Here's What Should Be Added To Schedule 1

I’ve been having an absolute blast playing Schedule 1, alongside everyone else in the world it seems, as the game rocketed past 400,000 active players on Steam this past weekend. I’ve essentially beaten the game in its current early access state with the help of some mates and a couple of long nights. We’re earning tens of thousands of dollars every day, have unlocked all the available regions, and have automated our production process to the point that we spend pretty much all day, every day, ordering materials so we can restock our shelves.

Schedule 1 is a class-A drug-dealing simulator oozing style and wit. Its excellent soundtrack, funny drug names, and even funnier interactions with customers as you get them hooked on progressively stronger, more addictive, and more bizarre drugs make for a very satisfying gameplay loop.

Schedule 1: What Will Be In The Next Updates?

Here's a look at the rough developer roadmap for Schedule 1.

For an early access game built largely by a solo developer, Schedule 1 gets so much right. However, its legacy will be decided in the coming months. Having cleared the game in around 30 hours, I’m now waiting to see how updates are handled in the months and years to come.

Solo developer Tyler has suggested that the game will likely have around a two-year early access period. That’s a pretty long time, but that’s to be expected with an indie game of this calibre.. It’s made by a very small team, with Tyler as the lead developer alongside some artists helping to piece it all together.

Even then, the developer’s Trello board hints at monthly updates and ideas for future patches. Hopefully, the game’s massive success allows Tyler to focus entirely on the project, and we don’t see too much outside pressure from a publisher or new team members that change the direction of Schedule 1. No rush, no pressure, I’m happy to wait.

Give Me More To Do And More People To Meet In Hyland Point

We already know there’s going to be a host of new drugs added in the future alongside further interactions with a rival cartel that you meet early on but never again at this point, and some new areas added to the map to make your drug-dealing empire feel bigger than ever before.

But what I’m really after are more activities that aren’t necessarily related to drug dealing. Schedule 1 has brilliant vibes and takes place in a world that, for whatever messed-up reason, considering the rampant drug addiction sweeping throughout the city, I want to spend more time in.

Schedule 1 is a simulator, not an RPG, but with just a few tweaks, it could straddle the line between the two genres brilliantly. Give the inhabitants of the city a smidge more personality, and they’ll become much more than customers.

We’ve already got Cranky Frank - who actually broke down my door this weekend and tried to rob me at knife point - but the rest of the faces in Hyland Point are otherwise fairly mundane. They don’t need elaborate backstories, but a few more pointers for roleplaying purposes could be a nice addition to a game with so much potential for such things.

And Make Each Activity Fitting Of A Drug Kingpin

I’d also love to see some more activities available in the city. You can already burn through cash in the casino all night long if you want to, but there’s nothing else to do except maybe shoot some hoops or bully the police officers. As the superstar drug kingpins we currently are in our playthrough, surely we should have some other things to do with our free time and copious amounts of cash?

There should be a bunch of different ways to customize your character and decorate your apartments. Let me kit out my cars with sick paint jobs. Let me romance my customers, or interact with the police in more complex ways, like bribing them.

Schedule 1 feels like an excellent empty canvas, and it gets me excited in a way that most other games struggle to do. Whatever the magic ingredient is, Schedule 1 has it in bundles. I’m eager to follow its development over the coming months, and will happily start all over again if there are some big updates.

I Am Bad At Video Games

I'm getting too old for this.