First of all the displays all uses this system now, allowing for much more variety on these.
But you can also buy frames and place these on the floor, on the wall and make them hang from the ceiling. You can also place them just outside your store, meaning you can decorate a bit on the outside too.
Also now the posters actually influence the customers. As you can define if a poster advertises cheap articles or perhaps quality articles, you can influence your customers to buy articles in a specific direction. You can also advertise a specific article, and create hype for it.
--- UI updates ---
--- Main Menu ---
It was also time to change the main menu from its late 90's look to something a bit more modern. Also since some languages weren't supported by the font that was used it needed to change. So I gave it an overhaul in an attempt to make it look a bit more modern.
Whether i succeeded or not is for you to decide, but I think it's an acceptable look.
--- In Game Menu ---
But seeing the change of this, I wanted to bring a similar look to the in game menus itself. So each in game menu has also been given an overhaul
Hopefully it will make the game look more unified, without having lots of different UI styles all over. There are some screens that are left behind, but this is because they will be completely redone in a later patch anyway.
- Ordering menu -
During the overhaul, it made sense to completely overhaul some of the menus instead. One of these was the ordering menu.
I have added a lot of the features that you have requested over time. First of all it has been organized better, which should make stuff more intuitive. Secondly there are options to how it counts the stock, as well as the price to display. Then you have various ways of ordering, as well as various possibilities for that ordering type. I hope this is more to your liking compared to the old version.
--- Catalogue Designer ---
This was also a screen that made more sense to change completely. So hopefully it is also now a bit more intuitive, as well as containing more explanations on what the various stuff do.
--- Minor additions ---
--- New language: Russian ---
Thanks to our publisher, the game is also now fully translated in Russian by one of the employees that actually speaks the language (compared to the Google Translating i use to fill out remaining words that haven't been translated in our community translator).
So this is the current standing of the translations:
If you want to help out improving a language you can go to: https://translate.kingofretail.com/
--- Other changes ---
A lot of bugs has also been fixed, as well as other minor features has been changed or added. The main ones to mention is:
- The color picker is now full screen, and doesn't take up UI space when not used. It will be improved with easier color selection in the future. - At your office the polaroids seemed to stack on top of each other. They shouldn't any more. - A bug where changing opening hours didn't update staff properly has been fixed. - Copy pasting colors can be done across both registers and displays - Shoes have been made a bit more expensive.
Again, reports on bugs you encounter are more than welcome :-)
--- Other Information ---
--- Next up ---
Finally, after all of this time doing it myself, I now have a graphics artist helping me. And this should hopefully speed the work flow up a lot. In fact she is already preparing stuff for the next update, which will mostly focus on store fronts, store building and more decorations.
This is an early draft, but this and more is what you can expect in the future. More on what actually will be possible will be explained in later posts.
--- Boubers ---
I sometimes just look around the internet to see what is happening, and sometimes i even sumble across something interesting :P On youtube we found this channel, created by Boubers. Currently he is at his 236'th video of King of Retail.
That is quite a humbling dedication, so I wanted to pay my respects in return and share his channel with the rest of you.
This is what I had to tell about this update. I hope you will enjoy the changes and the new features. Feedback, bug reports and great ideas are always welcome both here and on our discord. Feel free to join it here: Discord
Until next time, have a great sale.
Cheers Daniel
King of Retail - Poster design contest!
Dear Retailers,
I’m happy to see that some of you have already started fiddling around with the poster maker, which is currently still in beta. Being in an early state, it doesn’t have any stock poster backgrounds yet, meaning you still have to make your own from scratch. That’s a lot of work to do each time, and that’s why I’m launching a very exciting contest!
The Contest
The general gist of the contest is simple: design your own poster background! Whether you’re creatively gifted or can’t tell a brush from a paint bucket, I’d urge everyone to participate!
The Rules
Of course, there are some specifics to hash out. To enter the contest, please follow these rules:
You must deliver both a horizontal and vertical background, meaning 708x1000 pixels (landscape), and 1000x708 pixels (portrait).
Alternatively you could create two banner poster backgrounds, which are 357x1000 pixels and 1000x357 pixels, respectively.
You must use your background to make one poster in the in-game poster maker, as a proof of concept. To access the poster maker, right-click King of Retail in your Steam library > Click Properties > go to the Beta tab > switch to the Beta branch.
You can create something new from scratch, or use royalty-free images, nothing under copyright.
