Hello! This update adds Steam Workshop support, optimizes various things for lower CPU load and therefore better overall game performance, fixes various issues, and has all sorts of improvements all around.
This update in particular is a very big deal to me personally, because if it wasn't for modding, then this game wouldn't exist at all. To celebrate this milestone of 20 formal updates released in 6 months since game launch, as well as the release of this update, Game Dev Studio is 65% off for 7 days!
I would like to thank everyone that has played the game, and especially those that have been actively giving feedback on the game in all of its aspects. Thanks to your feedback, Game Dev Studio is now in the best shape it has ever been, and will continue getting better.
- added Steam Workshop support:
* the game features full modding support and has documentation of most classes and libraries at http://www.gamedevstudiogame.com
* comes with several example mods, be sure to check out the Anger Issues mod! (especially if you're a modder looking into the possibilities of modding in Game Dev Studio!)
- added a new tutorial, which is a lot more friendly to new players (the old tutorial is still there, and is now called 'Introduction', think of it as a final exam of the basics you've learned in the tutorials now)
- added an outline to objects when hovering your mouse over them
- various optimizations:
* optimized handling of walls, resulting in faster loading times and slightly better performance when in an area with a lot of walls, as well as a lower framerate hit when panning the camera
* optimized handling of floor rendering, resulting in a lower framerate hit when panning the camera very quickly
* optimized map tile structure, resulting in slightly lower memory usage, slightly shorter map loading/initialization times, marginally smaller save file sizes, and slightly faster save and load times
* optimized project task logic, which results in lower CPU load, especially when a lot of employees are working on a game or engine project
* optimized handling of main employee logic (both player and rival), resulting in lower CPU load when employees are idling without a task
* minor optimization done to employee rendering logic, resulting in lower CPU load
- reduced employee salaries by 20%:
* this applies only to new playthroughs
- a good theme-genre match will now slightly boost the review score, in addition to boosting the sales
- improved the distribution of review ratings: the better a game is, the lower the lowest possible rating a review can roll is (for example, previously a game worth a 9/10 rating could get 7/10, now the lowest score a 9/10 game can get is 8/10)
- new difficulty setting, adjustments to existing difficulties
- can now adjust the amount of pedestrians and disable them entirely, in case performance is an issue (or you just don't like things like that), the amount of pedestrians is now set to 50 by default (was 200)
- busy teams will now also be shown in a different color, and will be positioned at the bottom of the team list in the team selection combobox
- holding down "shift" will now make the camera pan twice as fast using WASD or arrow keys
- added "select best employees" button to convention booking menu
- added a new team interaction option to quickly move members from one team to another without dismantling it
- team info descbox now displays what project (if any) the team is currently working on
- improved the accuracy of line-of-sight checks, resulting in more consistent light source illumination behavior
- viewing interests in the character creation menu will now show the theme-genre combinations it contributes to
- demolition mode will automatically disable when selecting an object for placement in expansion mode now
- additional game project info will now be displayed when hovering your mouse over it in the project box (bottom left corner)
- can now adjust starting money in Freeplay
- can now choose to start out without any extra employees in Freeplay
- increased the sale boost from genre-theme matches from 5%, 15%, and 25% to 10%, 25%, and 35%, respectively
- increased the time before employees will attempt auto-scheduling an activity
- doors now let light pass (the visual light) through when opened
- increased platform popularity values of Mega platforms, since the odds are not stacked in their favor
- workplaces now have a smaller bounding box for mouse-over selection
- reduced the amount of popularity points a platform gets from rival-made games, so that the player's games have a greater impact on deciding the fate of platform manufacturers
- various russian localization fixes
- various UI tweaks
- fixed a crash that occured when unplugging headphones or turning off the audio output device (ie. soundcard) while the game is running
- fixed a crash that occured with game conventions under certain circumstances
- fixed a minor visual bug related to employees carrying coffee cups
- fixed a resolution change at certain points in the tutorial locking the UI
- fixed the tutorial arrow pointer not appearing after changing the resolution at certain points in the tutorial
- fixed manager absense efficiency penalty not being applied to employees when a team manager goes on vacation/hospital/etc.
- fixed employees not having their "away until" variable saved or loaded, resulting in being able to save & load after someone goes on vacation/etc. to have them instantly return to the office
- fixed purchasing the pPhone platform license dooming the player to max. contracts of a scale of x4 for the rest of their playthrough, even though the largest platform game project scale would be x20 (platforms that are too small in max. project scale compared to other on-market platforms are now discarded when evaluating the desired project scale)
- fixed female employees using the male drink, eat and sit&drink animations
- fixed being able to select some inter-conflicting traits under the right circumstances
- fixed weather intensity setting not being applied until the player zoomed in/out or reloaded their savefile/went back to main menu and started a new game
- fixed a bug with game sale generation which caused a negative genre-theme combo coupled with a positive genre-platform combo to eat up sales to the point where it could sell 0 copies
- fixed a popup not being created asking the player whether he'd like to assign a team to fix the issues after testing a project more than once
- fixed 'Bombastic Games' office having an incorrectly-placed main door (one of the restrooms) in the prefab (requires a new game for the fix to take effect)
- fixed player platform dev license cost not being saved (and therefore being reset after each game save load)
I would like to thank the people that have reported bugs in the Steam discussions.
If you like the game, consider leaving a positive review, every little bit helps!
Thank you for reading!