Dear shoppers,

Do you think you have what it takes to build a retail empire from scratch? Well, prove it at King of Retail 2! We’ve just launched the demo as part of Steam NEXT Fest, available to play now!

Start small with a modest (and pretty bare) shop, then grow it into a sprawling retail giant that customers from far and wide will come to. Stock your shelves with the items your customers actually want and decide the working fate of your employees.



Every choice matters if you want to dominate the market.

Customize everything—your layout, décor, and product selection—to create a shopping experience that keeps customers coming back for more. Want to be the discount king, slashing prices and drawing in bargain hunters? Or maybe you’d rather run a luxury boutique catering to high-end spenders? No one’s going to question your choices—unless your profits start to dip. If they do, something may have gone wrong along the way.

And why stop at just one store? Expand across the city, conquer new neighborhoods, and adapt to every kind of customer. Every district brings fresh challenges and new opportunities, and only the sharpest business minds will thrive.

But remember, just like your growing empire, this game is also a work in progress.

King of Retail 2 is an ongoing project, and your feedback will help shape its future. We’re constantly refining mechanics, improving the graphics, and expanding features based on community input. This demo is just the beginning, and we’ll be reaching out to players for feedback as development continues. Your ideas and suggestions could influence the game’s next big feature or fix!



If you want to stay on top of everything, follow us on our socials, especially X and Discord, for the latest updates, sneak peeks, and developer insights. The doors are open, the shelves are stocked.

Download the free demo today and prove you have what it takes to be crowned the King of Retail.

Hello Retailers!

I'm GunthorNC, Community Manager at Freaking Games, and I’ve got some thrilling news to share! As many of you know, we’re hard at work on King of Retail 2, a complete overhaul of the original game with a brand-new engine and a slew of exciting features. The scope of this project is huge, and we’re eager to give you a sneak peek of what’s in store:

Build Your Own Store Fixtures with Our New Display Designer!

We’re excited to introduce a game-changing feature in King of Retail 2: our Custom Display Designer! This new tool empowers you to design and build your own store fixtures from the ground up, giving you unparalleled control over your store’s layout and presentation.

With the Display Designer, you can create and customize:

Shelves: Choose the size, style, and arrangement to fit your product range and store layout perfectly.
Podiums: Design display stands that highlight your best-selling or promotional items.
Freezers and Refrigerators: Customize their appearance to seamlessly integrate with your store’s aesthetic and overall design.
Spear’s: Add specialized displays for hanging candy, accessories, and other items that need to be suspended.
Clothing Racks: Design racks to showcase apparel, with options to adjust their size, style, and arrangement to fit your store's fashion needs.



Customize every aspect of your fixtures, including:

Colors: Match your store’s branding or create eye-catching contrasts.
Heights and Widths: Adjust dimensions to suit different products and store layouts.
Materials: Choose from a range of materials to achieve the perfect look and durability.
Designs: Experiment with various designs and styles to reflect your store’s unique character.



Whether you want to create a sleek, modern look or a more traditional setup, our Display Designer offers endless possibilities to suit your vision. You’ll have the freedom to experiment with different configurations, ensuring that your store is both functional and visually appealing.

Design or Download Your Own Custom Maps!

That’s right! Say goodbye to just one static map. In King of Retail 2, you can create your own customized maps or download ones made by the community. And if you prefer, you can always use the diverse map that comes with the game right out of the box.

Your store’s location will impact your customer base and business costs, adding a whole new layer of strategy to your retail empire. You’ll need to consider the various customer segments around your store location. These segments represent different categories of customers, such as high-income professionals or blue-collar workers, each with their own preferences and expectations.

The demographics of these customer segments will influence the types of products your customers are looking for and the level of service they expect. You can choose to cater specifically to a niche customer base, tailoring your inventory and services to meet their precise needs. Alternatively, you might take a broader approach, aiming to appeal to a wider audience with a more diverse selection of products and services.

Choosing the right location and understanding its demographics will be crucial in shaping your store’s success and growing your retail empire. This feature ensures that every new map offers unique challenges and opportunities, whether you’re customizing your own or exploring the game’s built-in options.




In King of Retail 2, your store is set in a fully realized environment. Opt for a beachfront location, and you’ll find your store right by the sea. Position your store across from a movie theater, and enjoy the bustling activity of a vibrant entertainment district. Each location is defined by its real-world context, providing a rich and immersive experience.

Instead of a static environment, you’ll interact with a setting that reflects the actual surroundings of your store. These surroundings will influence your store’s performance in various ways. For example, a location near office buildings might attract professionals who have higher expectations for goods and services, while a store near industrial areas might see more blue-collar workers who value practicality and value.




