Hello Scholars,
It’s finally graduation day! After 4 years in development and 3 years in Early Access, Academia : School Simulator is finally in version 1. Thanks so much to everyone who supported us along the way, and to our community that gave us feedback, reported bugs, and made awesome mods for the game. So what’s in store for you in Version 1.
Hardcore Mode
We like cozy games as much as anyone, but some of our players find the game TOO EASY. To satisfy those seeking a challenge, we’ve added a new difficulty mode.
BONUS: We also added these informative icons that change when you pick the settings, hopefully this makes things easier to read!
New Events
We’ve added events that will make you laugh, we’ve added one event that may make you cry. We’ve also added events where certain options are unlocked by a special principal or by other unique choices you have made at your school.
New Grants and Achievements
New Grants and Achievements will give you something to aim for in the late game.
New Scenarios
Take care of dyslexic students or build a school in a disaster area with limited space? We have 3 more scenarios to challenge you.
A Proper Tutorial
While many of our scholars are already Seniors, we know that over the years Freshmen players have been struggling with some aspects of the game. We wanted to make sure that our Freshmen have all the help they need with version 1 so we made this tutorial a priority!
Bugfixes and UI Improvements
We won’t list them here as we normally do, but rest assured that many little improvements have been made in order create a better play experience. We will continue to fix these bugs even after the launch so keep sending those reports in.
What’s Next?
As mentioned before we will be focusing on bugfixing. We may also add some more mod functionality as well as some cosmetic updates to the game (more hairstyles, etc). But our main focus will be on working on a console release for the game, as well as adding localization so even more people can enjoy the game in their native language. Beyond that, you’ll just have to wait and see.
We’ll also be announcing the winners of our Academia Challenge Coins soon!
Thanks So Much From The Squeaky Wheel Team
Core Squeaky Wheel Team, from left : JM, Neil, Marica, Marnel, Ryan, Tristan.
I know everyone says this, but we’d really like to give a heartfelt thank you to all of our players for cheering us on and helping to make the game better. The picture above is of the Squeaky Wheel core team. It was taken in October 2019 to celebrate our 4 year anniversary party, which we celebrated with a bunch of other Filipino game developers. It’s amazing to think that it’s been almost a year since we last saw each other in real life, and that we finished the game in that time.
Thanks again for coming along for the ride folks, we couldn’t have done it without you!