Craftlands Workshoppe is now available in Early Access. We very much hope you enjoy playing this new fantasy business adventure game and we cannot wait to hear your feedback. This is just the beginning for Craftlands Workshoppe, and we have plenty of cool new content planned - and of course plenty of room to take on board your suggestions and feedback.


If you pick up the game this week, you'll snag a sweet 30% launch discount. PLUS, if you own either Shoppe Keep or Shoppe Keep 2, you'll be able to enjoy an additional 10% off for the first week.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1197820

Please do let us know what you think of the game via the Steam forums, our Discord[discord.gg], and social media[www.facebook.com]!

Happy crafting!

Hello all,

Craftlands Workshoppe, from the lead developer of Shoppe Keep, will launch in Early Access on 13 October. But you can try the game right now for free in the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition!

Visit the Craftlands Workshoppe store page to play the demo between 7 - 13 October:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1197820

We really think you'll enjoy Craftlands Workshoppe if you enjoyed Shoppe Keep and we would love to hear your feedback, so please do jump into the Craftlands Workshoppe forum and let us know what you think after playing the demo!

Other cool bits and bobs:

• Your save data from the demo will transfer over to the main game, which releases in Early Access shortly after the game festival ends, so you can pick up right where you left off!
  
• We will be running a one week launch discount - add the game to your Steam wishlist to be notified at release and make sure you don't miss out on a good price!

We hope you'll give the free demo a go, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on Craftlands Workshoppe!

Welcome to Craftlands Workshoppe, from the lead developer of Shoppe Keep 1 & 2, Arvydas Žemaitis!

You are invited to sacrifice even more of your social life in his most otherworldly adventure yet! But can you keep the cash registers ringing long enough to master three noble crafts and solve its former owner’s mysterious disappearance?

Craftlands Workshoppe, a new game set in the Shoppe Keep universe, arrives in Early Access in Summer 2020 - so sharpen your knives, fire up your forge and get your cauldron bubbling as you embark on a journey to master all the crafts.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1197820

https://youtu.be/o-fEK8sa3GE


To play the Beta Test, simply join the Craftlands Workshoppe Discord server[discord.gg] and head to the #announcements channel, where you'll need to react with the specified emoji in order to be sent a Steam code via Discord DMs.

There are just 4000 codes available for this Beta Test, and they're being distributed on a first come first served basis, so get in quick to make sure you get a code. All codes will be revoked once the Beta Test has come to an end. Take a read of the Beta Test announcement on the Discord for all the details.

With Craftlands Workshoppe, we want to get feedback and impressions from you all as soon as we can, especially as Shoppe Keep players, which is why we are holding a Beta Test this weekend. Once you have received a code you'll see specific channels for feedback and bug reports on the Discord.

Beta start time: 9 April (4pm BST/8am PDT)
Beta end time: 14 April (10am BST/2am PDT)

We hope you'll join us on this brand new fantasy business adventure in the clouds, starting with the Beta Test over the weekend! Remember to add Craftlands Workshoppe to your Steam wishlist, and keep up to date with the latest news!

Steam
Discord[discord.gg]
Twitter
Facebook[www.facebook.com]
Mailing List Sign Up (scroll to the bottom of the page)[www.excalibur-games.com]

Hello all,

We're very excited to announce the next step in the Shoppe Keep universe: a brand new game called Craftlands Workshoppe[www.excalibur-games.net]!

Craftlands Workshoppe will launch in the first half of 2020.

Get ready for a new adventure in the Shoppe Keep universe!

Become an alchemist, a blacksmith or a chef as you’re handed the role of running Allcraft’s Workshoppe in a new fantasy world amongst the clouds.

• Strangefire Studios’ next game takes the Shoppe Keep universe in a bold new direction
  
• Craft and sell potions, weapons and meals
  
• Train and hire employees to expand your fantasy Shoppe
  
• Explore a brand new world amongst the clouds and get to know the locals

As you'll notice from the name and the logo, this is a brand new game, with a hint of Shoppe Keep. The game is a fantasy business sim of sorts, and is developed by the lead developer of the Shoppe Keep games: Arvydas Žemaitis.

