The much-anticipated Shoppe Keep 2, with all new online multiplayer, is fast approaching. Today, we are announcing that the game is set for an Early Access release on 26th April 2018, and we are delighted to be able to share a brand new trailer. Take a watch to see two business hopefuls set up Shoppe, in the game’s multiplayer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9buvvsBnTU&t=6s

Shoppe Keep returns bigger and better than ever! Build a business empire, battle mobs and monsters. It’s merchandising mayhem as you attempt to sell all sorts of fantastical stock to make your millions. Welcome to the world of Shoppe Keep 2, Customerania - a whimsical open world surrounded by rolling countryside, packed full of quaint little houses, six foot spiders, voracious wolves, angry mobs and of course your new Shoppe. Shoppe Keep 2 is a single player and multiplayer enhanced merchant simulator, inspired by the NPCs we know and love from classic RPGs and MMOs. While adventurers and rogues are out slaying dangerous beasts and selling an alarming amount of stolen plates, cheese and bread, it’s you, our trusty merchant who is keeping their shelves stocked.



Developer Strangefire have taken the original concept and gameplay that made Shoppe Keep so popular, and enhanced it. In addition, the new multiplayer option will see you teaming up with friends to run your retail empire together. Brand new to Shoppe Keep 2 is a diverse open world to explore with dangerous creatures to hunt and rare but valuable loot to find – all adding to the Shoppe Keeping experience. You can, for example, tackle a venomous spider and sell its poison. All ultimately adding to the profit of the fantasy business.




This time around you'll also have the ability to equip and use the armour, weapons and potions that you can find on the shelves of your own retail emporium.

We are encouraging original Shoppe Keep fans and new players alike to take a look at this new trailer and show your support by adding the game to your Steam wishlist.



Already a fan? We have a special bonus exclusive for players of the original Shoppe Keep! As well as a discount for those who already own the original game, we will also be offering a bonus in-game cosmetic item for Shoppe Keep 1 players who go on to play Shoppe Keep 2!



A major focus for Shoppe Keep 2 is making the game as welcoming as possible, to players new and old - which means that we are looking for players to participate in a closed alpha. Those who wish to sign up should sign by clicking on the link below.




Note: All images in this blog are promotional images, and not in-game screenshots. The trailer featured in this blog is entirely in-game.

The much-anticipated Shoppe Keep 2, with all new online multiplayer, is fast approaching. Today, we are announcing that the game is set for an Early Access release on 26th April 2018, and we are delighted to be able to share a brand new trailer. Take a watch to see two business hopefuls set up Shoppe, in the game’s multiplayer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9buvvsBnTU&t=6s

Shoppe Keep returns bigger and better than ever! Build a business empire, battle mobs and monsters. It’s merchandising mayhem as you attempt to sell all sorts of fantastical stock to make your millions. Welcome to the world of Shoppe Keep 2, Customerania - a whimsical open world surrounded by rolling countryside, packed full of quaint little houses, six foot spiders, voracious wolves, angry mobs and of course your new Shoppe. Shoppe Keep 2 is a single player and multiplayer enhanced merchant simulator, inspired by the NPCs we know and love from classic RPGs and MMOs. While adventurers and rogues are out slaying dangerous beasts and selling an alarming amount of stolen plates, cheese and bread, it’s you, our trusty merchant who is keeping their shelves stocked.



Developer Strangefire have taken the original concept and gameplay that made Shoppe Keep so popular, and enhanced it. In addition, the new multiplayer option will see you teaming up with friends to run your retail empire together. Brand new to Shoppe Keep 2 is a diverse open world to explore with dangerous creatures to hunt and rare but valuable loot to find – all adding to the Shoppe Keeping experience. You can, for example, tackle a venomous spider and sell its poison. All ultimately adding to the profit of the fantasy business.




This time around you'll also have the ability to equip and use the armour, weapons and potions that you can find on the shelves of your own retail emporium.

