Walk of Life News

[p]Ahoy! [/p][p]Walk of Life is coming along nicely — thanks for asking! We're currently hosting closed playtests to gauge the reactions of our playerbase, so head on over to our Discord if you're interested in taking part.[/p][p]Now then, on to the NPCs.[/p][p][/p][p]Most locations in Walk of Life feature an NPC. For a game with an emphasis on humor, it's important that these characters are colourful and exaggerated, so that players don't get easily bored of them. During our development process, some of the NPCs instantly clicked with us while others didn't feel right. Let's take a look at our first draft of the bank NPC.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]While this guy has many characteristics of a stereotypical smug bank employee, the artwork surrounding him doesn't really have a lot going on. No Time to Relax had a bunch of gags strewn throughout the NPC art, and we thought we could do a bit better. So here's the revised version.[/p][p][/p][p]Say hello to Mr. Moneyman!

Quite a big difference. The NPC is way more exaggerated, which is in line with the whacky style we're aiming for in Walk of Life, but the environment is a lot more lively with all the gags that have been put in. [/p][p]I'm a big fan of the human furniture stockbro. Hang in there, buddy![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Some of the other locations have had less intensive touchups. For Moo Moo Mart, formerly known as simply the 'Grocery Store, we liked the NPC, but felt there was a bit more room for gags. The humiliating employee attire meshes quite well with her weary face, weathered down over decades of work in retail. [/p][p]We're[/p][p] also excited to see what's featured in the newest issue of BLING magazine.[/p][p][/p][p]The girl at the pet store is the newest member of the NPC family, with plenty of curious critters littered around in the background to entice the players to grab a pet for themselves. The pictures you see are of course all static, but we'll have them animated very soon![/p][p]That's it for now. Do you have a favorite? Did you prefer the previous banker? Let us know in the comments![/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Who's a good boy? Who deserves bare minimum of care necessary for survival?

We're currently working on implementing pets into Walk of Life. They were a feature many felt missing from the demo, although we do want to alter their implementation a bit from No Time to Relax.[/p][p]Back in No Time to Relax, pets were basically mandatory for players aiming to win. Buying a pet early could get you a huge score advantage over someone who didn't get one. For Walk of Life, we want to stay clear of those kinds of systems and instead allow for more varied paths to victory.


As was the case in No Time to Relax, pet scoring will be based on their attributes, but now they'll be scored at the end of every round rather than at the end of the game. This means that players will have to maintain their pets' attributes and nurture them every single round to gain their max benefit. [/p][p]We're also looking at adding new actions beyond the 'pet' action to add some depth to the system. Just as in real life, there'll be no all-in-one button to maintain your pet's health, hygiene and happiness in one fell swoop, so we'll try our best to make some engaging gameplay loops for all the pet lovers.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So what about the pets themselves? We want to have a whole slew of pets on offer in all shapes and sizes. Cats, dogs, birds, reptiles and other, weirder options should be available. [/p][p]It's possible that they may not all be obtainable at the same location, so we hope players will explore as much of the game as possible in order to obtain them all! (We're good on copyright there, right?)[/p][p]And for any of you who are more excited about pets than anything else, there just might be a playable role tailored for you on the horizon.[/p][p]Until next time![/p]

[p][/p][p]Heyo![/p][p]Sorry if the picture of the stock market meltdown is hitting a little too close to home. We thought it would be a good example of one of the new features in Walk of Life: global events![/p][p]“New” might not be the right word. Both No Time to Relax and our recent demo featured a single global event: the Crime Wave, where players had a chance to get mugged and had to secure their apartment to avoid having their belongings stolen.[/p][p]We’ve always liked the Crime Wave as a wrench to throw into the gears of our players’ plans, and we wanted to build on that with more events of a similar nature. We’re currently working on several global events that we hope will make your games even more interesting.


The Crime Wave is staying, with some revisions—including a new security rating for your apartment that can be boosted with items like a bear trap or a weaponized robot vacuum. And since we’re doing one wave, we might as well try another: the Heat Wave!

