We are receiving lots of requests on more articles. So we would open up about what we are planning to add.
At the moment we have our 2 major categories. Clothes and Electronics.
Electronics
To allow for a more varied assortment for electronics shops, we are adding the Subcategory "Peripherals". This will feature various equipment for computers. Currently mice has been made, but more stuff as joystics, printers, routers and other suff will follow into that category.
At some point electronics will also be expanded with tv's, phones, tablets and monitors.
Clothing
Clothing, which currentky contains shirts and shoes, will also be expanded. There will be added more shoes, pants and accessories such as belts, caps, hats and articles of that sort.
After this, we will change this to Men's Wear, and add a new Category Women's Wear, which should feature just as much.
Next ones
When this has been added it is time to plan the next major categories.
On our minds we currently have white goods, groceries, furniture, jewelry, music instruments, and much more.
Hope this clears up what we think the game should contain. This plan does of course allow for changes along the way. We are as always interested in your opinions, and are open ideas of things to sell.
Update 0.5.0 is out
Dear retailers: Update 0.5.0 is out.
New category: Computers
We listen to what you want - More items to sell.
The addition of computers seemed like a straightforward thing to do. So this is a new category, with corresponding new new displays.
These articles are more expensive, both when buying and selling and are of a higher luxury.
This means that the customers are pickier, and needs an overall better sales efforts before they purchase.
Events, calendar and mails
The city has to be more dynamic. So various events will occur once in a while. For instance a discount from a certain supplier or an increase in a population segment.
You can see various events on your new Calendar. This is accessible through the HUD menu in store, or from the newly placed calendar near the door in your office.
When an event occurs, you are notified via mail on your computer. Your staff now also mails you about various events like sickness or resignations.
This system is just finished, so you can expect lots of events to be added in the future.
Bankruptcy
Yes. Due to the arrival of the event system, it is now possible to go bankrupt. So no more owing the bank millions of (insert currency here),
but instead you have a certain amount of days to fix the situation before the store gets closed.
Improved AI movement
The AI had a tendency to clump and walk in the way of each other, causing some undesirable behavior and following frustration.
This has been adjusted allowing for a much better flow even when crowded. In crowded situations they still "wiggle" about, but manage to pass each other and reach their destination.
We hope this will improve the experience in bigger stores.
News
We wanted to be able to communicate with the players more directly, so a news feed has been implemented at the main menu screen. Here we will post about what is coming, tips to things we see players struggle with and other notifications.
More bugs
We are receiving a lot of bug reports, and thank you very much for those.
We have removed a fair share of them (but others are bound to have arrived). Please continue to post any difficulties or bad experiences you might have, and we will try to solve them.
Up next
It is summer and 50 % of the team is going for a well earned vacation, and the other half of the team (me) will stay home and continue working.
Currency selector
We see people get confused about the prices, which makes perfectly sense. At the moment the game uses an unspecified currency, with values based on the unknown Danish Krone which makes no sense to 99.9 of the earths population.
So we will make a currency designer where you can select various currencies, or create your own. This should make the game more familiar to all of you.
User Preferences
There has also been requests for various minor implementations. So we will create an overdue preferences menu for you to customize your experience. This will off course grow over time, so feel free to let us know what you think this screen should contain.
Next Category
Since we have the clothes / shoes pair. It should also be possible to sell minor computer accessories. So we will begin making monitors, keyboards, mice and what else we might think off.
Languages
There has been an increasing demand to translate the game into different languages, and we will therefore begin working on this. However as this is totally new to us we don't know how long this will take to do.
City mode
We have a dream of making a 3D city overview that contains the game instead of menus. This should contain entrepreneur and career mode combined, along with opening chains of stores that work together.
This city view should also contain a corporate HQ, supplier expos, tutorial school and what else we might put in there. This should make for a more complete gaming experience, making it feel like building an empire, and creating a more diverse and challenging gameplay.
So this will be our next major project that we will begin working on.
We hope you enjoy the changes and, as always, if you have ideas, found bugs, or any other feedback don't hesitate to let us know.
The last company has arrived!
PearEasy, the latest supplier to arrive at the city. They focus on building a designer's computer which will fit perfectly into any modern office or home.
We are also close to finishing the displays they will be presented at. So it won't be long before you are all able to open your own computer store :)
Another supplier has joined in.
