Hi everyone! As you can read more in the previous post due to my financial situation and lack of time further development of DevLife is currently on hold. But today I have a small update for you! Thanks to the hard work of @TennelZW from our Discord server the game has been fully translated into Simplified Chinese! Alongside it, our store page has also been localized and this language was added to the supported languages ;) To celebrate this update, the game will be available for -50% off for the next week!
If you find any mistakes or overlooks in the localization, you can leave them on the appropriate channel at our Discord server ;) Once again big thanks to @TennelZW for making this update possible!

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added full Simplified Chinese localization

[ 2024-06-03 17:00:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Spring is just around the corner and that means a seasonal sale is starting here on Steam! You can get DevLife -65% off during it! I want to use this occasion to give you an update on the full release of the game. But unfortunately, the news I bring is not a good one...

What's Going On?

As you've probably heard, if you are at least somewhat interested in gamedev, this and the previous year have been really hard on the industry. The layoffs didn't miss me and currently, I don't have any full-time job. That means I need to focus on pursuing things that will help me get a new position or have more potential for generating meaningful income. And let's be real here, DevLife isn't that.
For that reason, I haven't really made any progress toward preparing the full release of this game and decided to put a hold on it until my financial situation stabilizes a bit. That doesn't mean I'm abandoning the project though. I still very much want to bring it to the point I envisioned it all those years ago. But it requires time and effort that I just simply cannot spend right now. I hope you can understand that.

Plans for the Full Release

To not leave you with nothing I'll briefly go over what I've already prepared as my plans for the full release. The most crucial and demanding thing that I want to add to the game is the relationship system between the characters. It will allow you to create those relationships when the game starts, make new ones during the life of your character, and trigger many new Interactive Events. The whole thing is still in very early stages of planning and designing but here you can see the UI concept for the family tree. During character creation, you will be able to edit all of the characters present in it and, during gameplay, see how your relationships develop over time.
Besides that, I plan to make one more map, I don't yet know at what stage of the game it will be positioned but the initial idea is to have a river flow through it in the middle to strongly differentiate it from the other maps.

Final Words

I hope that despite this somewhat bad news you will still follow the game and look forward to the full release. As soon as I'll have anything new to announce I'll for sure let you know here or on our Discord server ;) Stay safe! Roman

[ 2024-03-14 17:01:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Due to finding some quite crucial problems with the new update here is a hotfix to address them. If you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server. Until the next time! Roman

Changelog:

Game Balance:

• Drastically increased the chances of appearance for the buy new location company goals when the player has enough money to buy the next location in the progression

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed not updating components unlock state and level after firing employees
• Fixed the decisions panel being not interactable after going to the pause menu
• Fixed saving of the message about unlocking new furniture
• Fixed problems with loading employees in inadequate employee salary message tooltips
• Fixed the close button on employee trait change notification not closing it

[ 2024-01-10 17:00:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! With a huge delay, but it's finally here - a fresh update for DevLife including the new map, Interactive Events about music and random life situations, and a new decision system! Alongside it comes the biggest discount to date -65% as part of Steam's Capitalism and Economy Fest 2024!
I already went over the details in another post and of course, you can test them for yourselves. Just one important note: due to changes in the locations' balance, saves from the previous game versions are incompatible with the new version. As always the full changelog for this update is available below. If you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server. Until the next time! Roman

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added new map: Bay Office
• Added decision system
• Added Interactive Events connected with the new map
• Added Interactive Events connected with music (learning instruments and going to concerts)
• Added Interactive Events about random life situations
• Added new water system
• Added highlight for hovered furniture in the Build Mode
• Added tooltips for furniture placed in locations
• Added employees salary renegotiation tooltip
• Added unlocked skills tooltips in the employee stats tooltip
• Added hover states for all interactable UI elements that lacked them previously
• Added lights for windows during night in the location currently owned by the player

Game Balance:

• Rebalanced location progression, prices, bills, and maximum number of available employees
• Increased chances for a random Interactive Event start the more time has passed since the last successful activation
• Increased chances of getting no furniture additional decorations

Corrections / Improvements:

• Changed all tooltips to have fixed positions
• Changed the way the community language tooltip works (now it will appear on the dropdown options)
• Changed window light color in the Family House location to match other locations
• Improved accuracy of selecting already placed furniture in the Build Mode
• Blocked showing Environment Settings window during Interactive Tutorial without canceling it
• Disabled collisions for snow particles

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed problems with loading active simulated Interactive Events
• Fixed not working commissions search filters toggling
• Fixed not working collisions after loading the game and not unpausing it
• Fixed camera going back to previously owned location after selling it and going back to Family House
• Fixed loading water quality settings not working properly (they were loaded from textures quality selector)
• Fixed trees wind animation
• Fixed missing blur in the Environment Settings window
• Fixed showing snow overlay during loading when starting a new game
• Fixed corner kitchen worktops that sometimes were unplaceable
• Fixed not unlocking some furniture present in the default location furniture after buying it
• Fixed loading wrong player's character salary value in the Company Manager window after clicking on it and not editing its value in the input field for the first time
• Fixed not hiding location trackers in cinematic camera mode
• Fixed location trackers sometimes not rendering correctly
• Fixed disabling some of the window night lights after fading buildings when they should not be disabled
• Fixed missing materials on some of the Halloween decorations
• Fixed the possibility of entering skills and components names in search panels during the Interactive Tutorial
• Fixed exceptions when exiting to the Main Menu when there was no workstation placed in the location
• Fixed not showing notification about the possibility of creating a company after having met the money requirement but not the one about learning at least three skills and learning the final required skill

