Mall Craze News

[h3]Hello everyone! 👋[/h3]

A new update is here - version 0.3.3!
It brings with itself two new features: time speed control and autosaves.

Let’s take a closer look!


This update completes the time control feature introduced in the previous version, which added the ability to pause time. Update 0.3.3 expands on this by introducing speed control, allowing your customers to zip through your mall at up to 6x the normal speed!



The following GIF is not sped up in post-production:

Watching customers zoom through the mall makes my brain produce happy chemicals. ːsteamhappyː


You can now set how often you'd like your game to autosave, with the interval ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. To keep the folder from growing too large, the autosave folder has a cap of 20 save files.



The other small changes na big fixes are listed in the full patch notes below.

Thank you, everyone, for your support, and I will see you in the next update! ❤️
- Milan, Developer



[h2]Additions & Improvements[/h2]

• Time Control: 3x and 6x speeds added.
  
• Autosave added:
  
  • Save & Load UI: autosave tab added.
    
  • Settings UI: autosave interval settings added.
    
  • Autosave cap: 20 files.
    

[h2]Small Changes[/h2]

• Shop Construction UI now has confirmation pop up window when cancelling construction.
  
• Contents of confirmation pop up inside Shop UI now changes based on shop class (kiosks, vending machines, ...).
  
• Save function is now disabled during shop construction (was causing save file issues).
  
• Demo updated from version 0.2.5 to version 0.3.3.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed: Eyedrop, and subsequent construction of floor during Shop Construction causes glitches (eyedrop of floor is now disabled during Shop Construction).
  
• Fixed: Customers sometimes unnecessarily resetting to spawner after savefile load, even when standing on navigable area.
  
• Fixed: Controls UI & grid overlay not hiding when deleting objects during object Move mode.
  

[h2]Available Now[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1223530/

[h3]Hello everyone! 👋[/h3]

It is time for another update - version 0.3.2!
It may seem odd to emphasize time in bold, but in just a few seconds, you'll see that this update is all about time.

Let's jump in!


In this update, I’ve decided to tackle some Quality of Life (QoL) improvements you've been requesting for a while now, and I felt that the time was right to address them. There are two new main features coming with this update. The first is Time Control, specifically the first part of it — Pause.

There were two ways that I could've approached this. The first was a traditional pause that completely freezes the game, while the second was a time pause that lets you continue building, customizing, and managing your mall. The second option was the better choice since it aligns with how many other games in the genre work.



The only thing left now is the ability to speed up time, which will be addressed in the future as well!


While not directly tied to time control, this new tool is also related to time—it saves a lot of it! With the Eyedropper Tool, you can easily duplicate objects without much hassle. Previously, if you wanted to create the same object that's already in you mall, you had to search for it in the construction menu, build it, then enter the Material Designer of the original object, and with the Paint Tool paint the new object. Quite a journey!

With the Eyedropper Tool, you just eyedrop the original object, and now you can build as many identical copies of the object as you want, including materials.




While working on Time Control, I also took the opportunity to fix an issue with customers getting stuck on grass and escalators. Moments of euphoria from making progress quickly turned into despair while debugging and fixing these problems :)

Hopefully, most of the edge cases have now been taken care of, and if you ever notice your customers zooming across the map back to the spawner, that’s because they were stuck somewhere and couldn’t navigate back to a walkable area.




In update 0.2.4, I reverted back to Shader Model 5 from Shader Model 6. The technical details are not important, but this switch resulted in great improvements in stability for many people. What I haven't noticed until recently is that this change indroduced some micro stutters and decrease in preformance with large malls - namely 80's Dream and Sunny Skies.

I've made some adjustments, and the performance should now be a lot smoother for huge malls with shadows enabled, especially during camera movement. Depending on the situation and your system, you might see a 10-30% boost in performance.



Thank you, everyone, for your support, and I will see you in the next update! ❤️
- Milan, Developer



[h2]Additions & Improvements[/h2]

• Time control added: Pause Time.
  
• Eyedropper Tool added.
  
• Shadows performance optimized (10 - 30% FPS uplift based on different situations and settings).
  

[h2]Small Changes[/h2]

• Customers get teleported to spawn when stuck on grass or unable to move.
  