We are encouraging original Shoppe Keep fans and new players alike to take a look at this new trailer and show your support by adding the game to your Steam wishlist.



Already a fan? We have a special bonus exclusive for players of the original Shoppe Keep! As well as a discount for those who already own the original game, we will also be offering a bonus in-game cosmetic item for Shoppe Keep 1 players who go on to play Shoppe Keep 2!



A major focus for Shoppe Keep 2 is making the game as welcoming as possible, to players new and old - which means that we are looking for players to participate in a closed alpha. Those who wish to sign up should sign by clicking on the link below.




Note: All images in this blog are promotional images, and not in-game screenshots. The trailer featured in this blog is entirely in-game.

Good day keepers!

As we mentioned in our last dev log, there was no dev log for last week. It's a shame but we did have some priorities which needed to be addressed which were not really very exciting to write about. But we're back now (albeit a day later than expected) with the sixth installment of our dev log saga.

Just to let you all know that while development is going very well, we may hold off on revealing the big features each week to truly make the release much more special. Over the next few weeks we're going to be spending our time polishing what is already in the game and will be responding to feedback from the community. So without further ado, let's start this blog post!


We will be looking at adding animation variations for each action the player is able to perform. So a swing may have three types of animation that will play randomly. This makes the character movement feel less monotonous and adds just a little bit of polish. This should also be in some way represented in third person for other players to see in online multiplayer, but we will get to that so do not worry.


Trinkets will be a series of random items that you'll be able to find, craft or order. The biggest use for these types of items will be to boost a players personal stats in various situations. As an example, a trinket may be able to boost your broom so that you can clean more efficiently or improve the repair rate of your hammer to fix furniture pieces faster.


We have been thinking about ways that will allow players to organise and prevent them from carrying an overwhelming number of items at once. In Shoppe Keep 2, players will have an amount that they are able to comfortably carry, but should the weight of the items in their inventory exceed this, they will find that they will move much slower. To combat being over encumbered, the player will need to place their items in a chest for safe keeping or even equip trinkets which will negate the eight of the items in some way.


Everyone loves customization! In the shop management UI you'll be able to customize the very shoppe itself. From foundations, floor, ceiling, roofs and walls, we are sure that you'll find the right look for your shoppe. During development we will be creating texture packs which will allow players to continue decorating their shoppe.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to show off progress for localisation with visuals, so allow us to explain what's been worked on via text! Localisation has taken quite a big bite out of our weekly workflow but we are confident that we have 90% of the current content + ALL items, ALL Quests, All Dialogs localized. What does this mean? Well, we have a folder which is generated when the game first launches called Languages. Within that folder if you add a new text file with a name Language_.txt the games splash screen will check it and if it has text inside it that represents Shoppe Keep 2 localisation, it will offer you the option to choose it. The game will then be translated into the language you have chosen. We will be getting professional translators for a few major languages at launch, but if any players want to translate the text into another language (or even adjust it so that everyone talks like a pirate) They are free to do so.

The main English language file will be available to everyone and as we add more to the localisations and new features evolve, a new file will be supplied which will show what new additions have been made. This means that translators will be able to quickly translate it. We are currently looking into Steam Workshop integration with this system too.

So there we have it. The sixth installment of the dev log comes to a close. Do let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback and stay tuned for next week when we'll be sharing more details of the development process. Thank you all for the support.

Good day keepers!

As we mentioned in our last dev log, there was no dev log for last week. It's a shame but we did have some priorities which needed to be addressed which were not really very exciting to write about. But we're back now (albeit a day later than expected) with the sixth installment of our dev log saga.

Just to let you all know that while development is going very well, we may hold off on revealing the big features each week to truly make the release much more special. Over the next few weeks we're going to be spending our time polishing what is already in the game and will be responding to feedback from the community. So without further ado, let's start this blog post!


We will be looking at adding animation variations for each action the player is able to perform. So a swing may have three types of animation that will play randomly. This makes the character movement feel less monotonous and adds just a little bit of polish. This should also be in some way represented in third person for other players to see in online multiplayer, but we will get to that so do not worry.


