Dear Retailers,

With the Rise to the Top update, we’ve seen some tremendous feedback from players and some really incredible creations. Thank you to everyone who turned out for our update and got involved in the community Discord: your input means a lot to this project and its continued development.

So, I’d like to begin by talking about next steps for King of Retail 2, with our first major milestone update out of the way: what’s next on the horizon? 

Some of the major changes you’ve seen: additional floors, access control, the newly rebuilt Build Mode have all been, in their own ways, challenging but necessary improvements that lay the groundwork for bigger and better features. 

We can think of it as addressing technical debt, but also in reapproaching the fundamentals of building and designing so that the core game experience is as enjoyable as it can be. Thank you for bearing with us as we refined build mode and improved customer behavior, and it resulted in a system we can be genuinely proud of.

1. Employee assignable work areas.

With the last update, we allowed staff to move up and down. That means a lot of wasted time for employees if they do this often.

Now they can assign which areas an employee is allowed to work at, meaning a much higher level of control, and better efficiency of your employees.

2. AI overhaul

We went into the first step of making your employees more intelligent. They will only refill displays that actually have products in stock.

No more constant checking if there is room for unpacking new products etc. No more running long distances to accomplish a task nearby.

3. Bugfixes and better info layers.

We have fixed some of the bugs that you have reported (and will continue to do so of course). We also noticed some of the info layers. (Zone layers in city, spacing zones in build mode) are rarely activated, which leads to confusion about the various possibilities of the game. 

So instead of being disabled by default, they will be enabled instead, hopefully bringing an easier onboarding and handling of your game. You will still be able to turn them off manually.

Our next milestones will focus on building out two major parts of gameplay that are in high demand, and which work together to build that second layer of strategic gameplay that will define King of Retail 2: Team Management and Second/Automated Stores.

Soon, we will add functionality for you to assign Team Managers. Managers will manage stores on your behalf, using their expert-level skills (you are hiring the best, right?) to keep your rank-and-file employees active, increase your store income, and take some of the manual work off your hands so you can focus on the bigger picture.

You may ask: what purpose does this serve if you’re already on hand to manage the store yourself? Well, it's a very critical component for allowing the addition of…

In the current build of King of Retail 2, stores go offline when you’re not there. Many, many players are already exploring design possibilities in their second, third, and more stores; but there’s a lack of true managerial oversight that we’re working on bringing into the game in the coming months. Second stores and beyond can be fun, but they’re money sinks at this stage.

With the ability to set up multiple stores and assign internal management teams for them, we’re working towards fully automated stores that function and produce while you’re dealing with other things. This brings together Store Concepts and the overview map and will add a full new layer to the gameplay.

It’s time to start thinking bigger about retail, and our next few updates will make bigger and better things possible. Again, if you have any questions or suggestions, our Community Discord[discord.gg] is not only the best way to get a hold of me, but also to chat with the community at large. 

Thanks everyone, and we’ll have more updates coming in the future.

-Daniel

Dear retailers,

Today is the day! The Rise to the Top update is live in King of Retail 2. Download and play now, and enjoy a 25% discount as you grow your empire to new heights. 

Let’s take a look at what’s in store!

The doors open nice and smooth in-game, don't worry; it's just the nature of the tiny gif.

You’ve been able to build multiple floors in your stores prior to this update, but now, their functionality has been fully implemented. After much testing and tweaking, your customers can travel between the floors of your establishment as they see fit. This feature unlocks a tonne of floor space for customisation that gives you more room to shape your store’s identity—or even build a full-scale megastore. 

But how did they get up there?

Well, you’ve got three options. Elevators, escalators, and stairs!

Slot these into your store and bask in vertical glory as your customers ascend and descend throughout your retail masterpiece. Upper floors are now fully functional, just as your ground floor always has been.

I’m really excited to see what you’re able to pull off with this expanded scope, and whilst we’re on the subject of customers, let’s move onto…

Originally, customers would squeeze their way through your established entrances however they saw fit, which could feel unnatural and cause them to exhibit… “unusual” behaviour. But now, you’re the one in control.

Following player feedback, we’ve added additional options to any door that you place in your store, letting you change their functionality to serve as only an Entrance, only an Exit, Both (the standard setting before this update), and finally, Courier-specific doors. 

That way, you can now direct the flow of traffic and set up a back entrance exclusively for deliveries.

We’ve covered foot traffic, we’ve covered your delivery setups, as well as all the extra space you now have to stock those deliveries.

So, let’s take a look at what new products have been cleared for sale in your store.

With the Health & Beauty line having been introduced in our previous major update, we’re expanding the articles available even further with Rise to the Top.

Take a look.

The new additions are as follows:

• Face Cleansers

• Sunscreen

• Body Lotion

• Self-Tan

• Scrub

• Deodorant

Add the new line-up into your store with this latest update, make use of that extra space, and ensure that all of your customers are feeling both healthy and beautiful.

