Hi everyone!
Today is the day! After four years and nine months of hard work, I can finally and proudly announce the Full Release of Startup Company!
If you read my special devlog about how Startup Company became a thing, you can probably imagine how excited I am about this. Today is the day I'm releasing the game I've been dreaming about. Startup Company is now officially out of Early Access.
Introducing Version 1 - Packed with new stuff!
I hope you're ready for this, because this update will be much longer than you're used to. Here's what's new in Version 1...
2 New Website Types
By popular demand, you can now start the following two new website types: Dating Platform & Gaming Platform
New feature: Profile Page
A new Profile Page feature is now available for all Gaming & Dating platforms.
20 New Competitors
With the new website types, I had to add some new competitors too. I asked my colleague Mark for some help naming these new competitors. As you can see, he was surprisingly creative!
New feature: Early Retirement
Some of you really wanted to be able to retire early. I've listened and you can now find a "Retire now" button in your CEO's Retirement menu.
Employees Menu: Mass-Upgrades!
I got more requests for this feature than I could count. Now it's here, upgrade all your employees at once!
Customize the "Days per year"
In order to get a nice balance between simulating a day's work and the progression of years, I've ended up shortening a year to 50 days in Startup Company. Some of you really did not like that, so I added the option to define the length of a year through the Custom Game menu:
New feature: Sell Your Website
This feature request has been so popular that you'll even find mods adding the functionality. I'm happy to report that it's now natively in the game. Obviously websites can only be sold if you've already bought out all the investors.
In-game Achievements
As Version 1 introduces a "direct download" option, I have created an achievements menu in-game, meaning achievements are no longer limited to Steam users.
New office items!
We've now got some new cool items for your office:
- Huge Slide: What's a big headquarter without a huge slide?
- Game Console Area: Again, a sign of success. You need it.
- Large Plant & Rectangular Plant: This is the sequal to the current "plant in a vase."
- Indoor Tree: Big offices always have indoor trees for some reason. Now you can too.
- Privacy Walls: Give your employees a bit more privacy with these walls.
- Privacy Box: A box canceling all noise coming from inside it. Very modern.
- Egg Chair: Probably the most expensive chair in the world.
- Letters (A-Z): Motivate (or unmotivate) your employees with these letter-shaped objects.
All the new items except the letters can be demanded by new employees and come with various new bonuses.
Improved HR Management
Most of you have probably experienced losing a good employee, simply because you didn't accept a salary raise in time. You can now let your HR Managers handle this.
Better Production Plans
The production plans has now been moved to an independent tab of the Inventory Menu. Options to more precisely control production behavior has also been added.
Other Improvements
- Fixed components incorrectly shown as locked.
- "Game paused" shown when the time machine running.
- Slider's maximum salary too low.
- Limited Help System to one instance per website.
- Reduced organic growth.
- Introduced Jeets earlier in the game.
- Added logo selector to "new game dialog."
- Improved auto-save to save only after further progression.
- Added random name generator to "new game" dialog.
- HR manager's exhaustion is now easier to understand.
- Newly hired employees can no longer be fired right away.
- Fixed overlays causing people to get stuck on slower computers.
- Fixed bug allowing outsourcing tasks to be completed instantly.
- Purchased furniture can now be sold again.
Bugs and balancing
As with any release, there will of course be bugs and changes that need rebalancing. As always, I'll monitor the Steam discussions and apply hotfixes ASAP.
I'm also planning on releasing a few updates to address various UI/QOL issues.
What's next at Hovgaard Games?
So much! As we're now a full-blown company with the resources to explore multiple paths, our roadmap looks like this:
Localizor.com
With Localizor we're revolutionizing the way games are translated by building an intelligent and community/crowd-based platform. We'll continue to invest heavily in improving the platform.
Visit Localizor.com
The Next Game
I can't count how many times I've been asked, "Is there another game coming from Hovgaard Games?" I can finally reply with a confident "Hell yes!"
We're already busy creating the first concept art and I can't wait to show you everything. For now, I'll give you a few hints:
- It's once again a tycoon/management game.
- The camera angle is topdown/isometric and the gameplay is something we're confident you have never seen before in this genre.
- The budget for the new game is 50 times (!) bigger than it was for Startup Company.
Make sure to follow Hovgaard Games on Steam to stay updated!
Once again! I hope you enjoy Startup Company – now in it's final form ːschappyː
Thanks for reading and for your continuing support!
All the best,
Jonas and the Hovgaard Games team