Hi everyone,
I’ve had another fantastic week in terms of productivity. The number of bugs and error reports has been very low, which has allowed me to really focus on development.
The devlogs gives a sneak peek into what has been developed on the game over the past week. It is not a new release and is not available yet. New features are always released as official Beta releases.
Bad Reviews and Big Changes
Since December, Startup Company’s review score has decreased from 89% (Very Positive) to 64% (Mixed). To be honest, I don’t entirely understand the reason for this, except that the proportion of negative reviews has increased. In response to this downturn, I believe the best thing I can do is listen and make improvements. This has led to a number of changes in the game:
Auto-repeat for everyone!
Players have always disliked the first 10 minutes of the game because of the high volume of clicking that is required. Together with the “Production feature”, I’ve unlocked the Auto-Repeat function for all employees, whether they are assigned to a manager or not. Instead, the manager’s main purpose is to help assign tasks and boost productivity by adding the speed bonus. This should help get rid of a substantial portion of early-game clicks :-)
Revised vacation controls
The vacation feature is being renamed to “Send home”. You can now choose between 1 and 3 days. 3 days still guarantees that an employee’s mood will be at 100% upon their return to work, but most of the time 1 day is sufficient.
Employee Training
Yes, it’s finally here! Following a large number of requests on Conflux, I have decided to add an employee training feature:
Each employee now has a “Max Speed” or “Potential Speed”. Once you’ve trained your employee to his/her maximum speed, you’ll be able to upgrade the employee. After upgrading, a higher “Max Speed” will now be available, until the employee reaches “Expert” level. The employee’s final “Max Speed” will vary from employee to employee. Putting hours into training employees will result in higher speeds than simply hiring “Expert” level employees.
Various changes/fixes
🔵 Fixed issue that was preventing achievements being unlocked in Steam.
🔵 Added achievement sync on game startup.
🔵 Corrected various typos in English translation.
🔵 Added “Controlled by Manager” label to all production employees. Allows the player to quickly switch to the manager.
🔵 Fixed issue where employees could not quit their job if seated on another floor than the one currently selected by the player.
Wrapping up Beta 14
I believe that I have enough new content to start preparing to ship Beta 14. I’ll now start to heavily playtest the game and ensure we catch all the bugs before releasing it. Here is a list of all the new features included in Beta 14:
🔵 Shared schedules: controlled by HR Manager. Introducing days off/weekends.
🔵 Stock tracking: See how stocks change over time.
🔵 Activity Log: The player is no longer required to close notifications.
🔵 Production Feature: Managers can now control their team’s production of components/modules.
🔵 Rebalanced products: Users are now capped at approximately 2bn and revenue has been nerfed a lot.
🔵 Bigger Skyscraper: Skyscraper increased to 5 floors (120 workstation limit).
You can read more about all these features in the previous devlogs.
I still don’t have a public release date for Beta 14, but I hope to release it by early next month.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
Notice: As I'm putting hours into testing Beta 14, next devlog is postponed to next Friday, February 2nd.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. I’ll be back next Friday :-)
All the best,
Jonas