Sandbox mode 2.0 - Play your way!
It is now easier than ever to get a new game started your way! The new sandbox mode allows you to begin your game development journey as a small startup company, an established industry titan or somewhere in-between!
A lot of work has gone into the new and improved Sandbox mode. You have nearly two dozen options to customize your game, from starting year and funds to boosting how many games or consoles are sold. Choose if your employees get sick, become unmotivated and how fast they learn and what is unlocked for you right from the start! Tailor it to the exact challenge you want, finding the perfect balance for your play style.
New options have and continue to be added to this mode and we're always receptive to additional feedback so let us know what you think!
Game Pass!
Game Pass has been added to the game. Now starting around the year 2004, games you or your subsidiary companies have developed can be added to your game pass. You can setup a server room, name your pass, the monthly fee, select what platforms it's available on and begin building a large library of games through backwards compatibility!
Progress update!
Development is still ongoing! New features and improvements on existing gameplay features and mechanics will continue to be released over the coming weeks.
Currently, a lot of focus is going into improving the performance of the game, it's very important to us that everyone has a smooth, fun experience when playing! Along with this process, a lot of tweaks and quality of life improvements are being added as they are found or suggested.
Console development and mechanics will see improvements.
Multiplayer will also receive future updates improving it's stability, features and adding more options.
And of course, we're always monitoring feedback from players to make additional improvements to the game!
Thanks to everyone for all the support, and have a safe and happy holiday season!
Full Recent Patch Notes
BUILD 2022.11.17A / BUILD 2022.11.18A --------------------------------
- Market research: The interest of players in a Game Pass is now displayed.
- Added new filter options for the right games list (MMOs, F2Ps, retro games)
- Self-distribute games from subsidiary: Added "X" button to cancel the process.
- Games that have multiple properties are now marked like this. Example: "MMO-Sequel"
- Menu "Own consoles -> Console details": Now the backward compatible consoles are shown.
- Whether you get experience for gameplay features and engine features is now tied to difficulty.
- Performance improved.
- Sandbox
* Studio level can now be selected.
* Show optimal gameplay settings.
* Staff can learn up to skill 100.
- BALANCE: Sales of Collectors Editions reduced.
- BALANCE: Interest rate from credit increased.
- BUG: (Menu "Game Pass - Games") Sometimes the check mark was not displayed when the game is available in Game Pass.
- BUG: (Message settings) The checkbox "Enable/Disable All" could cause a crash.
- BUG: (Change Platform menu) You could add more platforms for arcade games.
- BUG: "Extended platform lifetime" option also affected arcade machines.
- BUG: "Rights Games List": NPC games you distribute were not displayed.
- BUG: "IPs of NPCs": IPs were displayed that have not been published yet.
- BUG: You could not develop a sequel, spinoff, remaster, etc. of games previously owned by a subsidiary.
BUILD 2022.11.14A --------------------------------
- Technology level 9 added.
- Sandbox: Added new options.
- Job games now also generate fans.
- Job market & employee overview: You can now see how many jobs are free.
- You can now view the sandbox settings in the options menu.
- Tooltip: (Engine features) It now shows the release date.
- BALANCE: Employees no longer quit through Crunsh as long as their motivation is above 80%.
- BALANCE:
*** From start year 1985 subgenre and subtopic is unlocked.
*** From start year 1995, platform slots are unlocked for game development.
*** From start year 2015, marketing department is unlocked.
- BUG: If you stopped developing a sequel/remaster, you could not develop one.
- BUG: (Realistic development time) The graphics studio ignored the setting.
- BUG: Graphic bug removed from desks for graphic studio.
- BUG: Critical bug removed that could cause some functions to not identify remasters, addons, successors, etc.
- BUG: If you unlocked all items in sandbox mode, a message box was still displayed that the items were unlocked.
BUILD 2022.11.10A --------------------------------
- Sandbox mode revised
- NPC consoles can now be backwards compatible.
- Production rooms can now support each other.
- Subsidiary settings: You can now have games automatically put into Game Pass.
- Right Games List: An icon is now displayed when the game is in Game Pass.
- When you publish a multiplatform game with only one platform, it now automatically becomes an exclusive game.
- When you publish a game and have Game Pass, it will ask if you want the game to be added to Game Pass.