We’re taking realism to a whole new level with our groundbreaking motion tracking technology! In the previous game, animations were a mix of pre-made and manual. In King of Retail 2, we’ve moved beyond those limitations by using advanced motion tracking technology, the same cutting-edge equipment found in AAA games and blockbuster films.

In King of Retail 1, animations were created through traditional methods, which sometimes resulted in less fluid and less realistic body movements—or even clunky and silly-looking animations. With King of Retail 2, we’ve embraced motion capture to record every nuance of real human movement. This approach provides a significant upgrade in animation quality, delivering more lifelike and fluid character interactions that enhance your game-play experience.



You can see the difference in how characters move and interact, showcasing a new level of realism and immersion that sets King of Retail 2 apart from its predecessor.

Expanded Product Range – From Tiny to Huge!

Not only will King of Retail 2 have more articles, They will be much better looking as well! We’ve started out with supermarket articles, but that’s just the beginning. We’re introducing new systems designed to support all kinds of products, each with its own unique storage and display requirements.

For example, frozen goods will need specialized freezers in your back room to keep them fresh, while large items like cars will require dedicated display areas that can’t be managed on standard shelves. Our system is built to accommodate everything from small everyday items to sizable appliances, ensuring that each product type is handled appropriately.

This new system adds significant depth and complexity to your store management, requiring you to carefully plan your layout and storage solutions to handle a diverse range of products effectively. Get ready to manage everything from tiny trinkets to massive appliances, each with its own distinct needs!


We’re deep into reimagining our staff system, and it’s going to be a game-changer. Expect staff to be a richer and more engaging experience with features like:













We’re excited to dive deeper into these features in the next update, so stay tuned!

Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm! Hundreds of players are already enjoying and testing out the game early in its current (unreleased) state, and their feedback is incredibly valuable in shaping the development of the game. If you’re interested in joining them and contributing your own insights, then you should:



We also host monthly contests on our Discord where you can win exciting rewards! Join the community to participate, showcase your creativity, and have a chance to be one of our lucky winners.

Check out our Discord to stay updated on what’s coming next and find out how you can try out King of Retail 2 as well!, be sure to Wishlist the game on Steam. We’re thrilled to have you with us on this journey and can’t wait to share more exciting updates soon!

Feel free to drop your questions, comments, and excitement below. Let’s build the future of retail together! :crown::shopping_cart:

Warm regards,

GunthorNC
Community Manager, Freaking Games

Dear Retailers!

I know it has been silent from me for far too long. A lot has happened, and i deeply apologize for not keeping you in the loop about the world of King of Retail, and i can understand those of you who feel frustrated or left behind.

I have written a long post explaining why here:
Link to steam post



Production has been ongoing for some time now, and the game is in an alpha state, which it will be for a while before it is ready to enter Early Access.

But like it was with King of Retail, i would like production to also be community driven making many of the features in the game inspired by your wishes and desires. The community have already been the source of many implementations already now.

Why will King of Retail 2 be different?

The core foundation of King of Retail was built with the knowledge we had at the time when we started making the game, which was not much. Building on that foundation created many limitations down the road, making many implementations hard to do, or completely impossible without redoing major parts of the game. Furthermore the game was built using a outdated software, making many things impossible to modernize without huge, time consuming, changes as well.

So starting a new game from scratch, allows for a much more solid and futureproof foundation. That means many of the things that were missing in the original game, can now be added and improved upon.

• Dynamic gameplay.
  Jump in and out of your stores whenever you want during the day. Better simulation will make the stores feel more alive when you are not in them, increasing the dynamics and interactions between your stores. That means more things can happen, allowing higher emphasis on the CEO aspect of the game as well.
  
  
• A whole new world.
  All buildings in the city are buyable, and have a different composition of customer segments. Place your stores EXACTLY where you want. A shortened year lets you watch the seasons pass, and will require you to adapt to the requirements and the various events. Even the weather will have an influence on how your day will be.
  
  
• Multi-level stores.
  You will be allowed to make stores with multiple floors. making them bigger than ever.
  
  
• More HQ options
  Your HQ will be the center of all your operations, letting you manage articles, orders, staff etc. in all stores from one location. Negotiate and earn reputation with your suppliers, unlocking exclusive deals and article lines to be sold at your store.
  You will have to design your HQ, place offices and different areas, hire managers and personnel for your managers so they can perform their jobs even better.
  
