Hello, dear retailers!
I wanted to share a blog with you today regarding an approaching update for King of Retail 2, dropping in less than 2 weeks. Just so you can get an overview of what’s coming down the pipe soon, as well as the updates that will follow.
I aim to deliver one of these developer blogs every 2 weeks, so without further ado, let’s jump right in.
Build Mode
In development image of the new build environment, now with internal walls.
One of the key priorities of mine over the last couple of weeks has been additions and updates to Build Mode. It’s been wonderful to see so many of you leverage Build Mode to express your retail creativity, and, with these planned updates, there are plenty more enhancements to come.
Three big requests I’ve seen regarding Build Mode are the ability to build internal walls with the structure tool, as opposed to having to use the Shapes tool to build your own, the functionality to create multiple levels/floors in your stores, and the problems with the radial wheel.
I’m pleased to confirm that these updates are coming very soon. First up, internal walls will be buildable in the next update, letting you divide your shop floor much more easily than before! This system is much simpler, much faster, and much requested by players, so I’m excited for you to get your hands on it.
The next addition, multi-level builds, will take a bit more time. In the new update, you’ll be able to build these additional floors, but your in-store experience will remain limited to the ground floor for the time being.
This is quite a substantial change to Build Mode itself, and I didn’t want to push it through for the imminent update without being able to safely do so, as it will require tweaks to the AI and inventory placement before it can be fully active.
Instead, I will be rolling this out more gradually, meaning I can also release smaller updates more regularly, rather than bundling everything into one big update and leaving you update-less for a long period of time.
Either way, I will keep you posted as Build Mode continues to expand.
UI Overhaul; or, The Death of the Radial Wheel
Another big change, and this is a big UI thing, is the phasing out of the radial wheel.
The radial wheel is used for many things in King of Retail 2, but after hearing your feedback and concerns with the system, I’m starting to purge the radial wheel from the game, in favour of utilising the toolbar at the top of the screen.
Meaning, all of your tools, such as Outer Structures, Colourisation, Decorations, and much more, will be clickable from the main HUD. This also leads to context menus that pop up when you’re able to interact with something, so it more clearly demonstrates what your options are without needing to open that cursed wheel.
In-store HUD
Build Mode HUD
That way, you can spend less time clicking through menus and more time building and managing the store of your dreams.
Once this drops, please let me know how you feel about this UI change, as well as any other menus you feel could do with some TLC.
New Products!
Expanding the King of Retail 2 article catalogue further, slippers have found their way into the next update!
Also, in the Week 1 update, I mentioned the addition of the Health & Beauty article line, and this is coming along very nicely. There are lots of skin care products on the way alongside more articles you’d expect to find in your local cosmetics store, or the Health aisle of a mighty supermarket. These will also be arriving in the next update.
Oh, and speaking of supermarkets…
Supermarket Contest
As mentioned in the previous Steam blog, we’re running a contest for you to submit your Supermarket in the official King of Retail 2 Discord with a shot at winning one of 3 prizes.
There’s still one week left to get your supermarket screenshot submissions in, so make sure to head over to the King of Retail 2 Discord, follow the contest submission guidelines, and potentially snag yourself a gift card.
That’s all for now. So, to conclude this dev blog, I’ll leave you with some extremely cool player-created shops that I’ve seen shared around so far.
Credits in order:
'Just Simple' by mintyler
Credit to thiesen90
'NedStore' by gameownerltic
'JD Liquor' by jimmydali
Thank you so much for playing, for all your feedback and support, and I’ll see you at the checkout.
Until next time, have a great sale!
Daniel