Halló!
There's so much going on with Walk of Life right now! The deadline for the art contest on our Discord is tomorrow, and we've revealed all of the candidates for the role vote that begins next week. What's more, we're back with another huge content update!
We're incredibly grateful for the wonderful Steam reviews we've been getting and they really motivate us to make the game even bigger and better. If you haven't given us one yet, please consider doing so and letting us know how you feel about the game.
Now on to the juicy stuff!
Modifiers are a brand new system that will allow you to customize your games just the way you like them. These options change the rules of the game in some way, whether it's lowering the cost of all items, enacting a permanent curfew, or having Senior be the only playable role.
There are over forty modifiers to choose from and each of them has a certain weight attached to them denothing how much easier or harder they will make the game experience. We hope that you can use the modifiers to tweak the game so it's just right, Goldilocks style.
Challenges are a new game mode where you won't be racking up the usual score, but will instead have to complete a new set of objectives in order to be victorious. Each challenge has certain objectives that must be met, such as reaching education level 9 or feeding the birds each round. If an objective is not met, challenge failed!
To make things more interesting, each challenge also comes with a set of modifiers which more often than not make it harder to reach said objectives. The combinations of modifiers and objectives create challenges for players to tackle.
Challenges also introduce something we've wanted in Walk of Life for a long time: Co-op challenges! There are two co-operative challenges that are only playable in multiplayer where all players are working towards a mutual goal. Either all of you win, or none of you do!
We're excited to see if these initial challenges prove to be a good addition to the game, and if they're popular we'll be sure to add many more!
We know that spending a long time finding a game can be frustrating, so we've added a new feature that should prove helpful. When the new Online Quick Match is selected, you will search for a 1v1 game versus another player. As soon as another quickplay player is found in your region, the game will begin automatically after a short countdown. The settings are always the same, 10 rounds, normal difficulty, so there's nothing to configure.
We also used the chance and updated the rather old cards for Local Play and Online play!
We've added a new Overview Menu, selectable by clicking tab or a purple book in the top left corner, which helps keep tab of how the other players in the game are doing. You'll be able to see their wallet, cash, education, work XP and clothing, just as you can your own.
This is also where you can see all the modifiers of the current game, as well as objectives if you are playing a challenge.
We've reworked the Hacker slightly to make the role less frustrating to play. The key changes are:
Hacks now last 3 rounds rather than indefinitely. Hacking refreshes the duration.
Getting busted no longer removes all your hack progress. Instead, locations hacked when busted will be locked for one round. Additionally, downloaded cars will be lost and jobs will be lost if the job office was hacked.
The changes should make the Hacker feel less punishing when getting busted. Let us know how you feel about the new Hacker!
There's a whole slew of new secret missions to make things more interesting! Are you genuinely forgetting to eat this often or is it a secret mission?
A curious parrot may now be found at the pet store!
There are so many changes that we can't be bothered to format them all properly, including role balancing, bug fixes and more. We'll leave you guys with the full changelog so you can see for yourself!
We'll see you again very soon!
* Solo and Co-Op Challenges! Enter a gauntlet of challenges where you must meet certain objectives instead of racking up score!
* Modifiers are a new way to customize the game to your liking, adjusting it to make it easier, harder, or just weirder!
* Difficulty has been reworked into a collection of modifiers rather than a mysterious bundle of who knows what.
* Global Events can now be switched Off entirely, alongside the usual frequency meters. Go out there and live your boring life!
* Online Quickplay! Find a match as quickly as possible against another player with the click of a button.
* New Overview Menu! Press Tab or the book in the corner to keep tabs on how other players are doing.
* Eleven new Secret Missions, including bathing your pet the most or forgetting to eat the most! Most junk sold has been removed as it was lopsided for certain roles.
* Secret Missions now know which map they are on, so you will not be handed the arcade one in Calicornia any more.
* Hacker rework! Hacks now expire after three turns, but getting busted no longer resets your hacks. You will however get locked out of the locations you've hacked for one round, you criminal scum.
* Artist has been balanced and now requires the right clothes to make art in certain locations.
* Shopaholic's coupon card is now split between furniture and electronics, all with new art.
* The Drifter now takes a small penalty for working a job they have already completed.
* Mystic's Libra, Scorpio and Virgo zodiacs buffed slightly.
* Bots now play as the Senior Role! I wonder what operating system they're using?
* New Pet - find the Curious Parrot in the Pet Store!
* New animated decorations have been added to the map!
* Global Event meters now show up inside locations.
* Heatwave is a little kinder when you move around, especially for the Senior.
* Opening a Location is now animated, and reward effects land on the button you pressed. You may now Reduce Motion in Settings if you prefer.
* Advanced Blur added to Settings, for a frosted glass effect behind the menus.
* Lottery tickets now show the current prize pool, and Studying now shows its actual cost.
* The shortest round timer is now 45 seconds, up from 30 seconds.
* If loading a save goes wrong, saving is now switched off for the rest of the session instead of writing over your good save.
* Fixed: Reconnecting could leave you in the game with no cards and no input, forever.
* Fixed: A stray end of turn could skip a player's whole turn and charge their turn end twice.
* Fixed: A Global Event that missed its end could run for the rest of the game and leave everybody frozen on the round announcement.
* Fixed: A kicked player's report pile grew every round until it stopped the round from starting for everybody.
* Fixed: The Crime Wave counter overflowed partway through a game, so on a full table you usually got one wave and then nothing for the rest of it.
* Fixed: Online Kaiju Battle - rewards only ever reached the host, and quests finished by anybody else counted for nothing. Splitting your effort evenly between the two sides now pays out instead of paying nothing.
* Fixed: Rejoining a Simultaneous Turns game left everyone else missing from the map until the round ended.
* Fixed: Running out of time on a teleport or lock building choice threw an error in Simultaneous Turns.
* Fixed: Loading an online save could start a Role's quest chain a second time and stack duplicate quests.
* Fixed: Duplicate newspapers after loading a save.
* Fixed: Four players holding every stock could break the host and stall a bot's turn.
* Fixed: Buying a stock and selling it in the same turn online could leave a holding for a stock nobody owned.
* Fixed: You could sell an item you did not actually own.
* Fixed: Extra Courses no longer brick themselves if you cannot afford the study cost.
* Fixed: A building locked by two people at once counted twice, and locked building overlays stayed on screen through the hand over to the next player.
* Various bug fixes.