Craftlands Workshoppe is a game that doesn't force you into fighting towering monsters. Instead, you are given a shop and now have the task of turning of profit. The game is all about shop managment, and you will find yourself taking a look at your books pretty often. Before you have a completely automated shop, though, you are going to need a good footing to get started with.
Your First Few Minutes in the Game
Once you have started the game, you make a character and then are dropped off on some floating islands. It's here that you will collect a bit of mail and then head to the town hall to reopen your workshop. Once you get there, though, you will be given a choice of three different workshop permits.
- Alchemist
- Blacksmith
- Cook
To be honest, none of them are a bad choice, especially at the beginning of the game, you will also have the chance to come back at any time to buy the permit that unlocks the classes you don't choose; once you have decided which of the three trades you want to get started with, the game will prompt you to head back to your workshop for cleaning. Here you will want to go ahead and clean things up and build your workstation; by the time you're done, the in-game clock will likely show that you that it's late in the day, so head to the back of your shop and get in the bed. This will send you to 7 am the next day and restore all of your energy.
The First Few In-Game Days
The game is going to want you to go into town next. Early in the game, you will have to buy all of the ingredients for your recipes, regardless of which class you choose. You only have 15 slots in your inventory, so be sure to empty the book and letters already placed inside into the chest in your workshop. Once you have free space, head out to collect your ingredients, this shouldn't take long to do. Head straight back, so it's still early in the day, and make your first five items. You will now want to click the doors in your menu to open your workshop and advertise your item.
Customers will start pouring in, give out all five items you've made and be sure to clean up the small table if they have used it. You can click the open doors on your screen to close the workshop if the NPCs annoy you, but leaving the store open won't hurt anything. Once you've finished your first few sales, hit the bed to save the game and get to the next morning. You will be heading out again, but this time you need to get enough supplies to make 15 items. Get the same ingredients as you did the day before, just in a greater quantity.
You will run out of room in your inventory, so choose to have the last few items shipped back. It costs extra but will save you time in the long run. These items can be found in the same chest you placed the letters in for storage. Once back, go ahead and make your 15 items, open your shop, and sell them all off. This will allow you to master the recipe and trigger the cutscene where you are able to unlock the basement.
Opening Your Basement
The end goal here is to open the basement, as this will allow you to hire workers and begin to automate your workshop. You will notice that you have unlocked a few new recipes. You will want to focus on making these, as they will get you money much more quickly. You will want to repeat the process from the day before until you earn enough to reopen the basement. Make sure that you go a bit over the cost of the basement, though, so you still have money to buy product supplies.
Once you get in the basement, the game will give you a quick rundown of how workers work and how to hire them. By looking at the worker menu, you can figure out the cost of hiring the worker, their daily pay, and see their stats. I highly recommend building up a bit of money before hiring your first worker, as this will ensure that you are off to a smooth start that won't easily get interrupted. It's tempting to just rush to hire a worker, but this will likely just lead to a money shortage that causes you to be back to running the shop on your own.
Bes sure to use your accounting tools to figure out how your shops doing, so you can determine when to hire more workers and go into an even more advanced process of shopkeeping. From this point on in the game, you will also want to work towards getting the other permits, decorating your workshop, and eventually using the airship yourself. There are even ways to grow your own ingredients, which is really going to help you with turning a profit.