Trinkets will be a series of random items that you'll be able to find, craft or order. The biggest use for these types of items will be to boost a players personal stats in various situations. As an example, a trinket may be able to boost your broom so that you can clean more efficiently or improve the repair rate of your hammer to fix furniture pieces faster.


We have been thinking about ways that will allow players to organise and prevent them from carrying an overwhelming number of items at once. In Shoppe Keep 2, players will have an amount that they are able to comfortably carry, but should the weight of the items in their inventory exceed this, they will find that they will move much slower. To combat being over encumbered, the player will need to place their items in a chest for safe keeping or even equip trinkets which will negate the eight of the items in some way.


Everyone loves customization! In the shop management UI you'll be able to customize the very shoppe itself. From foundations, floor, ceiling, roofs and walls, we are sure that you'll find the right look for your shoppe. During development we will be creating texture packs which will allow players to continue decorating their shoppe.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to show off progress for localisation with visuals, so allow us to explain what's been worked on via text! Localisation has taken quite a big bite out of our weekly workflow but we are confident that we have 90% of the current content + ALL items, ALL Quests, All Dialogs localized. What does this mean? Well, we have a folder which is generated when the game first launches called Languages. Within that folder if you add a new text file with a name Language_.txt the games splash screen will check it and if it has text inside it that represents Shoppe Keep 2 localisation, it will offer you the option to choose it. The game will then be translated into the language you have chosen. We will be getting professional translators for a few major languages at launch, but if any players want to translate the text into another language (or even adjust it so that everyone talks like a pirate) They are free to do so.

The main English language file will be available to everyone and as we add more to the localisations and new features evolve, a new file will be supplied which will show what new additions have been made. This means that translators will be able to quickly translate it. We are currently looking into Steam Workshop integration with this system too.

So there we have it. The sixth installment of the dev log comes to a close. Do let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback and stay tuned for next week when we'll be sharing more details of the development process. Thank you all for the support.

Happy Monday keepers! We managed to get all of the BEEEEEEEEEEEEE'S out of our heads since last week and have jumped back into action! We will not be sharing a lot today as 50% of our time was spent tinkering behind the scenes on areas that many players will not see.

In Shoppe Keep 1, players would see where they could place thier items with a green effect on furniture. However, once players expanded to a massive shop, some players began to experience FPS drops based on the sheer number of FX at any given time. We've changed the system in Shoppe Keep 2 and it now instead displays the shape of an item in the spot where it can be placed. This will assist us with performance but we also think it looks pretty cool too!



In Shoppe Keep 1, a key concern was that players were put off by the tutorial as it contained a large portion of text. As we've transitioned to a new version of Unity we are now able to have the game read MP4 files which allows us to create much more compelling short videos to help players learn the ropes. We hope that this will allow Shoppe Keep 2 to be much more accessible.



Unity allows us to create all sort of tools and custom inspectors that help out in creating games, we have a bunch of them already functioning and helping out the designers make NPC's, dialogs, items, spells etc. We will try and convert those tools into a separate application which should be able to let players add more content to the game which they want themselves in the future. More on this soon! Performance has been worked on this week, some moments in game introduced frame drops, and we are happy to say that such moments were mostly solved, and the biggest issue we saw was when our frames dropped to 29 fps, but after doing some optimisation they rose to 56, still not pure 60 FPS, but we will be optimising the game as mad men during the whole development process/EA and post launch until it is as best as it could be.

Sometimes players may forget which button performs a particular action. We've polished up our UI which will remind you what to press when targeting something that is interactive. The button prompts dynamically change depending on what key is binded to what function. We might add an option to disable button prompts in the settings, a lot of newer gamers do that these days - I guess it helps with immersion



SK1 was basically just the same flat floor around the world, we got away with just 1 type of footstep sound, now as we have grassy hills, paved roads, sand, wooden floors, tile floors and many more, having just 1 sound wont cut it. Listen for it during our future gameplay videos, but your step/ npc step will feel more alive than ever!

