Dear Retailers! First of all, I will have to give all of you a very, very big apology for letting everything regarding King of Retail stay in the dark for so long. I know i have built up some expectations, and my intentions have always been to follow up on them, so i am truly sorry for the lack of engagement and communication over the last 1 year. I can fully understand those of you who have been greatly disappointed. So now it's time for me to give you all an explanation. Up until and after the release of King of Retail i was completely burned out. The process during this period was unfortunately far from optimal, and at the same time a lot of stuff happened on a personal level, leading me to an insane level of stress. For 4 months i slept at max 2 hours pr. night, and those were the good nights where i managed to get some actual sleep. After that, every time i tried to open Unreal (the progeam used to make the game), tried do some planning, heard a ping on Discord, etc. i within seconds felt my pulse increase drastically, and simply could not do anything, even though i felt a huge obligation to serve the community and the players. And i am truly, truly sorry for not responding to you for all this time. It took me a very long time before I was able to do things relatively normal again, and when i could i needed to make a decision. King of Retail was my first game, and my first experience of making a proper piece of software. It also had many other "firsts" along the way, and because of this the foundation of King of Retail is not as strong as i would like it to be, simply because it was built on the knowledge i had back then. This means that at the later stages, much time was spent on fixing this foundation to make it possible for new things to enter the game. And this problem will only intensify with continued work, as well as some things will be impossible to add. For instance, a simple thing like keeping multiple saves for a game is impossible without rebuilding everything. It is also made with an old version of Unreal Engine (v. 4.22, the latest UE4 version is 4.27, and they proceeded to UE5 being on version 5.3). Many of the external plugins used have not been updated to the newer versions, meaning bringing it up to date to use the latest features, would be an immenseamount of work. For me it was in the end more of a frustration to work with, because every little thing i wanted to make, required me to fix some of this foundation. However it would never be what i wanted it to be, unless i redid everything from scratch. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what to do instead. Many ideas and many scenarios has been played through in my head. Should i continue King of Retail? Should i try a different type of game? Do i even have the desire to make games? Can i again climb this huge mountain it is to make a game as an indie developer? After a lot of thinking and researching, i came to the conclusion that i still love my King of Retail, and that i can make something even better than i did before. I just need to adjust the way i did, and do things so i don't let it go to this unhealthy level of working. And therefore i can say i decided to make a sequel. I know many of you hoped for more content to be added to the original King of Retail after final release, and i can fully understand if you are angry or frustrated. Again i can only give you my biggest apologies, but i will not keep working on King of Retail. But by getting a fresh and proper start on a new game, i can apply all my current knowledge from the beginning, and do everything more consistently, as well as avoiding many of the bad decisions i learned along the way. This will allow a foundation that supports a much better flow of work, and will allow many of the things that I would have liked to add in the first game, and hopefully this will make for a much much better game for you to play. I know many will be pleased with the news, but i also know that a fair amount are disappointed or outright angry with it, which is why I dreaded making this post, and postponed it for too long. But anyway, i hope you will give a warm welcome to:
Production has been ongoing for some time now. The game is in an alpha state right now, and it will still be a while before it enters Early Access. But like it was with King of Retail, i would like production to also be community driven making many of the features in the game inspired by your wishes and desires. The community have already been the source of many implementations already now. Why will King of Retail 2 be different?

• Multi-level stores. You will be allowed to make stores with multiple floors. making them bigger than ever.
• Dynamic gameplay. Jump in and out of your stores whenever you want during the day. Better simulation will make the stores feel more alive when you are not in them, increasing dynamics and interactions between your stores.
• More HQ options Your HQ will be the center of all your operations, letting you manage articles, orders, staff etc. in all stores from one location. Negotiate and earn reputation with your suppliers, unlocking exclusive deals and article lines to be sold at your store. You will have to design your HQ, place offices and different areas, hire managers and personnel for your managers so they can perform their jobs even better.
• A whole new world. All buildings in the city are buyable, and have a different composition of customer segments. Place your stores EXACTLY where you want. A shortened year lets you watch the seasons pass, and will require you to adapt to the requirements and the various events. Even the weather will have an influence on how your day will be.
• More differentiation. You customers will be more unique. The Gray segment demands friendly service, but dont care about long queue times. The Blues puts less emphasis on cleanliness and service, as long as they can shop in a hurry. As your customers will be more unique, you will have to be more specific about who will be your main target group. Articles groups will also be more unique. A grocery store, will be about managing and selling many small items, meaning bigger emphasis on storage management, but less direct sales. Electronics is more about having the right sales personnel, to convince the customers. Clothes will be heavily affected by weather and seasons, and appliances will need a separate checkout for these bulky articles. Each category should provide a new challenge. Articles will also change in trends, meaning your star product today, is not necessarily your star product next week requiring you to follow along on what is selling, and what is not.
• Staff changes Staff will be more in depth, having more stats that influence their behavior. They can be organized in "teams", where their internal relationships affect their performance, learning and mood. Staff will age, and have life events happening to them. They will become more like persons, and less like robots working for you.
• More customization. Use the new display designer to create your own unique displays. In general there will be more possibilities and more options to customize your store.
• Better graphics. Using the new Unreal Engine, much better, and more realistic graphics will be possible. Better animations and better graphics will increase the immersion of the game.
• ...and many, many other things.