New police arrive in Sheffingham, player actions now have consequence

Month 31 of Landlord’s Super Early Access.

Phase 2 of the Yuppie update has now entered the InDev Branch on Steam. As stated last week, phase 2 contains Benefits, Caravan Customization & Crime & Punishment features. Phase 3, which will begin in December, is the final phase and will focus on retirement functionality and the end game state. More on that next month, for now, read on about phase 2.

The Quintessential Construction Simulator

Crime & Punishment

No longer will players get away with terrorising the locals, for the law has entered Sheffingham. Player actions now have consequences. Play without regard to your local residents and you could end up with a hefty fine or even jail time. The following actions are now considered a crime.

  • Vandalism (i.e. breaking windows / property)
  • Assaults (i.e. sledgehammer attacks)
  • Peeing (on NPC or their property)
  • Fraud (working or receiving income whilst on benefits)

Performing each of the above crimes can result in a Penalty Charge. Failure to address this Penalty Charge, or repeated offenders could face in jail time.

Penalty Charges are issued through the post via a Penalty Notice. Players will be given 28 days to pay off this notice. Failure to do so may see them issued with a prison sentence. Players who cannot afford to pay off the full fine may instead work off their debt through community service. 

Prison food; no good.

More Visual Improvements

Continued graphical improvements this month include new pee effects, stationary cars parked throughout Sheffingham and new posters advertising all three unlockable furniture catalogues.

Landlord’s Super in the Guardian

Greg did an interview with Rick Lane for his Guardian piece on “games currently exploring the causes and consequences of Britain’s political and economic crises“. It’s a really good article, check it out here.

Caravan Customization, Benefits, Crime & Punishment Available on InDev Branch

You can now play all the above mentioned – as well as the benefits and caravan customization features detailed in last month’s newsletter – through the InDev branch on steam. Details below.

What is InDev?

InDev is a separate branch on Steam that gives players access to updates earlier while they are still in development. It’s a great way to try out new features early whilst also helping to make updates release as polished as possible. Whilst InDev contains the majority of the content available in the upcoming Yuppie update, players who opt-in should expect bugs, performance issues and some missing features.

How to Access InDev?

1. Right Click on your Landlord’s Super install in Steam and select “properties”
2. Click the Betas tab and then select InDev In development access
3. The InDev build should start to download on steam!
Note: Steam may require a restart after stage 2 for the InDev to download.

Community Highlights

This month, Forzaguy125 spotted a Trabant in Washington DC sporting a Jalopy Sticker, and Manuuuu has built a home fit for even the most demanding Yuppie.

The Compressor & Power Tools speed up construction and save a bunch of energy.

Month 26 of Landlord’s Super Early Access.

The Power Tools Update for Landlord’s Super is now available for testing through the InDev branch. The update contains several new tools, powered by the new mobile compressor. There’s also a new wall frame type for complete brick wall builds. The update will hit the main branch soon.

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The Quintessential Construction Simulator

Mobile Compressor & Power Tools

To help speed up constructions and add more progression options to the game, we’ve added the option to purchase a mobile compressor and an array of power tools. 

The mobile compressor is powered, so needs to be turned on to use. The benefit of this, however, is that the tools powered by this do not deplete player energy. Along with the mobile compressor, there are 5 new tools that can be purchased. Each of these tools can be stored on the compressor for ease of transport. The new power tools are as follows:

  • Nail Gun
    • Applies nails to surfaces and instantly secures them
  • Mortar Gun
    • Holds significantly more than the Trowel
    • Applied mortar to surfaces and instantly flattens it
    • Holding input fills No-Fines frames significantly faster
  • Powered Screwdriver
    • Instantly secures screws
  • Bolt Gun
    • Instantly secures bolts
  • Pneumatic Breaker
    • Significantly speeds up destruction of construction elements

Brick Wall Frames

We’ve finally added support for brick wall builds, meaning you can now easily build structures entirely of brick – with automatic roof generation. Brick walls can be access from the wall frame hot bar, as with other wall frame types.

Robbaz Stream

Robbaz streamed Landlord’s Super over the course of two days. If you’d like to watch, both streams can be found here and here.

What is InDev?

