New Faces, Smarter Staff & Major Gameplay Improvements

Hi everyone!

We’ve been busy polishing Bowling Alley Simulator, expanding the cast, and improving how the alley operates behind the scenes. This update introduces plenty of new faces alongside improvements to parties, shoe management, progression, navigation, audio, and overall stability.

Meet the New Faces

The alley should now feel much more lively and varied:

• Added 20 new customer appearances.
• Added four new employees: Evelyn, Kevin, Linda, and Miller.
• Added three new pro bowlers: Chad, Mary, and Theo, complete with their own uniforms.
• Added new dancing animations for the dance floor.

Smarter Shoe Management

Keeping the shoe counter organized is now much easier:

• Fixed a bug causing bowling shoes to disappear.
• Shoe cubbies can be assigned specific shoe sizes from 6 through 12.
• Employees prioritize dedicated cubbies when returning loose shoes.
• Employees will skip shoes they cannot currently store, preventing one pair from blocking the entire cleanup process.
• Improved the overall reliability of loose-shoe collection and returns.

You can still place shoes wherever you like manually - the size settings primarily guide your employees.

Better Birthday Parties

Party bookings have received a major improvement pass:

• Party lanes are now properly held for the booking and released as each bowling group uses them.
• Guests are distributed more intelligently across the lanes included in their booking.
• Guests now settle into the party room before getting back up to bowl.
• Party guests prioritize bowling before heading off for more food.
• Improved handling for guests delayed during food runs.
• Party room capacity upgrades now correctly increase the maximum party size.

Bowling and Customer Improvements

• Customers waiting at an empty ball rack now provide escalating feedback instead of becoming silently stuck.
• Improved bowling-game and pinsetter recovery in several edge cases.
• Fixed customers incorrectly complaining about bathroom messes they created while walking into the room.
• Added navigation obstacles to floor furniture, helping customers and employees move around decorated alleys more reliably.
• Fixed cooks not always preparing coffee.
• Fixed food tray positions on themed bowling seating.
• Fixed a counter placement issue.

Progression, Pricing and Inspections

• Level-ups earned after the end-of-day summary are now awarded and displayed correctly.
• Loaded saves now correctly reconcile alley rating and level progression.
• The pause menu now displays the number of unspent skill points.
• Added an auto-adjust button to the pricing menu to automatically set all items to market price.
• Health inspection fines now have a level-scaled maximum, preventing extreme fines from stacking without limit.

Saving, Stability and Audio

• Saving is now blocked while standing inside the casino to discourage save-scumming. Autosaves will retry after you leave.
• Improved the restoration of furniture contents, loose items, deliveries, hotbar items and food inventory after loading.
• Improved protection against unsupported characters causing custom signs to fail.
• Audio zones and door sounds now correctly respect their assigned volume settings.
• Updated the garbage compactor sound.
• Added further fixes and stability improvements throughout the game.

Thank you to everyone who has been playing, sharing feedback and reporting problems. Your reports continue to help us track down unusual situations and make the alley run more smoothly.

We hope you enjoy meeting the new customers, and putting your employees to work keeping all those shoes organized!