[ 2024-01-08 17:00:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! I'm happy to announce that DevLife will be a part of the Capitalism and Economy Fest that starts in just two days on Steam, with the biggest discount to date!
As promised the new update focused on music and random life situations will be released on the same day, that is 8th of January 2024 at 18:00 CET. An hour later when the event itself starts I'll be streaming the game on Steam so make sure to tune in and see me showcasing some of the new things coming with the new update. I hope to see you there! Roman

[ 2024-01-06 09:30:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! It's time for me to shed some light on the next update coming to DevLife! But before we do that, I want to remind you that the game is available for -60% off during Steam's Summer Sale! It's our biggest discount yet, so it's a great time to purchase it in case you are still undecided!
Unfortunately, as you can see, the plan for releasing it in the first half of 2023 didn't work out, mostly due to the lack of free time and other responsibilities that required my attention. So once again, the full release will be postponed until the next year with a plan to release the next update when it's finished somewhere this year. But enough of the bad news! It's time to talk about the new features coming to DevLife in the next update. There are three main things that I want to focus on: the decision system, Interactive Events about music, and the new map. So let's maybe start with that!

New Map

As you can see in the screenshots below, the map is coming together very nicely, and a lot of it is already mostly finished. This new location, situated at the beautiful ocean shore, will become the second location in the game progression, offering the option to hire employees as your family house won't be able to accommodate them anymore.

[previewyoutube=jHvoRSeXtRk;full][/previewyoutube] Making a location near the ocean required us to rework how the water looks in the game, and I hope you will like the new effect that we've managed to achieve! Of course, a new location means new, dedicated Interactive Events that will take place exclusively in it. I hope you will like them as we plan to make them quite impactful, literally influencing how the map looks. It will be quite a challenge to achieve it, but I think the final effect will be worth it!

Decision System

To give you more agency over the life of your characters, I've decided to implement a new decision system that will allow you to start certain Interactive Events and not depend entirely on RNG and what the game presents to you. Most of them are repeatable within given cooldowns, and some have additional conditions for their start and appearance. You can see all of the available decisions in the new, dedicated panel shown below. Of course, it's still a work in progress, but you can get an idea of how it will look in the final version.

Music Interactive Events

The focus of this update in terms of content is mostly on the music. There are two main branches of it: learning instruments and going to concerts. We plan to add six different instruments that you can choose to learn and eight music genres that can become your favorites. For now, the impact of these new events on gameplay won't be very spectacular, but it will allow for some more roleplay and lay the foundation for the full release of the game, where they will become far more important with the relationships system. But that's a story for another time.
For now, I would like to remind you once again that, during the Summer Sale, DevLife is available for -60% off and that, as always, you can join our Discord server if you find any bugs or have feedback about the game or the new features that we plan to add to it! Thank you for your time, and remember to stay hydrated! Roman and Roman Studio Team

[ 2023-07-05 16:00:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! A bit delayed but it's finally here - a new update for DevLife featuring Interactive Events simulation for employees!
From now on, characters in your game will live their own stories and adventures that will influence who they are. Or in more technical terms, most of the existing and also future Interactive Events will be simulated for your employees and allow them to change traits during the course of the game. Due to various changes in the Interactive Events structure there might be some unhandled compatibility issues with saves made on previous versions of the game. In case they occur feel free to contact us at our Discord server to get help with fixing your save in case you want to continue playing on it. To emphasize this change we've added new Interactive Events that will trigger randomly and change yours or your employee's traits. On top of that, we've also prepared audio cues for Interactive Events that will help you distinguish more easily between them and provide you with a basic idea of what the event is about.
Lastly, we introduced new tooltips, commission filters in the Commission Manager, and new notifications amongst other things. We also fixed some bugs and as always, you can read the full changelog below. If you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at the previously mentioned Discord server. We also made the decision to suspend usage of our bug reports website so from now on, please contact us here or on Discord ;) Until the next time! Roman Studio

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added Interactive Events simulation for employees
• Added audio cues for Interactive Events
• Added new Interactive Events for random traits changes
• Added tooltips for furniture
• Added sorting and filters for commissions in the Commissions Manager
• Added new notifications about employee trait changes
• Added notifications about new employee mood modifiers

Game Balance:

• Added gaining Adventurous trait after going on a tourist space flight
• Fixed chances for employee death in Venomous Spider/Scorpion Interactive Events depending on the employee's age
• Fixed the wrong amount of earned money and max energy taken by some Additional Job traits
• Fixed too high condolences money after an employee dies due to COVID-19

Corrections / Improvements:

