Hello scholars,
We’re happy to finally be able to release the Alpha 3 version of Academia : School Simulator. It’s been more than a year since Alpha 2 came out, so let’s recap a few of the major updates we made since then!
New Zones
Since Alpha 2, we added the Music Room, the Science Room, the Basketball Court, and many other new zones.
Reports
Kind of a boring sounding update, but this is definitely one of the most important things for a simulation game, since it helps you keep an eye on what’s going on in your school!
Research and Achievements
We added research to help you run your school better, and achievements for you to shoot for while playing the game!
Student Relationships
Students now fall in love or can be rejected, and this affects their motivation!
Accountant and Loan
Mismanaged your school? Hire an accountant and take out a loan!
Satisfaction
Our major game mechanic for Alpha 2, the satisfaction mechanic added some much needed tension to the game. If you don’t run your school well and satisfy the students, they may drop out!
Those are only some of the stuff we added since Alpha 2. Feel free to check out our old updates to see what else we’ve been up to.
To prepare for Alpha 3, we wanted to spend most of the month making sure the game was as bug-free as possible (fingers crossed!) But of course we still wanted to add a couple of new things for you all. Check out what we’ve added this month:
Rival Schools
You now have a rival school to compete with every year. Try to beat your rival school every year! The effect right now in the game is that it unlocks a couple of achievements, and sometimes your students will leave for the rival school. We will add more to this mechanic in the future.
Updated Menu UI
The Zones, Build, Objects, Logistics, Planning, and Staff Menus have been given a major overhaul. You can now scroll through the menu to look for objects, or simply type for the object you’re looking for in the search bar. We also added a “Frequent” category in the Objects menu where you can find the most commonly used objects.
New Achievements
More achievements for those that love them, and new grants to reward folks that achieve them. What’s not to like?
Racial Diversity
It’s been brought to our attention that our students don’t have much racial diversity. We’ve added new skintones to the game to address this. Note that this only affects new students, so if you have an old save you will have to wait until the start of the new year.
New Fences
We’ve improved the fences so that they no longer connect with the walls, and added some new fences for you to choose from!
Grants and Reward Balancing
We have made adjustments to the grants and rewards to make the game a little more balanced.
Higher Level Teachers only Available at Higher Ranks
We balanced the game so that you can only hire higher level teachers as you increase in rank. This is still up for balancing so let us know what you think.
Bug Fixes and updates:
- Rebalanced satisfaction increase and decrease rates
- Fixed black screen when loading other files or going back to the main menu
- Fixed black screen when loading a save file
- Fixed counseling bug when loading a dropped out student
- Fixed multiple students using the same piano
- Fixed dropouts bug when loading a save file
- Fixed basketball bug
- Fixed zone colors visual bug when loading save files
- Showed school ranking first in the year-end evaluation
- Fixed dropouts bug when loading a save file
- Added increasing fun when using the Music Room and the Science Lab
- Improved basketball-related behaviors
- Fixed achievements bug
- Added achievements-related grants
- Fixed year-end evaluation bugs
- Restricted some special characters in school name
- Updated cost for grass
- Fixed error on starting a new game
- Added Rival Schools mechanics
- Fixed water fountain offset
- Fences now don't connect with walls
- Fixed school and rival ranking bug
- Removed clicking sound when starting the game
- Added smooth step to camera focus
- Adjusted texts
- Fixed reports visual bug
- Added delivery zone details
- Added icons and changed colors for Prestige tooltip
- Added new walls and fences
- Fixed staff behavior bugs
- Improved camera behavior in windowed mode
- Added new character faces
- Fixed students getting stuck in plate counter
- Allowed removal of bushes when doors or floors are built over them
- Fixed achievements-related bugs