  
• More differentiation.
  You customers will be more unique. The Gray segment demands friendly service, but dont care about long queue times. The Blues puts less emphasis on cleanliness and service, as long as they can shop in a hurry. As your customers will be more unique, you will have to be more specific about who will be your main target group.
  Articles groups will also be more unique. A grocery store, will be about managing and selling many small items, meaning bigger emphasis on storage management, but less direct sales. Electronics is more about having the right sales personnel, to convince the customers. Clothes will be heavily affected by weather and seasons, and appliances will need a separate checkout for these bulky articles. Each category should provide a new challenge.
  Articles will also change in trends, meaning your star product today, is not necessarily your star product next week requiring you to follow along on what is selling, and what is not.
  
  
• Staff changes
  Staff will be more in depth, having more stats that influence their behavior. They can be organized in "teams", where their internal relationships affect their performance, learning and mood. Staff will age, and have life events happening to them. They will become more like persons, and less like robots working for you.
  
  
• More customization.
  Use the new display designer to create your own unique displays. In general there will be more possibilities and more options to customize your store.
  
  
• Better graphics.
  Using the new Unreal Engine, much better, and more realistic graphics will be possible. Better animations and better graphics will increase the immersion of the game.
  
  
• ...and many, many other things.

Here are some screenshots of the current game:


In short King of Retail 2 will be more detailed in many of the aspects that were missing in the original game, while still sticking to the roots that made it popular to begin with, mainly being a third person retail store simulator.

If you are interested in following along, and maybe even getting access to the alpha, you can join the discord and the journey of making a new King of Retail here:



You can also preview and wishlist King of Retail 2



That was it for now. I hope you will join in on the development of King of Retail 2, so we can make it the best game it can become.

Thanks for reading, and take care.

Kind regards
Daniel

Dear Retailers!

First of all, I will have to give all of you a very, very big apology for letting everything regarding King of Retail stay in the dark for so long. I know i have built up some expectations, and my intentions have always been to follow up on them, so i am truly sorry for the lack of engagement and communication over the last 1½ year.

I can fully understand those of you who have been greatly disappointed. So now it's time for me to give you all an explanation.

Up until and after the release of King of Retail i was completely burned out.
The process during this period was unfortunately far from optimal, and at the same time a lot of stuff happened on a personal level, leading me to an insane level of stress.
For 4 months i slept at max 2 hours pr. night, and those were the good nights where i managed to get some actual sleep. After that, every time i tried to open Unreal (the progeam used to make the game), tried do some planning, heard a ping on Discord, etc. i within seconds felt my pulse increase drastically, and simply could not do anything, even though i felt a huge obligation to serve the community and the players.
And i am truly, truly sorry for not responding to you for all this time.
It took me a very long time before I was able to do things relatively normal again, and when i could i needed to make a decision.

King of Retail was my first game, and my first experience of making a proper piece of software. It also had many other "firsts" along the way, and because of this the foundation of King of Retail is not as strong as i would like it to be, simply because it was built on the knowledge i had back then. This means that at the later stages, much time was spent on fixing this foundation to make it possible for new things to enter the game. And this problem will only intensify with continued work, as well as some things will be impossible to add. For instance, a simple thing like keeping multiple saves for a game is impossible without rebuilding everything.
It is also made with an old version of Unreal Engine (v. 4.22, the latest UE4 version is 4.27, and they proceeded to UE5 being on version 5.3). Many of the external plugins used have not been updated to the newer versions, meaning bringing it up to date to use the latest features, would be an immenseamount of work.
For me it was in the end more of a frustration to work with, because every little thing i wanted to make, required me to fix some of this foundation. However it would never be what i wanted it to be, unless i redid everything from scratch.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what to do instead. Many ideas and many scenarios has been played through in my head. Should i continue King of Retail? Should i try a different type of game? Do i even have the desire to make games? Can i again climb this huge mountain it is to make a game as an indie developer? After a lot of thinking, i came to the conclusion that i still love my King of Retail. It has been my life for many years now. It has been my baby i brought form nothing to become a game that gave people thousands of hours of entertainment. But because of the things mentioned above, it gave more frustrantions than joy, and making a game based off of frustrations is futile when you are a solo developer, and i was also not sure how people would react if a game that was assumed dead would be brought back to revival over a year later.

I also believe that i can make something that is even better than i did before. I just need to adjust the way i did it, use the things that worked well, and discard the thigs that didn't so i don't let it go to this unhealthy level of working again. And that is why i decided to make a sequel.

I know many of you hoped for more content to be added to the original King of Retail after final release, and i can fully understand if you are angry or frustrated. Again i can only give you my biggest apologies, but i will not keep working on King of Retail.

