Status Update: Beta, new need system and more

Hey,

Today we would like to provide you with a new status update on the ongoing development of Indoorlands. But first, before we start with the update, one more important thing.

Closed Beta

We are getting closer to the Early Access release and would like to collect feedback, bug reports and suggestions one last time. Therefore we will start a short closed beta soon. If you are interested, you are welcome to apply. Click here for the application

The number of participants is limited, so please don't be upset if it doesn't work out this time.

New 'need system'

As announced in the last status update, we have fundamentally revised our need system. Previously, visitors only had rough need types, such as restaurant need and ride visit need. With an increasing need level, the number of these needs has increased.

That said, the system could get boring relatively quickly, as different stores hardly differed from each other, and the various rides also had little meaning. The new system is now more sophisticated, realistic and exciting:

The new system now distinguishes between the individual types of stores, restaurants and rides. These now have different stats, each with higher or lower values. The individual needs of the visitors are more or less satisfied, depending on these values. For example, while the ambience of restaurants is important to one park visitor, the "fun" of rides is paramount to another. This means that the player has to keep an eye on the demands of his visitors and design and expand his park accordingly - while keeping an eye on the budget, of course. Below is a glimpse from the Debug UI:

In order to get to know the visitors better as well as to better understand the game mechanics, the player can now select each individual park visitor to see which of his needs have already been fulfilled and which have not yet been fulfilled. In addition, other interesting info is displayed, such as which goal he currently has. Here is an excerpt from the Debug UI:

The new system also opens up a wide range of new possibilities for expansion and use of future features.

Level up the buildings

Previously, it was the case that a french fry stand resembled the french fry stand a hundred meters down the road. We wanted to make the building's placement and lifetime more relevant. First, we added counters that record the turnover of stores and the number of visitors handled over the lifetime of the building ( which can also be viewed by the player). We took the opportunity to use these new statistics to include a leveling system for buildings. Now, buildings level up the more visitors they have handled. A building can level up in up to three stages and thus also improves its properties.

Tutorialization

We think that players should be able to start the game without much frustration. For this, it is important that you know what to do or what you can do at all. This problem is usually solved by a tutorial. After several concepts and meetings we decided that there will be only a minimal intro for the Early Access (welcome message and hint how to find the most important menus). However, we have already designed some characters that will explain the minimal intro and later the final tutorial.

We also found in the internal discussions that some of the questions a player might have can be answered using tooltips. Accordingly, some important elements in the game have now been given descriptive texts so that the player can discover Indoorlands independently.

We will certainly build a proper tutorial for the full release. For this we also rely on your feedback during the Early Access phase.

Other changes

• We have finished cutting off decorative objects that protrude into the wall, as announced in the last status update.

• We have started to rework our sound system again, as the amount of sounds and their mixing was a bit overwhelming. For this we decided to switch to a completely new sound engine.
• An option has been added so that the park can also be displayed completely covered. However, we would like to further improve the visual variety here.
• In preparation for the upcoming beta and early access, we have integrated a submission form into the game that allows you to send bug reports from within the game. A screenshot will be taken automatically and the relevant logs will be sent, so that we can process requests efficiently.
• Some bug fixes, small optimizations and much more

Remember to tell your friends about Indoorlands and if you haven't already, add Indoorlands to your wishlist and follow us.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1378890/Indoorlands/

Feedback and questions in the discussion area or on our Discord-Server are very welcome!

- Your team Pixelsplit