April Progress Update
Hey everyone! It's been longer than it should have been but I've finally got another update to share & this is a big one!
So lets get right into it :D
- Calendar
Managing events is now greatly simplified with an in-game calendar listing upcoming events like parties & classes. Check the attached screenshot at the bottom to get an idea of how this looks.
I mentioned in the January update that I've added a random events system to occasionally throw the player a curve-ball & shake things up a bit.
I've added a few more potential random events:
- Power Outages
Not a major problem if it happens but it can disrupt some things and keep you on your toes.
- Drug dealers
Wouldn't it be awful if your wholesome, family friendly Rec Center had a problem with illegal performance enhancing drugs?!
Should a customer report this to you, it's up to you to play detective to find & ban the dealer before it hurts your reputation & leads to bad reviews.
Now, for the final major feature I'm implementing before release:
- Instructors & Fitness Classes
Since the last update I've been very hard at work on the final major feature
I plan to introduce before Early-Access release.
This is a feature I've been planning for at least 2 years now but didn't really have the framework
in place to implement it well but through my various code rewrites, I finally
came up with a good method to add this.
How it works:
So, in addition to hiring traditional worker employees, you can now hire instructors to teach fitness classes.
You can hire up to 6 instructors at once but be warned, if you hire an instructor & don't give them any work for a while, they might just up and quit their job.
Instructors aren't paid an hourly wage like a normal employee but are paid a flat fee per class based on a few things like their reputation, skills, the type of class etc..
Once you hire an instructor and have built a classroom with all the necessary equipment, you can then open the calendar & select a date to host your class.
From there, you choose things like which type of class you want your instructor to teach.
There will be 4 classes to choose from at launch, the 4 types are:
- Aerobics
- Yoga
- Boxing
- Swimming
You can also choose the length of the class, the room it takes place in & how much it will cost per customer.
Once the class is hosted and is listed as an upcoming event on the calendar, it's up to your customers to decide if they want to sign up for it.
Various factors go into whether or not customers will sign up for the class. Some of these include the price, the length, the reputation & attributes of your instructor.
If nobody likes your instructor & you charge too much, very few will sign up for the class & it won't be profitable.
Classes take time for customers to sign up, so it's important to host your classes well in advance to give time for them to fill up.
Much like with normal employees, instructors will get better at their jobs over time & gain reputation making signups more common.
- Over the next month or two I'll be overhauling the steam page, adding new screenshots & updating the description.
Also I'll soon be beginning work on a new updated trailer since the current one is horribly out of date.
- Yet more bug fixing.
There's a million variables to look out for with this type of game, for example:
- What happens if you block an entrance to a class just before it starts
- What happens if you start bulldozing a pool while customers are swimming in it
- What if there's a blackout while a customer is on a treadmill
- What happens if a customer needs to pee and you sell the last toilet before they reach it
these examples basically go on forever..
Many of these "what if's" result in crashes, so basically I need to test, test & test some more in thinking up ways to break the game & fix it before players encounter the bugs.
For this, I'll have another small closed beta period but the details of this will come soon.
I've been internally looking at a couple of potential release dates which I can't really share more about just yet but they're not far off.
Since basically all of my programming time now will be spent not on adding new features, but instead on bug fixing, polishing & optimising the game it should not be too much longer. (I know I've said that before but for real this time!)
It's been 2 years & 1 month since I put up this store page & I've been working harder in these last few months than ever before, probably averaging about 10 hours per day 7 days a week to get this game ready for release.
So if you've been here since then, thank you for sticking around so long.
Here's a new screenshot showing the in-game calendar with some upcoming classes & events:
So lets get right into it :D
What's new since last update?
- Calendar
Managing events is now greatly simplified with an in-game calendar listing upcoming events like parties & classes. Check the attached screenshot at the bottom to get an idea of how this looks.
I mentioned in the January update that I've added a random events system to occasionally throw the player a curve-ball & shake things up a bit.
I've added a few more potential random events:
- Power Outages
Not a major problem if it happens but it can disrupt some things and keep you on your toes.
- Drug dealers
Wouldn't it be awful if your wholesome, family friendly Rec Center had a problem with illegal performance enhancing drugs?!
Should a customer report this to you, it's up to you to play detective to find & ban the dealer before it hurts your reputation & leads to bad reviews.
Now, for the final major feature I'm implementing before release:
- Instructors & Fitness Classes
Since the last update I've been very hard at work on the final major feature
I plan to introduce before Early-Access release.
This is a feature I've been planning for at least 2 years now but didn't really have the framework
in place to implement it well but through my various code rewrites, I finally
came up with a good method to add this.
How it works:
So, in addition to hiring traditional worker employees, you can now hire instructors to teach fitness classes.
You can hire up to 6 instructors at once but be warned, if you hire an instructor & don't give them any work for a while, they might just up and quit their job.
Instructors aren't paid an hourly wage like a normal employee but are paid a flat fee per class based on a few things like their reputation, skills, the type of class etc..
Once you hire an instructor and have built a classroom with all the necessary equipment, you can then open the calendar & select a date to host your class.
From there, you choose things like which type of class you want your instructor to teach.
There will be 4 classes to choose from at launch, the 4 types are:
- Aerobics
- Yoga
- Boxing
- Swimming
You can also choose the length of the class, the room it takes place in & how much it will cost per customer.
Once the class is hosted and is listed as an upcoming event on the calendar, it's up to your customers to decide if they want to sign up for it.
Various factors go into whether or not customers will sign up for the class. Some of these include the price, the length, the reputation & attributes of your instructor.
If nobody likes your instructor & you charge too much, very few will sign up for the class & it won't be profitable.
Classes take time for customers to sign up, so it's important to host your classes well in advance to give time for them to fill up.
Much like with normal employees, instructors will get better at their jobs over time & gain reputation making signups more common.
What's still left to finish?
- Over the next month or two I'll be overhauling the steam page, adding new screenshots & updating the description.
Also I'll soon be beginning work on a new updated trailer since the current one is horribly out of date.
- Yet more bug fixing.
There's a million variables to look out for with this type of game, for example:
- What happens if you block an entrance to a class just before it starts
- What happens if you start bulldozing a pool while customers are swimming in it
- What if there's a blackout while a customer is on a treadmill
- What happens if a customer needs to pee and you sell the last toilet before they reach it
these examples basically go on forever..
Many of these "what if's" result in crashes, so basically I need to test, test & test some more in thinking up ways to break the game & fix it before players encounter the bugs.
For this, I'll have another small closed beta period but the details of this will come soon.
The Future
I've been internally looking at a couple of potential release dates which I can't really share more about just yet but they're not far off.
Since basically all of my programming time now will be spent not on adding new features, but instead on bug fixing, polishing & optimising the game it should not be too much longer. (I know I've said that before but for real this time!)
It's been 2 years & 1 month since I put up this store page & I've been working harder in these last few months than ever before, probably averaging about 10 hours per day 7 days a week to get this game ready for release.
So if you've been here since then, thank you for sticking around so long.
Here's a new screenshot showing the in-game calendar with some upcoming classes & events: