Beta 0.9.0

Hey fellow Startup Freaks! as promised Beta 0.9.0 is here with a bunch of improvements! Our focus with this release was mostly around employees, their skills, and training. A few other improvements and bug fixes have been made too. Here is the full list of features and fixes:

Features

• Added a new training UI. You can now train any of the employees' existing skills, not just their primary one!
• Training now requires an up-front payment as well as implicit cost of the salary spent. You can clearly see the total cost, and how long before you can expect a return on your investment.
• You can only train an employee to a maximum level of 25.
• The employee UI now displays the "direction" of happiness so it's easier to tell if an employee is getting happier or sadder.
• After an investor offer is accepted, you can now see the exact skill bonus that he/she applies to your employees. The bonus is also displayed on the shareholder UI.
• Added sound effects to the investment mini-game.
• Security features, performance features, and tests, display an area of effect during design so it's easier to tell exactly which squares are affected.
• Similarly, the market research selection circle displays an area of effect.

Bugs

• Fixed: Happiness emoji colors don't match the happiness bars in the employee UI.
• Fixed: Happiness emojis appear in front of the skill tooltip UI.
• Fixed: Investor skill bonuses don't apply to people in the current candidate pool.

What's Next

As I had mentioned in my previous post, we'll be taking longer for the next release. I really have some ambitious goals and would like add some larger features for the mid-late game with the aim of adding more depth. I really appreciate your patience and will be sure to post regular progress updates. If there are major issues hot fixes will still come out per usual.

Enjoy!