• Link tooltips will now be spawned at the mouse position
• Improved constraining tooltips position inside of the screen
• Improved focusing on commissions in lists when showing their details
• Unified employee salary renegotiation buttons icons in the Employees Manager
• Added COVID variants of Pet Death Interactive Events for employees
• Added missing tooltip in messages window Welcome Screen
• Added more detailed description for Additional Job traits
• Added closing dropdown menus after clicking outside of them
• Added some missing Polish translations
• Minor fixes and improvements in Interactive Events descriptions

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed bugs with missing workstations that prevented from loading the game
• Fixed bugs with not working Permanent Notifications
• Fixed exceptions when hiding the Furniture Info panel in the Build Mode
• Fixed exceptions when firing employees
• Fixed the possibility for endless In Grief trait in Save The Fish Interactive Event
• Fixed the possibility of gaining excluding traits in some Interactive Events
• Fixed the possibility of having multiple Additional Jobs at the same time
• Fixed bug with starting multiple instances of Employee Motivation Program when an old game save was loaded and saved two or more times before the event had a chance to show up
• Fixed not ending the Last Adventure Interactive Event after your character was healed
• Fixed not removing the Off Work trait in some outcomes of the Runaway Pet Interactive Event
• Fixed not gaining Spacewar achievement in one of the outcomes of the Visit in Museum Interactive Event
• Fixed missing tooltips on choices after cleaning in PetDestroyedRoom Interactive Event
• Fixed scroll with the mouse wheel on Messages List in the Messages Window
• Fixed horizontal scroll views scrolling direction when using the mouse wheel
• Various fixes for tooltip positioning and blinking

[ 2023-04-23 15:00:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! As promised on our Discord, today we released a small hotfix for not working drag and drop for components and skills. Additionally, because one of the features planned for the next big update - contextual notifications about changes in money and fans, was already done we decided to push it now instead of waiting a few more months ;) As always, if you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at the previously mentioned Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;)

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added contextual notifications about accounts balance and the number of fans changes for the character and company

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that prevented components from being assigned to commissions via drag and drop
• Fixed a bug that allowed assigning locked components to commercial projects

[ 2023-01-05 17:00:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! First of all, happy holidays, and everything best for the new year! We hope you had a fantastic time and that 2023 will be even better than the previous year! Today we'll walk you through a new roadmap for DevLife guiding us toward the full release in the next year. But before we start just a small reminder that the Christmas event is currently available in the game until the 5th of January, enabling environment decorations and achievements to unlock! The game is also -50% off during Steam's Winter Sale!
As you can see in the graphic above we decided to chop previously planned update into two separate ones. There are two reasons behind this decision. Unfortunately, the new map development wasn't going according to plans due to our artist not having time to work on it. But fear not, recently we had some progress in that matter, and below you can see new, work-in-progress screenshots of the map.


Additionally, after starting to plan out the implementation of the Interactive Events simulation system, it turned out that it might require more work than previously anticipated to be done correctly. That's why we don't want to add new, themed Interactive Events. Instead, we will focus on ensuring that after this update, your employees will become more dynamic and change their personalities during gameplay and that you don't have to wait for it for who knows how long. On top of that, we want to add some new quality-of-life features such as even more informative tooltips, sorting available commissions, or changes in quick notifications so you don't get spammed with it, especially during the later stages of the game. One last small, but hopefully fun thing is audio cues for Interactive Events. You can expect all of that near the end of the first quarter of 2023.
As for the further updates, I won't go into detail about them in this post as the time for it will come after the next one is released. Once again we wish you all the best for the new year and we hope you will get to enjoy the full release of DevLife! :D If you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;) See you next year! Roman Studio team.

[ 2022-12-27 17:00:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We hope you all are staying healthy because from now on your characters and employees in DevLife won't! With this new update, we are introducing 6 different health conditions, both contagious and serious - deadly even, but also those we need to deal with on a regular basis. It will be up to you how you handle the situation and how it will affect your company and more importantly: your life.
Aside from that, we are also introducing a new mechanic - employee motivation program. After reaching certain company sizes your employees will demand you share some of the profits with them. Once again is up to you to decide if and how much you are willing to share. But remember, some might not like your decisions, especially if they are more greedy!
This update also introduces a lot of performance tweaks and optimizations as well as new, more informative tooltips. They will allow you to manage your employees better and reduce lags between opening game windows, thanks to the usage of object pooling. Of course, we also fixed a lot of bugs and made some improvements to the game balance. As always you can check out the full changelog below. If you find any new problems or have suggestions about the game, feel free to leave them here, at our Discord server, or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;) Stay healthy! Roman Studio team.

