Hello, friends and everyone who cares about the game!
It has been more than 2 months of the development and you still have not got any updates. Actually, we feel like fixing it!
First of all, on behalf of all the devs, I want to calm everyone who cares about the game release – the development is going ahead and does not even stop on weekends, it really tires us out!
We needed to get our thoughts together and immerse ourselves in the game development at 100%; as a result, there was a delay in updates. We would not like to say one thing and do another one!
What's new? and what kind of troubles have we run up against?
Economical model
We originally planned to end the game economics and release a new build by May 15. Then the early access would be available on Steam.
Unfortunately, a completed build did not make us happy. Frankly, the game was more playable in my head than it actually was.
I think the reason for that is so that we had lots of economic formulas, indicators, and so on – something around 35 ones –, that the player needed to manage! We really were out of line, guys…it was not clear, difficult for us and the gameplay in general.
As a result, we were upset because we wanted to make the game rather than an accountant simulator… Eventually, we decided to remake the economic model of the game!
We did not want to drop any updates, news about the release dates in mid-May because we did not understand how much time we needed to remake the economic model.
Actually, we were able to make a new economic model and practically implement it in the game. We really hope it will be a good one to show you.
By the way, it is the 10th version of the economic model for over 2 years of the development!
We have done a lot of work to make a company management simulator and get rid of boring micromanagement.
We have implemented a new company update system through technology and patents. Now, if you buy a profitable company, it will not always mean you are on the right way!
Before, you buy one company then one else and so on to achieve a monopoly. As a rule, it became a boring routine after a while.
Currently, the player has got a difficult choice: buy a profitable company or a company that has a certain technology to get multi-effect after merging with your main corporation?
It allows you to obtain different strategies to achieve monopoly, is it? If you combine companies with different technologies, in the long run, you will get more profit than just buying up the most profitable companies. Sometimes it makes a sense! It definitely makes the gameplay more playable.
FPS
The next trouble is too low FPS. By implementing new game stuffs, we, devs, usually do not think about how powerful computers are needed to play a game. As a rule, devs start thinking about that at the end of development. So, many games have poor optimization.
When we saw a level of 4-8 FPS in mid-May, it took us a while to fix it. Now we have a level of 45-60 FPS on computers with average performance.
Influence agents & diplomacy
https://youtu.be/akNgCtZZFEU
They are currently clearer and simpler. However, to get them, the player need to complete a character's request (I have mentioned about them above). For example, agent 'Goon' will be knocking out debts. Meanwhile, there is a risk of being caught by the police despite of the efficiency of this method.
We are adding 3 new influence agents into the game. You are gonna find out more about that in the next update
In addition to the economic model, we have implemented – and we will be implementing – some characters' ambitions and goals. For example, the request to give a loan, eliminate opponents, look for extra resources to start up new companies, help take an office position and over.
By helping, the player gets extra loyalty to himself, which in turn allows to get more game stuff.
Plans
We are hard grinding to release the game on Steam as soon as possible so that not only backers are able to play it but also many thousands players from different countries who has Plutocracy in their wishlist.
We are really interested in it because our financial resources are not limitless. It makes some troubles for us. However, there is a positive point in it - we are making the game better and better every day!
We will announce the release day as soon as we make sure the game lives up to our expectations in 3 out of 5. We hope it will happen soon rather than in six months or a year.
We are gonna need something around 1,5 months to polish the economic model and release the EA on Steam. We hope we will no longer postpone the release date.
We are very strict with ourselves, and we will not allow the mediocre implementation of our project. Is it worth blaming us? It is up to you.
Furthermore, everyone can still participate in the game development by purchasing the alpha through the IndieGoGo page.
We want to not just release the game by pleasing to someone but also get a good reputation, guys. So, our goal is to give a good gameplay and bring something new into economic and political simulators!
Thanks to everyone who understands it and support us! It is cool that the game idea joints people from different countries! We are happy to realize that we have the international project and the team! It gives us extra motivation!
Plutocracy news
P.S. We decided to return to the "newspaper" format on the site, which was released before the alpha release last September.
It will have been being updated more than news in the blog so that you can see our progress, and how much time is left before the early access release on Steam.
We are planning to make a big update for the alpha testers soon!
Wish us good luck!