Sonic
- Apr 18, 2020
- 6 min read

Main Street Tutorial

Since we're in closed early alpha, we do not have a tutorial in-game explaining how to play.

This post should help new players get the hang of the UI and learn the basics of running a successful store!

1. When you receive an invitation to our Main Street closed alpha, you will be sent a link to join. Type that link into your Browser and you should see a screen like this:

2. Give your game a moment to load in, and then you should get a screen that looks like this:

(If you do NOT get the above screen or if you stay at the "Powered By Vylocity" screen for an unreasonably long time - more than a couple of minutes - notify us in our Discord #BugReport channel about which browser it did not work in and then try opening the link a different browser.)

3. After you choose your name, you will spawn in the center of our alpha map. It will look like this:

4. Walk in any direction you choose and you will soon see various shop buildings that you can buy. Walk inside an empty shop you would like to buy and you will see various shop details at the bottom of your screen. They will look like the box at the bottom of this image:

The dialogue framed with the red rectangle shows that the shop you are in is available for purchase.

If the shop is already owned by another player, it will say something similar to the dialogue framed by the blue rectangle.

Pay attention to the amount of money it takes to purchase the store (framed by the orange rectangle in the image above) and the money you will have to pay in rent during the time you own this store (framed by the yellow rectangle).

Rent is charged every real-time 10 minutes and if you do not pay your rent regularly, you will be evicted from your store! Be sure you can afford your shop before you purchase it!

5. To buy the store, click on the "Buy Shop" icon at the top right of your screen (shown by the red box and arrow on the image below). For a first time player, we recommend starting with a shop size like the one this player is standing in:

6. Now that your shop is purchased, let's take a look at the in-game User Interface:

Starting at the top left corner of the image above, you will see the date (JAN 9). You don't need to pay attention to this much right now, but in the future we will have some interesting mechanics it works with.

Below the date, inside the blue rectangle, is your "Build Box." When you've bought a shop and chosen your shop type, this box will have a scroll down menu of all of the different shop shelves and decorations you are able to buy and place in your business!

Below the blue rectangle, inside the orange rectangle, is your "Chat Box." This will show you when other players log in and out of the game and anything that the other players type in the "Chat Entry Box."

Below the orange rectangle, inside the red rectangle, is your "Chat Entry Box." Click and type anything you'd like to say (remember, we have young players and support a friendly community so please don't say anything toxic or inappropriate). Once you press the Enter key on your keyboard, everyone on the server will be able to see the message. To deselect the "Chat Entry Box," simply click anywhere on your screen outside of the box.

To the right of the orange and red rectangles, inside the green rectangle, is your "Notifs." You will automatically get pop-ups in your "Notifs" detailing information like if you enter/exit a shop, if you buy/sell a shop shelf, if you owe/paid rent, if you buy/sell any items on your shelves, and other useful information.

To the right of the green rectangle and alongside the right side of the screen, inside the purple rectangle, are your "Main Actions." Click on the icons themselves (not the white text) to select them. You can do everything here from buying/selling shops to paying rent to managing employees to hiding the other UI boxes from the screen.

In the top right corner of the screen, inside the yellow box, you will see your "Popularity" and "Money." Keep an eye on both numbers as you progress through the game. Higher popularity means more/faster sales!

7. Now that you own a shop and understand the User Interface, let's buy our first shop shelf. The "Build Box" on the left should now have a scroll list of shelves and decorations you can place in your shop.

Shelves include stocked items that sell to raise your Money while Decorations like lamps, rugs, and chairs raise your Popularity. For new players, it is recommended to start with the cheapest or second cheapest shelves.

If you misplace a shelf or buy the wrong shelf, right click the shelf when standing next to it to sell it. You will get a portion of the money you paid to buy it back.

8. Build a couple more shelves. You will see your Popularity increase and after a few moments you will sell your first items. Items selling look like this:

To restock your items, click directly on the shelf that is missing items. If you would like to fill shelves to full in one click (instead of clicking to put each item individually on the shelf), go to your "Main Actions" and click on the "Stock Fill Mode" icon.

9. After a few restocks, your money will be growing. From here on out, you can decorate or stock your store however you'd like. Don't forget to stock your shelves when they empty and keep an eye on your Money, Population, and click your "Pay Rent" button regularly!

Keep in mind that you can decorate both inside and outside of your shop, but only specific items can be placed in each area (for example, shelves cannot be placed outside while bushes cannot be placed inside).

10. As your shop grows, you may find your items selling out faster than you can stock them! Or if you need to step away from the game for a while, you may want the shop taken care of while you're gone. By clicking on the "Hire" button in your "Main Actions," you can choose an employee to hire and offer them a wage. You can "Set Wage" to a different amount and fire the employee at any time. You can also hire multiple employees, but you can only work at one company in addition to your own.

As of right now, the main goal of the game is to have fun and hang out with the community while growing your shop to be the biggest it can be! Once you outgrow the small size shop, upgrade to one of the bigger buildings to increase your profits even more!

Find out what is most fun for you in Main Street.

Is it making money the fastest? Is it having the most money on the server? Is it buying a big shop before anyone else can? Is it having the biggest shop type on the server? Is it simply running a small scale business solo? Is it running a big business with all of your friends as employees? Is it experiencing all four of the different shop types?

Do you prefer being an employee and just helping your friends over running your own shop? Do you like running around town shouting out your hottest new deals? Or do you prefer to run around town slandering your competitors?

This is our core skeleton of the game and it can only grow bigger and more fun from here! River and I are working hard to bring you all more content, and we are excited for all of the ideas we have in store!

We hope all of you who join us for our very first application based closed alpha test love Main Street as much as we do, even though it is a currently very simple and early version of the game!

We look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions for the future!

- Sonic -

Apply for the Alpha Test (12:00 PM EST April 18th): https://forms.gle/s7DZxSxT6bJpMfrC6

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/ex56WFC

Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mainstreetgame