Year
2021
Genre
Simulator
Platform
PC
Team Size
9
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
System Design
Gameplay Design
Game Description
The game is a merchant simulator that tests your knowledge of the weapons in your stock and their use. Customers only describe what monster they will hunt and it’s up to you to figure out what to give them.
To find out what weapon fits the customers description, you have a journal which contains information about weapons and monsters.
Happy customers gives a tip, unhappy customers will get injured and send you a fine, so you better make the right decision.
System & Gameplay Design
Customer
The core concept of the game was centred around figuring out what item would be the best to give to the customer. So I created this system where the customer says keywords in their dialogue that you can look up with your journal. These keywords would be enough for you to deduct what item to give to the customer
The more accurate item, the more the customer would pay you, so you could get away with giving a customer something that contains at least one of these stats. Also with this system we could start of with simple requests from the customers, where there could be several right answers to ease the player into this system.
The Journal
I figured that the best way to do this system would be to come up with items that could fall into different categories, but at the same time they would need to be somewhat related to keep this system simple.
I decided that it would be best if this shop would only sell weapons, and for each weapon to have three different stats.
The reason for this system to only include weapons was because it would be very easy to have many of these stats overlap each other which is what I was aiming for. Because then it would become this puzzle where a customer asks for a weapon that contained two different stats, and you would have to look through each weapon and be able to narrow down on your options.
Concept
In Game Result
Monsters & Hunting
But after playtesting I felt like I needed to add an extra step to this system. That is when I decided to add monster pages to the journal. This was also used to build the world, because now we spun the narrative that a big part of the dwarf culture is to hunt down dangerous monsters.
The customers tells you what type of monster they will be hunting , and each monster has two kinds of weaknesses.
Concept
In Game Result
Ordering System
To refill the item stock in your store, I decided to add a section to the journal where you can order packages with items at the end of each day.
This ordering system was also used for the player to progress in the game. I thought it would be interesting if you played well you would get rewarded by unlocking new items. So I added a page before the ordering section where you could buy two kinds of licenses which would make it possible to order packages which you previously didn't have access to.
Items & Managing Your Shop
The items you order will arrive the next morning in crates. You will have to place them on an appropriate spot somewhere in the store before you open.
Each item falls into four different placement categories, that is big, medium, small and wall mountable. There are also four different categories of pedestal/spots where you can place your items.
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Pillow: Allows any sizes.
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Big Pedestal: Allows medium and small size items.
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Small Pedestal: Allows only small size items.
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Hanger: Allows only wall mountable items.
To be an efficient shop keeper, you have to plan ahead on where you want to place your items so you have easy access to the most essential ones.