• Right mouse button is now used to exit Paint Tool (instead of UI button).
  
• Custom cursors added for Paint and Eyedropper Tools.
  
• Controls UI: right mouse button keybind added for Paint Tool.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed: Customers getting stuck on escalators.
  
• Fixed: Customers getting stuck on grass.
  

[h2]Available Now[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1223530/

[h3]Hello everyone! 👋[/h3]

Hello everyone! Today I’d like to share with you a quick overview of the first year since the game has released into Early Access. This year has seen steady progress for Mall Craze, and I'm really grateful for the support you've shown along the way.

Whether you've been here since day one or you just recently stumbled upon the game, I welcome you here! We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s dive in! 🎬

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/3718340776839794461
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/3716090245652899691
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/3720595112950091779
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/3814046073264274414
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/3878226811989210568
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/3985189839361587179
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/7047640220324167970
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/7353887524191305427
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/4110170432158545620
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/4173221461866889555
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/4170972198135962352
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/4177732670872608226
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/4607832777555861473
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1223530/view/4593196713093703874

Your feedback has played a key role in shaping the game’s development, and I’m really looking forward to the future!

Thank you everyone, and here’s to another year full of updates!
- Milan, developer


[h2]Available Now[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1223530/

[h3]Hello everyone! 👋[/h3]

Update 0.3.1 is here! Wait... a new one already? Just one week after a major update?

Yes! 🎵

There’s been one part of the game that I haven’t touched since launch, and that was the soundtrack. Throughout the year, I’ve always wanted to create more music for the game, but somehow I never found the right time to just sit down and compose.
The days following the 0.3.0 release felt like the perfect time to do just that, and that’s exactly what I did.



The Mall Craze soundtrack is now 3.5x bigger than before! Which... wasn’t actually that hard to achieve, considering there were only 2 songs in the game previously...
Let’s just say the music was a bit repetitive.

I hope you’ll enjoy the 5 new tracks, and that they will help you with building, customizing, and running your mall!

Thank you all for your support, and I’ll see you in the next update!
- Milan, developer



[h2]Additions & Improvements[/h2]

• 5 new songs added to the soundtrack
  

[h2]Available Now[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1223530/

[h3]Hello everyone! 👋[/h3]

The second major update to Mall Craze is here! It brings a completely new shop, improvements to Build mode, and lots of other changes and additions!

Let's see what's in store for us today:


[h2]Flower Shop 💐[/h2]
I'm happy to share that another big shop is now in the game: the Flower Shop! It consists of 11 placeable product shelves, which together contain 33 sellable products. These include colorful bouquets, cute tabletop plants, decorative pumpkins, a variety of plant pots with unique styles, and much more.

If you're looking to add some greenery and life to your mall, this shop will definitely do the trick!



[h3]Build & Move Mode Grid Overlay 🚧[/h3]
Although objects in Mall Craze snap to a grid of various sizes (mostly 50cm and 25cm, which can be temporarily turned off for most things), there was previously no visual indication of this. Grid placement naturally leads to a desire to build things precisely and symmetrically, which could sometimes be difficult, given that, until now, there was no visual representation of this grid, as I stated above.



Update 0.3.0 addresses this by introducing a grid overlay that will be visible during Build & Move mode. A positive side effect of this is that it will now be easier to tell whether you're currently in Build or Move object mode.


[h3]Starting Cash Slider for Pre-Made Malls 💵[/h3]
To extend the sandbox options for pre-made malls, I've added a cash slider that will allow you to choose the level of challenge you'll face when starting a new mall. The slider has a range of $50,000 to $5,000,000.



[h3]New Customers Overview List[/h3]
It's time to yet again start introducing deeper simulation and management options. Update 0.3.0 does so with the improved customers overview list inside the Mall Management window.
Below, you can see the comparison between the old and new versions.

0.2.7 0.3.0

Currently, only age, money spent, and current cash are the three new pieces of information provided,
but the new UI is ready to host a lot of other useful information in the future.

Concept

[h3]Construction Design UI Moved 🎨[/h3]
Although there’s an option in-game to change the design of an object that's currently being built, it was hard to find, and many people were therefore unable to easily change the design of a floor, for example. And no wonder—it was tricky to find. When you selected an object to build from the Mall or Shop construction menu, the left blue area switched from Object Categories to the Construction Design panel. To make the Construction Design panel more visible and easier to navigate, it’s now been given its own small pop-up window above the construction menu.

