Update 0.5.9: Tutorial & Onboarding Overhaul

The tutorial has been rebuilt from the ground up.

This update focuses entirely on smoothing out the early‑game experience, reducing confusion, and making the first few in‑game days feel more natural, stable, and welcoming for new players.

Over the last few weeks, I received a lot of feedback that the game’s systems felt layered, complex, or overwhelming when introduced all at once. So this update restructures the entire onboarding flow, fixes long‑standing tutorial bugs, and spreads mechanics across multiple days in a way that matches the story and pacing of the game.

Major Changes — A New Multi‑Day Tutorial Flow

The tutorial is no longer a single, overloaded day. It now unfolds across the first few mornings, with each day teaching one “category” of mechanics instead of everything at once.

The new flow is:

• Day 1 — Basics & Story Setup
• Day 2 — The Full Shop Loop
• Day 3 — Economy & Progression

This pacing keeps the narrative intact while dramatically reducing cognitive load for new players.

Visual & UX Improvements

• Clearer spotlighting and UI highlights.
• Cleaner text explanations.
• Reduced clutter and fewer simultaneous instructions.
• More readable early‑game UI states.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed multiple cases where input remained blocked after the tutorial.
• Fixed audio queues not triggering correctly during onboarding.
• Fixed customer spawn logic desyncing with tutorial steps.
• Fixed several softlocks caused by tutorial flags not advancing.
• Fixed various small visual glitches and timing issues.
• General stability improvements across early‑game systems.

Final Notes

This is the largest and most important onboarding update so far. The goal is to make the early hours of the game feel smoother, clearer, and more inviting. Especially for players who aren’t familiar with narrative shop sims.

Thank you to everyone who tested the previous builds and sent feedback. The game has more depth than I realized, and this update finally gives that depth the breathing room it deserves.

More improvements are coming, I invite you all to continue playing the playtest and giving feedback.

Remember you can report bugs on the official discord: https://discord.gg/2g5bXZ7BQh

And I invite you complete the survey for my own data retention: https://forms.gle/DZCL4GN9YyBSFWbUA

See you on the next one!
- Shutin