Release Notes
Polish & clarity update with new founder wizard
Overview
This update tidies up a few more rough edges from early game: clearer screens when things are locked, a biography that actually reflects your origin story, more realistic political news, easier navigation to unlock ventures, and a cleaner path to building your own game engine.
Founder Origin story
Starting a fresh run now opens a full Origin Story flow before your studio exists. You shape your founder through illustrated story chapters, not a dry stats screen.
How to start
Title screen → New Game
That opens the Origin Story Wizard.
What you do (four steps)
Run setup — Difficulty, era, stock market complexity, strict mode, and other run options (same knobs as before, now inside the wizard).
Identity — First name, last name, portrait (preset or your own upload).
Story — Five chapters of branching choices with scene art:
Childhood — Where you grew up
The Fork — The path that locks your background (e.g. university, garage hacker, retail clerk, military, artist)
Your Path — Background-specific scenes
Defining Moment — A pivotal call
The Threshold — The moment you commit to building
Confirm — Review your founder sheet: core stats, traits, political alignment, starting cash, studio name, then Begin your run.
What your choices actually do
Each choice nudges your starting founder — not just flavour:
Core stats
Traits and persona lean
Industry compass (creative vs commercial, people vs product)
Political alignment (economic + social axes)
Starting cash (story-driven seed money)
Opening biography — written from your path and shown on My Profile
You can go back through chapters, randomise a run, or close mid-wizard (you’ll get a confirm if you’ve made changes).
Where it shows up later
Founder Life → My Profile → Overview — Biography opens with your origin story, then grows with your career
Founder stats, traits, and alignment from day one reflect what you picked
Existing saves: Unaffected. Only new games use the wizard. Older saves get a sensible biography backfill where possible.
Founder biography from your origin story
Your My Profile biography now starts from the choices you made in the Origin Story wizard — background, traits, and path — then grows with your career over time.
Where to see it: Founder Life → My Profile → Overview (Biography section)
For existing saves: Older saves get a sensible backfill from your founder background if no origin story was stored.
High Roller — clearer locked screen
What changed: Before you qualify for High Roller, the locked screen is now a plain, readable layout (same vibe as Wine Cellar) instead of sitting over a busy background.
What you’ll see:
Why it’s locked
Progress bars for net worth and personal cash
A short “what awaits inside” teaser list
Where to see it: Founder Life → High Roller (when locked)
Statecraft Wire & News Patch
What changed: Headlines and governance situations that name-check your studio (e.g. “Platform Scandal”) only appear once you’re actually newsworthy, shipped games, reputation, public listing, hardware/platform work, regulatory heat, and similar.
Where to see it: Newsstand → Statecraft Wire and Political → Statecraft Wire
Early game: Generic national situations still happen; you won’t get player-centric scandal coverage before you’ve done anything worth covering.
Passion ventures — “Open Mogul Profile” buttons
What changed: Locked passion/venture screens now include a clear Open Mogul Profile button so you’re not told to go to Mogul Profile with no way to get there.
Applies to:
Wrestling Federation
Fitness Chain (Gym Chain)
Space Venture
Football Chairman
Wine Cellar
Yacht Collection
Real Estate
Where to see it: Open any of the above while locked → use Open Mogul Profile
(Car Manufacturer and Golf Club already had this pattern.)
Engine Lab replaces legacy engine builder in Operations
What changed: The old “Game engines (F-15)” block in Studio Operations is gone. Custom engines are now founded and managed only through Engine Lab.
Studio Operations card
Where: Studio → Company → Operations → Engine Lab
Not founded yet: Unlock progress (calendar year, qualifying shipped games, cash gate) and Open Engine Lab
Already founded: Status line (name, phase, version) and Manage in Engine Lab
Legacy engines (finishing out): Read-only panel if an old save still has F-15 engines in progress or completed — no new develop/market controls
Engine Lab is easier to find
Where: Games → Engine Lab — tab is always visible from early game (locked/founding state is shown on the screen itself).
New F-15 engine starts blocked
You can’t start a new legacy $50k / 52-week engine from Operations or via the old action — you’ll get a message pointing you to Games → Engine Lab once you qualify.
“Second engine R&D slot” upgrade
Hidden from the upgrade tree for new games. If an old save already owns it, in-flight legacy slot-2 engines can still finish.
Player Guide
Updated to note engine R&D lives in Engine Lab only; Operations just links there.
Existing saves: Completed legacy engines still appear in project pickers and can still earn license revenue. In-progress legacy engines keep ticking weekly.