Game House Release Notes

What's new

• Daily challenges are fairer: on mop-up days more drinks get spilt, and on faulty trade-in days more broken consoles and controllers come in.
• Delivery and pre-order vans now park at the kerb, not in the road.
• The banker and repairer no longer get pushed around by customers and staff.
• The banker and repairer never turn up after closing time.
• Magazine Rack: each comic now takes just one space.
• Basement stairs are fully boarded off until you buy the Basement.
• Bug fixes and improvements.

What's new

• Achievements: 58 to earn with Google Play Games.
• Digital cards: hang a card holder and sell gift cards, online passes and digital games.
• Jobs list: see what needs doing and follow the arrow to it.
• 12 titles in every book section, with new covers, plus Cromwell the Barbarian and three new ConflictMace rulebooks.
• Guides get their own tab when ordering.
• Shop floor grade only counts empty spaces.
• Smaller download, less memory, smaller thumbstick and a tidier main menu.

New: the café ☕

• The café a few doors down is open. Walk up to its door to see the menu:
  • Coffee (20 Creds): you walk 25% faster for 2 hours.
  • Sandwich (40 Creds): your staff work 20% faster for 3 hours.
  • Cake (30 Creds): customers wait 50% longer in the queue for 3 hours.
  • Smoothie (30 Creds): trade-in sellers are more likely to accept a lower offer for 2 hours.
• You can have one of each running at a time. Watch an ad to double how long a boost lasts. Boosts are saved with your game and end overnight.

New: the bank and the repair shop next door 🏦🔧

• Your street now has a bank and a repair shop right beside your shop. The banker walks over from the bank with your cash and change, then heads back. The repairer walks over from her shop to collect your faulty items, and does the same when she returns the repairs. No more people appearing out of nowhere on the pavement.

Fixes

• You could walk under the stairs and disappear inside them. The gaps are now closed off, and anyone who does end up stuck in there is moved back out.
• On the end-of-day report, after watching the ad to triple your bonus, the “20% more customers tomorrow” ad now shows again as soon as an ad is ready. You no longer need to change page first.

Other

• The Guide has a new café section, and the banker and repairer guides say where they walk from.

Thanks for playing! 🎮

New

• Daily challenges. Three new challenges every day in the Bonus screen. They cover selling, trade-ins and testing, running the shop, and your daily grades.
  • Complete one for 100 Creds, or watch an ad to double it to 200.
  • Anything you finish but forget to claim is paid overnight.
• Gather mixed loads. You can carry up to 10 items of any mix, a whole box’s worth of small items like booster packs (36) or card supplies (20), or one console on its own.
  • While carrying stock in the stock room or pre-owned room, the second button becomes Take more, so you can grab from several shelves in one trip.
• Pre-Order calendar shows everything. Every game releasing in the next 8 weeks now has its own row with its own reservation count, including every launch game for a new console.

Improvements

• Smarter staff.
  • If you fill a gap on the shelves first, staff stop going for it. If they’ve already picked it up, they put it back.
  • They also carry mixed loads, filling several gaps in one trip.
• Shelves used properly.
  • Customers and staff now stand at the front of shelves, not at the ends or the back.
  • Staff never reach stock through a wall.
• Fairer queues. Whoever reaches the till first goes to the front, even if someone joined the queue earlier while still walking over.
• Debt. If you end 5 days in a row overdrawn, the bank clears it with a loan, repaid a little each day. You’re warned each day before, and the end-of-day report counts the days.

Fixes

• Fixed getting stuck at the till when there was no change for a cash customer and their card had been declined twice. They now pay with another card.
• Banking now waits until the last customer has left the shop, so nobody can pay into a till that’s already been banked.

Every floor now works like the ground floor

• Customers shop on every floor. They now browse shelves upstairs, on the top floor and in the basement, not just the ground floor. Fill those shelves and people will come to them. They’ll pay at the nearest till, including one on that floor.
• More room for customers. Your upstairs and basement floor space now counts towards how many customers can be in the shop at once, so expanding brings more people.
• Tournaments on any floor. Card Tables, Card Table Seats and Play Tables upstairs or in the basement now count for hosting a tournament. Players head to wherever the tables are. Each floor’s seats count with that floor’s tables.
• Arcade machines on any floor. Customers now play arcade machines upstairs and in the basement too.
• A busy shop on every floor. Spills and stock left on the wrong shelf can now happen on every floor, so keep an eye on your other floors as well. Spills never land on the stairs.

