Bowling Alley Simulator news & patch notes

Hi everyone!

Our latest Bowling Alley Simulator update adds new ways to expand, customize and profit from your alley. Customers can now use lockers, arcade machines generate collectible income, additional upgrades let you grow your business even further, and the Reviews app provides a clearer look at what your customers think.

Here’s everything included in the update.

Functional Lockers

Lockers are no longer just decorative furniture:

• Bowling customers can store their belongings before playing.

• Customers return to collect their belongings when they finish.

• Each customer pays a $5 locker fee.

• Locker doors now visibly open and close, complete with new sound effects.

• Fees accumulate inside the lockers and can be collected directly by the player.

• Locker usage and stored money are preserved when saving and loading.

Placing more lockers increases the number of customers who can use them at once.

Arcade Machines Now Generate Income

Your entertainment area can now provide an additional source of revenue:

• Arcade cabinets, claw machines and air hockey tables collect money whenever customers play.

• Each play adds $3 to the machine’s cash box.

• Walk up to a machine to collect its accumulated earnings.

• Stored arcade income is preserved across saves.

• Picking up or selling a machine automatically pays out any money remaining inside it.

We’ve also improved customer behavior around entertainment stations and fixed prize spawning on claw machines.

Expand to 16 Bowling Lanes

Two new bowling-lane upgrades are now available:

• Lane Upgrade 5 unlocks at Level 7.

• Lane Upgrade 6 unlocks at Level 8.

• Together, these upgrades allow your alley to expand to a total of 16 lanes.

Party Room Upgrade 2

The party room can now be expanded even further:

• A second party-room upgrade unlocks at Level 7.

• The upgrade adds a dedicated two-lane bowling area to the party space.

• Party guests use the new lanes as part of their booking.

• Party flow, lane assignments and end-of-day cleanup have been improved.

More Ways to Customize

This update introduces several new furniture and decoration options:

• Added a new Round Shoe Display for organizing and presenting rental shoes.

• Added a decorative Trophy for celebrating your alley’s success. (Delivered upon completing every in-game achievement)

• Added Neon paint for creating bright, glowing walls and trims.

• Added four new carpet designs:

  • 80s Carpet

  • Aero Carpet

  • Alien Carpet

  • Medieval Carpet

• Added a default bowling-lane floor option.

• Retro and Cosmic lane furniture can now be painted.

• Cosmic furniture now supports improved color layers for more detailed customization.

• Improved neon, LED, color-map and material rendering throughout the alley.

A More Useful Reviews App

Customer feedback is now divided into six categories:

• Cleanliness

• Staff

• Prices

• Food and Drinks

• Facilities

• Fun Factor

Each category receives its own star rating based on recent customer experiences. This makes it easier to identify exactly where your business is succeeding—and where it needs attention.

Your overall rating now reflects the combined performance of these categories, while individual customer reviews continue to explain what happened during their visit.

Visual and Interaction Improvements

• Condiment dispensers now visibly appear empty when they run out.

• Fixed the positions and rotations of beef jerky, trail mix and doughnuts on food trays.

• Fixed Chad’s pro bowler shirt.

• Improved lane furniture shadows and outlines.

• Fixed the Furniture Catalog’s bestseller display.

• Improved mouse interaction in the banking interface.

• Registers can no longer be moved while the bowling alley is open.

• Improved color customization controls for lane decorations.

• Improved the appearance of several neon and themed materials.

Bugs, Stability, & Progression

A large number of improvements have also been made behind the scenes:

• Fixed a bug that caused some furniture to duplicate.

• Rebalanced the cost of lane decorations.

• Increased customer spawn rate with level progression.

• Active deliveries and delivered items now restore more reliably after loading.

• Improved persistence for limited-use stations and entertainment furniture.

• Improved hotbar, storage and furniture restoration.

• Improved customer and lane recovery after loading a save.

• Strengthened end-of-day processing so one problem cannot prevent the next day from beginning.

• Rental shoes are now protected from being lost when customers are still bowling at closing time.

• Improved cleanup of active parties, games, registers and customer transactions during day rollover.

• Improved protection against invalid or corrupted cash values.

• Added further fixes for customer movement, bowling screens, lane reservations, food service and furniture placement.

• Various other small bug fixes.

Thank you to everyone who continues to play, report issues and share feedback with us. Your reports have been especially helpful in tracking down unusual save/load and end-of-day situations.

We hope you enjoy expanding your alley, experimenting with the new customization options and collecting all that arcade cash!

Hi everyone!

We’ve been busy polishing Bowling Alley Simulator, expanding the cast, and improving how the alley operates behind the scenes. This update introduces plenty of new faces alongside improvements to parties, shoe management, progression, navigation, audio, and overall stability.

Meet the New Faces

The alley should now feel much more lively and varied:

• Added 20 new customer appearances.