After Firestorm, the manufacturer of high end gaming computers opened up in town, it was expected more would follow.
That came true with LED-D, a company focusing on cheaper office computers has also joined.
It is also believed that a third supplier will join in, before the release of all the articles into the public.
So stay tuned for the last one to show up :-)
Next up
We are of course already working on the next update to King of Retail. So we thought we would fill you in on what that is.
First of all, in the near future we will make smaller, but more frequent updates.
New category
The biggest request you have come with is more articles to sell.
So we approaced the mayor of the city, who put out some advertisements.
And rumour has it, that a manufacturer of high end computers has set up shop in the city, preparing to take orders as soon as possible.
And with the arravial of them, other companies are bound to follow ːsteamhappyː
This means that the articles will expand to include a new category "Computers".
And we will in general put some more focus into increasing the amount and variation of articles.
Email system
At the office, you will be able to receive mails (and in the future possibly send them too). This allows for the possibility of making various events happen, where your response will affect the outcome, and impact the game.
The eternal bug hunt
We will also focus on taking down them bugs, and will as always need your help in discovering them.
-------------------------------------
So that is what we have come up with for now. Our aim is to finish this patch within a couple of weeks. There might be time for adding more than the above within this period, but that will be decided later on.
So stay tuned, and happy retailing :-)
Version 0.4.0 is out
Finally, it's out ːsteamhappyː
First of all, a GREAT thanks to all of you who are playing our game. We have been very overwhelmed of the interest it has received. The amount of playtime we see is more than what we could have hoped for.
We also received the attention of several youtubers playing our game with, these 3 creating rougly 2 million views combined.
But after a long developing period to this patch has finally come to an end.
We have managed to put a lot into it, including accomodating a few community requests. We are sorry we passed the promised deadline for all of you waiting for the update. We hope you can forgive us :-)
So what did it end up with?
City changes
As mentioned earlier, the way the city functions has changed. Customers are divided into segments, each having distinct traits. So you now also need to gain reputation with these segments, along with reputation for the categories that you sell.
Staff updates
As mentioned a big part was building talent trees for your staff. This means staff develop in the way you desire for them. They might be experienced in a role upon hiring, bringing additional bonuses to that task. They might be inexperienced in others meaning negative actions might occur while learning that part. Some they can not even perform before having taken the appropriate course to learn.
Although not changed dramatically, a few changes has been made to the interviewing part to accomodate these changes, and in preparation for future features.
Customer interactions
There was a lot of feedback coming from you, indication the desire for a change to the way of interacting with customers.
So we prioritized this.
Instead of being a hit or miss system, you can now interact with the customers in a more direct way. Try to boost a need, or create a desire for a specific article. Quickly jump from customer to customer in a busy hour and help them all a bit, or spend your time with one, trying to build up the big sale. You decide completely.
In the dull hours, you can stand outside, and pull in some of the pedestrians walking by the store.
Magazine designer
At the office it is now possible to create advertisment spreads to feature in the city's magazines. Select the magazine, the size, the featured ads and publish it. It will provide a boost to your reputation, along with a boost to certain customer segments walking by your store.
Forum posts
You can also build reputation by creating posts at the community forums. Choose the parameters of the post, and watch it gain momentum with views and comments.
This feature is still in the early stages, as we would like to gain inputs from you on how to proceed with this feature. So it will be improved upon in the future.
Others
A lot of bugs has been fixed (and others most likely arrived).
The time of performing various actions has been adjusted, along with customer waiting times.
Customers are now a bit more expressive during their shopping experience. While we have had no focus on adding graphics content, the main menu world have been changed along with other minor graphical changes.
Saves
Due to the previous setup your saves will be deleted from the game. We are sorry for this inconvenience of losing all of your magnificent store out there, however we have been cought a bit off guard on managins several versions (As this is our first game, we are still learning a lot all the time).
We will try and restructure things in the future to accomodate different version compatibility, but will not yet promise that it won't happen again in the future, due to this restructuring. We know it sucks, but we might as well be up front about it.
What's next
More content
Since the majority of the feedback requested more items, we will spend a fair amount of time from now on adding more content into the game. This means, among other things, that we will focus on adding more articles, more inventory, more categories, more career mode possibilities, and more of other forms content we can create.
