Dear Retailers!

A month has gone by, and it is time for an update. Both as in actually releasing an update to our alpha, as well as our little blog to tell you what is going on. So let's get to it.

--- What's new this month? ---

In last update we planned to start working on expansions and decorations. That is still our plan, however the feedback from the community indicated that some small things needed to be changed. Since starting a new long implementation period means these changes would not be active for a while, we chose to do a Quality of Life month which means a month of focusing on smaller implementations and upgrades instead.

Opening hours

What many have been asking for for a while was the ability to change opening hours, which i can understand. There is nothing more frustrating then having to close with a store full of customers. So that is now a possibility.

You can also close the store for a whole day. Right now it doesn't make sense, but in the future when you can properly run multiple stores, you would most likely want that possibility as well.

Statistics

Then i decided to give the Manager's computer an overhaul, and i hope the micromanagers out there will like the new options.

Sales statistics

The first one to mention is the sales statistics. Now you can compare your different categories with each other, on different levels. Select a day interval, and choose your categories, and you can now compare them directly with each other day by day.

Customer statistics

You can also analyse the traffic in your store. See which customers who arrives at which time of which day, and plan your opening hours and assortment accordingly.

Article detail screen

The screen showing all article details are now accessible from the computer as well. You can also now see the actual sales history of the article, meaning you now have all the time in the world to analyze each article in the tiniest of detail, allowing you to maximize the sales of your store to the fullest.

Customer balancing

Too many customers got lost already in the first days because of how the the cash register was handled. So changes have been made to address this.
Customers now overall wait a longer time in the queue, and the article processing speed has been increased significantly, meaning you can process more customers, allowing you to earn more money.

Customers also start heading for the registers an hour before the store closes, meaning not losing out on all these people who actually would like to buy something just because the store closes.
These numbers most likely still need tweaking, so feedback on this is still very welcome.

Other minor changes

Headquarters painting

It will be a while before the HQ really gets into play and get some massive update, as it is more important to round off the actual store part of the game first. However there was a bug where the HQ floor used the same material as the floor in the corner of your store. One of these small curiosities that shows bugs can come in all shapes and sizes.
So when fixing this bug, i also allowed for the possibility of painting the floors at your HQ as well.

Grid and movement options

Given how the expansion part will work, it is necessary to have a world grid to align walls and such on. This has been added so it also shows when you place your inventory, you can also adjust the grid size which you can then snap things to, making it much easier to align things in nice, perfect lines.

New articles

Regarding articles we are as always pushing hard to add new stuff to the game. The article process can be a bit complex, which is why we sometimes have articles ready that doesn't make it to a game in a specific update.

When adding articles, first we need to decide on a collection of items, and how many it should consist of. The hard part of this is to hit the sweet spot.
No category should be more or less important than another in the game. So we try to aim for an equal number of articles in each.

Then we have to decide how many unique meshes and textures it has to consist of. For each new unique mesh / texture, the work time on this specific article increases massively. So it is about figuring a good variety/speed ratio.
Supermarket items are in this regard a bit tricky in general, as it is a lot of texture work and less of modelling. It is hard to design a proper looking label. People takes educations in this stuff to do this professionally, and we kind of have to "assembly line" the process, as we need MANY of them. Also to create the individual article in a group, it means designing a new label with new texts images etc..
Compared to this when we start making clothes, we can model one t-shirt, and give it different colours and voila, a new article line in a short time.

When modelling and texturing has been done, then we have to get them ready to add them to the game. We need to optimise textures and create the actual materials. Materials are the surfaces you see in the actual game. If you look at a surface, it is not only a colour. It also have a property for how smooth it is, the level of metallicity, the bumps that simulate high's and low's, and many other things

These are usually defined by textures, but can also be tweaked with different kind of maths.

After setting up materials, we need to prepare their behavior. It it a hanging item, and from where do they hang. Is it a shelf item that is stacking, and how much do they stack. Should they have random positions and rotations to give them a natural placed look, and so on.

When this has been adjusted, we can finally parameterize them, which means adding price range, quality type, supplier, customer need offset etc. and add them to their respective lists so they show up properly in the game.
So each and every article need to go through all these steps to be able to work properly in the game

In this update, you will have new types of juices, beer can and soda cans. We also started the production of cleaning items, which will be the major additions over the next updates.

Here is an images of some of the things that will be added :)

--- Decorations and expansions ---

With this update is released, we will now start on these new big features, i will explain a bit about what you can expect from them.