That said, this is a brand new game which stands apart from Shoppe Keep in a lot of ways - it's isometric, for instance. It revolves not so much around running a Shoppe yourself but instead hiring, training and managing employees. The game allows you to choose from three routes/classes at the beginning of the game: alchemist, blacksmith or chef.

Don't expect a Shoppe Keep 3, because that's not what this game is. Craftlands Workshoppe is a brand new game, with a hint of Shoppe Keep.

To keep up to date, you can sign up for the Craftlands Workshoppe mailing list towards the bottom of this page[www.excalibur-games.net], like us on Facebook[www.facebook.com], follow us on Twitter or join the official Craftlands Workshoppe Discord[discord.gg].

Hello all,

I am delighted to announce that Shoppe Keep 2 has now officially graduated from Early Access, and has now reached full launch! To celebrate the occasion, you can grab the game at 40% off from now until 5 May!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/684580/Shoppe_Keep_2__Business_and_Agriculture_RPG_Simulation/


Since the game’s launch in May 2018, Shoppe Keep 2 has seen 19 large feature and content updates from developer Strangefire. From various additions and enhancements to the core Shoppe Keeping gameplay, to expanding the open world of Customerania, to the additional depth of progression and town upgrades, Shoppe Keep 2 has come a long way since its Early Access launch. And that is thanks to you, the community. You've all been a massive help in providing feedback and suggestions, and you've been key to Shoppe Keep 2's Early Access period.

Shoppe Keep 2 has been in development at Strangefire for over two years, and it's been a great ride so far!

While today marks Shoppe Keep 2's version 1.0 launch, almost a year after the Early Access launch, that does not mean that the game will cease to receive updates. Shoppe Keep 2 is now feature complete and no more content updates are planned, but we will continue to listen to player feedback and will issue updates for the game to fix large bugs and usability issues should any arise.

An exception from this is that full controller support will be arriving soon!

In order to report bugs and further feedback, please consider joining the Shoppe Keep 2 official Discord[discord.gg] and post your thoughts in the relevant channels. Here, you can quickly reach and communicate with the Shoppe Keep 2 development team!

Thanks,
The Shoppe Keep 2 Team

Hello Shoppe Keepers,

The time has come to open up your Shoppe once again, as Shoppe Keep 2 is now available!

As a loyal Shoppe Keep fan, you should have already received a 33% off coupon voucher via Steam. This is a thank you from us to you for supporting us by playing an earlier Shoppe Keep franchise entry.

In addition, we also have some free bonus legacy items in Shoppe Keep 2 that will be gifted to you when you play the new game.

Shoppe Keep 1 owners will receive the Keepsake Hat:

Craft Keep VR owners will receive the Cavallo Visor:

For more information on Shoppe Keep 2, please visit the Shoppe Keep 2 Steam page!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/684580

Hello everyone,

In the last couple of months since we announced Shoppe Keep 2 (read more about the new features and online multiplayer by clicking
Here) We have been very busy. We're planning on compiling much of the announcements from the Shoppe Keep 2 forums into one mega post once a month via the Shoppe Keep announcements section. Of course, for all the latest news and to join in on some of the discussions, do visit the steam page below:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/684580/Shoppe_Keep_2/

So what did we do!? If you want to read the full dev log, click the header which includes the date


The Displays
Displays act similar to how they did in Shoppe Keep 1, decorate your shoppe with a beautiful book case, a princely pedestal or a timeless table and then adorn them with your wares for customers to check out and buy.

Furniture pieces now act as items in your inventory. The reason for this is to give players much more choice in decorating their shoppe. Various furniture types and designs can be obtained by NPC vendors, quests, loot drops, crafting etc.

In order to place the furniture piece, you can drag the item into the hot bar. you can then select the item in your hot bar and can then place the furniture piece and rotate it.

Display Damage
Displays have durability which is affected by any action (placing items, items removed from it, or if it was damaged by weaponry).

This will be shown via a texture change and once a threshold is reached, the display will begin o break down gradually until you repair it... Though if you neglect maintaining your display it will eventually become nothing more than a trash pile for you to clean up!

