Dear Retailers #18 - End of Year Update – Looking Back at 2025

[p]Dear Retailers,[/p][p]The year is coming to a close, but the days will only get longer from here. After 7 months of monthly updates, I’ll be taking a well-needed rest for the holidays. [/p][p]As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the state of King of Retail 2, where we stand with overall development, and our plans for 2026 on the horizon.[/p][p]The year isn’t over yet! But I wanted to acknowledge both the game’s successes and challenges, as well as the people who helped us along the way.[/p][p][/p][h2]What We Accomplished This Year[/h2][p][/p][h3]Revamped Build Mode [/h3][p][/p][p]Launch tools for Building and the Display Designer were functional, but uninspired and overly confusing. We completely rebuilt Build mode from the ground up while introducing new features:[/p][p]
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• [p]Multiple floors, with escalators, elevators and stairs to connect them. And all the AI pathing nonsense that allowed it to be possible.[/p]
• [p]A much more intuitive building block approach to setting down walls, windows and doors. 
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[p]The result? Some really impressive and incredible store designs from across the community. The general reception of the improved build mode was quite good and opened a lot of new creative avenues for store designs. [/p][p][/p][h3]Customers have Intelligence Now! [/h3][p][/p][p]Customer and general NPC AI has been added to continuously over development as they link to new supported features, so this continues to be an ongoing development goal all the way to 1.0 in the distant future. But as we stand at the end of year, AI has come a long way from its state at launch.[/p]

• [p]AI understand access control now! And they won’t randomly walk into your stock room (unless you’re employing them) [/p]
• [p]Customers are more proactive with their shopping behaviors, adjusting where they go based on their needs, preferences, and if the store is available to cash them out.[/p]

[p]My work on improving AI is never finished, as we’ll be adding new updates and features which will invariably add to the complexity of the AI. 
[/p][h3]Multiple Stores & Team Management[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The features I’m personally most proud of this year, just because of how much its opened up for future development. Multiple Stores & Team Management are two features which will get some adjustments in the near future, as the complexity of how these features are simulated will likely grow.[/p][p]The idea of “managing a retail empire” has been a primary feature of King of Retail 2, and something that comes about more through a series of features rather than a single mechanic that allows it. Our Macromanagement update, released in September, is the first step to make that reality, but there will be more to come to complete that feature.[/p][p][/p][h3]Community Features[/h3][p][/p][p]The Community has always been an important part of the game, but also to me personally as a developer. You have been the sober second thought and my words of encouragement. Integrating community features was an easy decision to make because I knew so many of you would take to it easily. And you have![/p]

• [p]Community Workshop Integration [/p]
• [p]In-Game Leaderboards / Global Rankings[/p]
• [p]Integrated upload/download of community assets into the game.[/p]

[p]I want to focus on making features as accessible as possible, and I’m surprised and touched by the creations that have been made already.[/p][p][/p][h3]New Products![/h3][p][/p][p]When we launched in May, the main offerings for stock and articles were men’s clothing and groceries. Since then, we’ve added expanded inventory in both categories while introducing Beauty Categories and Electronics dropping more recently.
[/p][p]Here’s a gallery of some of the designs that launched since then.[/p][p]
[/p][carousel][/carousel][p][/p][p]Ongoing product categories are still a big focus for development, and we plan to continue updating with new products, either standalone or as part of larger content updates. Rollout of new products will generally remain consistent, but I may move up or hold off depending on what else we have planned for updates.
[/p][h2]What Comes Next in 2026?[/h2][p][/p][p]A few months ago, I alluded to our development plans for King of Retail 2 being to “build wide before we build tall”, which I reflected in my approach to building out core AI interactions alongside new features, or the stages we’ll be rolling out the simulation of “offline” stores. [/p][p]As 2026 dawns, we’ll be looking at additional features and getting back to adding that upper crust to the game with a greater eye towards simulation.[/p][p]Look forward to:[/p]

• [p]Redevelopment of the HQ function, and putting executive spaces to work.[/p]
• [p]Enhanced features for Team Management, including a deeper development of Employee learning, allowing them to inherit, pass on, and develop their skills and attributes.[/p]
• [p]Marketing tools, including physical billboards to broadcast your brand.[/p]
• [p]Talent trees for your concepts as you develop your businesses.[/p]
• [p]Additional Leaderboard and Ranking types.[/p]
• [p]And many, many more product updates to come.[/p]

[p]2026 overall will be a big development year for core gameplay as we continue to widen out the simulated factors of Big Retail. I’m excited to share particulars on development in the New Year.
[/p][h3]A Very Special Thank You[/h3][p]Finally, I wanted to extend a sincere thank you to the entire community for your work in supporting, testing, and generally being a positive force in the ongoing development of King of Retail 2. [/p][p]I won’t lie that developing a title in Early Access is difficult. I have my support structures in place from a development and personal standpoint, but the final product is always in front of you - or at least as much as I can make available. That includes early features but it also includes challenges, struggles, setbacks, and the core reality of game development. It’s hard work. [/p][p]Release was perhaps the most challenging, and there was a lot of technical and design debt that became apparent on release that we needed to address before we could start adding new features. I’m happy to say that we’ve overcome so much of that, and I credit the community for supporting me through the tough times.[/p][p]I’m proud to say that the game is in the best state yet, and only going to get better in 2026. Thank you, everyone.[/p][p]Join the community and see what’s in store for 2026 by joining the King of Retail 2 Community Discord. I’ll be scheduling one last livestream before the year is out, so catch me every other Friday on my Twitch channel. [/p][p][/p][p]Until 2026, happy sales,[/p][p][/p][p]-Daniel[/p][p]
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