Hello everyone!
Two weeks have passed since our Steam release and we got so overwhelmed from all the things to do that we weren’t able to prepare a proper post-release announcement!
So… Let’s do it right away!
We worked very hard on our game for more than two years and its release on Steam was a big milestone. As always, such a big moment can bring fears and doubts which ultimately can cover all the positive things of such an accomplishment. But every negative thought vanished as soon as we hit the big green release button and saw how much you all liked our game!
We are very happy for such a positive feedback and we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your nice messages, for all the good reviews, for all the feedback and for all the screenshots and videos that you posted!
Speaking about screenshots, you accepted the challenge and uploaded lots of them in the Steam Community Hub! Be sure to like and comment your favorite ones to let us know who should win the race for the best screenshot!
And, speaking about videos, we are very thankful to all the creators that took the time to record a video, or even a series: we had a great time watching them play our game, even if we couldn’t understand a single word for any language different from English and Italian, it was great to see them surprised, find references, make jokes, mimic our characters and ultimately have fun! <3
If you haven't done it yet, check them out on the Steam Community Hub and on YouTube, you'll find dozens of videos in many languages, with German and English being the most common!
Enough with the release, now let's talk about our next update!
First of all, we completed the new Item Pack #9 which adds more than 25 new Houseware items to look for and buy!
With these items we have now completed all the item packs we had planned, so now it's your time to let us hear your voice and let us know what you’d like to see in the game! Post your ideas here or on the “Item Requests” card on the Roadmap, we'll keep track of the most desired items when we'll plan our next item pack!
Speaking of planning, you'll soon see a lot of movement on the Roadmap! We are checking all the tasks, both ours and community requested ones, in order to reevaluate them and plan the next releases for the following months!
As per today, in the new 1.15 update we will surely include:
- The new Item Pack #9
- Minor text fixes (thank you for reporting them!)
We are also already working on:
- A new graphical improvement on the screen where you examine a customer’s item
- Steam integrations: mentioned in our last announcement, with this you’ll be able to unlock our 45 achievements on Steam!
- Portuguese localization: approximately at 15%, hopefully completed for the end of the month.
- Some dedicated PC improvements (such as keyboard controls)
And then after completing the full reevaluation we’ll surely start working on something else!
Some of these tasks (e.g.: Steam integration or Portuguese localization) will need a special testing phase, so we will also check how to properly provide Beta releases on Steam. Which means that, if you like, you’ll soon be able to opt-in the Beta program and then be able to test our latest releases before everyone else! Of course we’ll also make a dedicated announcement on this and keep you updated on what you’ll be able to test in Beta!
Last, but not least, many of you noticed that Dealer’s Life price on Steam is particularly low, some of you were even scared a bit as usually a low price means a low-quality product.
Well, we obviously appreciate praises about the low price, but here’s the truth: this is the first game we develop and we had a lot of difficulties deciding a price tag. We know that DL is a high-quality product and we know we could have asked for more (on mobile we have been updating it every month for two years now) but being in doubt we decided to be "better safe than sorry".
Again, this may just be us two thinking in a different way than the "market standard", same as we did with IAPs that everyone probably would have included in a game like ours (energy bars, time to wait for customers and deals, and so on...).
Also, we managed to have a chat with a couple of experienced devs during these very frantic post-release days and decided to consider the possibility of raising the price after some updates, which in case will be announced in advance with no surprises.
In conclusion, we’d like to keep updating the game for free, with no IAPs and even no DLCs, evaluating a price increase in some updates. If this keeps going well we will show that there is an alternative which makes everyone happy: you, our players, will keep playing an updated game, we will be supported and we will have the financial stability to be able to update this game and then start developing a new one!
So… keep supporting our game and our decisions, spread the word on social platforms, share the game to your friends and tell us what you think!
That’s all for now, thanks to all the Great Dealers out there and keep up the good deals!
Your friendly indiedevs,
Abyte Entertainment