Quest UI
The original Shoppe Keep had quests which involved 'Sell x amount for y'. We are expanding the quest system in Shoppe Keep 2. These can include actions that the player has to complete and a quest can be collected by talking with NPC's. Quest rewards range from Mun's (The in game economy), a rare item or unique order scroll additions. So we've added a Quest UI which helps players track down what has to be done. At the moment, once a quest is complete, you'll receive a notification and receive the reward without needing to turn in.

Concept Art
As part of expanding our team for Shoppe Keep 2, we now have concept artists that will help us better envision and present some of the work that we will be working on in the future. As an example we are reworking our crafting system and each crafting type will require a unique NPC with their own house. Here are some concepts of the alchemy crafting houses our artists have worked on. We hope you love them and can offer your own suggestions!

World Saves
Each player will be able to have up to three world saves. A world save contains information about the date, shop status, display locations, items for sale, status of the town and world quests that have already been complete. When playing online, one of the players will host their world and use up a save slot. So maybe you'll have one save dedicated to playing with friends and another which is dedicated to playing alone.

Crafting
SK1 had an alchemy cauldron which required you to drop items in a unique exact sequence to get a result. It was a bit tiresome. In Shoppe Keep 2, you no longer have to experiment with items, instead you will meet crafter NPC's like this cook here.

If an NPC you interact with is able to craft something, it will be shown on his UI panel. You can open up the crafting panel when speaking to the Cook.

This window displays a list of craftable recipes that you currently own or have unlocked via various means. Selecting a recipe like the bread, will then reveal information on what type of ingredients are required to make the craftable item. You can then decide how many you want to make, or if you just want to make the maximum amount you can press the fill button. This will initiate a task which will fill up over time.

You can go and complete any other duties and return to the crafter once he has finished. We are looking into adding blacksmith and alchemy crafters into the game and may add others if we find them necessary and a good addition to game and its world.


Town Management
Close to your Shoppe is a new building called the Management house. Inside is a desk which will allow you to plan out your town and upgrade the shoppe. When interacting with the desk, a UI will pop up which will reveal statistics about your town and shoppe. Do keep in mind that this is is still work in progress as we want to include more statistics and information.

The two stats that are currently working are the amount of days which have passed since the shoppe has opened and an average item level of all the items that are for sale inside the shop. Once you reach certain objectives, you'll be able to upgrade the town to include more unique vendor NPC's but also change the way the town looks.

The above image shows the core five buildings that you can interact with. These included the following:

• Alchemist
  
• Cook
  
• Blacksmith
  
• Management house
  
• Your Shoppe

Clicking on a building will reveal its level and the upgrades available which can include increased crafting yield but also the ability to upgrade thier building for additional features. We're still working on the management house upgrades and any chosen upgrade should be presented visually when exploring the town. We'll share more on that in the future.

When clicking on the shop icon while using the town management UI. It will bring up a New UI which will allow you to upgrade your shoppe.

Making any changes to this will not only be visible in the game world, but also be represented in the town UI. Check it out below:

We had already discussed parts of the crafting elements from our our last dev blog. We'll be returning to the crafting mechanics once we have finished the other two crafters (their houses are are already complete!). But we need to voice them, create their outfits and figure out their names.

Main Menu
The main menu will be continue to evolve throughout development. The gif above shows the main menu which includes a brief pan and a rapid day/night cycle which shows that the windows of the houses will light up at night time.

Each build we release during the development of Early Access will include a "notes from the devs" which will include important information or a general change log.

Crests
Don't mind the UI, currently this is just to test the systems functionality. Once our artists get their mitts on it, we assure you it'll look much better! Anyway, onto the feature, Each world save that you create will have its own crest. The crest that you create will be placed within the world and be included within certain parts of the UI. This was designed to add that little bit of extra piece of customization to make it feel like your own world. More designs will be available as time goes on.

Customer Navigation
Unfortunately, this section does not have any fancy screenshots or gifs, but we still wanted to share some progress on it.

The eternal struggle in the original Shoppe Keep was customer navigation within closed spaces. Because we allowed players to build objects within the shoppe it makes the navigation mesh even more dynamic and small in places. Customers can start to push each other, for now we are solving this by disabling customer collision when walking into other customers. However, to improve upon the quality of this element, we will be returning to this later when time allows.