Nothing NSFW/Politics/Religion related.
No transparency in your image, it messes with the poster maker!
Apart from those three mentioned above, you are free to go with whatever theme you like! Cute dogs? Sure. A majestic sunrise? Go for it.
The Prizes
Probably the coolest prize is that winning poster backgrounds will be implemented in the game! That’s right, you could see your poster appear in other people’s playthroughs.
Adding to that, you can be further immortalized by having your gamertag appear in the game. “How?” you ask? Well, your gamertag will randomly show up on job applications! Note: I do not recommend putting your gamertag on actual job applications.
And last but not least, winners will receive a Steam key for King of Retail to give out! It is the season of giving, after all.
Examples
Below are some examples!
I'm excited to see what you all come up with!
Have a great sale.
VOTE for King of Retail in the 2020 Steam Awards!
Dear Retailers!
The 2020 Steam Awards have arrived! And while I think there are a few awards that fit well with King Of Retail, we are only eligible for one of them. That's fine, though, because I think this award fits the game best! And that is the Labor of Love category!
There are many words that can describe my feelings regarding the development of King of Retail, but I think the main one would be: love. Having spent quite some time being a store manager in real life, trying to create a game that accurately represents that life is incredibly fulfilling and fun, and the reason why I put a lot of love into its development.
As an extension of this, this game wouldn't be where it is without the love the game has received from the community. As I am the only one working on the game itself, all of your feedback, bug reports and great ideas is tremendously helpful, and keep my motivation to work on the game on a steady high.
So if you feel the game deserves it. I would like to ask you to vote for King of Retail in the Labor of Love category in the 2020 Steam Awards!
If all goes well, there should be an easy way to vote for us at the top of this Steam announcement!
Thank you in advance. And until next time, have a great sale.
Letter to our retailers (11)
Dear Retailers!
It has been 2 weeks since the release of the last update, and it is time to let you know a bit about what i have been working on, and tell you what you can expect in the next update.
--- Custom Currencies ---
Many of you have commented that prices are too hign in general, and that you would like to see them regulated.
However it doesn't state anywhere in the game what the currency is, but from what i can tell, you mentally translate them into your local currencies, which in hindsight obviously makes sense. Americans mentions that it's an unrealistic amount in USD, and europeans, that it is an unrealistic amount in Euros. As i am from Denmark they are actually based in DKK (Danish Kroner), so when we started making the game, there wasn't given much thought to the perception of the currency, and we just made it easy on ourselves to so we could understand the prices within the game. However i can see the problem, and the loss of immersion when everything is percieved at unrealistic prices. So i have addressed this issue, and been working on a currency converter.
With this you can select a currency and then write how much your desired currency is compared to that, regulating all prices within the game. Hopefully it will allow you to see the prices at a more acceptable level.
--- Poster Designer ---
Many of you have also been wanting to add more stuf fto your stores, other than inventory and articles. To accomodate this, i have started working on in store decorations.
The experience gained from the in-game logo designer in the previous release, has allowed me to think in different ways of allowing you to customize your stores. So based on this i created an in-game poster editor. With this you can select from a variety of shapes, fonts and patters, and change them in a number of ways to create your own unique posters. It will also, like the logo editor, allow you to upload your own images, which you can use as a poster on it's own, or as a background to work on with the rest of the editor.
I already look forward to see the creative posters i imagine you will come up with ːsteamhappyː
--- Store Posters ---
The posters should of course also be put to good use. So you will also be able to place the posters in your stores. There will be signs to place them on the floor, casings to put them on the wall, or you can even let them hang from the ceiling. You can add them in various shapes and sizes, and some of them can even be backlit, allowing you create a poster that lights up.
The signs will also influence your customers. As you can define what type of poster you have (Does it advertize for a certain category, for cheap articles, or perhaps the latest trends?) these posters will allow you to attract your customers and influence them into buying what you want them to.
Although not implemented yet, but my next task is also to allow you to set up signs outside of your store, allowing you to make an inviting store front and giving you a new way to attract customers into the store.
These posters will also replace the current system on all of the displays, giving you the same possibilities there.
So this is what i have spent the last two weeks on, and it will probably take some more days to complete. However this is only a small part of the decorations upgrade, as other things will be added right after. So i hope it will be an exiting upgrade to the game.
And as always, bug reports, ideas and feedback are most welcome, and don't hesitate to join our Discord.
