Homeless Life Simulator Demo – Devlog #2

Hey everyone! This update is focused on polishing the core loop and fixing the stuff that was breaking runs (shopping cart issues, unstuck, job flow, and UI). A lot of these changes came directly from your feedback, so I went through the biggest pain points and made the game feel more stable and reliable overall. Here’s what’s new

✅ Shopping cart no longer gets lost or clips out of the map
🛠️ Unstuck now respawns you to a safe valid spot (not random far teleports)
💼 Job payments, markers, and multi-job flow are now consistent
⏸️ Menu now properly pauses the game
🎛️ Camera/mouse issues improved (including the 23:00 cursor loss)
🗺️ Map bugs fixed + map click interaction polished
🌙 End-of-day story + random events added with UI polish
🏢 Two new buildings added: Car Dealer Shop & Real Estate Shop
📚 Library now includes an Active Skill system

🏢 New Buildings: Car Dealer & Real Estate

• Added Car Dealer Shop building to the city.
• Car Dealer building includes full interior layout.
• Added vehicle purchase flow inside the Car Dealer.
• Added vehicle camera transitions when interacting with cars.
• Added vehicle slot system and vehicle save handling.
• Added Real Estate Shop building.
• Real Estate building layout is fully designed and integrated.

📚 Library & Active Skill System

• Added a new Active Skill system to the Library.
• Players can now unlock and improve active skills.
• Active skills are player-driven and upgradeable.
• Library now acts as a long-term progression hub.

🛒 Shopping Cart Stability

• Shopping cart no longer disappears when it falls off the map.
• Prevented cart clipping into walls and unstable collision edge cases.
• Improved cart physics so it no longer “launches” forward after impacts.
• Reduced item ejection when the cart hits objects.
• Improved cart behavior to reduce passing through objects and random instability.
• Increased shopping cart capacity to feel more realistic and useful.
• Added a more reliable approach for keeping items stable while pushing the cart.

🧭 Unstuck & Respawn System

• Unstuck now respawns the player to a safe valid position instead of a random far point.
• If you fall through the world, you now respawn properly instead of reappearing at the opposite side of the map.
• Added/expanded respawn coverage to reduce cases where no good respawn point exists.
• Unstuck can now be used more reliably while dealing with vehicle/cart situations.
• Improved unstuck behavior for cases where the camera gets stuck.

💼 Jobs, Payments & Day Pace

• Fixed inconsistent job payments so the paid amount matches what is shown on the job UI.
• Improved reliability of job completion and reward delivery.
• Job markers are now synced better so they don’t remain on the map when the job is not active.
• Improved multi-job handling so taking more than one job works more consistently.
• Improved job persistence when saving/exiting during active jobs.
• Adjusted pacing so the day flow feels less rushed.
• Reduced cases where jobs send you to excessively far points.
• Improved job variety to reduce repetition.

🎛️ UI, Controls & Game Feel

• The game now properly pauses when the menu is opened.
• Added and updated player sensitivity settings inside the ESC menu.
• Improved camera behavior to reduce forced downward look.
• Improved mouse cursor reliability after waking up around 23:00.
• Tutorial improved with more detailed visuals and GIF support.
• General control feel improved to reduce clunky behavior.

🗺️ Map & World Polish

• Fixed map clipping and falling issues in problematic areas.
• Polished map click interaction behavior.
• Improved map card info and localization.
• Added building wall info texts with translations.
• Fixed cases where the Fun Zone system fails after closing the game.

🚗 Vehicle & Recycle Center Updates

• Added vehicle selling area support.
• Added vehicle upgrade support.
• Added clearer feedback for Recycle Center vehicle selling zones.
• Added trash amount/price style info for vehicle interactions.
• Improved physics so vehicles are less likely to be pushed accidentally.

🌙 End-of-Day Content

• Added end-of-day story moments.
• Added random events to the end-of-day flow.
• Polished end-of-day UI.
• Updated demo stop script behavior.

🧩 Bug Fixes

• Fixed: Recycle area prices not updating correctly.
• Fixed: Shop UI not closing correctly via close button.
• Fixed: Shop UI close issues when using ESC and close button together.
• Fixed: NPC conversation rotation issues.
• Fixed: Job UI not closing correctly with ESC.
• Fixed: Purchased basket spawning in invalid positions.
• Fixed: Active skill UI not closing properly with ESC.
• Fixed: Coffee boost effect persisting after expiration.
• Fixed: Job payment mismatch between UI and actual reward.
• Fixed: Items becoming impossible to add to the basket.
• Fixed: Camera getting stuck between objects.
• Fixed: Active job disappearing after save/exit.

Thanks for pushing detailed feedback it helped a ton in targeting the exact pain points.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3845420/Homeless_Experience_Simulator

💬 Share Your Thoughts with Me

You can share your thoughts or what you’d like to see in the game directly with Discord server:
Discord Server