You can't run a profitable shop without setting a good price for your wares! When the shop is small enough you can easily go up to an item with your price gun and stamp a price straight on it! However, pricing can be a little more complicated once you have expanded. But have no fear we have created the Pricing UI

You can use it to check the items currently on display in your shoppe and how much each unit is sold for. No need to find the item on the shop floor, you can use this new UI to change the price straight away! Some more active friends may choose to put items on displays while you oversee the prices for each item from the comfort of the management house.



That's it for now! I am afraid that next week we will not be creating a dev log. Though if we can find some information to share that we can show you, we might do a smaller post! We're of course still developing the game, but some of the content we're working on might not be ready to show for a little while.

Stay tuned and thank you for your support!

Happy Monday keepers! We managed to get all of the BEEEEEEEEEEEEE'S out of our heads since last week and have jumped back into action! We will not be sharing a lot today as 50% of our time was spent tinkering behind the scenes on areas that many players will not see.

In Shoppe Keep 1, players would see where they could place thier items with a green effect on furniture. However, once players expanded to a massive shop, some players began to experience FPS drops based on the sheer number of FX at any given time. We've changed the system in Shoppe Keep 2 and it now instead displays the shape of an item in the spot where it can be placed. This will assist us with performance but we also think it looks pretty cool too!



In Shoppe Keep 1, a key concern was that players were put off by the tutorial as it contained a large portion of text. As we've transitioned to a new version of Unity we are now able to have the game read MP4 files which allows us to create much more compelling short videos to help players learn the ropes. We hope that this will allow Shoppe Keep 2 to be much more accessible.



Unity allows us to create all sort of tools and custom inspectors that help out in creating games, we have a bunch of them already functioning and helping out the designers make NPC's, dialogs, items, spells etc. We will try and convert those tools into a separate application which should be able to let players add more content to the game which they want themselves in the future. More on this soon! Performance has been worked on this week, some moments in game introduced frame drops, and we are happy to say that such moments were mostly solved, and the biggest issue we saw was when our frames dropped to 29 fps, but after doing some optimisation they rose to 56, still not pure 60 FPS, but we will be optimising the game as mad men during the whole development process/EA and post launch until it is as best as it could be.

Sometimes players may forget which button performs a particular action. We've polished up our UI which will remind you what to press when targeting something that is interactive. The button prompts dynamically change depending on what key is binded to what function. We might add an option to disable button prompts in the settings, a lot of newer gamers do that these days - I guess it helps with immersion



SK1 was basically just the same flat floor around the world, we got away with just 1 type of footstep sound, now as we have grassy hills, paved roads, sand, wooden floors, tile floors and many more, having just 1 sound wont cut it. Listen for it during our future gameplay videos, but your step/ npc step will feel more alive than ever!

You can't run a profitable shop without setting a good price for your wares! When the shop is small enough you can easily go up to an item with your price gun and stamp a price straight on it! However, pricing can be a little more complicated once you have expanded. But have no fear we have created the Pricing UI

You can use it to check the items currently on display in your shoppe and how much each unit is sold for. No need to find the item on the shop floor, you can use this new UI to change the price straight away! Some more active friends may choose to put items on displays while you oversee the prices for each item from the comfort of the management house.



That's it for now! I am afraid that next week we will not be creating a dev log. Though if we can find some information to share that we can show you, we might do a smaller post! We're of course still developing the game, but some of the content we're working on might not be ready to show for a little while.

Stay tuned and thank you for your support!

Welcome back Keepers! Bee Keepers? No ... Shop Keepers! Bah, why not both?




Join us as we share more progress and information on the development of Shoppe Keep 2. We'll be chatting about interactions with NPC's, visual town changes and wall decorations. Check it all out below:



You may remember sir poshington from Shoppe Keep, he offered players luxury upgrades to shop displays. However, in Shoppe Keep 2, he'll take on the illustrious role of mentor as he helps you learn the basics of the shop keeping trade.