InDev is a separate branch on Steam that gives players access to updates earlier while they are still in development. It’s a great way to try out new features early whilst also helping to make updates release as polished as possible. Whilst InDev contains the majority of the content available in the upcoming Free Build update, players who opt-in should expect bugs, performance issues and some missing features.

How to Access InDev

1. Right Click on your Landlord’s Super install in Steam and select “properties”
2. Click the Betas tab and then select InDev In development access
3. The InDev build should start to download on steam!
Note: Steam may require a restart after stage 2 for the InDev to download.

Jalopy Fan Faction

Spotted in the Discord, Jalopy seems to have some interesting fan fiction for it…
You can read the fan fiction hereWarning NSFW!

American Daydream by Jeremy Warmsley

The ever talented and inspiring Jeremy Warmsley (Composer of Both Jalopy and Landlord’s Super) has a new album coming out, American Daydream.

American Daydream is an album of original songs paying homage to the life and music of Brian Wilson, lead singer and songwriter of the Beach Boys.

You can listen and purchase the album here. Full release is expected in September. 

Community Highlights

This month we hosted a community evening. It went really well and is something we’d like to do again in the future. Not sure if we shared before, but DialUpDude over on the discord recreated the in-game cassette player. Wolf Wings also created a really inspired “pyramid haus” build.

LUCse_MENSEN showing that brick builds can be done.

Month 23 of Landlord’s Super Early Access.

After hitting our latest milestone, we spent the past month between working on the Traditional Furniture & Tenant Update, and attending the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. Let’s take a look at what we’ve worked on and what we’ve learned.

The Quintessential Construction Simulator

New Furniture

We’re well into Phase 1 of the current roadmap, meaning work on the Traditional Furniture & Tenant Update is underway. 

Most of the traditional furniture has been modelled, textured and hooked up into the game. Though we still need to set up the new furniture catalogue, create the new tenant and design and implement logic regarding furniture unlocks, and tenant tiers.  

No dates as for when this stuff hits either InDev or Main Branch yet, but we’re excited to get more build freedom into players hands soon!

New Furniture

Yes, Landlord’s Super now has Mods! 

All credit goes to Moojuiceman over on the Minskworks Discord for these. Details from them below:

How to install mods: You will need BepInEx 5, which you can get from github. Here is a direct link to the 64-bit version of 5.4.19 which works with the game https://github.com/BepInEx/BepInEx/releases/download/v5.4.19/BepInEx_x64_5.4.19.0.zip Unzip the contents into your Landlord’s Super game folder, next to the LandlordsSuper.exe. You can find it via Steam by right clicking the game > Manage > Browse local files, or by clicking “Streaming Assets” from the game’s main menu then going up a folder. Start the game once so BepInEx creates all the necessary files and folders. You can then download any of these mods and put the .dll file into the BepInEx\plugins folder. Some mods have configurable options, these are stored in BepInEx\config\<Modname>.cfg IMPORTANT: Since the game is still in development, some mods might change or break with updates. Also since these alter how the game works, any bugs might be due to the mods and shouldn’t be reported to bug-reports unless confirmed to also be present when playing without mods. You can report suspected mod bugs over on the discord.

None of my mods should affect save files, but as a precaution it’s wise to backup your save files anyway. They can also be useful for developers to debug issues, both with mods and the main game. To backup saves: From inside the main menu of the game, click “Save Data” to open the save folder. Make a copy of the “LandlordsSuper” folder, either to another location or as a new folder name in the same place.

To backup saves:
From inside the main menu of the game, click “Save Data” to open the save folder. Make a copy of the “LandlordsSuper” folder, either to another location or as a new folder name in the same place.

Name: Better Wheel Barrow
Functions: While moving the wheelbarrow, you can hold the alt fire button (default right mouse) to dump the contents. This restores physics to the cargo (like when you stop moving it), and tilts the front down a lot. You can then walk backwards to remove the wheelbarrow and leave the contents there. You can also pick up multi-stack items (bricks/shingles/tarred roof planks) from the barrow by holding the run button (default Shift). If you don’t hold it, the default behaviour of re-placing the item you just picked up remains. With it held, the hovering blue indicator won’t appear and you can take multiple items like you can from the ground.