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added Interactive Events with illnesses
• Added employee motivation program mechanic
• Added additional tooltips in commission panels
• Added information in the tooltips of commissions about the number of employees who can currently work on them
• Added information about the maximum number of employees who can work on a project at the same time in the own project estimations
• Added gaining company experience for executing company actions (hiring employees, finishing commissions, finishing projects distribution)
• Added mood penalty to all of your employees after player's character death
• Extended COVID Interactive Events
• Updated the project to the new version of Unity (2021.3.12f1)

Mechanic Changes:

• Added getting extra skill points for unused trait points during character creation
• Added option to not go to the animal shelter or pet store even when player's character is an animal lover (only when has at least one pet)

Game Balance:

• Increased employee's mood penalties after their colleagues die
• Reduced the bonuses provided by the Working Conditions company upgrade by 50%
• Achievement balance improvements

Corrections / Improvements:

• Enhanced the tooltips of skills and components to include information about which employees can work on them
• Enhanced the tooltips about unlearned employee skills with a detailed list of them
• Changed tooltips in Skill Trees to have static positions instead of appearing on mouse position (sometimes it was hard to select the skill because the tooltip blocked the node)
• Standardized skills tooltips in all places in the game
• Optimized the performance of the Employees Manager
• Optimized the performance of the Commissions Search window
• Optimized the performance of the Employees Search window
• Optimized the performance of the Project Creator
• Optimized loading of character traits lists
• Removed quick notifications about finishing Interactive Tutorial first that appeared in some places and standardized them to show the accept panel to cancel it
• Improved indentation and line breaks in texts

Bugs Fixes:

• Blocked the ability to send employees on vacation from their tooltips / Employees Manager when it shouldn't be possible
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused auto closing of opened Interactive Event window
• Fixed bug with stopping working on project components when the project panel was folded
• Fixed the display of deselected components or skills in the available lists when current filters shouldn't allow it
• Fixed a bug that blocked firing employees after player's character no longer had blocked actions
• Fixed not removing certain traits after player's character death in various Interactive Events
• Fixed not working continue playing button in some death Interactive Events
• Fixed a bug with loading location prices during Global Financial Crisis Peak
• Fixed not removing Off Work trait after recovering from a broken ankle in Vacation Adventure Interactive Event
• Fixed bugs with hiring employees during Global Pandemic
• Fixed missing translations in some Interactive Events
• Fixed possible tooltip blinking after it was constrained to fit inside the screen
• Fixed transparent background in employee tooltips in Skill Trees
• Fixed bugs with line animations in the Skill Trees and Company Upgrades
• Fixed showing the icon about the wrong salary in employee tooltips in Skill Trees
• Fixed incorrect orientation of the arrow indicating the unfolding of the commission panels
• Fixed the size adjustment of the commission reward panel in the Project Creator
• Fixed wrong value displayed in character trait header when editing employees
• Fixed showing the tooltip on the Buy Location button about not having enough money to do so when it shouldn't be visible

[ 2022-11-27 11:00:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! This year Halloween comes a bit earlier to DevLife! Starting October 25th you will once again be able to access special content prepared for this holiday. New decorations, camera filter, and spooky soundtrack await you! The game is also available for -40% off during the whole week! With this small patch, we've added better support for Steam Deck (auto UI scaling and showing steam input field when entering text). So if you own this device be sure to check it out!
As for the next big update, which unfortunately got delayed, we are still working hard on it and it is mostly done. All that is left to do are graphics for Interactive Events, then localization, and then testing. I can promise you for sure that it will be released this year though that of course means that the one with the new map will be moved to 2023. But the plan for full release next year is still a go. If you want to be up-to-date with all the news and announcements for the game be sure to join our Discord server ;) You can also report any bugs there or give us feedback about the game. Happy Halloween! Roman Studio Team

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added auto UI scaling when playing on Steam Deck
• Added auto display of keyboard when playing on Steam Deck

Mechanic Changes:

• Changed the start date of the Halloween event (from now on it will be available from October 25 to November 5)

[ 2022-10-24 17:00:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! As I wrote in the announcement post for the latest update with animals, unfortunately, things got delayed and we won't be able to release the full game this year. But today, I'll walk you through the updated roadmap for 2022 and share some more details about what's coming to DevLife ;)
As you can see on the graphic above we plan to release two updates before the 1.0 version that is scheduled for some unspecified time in 2023.
The first one will contain Interactive Events with diseases and some additional optimizations in the game that I didn't have enough time to do in the previous update. I'll also add additional, more informative tooltips for commissions and components that will help you manage your employees and projects more efficiently.
Finally, there will be a new company upgrade for you to unlock that will allow you to automatically assign your employees to work on a project. That way you don't have to micromanage as much and click on many things, especially in the later stages of the game.
The second big update planned for this year is going to introduce a completely new map for the game. It will be a middle point between Family House and Desert Office and you can see the first work-in-progress draft of it!
On top of that, we are planning to add new Interactive Events about music, like going to concerts or playing an instrument, and random life situations. But I don't want to spoil what they are going to be :P Another important feature will be simulating the same Interactive Events that player gets for employees. It will allow for a more dynamic gameplay and personality changes that will affect who they are and how they perform.
Initially planned for this year the full release of the game must be unfortunately moved to 2023. It is caused primarily due to the fact that I'm also working a full-time job as a game programmer and very often don't have the energy or motivation to work even more in Unity after an 8 hours day of already doing so But I really want to bring this project to the state I envisioned for it those few years ago. It will simply just take more time. Anyway, that's all from me for now. As always if you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;) Have a great day! Roman