Poshington and other NPC's will track your movements by looking directly at you! So if you were to perform a complicated maneuver like, oh I don't know, jumping? He would watch you... But of course, jumping isn't going to make you money, so poshington would more likely berate you as you display your lack of economic efficiency.



When you talk to NPC's they'll also talk back to you and will gesture too. Just a subtle element that makes the world feel a little bit more alive.



As you play through Shoppe Keep, the town will go through iterations of growth and upgrades. These will often activate as you upgrade your shoppe, you crafters and raise the overall economy of the land. Below is an example of the town changing from a town which uses wood into a more evolved stone version of itself.



Your shoppe will attract different types of customers based on the average item level of your shoppe. So if you're stocking a lot of low level items, you're going to see more low level warriors around town. But if you happen to rise and begin to sell much more powerful gear, you will see that there will be much more powerful customers wandering around the town



We're introducing a new way to spruce up your shoppe and provide you more customization. Wall decorations turn bland boring walls into works of art, by literally putting up works of art like paintings! Decorations are items whoch can be gained in a variety of ways including completing quests, exploration, NPC vendors etc. Some of these might even be very rare and offer a bonus to your shop, town or even crafter.



Not these damn crests again! Yes, last week we shared that when you create a new world save, you create its crest too. The world will be populated with the crest you created but as an added bonus, you can even decorate the walls of your shoppe with the crest too.



About a month ago, we shared with you three types of display management variations. We chose to stick with two versions. The standard version which is similar to Shoppe keep (albeit with some adjustments) but also a new type of interaction which brings up a separate UI for each display. We have upgraded the latter type where if you want to display only one single item, holding SHIFT will fill the entire shelf in a single click.



That's it for this week. Thank you for reading and if you have anything you'd like to see in the game do let us know. Let us know what you think of the mechanics we've shared today!

Welcome back Keepers! Bee Keepers? No ... Shop Keepers! Bah, why not both?




Join us as we share more progress and information on the development of Shoppe Keep 2. We'll be chatting about interactions with NPC's, visual town changes and wall decorations. Check it all out below:



You may remember sir poshington from Shoppe Keep, he offered players luxury upgrades to shop displays. However, in Shoppe Keep 2, he'll take on the illustrious role of mentor as he helps you learn the basics of the shop keeping trade.

Poshington and other NPC's will track your movements by looking directly at you! So if you were to perform a complicated maneuver like, oh I don't know, jumping? He would watch you... But of course, jumping isn't going to make you money, so poshington would more likely berate you as you display your lack of economic efficiency.



When you talk to NPC's they'll also talk back to you and will gesture too. Just a subtle element that makes the world feel a little bit more alive.



As you play through Shoppe Keep, the town will go through iterations of growth and upgrades. These will often activate as you upgrade your shoppe, you crafters and raise the overall economy of the land. Below is an example of the town changing from a town which uses wood into a more evolved stone version of itself.



Your shoppe will attract different types of customers based on the average item level of your shoppe. So if you're stocking a lot of low level items, you're going to see more low level warriors around town. But if you happen to rise and begin to sell much more powerful gear, you will see that there will be much more powerful customers wandering around the town



We're introducing a new way to spruce up your shoppe and provide you more customization. Wall decorations turn bland boring walls into works of art, by literally putting up works of art like paintings! Decorations are items whoch can be gained in a variety of ways including completing quests, exploration, NPC vendors etc. Some of these might even be very rare and offer a bonus to your shop, town or even crafter.



Not these damn crests again! Yes, last week we shared that when you create a new world save, you create its crest too. The world will be populated with the crest you created but as an added bonus, you can even decorate the walls of your shoppe with the crest too.



About a month ago, we shared with you three types of display management variations. We chose to stick with two versions. The standard version which is similar to Shoppe keep (albeit with some adjustments) but also a new type of interaction which brings up a separate UI for each display. We have upgraded the latter type where if you want to display only one single item, holding SHIFT will fill the entire shelf in a single click.