• Added four new employees: Evelyn, Kevin, Linda, and Miller.

• Added three new pro bowlers: Chad, Mary, and Theo, complete with their own uniforms.

• Added new dancing animations for the dance floor.

Smarter Shoe Management

Keeping the shoe counter organized is now much easier:

• Fixed a bug causing bowling shoes to disappear.

• Shoe cubbies can be assigned specific shoe sizes from 6 through 12.

• Employees prioritize dedicated cubbies when returning loose shoes.

• Employees will skip shoes they cannot currently store, preventing one pair from blocking the entire cleanup process.

• Improved the overall reliability of loose-shoe collection and returns.

You can still place shoes wherever you like manually - the size settings primarily guide your employees.

Better Birthday Parties

Party bookings have received a major improvement pass:

• Party lanes are now properly held for the booking and released as each bowling group uses them.

• Guests are distributed more intelligently across the lanes included in their booking.

• Guests now settle into the party room before getting back up to bowl.

• Party guests prioritize bowling before heading off for more food.

• Improved handling for guests delayed during food runs.

• Party room capacity upgrades now correctly increase the maximum party size.

Bowling and Customer Improvements

• Customers waiting at an empty ball rack now provide escalating feedback instead of becoming silently stuck.

• Improved bowling-game and pinsetter recovery in several edge cases.

• Fixed customers incorrectly complaining about bathroom messes they created while walking into the room.

• Added navigation obstacles to floor furniture, helping customers and employees move around decorated alleys more reliably.

• Fixed cooks not always preparing coffee.

• Fixed food tray positions on themed bowling seating.

• Fixed a counter placement issue.

Progression, Pricing and Inspections

• Level-ups earned after the end-of-day summary are now awarded and displayed correctly.

• Loaded saves now correctly reconcile alley rating and level progression.

• The pause menu now displays the number of unspent skill points.

• Added an auto-adjust button to the pricing menu to automatically set all items to market price.

• Health inspection fines now have a level-scaled maximum, preventing extreme fines from stacking without limit.

Saving, Stability and Audio

• Saving is now blocked while standing inside the casino to discourage save-scumming. Autosaves will retry after you leave.

• Improved the restoration of furniture contents, loose items, deliveries, hotbar items and food inventory after loading.

• Improved protection against unsupported characters causing custom signs to fail.

• Audio zones and door sounds now correctly respect their assigned volume settings.

• Updated the garbage compactor sound.

• Added further fixes and stability improvements throughout the game.

Thank you to everyone who has been playing, sharing feedback and reporting problems. Your reports continue to help us track down unusual situations and make the alley run more smoothly.

We hope you enjoy meeting the new customers, and putting your employees to work keeping all those shoes organized!

Hello everyone!

We've been hard at work since our last update, and today's patch introduces one of our most requested features alongside a variety of gameplay improvements, new decorations, and quality-of-life updates.

Lane Reservations

Take control of your bowling alley with the new Lane Reservation system!

• Reserve lanes for Pro Bowlers, Party Guests, or both

• New reservation menu with rope signs

• Employees respect lane reservations when assigning groups

• Reservations are saved with your game and update front-desk availability automatically

• Fixed ghost groups blocking the front-desk queue

Arcade Improvements

We've continued polishing the arcade experience.

• Improved arcade cabinet animations, screens, and soundtrack behavior

• Added a new NPC arcade-playing animation

• Fixed the claw machine

• Updated the character animation controller

Furniture & Decorations

Give your bowling alley even more personality.

• Added BOWL, Strike, Live Laugh Bowl, and Washroom neon signs

• Added new flower, rectangle, square, and round rugs

• Mushroom Lights are now paintable

• Added placement-direction arrows to stools

• Furniture withdrawn from storage can now be placed into your hotbar and restored correctly after loading

Controls & Settings

• Added full keybinding remapping with conflict detection

• Improved keyboard and gamepad input hints

• Increased the maximum look sensitivity from 5 to 10

Employee & Customer Improvements

• Cooks now plan and claim workable orders more intelligently

• Cooks switch to stocked container stations when another runs out

• Improved order badge accuracy and idle-cook task sharing

• Fixed late reviews and checkout activity being counted toward the wrong day

• Customers now finish their game of bowling and wait for their food order even after midnight

Localization

• Added localized phone call subtitles

Bowling & Gameplay Polish

• Improved pace of bowling games, customers finish their games more quickly

• The next bowler now prepares while the previous ball is still settling

• Increased revenue progression in mid-late game; making money is now a bit easier

Thank you for all the feedback and suggestions! We're continuing to improve every part of the game and have even more features in the works. As always, let us know what you'd like to see next!

Hey everyone!

We’ve been busy improving the alley over the past few days. This update brings new claw-machine prizes, better party management, quality-of-life additions, smarter employees, and plenty of fixes across bowling, food service, saving, controls, and more.

