"BIG AMBITIONS" IS NOW AVAILABLE ON STEAM EARLY ACCESS!
We're incredibly happy and equally scared to finally release Big Ambitions into Steam Early Access.
We wanted to quickly take the time to tell a little bit about our journey so far...
The development journey so far
Development officially began on May 14, 2020, exactly one month and four days after our first game "Startup Company" had been fully released. The base idea was simple: build a management/tycoon game, but with the freedom experienced in RPGs.
When developing new games there's usually a crop of titles that can provide inspiration for your design decisions. For Big Ambitions, things were a little different. There isn't really any game that mixed the genres like we wanted to. We had to start with the bones of an idea, and implement it, only to find out it wasn't quite right and we had to start over. It was a frustrating experience that slowed development.
Fortunately, as we kept going (and believing), more and more of these ideas and mechanics began to work. We were inviting pre-orders to test the game and even though the game wasn't much more than a concept, the players understood our vision.
Slowly, Big Ambitions started to gain traction. More people pre-ordered the game and suddenly we could begin to expand our small team. At our busiest, we were 6 people working full-time. Right now, we're down to 4. Hopefully, if the Early Access release goes well, we can start expanding again soon.
Roadmap - What will Early Access be like?
Big Ambitions is our dream game and we're nowhere near done! As you can see on our roadmap, we have so much more coming! The attentive eye will notice that our Early Access section on the store page mentions 8-12 months of Early Access. This is us being pessimistic and avoiding making broken promises. Truth be told, if revenue allows us to, we're targeting a similar journey to games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 and Factorio.
Our ultimate goal is to make Big Ambitions the best and most in-depth management/tycoon game out there, and this is only the beginning.
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone involved in the creation of the game so far. From development, graphics, animations, marketing, testing, and community management. For all the long hours, the frustration, the excitement, all of it. You're a bunch of rock stars, thank you!
From all of us: we hope you'll enjoy the game. Thank you so much for your support!
- Hovgaard Games
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331550/Big_Ambitions/