Shorter development periods
Due to the duration of this patch, the next couple of patches will be aimed to have a considerably shorter development time. So along with the adding content, we will try not to make so many big implementations at the same time.
Feedback is VERY welcome
Due to the changes of this patch, there are bound to be bugs we have missed.
We are also, as always, interested in your opinions, ideas, experiences and cool stories you might have regarding the game. We are interested to know if there are any balancing issues, so we can get it adjusted.
So please, PLEASE, feel free to let us know about it. We encourage you to use the discussion board here on Steam as we regularly check in to see what you have written, and are very interested to talk about what direction the game should take.
Roadmap
As of now we have not decided 100 % on what the next patch should contain, other than the addition of content. So regarding the topic above, you can have a great influence on what will come next.
We off course have a million ideas on things we want to do, so our task is to organize the next part of the development. And with that, we will try to make a road map, so all of you can see what our thought on the game is, and what you might expect in the future.
That escalated to a lot of reading ːsteamhappyː
We hope you enjoy the new additions, and again we are very interested in antyhing you might have to say about them.
Kind regards
The King of Retail dev team.
Coming up at the final stretch
Time for a little update again :-)
We are close to finishing the content of this update, and will begin bugfixing and balancing. But what have we been up to?
The population]
The city demographics has changed. So from being a city made of two values (wealth, and fashion sense) it now consist of various population groups, each with their own desires. Each segment have their own population and shopping patterns, so changing your opening hours might change the type of customers that enters the store. This also mean that you will need to gain reputation with each segment.
Customer interaction
Speaking of customers.
A lot of feedback have indicated the desire for a new customer interaction system. So we have made just that.
Increase a customers need for a specific category, or try to create a desire for a certain article.
Play the long game and spend a lot of time with one customer who then might go shopping crazy, or try and reach them all and increase the overall average sale.
If the store is completely empty, it is now also possible to go outside the store to try and convince people passing by to enter.
Staff talents
Away with the skills and in with talents. Your staff now need to learn how to perform various tasks. At first they are unsecure and make errors at new tasks, but will in time be very proficient and have special perks to their jobs. However they will ned to attend a course from time to time to unlock their true potential. So ask the right questions at the interview, or you might the the wrong employee, as they will not be able to perform all tasks from day one.
Marketing
Since there are a lot more reputation to uncover, you need some tools to do that. But fear not, the marketing functions has expanded.
In the store, it is now possible to make forum posts at your computer. Target an audience, make some posts, and watch them grow with views and comments, as they generate reputation.
In your office you can plan out bigger campaigns with the catalogue designer. Select the size, the magazine, drag your desired ads onto the pages and customize your campaign to your needs. Attract more customers, increase the desire for categories, or become more known at a certain segment. Do one or do them all, the choice is yours.
So this is what you can expect in the next update, and we hope that it will be well received. And as always feedback as very welcome.
Take care ːsteamhappyː
So what's happening?
It has been about 3 weeks since our last post so we wanted to fill you in on how the time has been spent.
But first of all, a big thank you for playing our game. It means a lot to us that so many people enjoys playing it, and sees the potential of what the game can become. So please keep all your feedback with bugs, good ideas and plain thoughts coming. We take note of them all, and quite a few of them has already made it to our "To-do" list.
But what about the game?
Well, the city itself has been changed.
Instead of it being a city of a fixed size, wealth & fashion, it is now divided into several customer segments. This will, in future implementations, give a more dynamic city, as these populations can change over time.
For instance. A new university opens up nearby, increasing Teen population by 20.000. This also allowed a change to the flow of the city. Farmers might be early shoppers, where Techies instead comes primarily in the afternoon. And since you also need to obtain reputation with these groups, your decisions means a lot more for your sales.
Next up is staff talents. Instead of the passive, quite boring Skill Level System, we have introduced Staff Talents. Each staff still earns experience from the tasks they perform. But now as they become better, you can select individual perks for them. Every once in a while you will have to send them on a course to help their learning and unlock even better perks. The job interview will also receive an overhaul, changing a lot of it. Staff planning will as a result now require more attention. This also plays perfectly into one of the future upgrades with Personalities and Personality Traits.
