Hey everyone and welcome to Mall Craze's first written Devlog!
Thank you for stopping by and before we dive in, let me quickly summarize the purpose of this (and future) Devlogs.
If you've been following the game closely on Twitter or Discord, you probably noticed that updates and news are scattered all over the place, and sometimes,
you may have even missed some important news.
That's the main reason why I decided to start this Devlog here on Steam,
as it provides all the necessary tools.
These Devlogs were also originally made on YouTube as videos, but currently, I have less time available to produce them, and this serves as a great replacement.
Let's get to the main topics of today:
- Last 5 months of development
- Beta testing
- Kickstarter
- Release date
- Near future
Where have I been for the last 5 months?
As some of you may have noticed, after the last Devlog on YouTube, I took a big break from the game and went almost radio-silent. I won't go into many details, but let's just say that life happened and I had way less time for the game. That situation is now thankfully resolved and I can finally focus on the development again.
So, how's the game?
Actually, for the past month, I was slowly getting back into development and made some improvements.
The big news is, I implemented the necessary back-end, and customers are now finally shopping inside shops. That also means that hiring staff is now possible. Currently only in the form of cashiers, but more will be added later.
Customers now pick a random shop and product. Everything is shown in the game. Customers walk up to the product, examine it for a while, then make a purchase in the near cashier table. Again, deeper mechanics will be added later, but even this simple buying mechanic allowed me to finally start working on management aspects of the game.
Will there be Beta testing soon?
The first half of the answer: Yes, there will be beta testing for Mall Craze.
Second half: It probably won't be in the next couple of weeks/months.
As much as I would love to show the game itself to more people and gather feedback, you'll have to believe me when I say that there is currently not much to test. Almost every aspect of the game still has many game-breaking bugs. And yeah, of course, beta testing is here to find them, but the game in its current form has virtually zero content, and most of the features are implemented in their most basic form.
Even though it's only a beta test, I still would like it for the game to have a certain level of polish, and at least some content to enjoy while testing - I'm slowly getting there :)
Kickstarter
We all know that this year is different in everything, and changes and delays hit Mall Craze as well. The initial plan was to put Mall Craze on Kickstarter, and with a bit of luck, focus on development full-time.
The current plan is still the same, just instead of Spring 2020, the project will probably launch on Kickstarter in Spring 2021.
Delays, delays, delays
Some of you might know that the initial plan was to release the game next year (2021). I would probably still be able to finish and release the game in Q3 - Q4 2021, but because this is the window when all the big titles are released, I decided to postpone the release date to Q1 - Q2 2022. In turn, this will have a possible positive effect on Mall Craze, as I will have an additional 6 months to improve the game. I have a certain philosophy when it comes to game development and I'm trying to stand by it. When I see that the game needs some more time before it's ready, I'm willing to delay the release. The last thing that I want is to give you a broken game.
So, what comes next?
We're at the very end of this first Devlog and if you read all of it and ended all the way down here, Thank you very much! :)
I can't wait to show you the game's progress in the upcoming weeks.
Right now, as I'm writing this Devlog (okay, maybe not exactly this very minute), I'm finishing the work on the new Management UI window and the next thing on my list is to work on customers - their stats, needs, textures, behavior, and more... Stay tuned!
Thank you and see ya next time!
Milan Timčenko - Developer