But by getting a fresh and proper start on a new game, i can apply all my current knowledge from the beginning, and do everything more consistently, as well as avoiding many of the bad decisions i learned along the way. This will allow a foundation that supports a much better flow of work, and will allow many of the things that I would have liked to add in the first game, and hopefully this will make for a much much better game for you to play.

I know many will be pleased with the news, but i also know that a fair amount are disappointed or outright angry with it, which is why I dreaded making this post, and postponed it for too long.

I am truly sorry, and it was never my intention to leave it as is 1½ years ago, and i can understand your frustrations, disappointment and anger. But i still hope you will give a warm welcome to King of Retail 2.

Thanks for reading, and take care.

Kind regards
Daniel[/b]

A new season means new beginnings, take this chance to conquer the virtual retail world. 😎

Don't miss out on this limited-time offer!

Dear Retailers,

It's cold outside, a few scant leaves remain on the trees, desperately holding out against the inevitable. The perfect time to stay inside and try to play through your ever-increasing backlog of games... or add to it.

If you've ever worked in retail, you know that the holidays are a pain. Thankfully they're much easier to survive when you're the one running the store and making big 💲! From now until December 12th, you can pick up King of Retail at 33% off!

And if you're looking for more, you can get a ton of amazing Iceberg Interactive titles at up to 90% off!

To all budding retailers out there!

Get your sweaters and hot drinks ready for the season!
As the leaves are falling, so are the prices on our hottest games! -- that's right, it's fall, and that means the Steam Autumn Sale is here!

From November 22 - 29, King of Retail will be available at a 33% discount. Now's a great time to open your own store and achieve your retail dreams!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/968250/King_of_Retail/

Dear Retaiers

So two weeks has gone after release, and unfortunately some pesky bugs managed to slip into the latest version, so my time has been spent on tracking them down, and fixing them. A hotfix was uploaded the day after release to address two major issues, however that was not announced here, and if you had wait for these I am sorry for keeping you waiting.

However the following has been fixed:

• Issue where you lost huge amounts of money in campaign mode when hiring a daily manager
  
• Issue where articles crossed over from one type of concept to another
  
• Not being able to leave the office whiteboard when pressing ESC after using the computer
  
• Collission to several displays that made customers run to close to them
  
• Lamps were not selectable when loaded into a game.
  
• Some items could not be placed on shelved even thoug shelf was added to fit the item
  
• Bug regarding "Back to school" achievement
  
• Issue with not being able to select applications at office after tutorial
  
• Issue with game pausing after reading tutorial at advertisement table
  
• Tutorial from menu could spawn several times
  
• Lightning issue at Airport level making everything extrmeely dark at night
  
• Increased overall lightning at End of Day office
  
• Increased pricing limit on articles
  
• Fixed box location on delivery guy
  
• Saved orders were not properly loaded into game
  
• Added community translated italian language that is work in progress thanks to the help of a very kind player

I will still be monitoring which bugs you submit, so I can get even more fixed. Other than this, I will go back to add more content for you, to make your store even more exciting. For instance a pack of article displays is close to being ready, and should be with you for the next update!

Feedback and reports are as always very welcome. and you are more than welcome in the game's Discord.

Until next time
Have a great sale!

Cheers
Daniel

THE GRAND OPENING IS UPON US! KING OF RETAIL IS NOW FULLY LAUNCHED, OUT OF EARLY ACCESS!

Dear Retailers,
The day I've waited so long for has finally arrived. The full release of King of Retail!

It has been a long an interesting journey, lasting more than 4 years. From starting development on an empty screen, trying to figure out how do we do this??? To the magic push of a button that launched the game into Early Access, where an amazing five people bought the game! 😂 To the first creator video with over 1 million views on YouTube.
I have never stopped being surprised and gratified.

It has been a huge pleasure to interact with this community. I have been overwhelmed with your ideas and offers to help with the game in various ways. I can honestly say that this game would not be what it is today, without all of your feedback.
Many bugs have been discovered by you, many ideas have been added directly from your suggestions, even full languages were added solely thanks to your help. I am very very thankful for all of this.

I am sorry for not having been so active lately, but planning for release, making new content, handle community management, getting COVID, and having other types of pressure from my personal life has been a lot for me to handle, and at some points I have needed a little break to clear my head and refocus again.