Download here : BetterWheelBarrow.dll

Name: Strongman
Functions: Allows you to increase the amount of multi-stack items (bricks/shingles/tarred roof planks) you can hold, and the amount of weight you can carry without losing your ability to sprint and jump, or losing hygiene when picking/placing heavy items.
Config options: Max Shingles (also used by tarred roof planks), Max Bricks, Weight Limit

Download here :Strongman.dll

Name: Site Cleaner
Functions: Adds keybinds for cleaning tools and materials from the build site, as happens when someone moves in.
Config options: Clean Tools Key, Clean Materials Key

Download here : Sitecleaner.dll

Name: Xray
Functions: Adds a keybind to toggle visibility of the currently held item. Useful to see where you’re going when carrying large items.
Config options: Toggle Key

Download here : Xray.dll

Name: Express Delivery
Functions: Makes Winston teleport from the store to your house and back again instead of driving. No more waiting for items to arrive or being able to use the shop again (and no more driving mishaps)

Download here : ExpressDelivery.dll

Name: Shifty Shingles
Functions:
 Adds a “left align” option to shingles. When placing shingles, right click to toggle between centre, right align, and left align

Download here :ShiftyShingless.dll

Remember!
Join the discord to support Moojuiceman’s work, report any issues and follow all the new mods and updates. 

GDC

We spent a significant portion of last month over at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco.

We spoke to many other developers and publishers trying to learn as much as we could about how to make and sell games in 2022. Our goal was to try to understand what we could be doing better to extend the dev life of Landlord’s Super, and how we could get better awareness of the game. We really think the game deserves the moniker of being the Quintessential Construction Simulator, and we’re committed to building a game to reflect that. 

Expect to see us trying new things, and asking our communities input on this in the near future. This is going to be a big year for the game, our studio and the community. 

Community Highlights

Special thanks to Moojuiceman for the modding support, but also shout outs to Dialupdude showing us the way Landlord’s was meant to be played (Check out dialupdude on twitch for more https://twitch.tv/dialupdude ) and Cleetus for showing us how the soundtrack was meant to be heard.

The Job Centre is being given a face lift, and filled with some new jobs!
Giz’a job Maggie )

APRIL

Month 11 of Landlord’s Super Early Access.

The Furniture Update is beginning to look like one of the biggest and most important updates we’ve done for the game so far. So much so that with all the additional content, calling it “The Furniture Update” might not make much sense upon release. Let’s take a look at all this additional content to understand why.

The Quintessential Construction Simulator

Furniture

All original furniture has now been replaced with their new models and colour variants. Creating new furniture is the most time consuming aspect of working on this update. With this consideration in mind, we’re likely to release into InDev with what we have now, and add more furniture with smaller updates as time goes on. Still, no date for InDev release yet.

Job Centre Facelift

As we’re adding new jobs to The Furniture Update (explained in the Tamsin’s Wall segment of this post), we thought it a good time to polish up the environmental art of the Job Centre. It now looks a lot prettier, and more period appropriate It also now contains a public toilet for players to pass time in town.
You can see the new Job Centre in action here.

Tamsin Wall can now be fixed with a rewards for doing so. (Watch here.)

Tamsin’s Wall

With The Furniture Update we’re beginning to address the lack of stuff to do whilst renting the property. Part of this is introducing new jobs for the player to complete.
The first Job we’ve implemented for players to complete is the repairing of Tamsin’s wall. Doing so the first time will reward the player with a unique item with repeated completions of the job resulting in a flat fee. You can see what this unique reward is here. The job is unlocked when the player has purchased a Hammer & a Cement Mixer.

Music

The Cassette Player and Tapes are now implemented and functional. The Cassette Player allows players to listen to music through the use of Tapes. There are 4 Tapes. Each Tape is unlocked by completing a unique job or task within the world.
One of the Tapes is blank, allowing you to add your own music through a folder in the game files.

One of the tapes you unlock will be blank, but don’t worry, you can add your own music to it through a folder in the game files.
(See it in action here.)

Community Highlight

Some Jalopy content from Die Ente des Ostens, and Cameron! has really brought Mar’s H. Abiff character concept to life.