Coffee Shop Tycoon News

Hello,

After a long testing period and bug fixing, the new update is finally ready, I will do a recap of the features for this update and talk a little more about what is coming in the next update.





Now you are able to unlock new areas on your shops! You can expand your shop by reaching the required reputation level and paying an expansion fee. The Second and Third shop have this option available, so you can start placing tables and decorations on the sidewalk or over a nice deck next to the lake. New stores will also feature expansions and will be created with this feature in mind to offer interesting options and multiple expansions.



This effort would not be complete without having new cool things to buy and customize your shop, so the new update adds 20 new objects, including tables, firepits, plants, and even some big shared tables so people can chill on your store while working on their homework. All thanks to the amazing work of Gaby which has been helping me creating new models for the game.





Large tables can now be shared between customers that don't belong to the same group. These tables are commonly used for working and it adds a nice option to your shop as you will start seeing more customers drinking coffee at your shop. Drinking time for customers has also been increased so they will stay longer.

The new placement system allows you to get customers stuck, but they are now smart enough to stop and let you know that the path is blocked so you can let them move around.





There are some common coffee shop layouts that were not possible due to the old grid system, for example, placing tables against the wall.



The new grid system gives you the flexibility to achieve this and more. Placing tables was also a little restrictive as you had a big area around your table that needed to stay clear of any other object, now tables only use the occupied slots and you can even place tables together without any restriction. Individual tables that are next to another will not become a merged larger table, but customers will still use them as each portion was an individual table.



Every small table now supports 4 chair slots, one on each side. Larger shared tables can support up to 8 customers at the same time.





Next update will be delivered way faster as I'm just planning on updating the Store UI. The number of items has increased quite a lot since I made that screen, and sometimes it is hard to find what you are looking for. The update will add groups and persistent state so you can browse between different categories like "Chairs", "Tables", "Decorations", "Seasonal" and go back to the same search after placing the item.

I will also keep working on the AI for rival stores and I will start planning the new content update which will include a new store location and new items.

Thanks for all the support and your great feedback that has helped evolve the game into its current state. I know there are many more exciting things to come for Coffee Shop Tycoon and I will keep working to bring you these experiences. Don't forget to post any bugs you encounter and remember, enjoy your coffee.

Hello everyone, I just pushed a new update that should fix several problems you were having on the beta, including customers getting stuck, game crash on loading, and walls not working properly on the third shop. I am also including macOS, so everyone should be able to play the beta.

I have yet to finish adding the store expansion to the third shop but everything else is pretty mush done. Thanks everyone for playing the beta, I'll continue finishing the update and fixing any bugs that I stumble across.

Enjoy your coffee.

Hello everyone,

I hope you are having a great weekend! The new update (v0.5.0) is looking good, so I have published a preview on the BETA branch. To play you will have to switch the game branch to use the beta build, follow the instructions below if you don't know how to do that.


To play the beta you just have to opt in to the beta branch called ‘beta’, here is a quick article that shows you how to do that:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=380122528


The beta has everything that was announced on the previous announcement, including new items, store expansions, a new AI system, and a more flexible system to move and place things around the store. Currently only the second shop has an expandable are, but I'm adding also an expandable area to the third shop, that will be added once the update is fully published.
Since very large systems were completely rewritten, I wanted to have a beta out to catch any unpredicted bugs or crashes. If you find any problems please post them on the discussions boards so I can have a look, I'll create a specific topic for that.

Full update details




As always thank you for all your support, and I'll continue working on the missing pieces to fully release the update. Enjoy your coffee.

Hello,

I wanted to give you a detailed update of all the changes coming to Coffee Shop Tycoon and some insight into why I have been so busy working on the next update.
In order to accomplish the new features I wanted for the game, I had to rehaul two major systems in the game: Customer AI, and Grid System (placing objects). I started by creating the Customer AI from scratch using a better architecture to handle more complex states, this will enable customers to have more advanced interactions in the future and was also required to allow a smarter navigation system for a feature that I will describe in a moment. After dealing with all the new AI, I started to modify the Grid System to allow more dynamic placements and reduce the number of wasted spaces in your shop. All those changes to introduce…. Store Expansions!!!





Starting on the next update you will be able to unlock new areas on your shops. You can expand your shop by reaching the required reputation level and paying an expansion fee. The Second and Third shop will have this option available, so you can start placing tables and decorations on the sidewalk or over a nice deck next to the lake. New stores will also feature expansions and will be created with this feature in mind to offer interesting options and multiple expansions.



This effort would not be complete without having new cool things to buy and customize your shop, so the new update will add 20 new objects, including tables, firepits, plants, and even some big shared tables so people can chill on your store while working on their homework. All thanks to the amazing work of Gaby which has been helping me creating new models for the game.





There are some common coffee shop layouts that were not possible due to the old grid system, for example, placing tables against the wall.



The new grid system gives you the flexibility to achieve this and more. Placing tables was also a little restrictive as you had a big area around your table that needed to stay clear of any other object, now tables only use the occupied slots and you can even place tables together without any restriction. Individual tables that are next to another will not become a merged larger table, but customers will still use them as each portion was an individual table.



Every small table now supports 4 chair slots, one on each side. Larger shared tables can support up to 8 customers at the same time.





Working for the past months on this has been challenging and fun at the same time, the problem with working on such core systems of the game is that you have a broken build for a long time until you get all the new pieces in the right place, so basically I had nothing flashy to show you for quite some time, but everything has come together and you can see the results of all the work. I wanted to finish this update during the first weeks of December, but it has proven very difficult. I feel relieved that all the new features are working together quite nicely but there are still some bugs and details that need to be fixed before I can release the new update. I will be leaving to see my family for holidays tomorrow, but I'll be back at work on January 3rd, so expect to play the update on January. Thank you for all the support and interest on the game, I have great plans for the game next year as I am planning to bring it out of early access and have a full release, there are still many things that need to be done before that but that is my main goal and I will work non-stop to achieve it.

Happy holidays and enjoy your coffee!

Hello, latest update introduced a potential crash when trying to unlock the third store. The latest update will fix this issue to you, please update to version 0.4.8

Thank you for your patience and enjoy your coffee.