However! I am so pleased that our 1.0 release is here at last! I really hope you will enjoy the changes we've made, and continue to enjoy King of Retail. To celebrate, here's a brand new gameplay trailer:



(This also means that the price increase is taking effect immediately, to 24.99€/$24.99.)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/968250/King_of_Retail

So! let's get on to discuss the new changes and updates:

Before, your store was always located in the same city environment. But on the city map it shows a lot of interesting areas, and the game should of course reflect that. So we have added lots of new environments for you to set your store in, and they also look much better than the old ones! You can now open a store so know it hopefully gives a completely different feel to the game, whether you are at the farm, at the mall, or downtown.



To improve the feel of the game, the general lighting has been updated to give you better day and night cycle, so your store REALLY can stand out in those twilight hours, and get extra effect from store signs, logos, lamps and so on.



You made something -- be proud of it! Now you can show off your successes with Steam achievements! We also made trading cards, so you can attempt to unlock the epic King of Retail Master Card. Happy hunting!



Dress your staff to impress! With new patterns and colors for staff uniforms, you now have even more customization options for how you present your store tp customers.



Reinvent your store, over and over again, with new store design options! If something's not bringing in foot traffic, try, try again!



The game also got some new cheats, which can be activated in the mail system. Write to the following contacts with the accompanying subject line, to get the desired effects!

• Morten Mousepad - Gimme money (Gives you money)
  
• Craner Security - Stop the thieves (Disables thieves)
  
• Terry Coaching - New employee (Hires a high skilled employee)
  
• Tommys Solutions - Super sales (Always give sales the highest effects)
  
• Michelles Marketing - Full reputation (Gives you instant full reputations)
  
• Susans Yoga - New energy (Refreshes your staff completely)

In addition to updating the German, French, Dutch, Russian, and Danish to full localization in 1.0, we've also added two new languages: Simplified Chinese and Spanish.

• New ceiling types
  
• New displays
  
• Improved article management
  
• Improved minimal storage system
  
• Improved UI for displays
  
• Money transferring from store to corporation

You can learn more about new 1.0 features from our previous two posts:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/968250/view/3288212769333541131
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/968250/view/3325366907281860603

It doesn't end here of course! Work on the game will still continue, with more content being added in time. I hope you have a great time with the game.
And until next time:
Have a great sale!

Best regards from Daniel

Dear Retailers,

We are one week away from the 1.0 launch! Today, we want to talk about upcoming quality of life and feature improvements that you've been requesting. In short: some aspects of running your store were unclear (especially to new players) or needlessly tedious. The quality of life features in the launch update will greatly improve your efficiency in running your store. If you enjoy optimizing your store, this one's for you.



Managing your articles could be a bit of a hassle sometimes, especially in bigger stores with lots of different sales going on at once. We've spent quite a bit of time improving on the existing systems in King of Retail. Let's start with ordering articles.

A good retail manager is always on top of what comes in, what goes out, and at what price. To make specific articles more searchable, every article now has a unique ID that you can use to search for it. Those of you who have worked in retail will probably be familiar with the concept.



IDs are for when you really want a specific article, but a more customizable option is the new tag system.

You can add a custom tag to any item by simply typing it in. Afterwards, you can type in your tag in the search bar, and find all the tagged products. This is a great way to group articles by color, aesthetic, or any other metric you can think of.

Also, tags are saved per manager, so you won't have to re-type them if you start a new store!



Lastly, you can add notes to articles. Maybe an article sold particularly well during a certain event in town? That's worth adding a note for, in case the event happens again! Or maybe you want to remind yourself when the item was last on sale to plan your strategy?

You may have already spotted some improvements in the screenshots above to the article screen itself. With this new screen, you will have all the information you need at your disposal, like how well the article is selling amongst different demographics, allowing you to further optimize your store.



Another improvement is that you will be able to see these details anywhere! No longer do you need to visit the office to see specific metrics, but you can pull those stats up during a workday as well. This also means you can more easily plan sales on the fly. Simply press Q when selecting an article, and you can see its details and edit its price.

Speaking of editing its price, this change also allows you to easily put specific articles on sale, rather than having to create discounts per display. That means you can now quickly adjust prices on the fly, adapting to your customer's need more efficiently.

A small but often-requested QoL feature is that you'll be able to mirror inventory! In the case of registers, that means you can control whether people will enter the queue from the left or right side. A lot of you were quite particular about this, so here it is!



And for the campaign players, one commonly requested feature was to take out loans (curiously, no one ever requested being able to pay those loans back). The new bank area will allow you to do just that, provided you have some capital.




The last QoL change we wanted to mention in this blog is that we've put a lot of time into optimizing King of Retail's textures and meshes. This can result in up to 30% more FPS than in previous versions!

There's more improvements in 1.0, like security perks for staff and lots of bug fixes, but we'll save those for next week — see you then!