Expanding the property

Currently you can rent and buy property open new stores.
With this implementation, you get certain advantages when buying property (There should be some kind of bonus to spend this amount of money).
One of them is that if you buy property adjacent to an existing store, you can merge them together, allowing for an even bigger store.
So with this as well as the possibility to increase the numbers of floors vertically your stores can end up being MASSIVE.

What do to with the expanded property?

With these new huge properties, just having a huge building on there might be a bit boring. So the plan is to give you a whole new level of possibilities.

First of all you will be allowed to define the shape of your store, meaning you can place outer walls as you see fit,
In this outer structure you will then be able to place (multiple) entrances and exits, windows and various decorations as you see fit, allowing you to make each building rather unique.

Then you also be able to add other elements to the outer area of the store. Some of these items will boosi your store. For instance maybe a parking lot that increases overall traffic? A bus stop? A playground? A franchised restaurant/cafe? A gas station? Any other ideas? You can also place signs, billboards and various decorations here as well to spice up the looks and attractiveness.

And inside the store?

Inside the store you will be able to place various elements, and even create your own designs. You will have access to various shapes you can combine, change and place as you seem fit. That means custom walls, walls with different doors, pillars, overhang elements, etc. etc. Allowing for total control and customisation of your store.
I also plan to make a designer for this to you can experiment, save and share your constructions with each other.
I also plan to add other different decorations as well. Plants, benches, chairs and what not, should also be possible.

When will it be ready

I have allocated around 3 months of time for this, so how much of the above that will be part of this sprint, and how much that will be saved for later on i don't know, but my plan is to allow for all of this at some point.
I also plan to allow for a poster system like in KoR1. However i know that this feature in itself is quite heavy to make, so it will not be a part of this decorations update.

--- Contest winners ---

We also hosted our monthly contest, and this month the focus was on creating the best looking bakery. We had a record high of participants and submissions, making it hard to determine the winners, also considering that people are starting to use the display designer in many new and creative ways. It is used for making walls, lamps, tables and chairs, which even i had not imagined.

And personally i always like to see people push the boundaries of the game to their fullest.

But on to the winners.

1st place

The winner of this months contest is "GodGutten" with "William's Bakery"

A nice clean looking bakery, with various types of displays to showcase the bakery. The spacing between the elements is perfect. It does not feel too crowded, nor too compact. It also features various drinks sections to compliment the store, as you would expect in real life as well.

It is a simple store but well executed, which is hard when you try and keep it simplistic.

The keen eye will also notice the back wall is actually the backside of huge displays, so a creative way to limit the size of your store.

Here are some images of an award winning store:

2nd place

On second place we have "Sparks" with Sparks Midnight Bakery.

A more spaceous bakery, that is sure ti give some energy to those going midnight shopping. It features long good looking rows of various bakery items, and with the evening sunlight shining directly on the bread, makes it look REALLY delicious.

Here the display designer has really been pushed to the limits.
Again the shape of the store is made of displays, and it also features café elements, where tables, chairs and nice decorative elements, that fits well into the energizing midnight vibe, also are made of custom displays. Each aisle of bakery is also fitted with a special lamp as well.

Here are some images:

3rd place

On third place we have "HeyHannes" Baguetting Better.

A more classic looking type of morning service bakery. Here we have the large counter where customers come up to the counter and gets served by the clerks, where they have to ask for one of the delicious types of bread.

So it is a smaller store, featuring one long line of articles, as well as an adjacent café section where the customers can go and eat in peace.

This store also has spent time on creating a good looking storage area, which adds to the overall score.

Here are some images:

--- Next contest ---

For our next contest we will take a look back, and make a challenge in the original King of Retail instead. So to try something new, we would like people to create the coolest gaming store that they can. Importing things to consider is making a coherent theme, store layout and article presentation. Using the poster system for ultimate customisation, will also be noticed.

So you can

and join in on the chance to win a Steam gift card.

--- Translations ---

Our community is also helping translate the game into many different languages, which i am very very appreciateive of. This is a constant ongoing word, as new translations arrive or change with each update. So if you would like to give a hand with translating King of Retail 2, you can do that on

Localizor

This is how the translation is going so farr:

That was all i had to say for now.

Feedback, ideas, bug reports and all these things are as always very welcome.
Now I will return to my cave and continue on making the best game possible for you to enjoy.

So until next time, i wish you a happy sale.
Cheers
Daniel