Shop Crush - Psychological Horror Thrift Shop Sim with Literal Illusions [Demo Soon]

[Ack]

I'm sharing great news: we've finally removed AI art from the game (it was previously in the illusions mechanic). But now even illusions are hand-painted by our artist.

Why did you use AI art in the first place?

I'm guessing they probably used it as a placeholder while waiting for the artist assets to be finished.

[bslteam]

Why did you use AI art in the first place?

I'm guessing they probably used it as a placeholder while waiting for the artist assets to be finished.

Yes, and also playtesting the mechanic itself. We wanted to know the constraints before doing the final picture.

[Ack]

That makes a lot of practical sense. I'm glad it worked out for you.

[bslteam]

That makes a lot of practical sense. I'm glad it worked out for you.

Yes totally.



Good morning, friends!

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been busy working on a playtest build for everyone interested.

So far, we've added great improvements to the game:

- Updated the character arts - added more details, shadows, and improved their designs
- Improved the UX and UI for better readability and clarity
- Improved the character and game balancing to remove dominant strategies
- Added customer fatalities - they do it to the player now
- Full rework of illusions - now all illusion images are replaced with those made with AI to human-made art!
- Made characters more alive - improved their bios, added reactions, and new details to their traits
- Fully reworked the chapters in the story

P. S. The playtest will start next Friday evening EST.

See you there!

(Image of the new chapter system)

[bslteam]

Hi everyone! The playtest has started.

If you want to join, let's go!

[bslteam]

Our playtest continues.

Please write your comment on the game's Steam Hub page.

[bslteam]

Wanted to talk a little bit about the playtest we're currently having. The dynamic is very interesting to me. We have around 250 people who have joined for the playtest so far, which is much more than we expected. I personally thought even 20 people would be a great result.

As for the playtest data, there are also interesting moments: most people play around 20 minutes, which is expected, the test build is not that long.

But some people played it more than 200 minutes (and it's not us, we checked), as well as people who played for 180, 150, 100, 90, and 80-70 minutes. Though the content of the game is about one hour long in that build, I think.

I am a little bit disappointed that we only got two pieces of feedback in the Steam community. It seems like people do not really prefer that channel of communication (I also noticed at the conferences our audience is much more introverted, and they probably don't like making public posts).

Initially, the idea to ask people for public feedback was to cross-reference it with other players (and yes, excite the steam algorithms a little), but I am thinking about asking people for feedback in their favorite places of choice then.

[Ack]

I don't think you should be that upset about only receiving two pieces of feedback. Entrepreneur Seth Godwin once wrote that only about one in a hundred people actually take the time to leave a comment. If your audience is more introverted, that's ok, but 2 out of ~250 playtesters isn't that unusual. Yes, you can ask and illicit more responses, but you're actually doing pretty typical numbers in that regard. Don't lose heart! The total time played numbers are way up, as are the testers, who are already showing interest.

[bslteam]

I don't think you should be that upset about only receiving two pieces of feedback. Entrepreneur Seth Godwin once wrote that only about one in a hundred people actually take the time to leave a comment. If your audience is more introverted, that's ok, but 2 out of ~250 playtesters isn't that unusual. Yes, you can ask and illicit more responses, but you're actually doing pretty typical numbers in that regard. Don't lose heart! The total time played numbers are way up, as are the testers, who are already showing interest.

Yeah, if you look at that this way, it's pretty common then. I didn't know that. I am a person who likes to write comments and reviews. Yes, the number of testers really surprised me, as well as their playtime. It inspires me, I hope to get 2-3 more feedback pieces and will be ready for a demo.

[bslteam]

Our new trailer is featured on IGN!

I can't believe it. I had to lift the embargo for them; they were okay with publishing it alongside the rest of the outlets, but I just couldn't wait.