GAME EXTRAS: SHOPPING GAME MECHANIC
A shopping mechanic has been added to the Food Industry’s supermarket section of the game. This was added with the intention to make the game a closer reflection of reality and therefore more immersive for the player (as more interactive elements have been added to the game), heightening the impact of transportation and encouraging the player to play on.
How it works:
Initially, when the player accepts the milk quest from their co-worker, a new destination is added to the exit of the room. Now, alongside the new destination, the co-worker gives the player £25 to go to the supermarket with. This is just a random number and the co-worker does not ask for change later on (**might change**).
When the player goes to the supermarket, they can interact with many of the shelves. Some of the shelves have items the player can pick up, including sandwiches, drinks, biscuits, crisps, bread, soup, milk and apples. The cost of these items is unknown to the player but ranges between £1 and £7. The player can pick up multiple items and also duplicates.
In the supermarket cafe, there is now also an option to buy one drink. Each option costs the player £3 and this amount is subtracted from the total of £25. The player can choose whether or not to buy this drink. (If the player runs out of money before exploring this, however, they cannot buy a drink.)
When the player heads to the checkout, the cashier gives them a total for all the items they have picked up. If the total is above £25 (£22 if they buy a drink), the cashier confiscates all items (except the drink if they’ve already paid for it, and also the milk as that’s part of the quest) and the player can choose to go and get more items. Once they have paid, the items remain in the player’s inventory throughout the rest of the game.
The player can choose whether or not to return the milk to their co-worker. However picking up the milk is necessary for a woman to appear near the check-outs (as well as reaching level 4) and offer to take the player to Clam Corp, the next stage of the game. The game can be played successfully without the player doing any shopping at all, as long as they pick up milk from the fridges and reach level 4 by interacting with the NPCs the game can continue.