Looking at our customers 🙎♂️👩💼🛍️
We promised you a big devlog and here is a massive one!
The last weeks included many bug fixes, QoL improvements and new systems being added to the game.
Let’s start with something that irritated many players but not our customers: Burning lots! 🔥
Now a burning lot influences its surroundings, letting adjacent lots decrease their maintenance level faster and having a (very) bad influence on the attractiveness level.
Next up is the finance popup. 📈
After doing some calculations, we figured out the math doesn’t work out. The finance popup doesn’t show you the correct cashflow for this month, but shows you all expenses including construction costs.
We fixed that, so the popup should be more helpful.
Speaking of money, realtors can’t be hired again once you have a negative balance.
Sometimes, you want to place as many trees as possible, but they should not obstruct the pathway to shops!
Now there is a warning once a shop becomes unreachable ❌
(Surprise: This will also come to parking lots, but this is a secret 🤫)
The biggest upgrade was made to our beloved customers.
Have you ever wondered what they THINK or how they FEEL?
Well, at least you can see now what they NEED!
Customers can now get thirsty, hungry, sleepy or toilet-y. 🥤🍔🛌🚽
You don’t want your customers to be unhappy, so you have to place the right things in your mall.
That’s why products can now have effects!
Drinking coffee for example makes them less thirsty and sleepy but will increase their bladder level. ☕️
Once they notice that they need something, they will search for the nearest spot to fulfill it and place it on their shopping list at the top.
Sometimes, customers were standing there for minutes, not moving a centimeter.
We talked to them and didn’t get a response for a few minutes… 🧠💤
After realizing that this approach won’t help, we looked inside the brain and found a small bug crawling there.
Customers won’t get stuck anymore!
Speaking of bugs, there was also something that bugged me watching other people play: The speed of cars and customers won’t react correctly to changes in simulation speed. 🚶
Talking to the time grandmaster A.I., he responded with some unhelpful hallucinations.
But after looking at the code thirty-three times again, we found this small time manipulating bug! 🐞
Once the customers are finished shopping, they may have something to say.
Now they will do that on Mapslyly®!
They will rate your mall with thumbs up, neutral or down and highlight the positive or negative aspects.
These aspects can be the fulfillment of their shopping list, their needs or the scenery of your mall.
To garnish this review, they will post a helpful text and voila, this super important review is ready to serve!
One more thing!
(Ugh, now this keynote will take another hour!)
The way your mall attracted its customers was always a bit boring.
So we introduce the complete new Customer Attraction System Pro Plus Ultra! 💥
It has multiple parts, which make the core of all your marketing efforts.
- fame of your mall
- shops attract customers
- events attract customers
- marketing campaigns
- your Mapslyly® rating
The fame shows how your mall is perceived in the world of Super Mall Tycoon. 🌍
From an Unknown strip mall to an International Incomparable mega shopping paradise, this is an important value.
You can grow the fame over time or with expensive spectacles.
The higher your fame level, the more customers will come each month!
The next part is a brand new campaign system.
Select the channel, set the focus of your campaign and don’t forget to pay your monthly fees.
The channel determines the customers you can attract each month and the costs.
You can choose from a broad variety:
- Billboard 🪧
- Newspaper 📰
- Radio 📻
- Social Media 📱
- TV 📺
The focus of your campaign can be set to attract more customers each month or to increase the fame of your mall. (More options will come soon.)
Mix the channel and the focus to get your perfect marketing campaign!
Don’t forget to look at your Mapslyly® rating, as it can destroy or uplift all your marketing efforts.
That’s it for the new Customer Attraction System Pro Plus Ultra!
It will take some more polish before we can release a new alpha version, especially the UI needs more clarification.
(Oh, and toilets are still missing!)
We hope you like the changes we have made to the game.