Walk of Life News

[p][/p][p]It's demo day!
[/p][p]The whole team at Porcelain Fortress is overjoyed to be able to let all of you have a (limited) go at what we've been cooking for the last couple of years. You can find the demo here!

The demo features seven rounds of gameplay where you'll be able to try out two of the game's roles, the Workaholic and the Hoarder. You'll have access to most of the game's primary systems with some limitations as some systems will be locked as this is of course just a demo. [/p][p]Some unavailable systems include higher tiers of work and education, better apartments, many of the pets etc. Don't worry though, all of these features will be available in the early access version of the game that will be coming later this month.The demo supports both local and online multiplayer, so we encourage all of you to invite your friends along for the party game experience. If your friends aren't cool enough to tag along, or don't exist as a part of the material plane, we've got you covered with a bot player. Be nice though, they're not the sharpest tool in the shed.[/p][p]If this is your first experience trying Walk of Life, we'd love to get your feedback. Please let us know on the Steam forums, or our Discord, what you think so we can continue to develop the perfect game for our favourite player: you!

Until next time![/p]

[p]TLDR:
Walk of Life Demo is releasing September 29th, 2025
Walk of Life goes into Steam Early Access October 24th, 2025


What's up![/p][p]It's been a hot minute since our last update, but that's because the entire team has been hard at work, deep in the game design mines where natural light is but a flicker of a memory. Thankfully, we're emerging from the depths, seven-dwarf style, to show Snow White the fruits of our labour. You guys are Snow White in this convoluted metaphor. [/p][p]We recently started hosting closed playtests on our Discord (come join us, if you're not there already!) and have been gathering valuable feedback about what is and isn't working. Minor stuff that's easy to overlook after months of development can often be spotted with fresh eyes, so a bunch of polish has been achieved in a short amount of time.


We're close to a point where we can finally unleash the kraken and let you all have a go at Walk of Life. The plan is to release Walk of Life in Early Access on October 24th. The reason we decided to go for an early access release is that we want to involve our awesome and opinionated community in developing a game we can all love and play for years to come.

Entering Early Access, we hope to have a rock solid core gameplay that we can expand upon in the months to follow with new events, gameplay systems, avatars and so much more. There's some stuff that will be very new to players coming in directly from No Time to Relax, and we think you're going to love the changes we've made.


Now, we know that the early access launch is over a month away, but if you're absolutely parched for Walk of Life, we will be dropping a demo on the way. We recommend you keep reading these incredible dev blogs and check out our Discord if you want to be in the loop.

Laters![/p]

[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]