for this build i created a Customer state machine to control the behavior of my Customers, which are currently spawned when the player interacts with the cash register. 

the Customer states I have planned are QUEUE, ORDER, CHAT, WASH, DRY, FOLD.

for drop-off service, Customers will first QUEUE up at the front desk, and then transition into the ORDER state if they are interacted with while waiting in line (and are at the front of the line). for this build, the QUEUE and ORDER behaviors have placeholder logic while i build out the rest of the game loop.

next i built a Dialogue Box and Dialogue Box Controller to handle conversation with NPCs, which in this build are the innumerable customer clones. the ORDER state calls upon the Dialogue Box Controller to start a simple conversation. 

so this is my plan for the Customer state machine, in flowchart form:

i didn't spend too much time styling the dialogue box, and i think there are a lot of different directions i could take it visually. i could go for speech bubbles, with short snappy sentences, like in "Night in the Woods", or "A Short Hike", but a classic RPG style dialogue box, like the one in this build, allows for more text.

after all that Customer logic, i was able to finally move on to the washing machine, which currently just loops through a set of animations i drew in Aseprite. 

coming up next are the dryers, folding tables, and then i think i'll be able to start building the actual game loop. my plan is to build a Work Shift Controller, that will spawn customers and keep track of what i'm calling "Laundry" objects.  Laundry objects will contain data about a customer's dropped off clothing- their type, color and state of cleanliness, for instance.