Rug Cleaning Simulator News

[h2]Thank You for the Feedback[/h2][p]Your posts on the discussion board, comments, and bug reports were incredibly helpful.[/p][p]During the demo release and throughout Steam Next Fest I tried to fix problems as quickly as possible whenever they appeared. Until players got their hands on the demo, I honestly had no idea how many things were broken or needed improvement.[/p][p]Working on this project solo and mostly during nights in my free time makes it difficult to catch every issue beforehand. Your feedback helped reveal problems I would never have discovered on my own.[/p][p]So seriously — thank you for helping make the game better.[/p][p][/p][h2]Steam Next Fest Numbers[/h2][p]Here are some stats from the event:[/p]

• [p]1,294 Total Players[/p]
• [p]139 Played & Wishlisted[/p]
• [p]877 Total Gained Wishlists[/p]

[p]Not going to lie — I was hoping for higher wishlist gains during Next Fest.[/p][p]But considering the technical issues and rough edges the demo had, I’m honestly really happy that the results are still positive in many ways.

Here are some fun numbers from the demo:[/p]

• [p]Rugs cleaned: 7,026 ːsteamhappyː[/p]
• [p]Perfect cleans: 21[/p]
• [p]Good cleans: 5,923[/p]
• [p]Poor cleans: 806[/p]
• [p]Clients served: 7,093[/p]
• [p]Money earned: 47,172[/p]

[p]Honestly… these numbers are beyond my imagination.[/p][p]Over 7,000 rugs cleaned since the demo launched.
That’s something I never expected to see.[/p][p][/p][h2]The Community (Biggest Surprise)[/h2][p]The biggest outcome for me wasn’t the numbers — it was the community.[/p][p]Before Next Fest I had no idea if anyone would care about the game.[/p][p]But even with the demo’s problems, there were players who were extremely engaged:[/p]

• [p]posting bug reports on the discussion board[/p]
• [p]sharing ideas and suggestions[/p]
• [p]competing on the leaderboards[/p]
• [p]returning to play more[/p]

[p]Yes, I'm talking about you. 🙂[/p][p]Seeing that kind of engagement is incredibly motivating and made me realize that building a community around the game is something I want to focus on much more.[/p][p][/p][h2]Discord server[/h2][p]Because of that, I’m opening a Discord server for the game.[/p][p]If you want to:[/p]

• [p]share ideas[/p]
• [p]report issues[/p]
• [p]discuss updates[/p]
• [p]help shape the game[/p]

[p]please join here:[/p][p]https://discord.gg/nnx7KKXc[/p][p]I’d love to be closer to players and develop the game together with the community.[/p][p][/p][h2]What's Next?[/h2][p]For now, I’m closing the demo temporarily.[/p][p]I want to focus on improvements based on all the feedback and continue optimizing the game.[/p][p]Before the full release, I will most likely release a Demo V2 with major improvements.

Planned Fixes & Improvements[/p][p]Here are some things already on my list:[/p][p]Gameplay[/p]

• [p]Fully skippable rug replay after cleaning (with option to disable permanently)[/p]
• [p]Endless mode without the shop closing at 6PM (manual end of day)[/p]
• [p]Free control of the cleaning tool instead of fixed cleaning screen[/p]
• [p]Improved locomotion and control system[/p]
• [p]Adjustable motion blur and sensitivity[/p]

[p]Visual Improvements[/p]

• [p]Better cleaning VFX (water, foam, dirt, dirty water, etc.)[/p]
• [p]Clearer visual difference between wet and dry rugs[/p]
• [p]Rugs behaving more like fabric instead of rigid surfaces[/p]

[p]Bug Fixes[/p]

• [p]Cleaning showing 99% instead of 100%[/p]
• [p]UI buttons not always working (dice button, sliders, etc.)[/p]
• [p]Shop door collision improvements[/p]
• [p]Interaction with clients sometimes failing[/p]
• [p]Rare camera bug when continuing cleaning next day[/p]
• [p]Rugs clipping into walls or disappearing[/p]

[p]Performance[/p]

• [p]Fix freezing and lag when starting the game for the first time[/p]
• [p]Additional optimization to support more PCs and devices[/p]

[p]Quality of Life[/p]

• [p]Accessibility settings tab[/p]
• [p]Wider office space[/p]
• [p]Scrubber effect width redesign[/p]

[h2]
Full Game[/h2][p]The full game will also expand with new content:[/p]