As the name suggests, the Heat Wave pits players against the elements with sweltering temperatures, causing every single action in the game to come with an increased hygiene cost. Terrible body odour isn’t the only danger that follows the Heat Wave—players will also need to stock up on fire safety items, or risk their antique grandfather clock bursting into flames!


Not every global event will be bad news, though. Alongside the economic meltdown, players might encounter an economic boom, or take their hard-earned democratic rights to the voting booth to elect a new mayor—whose policies could drastically shape the course of the game.

While some of these new global events will happen randomly throughout the game, there are rumors of a strange figure in the park, clad in a trench coat, who might lubricate the wheels of global happenings… for a price!

We'll have more juicy details for you soon, but for now you can rest assured that we're aiming to have to introduce a lot more pandemonium to Walk of Life in the coming weeks.

Toodles![/p]

[p]TLDR: The demo is going down next Monday, but will return soon. Get your hours in until then!
[/p][p][/p][p]What up, players?[/p][p]About a month ago, we released the demo for Walk of Life. The main goal was to test the waters of the community response, which was thankfully very positive. The feedback we’ve received will play a big role in shaping the game into the hilarious life simulator you all deserve.[/p][p]That said, we’ve now reached the stage where we want to bring the demo back to the workshop for some fine-tuning. The current version will go offline next Monday, but don’t worry, it’ll be back quicker than a Clucker’s combo meal through shaky bowels. [/p][p]Don't like it? Blame Barry.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Here are some things you can expect from the next iteration of the demo:[/p]

• [p]Pets! Many of you were sad to see the pet system from No Time to Relax missing in the demo, but we’re currently working on a new pet system with way more variety than was offered to players in No Time to Relax. Reptile gang, where we at?[/p]
• [p]Global events! Right now, the only global event is the crime wave—but that’s about to change. We're adding a wide range of events, from minor disruptions to game-altering occurrences, to keep every playthrough fresh and unpredictable. How will you deal with a scorching heat wave or an economic meltdown?[/p]
• [p]Roles! The role system is a brand-new feature we hope will bring unique twists and starting conditions, making each run feel different.[/p]

[p]As foretold by countless prophecies writ in materials best left unmentioned, Walk of Life is soon upon us. Stay tuned, and join our Discord if you want to get the hottest gossip. We can’t wait to show you more. [/p]

[p]I dunno. Sort of? Maybe? [/p][p]Sorry for the clickbait.[/p][p]While No Time to Relax had every player follow a similar gameplan, Walk of Life seeks to shake things up with the introduction of roles – a sort of classbased system.[/p][p]Roles are meant to change the way you approach the game, either in minor or major ways.
[/p][p]Take for instance, the Scavenger. Instead of climbing the corporate ladder, the Scavenger will spend their turn digging through the dirtiest spots on the map to scrounge up valuables to either sell off at the pawn shop or keep for themselves. I mean, who wouldn't want a free sofa found behind the dumpster?



If diving through refuse doesn't sound like your idea of fun, you might prefer to play as some of the other roles, such as the Shopaholic, the CEO or the Beastmaster. We want roles to open up fun new ways of playing the game and allow players to try different routes to victory.[/p][p]These roles will have different complexity levels depending on how drastically they alter your gameplan. Sometimes you just want to go for the classic gameplan after all, and that's fine. We also plan to offer a gamemode without roles for players who don't like the asymmetrical gameplay.


Without us even having opened the conversation, a member of our Discord channel (come join us!) already laid out the options of how roles could be selected: [/p]

• [p]No roles[/p]
• [p]Random roles[/p]
• [p]Choice between two or three:[/p]
• [p]Choice from all roles[/p]
• [p]Everyone plays the same role[/p]

[p]Thanks for making our job easy, pariahchild2k![/p][p]There's not a whole lot else to say at the moment, other than to gather your thoughts on the matter. How do roles sound to you, our players? What roles would you like to see in the game? Until next time, here's a bit of a teaser for another missing feature: pets!

[/p]