One gallery. A more eventful shift.

A notice from mall management: restoring the shelves is still in your job description. Transporting a coworker in a shopping cart came up sooner than expected. Recent development adds shared work, score competition and bounded physical mischief alongside Mallfunction’s quieter store-restoration loop.

A major step has been taken since the Corridor 0.6 journal entry. In the current 0.24.0 application, the same modular gallery opens offline for one player or in co-op. Carrying, shelf placement, cleanup, carts, the HUD and skills use shared systems. Solo shifts start directly; the older solo chapters and their saves retain their own identities.

The host makes two separate choices: work together or compete on score, and use Calm or Mischief rules. Shifts can end when all work is done, run to a timer or use free play. Configurable 2–12-player rooms, invitations, joining during play and rejoining are implemented. That setting does not establish that long twelve-person internet sessions have passed acceptance in the current version; longer, larger real-internet sessions still await acceptance.

Moving stock has grown too. Depending on the carry limit, stacks hold 4–12 products, with item selection and matching bulk transfers to shelves or carts. A shopping cart holds 24 small products; larger boxes use more space. Throwing, catching and a trajectory guide are implemented. In 0.24, a short left click into empty space keeps the product in hand: throwing requires a deliberate hold.

Under Mischief rules, pushing, staggering, brief knockdowns, helping and dragging can all become part of a shift. An empty cart can carry one knocked-down player; cargo and a passenger cannot share it. Recovery and protection against repeated knockdowns are in place. Calm rules restrict harmful player pranks, while water on the floor remains a slipping hazard. Full Chaos is not enabled yet.

Cleanup stays simple. Approach a puddle or litter and hold E to finish the job; no bucket, detergent or consumables are required. Correct, wrong and full-shelf feedback helps with placement. Nine skills and XP progression now belong to the shared experience. Co-op progression belongs to a player within the saved shift, rather than an account profile that carries across every room.

The gallery is now an enclosed modular space with a ceiling, corridor, category islands and wall campaigns. VEKTOR has S, M and large single-floor L1 layouts; AUREL has S and M. Layout choices include four small bays, one medium with two small bays, or one L1. Open stores use the VEKTOR and AUREL themes; four bays do not mean four finished store themes. Product disorder can range from zero to one hundred percent; these percentages apply to displaced stock, with cleanup jobs remaining separate. Closed bays do not add hidden stock to the workload.

Menus have also moved closer to everyday use: direct solo entry, separate co-op create/join options, dated saves, continuing and deleting a save. Saving and returning to the menu is separate from finishing the shift. Autosave updates the current shift; finishing shows the results. In co-op, the room closes if the host leaves, and the saved work can be opened again later.

The next priority is an internet test package that works without copying extra setup files, with clear connection steps. After that come a two-floor mall shell using the shared systems, actual voice chat, and one environmental mishap such as a timed power cut. Character models and further accepted store content are also planned. The current gallery is not the entire large mall; voice, power cuts and final character presentation are not playable features in this version.

This article is based on the 8 October status review for 0.24. The project is in technical pre-alpha and private testing. Self-contained Windows internet setup and longer, larger real-network sessions remain work ahead. There is no announced public release date. Current gallery and interaction captures are being prepared; the cover here is explicitly labelled archive material from an earlier development stage.