[ 2022-07-17 16:00:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! It's been a while. But before we start happy pride! As you can probably tell from the fact that this update, which was planned for Q1 of this year, was released in June things got delayed. So unfortunately we will have to reshape our plans for the future updates and the full release of the game. But I'll give more details about that in a separate post soon. For now, let's focus on this update! But before we start there is one more thing. DevLife is available for -50% off during the Steam Summer Sale 2022! There's never been a better time to get your hands on the game than now!
The most important feature added in this update is pets! You can now own 4 different types of animals each with its own unique Interactive Events that will tell stories of their shenanigans. You can own a dog, cat, fish, parrot, or all of them at the same time! We also introduced a new trait for your characters - Animals Lover - that will drastically increase your chance of getting a pet. So definitely add it to your characters if you want to see as many of them as possible!
Additionally, we implemented a new tooltips system that allows for nesting and provides much more flexibility for us, so expect a lot of improvements and new data in them in the coming updates. Under the hood, we optimized a lot of things that should make the game run a bit smoother and have fewer hiccups during opening/closing windows. There are still things to improve and they will roll up in the next planned smaller update with Interactive Events about diseases.
Of course, we also fixed a lot of bugs and made some improvements to the game balance and you can find the full changelog below. If you find any new problems or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;)

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added pets
• Added Interactive Events related to pets
• Added new furniture and variants for existing ones
• Added new tooltip system
• Added UI scaling option
• Added an option to continue gameplay after the natural death of the player character
• Added a game time date to the save slot description in the Main Menu
• Message about unlocking new furniture now shows all unlocked variants separated by furniture category

Mechanic Changes:

• From now on, own projects will give 20 times more experience than commissions when working on their components
• From now on, working on higher-level components will provide more experience points for the characters
• From now on, selling a piece of furniture won't set back the progress of the company goal to buy them
• The "Company Not Profitable" mood modifier is now checked quarterly (previously every 2 months)

Game Balance:

• Increased the amount of experience gained for characters when working on components
• Rebalanced furniture prices and mood modifiers, as well as the timing of unlocking them
• Reduced thresholds required for some achievements
• From now on, the death of a player character in a car accident will be treated as winning the game and will unlock the DevLife achievement
• Increased the chance for bigger project success depending on the component distance from the skill tree root
• Decreased the time of blocking the possibility to renegotiate employee salary to 1 month (previously 2 months)
• Doubled the removal speed of the "Company in Debts" employee mood modifier after getting out of debt

Corrections:

• Optimized game-saving process
• Optimized game loading process
• Optimized capturing screenshots
• Optimized outline of furniture in build mode
• Optimized memory usage of audio files
• From now on, sales graphs of own projects will refresh only when the game time is not paused.
• Moved permanent notifications related to employees to their workstation trackers
• Improved sorting of projects in the panel on the right side of the screen (projects in distribution will appear at the bottom of the list)
• From now on, search filters for available components/skills won't reset after closing the search window
• Improved order of furniture in build mode
• Changed the way of switching character stats in tooltips and panels
• Blocked the ability to activate Interactive Events when going to the Main Menu.
• Blocked the ability to add mutually exclusive traits in some Interactive Events
• Added hover highlight for reward buttons in messages for achieving company goals
• Fixed the formatting of the list of components in commission summaries
• Improved UI animations in the Build Mode
• Improved selectors animations in the Character Creator
• Fixed animations of some UI elements that were dependent on the time scaling
• Improved display of dropdowns in Settings
• Added window scrolling in Settings
• Added dropdown for changing language (instead of the horizontal selector)
• Added missing Polish translations
• Corrected some Polish translations
• Added achievement icons in higher resolution

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed the game not starting on MAC computers with Apple silicon
• Fixed bugs with loading ongoing skill learnings
• Fixed the ability to buy not unlocked furniture after loading the game with an earlier date
• Fixed not refreshing character avatars in the project and search panels after changing their appearance
• Fixed not counting automatically completed commissions towards company goals
• Fixed the incorrect counting of profitable and unprofitable own projects
• Fixed the incorrect display of a component's unlock status after creating a learning project with it
• Fixed the possibility of the Interactive Event window not appearing due to rechecking random conditions
• Fixed a bug that corrupted the game save when an employee assigned to the Interactive Event could not be found
• Fixed not adding/subtracting money/fans in some Interactive Events
• Fixed not canceling the "Company in Debts" Interactive Event when the company balance was increased by taking a loan
• Fixed a bug that allowed the same random Interactive Event to be activated multiple times when it should have been blocked after the previous activation
• Fixed not blocking some Interactive Events from reappearing too soon
• Fixed a bug that allowed employees to be continuously sick with COVID-19
• Fixed not blocking employee interactions when they were taken to the hospital due to COVID-19
• Fixed a bug that made it possible to pay the ransom twice in the Interactive Event "Hacker"
• Fixed taking money from the personal account instead of the company's account in the Interactive Event "Terrorist Attack"
• Fixed the display of a wrong employee in the "Employee Mood Improvement" Interactive Event
• Fixed the display of a wrong employee in the "Employee Mood Improvement" Interactive Event
• Fixed the mood modifier being added to the player character instead of the employee in the Interactive Event with salary reduction
• Fixed the display of the wrong price for photovoltaics in the Interactive Event text (the cost itself was correct)
• Fixed a bug with not automatically deleting expired fan commission messages
• Fixed the empty message about the lack of found commissions
• Fixed the text message not showing after the end of the search for employees that resulted in no employees being found
• Fixed bugs related to marking the currently open message
• Fixed the appearance of the company goals panel after loading the game when the player didn't own a company
• Fixed the inability to send an employee on vacation while they were working from their workstation tracker
• Fixed the lack of interactivity of the text tutorial after entering Skill Trees
• Fixed a bug with loading automatic settings on the first game startup
• Fixed the incorrect display of employee energy bar in their panels
• Fixed the display of expired orders in the Commissions Manager when the Show All option was unchecked
• Fixed bugs with the incorrect assignment of groups to selectable buttons in component/skill search filters
• Fixed the lack of symmetry in one of the car models (this caused clipping of one of the wheels)
• Fixed bugs in the car animations (wrong position of the wheels, staying after changing the location)
• Fixed the lack of tooltips in the skill stats
• Fixed the slower regeneration of employees' energy during vacation than while resting
• Fixed the wrong price of the "White Worktop with Two Lockers and Sink" after selecting its variant
• Fixed the lack of time panel after creating a new game after returning to Main Menu
• Fixed a possibility for the summary text of the own project to stick out of the creator window (added the possibility to scroll the window)

