This is likely to be the final Playtest update before development moves beyond the current Playtest phase. The focus has been on improving usability, fixing issues raised by players, strengthening the tutorial and onboarding, and polishing systems that are already in place.
WHAT'S NEW
• Achievements have been completely overhauled. The new achievement system includes a much larger range of challenges, improved progress tracking and Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers for many achievements. Achievement presentation has also been redesigned with new artwork and tier visuals.
• Quick Actions have been restructured. Navigation from the Manager Desk has been reorganised to make it easier to find what you want to do, with direct action areas alongside topic-based guidance. Players can also suggest additional topics they would like to see added.
• Managed acts can now be renamed. A new Rename Act option has been added to the Act Profile, allowing you to give your managed acts a new unique name during their career.
• Single releases now have improved onboarding. Additional guidance has been added to make the process of preparing and releasing singles clearer for newer players.
• Interview Battles have been made more Playtest-friendly. The Playtest's 18-month limit made it difficult to build up enough known perfect answers for the system to develop naturally. Interview Battles have therefore been adjusted for the shorter Playtest timeframe so players have a better opportunity to learn answers and experience progression within a Playtest career.
• Independent songwriter songs are now correctly available to your acts. Songs written by individually managed musicians assigned to songwriting can now be accessed and used when preparing recording projects.
• Venue progression after loading has been fixed. A bug could cause successful acts to become restricted to smaller venues after saving and reloading, making touring income collapse despite the act's performance and reputation. Venue eligibility should now remain consistent after a game is loaded.
• Several Guided Tutorial progression issues have been fixed. This includes a touring tutorial progression problem and recovery from an incomplete musician audition, reducing the risk of the tutorial becoming stuck.
• Loading a game is clearer. Using Continue from the title screen now displays loading progress rather than appearing to pause while a save is being prepared.
• Pleccy continues to expand. Pleccy's interface has received further improvements, including a clearer close button, while its help coverage will continue growing over time. The more questions players ask, the better Pleccy can become as gaps in its guidance are identified and filled.
• Manager Hype can now use its full intended range. The previous unintended cap of 50 has been corrected to 100.
• Further localisation improvements. More translation and formatting corrections have been made following player feedback, including a substantial additional pass on the Indonesian translation and newly added text.
• Various smaller interface, presentation and stability improvements have also been made across the game.