0.2.7 0.3.0


[h3]New Character Mesh Shading[/h3]
The character design of Mall Craze has evolved many times over its development, and today it takes another small step forward. The low-poly design of in-game 3D models works great for inanimate objects, but it showed its shortcomings on the character models.
Here’s the comparison between the 0.2.7 and 0.3.0 shading:



[h3]Controls Visualization Improved[/h3]
I've made it easier to view keybindings inside the Settings menu.

0.2.7 0.3.0

[h3]Renaming of Various Elements[/h3]
In the name of simplicity and better understanding, I’ve decided to rename a few aspects of the UI, such as renaming the material parameter “Emission” to “Luminance.” The full list can be found below in the Full Patch Notes under the Small Changes category.

[h2]"How can I support Mall Craze?"[/h2]
I occasionally get questions about how you can support the game even further, given that there are no DLCs or microtransactions. The best way to help is by sharing Mall Craze with others—friends, your favorite YouTuber or streamer, etc. If you like the game, writing a review here on Steam naturally also helps a lot ❤️.

[h2]What's Coming in Updates 0.3.x 👀[/h2]
The main focus for the next couple of updates will be adding new content, along with additional management features. The next big milestone for management is adding the Business game mode (name may change). Business mode will introduce progression in the form of Research. To have something to research, we need more content. New content will therefore come in the form of new shops, kiosks, vending machines, scenery, object designs, and so on.

Thank you, everyone, for your support, and I will see you in the next update!
- Milan, developer


[h2]Flower Shop Added (33 new products)[/h2]

• Bouquets (Colorful Bouquet, Bouquet of Love, Cutie Tulips Bouquet, Sunflower Bouquet, Bouquet d’Hortensia)
• Tabletop Plants (Large Plant, Small Plant, Plastic Table Plant Pot, Clay Table Plant Pot, Decorative Table Plant Pot)
• Plastic Pots (Medium Plastic Pot, Small Plastic Pot, Decorative Plastic Pot)
• Small Flowers (Arthurium, Calla Lily, Glass Vase)
• Small Cacti (Medium Tabletop Cactusm, Small Tabletop Cactus, Cacti Clay Pot)
• Decorative Pumpkins (Large Decorative Pumpkin, Small Decorative Pumpkin)
• Monstera
• Small Pots (Medium Clay Pot, Small Clay Pot)
• Flower Boxes (Clay Flower Box, Plastic Flower Box, Decorative Flower Box)
• Handmade Baskets (Large Basket, Regular Basket, Small Basket)
• Large Pots (Large Concrete Pot, Large Clay Pot, Large Plastic Pot)

[h2]Additions & Improvements[/h2]

• Grid overlay added for object Build & Move modes;
  
• Level Selector: starting cash slider added for Pre-Made malls;
  
• Mall Management: customer overview list improved and new info added:
  
  • age
    
  • money spent
    
  • current cash
    
• Construction Design UI re-designed (now having it's own small UI window).
  
• Settings UI & Controls UI - controls visualization improved.
  
• New character mesh shading;
  

[h2]Small Changes[/h2]

• Settings UI graphical options renamed:
  
  • Global Illumination -> Dynamic Lighting
    
  • TSR (Anti-Aliasing) -> Anti-Aliasing (TSR)
    
  • all Screenshot options renamed to Epic
    
• Material Designer UI - material parameters renamed:
  
  • Specular -> Reflections
    
  • Emission -> Luminance
    
• Material Designer UI - notification added on Design Save;
  
• Lumen dynamic lighting brightness improved;
  
• Volumetric Fog marked as Experimental;
  
• Pavement Decoration Blocks renamed to Floor Decoration Blocks;
  
• Default entrance text size & position adjusted;
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed: Painting StallTable crashes the game.
  
• Fixed: Changed colors for kiosk / vending machine doesn't transfer from ghost object.
  
• Fixed: Starting New Game while currently playing very old save can sometimes cause this New Game to save incorrectly.
  

[h2]Available Now[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1223530/