[ 2022-06-24 16:00:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Because of my big fuckup with setting up OBS correctly on the last stream, I'm going to go live once again on April 1st at 5:00 PM CET and this time you will be able to hear my voice throughout the whole thing :P We are going to continue playing the same save so if want to catch up on the beginning you will get the chance on March 31st at 6:00 PM CET as I was recording it for the replay and in the video, the audio channels are set up correctly. So once again I encourage you to join me in previewing the next update for DevLife ;)

[ 2022-03-31 07:00:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We are proud to announce that DevLife made it to the SimFest: Hobby Edition! Because of that I - Roman will be streaming from the work in progress version of the next update on March 30th at 6:00 PM CET. I'll show you the new changes and also answer any questions about the game. If you won't be able to make it on time don't worry as the stream will be replayed every day at the same time throughout the whole event! So please join me to see what's new in DevLife!

[ 2022-03-29 15:00:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Happy new year! We wish you all the best for 2022! This year is going to be special for us as we plan to release the full version of DevLife! So hopefully this is the last roadmap before that happens :D
Today I will walk you through all of the plans and share some details mostly about the update coming in Q1 2022. Our goal is to deliver two content updates in the first half of the year and then go silent for a while as we work on the final release later in 2022. I hope that those updates will be finished closer to the beginning of each quarter rather than its end, but we will see how things go.

Interactive Events:

In the first content update in 2022, we will of course add new Interactive Events this time revolving around animals and diseases. Your characters will be able to obtain various pets and you will need to take care of them but also face things they do when you are not around. Additionally, you will be able to give them names to make them feel more like a part of the family.
As for the diseases unfortunately you and your employees will be able to catch various sicknesses that will force you to take a few days off work. There also will be some more serious cases that will require expensive treatments and will not always end on a positive note...

More Furniture:

Just like in the previous update we will add some new furniture that will allow you for more customization of your workspace. Some of them will be new variants of the existing pieces but of course, a lot of them will be completely new.

Reworked Tooltips:

In preparation for the final release, I've decided that the current tooltips system needs to be reworked in order to support sophisticated links and connections between characters that we want to add in the full version of the game. It would be very easy to lose track of who is who in the world and that's where nested tooltips come into play. The whole system is very much inspired by Crusader Kings 3 just like the character's traits were inspired by the previous installment of the series. In texts and on various objects you will find links to tooltips that will show you more about the thing you are hovering over. Of course, those things will have their own links and tooltips and that's why they need to be nestable. Let's take employees in Interactive Events as an example.
As you can see on the work in progress screenshot above by hovering over the name of the employee in the event you will be able to see more information about them. For example their stats and traits. Let's say you want to read the description of an active trait of your employee. In the new system, you can move your mouse over the icon in the tooltip which will get you a new tooltip with the description of the trait! It's that simple! Of course, not on the implementation level :P I'm trying to write this system in as much modular, versatile, and expandable way as possible so I can use it in future projects and maybe even release it as a plugin on the Asset Store. We shall see about that because it would require making some documentation and a few changes in the code. But if you would like to see a technical breakdown of the whole system in a separate devlog, then be sure to let me know ;)

Game Optimization:

The last important aspect of the first update coming in 2022 is various game optimizations that I've learned over the curse of my daily job as a game programmer in the last few months. Just to name a few things I plan to move saving of the game and overall operation on files to a separate thread, rework rebuilding of the UI layout, and optimize some other things in the code that probably most of you reading this would not understand
Anyway, that's all from me for today. You can of course expect more details about other updates coming to DevLife later down the road, but for now, thank you for your time reading this post. Once again we wish you all the best for the new year and we hope you will get to enjoy the full release of DevLife! :D As always if you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;) Stay warm and stay safe! Roman and Roman Studio Team

[ 2022-01-06 17:00:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Today I'm glad to present to you a small, quite unexpected update with full Russian localization made possible by the hard and very quick work of @ZHE5TJ! It is added as an officially supported language on Steam and I hope we will be able to maintain full translation for future updates / posts. Alongside this new language, I've also optimized the way of how texts in-game are changed when you choose a language in the settings so it should happen faster ;)
If you find any mistakes or overlooks in the localization, you can leave them on the appropriate channel at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;) Once again big thanks to @ZHE5JT for making this update possible!