That's it for this week. Thank you for reading and if you have anything you'd like to see in the game do let us know. Let us know what you think of the mechanics we've shared today!

Good day keepers!

This weeks blog post will focus on UI, some dynamic objects, helper bots and a few other items of interest. Let's get stuck in!

So let's talk about the biggest change in the sequel which is multiplayer. From the main menu you you play alone as Single Player, or choose one of 2 Multiplayer ways to play with your friends.



When hosting your world you can choose from a Direct connection world or a Server listed World

If you are hosting the world on your local network connection you can use the direct connection which just needs an IP and port number, and off you go! You can also use the Direct Connection to play with friends outside of your local network using port forwarding techniques.

To connect to a Direct Connection world, you can simply enter the IP address and port number to connect to the host.



Now in case you are playing with friends from far away, and port forwarding is a foreign concept to you, you are in luck, we can use a server list and connect you anyway!



When creating a server listed game, you will simply give your world a name which can then be found on the server lists.
To connect to a server listed game, you can search the server list for a game to join and then connect to the games.

Small disclaimer: Our server lists are hosted by Unity to help with connecting people across the globe



We are currently in the process of working on a video that shows off some of the multiplayer game play but felt that we should mention something very important! There will be no features in this dev log that are locked to single player. Anything that we mention or discuss will be fully playable in multiplayer.

There are particular features that do need to be designed to consider the synchronization of objects for Multiplayer. So there will be some elements from the single player portion which will have some features that must have a good compromise to keep development flowing.

As an example, let's talk about the helper bots. We've discovered that there is a reasonable number of helper bots that P2P can handle without causing any issues with synchronization or performance. But if we were not creating a multiplayer game, we could have 50 helper bots flying around.

So the theory is this, design the game with the shortcomings of multiplayer, but still make it fun and balanced to play as a single player game. It's wise we discuss and remain open on this because this type of development process will save us time and allow us to create content much faster than trying to combat two different variants of the same game.

While developing Shoppe Keep 2, we wanted a far more flexible way of creating content. Items, spells, equipment, displays and NPC's are objects that can be removed and added quickly and easily. Additionally, we are considering supporti got Steam Workshop for player made items that can be usable in game. Once we reach that point, we'll talk more about it!



We are currently working on an Item creator app which will ship with Shoppe Keep 2. Right now the priority is not on that particular feature but it currently works as intended but have not yet tested it with Steam Workshop. We'll reveal more info later!

We've added a new hair colour, Blonde! It joins six other available hair colours in Shoppe Keep 2.



Helper Bot Mark V appears in Shoppe Keep 2. Major adjustments have been made to make him more useful with entirely new tools Unfortunately, as we work to strive towards more advanced bots, they seemed to have picked up a few personality traits!



In our online stress tests we've noticed that 5 helper bots is a great number to maintain core duties and responsibilities without affecting synchronization and performance. In response, we've made the helper bot upgradable so that you start with one, but can go up to 5.



We will be making the helper bots much more useful in time but right now they are able to do the following:

• Stock items
  
• Fix furniture
  
• Manage the farm
  
• Travel to other towns to buy or sell stock

Defense is also planned, but we need to work out a few kinks!

The helper bot's core path finding has been completed and so is his decision making. But not all features are complete and we will talk about them in more detail as they are further along in development.

Right now, they can stock items, all bots share a container that you will fill up with items. They'll pick up an item and then place it within the shop. Because the Mark V helper bots introduce arms, you can even see them visually holding the item that they are going to place.



There's not been too much to share this week. We spent quite a lot of our time working out some issues with multiplayer. Multiplayer had worked since Day 1, but because we attended EGX (which required focus on single player game play) we had created many features and had not tested them fully in multiplayer. So time has been spent working on those and debugging them in a multiplayer environment. Of course, loads of bugs were found! But we've been spending our time making sure that features currently in the game will work with a friend.

