s&box

Welcome to the first public alpha of Business as Usual. Build a life in Millbank, find work, earn money, look after yourself and make your apartment feel like home.

World

Explore the hand-crafted Millbank neighbourhood, filled with homes, shops, workplaces and public spaces.
Experience a shared 60-minute day and night cycle with changing weather, fog and lighting.
Meet residents and customers travelling between their homes and local businesses.

Employment

Use your phone to find vacancies and start entry-level work.
Work in the supermarket by replenishing shelves, unloading deliveries, serving customers and operating checkouts.
Work in the bakery by receiving ingredients, preparing products, cooking food and completing customer orders.
Take orders, prepare drinks and serve customers at the coffee shack.
Improve your skills and take on greater responsibilities by completing useful work.
Build up earnings while working and receive your wages when the job is finished.

Player Life

Return to the same persistent character, home, money, possessions and progress when rejoining a world.
Manage Hunger and Energy by eating food and sleeping at home.
Carry and organise personal items using a visual inventory grid.
Receive your own persistent starter apartment, along with the keys and access rights for it.

Housing

Casino

Play roulette, blackjack, mechanical slots and prestige slot machines.
Play three original arcade games called The Vault, Frostline Fishing and Skybound.
Share synchronized casino tables, chips, machines and seating with other players.

Multiplayer

Play on dedicated multiplayer servers with a shared, persistent world.
Experience businesses, stock, customers, doors, casino games, time and weather that remain synchronized for everyone.

World

Millbank now includes more street furniture, lighting, crossings, dropped kerbs, gardens and environmental details.
The apartment block now has more detailed interiors, materials, furniture, windows, doors and shared spaces.
The supermarket, bakery, coffee shack, casino and clothing store interiors have received additional detail.
Shops, homes, streets and civic buildings now respond more naturally to the time of day.
Cloud edges have been softened and fog now blends more naturally into the sky.
The casino now has improved lighting, materials, carpets, uniforms and machine presentation.
The contractor yard now has more convincing machinery, materials and working lights.

Interface

The player HUD now presents your money, needs, current work, accrued wages, day and time more clearly.
The redesigned phone now includes dedicated Jobs and Home apps.
The inventory now displays native 3D previews of your items.
The HUD now shows useful reminders for opening the phone and inventory.
Checkout payment and action buttons are now larger and easier to understand.

Gameplay

Businesses now follow opening hours, closing routines and more believable staff behaviour.
Customers now move through shopping queues, doorways and local streets more reliably.
The bakery now has expanded staffing, office management, delivery, storage and production workflows.
Supermarket staff workflows, stock labels, product pictures and delivery handling have been improved.
Furniture placement is now more reliable and furniture can be rotated using the mouse wheel.

Performance

Level of detail models and distance based detail culling have been added throughout Millbank.
Static scenery has been consolidated and environmental textures have been optimized.
Staff, NPCs, appliances and distant displays now use less processing time.
Dedicated servers no longer load unnecessary visual assets and now provide clearer startup diagnostics.

World

Fixed pedestrians attempting to enter locked shops or inaccessible construction areas.
Fixed several kerb, road marking and junction alignment problems.
Fixed gaps, overlapping geometry and misplaced details around the apartment block.
Fixed street furniture, signs and lights obstructing doors, roads or parking spaces.
Fixed several exterior and civic lights failing to activate after dusk.
Fixed missing or inconsistent collision on doors, furniture and environmental props.

Multiplayer

Fixed cases where world saves or recovery data could become invalid.
Fixed reconnect issues affecting homes, money, needs, employment, inventory and furniture.
Fixed remote players being able to perform invalid or unauthorized actions.
Fixed some businesses and gameplay objects appearing in the wrong state for players who joined late.
Fixed several NPC interactions and movement states failing to synchronize correctly.
Fixed multiplayer state issues affecting casino tables, machines and seating.

Businesses

Fixed players and NPCs becoming trapped when businesses closed.
Fixed business entrances remaining locked during trading hours.
Fixed bakery staff abandoning active work during closing routines.
Fixed bakery workers losing their assigned targets or failing to reach upper shelves.
Fixed closing stock and empty trays not being returned correctly.
Fixed solo shop assistants being left without a stock worker.
Fixed customers blocking one another in doorways.
Fixed customers remaining inside the supermarket or bakery after closing.
Fixed the bakery work area light not responding to its kitchen switch.

Player Experience

Fixed Escape not consistently cancelling an action or returning to the previous screen.
Fixed the running animation not returning after leaving casino seating.
Fixed several cash, card and checkout state problems.
Fixed furniture purchases and ownership not working correctly on dedicated servers.

Alpha

Performance may vary in the busiest parts of Millbank, particularly around detailed interiors and large groups of NPCs.
Wages, prices, needs and career progression are provisional and will continue to change during playtesting.
Some menus, prompts and controller interactions still need additional polish.
Brief visual or state differences may occur while a player joins a busy dedicated server.
NPCs may occasionally hesitate or take an unusual route around crowded doorways.
Some distant scenery, lighting transitions and environmental assets remain unfinished.

Not Yet Included

Alpha Release