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added full Russian localization

Corrections:

• Optimized performance of the language change in the game settings

[ 2021-12-03 17:00:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! As we announced previously in a post here on Steam we decided to split content planned for the next update and release as soon as possible which is now! This update introduces a lot of new furniture and random decorations on them that allow you for even more personalization of your workspace! And that's not all of them. There are also 6 new Interactive Events and many other changes that you can find listed below ;) As always if you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;)

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added 112 new furniture and their variants as well as variants of existing furniture
• Added random decorations on furniture
• Added separate statistics for each character specialization
• Added 6 new Interactive Events
• Added global pandemic variant of energy drink overdose event
• Added Russian translation (courtesy of @ZHE5TJ)

Mechanic Changes:

• Blocked the ability to hire and fire employees during Interactive Events that indicate a player character is away from work.
• Blocked the ability to dismiss employees in the Employee Manager when this option should have been blocked by an Interactive Event
• Blocked the ability to activate Interactive Events that require employees to be present when they have blocked actions
• Blocked the ability to find employees with no skills
• From now on, when an employee overdose on energy drinks and is hospitalized, their energy will regenerate ( this does not apply to the player character as they are not hospitalized)

Game Balance:

• From now on, the Wroth trait is not mutually exclusive with Generosity and Good at Communication traits
• From now on, the Rude trait is not mutually exclusive with the Shy trait
• From now on, the Rude trait is not mutually exclusive with the Good at Communication trait
• From now on, choosing to pay for a birthday party at the Beer'n'Grill pub is not blocked by having the Greedy trait, instead choosing this option gives you a 25% chance of losing it
• Increased the difference between the employee's suggested salary and the current one needed to start Interactive Events about the employee's too-low salary and add mood modifiers by 10%

Corrections:

• Changed the default furniture of the City Center Office and Desert Office locations
• Improved location lights look at night
• Quick notifications in Build Mode have been hidden
• Improved the look of some furniture
• Improved the display of furniture outlines
• Fixed many typos and errors in the English translation (courtesy of @DomsTSGS)
• Added missing translations for the bills of the Desert Office location
• Added missing translations for trait gain / loss notifications
• Removed two languages that didn't have any translated lines (German and Japanese)
• Fixed formatting of text in furniture info depending on the length of its name
• Improved description of company accounts transactions

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed a bug with the UI elements not displaying after starting a new game
• Fixed the incorrect loading of the status of the bills (after loading the game, the bills were accrued after 3 months of play, instead of at the end of the corresponding quarter)
• Fixed the incorrect behavior of bills after a change of location (they were accrued after 3 months from purchase, instead of at the end of the corresponding quarter)
• Fixed the remaining of selected search criteria for commissions and employees after the company has been dissolved
• Fixed the possibility of selecting the search criteria for commissions and employees by changing the value of the slider when it should not be possible
• Fixed the search criteria for commissions and employees not resetting after loading / starting a new game
• Fixed a bug with the ransom request in the Hacker event being too small when the player's company had more than 10.000.000$
• Fixed a bug causing zero investment cost in the Investment Proposition Interactive Event
• Blocked the possibility of duplicating the Employee Leave Request Interactive Event for the same employee
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to select a piece of furniture through the UI element after loading the game
• Fixed the lack of display of the button to change employees in Skill Trees
• Fixed incorrect display of text messages
• Fixed the incorrect marking of the currently opened message in the message list
• Fixed a bug that caused skill learning to remain active after purchasing a new location
• Fixed an issue with the notification about ending skill learning that could prevent you from finishing a learning project
• Fixed the incorrect functioning of condition checks in Interactive Events in case the next node was only one Text Node that had a condition for its activation
• Fixed the ability for Interactive Events to remain active after returning to the Main Menu which caused errors in the console
• Fixed the appearance of the Pause Menu when exiting a window using the Escape button
• Fixed the appearance of the Pause Menu when exiting Build Mode using the Escape button
• Fixed an issue with taking screenshots for save thumbnails when playing in a window mode at a resolution other than the native

[ 2021-11-12 17:00:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Sorry for being silent for so long. I wanted to hop on here to let you know about a project that recently took almost all of my free time - Packing House. It's a game that I'm helping on together with Adrian, our PR manager, and it's going to premiere soon. You can wishlist it now on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622970/Packing_House/ I'm writing this from a train to Pozna because we managed to get a booth from Indie Games Polska at PGA - one of the biggest video games conventions in Poland. For that reason, in the last few weeks, I've been completely focused on this project to make it as best as it can be for the expo. As you can probably tell, I haven't done almost anything in DevLife in this time. That's why I've decided to split content planned for the next update, finish what is already in the project and release it as soon as possible after PGA. It will contain all major changes planned previously (read more here) and the only difference will be the lack of some of the new Interactive Events and Furniture.
I hope you will look forward to that. It might even become a more permanent thing and from now updates will be smaller, but they will appear more often. We shall see. Anyway, if any of you attend PGA or GIC 2021 I invite you to come to Pavilion 5 and check out the Packing House booth near the entrance. I'll be there together with the lead designer Marcin during all three days of the convention and we may even have some cool gifts to giveaway... ;) Stay safe! Roman

[ 2021-10-21 18:10:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing amazing :D Today I want to let you know about how the work on the next update is going, when it's going to be released, and overall what is happening with the game right now. If you want to get this information sooner then feel free to join us on our Discord server!