Additionally, we've seen large numbers of customers enter the shoppe in SK2 once it has opened and has even just a single pedestal. We now feel there is more control over the amount of customers which will move towards your shoppe. Depending on how many items you have on display, it will affect the number of customers that will enter into your shoppe. Crowd control options will also be introduced via skills and upgrades.

World Map
In Shoppe Keep 2, players will be able to explore the world when they are not running their shoppe. We created a world map which will track the player location (As well as other players), and other dynamic information like the ship, which will be used for a merchant feature and travels from port to port. Additional landmarks will be shown once they are revealed by visiting them or as a quest reward.

Of course, you will be able to zoom in and drag the map around. The image above is of Arvydas spending some quality time in the management house with sir Poshington! You won;t believe how much time was spent to make sure that you are pinpointed and represented on the map exactly where you are!

Clock
it's not a vital game feature, but just more of a nice detail. any analogue clocks in the world will represent the time in the world. Just in case you don't want to look at the top right corner of the screen for a numeric digital display. Your choice!


Multiplayer
So let's talk about the biggest change in the sequel which is multiplayer. From the main menu you you play alone as Single Player, or choose one of 2 Multiplayer ways to play with your friends.

When hosting your world you can choose from a Direct connection world or a Server listed World

If you are hosting the world on your local network connection you can use the direct connection which just needs an IP and port number, and off you go! You can also use the Direct Connection to play with friends outside of your local network using port forwarding techniques.

To connect to a Direct Connection world, you can simply enter the IP address and port number to connect to the host.

Now in case you are playing with friends from far away, and port forwarding is a foreign concept to you, you are in luck, we can use a server list and connect you anyway!

When creating a server listed game, you will simply give your world a name which can then be found on the server lists.

To connect to a server listed game, you can search the server list for a game to join and then connect to the games.

Small disclaimer: Our server lists are hosted by Unity to help with connecting people across the globe

We are currently in the process of working on a video that shows off some of the multiplayer game play but felt that we should mention something very important! There will be no features in this dev log that are locked to single player. Anything that we mention or discuss will be fully playable in multiplayer.

There are particular features that do need to be designed to consider the synchronization of objects for Multiplayer. So there will be some elements from the single player portion which will have some features that must have a good compromise to keep development flowing.

As an example, let's talk about the helper bots. We've discovered that there is a reasonable number of helper bots that P2P can handle without causing any issues with synchronization or performance. But if we were not creating a multiplayer game, we could have 50 helper bots flying around.

So the theory is this, design the game with the shortcomings of multiplayer, but still make it fun and balanced to play as a single player game. It's wise we discuss and remain open on this because this type of development process will save us time and allow us to create content much faster than trying to combat two different variants of the same game.

Dynamic Objects
While developing Shoppe Keep 2, we wanted a far more flexible way of creating content. Items, spells, equipment, displays and NPC's are objects that can be removed and added quickly and easily. Additionally, we are considering supporting Steam Workshop for player made items that can be usable in game. Once we reach that point, we'll talk more about it!

We are currently working on an Item creator app which will ship with Shoppe Keep 2. Right now the priority is not on that particular feature but it currently works as intended but have not yet tested it with Steam Workshop. We'll reveal more info later!

Blonde hair
We've added a new hair colour, Blonde! It joins six other available hair colours in Shoppe Keep 2.

Helper Bots
Helper Bot Mark V appears in Shoppe Keep 2. Major adjustments have been made to make him more useful with entirely new tools Unfortunately, as we work to strive towards more advanced bots, they seemed to have picked up a few personality traits!

In our online stress tests we've noticed that 5 helper bots is a great number to maintain core duties and responsibilities without affecting synchronization and performance. In response, we've made the helper bot upgradable so that you start with one, but can go up to 5.

We will be making the helper bots much more useful in time but right now they are able to do the following:

• Stock items
  
• Fix furniture
  
• Manage the farm
  
• Travel to other towns to buy or sell stock

Defense is also planned, but we need to work out a few kinks!

The helper bot's core path finding has been completed and so is his decision making. But not all features are complete and we will talk about them in more detail as they are further along in development.

Right now, they can stock items, all bots share a container that you will fill up with items. They'll pick up an item and then place it within the shop. Because the Mark V helper bots introduce arms, you can even see them visually holding the item that they are going to place.

Thank you everyone who has made it this far into the mega dev log. You guys deserve a medal! We don't have any medals, so how about a sneak peek at one of the new buildings in the game

We shared the concept art for the alchemists house during Octobers dev logs. But we thought you might want to see what it looks like in game!

We are hoping to keep the flow of these dev logs up until the release. While they'll be posted weekly within the Shoppe Keep 2 page. We'll be posting progress via a mega post like this, once a month here on the Shoppe Keep 1 forums

So if you want to be one of the first to know about developments of Shoppe Keep 2, go check out the games steam page as I'll be posting another dev log this coming Monday

Hi everyone,

Following the announcement of Shoppe Keep 2, we are now in full development mode. If you want to assist us with some feedback, we have just made an announcement over on the Shoppe Keep 2 forums.

We need your help with deciding the best way to handle object placement and pricing. Any feedback would be great! Click the link below to visit the announcement and see the first video of Shoppe Keep 2 in action (albeit still work in progress!)

http://steamcommunity.com/games/684580/announcements/

Thanks again for all y our support.

Hello Everyone,

It has been a few months since we’ve made an announcement, but we have been working very hard behind the scenes. Now is the time that we can begin to talk about what we’ve been working on.

First, we’d like to thank everyone who helped support us in the development of Shoppe Keep. This was a phenomenal experience. We had some great support from dozens of youtubers and streamers. The community grew into a helpful bunch sharing and commenting to help newcomers learn the mechanics of the game. It was also excellent step forward in the video games industry for a Lithuanian developer who was still working in a shop themselves while spending their evenings and any free time developing Shoppe Keep

Making games was a personal dream for Arvydas, Daniel and Andrea. But with your support Arvydas could leave his day job and focus on video game development as a full-time career. Which in Lithuania is very difficult as the games industry in that country is incredibly small.

So, what have we been doing since the release of Shoppe Keep in May 2016? Well:

• Shoppe Keep received patches and a couple of content updates until June 2017
• We founded a new development studio in Lithuania known as Strange Fire.
• We also expanded the team size to include new artists and an up and coming programmer.
• Of course, we still work with Andrea and Daniel for art and music too.
• We experimented with VR technology (which was great fun, but not yet a sustainable technology, we hope that changes very soon as we love VR!)
• And have been working on a secret title, which we will talk about very soon

Of course, none of this is possible without the community of Shoppe Keep and for that we are very grateful. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to make games for a living

Shoppe Keep is our child, we love what it became and know there are others that love it too. Shoppe Keep began as an affordable $5 game on Steam, but evolved into something much bigger than we had even expected. There are of course those with very valuable constructive criticism as well. We hope that in time we can learn from that criticism too.

The biggest request and the common consensus is that players (whether they gave a thumbs up or thumbs down) saw great potential, and want to see more. We supported Shoppe Keep after launch with some new content and fixes. But we know that players wanted something new, they wanted new mechanics and the game to receive a new layer of polish. We are of course new to games development, Shoppe Keep being our first ever game, but we do take a lot of feedback on board as we try to improve.

Therefore, we have been working for several months on something new, yet familiar. That secret title mentioned in the bullet points… Well, it’s
Yes, we are working on a sequel to Shoppe Keep, currently titled ‘Shoppe Keep 2’. But while in a little while I’ll reveal the new mechanics and additions to Shoppe Keep 2. Of course I can guess the kind of questions this announcement will make. So let’s hit them head on!

Well of course, you beautiful people will receive something special. I can’t divulge all the information just now, but In the next few months we shall be sharing more details.

Well, there comes a time when the suggestions from the community are so game changing, that it literally turns the game into another game, hence the term game changing. Shoppe Keep was the work of a developer starting within the industry, revisiting the code and trying to attach new parts becomes a more difficult process and turns the project into some sort of Frankenstein’s monster!. Add to the fact that Unity also updated their game engine and the porting process could eat up time which would be more appropriately used on game mechanics.

