Month 9 of Landlord’s Super Early Access.
January is finally over. We’re still in a perpetual lockdown over here in Old Blighty. Though the motivation wains, we dig deep and plod on.
The Furniture update is proving to be a lot of content work. It’s a slow, gradual process, but eventually you’ll all be able to play with more sofas than you can shake a pint at. And if home furnishing is not your bag well, we’ve something else for you to look forward to…
The Quintessential Construction Simulator
Furniture Work (Again)
A significant chunk of January was spent fixing the issues introduced in the previous update. Outside of that, we’ve been working on producing the furniture assets. This is likely to be the case for the remainder of February too. There’s a lot of them!
Variety is the focus. We plan to launch with 3 furniture catalogues that the player can unlock. Each one with it’s own sense of style. There will also be plenty of choice in the design and colour for each furniture piece within.
Damage has also been considered. Each piece will track damage. Players cannot repair damaged furniture, though damage visuals won’t be visible till a lower threshold has been passed on the piece (probably <30%). The hope is that this will make it feel more appropriate to replace the furniture, as it’ll have lived a longer lifespan, rather than having a magic furniture-fixing kit. Kind of like a wear & tear system.
Smoking
Alright Marlboro, man, it’s finally coming. The main purpose of smoking (in the game) is to act as a portable and convenient way to raise hygiene past the smelly threshold (30% – when flies start buzzing around the players head). No need to run back to the shower and clean yourself up after a hard day’s graft. Just light one up and the smell will be gone.
Why is smell important all of a sudden? Well, we’ll be adding unique interactions for talking to characters whilst smelly. Interactions you’ll probably want to avoid.
You may recognise the brands from another game we made… I think Eastern European cigarette brands make sense in the context that they’re probably knock-offs.
The Road Ahead
There’s a lot of ambiguity in the roadmap I posted in January. That’s partly because we don’t want to over-promise and under-deliver. There’s been some notable releases in recent memory where the success has come from simply over-promising. We don’t want to add to this trend. Of course, that’s not the only reason. There’s always a risk that the pressures of performance, time and money can threaten to cancel a feature.
Regardless, We’ve been noticing the same questions and concerns popping up. So we thought we’d try to concerns a few of the more common concerns and requests.
Tenants Destroy the Property too Quickly
Agreed. While this will inevitably be balanced at some point, there is a class system associated with tenants and house value. The solution then will come when “better” tenants are added. The better tenants won’t damage the property nearly as much as the Lout does, but dealing with the lout is the only way to work towards these better tenants. Patience on this one, trust us!
Energy Depletes too Quickly
Agreed. This is another one that will be solved ad the game naturally develops. Specifically Phase 2: Tea & Supper update. As the title implies, players will be able to buy ingredients to create lunches and dinners, or even brew a cup of tea for the purpose of refilling energy levels. No more going to the bed at 11:00am.
There isn’t Enough to do Outside of Building
Again, agreed. The plan here is to add musical tape rewards given to the player if they fix up areas of the map (such as Tamsin’s Wall). We’d also like to add repeatable jobs, so there’s always ways to earn money using your tools. We also still plan on adding a Fruity (slots machine) to the pub. If these tasks don’t keep players busy enough, then designing and selling houses to the council (phase 3) will add endless late game content.
Add a Work Radio to the Game
Jeremy is hard at work on making a bunch of new music. Rather than the original plan of adding a work radio, which we worry would become too annoying to carry around, we’re planning on adding a portable tape player and headphones which attaches nicely to the players tool belt. Then, where ever you are in the world, you’ll be able to list to a variety of unlockable tapes. Maybe even a blank tape that which allows players to put their own music on…
Community Highlight
An impressive decorator, this month sees community member Horn showing off the flexibility and range of the in-game painting tools. Noice!
Thanks again for your continued support. If you haven’t already, be sure to follow Ruta & Greg on twitter, and to join the discord!
Till next month,
Ruta & Greg