Dear retailers Here come the first monthly dev-blog for King of Retail 2. Here i will tell you about the state of the game, how it is being developed, and anyhing else that can be interesting to talk about along the way. 🙂
--- Why do this? ---
The interest for King of Retail 2 has once again caught me by surprise. The amount of feedback, ideas etc. that you have given is amazing. It is very appreciated and very motivating to know so many people look forward to play the game. 😁😁😁
My focus is always on making progress with the thing that is most needed this very moment. That can be programming, 3D modelling, testing, planning etc. But one thing is never on top of my list. That is community management. 😁
Not because i don't want to. I very much enjoy being an active part of the community.
But when writing a big post like i am not working on the actual game. And i want to repay you by making a game you can enjoy as soon as possible. 🙂
I also know that it doesn't give you anything right now. So i also think:
"I need to show something to the community" or "I need to do a livestream", but always return to "I will do it tomorrow". But "tomorrow" has a new task, and i think "If i don't do it, no one will do it". So tomorrow gets pushed again, and suddenly months have gone by, giving me a feeling of guilt.
Even now when making this post the above happens. 😅
But when we started the Patreon, i promised monthly Dev-blogs.
I have been looking forward to make this post... but i also know it will take me half a day to do properly, and right now my head screams to me that "We need to finish the sales interaction with customers, or else the game will never be finished".
And now it has almost been a month, meaning i will break my promise if i don't make my post. And if there is something my mind can't stand, it is not keeping deadlines. 😁 So by promising a monthly dev-blog, i kind of hack myself to give you proper insights on a regular basis.
So here we go... 😁😁😁
--- Where are we at? ---
When making a game like this, it is like making a building out of Lego. Everything is like small bricks that comes together to make a finished product.
For those of you who follow regularly on Discord, i have mentioned a few times "The foundation needs to be in order", but what is that?
For me the foundation is what is needed for making a MVP, a Minimum Viable Product. And what is that?
Imagine you want to create a car. In this case it's only purpose is to transport you from A to B. You can now make your car in two ways:
Method A: First you start designing the whole car. You design the wheels, the engine, the chassis, the electronics, all at the same time. When you have designed it, you then go and make it and put it all together simultaneously. And when it is done you have a car. The positive of this is that you have a clear vision, and a clear goal all the time. The negatives are you don't have anything useable until the very moment it has all been put together.
Method B: Here you start making 4 small wheels and attach them to a piece of wood.
You now have a functioning transportation device.
This is an MVP . It is not remotely comparable to a car, but you have something that actually transports you from A to B much earlier in the process. Then you maybe add a handle so you can steer better. An upgrade has been made, but it still fulfill the purpose. And you go on and on like that, until you actually have a car.
Process B can be slower than process A, but you have a useable product all the time. Now you can get feedback, change direction of the production and so on.
What do i then consider the foundation? Well, we are making a Retail Simulation Game. So it means we need to have the simplest playable version of this, and for me that means the following:
- Your manager can move around and interact with things.
- You have a store
- You have customers who shop in your store.
- The customers have articles to buy.
- Relevant inventory exists to manage the articles and customers.
- Allow the days to start and end indefinetely.
That is basically it. Solve these 6 and you have a playable Retail Simulation Game.
However i would like to retarget my MVP a bit:
It should be a ENTERTAINING Playable Retail Simulation Game. We play to be entertained, so that should be a part of the MVP. You can always make the simplest of the simplest, but it doen't mean it is fun to play. So for it to have some entertainment value more needs to added.
Some things that i have worked on might be a bit excessive to even the revised MVP. Why make a city editor, when you can't even play the game? Why make this very deep display design system, and not start with basic displays? Well, there are 2 answers to this.
First answer: To save time. Building a quick system to test articles, only to soon remove and recode the system, is to me a waste of time.
If we are only a handful who are working on the game, then why spend extra time on a system that will soon be irrelevant. So if i know the displays will be fully customizable, then why not do it immediately. Since these are part of the MVP, making the Display Designer a part of the MVP as well.
The second answer is: I am human 😁 Sometimes i carried away with an idea of a cool new feature that i want to try out. A full functional city, is not part of the MVP, and a city generator is DEFINETELY not part of the MVP. 😁
But to me it was a challenge of trying something completely new. And being the one doing all of the programming, the limits of the game starts and ends with the limits of my skills. So a challenge like this pushes my limits, and gives me new skills that i can put to use in other areas of the game. So even though it seems off, it is not wasted time. Yes, it is time that ideally would be spent at a later stage, as it delays the MVP, but since it would have been built at some point anyway it at least doesn't delay the finished product.
So to answer the orignial question of where are we now, here are the major things that are currently part of the game.
The manager
- The manager is fully functioning with walking and interacting.
A store to shop in.
- Fully autogenerated building.
- Customizable walls and floors.
- Various store parameters like local population knowledge and reputations and opening hours.
Inventory
- Fully functioning and highly customizable displays to showcase articles.
- Fully functioning storage units to receive and store articles.
- Fully functioning cash registers to receive customers.
Articles
- Fully working article flow. Ordering -> Delivery -> Unpacking -> Displayed
- +500 food articles added. KoR1 had less then 400 grocery articles.
- Various article parameters like price, quality, individual customer segment influence and many others.
Customers
- Working customer flow. Enters store, looks for articles, evaluates, takes, goes to stand in line at register and leaves the store.
- Customer parameters. 8 different customer groups with individuual focus on articles, prices, quality, customer service and many other things.
- Unique customer flows based of time and nearby population.
City
- Fully randomized city. Each building is useable and buyable.
- Areas with various densities. Each building has a specific population combination.
- City generator. Create your own city from image files.
Headquarter & Managers office
- Basic functionalities. You can place your managers office and access your computer.
- See finance reports and article summaries.
- Adjust simple concept info as colours and title.
Game Flow
- Full year calendar implemented,
- Proper day flow. Start at mornings to react to overnight events (These are not added). Then day with running time where you can leave and enter shops as you wish. Then evening where you can build/redesign shops without timelimits and visit your HQ to make evening decisions.
- Save/Loading of game implemented (Snapshot saving of stores not implemented yet, for saving an loading inside the actual store with customers etc.)
This is what is added to the game as of this moment. There are af course many smaller things to mention as well, but let us keep it large scale 🙂
What are then the targets, and what is currently missing?
Stage 1. Alpha, full game flow access.
A few things are missing for opening the current full game on the alpha branch. Customers are still missing interactions with the manager. Without it, it is pretty boring. You can't pull customers in, help them in the store or anything else. So you are basically left with just waiting for them at the register. This is what i am currently working at.
The day flow needs some adjustments in the transitioning. Most of it is up and running, so this part is more about testing, and doing final adjustments.
When these two things are done, alpha testers will be allowed access to this part.
2. MVP
When above is done, then it is time to add the parts that i feel is needed for the proper MVP. These are:
- Staff. Your stores will hit a limit when working alone. So the last important part is having and managing your staff. It will be a big implementation, so it is a part that will be added bit by bit and released to you when ready.
- Simulations. For the game to be played properly, we need more than one store, and that requires lots of simulations. In KoR1 these were fairly simple. The store was exactly the same from when you left it, only with financial simulations being made pr. day. Now with you jumping in and out of stores during the day, simulations needs to be made on an hourly basis. So this means simulating article flows, customer flows, staff etc. which will be a big task to do, making the store look different and in full business when you visit it again 2 hours later. This will also make the game feel more alive. More things can happen and you can have much more influence out of the shop, improving the CEO aspect of the game.
- Visuals. Not so much of implementations. But some graphical work needs to be done. Design a proper main menu. Give your shop nice surroundings etc.
3. Early Access
When reaching the MVP, the game is what should be fun and playable. The question is now what exactly needs to be added for Early Access to makes sense. Examples could be:
- Building and Expansion?
- Marketing and Advertising?
- HQ and CEO aspects?
- More in store customizations?
But that is to be decided when we get closer to that point.
--- What else? ---
The above was very focused on implementations. But other things are happening as well. I am so lucky to have the assistance of 3 persons who help me part time. They work on various areas which are constantly being improved as well.
One is fully dedicated to designing the articles, and she is fully responsible for all the articles currently in the game which is a big big job. She will continue to to do this as long as there are arrticles to be made. Which is a looong time, as this game needs many more articles across many categories.
Then i have the squid. He is helping me with various tasks that are quite time consuming. He has among other, implemented the articles in the game with testing and correcting. He has also been doing some general playtesting and bughunting, which is a never ending task.
Finally we have my dear wife who has started to learn to make characters and animations, and she will over the next long time be focused these parts of the game.
And that is the little team that is making the game so far. 🙂
But that is not all. There are also all the precious volunteers who helps as admins and translators, the people who already trusted the future of the game with getting access to the alpha as well as the people just keeping the discord active and a pleasant place to be.
All of this is a huge help on many different levels and i can't thank you enough. It helps with the progress of the game and keeping the spirit high, making the future brighter for King of Retail 2. 🥰🥰🥰
Phew! That was a lot of writing 😁😁
If you haven't yet, you can join the discord here and follow the development closer, and maybe also join the alpha testing:
In any case, take care, and thanks for following along. 🙂
Until next time, Daniel