Fixes

• No more mess on the stairs. Customers walking the stairs could drop drinks and rubbish inside the railed-off or boarded-off stairwells, where you couldn’t reach to clean. That mess counted against your Clean grade. Spills and litter now only land where you can walk and clean them up. Anything already stuck there is cleared when you update.
• Tills on every floor of the POS planner. Tills placed upstairs or in the basement now show on that floor’s tab of the POS planner. Tap one to close it to customers or give it to a member of staff, just like a ground-floor till.

Your shop

• The basement is now a full sales floor, like upstairs. Build shelves, displays, tills, decor and machines down there, and customers and staff will use it. Before, almost everything showed red in the basement.
• Night lights. Ceiling lights now come on at dusk over the open floor of every shop and every floor (the unit next door, upstairs, the basement and the top floors too), and go off in the morning. Until you fix the shop's lights they stay dim.
• Shelves line up properly. When you place a shelf against another, its ends now snap flush with it as well as touching it.
• The Preowned Rack is trimmed by 2% so it sits flush against two Small Shelves placed back to back.

POS planner

• The planner now works in three steps: Type, then Kind, then Item.
  • Type: Game, Console, Accessory, Booster pack, Sealed box, Starter deck, Card supplies, Merchandise, Board game, Book, Miniature or Paint.
  • Kind: the console or card game (for example 2900), or for goods with neither, the product line or format (ConflictMace 50, ConflictMace Old Earth, Space Armada, Comic, Novel, Magazine, Rulebook and so on).
  • Item: the exact product sold under that Type and Kind.
• Paint is now a Type of its own, separate from Miniatures.
• You can pick a Kind without picking a Type first, for example everything for one console.
• The lists only show what exists: goods the shelf can hold, from consoles and card games you have the licence for, that you can order now. New ranges appear automatically.
• Rules you set before still work.

Fixes

• The stairs down to the basement now have railings on the east and north sides. You could walk off the side and drop down.
• Long notifications now shrink to fit their box instead of running over the edge.
• The repairer, the banker and delivery drivers can only be served once they have walked up to the till. You could hand over the goods while they were still coming into the shop.

Fixed

• Customers queuing when you leave or reload. If you left the game, travelled to another shop or reloaded while customers were waiting at a till, they could walk out during the change. They dropped litter and left the items from their basket behind as boxes, which then turned up in the shop. Now everyone, and everything they were holding, comes back exactly as it was.

Added

• A hidden easter egg. Keep an eye on the arcade machines: some of them have more in them than meets the eye…

Midnight releases

• Thursday’s report comes at 23:50. Thursday’s end-of-day report now appears as the doors open for the midnight release, not afterwards.
• The release counts towards Friday. Midnight sales are in Friday’s report, which says it includes last night’s release.
• Clear messages. You’re told when the last customer for the release is on the way in, and again once they’ve all been served.
• Skip to 07:00. During the release, the clock button skips straight to Friday morning. There’s no second report and no float to count. The release takings are banked for you overnight.
• Banking. If you didn’t bank on Thursday afternoon, the bank does it for you as the doors open and leaves a ready-counted float for the release.

Tutorials and guide

• New tutorial step: after your first order, you’re shown how to buy a pre-owned game from the supplier.
• New tutorial step: the H button, which shows the messages you may have missed.
• New in How to play:
  • Buying pre-owned
  • The Order screen’s tabs
  • Pre-owned copies sold to someone else
  • The end-of-day grades and bonus
  • Game rules
  • The Shop’s upgrades
• Pre-owned stock from day 1. The supplier now has pre-owned stock from your very first day.

Fixes

• Games on the top board of stock room shelves now lie flat in neat piles. They used to look as if they were poking through the shelf.
• Saving and reloading while Thursday’s 23:50 report is showing no longer skips the midnight release.