• [p]More rug shapes and types[/p]
• [p]More unique clients (aiming to avoid duplicate NPCs)[/p]
• [p]Multiple leagues with progression[/p]
• [p]Better tools and more demanding clients[/p]
• [p]Random items hidden in rugs (money, trash, branches, etc.)[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h2]Share Your Ideas[/h2][p]If you have suggestions or ideas, please share them here:[/p][p][/p][p]https://steamcommunity.com/app/2710530/discussions/0/767437998196431333/[/p][p]or on Discord Server[/p][p][/p][p]Your feedback during Next Fest proved that player input can significantly improve the game, so I’m always happy to hear your thoughts.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you again for playing the demo and supporting the project.[/p][p]This is just the beginning. 🚀[/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p]Since the demo release on February 6th, I've already pushed out 15 patches — and that's largely thanks to all of you sharing your feedback and bug reports on the Steam discussion board. Seriously, thank you so much. 🙏
[/p][p]The Big One: Cleaning Performance Fix[/p][p]The most common complaint — and the biggest source of negative reviews — was the severe stuttering and lag while cleaning rugs. This one was particularly tricky for me because I simply couldn't reproduce it. The game ran perfectly fine on my PC and my Steam Deck. Friends who helped me test? No issues either. It only seemed to affect new players.[/p][p]I spent the last 10+ hours laser-focused on tracking this down. After rewriting parts of the cleaning mechanism back and forth, I finally managed to reproduce it on my own machine — and found the culprit.
[/p][p]What was happening:[/p][p]The stuttering only affected new players who hadn't yet unlocked tool-usage achievements. Because the save system uses encryption, the save process is more expensive than a simple file write. Players without those achievements were getting caught in a loop of:[/p][p]Check if achievement is unlocked → trigger save → encrypt save data[/p][p]...all happening too many times within a single frame's render window. Essentially a chain reaction that tanked performance right when you were trying to clean.[/p][p]What's fixed in this patch:[/p]

• [p]✅ Resolved the achievement-check save loop causing stuttering during cleaning[/p]
• [p]✅ Added shader preloading on first launch — this should make the overall gameplay experience noticeably smoother from the start[/p]

[p]I really hope this fixes things for those of you who were struggling with performance. If you're still experiencing issues, please don't hesitate to let me know in the discussions — your reports are what make these fixes possible![/p][p]Happy cleaning! 🧽[/p]

[p]The demo actually went live a few days ago, but I held off on announcing it while I worked through the issues players reported. It’s been an intense few days—I’ve already shipped more than 10 patches to improve stability and fix bugs. I’ve also spent a lot of time optimizing performance, so I hope the game now runs smoothly on both PC and Steam Deck.

Rug Cleaning Simulator Demo is now playable with the full core cleaning loop and progression systems. Start from your first client, clean rugs with all 3 core tools (Water Gun, Scrubber, Extractor), earn money and XP, unlock upgrades, and climb from Newcomer to Professional. The demo includes guided quests, rare rug encounters, league progression, achievements, and a full demo-end summary screen with your personal stats—then lets you keep playing with no hard time limit.
[/p][h2]Feature Highlights[/h2]

• [p]1.5–2+ hours of guided progression (and unlimited freeplay after milestone)[/p]
• [p]5 playable demo quests: tutorial, upgrades, league promotion, rare rug objective, and demo milestone[/p]
• [p]Core tool workflow: wet, scrub, extract, dry[/p]
• [p]Progression systems: XP/levels, league points, promotions, and achievement unlocks[/p]
• [p]Economy loop: earn money, buy early tool upgrades (Tier 1–3)[/p]
• [p]Content variety: common + rare rugs (ultra-rare locked for full game)[/p]
• [p]Level cap 10, league cap Professional[/p]
• [p]Tool tiers capped at 3[/p]
• [p]Ultra-rare rugs and later quests reserved for full release [/p]

[p][/p][h2]Summary of What Was Done in recent patches[/h2][p]Optimalisation:[/p]

• [p]Visibility ranges (15m / 35m / 80m tiers) — small objects disappear at 15m[/p]
• [p]SubViewport freeze — main menu 3D background freezes after 3s, drops to ~548 draws[/p]
• [p]Shadow culling — meshes with AABB volume < 8m³ have shadows disabled[/p]
• [p]Directional shadow distance capped at 60m (was 120m)[/p]
• [p]Runtime MultiMesh batching — duplicate meshes consolidated[/p]
• [p]Physics culling — collision layers zeroed for bodies > 40m from camera[/p]
• [p]Preloading all assets before game scene starts[/p]
• [p]Resizing Mask maps to reduce textures send to GPU
  [/p]

[p]Bug fixes:[/p]

• [p]New Game modal hidden under menu FIX[/p]
• [p]AMD Drivers and Vulkan Shaders FIX[/p]
• [p]Tool upgrade UI/UX adjustement[/p]
• [p]Mouse clicking on trait cards[/p]
• [p]Mouse not fully interactive in PlayerMenu
  [/p]

[p]New features:[/p]

• [p]Display basic game controls in bottom right part of screen[/p]
• [p]Implemented Cleaning Score that appears at end of day summary[/p]
• [p]Leaderboard mechanics[/p]
• [p]Added new way of steering cleaning tools[/p]
• [p]Display amount of money at Tool Screen[/p]
• [p]Option to speed up Rug Cleaning Replay, Day Summary, Rug Summary[/p]
• [p]Add hints to sub quests[/p]
• [p]Add visual water drops from wet rugs drying on drying rack
  
  [/p]
• [p]If you run into any bugs or issues, please report them on the Steam Discussion Board: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2710530/discussions/.[/p][p][/p][p]I’m actively fixing reports, and your feedback helps a ton.[/p][p]If you’re enjoying the demo, an honest Steam review is greatly appreciated—this is only the beginning.[/p]

[p]Hey all ːsteamhappyː Long time no see but don't worry I still working on game. Demo is almost ready.[/p][p][/p][h2]Technical update [/h2][p]A lot of things happened in recent months. I've been focusing mostly about preparing game for the DEMO which is almost ready. My main goal currently is to be ready for the STEAM NEXT FEST with demo but ideally I would like to share with you demo before festival.