New Claw Machine Prizes

The claw machine now awards collectible prizes you can keep!

• Bouncy Ball

• Bubble Machine

• Stuffed Bowling Pin

• Pixel Strike Plushie

New Picture Frames

Picture frames are now available, giving you another way to decorate and personalize your bowling alley!

Parties Now Reserve Bowling Lanes

Accepted party bookings now reserve the lanes they’ll need during the two hours leading up to the event.

Employee cashiers will respect these reservations, helping prevent situations where a party arrives to find every lane occupied. The front desk also displays how many lanes are currently reserved.

Food Service Improvements

• Cooks can now hold up to 3 items at a time, making them more efficient at preparing orders.

• Food left beneath a heat lamp or on a hot dog roller overnight will now become burnt and spoiled.

• Prepared food on heat lamps is properly restored when loading a save during the same day.

• Nacho cheese and topping stations now unlock alongside nachos.

• Fixed hot dogs sometimes being difficult to pick up.

• Multiple cooks will now work on different parts of an order.

• Cooks no longer prepare duplicate copies of the same order.

• Cooks avoid closed trays and recover more reliably when an order cannot be delivered.

• Ingredients and condiments are taken from the emptiest compatible station first.

• Food registers can no longer be moved while customers have active orders.

• Food waste now sits properly inside trays instead of floating above them.

• A hint is shown any time a cook has run out of a needed supply.

New Help Menu

A new Help panel is available from the pause menu. It keeps a history of the gameplay hints you’ve encountered, with the newest hints shown first.

The panel displays controls for your current input device and can be opened using:

• Keyboard: E

• Controller: X / Square

You can also open the Skills menu directly from the pause screen using Tab or the controller View button.

Skills & Progression

• The Manager’s Touch capstone now automatically clears nearby messes and resets stuck lanes.

• Player movement speed now properly benefits from the Move Speed skill.

• End-of-day XP now includes reviews and party ratings awarded while the alley is closing.

• Fixed cases where a level earned at the end of the day would not appear correctly in the summary or save.

Smarter Employees

• Cashiers tidy loose shoes more efficiently and prioritize waiting customers.

• Cashiers now face customers and shoe racks correctly during interactions.

• Maintenance employees can move directly between multiple stuck lanes.

• Employees re-check maintenance targets before working, preventing them from cleaning something the player already handled.

• Broom and mop interactions now reserve a mess while the player is cleaning it.

• Tutorial employee Mia now appears correctly in the employee management menu after being hired.

Bowling & Customer Fixes

• Pin setters now restore pins knocked down while a lane is idle.

• Fixed a pin-setter error that could occur when a game or customer was removed.

• Waiting groups are no longer immediately recalled after being asked to wait.

• Bowlers now search a wider and more accurate area for nearby seating.

• Customer queues correctly rotate with repositioned registers.

• Professional bowlers now require their exact shoe size for a flawless visit.

• Fixed customers snapping their heads after certain camera transitions.

Shops, Storage & Deliveries

• Shopping carts in the furniture, item, and lane-decoration stores are now scrollable.

• Improved controller cursor behavior around overlapping and scroll-clipped buttons.

• Mouse-wheel scrolling is more reliable across menus and lists.

• Additional vending machines can now be purchased for $1,000 after receiving the first free tutorial machine.

• Storage shelves can be placed normally inside the storage room.

• Bowling shoes now display the correct storage icon.

• Fixed oversized food trays after loading.

• Large deliveries now spawn in controlled rows instead of stacking high enough to fall onto the roof.

• Stranded delivery boxes can now be recovered.

Save & Load Fixes

• Repositioned sign boards now retain their transforms after a daily reload.

• Shoes left in the front-desk request tray are no longer lost when saving.

• Saved field of view settings are correctly reapplied after reloading.

• Improved safety when loading furniture or objects unavailable in the current build.

• Fixed several errors caused by objects being destroyed during animations or asynchronous loading.

• Improved persistence for claw-machine rewards and prepared food.

Additional Fixes & Polish

• Reduced employee wage costs.

• Fixed 0.25× slot-machine wins not being counted correctly.

• Fixed small remaining loan balances that could become impossible to repay.

• Improved the Shoe Cubbies model and materials.

• Taxis now appear with a variety of randomized advertisements.

• Improved Bubble Machine visuals and textures.

• Fixed an input bug that could cause the player to walk automatically.

• Various collision, navigation, placement, UI, and stability improvements.

Thanks for playing and for continuing to share your feedback. We’re keeping a close eye on your reports as we make the alley smoother, smarter, and more fun to run!

Update Now Live!

This update brings a large batch of new content, quality-of-life improvements, balance adjustments, and bug fixes across nearly every part of the game.

Thank you to everyone who has been reporting bugs and sharing feedback, it has helped shape this update!