This update marks a major milestone. The changes began rolling out in smaller chunks across earlier patches, and with Build Mode: Expanded as the first step on our roadmap, I’m delighted to see it fully realised today.

We’ve covered the vertical aspects of Build Mode, but there's still more to discuss.

With two new features, the Ceiling Painter and the Roof Designer, you can now further tweak how your store looks both inside and out. Together, you’re able to customise your ceilings just as you would with your walls and floors, and you’re also able to add some more personality to your roofs, with slants, glass panels, and much more. 

But that’s not all.

Previously, your inventory (as in, your shelves, registers, etc.) could only be edited when you were in your store in-person. This was a bit fiddly, as it meant you’d need to hop back and forth between Build Mode and your store if you wanted to adjust everything.

But I am happy to say that it is no longer the case.

Your inventory can be relocated directly from Build Mode, making reorganising your store so much more intuitive. 

Although the expanded Build Mode is complete and I’ll be proceeding with the next steps in the roadmap (more on that below), I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for your feedback on these changes, just in case they ever need a touch-up or a hotfix, so please keep your feedback coming. It’s extremely helpful!

With those highlights taken care of, below you’ll find the full list of patch notes for the Rise to the Top update, which you can play right now.

• Removed all wall placement limitations; elements can now go across multiple walls, rather than being restricted by a segment.

• Direct the flow of customers by assigning Entrances, Exits, No-Access, and Courier Entrances.

• Added Chinese Translations,

• Added elevators, stairs, and escalators to your store.

• Upgraded the engine version, leading to reduced raytracing noise on material surfaces.

• Added the Ceiling Painter & Roof Designer tools in Build Mode.

• Big entrances can be moved left and right.

• Updated the door and wall element hover UI.

• Added UI buttons for door entrance usage.

• Couriers now use Courier-specific entrances, if applicable.

• Save games convert properly to the new system.

• Added virtual "lava" to Entrances, and No-Access doors, preventing the AI from going through them, unless they have no other option.

• Added a new construction rule: at least one Entrance and one Exit, and doors can’t overlap anything else.

• You can now move inventory around in Build Mode.

• Shapes no longer influence the location validation of your inventory.

• Product decorations no longer influence location validation of your inventory.

• Lamps produce light more cleanly.

• Posters can be scaled up.

• Increased the usage of door sizes.

• Pins from renting a shop now stay open after the rental of your first shop.

• Reduced the camera lag in Build Mode.

• Anything that can cause an error in Build Mode now has a marker showing what’s causing it.

• Closing the painting menu will properly reset the hovered item.

• Reduced the customer spawn circle, as they could spawn out of bounds, making them immobile.

• The Floor Painter now selects the proper material when opened.

• Increased the latest work hour based on a store opening from 10:00 to 16:00.

• Going to work now looks at the proper day itself, and not the hours from the day before.

• Added collision to the bank building.

• The Load Game year now shows in the proper format.

• Quick-Deleting in Build Mode will ask for confirmation first.

• Reviewed all product names and tweaked them to proper English.

• Fixed a bug that calculated the wrong price of an item when opening the store with a non-default currency.

• Windows now have proper weather effects on them.

• Corrected products that exceeded display limits.

• Resetting or confirming a build in Build Mode now properly closes all menus before making checks.

• Fixed a bug where you couldn't pause without increasing the game speed first.

• Corrected products that didn't fit in their respective boxes.

• Increased staff sales efficiency.

• Decreased game attempts by 1 when inviting customers inside.

• Your staff only go to the nearby location when idling.

• Increased navigation zone to support bigger stores. 

• Adjusted all AI to move with the new system.

• Overhauled the courier delivery method.

• Customers now prefer to look at the product in the room they are in, to avoid running back and forth.

• Increased navigation resolution.

• Face Cleansers

• Sunscreen

• Body Lotion

• Self-Tan

• Scrub

• Deodorant

You’ve risen to the top, yes, but what’s next for King of Retail 2?

Let’s take another look at our roadmap. 

Next on the agenda, we have HQ Expansion & Multi Stores, and that’s where my attention will be. The goal is to let you centralise your retail operation, running multiple stores simultaneously, promoting floor managers, and becoming the true CEO you were born to be. 

This will be a sizable undertaking, of course, so I’m planning to roll it out through smaller, more frequent updates, as the elements will connect quite seamlessly over time, which will be great for getting new content into your hands more quickly.

For other notes, don’t forget to swing by the King of Retail 2 Official Discord[discord.gg], where you’ll be the first to see in-progress updates; I’m frequently hanging out in there, too, and will aim to answer your questions when I catch them.

Plus, on Friday, I do a devstream over at my Twitch Channel[www.twitch.tv], where you can watch me working on updates. I tend to answer questions there, too, so swing by on a Friday and let’s chat.

With all that being said, I’ll leave you to jump into the Rise to the Top update! 

Keep the feedback coming, let me know how you’re feeling about this one, and until next time…

Have a great sale.

• Daniel