Customer Models, Cash Registers, Settings, and More

Hey everyone! I'm a solo developer working part-time on Computer Store Simulator, a game where you run a computer store. This is my first game, and I am proud of the progress I have made recently, so I thought it was time for the first devlog.

Over the past six months or so, I've been making steady progress across the game. For this first post, I wanted to focus on the work I did over the last two weeks.

Checkout flow

As you'd expect in a shop simulator, the cash register needs to feel good. One of the tasks I've been putting off was the cash counting and credit card minigames. Up until the last couple of weeks, customers would automatically check out as long as you were standing at the register. I finally implemented the proper flow, which makes the whole loop feel much more complete.

The card reader is part of the same sequence now, so the checkout feels like an actual interaction instead of a shortcut.

Customers and pathfinding

Up until now, I only had two customer models, so this was a big improvement. There are now hundreds of customer variations, which gives the store a lot more life. I also improved pathfinding for customers and employees, so performance is better and they no longer walk through each other or the furniture.

Market-based pricing

One of the biggest changes lately was a full rework of the price mechanics. Previously, items had a static buy price and sell price. That felt too flat, so I rewrote the pricing system. Now market dynamics affect retail and wholesale prices, and those markets move independently but stay correlated. As a player, you have a more interesting decision: buy when something is cheap, or chase items that are currently very profitable.

Furniture controls

The ability to move furniture has been in the game for a while, but the controls were clunky, so I cleaned those up and added an outline to show the furniture hit box. I also fixed collision bugs that blocked valid placements and added controls to cancel furniture movement or purchase. Decorating and expanding the store feels much better now.

Settings and display options

This is one of the less flashy updates, but any game needs solid settings. I spent several days getting the graphics options working nicely, so you can pick your display mode, resolution, and quality. I also worked through multi-monitor support. The engine does not make it easy to detect which monitor the game is running on, so I tried a few different approaches. In the end, the practical solution is to switch to windowed mode, drag the window to the monitor you want, and switch back to fullscreen. It also remembers your preferences the next time you launch the game.

What's next?

Next up, I'm focused on bug fixes, UI improvements, and generally making the game feel more polished. Once the current systems are in good shape, I want to keep working on employee management and explore more computer-specific features, like expanding the repair and upgrade tables, letting players sell computers they assemble themselves, and adding more depth to LAN gaming and tournaments.