Early Access Is Coming. Here's What We've Been Working On This Week
Hey everyone,
We're getting closer to Early Access and wanted to give you a proper look at what's been happening behind the scenes.
We've been running regular development sprints focused on making ConsoleMe feel right before we put it in your hands and our latest build has some big improvements we're really happy with.
Navigation Overhaul, The Biggest Change This Sprint
This was the one that needed doing. ConsoleMe has a lot of screens, staff, projects, finance, industry, marketing, and more, and the old navigation was struggling to keep up. We had over 30 tabs squeezed into a bar along the top of the screen, three different ways to view them (grouped dropdowns, flat row, or a truncated "simple" mode), and a settings dropdown that had grown into a bit of a junk drawer. It worked, but it wasn't great.
So we rebuilt it.
What's changed:
- New sidebar navigation — All your tabs are now in a clean vertical sidebar on the left, organised into groups like Studio, Games, Finance, Market, and more. Everything is visible at a glance. No more hunting through dropdowns to find the screen you need.
- Search — There's now a search bar at the top of the sidebar. Start typing and it filters to the tab you want instantly. You can also hit `Ctrl+K` or `/` to jump straight to it.
- Pin your favourites — Right-click any tab to pin it to the top of the sidebar. If you're always checking Staff or Bank, put them front and centre.
- Collapsible — The sidebar collapses down to just icons if you want more screen space. Hover over a group to see a pop-out with the full tab names. Press `[` or `]` to toggle.
-Resizable — Drag the sidebar edge to make it wider or narrower. Your preference is remembered.
- Quick stats — Optionally show live numbers next to certain tabs (like your cash balance next to Bank, or how many staff you have next to Staff). Toggle it in Settings.
- Proper Settings screen — Theme, font, sound, save/load, and everything else now lives in a proper Settings modal instead of a cramped dropdown. Much easier to find things.
- Cleaner header — The top bar is now just: your current date, breadcrumbs, back/forward, a settings button, and the Advance Week button. That's it. No clutter.
It changes the whole feel of the game. Navigation was the number one thing testers flagged as "messy," and we think this nails it.
What Else Has Gone In Recently?
The navigation was this sprint's headline, but it builds on a stack of improvements from our recent sprints:
- Staff comparison — You can now compare up to 3 staff or applicants side by side with visual indicators showing who leads on each stat.
- Steam leaderboards — Four competitive leaderboards (Peak Cash, Best Review, Longest Run, Most Releases in a Year) with anti-cheat verification.
- Sound & music — Proper sound effects for advancing, hiring, milestones, clicks, and more. Six new music tracks. Mute and volume controls in Settings.
- Multi-decade strategy — Post-release gameplay is much deeper now. Sequels, franchises, remakes, DLC, targeted patches, content updates, and a full Analytics tab with genre trends and market insights.
- Better first-time experience — New tutorials, tooltips, runway warnings, and guided hints so your first game doesn't end in confusion. Game Over now explains why you lost and what you could have done differently
- Dashboard polish — Bold new look for the first screen you see every turn. Dark gradient background, cleaner cards, better readability.
- Scale collapse — Scale too fast and the cracks show. Coordination stress, burnout cascades, and overextension failures now create real consequences for growing without a plan.
What's Next
We've still got time before Early Access goes live, and we're not slowing down. Our upcoming sprints are focused on:
- Continued polish and bug fixes based on internal testing
- Balancing passes on economy, difficulty curves, and pacing
- More quality-of-life improvements based on tester feedback
- Final store page prep (screenshots, descriptions, trailers)
We'll share more as we get closer to launch.
Get Involved
If this sounds like your kind of game, deep systems, meaningful decisions, no hand-holding, we'd love to have you along for the ride.
- Wishlist ConsoleMe so you're notified the moment Early Access drops
- Follow us for dev updates and sprint notes
- Join the community, your feedback shapes what we build next
Early Access isn't far off. We'll see you there. ːsteamthumbsupː
The ConsoleMe team