[/p][h2]Changes and project updates[/h2][p]As I was playing in other games recently I've tried to understand what makes good games being good. My number one priority is to have cozy, engaging and repetitive vibe. From very begging I was not willing to create a real life rug cleaning simulator. If you are into accurate job simulator games then this game might not be for you but I believe everyone should have fun playing it :)

[/p][h3]New game art:[/h3][p]as I'm moving into more cozy, repetitive and entertaining game I have prepared new steam capsule and aesthetics in general.
[/p][p]
[/p][h3]Game loop:[/h3][p]As typical job simulation games are a bit boring for myself (ADHD here) then I've created few mechanisms that will make game more entertaining (at least for me) - I hope you all will really like that combination of few game styles.

Player will be able to level up and boost traits
[/p][p]




Each traits will advance player in completely different field:
- Speed (speed bonus to cleaning machines movement)
- Charisma (better ratings given by clients)
- Profit (more money from cleaned rugs)
- Luck (more chance to get rare clients and rugs)
- Accuracy (more deep cleaning by machines bonus)
- Coverage (bigger field of cleaning at once by machines)
[/p][h3]
New UI[/h3][p]Player will see current level, % of next level exp, basic stats and current quest.

[/p][h3]Quests[/h3][p]Ahhh, yees there are Quests - that in the beginning will work as quick tutorial of game mechanics but later one will be more character story driven.

[/p][h3]Achievements[/h3][p]There will be plenty of achievements! Starting from basic ones like getting X level, to rare ones about unique clients, rugs etc.

[/p][h2]What next?[/h2][p]My current and only goal is to prepare a DEMO for all you to test game before Steam Next Fest. I hope I'll publish first alpha demo in 1-2 weeks. There will be some missing things, probably some bugs but hope you will like direction in which game is going :)[/p][p][/p][p]I want to create a game that all you will really like. I'll create later on a discord server to make our communication easier in terms of suggested changes/features/bugs etc.

Thank you for watching this project ːsteamhappyː[/p]

Hey all ːsteamhappyː

Long time no see but don't worry I have been working on game for the whole time (I mean in my free time capacity - which is not a lot 😊)

[h2]Technical update[/h2]

I would like to start this update with sharing with you a massive milestone in project. Rug Cleaning Simulator surpassed 1000 commits to repository. This means that I've added 1000 minor or major updates to game from start of project. To be true I don't track time spend on project but for sure it already took me more than 1000 work hours ːsteamhappyː





as you can see on screenshot of my repository, I'm working on game almost every day. I'm trying to work on game everyday even if it's small bug fix, update or new functionality.


[h2]What's new?[/h2]

Ok, enough about technical/project stuff and let me update you on game.

First and most important part in this update is Game User Interface (GUI). I was creating most of things from scratch as before I didn't have almost any UI in game. Before I was focusing on gameplay and now most time I spend on menus, character updates screen, settings etc.




Character progression system. When player gets level up, he will grand some rewards (tool skins etc.)




[h2]Cleaning time![/h2]
As this is not finished mechanics - it lack VFXs, some physics, particles and other adjustments, core system already works. By saying core system I mean mechanics that makes all cleaning types important to get clean rug well done. Basically if some part of rug won't be cleaned by rotary scrubber then next phase water extraction don't make that part of rug cleaned as it could be.



[h2]What next?[/h2]

Things that's are done:
- Main menu, Settings menu (Audio, Video settings needs some adjustments). Need to add Gameplay settings screen but this will be easy now as I already have system for that
- Preloading shaders and loading screens. I've created system that loads main gameplay scene when player is launching game so basically loading screen will be much shorter during gameplay
- Moved all current mechanics to main game scene (beach)
- Almost full game loop is more or less working (clients and coming to shop with unique rugs, we talk with them, get their rugs, clean them and return cleaned)

To do list:
- Complete game loop. Need to create progression and reward system base on our rug cleaning quality
- Add more dirt and rugs variants (for now I've got just few for testing purposes)
- Shop customisation
- Tool upgrade system, tool skins selection
- Rug discovery menu with progression system
- Steam Cloud save, achievements etc.



When Demo?
My current goal is to prepare game demo in 2 months. After demo being published, I'll open discord and talk with you about suggested changes and opinions and fix those things before full game release.

I'll be posting more stuff on game and demo here.