Hello everyone! 👋
The first major update to Mall Craze is here!
And it brings long awaited Management and Economy into the game!
If you've been following the game's development since Early Access release (or longer), you know that the initial release was lacking some fundamental features. The feedback was unanimous - the game needs Management!
Lots of changes and additions
This being a major update, there is naturally a lot to go through. The 0.2.0 update is roughly 4-6x the size of a regular 0.1.x update (at least based on the number of Patch Notes list).
Let's start with the most important news:
Management & Economy ⚖️
The main addition to the game is money, and everything then revolves around it - construction costs, product prices, cashier salaries, finances overviews, marketing, bank loans and so on..
Finances Overview Tab 💵
There are multiple new UI windows that are related to mall and shops management. The first one of them is the Finances Overview tab that can be found both in Mall Management and Shop Management windows. The overview shows the most important data that you need to analyze the current situation of your mall or a specific shop. It contains various bar and line charts for a specified overview period. The charts in this tab are interactive, and display additional information when you hover over a specific data point.
Products Overview Tab 🛒
No longer are products just a nice decoration. Customers are now shopping inside your stores. Products Overview tab is here to see which products are they buying, how much they cost, and how much revenue they generated. You can also edit their pricing here.
Marketing Campaigns 📣
You can now run a mall-wide marketing campaigns. There are many different campaign types, so you can choose carefully based on your current financial situation. The longer your campaign is running, the less it can cost per month, but here's the catch - you can only run a couple of campaigns at once, so choose wisely! Marketing campaigns can be found inside Mall Management window.
Bank Loans 💸
Are you running low on cash? Need a small boost to be able to afford a new shop construction? You can take a bank loan! Similarly to Marketing Campaigns, you can only have a specific number of active bank loans at once. Experiment with the loan amount and loan duration to get a better yearly interest rate - you don't want to overpay a fortune!
Mall & Shop Dashboard
The dashboard were updated to also show the new financial informations. The overview is divided into 2 sections - Revenue & Expenses.
Shops Overview
Same as the dashboard, the shops overview tab inside the Mall Management window has seen an update with the new financial informations.
Cashiers & Customers
Cashiers
Cashiers now have Experience and a monthly salary, which is directly linked to their Experience. The less experienced workers will be cheaper to employ, but they will also be slower behind the cash register, so make sure to balance things out! You get new job applications at the start of each month. You can also pay a small fee to get new applications during the month.
Customers
An AI improvements were made to customers. No longer are they just wandering around your mall. When a shop meets all the conditions, customers will start visiting it. What are these conditions?
- Shop has to be open.
- Shop needs at least one hired cashier.
- Shop must have at least one sellable product in it.
UI Redesign
Throughout all the screenshots above, you could see a new UI design. It is not a completely new directing, rather it's an iterative improvement over the old design. This change was made for better clarity and readability, as the UI is no longer filled with various border lines.
The main changes and improvements are:
- Overall redesign with less border lines and smaller round corners.
- Window tab menus now having text as well, instead of only having icons.
- Header text in some windows is now displaying dynamic information.
- New animations.
- Windows become transparent during window drag.
Other Changes and Improvements
Shops
Shops can now be closed and opened. When a shop is closed, no salary is paid to cashiers, as they aren't present in the shop during that time.
VRAM Indicator
To better estimate your graphics card capabilities, VRAM usage indicator has been added in the graphical settings.
Build Pop-Up & delete particles
What comes next?
The development of the game continues with a regular 0.2.X updates - the same ways as with 0.1.X updates. The main focus of 0.2.X updates will be new content (more of everything) and additional management improvements. These updates will once again become more regular, as they will be smaller in size, with another major update being 0.3.0 (but I'm getting ahead of myself).
This update was in the oven for over 2 months, and I'm super excited to finally release it now!
Thank you everyone for your support, and I will se you in the next update!
- Milan, developer
Full Patch Notes 🔧
Additions & Improvements
- Shops can now be closed and re-opened (salaries are not paid and cashiers are not present when shop is closed).
- Customer AI
- Customers don't go inside shops that are closed, without products, or without cashiers.
- Customers are now buying products.
