Updates: What is next for Roadside Research? (And 150,000 players, wow!)

May this message find your goop plentiful and your store full of humans.

Hey everyone! What a weekend it has been.

I am happy to report that over 150,000 people have played Roadside Research right here on Steam, and the reviews have been delightful to read. So thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for being part of this Early Access while we continue developing the game.

1. What we have done so far

We just recently updated the game with two hotfixes before the weekend.

• Hotfix 1: Single Player Adjustments

• Hotfix 2: Customer Satisfaction and Suspicion

We have heard from a lot of people that hotfix 1 was enough for single players and duos. The main "difficulty" we are looking at is: how much does a player have to do at a given time, for example there were complaints about too much cleaning so we reduced dirt appearance.

2. What we plan to do next

This Week

Fixin' Time

• Not being able to grab stuff as the client

• Cash register - can't select anything other than 1 cent if not using d-pad

• Cash register - items despawned by customer

• Incorrect payment method message after customer got knocked out at cash register

Next Week

Customization Update + Better Tutorials

• Hats, body types, skin color

• Better mini-game explanations

• More fixes

We were already working on some of these customization options before launch but it didn't make the cut.

Next Month

Big Patch 1

• Deeper fixes and feature tweaks that cannot be done in a hotfix

• NPC Customer Feedback System: See store stats in the alien screen

• Quality of Life additions

• New decorations

Easter-Themed Update

3. List of Common Requests

These are common requests we have seen in forum posts and reviews:

• Gas station auto-filling: looking into this for automation update

• Cash register automation: looking into this for automation update

• Saving your custom mask so it is not lost: looking into it

• Motion sickness: This is due to the game's built-in upscaler, we'll look into a toggle

• Misc: Selling energy drinks, cat, bigger storage space, enter price with numpad

As players keep progressing, naturally they will find the game easier because they gain more knowledge about how certain mechanics work. We also have to balance this out by making sure that the new player experience is understandable and doesn't punish you for things you don't know (yet).

And once again, thank you for playing!

Please leave a review with your thoughts! We read every single comment, forum post, and review. Your opinions are very important to us. Bye bye and until next time.