Hey everyone!
Well - I finished a bit faster than planned. Not because I cut planned features from the update (they were too hard). But because I did a great job and tried really hard. Thank you.
So, the new update IS ON! It's called "I AM A HUMAN."
Why that name?
It was always the plan. The game is, in part, a simulator - there's a reason SIM is in the title. So it shouldn't be just the tycoon/management part. I want to bring the game closer to the player, instead of zooming out to the classic tycoon "hand of god" scale.
People kept writing in the feedback that the player (the PM) doesn't seem to need anything - like a robot. But he's not a robot. He's a human.
And honestly, I just think it's a funny name.
From the very start, I wanted to make a tycoon where you are one of the moving parts. Just another cog, so to speak. I've played a lot of strategies, party RPGs, tycoons, sandboxes, city builders, colony sims. And everywhere I wanted to ask: where am I? Am I the colony? Am I the city? Am I a god? Am I the whole party? I wanted it like Skyrim: I am me. I'm part of what's happening, and I'm not the most important thing in it. I have a goal - and circumstances, limits, and plot twists along the way.
That's where the WASD movement and the focus on the player came from. Part of the crew, part of the ship. And now, building all this, I feel like I've landed exactly on the concept I wanted.
Okay, enough philosophizing. Here's what's new:
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING:
Everyone has eyes now. Such a tiny detail - and I love it so much. I don't even know what else to say. Just look into those eyes.
Now, by category:
1. The PM's Life
PM energy and mood. We get tired now. We can even slide into depression - just like our colleagues. And it all affects gameplay. Low energy - no sprint, active skills stop working. Good mood - we infect the team with it! Everyone gets a mood bonus. Terrible mood? Then we can't even praise anyone - it would come out insincere.
A home and an evening cycle. That's it - we no longer sleep at the office, because we have our own apartment now. And rent to pay. We come back there every day and plan our evening. Want to eat? Go for a run? Do some freelance work? Up to you. Just make sure you get enough sleep! Weekends need to be spent somehow too - productively or not. And all of it affects your starting mood and energy the next day.
Furnishing the apartment. Naturally, we start out in a grimy hole. Naturally, we have to fix the place up. Yes, there aren't many items yet. But the important thing is that they exist. And they all do something. Well... not all of them. But you'd better buy them all anyway. Not everything in games has to have a purpose.
New traits and skills. Less exciting, but added too. New starting traits, and skills you can buy during the run. Night owls and early birds - this one's for you!
We can eat, drink coffee and sit on the couch! We do need to restore energy and lift our mood somehow, right?
2. A Living Team
Employees now quit on their own. Not exactly a new feature - technically it was a bug. They were always supposed to quit (contractors never did). But while I was at it, I improved the mechanic a bit. Now a contractor's mood, burnout, or denied raises can lead to a resignation letter on your desk... but you can make a counter-offer. And keep tormenting them - just at a higher salary now.
Employee thoughts. Remember old-school tycoons? You could always check what some random visitor in your theme park was thinking. I want that too. So I've added the first lines to the game. Sometimes employees will say something. Sometimes on point, sometimes... not so much.
3. Events and Stories
14 new events. I watched how people play Project Manager SIM and realized events are the most fun part. So I added more. Now the boss might ask you to walk his dog (don't do it - have some dignity, you're a person!), or your finance bro might tip you off about a "sure thing" to invest in. And a bunch of other stuff.
8 multi-step event chains. This one's an experiment. It sounds really cool, but it's hard to know how it'll play out. An office love story across several events? Sure. A theft mystery? Why not.
Two new boss ideas. In short: Big Brother, and Boss 2.0 (what if AI isn't the enemy?).
Smelly James. I'll keep the intrigue here. But thanks to this guy -
- you can now hire Smelly James. Better not to, though. Or... should you?
4. Interface & QoL (much of it from your feedback)
Multi-select when assigning to a stage ("Assign all"), returning to the roster from an employee's card, a "seated" marker when assigning desks.
The boss's project window: a side menu for sections, and it no longer closes after taking a project - you can grab several in a row.
"!" badges on the bottom panel: unspent skill points, affordable client upgrades.
And a whole new bottom panel in general! That one I just wanted for myself. It slides around, lights up. Lovely.
Cancelling an HR search, free camera during coffee/lunch, support specialists can be hired before taking a contract, a grace period before the first support tickets, the taxi arrives earlier.
Rebalance: simplified skill tree (removed the in-between "range" tiers), prices, event chances, interests on almost every candidate.
The tutorial can now be skipped.
~20 new Steam achievements.
5. General bug fixes.
I'll only list the ones reported through the form or on Steam - I won't bore you with what I found and fixed myself:
The log lied about the trust penalty for rejecting a boss idea. Now it's correct: takes -5, says -5.
The "Squeezed Lemon" achievement wasn't unlocking. Now it does.
The "Buy your dream and retire" button didn't work. Now there's no button, ha-ha. You win at $5k on your account anyway.
Cyrillic names in the project plan for English-speaking players. That shouldn't happen anymore (I hope).
Wrong deadline in a popup: said 3 days when it was really 1. The label was lying. Fixed, and added the soft deadline there too.
A sick employee staying at work. Whew... honestly, I don't even know at this point. I've removed one more possible cause. The exact root - still not found.
Ooooooof.
That was a big update. And I'm really glad I'm shipping it on time. I don't even know what to say to wrap up.
If you've already played - start a new game, it'll be more interesting that way (old saves seem to work, but I'm not entirely sure).
I don't know what to do with the leaderboard yet - it's definitely acting weird. I'll figure it out later; didn't get to it.
And apologies in advance for the bugs. I tried to test and clean up everything, but there's just too much content now. Report them through the in-game form or here on Steam, and I'll fix everything.
Anyway - thank you so much for your activity and support! I'm glad you're enjoying the game. I have 11 positive reviews now (a couple of them are genuinely funny). Without players, there is no game!
As for me - I'm off to start planning the next update. That one will be more about the management.