Velra Updates & Devlog

A reverse-chronological record of every major Velra update — what shipped, what changed, and what was learned along the way. Entries use version headings rather than calendar dates because the work happened in focused bursts, each one building directly on the last.

V3 — Forever + Money

V3 is the largest update to date and completes the core "forever" engine: towns 5 through 10, an infinite prestige loop, and a procedurally generated endless aisle. The six new towns — Spicewell (spice bazaar), Vineholt (vineyard estate), Dunehaven (desert oasis), Tidecove (tropical reef), Emberforge (volcanic geothermal), and Skyhaven (flagship metropolis) — each bring a distinct visual theme, fresh produce roster, and escalating gate costs that make each location feel like a meaningful milestone rather than a reskin.

V3 — Expansion Tiers (NG+)

After reaching Skyhaven, the town cycle does not end — it begins again at Tier 2. Each subsequent tier multiplies gate costs and rewards by a power of ten, preserving the growth curve that makes idle games satisfying deep into a long session. Brand Stars earned across franchises scale with the tier, so long-term players accumulate prestige currency faster the higher they climb. The tier system is designed to be structurally endless: there is no hard cap on how many times a determined player can loop.

V3 — The Infinite Aisle

A special seventh area — the Infinite Aisle — becomes available from Tier 2 onward. Unlike the fixed aisles in each town, the Infinite Aisle is procedurally generated using a seeded random number generator, producing a deterministic sequence of tiered slots that extends indefinitely. Each slot costs progressively more to unlock but contributes a compounding passive income stream, making the Infinite Aisle the primary engine for extremely late-game wealth accumulation. The seeded approach means the sequence is consistent across devices and sessions, so players comparing notes will always be on the same page.

V3 — Rewarded Ads & velra.tech Launch

V3 also introduced the optional rewarded-boost system: four video ads (Double Profit, Rush Hour, Fast Restock, Greenhouse) that players can choose to watch for a timed multiplier. None are forced or required. The full game went live on velra.tech in this phase, backed by a Vite-based multi-page client, a proper privacy and consent flow, and this very devlog.

V2 — Somewhere to Go

The V2 update answered the question every idle game has to answer eventually: once you have mastered one location, where do you go next? The answer was three new towns — Bayside (fish market), Snowpeak (cocoa lodge), and Sunport (citrus and sun) — each authored with its own produce roster, station types, and visual identity. Moving to a new town resets the run-scope economy but preserves Brand Stars and the Corporate tree, giving players a reason to prestige rather than grind indefinitely in their first mart.

V2 — Customer Types

V2 introduced three distinct customer archetypes. Regular customers behave as before. VIP customers (roughly one percent of visitors, distinguished by a sparkly appearance) pay five times the normal price and trigger a thirty-second burst of fifty percent faster customer spawning when served — rewarding attentive players who prioritise the queue. Golden customers are rare tap-adjacent events: a golden shopper appears and must be served within sixty seconds to claim a burst reward worth several minutes of income or a free product milestone. These two special types added a layer of active engagement to what had been a purely passive checkout loop.

V2 — The Research Lab

The Research Lab brought real-time research timers to Velra: spend-once research jobs running from thirty minutes to forty-eight hours that unlock unique passive benefits not available through the standard upgrade ladder. The Lab is unlocked after completing Area 3 of any location and sits on the Corporate (HQ) screen alongside the Brand tree. It provides a satisfying reason to check in periodically rather than only at the moment of franchising, smoothing out the engagement curve between prestige events.

V2 — The Corporate Tree & HQ Screen

Alongside the Research Lab, V2 shipped the full Velra Corporate HQ screen: a dedicated interface for spending Brand Stars on the Corporate tree, reviewing cross-town stats, and managing prestige-layer upgrades. The Corporate tree is divided into three branches — Staff (offline cap and stocker carry), Brand (global price multipliers and milestone thresholds), and Franchise (stars-per-franchise and golden customer frequency) — giving players a structured way to specialise their long-term build.

V1 — It Never Ends

V1 was the update that transformed Velra from a thirty-minute prototype into a structurally endless game. The core addition was the product milestone system: every time a product reaches a cumulative sales milestone the sell price permanently doubles, meaning the more you sell of anything the more each unit eventually earns. Combined with the station expansion ladder — where additional producer stations can be purchased at exponentially scaling costs — the economy gains the positive feedback loops that idle games depend on. Milestones and station expansions are the heartbeat of every Velra session, even today.

V1 — Upgrade Ladders

V1 shipped the full set of meta-upgrades: Bigger Cart (carry capacity), Fertilizer (station speed), Marketing (customer rate and concurrent shoppers), Bigger Baskets (basket size), Running Shoes (movement speed), and Till Training (checkout speed). Each upgrade scales independently and stacks multiplicatively with the others, creating a wide decision space for optimising a mart's throughput. Staff levels were also introduced here, adding per-hire improvements to stocker carry, cashier speed, and gardener aura range.

V1 — Franchise, Brand Stars & Reputation

The prestige layer landed in V1 under the name Franchise. When a player completes Area 3 of their current location they can Franchise: reset run-scope progress (money, milestones, areas, staff) in exchange for Brand Stars. Each unspent Brand Star passively grants two percent global income — a mechanic called Reputation — so accumulating stars between Corporate tree spends is itself a meaningful strategy. Franchising from different towns yields different star amounts, creating a natural reason to visit every location rather than looping the first one indefinitely.

V1 — Sim Harness & Schema

Behind the scenes, V1 also shipped the simulation harness: a headless TypeScript engine that can run thousands of simulated hours of gameplay to validate economy balance before any code ships to players. Every constant in the milestone system, upgrade ladders, and franchising formula was tuned using sim output rather than gut feel. The harness continues to underpin every subsequent balance change, and its golden test files ensure regressions in the economy are caught before they reach production.

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