Hello everyone!
I'm thrilled to announce the biggest update yet for City Game Studio!
Since the Steam Daily Deal, I've been working hard to deliver an improved version of the game.
This announcement summarizes the major changes in v1.21, so for those who've been following the devlogs these past months, feel free to skip to the end for future announcements.
The Studio Director
I'll be honest, I was scared about implementing this feature. I thought: "If we automate game creation, there's nothing left, people will get bored and realize I'm a fraud".
Well, I implemented the studio director anyway, and it turned out to be the complete opposite. Where I used to find the game becoming repetitive, the studio director now automates all the tedious parts, leaving you with just the fun stuff. That is, managing your video game company. And I'm so glad you pushed me to implement this feature. It brings a new dimension to the game, and I think you'll love it.
So, the studio director manages one or several studios. You decide the game genre, platform, game engine, target audience, marketing campaigns, and many other aspects of game creation. The best part is that the studio director not only makes the games but also handles game reports and updates for the games they've produced.
Obviously, a studio director takes their cut, which can amount to millions of dollars if your game generates lots of money. But in return, you only need to focus on managing your company. That means designing your next game console, building new studios, hiring staff. All while keeping an eye on the digital store. Since studio directors appear from 1985 onwards, this gives you more freedom to do other things in City Game Studio! It's already giving me ideas for the future, especially about evolving the studio director's role, maybe allowing them to handle game ports or even remakes. But before we get there, I want you to try it out and give me your feedback!
Game Interface
Yes, City Game Studio keeps evolving, and so does its interface. v1.20.0 removed some panels and options from the game, which greatly simplified the interface. Now v1.21.0 brings back what was removed without cluttering things up. Basically, you'll find almost the same buttons, but no more. Among the most requested changes was the ability to max out game discounts with a single click. Also, knowing whether a console discount would bankrupt you.
Another change concerns the studio list. You can now control your studios directly from this list. This means you can detach all employees from a single studio without having to display it. Same goes for assigning employees or sending them on vacation. In the end, I even removed a button that nobody used and was just taking up space. Another detail, the icon on the left of the studio is blue when the studio is working on a project, and black when it's idle. I think you'll like this change too.
Bug Fixes
I've fixed tons. Like, really tons. I fixed huge bugs, like the game crashing when upgrading a company with thousands of employees. Now it's instantaneous and doesn't crash.
Another crash affected some Windows machines when launching the game for the first time, and another was due to malware that could infiltrate certain program DLLs. Just for these, I wanted to make a dedicated bug fixes section.
Another fix concerns consoles you want to use for your games. When signing an exclusivity contract, the game would give you wrong information, saying you couldn't develop games because you didn't have the console license. But actually, you couldn't develop games on certain consoles because of exclusivity contracts. It was a silly bug, but easy to fix.
There was also an annoying bug with game music. When you published a game, specific music would play to signal the publication. Well, this only worked for about 20 minutes, then the music would stop playing. So, I completely rewrote the game's jukebox to make it work all the time, and this definitely fixed other small bugs too.
There were also plenty of display bugs, with some elements going off-screen, others being unreadable, and those have been fixed too.
Translations
This will be the last point of this update. The letters Ï and ï weren't showing up in Ukrainian, and that's fixed. Now, here's the list of languages improved by the community, meaning by you:
- Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese
- Italian
- English
- Polish
- Spanish
- Simplified Chinese
- Russian
- Czech
I spent three days implementing all the fixes you made directly on GitHub. And honestly, you're amazing, the game will only be more perfect.
I know some people are asking for City Game Studio to be translated into Arabic, however the game doesn't support RTL languages (read right to left). And I don't plan to add this for now.
The Next Update
Here we are already, talking about the next update... well, time flies.
Long story short, the next update will focus on studio furnishing and consoles. I plan to add the ability to create studio templates, allowing you to copy/paste studio layouts. And for consoles, I plan to reintroduce manufacturing cost reduction based on the number of consoles sold. That's what I have planned. As for the release date, it will be at the end of Q1 2025, around March/April.
Thank you all for reading, for buying City Game Studio, for leaving reviews, and for helping make it what it is today.
If you have any comments, go ahead, I'll be happy to read them.
Have a great day
Xavier aka Binogure