- BUG: Fixed a bug when building rooms.
- BUG: Crash could occur if you put old games into Game Pass.
- BUG: (Order games) The value "Weeks in development" always stayed at 0.
BUILD 2022.10.19A - BUILD 2022.11.07A --------------------------------
- Game Pass is now available.
Note: Bugs can still occur and balancing can be very poor. Let me know if you notice anything.
- Console Development: You can now select which consoles your new console is backwards compatible with.
- Engine development: The version number can now be set automatically.
- Achivement for "Survival Game" added.
- You can now reserve server rooms for MMOs, F2Ps or Game Pass.
- You can now view the game settings in the options.
- IPs Transfer menu: added buttons to transfer all IPs.
- Game Development: Added buttons to automatically adjust engine features to the tech level of the platforms.
- Staff Groups: Added buttons to remove / add all staff from a grouper.
- If you increase the subscription price for MMOs, it will now affect the existing subscriptions.
- Game development: added buttons to remove platforms faster.
- Added new map: "Abandoned Bunker"
- Show messages menu: Added checkbox to select all or nothing.
- Added button to delete all messages.
- BALANCE: (Subsidiaries) Increased chance that subsidiary will develop manufacturer-exclusive games if you have more than one owned console on the market.
- PERFORMANCE: Sorting functions optimized.
- BUG: The genre "survival game" was not suitable with any other genre as a subgenre.
- BUG: The bundles of NPCs were treated as a separate IP.
- BUG: If you disabled the message "NPCs announce games", nothing was shown in the overview list for announced games either.
- BUG: Map "Bunker": There was a bug with pathfinding.
- BUG: (Room-Window) The correct number of stars for engine features were not displayed when you developed a game.
- BUG: (Market Research) Consoles of the player were not taken into account.
- BUG: NPCs did not create survival games.
- BUG: Fixed some duplicate NPC game names.
- BUG: The "Best Games of All Time" list did not work correctly.
- BUG: IPs transferred from subsidiaries were still marked "purple" and the wrong owner was displayed.
- BUG: Release date was set incorrectly when distributing an NPC game.
- BUG: Sometimes you could release budget games multiple times.
- BUG: If you bought an NPC company with which you had a publishing exclusivity contract, the contract was not terminated.
- BUG: Sound problems could occur if you placed too many machines.
- BUG: The NPC could create successors of budget games.
- BUG: Game development: "Enable/disable all features" button did not work correctly.
- BUG: Console development: "Internet capability" did not have a cost.
- BUG: In rare cases you could not publish your game.
- BUG: Game development: "Change platform" menu did not work correctly.
- BUG: If you sold a subsidiary, sometimes the game that was in development was not published.
- BUG: The option "Automatically open menu when all bugs are removed" did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Sandbox) Not all genres were unlocked.
- BUG: (Automatically buy items for rooms) Wrong costs were calculated.
- BUG: (Quality Assurance) "Game completed" window always opened when 0 bugs were reached but the game was not completed yet.
- BUG: Messages that were not visible on the screen were deleted even after the display time expired.
BUILD 2022.09.27A --------------------------------
- Sandbox mode: All available genres and topics are unlocked at game start.
- Subsidiaries can now also publish bundles & addon bundles.
- Create Addons / MMO Addons: Added search function for gameplay features.
- Auto-place now also works for "room remodel".
- BALANCE: It is now possible to develop a level 8 handheld as early as 2024.
- BALANCE: Bad games no longer become million-sellers later in the game.
- BUG: (Right Games list) Sometimes the sales figures for consoles and games were incorrect.
- BUG: More addons could be sold than the main game was sold.
- BUG: Fixed a bug in the calculation of design settings.
- BUG: Fixed an error in the topic data.
- BUG: Fixed bug in calculating game reviews related to sub-genres.
- BUG: You could add more platforms that are not unlocked during development.
- BUG: Polishing, bugfixing etc. did not finish when you canceled a commissioned game.
- BUG: In some menus (Create Addons, View Game Concepts, etc.), gameplay features were incorrectly displayed as inappropriate or appropriate.
- BUG: Create Addons / MMO Addons: "Automatically select matching gameplay features" did not work correctly.
- BUG: The job market did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Clients did not have topics unlocked at launch.