Hello, shopkeepers!
Week two of Early Access has been all about laying foundations for the next big milestones. This week we pushed the project forward in three key areas.
#1 - Specializations Begin: Guild Hall
Specializations are the deeper progression system that Loot Shop Simulator will offer. The first, Guild Hall, is now in active design. We're working on recruitable adventurers, competition against other (NPC) guilds, and new prestige décor! We are already laying the groundwork within the code for the long run, not just for the Guild Hall but for the Specializations system as a whole.
#2 - Localization Prep
We’ve started to restructure data to make text extraction painless, setting the stage for full localization. This will help us make the step sooner, rather than later. In fact, we're already exploring possible localization to JP and ES within just a few updates! This is still months away from happening, but as the game continues to grow with more content, it seemed beneficial to set up the data from now since this significantly reduces workload in the long run (new items / content will be coded the new way from now on, which automates text extraction making it extremely easy to add new languages with a simple switch when the time comes).
#3 - Control Systems
Loot Shop Simulator launched with a single tile system. Afterwards, we realized that for items of varying sizes, rather than use the same system we could create new systems tailored based on the item type. This simplifies the development greatly (example: any bugs with the new placement system won't affect the original tile system and are easier to fix because there's less code involved in a fresh system). Truthfully, we tried the original system for wall items and it resulted in something that we felt players wouldn't enjoy. So, we held back wall and floor decor until these new control systems could be implemented. Well, during the first week of EA, we completed the first new system for wall decor, and we teased the first wall decoration item on our X page last week! We are currently working on floor decor (for decor that goes under ground objects, such as rugs) and we hope to have some more information on that for next week's dev log.
Thanks again for all of the feedback and enthusiasm! We are aiming to deliver the first update later this month, so stay tuned for more! And feel free to join our Discord server if you'd like to report a bug, ask questions, or just to chat!
The Loot Shop Simulator Team