Aaaaand... the marketing. The current version is a very sad part, as this was introduced just before the Early Access launch, making you able to do something about your reputation. You can now make Forum Posts for the low end reputations on your computer. Select your targets, define the parameters, and watch how many views and comments they receive. For the higher reputations it will be possible to build and manage a website. Build it up, attract a following, and let that following build you higher reputations and bigger effect on your advertisements.
Advertisements is in turn something you make at your office. Create your own flyers or magazines. Focus on an article to build up a hype, a customer group to temporarily increase population, or a category to increase the overall needs. The choice is yours.
Finally, customer interactions.
We have received a lot of feedback criticizing the way you interact with the customers, in which we agree. Instead the new system will be more decision based. Will you spend your time with one customer, going for the big sale, or a little with everyone to make them all happy. Will you approach them aggressively or more casual? The right decisions will improve your sales, while the wrong ones will make your customer leave in fury hurting your reputation. We also hope to make several sales scenarios based on how far the customer is in their shopping sequence.
So the above is already done, about to be done, or planned out. We will see if we get time for some more before the testing and bug hunting period begins. We aim to release this upgrade in middle/late May. Since we all have exam periods coming up, we VERY unwillingly also have to spend some time doing that.
So we hope you will find the changes interesting, and comments or ideas to the above are also very welcome.
- The King of Retail dev team -
Patch 0.3.1 is out!
Fellow retailers,
It's been a little more than a week since King of Retail launched on Early Access and what a week it was! We are overwhelmed by your interest, engagement and support for our game and we wish to thank you all. Your posts on the discussion boards and feedback from the in-game menu has helped us greatly in catching bugs and given us plenty of ideas for future content. It has definitely sparked our motivation to improve the game even further!
We would also like to thank the YouTuber GrayStillPlays for making a very entertaining video about King of Retail and if you haven't seen his video/channel yet we can't recommend it enough!
Now onto the patch contents! We decided to collect your very helpful bug reports/feedback and weed out all the bugs we could this week. So here's a change list:
v0.3.1 changes
All audio settings will now be saved/loaded between game sessions
Added separate channels for Ambience and Door Bell sounds in the Audio Settings
Fixed the sound played when you win a level in career mode to be part of the Sound Effects group so it no longer causes increased heart rate and your ears to bleed
The mailman will no longer get stuck and review his life choices while delivering articles
Fixed an issue where the career offers would get duplicated in the main menu
The career level where you have to break even in 5 days will now show a prompt when you fail the contract, despite the realism being stuck in a failing business
AI's will no longer get stuck (behind the scenes) after spawning and affecting performance
When loading a game the jukebox will now start playing again
Reworked the animation system for characters and added new animations #CantHaveEnoughAnimations
Added some new hair styles and face types
Fixed an issue with the registers and staff not being able to access them due to lacking space between the wall and the register
Staff can no longer use "the force" to interact with objects that are being moved by the manager
The game will no longer implode on itself when adding/removing articles from a display simultaneously
Inventory packed in boxes will no longer deduct funds when moving/placing the box
Fixed a glitch in the matrix where the marketing PC would sometimes spawn inside a wall
Added the marketing PC to the "Getting Started" checklist when starting a new store
Unemployment rate suddenly spiked: Job applications will now always appear in your office
You can no longer negotiate with multiple people at the same time
While in your office, pressing ESC will now zoom out of any interaction
Fixed a visual bug where only half the screen would be blurry when pausing a game (opening Settings menu)
Pallets now require a larger space around them to be placed to avoid navigation for AI's to be blocked (might affect existing save games, but will fix itself when placed again)
Fixed some of our broken English throughout the game ;)
Thank you all for helping us track down most of these bugs! As for the future we will begin focusing on adding three new mechanics to the game namely a talent tree for you staff, replacing the customer interaction system with a new and improved design and adding new ways to do marketing for you stores. When we are a bit further in our design of these we might show and tell a bit ;)
Don't forget to visit our Facebook Page for announcements, competitions and more!
We wish you all a great weekend and good luck in your sales!
-The dev team
Join the development
If you would like to follow the development more actively, or even influence the direction of the game you can join our Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/kingofretail/
There you can read info about features under development, get your say on future ones, or even get content decided by you personally into the game. This, along with a competiton once in a while.
