Old Market Simulator - Beginners Guide + FAQ

In this guide, we explore various gameplay aspects, including trading basics, seasonal strategies, event opportunities, reputation management, market expansions, and more. It’s designed to help you maximize profits, expand your market, and enhance your gaming experience.

New Player Guide

Basic Trading Mechanics

Purchasing Stands: Acquire stands from the Lumberjack to display your goods.
Ordering Goods: Place orders at the dock for next-day delivery.
Transport: Utilize the cable car for efficient goods transportation.
Pricing: Set your prices. While setting prices higher than recommended may yield more profit, it can also deter customers.
Market Status: Ensure your market is open; closed markets attract no customers.
Checkout Transactions: Engage with customers at checkout to earn coins.
Goods Management: Be mindful of goods’ decay times. Strategically rearrange products nearing decay on stands, as customers prefer to purchase the nearest goods.

Seasons and Pricing

Seasonal Goods: The price of certain goods fluctuates with the seasons, affecting their profitability.
Strategic Stocking: Buy goods at low prices during their season and sell at higher prices off-season, keeping decay time in mind.

Events

Calendar Tracking: Use the calendar in the grand bazaar to stay informed about upcoming events.
Visual Changes: Events bring visual changes to the environment.
Customer Preferences: Product demand spikes for items related to ongoing events (as indicated on the calendar).
Wholesale Prices and Taxes: Anticipate changes in wholesale prices and tax reductions during events to optimize profits.
Surprise Events: Stay prepared for unexpected events that could affect taxes and restrict the sale of certain goods.
Event-Exclusive Decorations: Some decorations and props are only available during events.

Reputation

Influencing Factors: Prices, product variety, expired goods, and market cleanliness affect your reputation.
Feedback: Customer feedback informs you about your market’s standing.
Capacity: A better reputation enhances market capacity.

Expansions

Purchasing: Obtain market expansions from the Architect in the Grand Bazaar.
Benefits: Expansions increase market space and capacity. Consider expansions like the Freezer to halt decay or the Air Order for faster transportation.
Requirements: Some expansions require previous purchases.
Costs: Expansions increase rent.

Permissions

Acquisition: Obtain permissions from the State Officer to order new products.

Retail Store

Immediate Purchases: Retail stores offer goods without the wait but at a higher cost than ordered items.

End of The Day

Daily Report: Review daily earnings, reputation changes, maintenance costs, rent, and taxes.
Bankruptcy: Negative balances for three consecutive days result in game over. Daily warnings are issued for negative balances.

Bank

Financial Aid: The bank offers leases for those in need of extra coins.

Employees

Assistance: Employees can aid in cleaning, checkout, and restocking.
Costs: Hiring employees increases maintenance expenses.

Other Tips

Waste Management: Use the fire pit to dispose of unwanted items.
Decay Prevention: Utilize freezers to keep goods fresh longer.
Pricing Strategy: Selling below wholesale price can enhance your reputation.
Maintenance: Stands and decoration increase your maintenance costs.

If you increase the capacity of the market, customers will be more tolerant of the dirt since there will be more space and less congestion, making it less noticeable. However, this also means more customers and more dirt.

If you feel like you wasted a ton of a day, just go out and back in, and it’ll reset to the very beginning as if you just slept and woke up in that same day.

If you wanna break the game like me and my friend, we don’t even have to buy brooms anymore, we have a fast food shop, and only sell whiskey because it’s the most profitable. Though, if you don’t have the money to afford enough whiskey and customers sell out quick, wine is the most profitable.

If you dedicate one of the greenhouses (16 plants) to pumpkins and watermelon (8 for pumpkins, 8 for watermelons) since the growth period for both of these plants is 3 days, you can provide the market with more than 1 crate of each per day all year around without the need of storing them in the storage.

Quick tip for fishing guys. Drop your low durability rods near the rare fish locations. They do not move or despawn which then allow you to easily relocate every fish.

Another fishing tip: When you’ve scouted the fishing grounds with fish swimming underwater, you can place a floating object like a barrel, and the object will remain visible from a distance, even after you’ve saved.

Another tip I can give is that product demand spikes for items related to ongoing events. Also, customers always tend to buy the closest item, so if you have multiple products of the same type, make sure the product that is about to expire is closer to the entrance. During surprise events, certain products can be banned from sale. Storing them in the cellar during those events might be a good idea to prevent decay.

FAQ

What can I do with the empty boxes/garbage?

You can throw them into the fire pit out front. In the full game, there will be restocking employees for empty boxes.

Can I play it with more than 2 players?

Right now, it is not possible to play with more than 2 players. We will be experimenting with this number to see if it makes sense to have more than 2 players.

Willl there be more product, licenses, and expansions?

Yes, in the full game, we will add much more content.

What is Tax? Why does it change?

Tax is collected on a daily basis with respect to your daily sales. By default, it is 10% of your daily sales. Certain events have reduced tax amounts, so if you can stock goods before an event, you can sell at a higher price during the event and also benefit from the tax advantages.