But if we are being honest, The team were not experienced game developers when we began working on Shoppe Keep… The code for Shoppe Keep is a maze and a mess. Our lack of experience in development meant that handling the current code of Shoppe Keep to make new features becomes harder and harder and in the end means that there will be man hours wasted trying to utilise old code from our first ever game.

Shoppe Keep 2 does not use any code or even artwork from the original game. We know exactly where our downfalls were while making Shoppe Keep and we factored this into the development of Shoppe Keep 2. We handled the code so that it was expandable, we created new and better art which makes our game have a higher level of polish and presentation.
There were some lovely features suggested by the community and battling against the current code to implement them would be a losing battle for time and efficiency.

The team are more experienced and larger now, and we hope that the lessons learnt from Shoppe Keep and even Craft Keep VR have allowed us to improve ourselves and the games we are making. Shoppe Keep 2 is going to receive the same, if not more love than the original ever had because while we started out with the original Shoppe Keep unsure if there was an audience… We know you really like the idea and will be hitting this out of the park and hope that we entertain and surprise you as the development of Shoppe Keep 2 continues.

We are looking at releasing the game in Early Access during the first half of 2018.

Yes… I’ll share details very soon, but clearly this is the most requested feature for Shoppe Keep by far.

Yes, in fact, if your shoppe focuses its inventory you may see some rewards!

If there’s any other questions, I may update this announcement, but I think these are the core questions many of you will be asking. Here are some early screenshots of Shoppe Keep 2:

The development team for Shoppe Keep 2 has in fact doubled. The new team size has allowed us to focus on areas which we had lacked before in the original Shoppe keep like UI design

But it's something you can do! Jumping comes as standard in Shoppe Keep 2, perhaps the most requested thing apart from Multiplayer.... Which we also have

Yes! One of the biggest requests for Shoppe Keep was the ability to play with others online. Shoppe Keep 2 is already functioning with up to four player co op. Those of you who wish to avoid any contact with others online can of course still play the game on your own.

We have been investigating ways where players are able to opt in to sending information on the types of armour, potions and other varying items that players would sell in game. This could then affect the demand and profit of certain items, but could very well be used to shape some interesting seasonal activities.

Quite a few options for customisation are available, with more being added throughout development. Change anything from your hair or skin colour, your gender, get some sweet tats or wear odd socks.

In the original Shoppe Keep, you could equip several swords and spells from the main menu. But you were unable to equip armour or any of the items in your shoppe. In Shoppe Keep 2, if you can sell it, you can use it!

This also means that not only will you be able to swing a sword around, but you’ll be able to equip mage staffs and use a bow and arrow.

No matter the time, the shoppe can be opened and closed at any time. This will allow you to adventure into the town, complete other missions, talk to NPC’s and handle other duties that cannot be done while the shoppe is open.

The Shoppe Keep 2 map is much more expansive. While the original Shoppe Keep was contained inside a town. Shoppe Keep 2’s world changes over time based on the profit that the player makes. Nearby houses will improve and new opportunities will arise. Throughout the towns will be several vendors where you’ll be able to purchase exclusive goods to sell from your shoppe.



Separating the several towns is the wilderness… An area which contains natural resources. You can pick flowers or pick up a sword and hunt various beasts for new items to sell at the shoppe or even ingredients which can be used within crafting.

We have removed “states”. They were a bit difficult for some players to understand, so instead we have been refining how the inventory system works. To improve the way players scroll through their stock, we’ve added a hot bar which contains on the far left, You can see your equipped weapon, the repair hammer and the broom. But the slots on the right are used to slot items which you plan on selling but also furniture pieces.

So while we already have hundreds of new items available in Shoppe Keep 2. If your store specialises in a certain item type, you’ll see some benefits which will include increased profits. How will you know if your Shoppe excels in a particular item type? The Shoppe will generate a sign at the top of your shoppe to indicate which item type you favour inside the shoppe.

The shoppe can now be expanded not just in width and length, but in height too! More info on this to come soon!

The helper bot will be making a return and we’ll have a new quest system. There has been and will be a lot of work to do on Shoppe Keep 2 and if you want to join us as we develop Shoppe Keep 2, you will be able to follow us on the Steam page. Which is below:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/684580/Shoppe_Keep_2

I hope that we answered many questions, and if we didn’t, do let us know and we will do our best to respond.