New Content

• Added the Angled Shoe Shelf

• Added the Bench with Storage

• Added the Round Lounge Table

• Added Medium and Large Pictures

• The Trash Compactor is now fully functional with animations and sound effects

• The Coffee Maker can now brew coffee and includes new visuals, sounds, and a cup stand

• Added operating sounds to the Hot Dog Roller

• Added descriptions to bowling balls, shoes, lane themes, and decorative pins

Quality of Life

• Added separate Horizontal and Vertical invert-look settings

• Added a hint explaining that you can carry up to three small items

• Furniture boxes can now be saved directly to the hotbar while placing them

• Hovering over a furniture box now shows its contents

• Prices can now be entered directly through the Management PC

• Debit terminals now support decimals, backspace, and clear controls

• "Quit" has been replaced with "Save & Quit"

• Autosaves now display their day and time

• Closing the game from the desktop now creates an autosave

Balance & Economy

• Employees perform routine actions faster

• Food now spoils 30% more slowly

• Customer traffic and food demand increase more gradually during the first week

• Food lines begin with a smaller capacity and expand over time

• Customers generally arrive happier, making tips easier to earn

• Large condiment combinations are less common

• Extremely cheap or expensive pricing can now generate positive or negative reviews

• Overpricing has a much smaller effect on customer traffic

• Income now scales with progression, reaching up to +50% at Level 7

• Parties now provide a $20 booking fee per guest

• Pro bowlers are now more accurate

Unlock Progression

• Forest lane themes unlock at Level 4

• Medieval lane themes unlock at Level 5

• Cosmic lane themes unlock at Level 6

• Premium pin designs are now spread across later levels

• Shops now refresh newly unlocked items without requiring a reload

Staff & Customer Fixes

• Fixed cooks failing to collect food from high shelves and freezers

• Fixed cooks consuming stock for cancelled orders

• Cooks now report missing food, appliances, containers, and condiments

• Improved cook navigation around kitchen equipment and freezer doors

• Cooks no longer wait in cashier positions

• Fixed cashiers incorrectly treating high-shelf stock as unreachable

• Customers can leave long food lines when it's their turn to bowl

• Fixed customers visiting the bathroom during their bowling turn

• Party guests now use available lanes sooner

• Standing party guests can bowl when all seats are occupied

• Fixed party groups attempting to claim the same lane

• The tutorial party call can no longer expire

• Fixed customers becoming stranded after closing or on sidewalks

• Fixed "ghost" customers appearing after loading

• Fixed customers breaking when furniture they were sitting on was removed

Bowling Fixes

• Fixed NPCs attempting to bowl on jammed lanes

• Fixed bowling balls teleporting when the ball return activated

• Fixed customers failing to return rental shoes after loading

• Rental shoes now return in the correct size

• Shoes are refunded if checkout is interrupted by closing time

• Fixed duplicate reviews from pro bowlers

• Corrected multiple bowling lane rendering and scene issues

Items, Furniture & Saving

• Fixed issues affecting snack shelves, heating lamps, coffee cups, juice boxes, and several food items

• Empty coffee cup stands can now be discarded and replaced

• Fixed removed items remaining registered inside containers

• Shelf items no longer fall when your hands or held box are full

• Food now resumes spoiling correctly after leaving refrigeration

• Fixed food disappearing from furniture and trays after loading

• Loose objects now wait for furniture to load before being restored

• Fixed older furniture names causing placed furniture to disappear

• Furniture that temporarily fails to load is preserved for another recovery attempt

• Fixed saves erasing furniture while it was still loading

• Delivery boxes that fall through the world now return to the delivery area

• Dropped items are less likely to fall through floors and walls

• The Large Workbench now correctly blocks customer navigation

• The one-time Vending Machine can no longer be permanently discarded

• Fixed garbage bin restrictions and outdoor dumpster behavior

Interface, Audio & Stability

• Fixed the pause menu interfering with registers and PCs

• Fixed debit payments becoming stuck when started from another camera view

• Health inspection reports now wait for other menus to close

• Improved the new game form on ultrawide displays

• Fixed excessive signature scribbling causing UI errors

• Fixed errors when removing a slot machine during a spin

• Fixed dispenser information showing details from the previous station

• Improved overlapping positional audio

• Fixed checkout errors that could occur at closing time

• Improved the end-of-day unlock display

• Reduced duplicate and lingering tutorial hints

Thank you again to everyone who has been playing, reporting bugs, and sharing feedback. Your support helps us improve the game with every update, and we're excited to keep bringing you even more content!

Bowling Alley Simulator is now available on PC, Mac, and SteamOS! 🎳 Purchase it here: Checkout our new trailer: We're really excited to have finally release this the game for all of you to enjoy and we look forward to continued suggestions and bug reports! ✨ Thank you again, Moose and Forever