That's it for now, Stay tuned as we reveal more information (probably same day next week!)

Indie DB

Good day keepers!

This weeks blog post will focus on UI, some dynamic objects, helper bots and a few other items of interest. Let's get stuck in!

So let's talk about the biggest change in the sequel which is multiplayer. From the main menu you you play alone as Single Player, or choose one of 2 Multiplayer ways to play with your friends.



When hosting your world you can choose from a Direct connection world or a Server listed World

If you are hosting the world on your local network connection you can use the direct connection which just needs an IP and port number, and off you go! You can also use the Direct Connection to play with friends outside of your local network using port forwarding techniques.

To connect to a Direct Connection world, you can simply enter the IP address and port number to connect to the host.



Now in case you are playing with friends from far away, and port forwarding is a foreign concept to you, you are in luck, we can use a server list and connect you anyway!



When creating a server listed game, you will simply give your world a name which can then be found on the server lists.
To connect to a server listed game, you can search the server list for a game to join and then connect to the games.

Small disclaimer: Our server lists are hosted by Unity to help with connecting people across the globe



We are currently in the process of working on a video that shows off some of the multiplayer game play but felt that we should mention something very important! There will be no features in this dev log that are locked to single player. Anything that we mention or discuss will be fully playable in multiplayer.

There are particular features that do need to be designed to consider the synchronization of objects for Multiplayer. So there will be some elements from the single player portion which will have some features that must have a good compromise to keep development flowing.

As an example, let's talk about the helper bots. We've discovered that there is a reasonable number of helper bots that P2P can handle without causing any issues with synchronization or performance. But if we were not creating a multiplayer game, we could have 50 helper bots flying around.

So the theory is this, design the game with the shortcomings of multiplayer, but still make it fun and balanced to play as a single player game. It's wise we discuss and remain open on this because this type of development process will save us time and allow us to create content much faster than trying to combat two different variants of the same game.

While developing Shoppe Keep 2, we wanted a far more flexible way of creating content. Items, spells, equipment, displays and NPC's are objects that can be removed and added quickly and easily. Additionally, we are considering supporti got Steam Workshop for player made items that can be usable in game. Once we reach that point, we'll talk more about it!



We are currently working on an Item creator app which will ship with Shoppe Keep 2. Right now the priority is not on that particular feature but it currently works as intended but have not yet tested it with Steam Workshop. We'll reveal more info later!

We've added a new hair colour, Blonde! It joins six other available hair colours in Shoppe Keep 2.



Helper Bot Mark V appears in Shoppe Keep 2. Major adjustments have been made to make him more useful with entirely new tools Unfortunately, as we work to strive towards more advanced bots, they seemed to have picked up a few personality traits!



In our online stress tests we've noticed that 5 helper bots is a great number to maintain core duties and responsibilities without affecting synchronization and performance. In response, we've made the helper bot upgradable so that you start with one, but can go up to 5.



We will be making the helper bots much more useful in time but right now they are able to do the following:

• Stock items
  
• Fix furniture
  
• Manage the farm
  
• Travel to other towns to buy or sell stock

Defense is also planned, but we need to work out a few kinks!

The helper bot's core path finding has been completed and so is his decision making. But not all features are complete and we will talk about them in more detail as they are further along in development.

Right now, they can stock items, all bots share a container that you will fill up with items. They'll pick up an item and then place it within the shop. Because the Mark V helper bots introduce arms, you can even see them visually holding the item that they are going to place.



There's not been too much to share this week. We spent quite a lot of our time working out some issues with multiplayer. Multiplayer had worked since Day 1, but because we attended EGX (which required focus on single player game play) we had created many features and had not tested them fully in multiplayer. So time has been spent working on those and debugging them in a multiplayer environment. Of course, loads of bugs were found! But we've been spending our time making sure that features currently in the game will work with a friend.

That's it for now, Stay tuned as we reveal more information (probably same day next week!)

Indie DB