Your shop

• Start from a run-down shop. Clear the rubbish, repair the broken till and counters, then do the place up (walls, floor, lights and windows).
• Build, Layout and Decor. Place and move shelves, displays, counters, magazine racks, pre-owned racks, play tables, bins and posters. Sell back anything you no longer need.
• POS planner. Set every shelf bay to exactly what sells there: by console, by kind of product or by title. There are also pre-order bays, pre-owned-only bays and a “new release” bay.
• Expand. Add a stock room extension, take over the unit next door, and open an upstairs and a basement.
• Five shops. Start small and grow to five locations: your first shop, a smaller one, a similar one, a larger one with upper floors, and a mega store.
  • Travel between them, which takes an hour or an ad.
  • Each shop has its own stock, staff and reputation, while money, the warehouse and storage are shared.
• Arcade machines. Seven playable cabinets that customers stop to play. They can break down.
• Vending machines. Cold drinks, hot drinks and snacks, with prices you set. They earn while customers are in.
• A living street. Traffic, passers-by, neighbouring shopfronts, your own shop sign, rain and snow, and day-to-night lighting.
• Opening hours and the door. Set your hours, or close and reopen at the door.

Customers

• Greet customers for a chat, advice and recommendations. Staff fetch the game they recommend from the shelf.
• Rewards cards. Members earn points and spend them at the till.
• Phone calls. Callers ask about prices or reserve stock, which is held on the Reserve shelf for them.
• Shoplifters. Catch them before they reach the door, or chase them through the counter flap. Staff chase them too. Run a stock take to find out what went missing.
• Angry customers. Faulty returns sometimes come back shouting. Talk them down or offer a goodwill voucher.
• Spills and litter. Mop up dropped drinks before people complain.
• Reputation drives how many people come in. Good service brings more; empty shelves, a dirty shop and high prices drive them away.
• A customer always comes in within 30 minutes while you’re open.

At the till

• Serve customers yourself. Scan items, take cash and count out the exact change, or type the amount into the card machine.
• Morning float check. Report any stack that’s wrong.
• Offers at the till:
  • Insurance: 2 years of cover for 20% of the price, with claims for free replacements.
  • Vouchers.
  • Pre-owned copies instead of new.
• Returns. Give a refund, a voucher or a swap.
  • Faulty items go to the Returns box, where you can send them to WEEE recycling or call the repairer.
• Extra tills. Run up to 4, or 5 with the upgrade. Staff can run their own tills.

Trade-ins and pre-owned

• Two kinds of seller. Cash sellers want 30–50% of the second-hand price, and trade-in customers want a voucher worth 45–60% to spend in store.
• Inspect every item. Turn the case over, check discs for scratches and cartridge pins for dirt, then clean them once to try for a better grade. Grades are Mint, Good, Fair and Poor.
• Haggle. Make an offer and they take it, ask for more or walk away.
• Test consoles and controllers:
  • Controller test: Control King checks every button.
  • Console test bench: the maker’s start-up jingle and a playable test game, with handhelds tested on the unit.
• Faulty items. Faults depend on condition and generation. Take faulty items for nothing, and staff spot faults too.
• The pre-owned room holds second-hand stock. Copies are worth less the more you already hold, and sellers are turned away when the room is full.
• Pre-owned from the supplier. Graded stock every day at cash trade-in prices, with +All to buy every copy.

Stock and ordering

• A huge range. 360 games across 32 consoles, plus:
  • Accessories.
  • Trading cards and card accessories.
  • Board games and miniatures (with paints).
  • Merchandise.
  • Books (comics, magazines, novels and rulebooks).
• Supplier deals. Daily markdowns of 10–40%, and bundles of a console, a game and a controller.
• Deliveries.
  • The courier comes every morning, twice on day 1.
  • Sign for each delivery and check it against the paperwork. Shortages are refunded with a bonus.
  • Rush deliveries are available for an ad.
• Stock room shelves. 16 spaces each, and a space holds up to 100 of one product. More of the same product tops up its existing space.
• Warehouse and storage.
  • Rent a warehouse (expandable to 100 boxes) and send orders straight to it or to your other shops.
  • Rent a storage unit (300 items) to hold stock until it turns retro.
• Prices and Trends. A moving market, weekly hot and cold items, and your own pricing.
• Console generations. Last-gen prices fall and trade-ins flood in. Five generations back a console is second-hand only, and seven back it goes retro, rare and worth more than ever.