- Cashiers
- Monthly salary and Experience added.
- Cashier's speed and salary is determined by Experience.
- New job applications are generated at the start of each month.
- Fee can also be paid to generate new applications during the month.
- Sound added to cashier register after payment.
- User Interface (general)
- New build cost pop-up UI added for building and recycling objects.
- UI style remake for better clarity and readability (windows, buttons, borders, ...)
- Animations added to UI windows and other elements.
- Main tabs inside windows now also have text instead of only icons (Mall Management, Shop Dashboard, Product Details, Settings, Tutorial)
- Header text at the top of UI windows is now displaying dynamic information.
- VRAM usage indicator added inside graphics settings UI.
- Mall Management
- Dashboard - Profit previous month added.
- Dashboard - Total Revenue and Expenses for previous month added.
- Dashboard - Revenue and Expenses items broken down for previous month.
- Finances tab and Overview & Marketing & Loans subtabs added.
- Finances overview period added (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, all time).
- Finances Overview subtab additions
- Actual Balance.
- Balance history bar chart.
- Revenue vs Expenses line chart.
- Best & Worst profitable shop.
- Shops sorted by Revenue and Expenses.
- Revenue over time bar charts (Total, Product Sales, Recycling, Other)
- Expenses over time bar charts (Total, Cashier Salaries, Construction, Running Costs, Other)
- Finances Marketing subtab additions
- New campaign creation.
- Active campaigns.
- Campaign history.
- Finances Loans subtab additions
- New loan creation.
- Active loans.
- Loan history.
- Shop Management
- Dashboard - Profit previous month added.
- Dashboard - Total Revenue and Expenses for previous month added.
- Dashboard - Revenue and Expenses items broken down for previous month.
- Finances tab and Overview & Products subtabs added.
- Finances overview period added (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, all time).
- Finances Overview subtab additions
- Profit during selected time.
- Profit history bar chart.
- Revenue vs Expenses line chart.
- Best selling product by Revenue.
- Best selling product by Units.
- Products by Revenue and Units.
- Revenue over time bar charts (Total, Product Sales)
- Expenses over time bar charts (Total, Cashier Salaries, Running Costs, Other)
- Finances Products subtab additions
- Product sales for selected period.
- Sales history for Revenue bar chart.
- Sales history for Units bar chart.
- Product overview and details.
- Running costs for mall and shops added.
- Money and economy added into the game.
- Product pricing can now be adjusted.
- Marketing Campaigns added
- Types: Social Media Posts, PPC Ads, Magazine Page, Advertizing Banners, Billboards, Influencer Campaign, TV Spot)
- Total and monthly payments calculated based on campaign type and duration.
- Bank Loans added
- Total payment, monthly payments and yearly interest rate calculated based on loan amount and loan duration.
- Dust particles added while deleting or bulldozing objects.
Small Changes
- User Interface
- Windows now become transparent during window drag.
- Main UI - Construction buttons (Mall, Shops) switched to better reflect desired build order (1. build mall, 2. build shops).
- Main UI - Shops icon changed.
- Mall Management UI - Shops lists improved. Customers list changed.
- Product Details icon changed.
- Product Construction icon changed.
- Hover effect added to Staff Hire Card.
- Hover and Pressed sounds added to Combo Boxes.
- Pre-made malls now have starting cash.
- Staff Hire window is now opened right after finishing new shop construction.
- Graphical settings
- Turning On Lumen Reflections also switches Global Illumination to Lumen.
- Turning Off Lumen GI switches Off Lumen Reflections as well.
- Small rendering improvements for Volumetric Fog, TSR, Reflections & Lumen.
- Collision boxes
- Collisions improved for Windows and Electro Scooter.
- Objects and Products can now be placed closer to Windows.
- Spelling corrections for various objects and texts throughout the game.
- Tutorial updated to reflect new gameplay and UI additions.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed: Save files getting corrupted when shop or mall name includes an apostrophe.
- Fixed: Shadow glitch on translucent materials for Virtual Shadows.
- Fixed: Customers walking behind cashier tables and standing next to cashiers.
- Fixed: Music still playing in Main Menu for a split second when master volume is set to 0.