I’ve been in grocery/retail for 30+ years, and the actual job isn’t the numbers—it’s the human chaos layered on top of them.
On paper it’s: hit sales, manage labor, control inventory.
In reality it’s things like:
two employees not getting along mid-shift
someone working slower because they’re sick but won’t leave
someone else leaving early for a family emergency
corporate shipping 3 pallets of product you didn’t order
equipment issues forcing you to reallocate labor
I’ve been building a simulation around this, but I’m running into a design question:
How do you make these kinds of “soft problems” (people, interruptions, bad decisions) feel playable and fun, instead of just frustrating RNG?
Right now they function as event-driven modifiers on KPIs (labor efficiency, customer service, etc.), but I’m trying to avoid it feeling like random punishment.
Curious how others have approached:
modeling human factors in sims
giving players agency over unpredictable events
balancing realism vs fun when the real system is inherently messy
Would love thoughts from anyone who’s tackled something similar.