New releases

• Weekly releases. Announced at the Monday briefing and out on Thursday. The publisher’s van brings pre-orders and a promo kit (posters, cutout and more).
• Pre-orders. Take reservations, stock the Pre-order Shelf and hand customers their copies. The Pre-Order calendar shows 8 weeks ahead.
• New consoles.
  • Announced 3 weeks ahead, with 2–4 launch games.
  • Ordered in pairs, and need a licence.
• Midnight releases. Open 23:50 to 02:00 for the queue on release night. Only release customers come in, and you’re told when the last one has arrived.

Staff

• Hire staff with real stats: speed, till, stock, sales and customer service. Set their hours.
• What staff do. They serve, stock shelves, clean, mop, chase shoplifters, take trade-ins and returns, and offer pre-owned copies.
• Managers order stock for you (you approve it) and call stock off from the warehouse.
• Wages are paid automatically at the end of each day.
• Uniforms. Staff wear your uniform colours.

Money

• Cash and card. Creds are split into cash and card.
  • Bank your takings, or let the bank do it overnight.
  • Order change from the banker.
• Bills and borrowing. Take out loans and pay monthly rent. You can buy on credit.
  • Owe 100,000 Creds and the bank closes the business: game over.
• Marketing campaigns bring more customers or boost the rewards scheme.
• End-of-day report.
  • Sales, costs and staff, with a tab for each shop and a page of the day’s orders.
  • Grades for Customer service, Shop floor and Clean, from F to A+.
  • Good days earn a bonus of 50, 300 or 500 Creds, and a video triples it.
  • An ad books a busier tomorrow.

Events

• Tournament nights. Book a weekly card-game tournament, 20:00 to midnight, with a prize, an entry fee and knockout rounds at your play tables.

Make it yours

• Character creator. 6 characters with skin, hair, top, t-shirt, trousers and shoes.
• Game rules for angry customers, shoplifters, faulty trade-ins, returns, delivery shortages, signing for deliveries, item tests, card payments and pre-owned offers. Relaxed, Standard and Hardcore presets set them all at once.
• Settings. Music and effects, how long messages stay up, and ad privacy.
• Message history. Tap H to see the last 15 messages.
• Accessibility. Colour-blind marks on test results.

Learning the game

• A short first-day tutorial, then lessons that pop up the first time you meet each feature.
• How to play on the main menu, where every lesson can be read again.

Shop and extras

• Bonus. Free Creds for watching ads.
• Shop.
  • Creds.
  • The Starter Pack.
  • One-off upgrades you keep forever: a 5th till, a 5th member of staff, a bigger warehouse, two more stock room shelves, a Business Bank Account, a Trade Account and Shop Insurance Plus.

Presentation

• Box art. Every product has its own box art on the shelves.
• Characters. Animated customers in varied colours.
• Sound. New music, sound effects and recorded voice lines.
• Load screens.
• Saving.
  • Automatic saves.
  • Android backup of your save, restored on a new phone.
• Camera cut-out. On phones with a punch-hole camera, the side panels move clear of it.

Fixes along the way

• Stock in baskets and staff’s hands is no longer lost when you exit.
• Reloading no longer adds extra customers.
• Staff no longer serve from the wrong side of the counter, and no longer grab boxes from the till.
• Customers and staff no longer overshoot at high clock speeds.
• Text stays inside its box everywhere.
• Fixed:
  • Delivery boxes lost when the stock room was full.
  • Insurance being the player’s choice instead of the customer’s.
  • Cash trade-in payouts taken from card money.
  • Change from the bank while overdrawn.
  • The courier arriving after closing.
  • The phone’s back button.
• Plus hundreds of smaller fixes and balance changes from playtesting.