Release Schedule

Maybe I will start with the information on when the update releases. Unfortunately, I can't provide you with the exact date, as a lot of things are happening in my life right now. I'm starting a full-time job as a game programmer in Warsaw and I'm in the process of moving there. Of course, a permanent job also means that DevLife is going to be a side, after-hours project. That doesn't mean I'll stop working on the game though. On the contrary. It's just that I won't have as much time to do it so everything will slow down a bit.

New Interactive Events

Now going to the more exciting news! In the next update, you will get to see a lot of new Interactive Events that are mostly connected to the traits of your employees. Right now they don't have that much of an impact on the story and this update aims to change that. Hiring employees with bad traits, such as Greedy or Wroth can trigger some unpleasant events that will make your life harder, but good ones have a chance of providing you with some benefits. That means you will need to be more mindful of who are you hiring.

New Furniture and Random Decorations

Thanks to the fact that our 3D artist finally has his computer back the next update will bring a lot of new furniture and variants of the existing ones. It will also introduce a new feature that will allow you to randomize the looks and placement of the decorations on the shelves and desks based on the provided seed. Below you can see some examples of this new mechanic in action.

Separation of Stats

The last thing I want to tease for you today is the separation of the employee stats for each specialization. That means, from now on, you will have to unlock and learn skills in the given category to increase your stats in it. I hope this will encourage you to diversify your company and make different types of projects.
Anyway, that is all from me for today. I hope you will look forward to the release of this update. As always if you find any bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;) Take care! Roman

[ 2021-09-03 15:48:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a good time! Today I present to you a small patch for the game with some corrections and most importantly bug fixes. The most important one is the one with missing game UI elements for some users. Everything should now be fixed, but this error doesn't occur on any of my devices so it's hard for me to know for sure. If the problem still exists or you find any new bugs / have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;)

Changelog:

Mechanic Changes:

• From now on, the "Company Unprofitable" mood modifier will only appear for the player's character

Corrections:

• Fixed default position of scroll rect in the Creators tab
• Removed dark squares in dropdown lists in Settings
• Improved appearance of buttons for graphic presets in Settings
• Improved text formatting in logs
• Renamed folders where logs are collected to avoid problems with their names

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed missing UI elements for some users
• Fixed bugs related to employees skill learning remaining active when it should end
• Fixed the shadow settings not loading correctly

[ 2021-07-20 16:00:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Today we are happy to present to you a new update for DevLife with the last skill tree - Desktop Applications! You can now choose from 25 new skills and start your carrier in developing programs for personal computers! Alongside it, we fixed found bugs and changed the game's balance, especially in the later stages. You can read the full changelog below.
Previously we announced that the next update is going to have a set of new furniture for the Desert Office location, but unfortunately, our 3D Artist still didn't receive his motherboard from the service center so the plans changed. We hope we will be able to release it soon, but we can't promise any exact dates as it is beyond our control. If you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport ;)

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added a new skill tree - Desktop Applications
• Added an ability to restart the game with the same character after the game over.
• Added loading of English translations in case the indicated key is missing in the selected language
• Updated the project to the new version of Unity (2021.1.12f1)

Game Balance:

• Increased the number of character skill points gained at higher levels
• Decreased the amount of experience required to reach higher character and company levels
• Unified costs of the search criterion responsible for the type of commissions
• Unified and increased costs of the search criterion responsible for employees specialization

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed bugs related to creating instances of Interactive Events that caused some of them to not work properly and could lead to game crashes
• Fixed the lack of regeneration of employee energy during vacations when the overwork level dropped to zero
• Fixed the Power Blackout trait remaining in case the player bought a generator and it failed after some time
• Fixed the ability for a player character to receive the Envy worker satisfaction modifier
• Fixed the duplication of the employee mood modifier from the Envious trait
• Fixed missing translation of the employee mood modifier from Envious trait
• Fixed an incorrectly working chance to gain the Greedy trait in the Inadequate Employee Salary event
• Fixed the Company Goals button appearing after starting a new game
• Fixed the lack of translation for employee mood modifiers from the Friend Asks for Loan event
• Fixed the inability to get the Gamedev Veteran achievement
• Fixed the lack of interactivity of the character traits selection panel in the Character Customization after starting a new game once again from the Main Menu

[ 2021-07-03 16:00:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Today I'm happy to announce that we have prepared a Demo version of DevLife, available right now, for free, here on Steam! In this version of the game, you will get a chance to experience the full first five years of the game. No other limitations, no cut-out content! The game time will stop at the beginning of 2006 and to continue playing you will have to buy the full version. Save are compatible and the Demo version is going to be updated alongside the paid one. So if you or one of your friends is still hesitating whether or not to buy DevLife, now you can test it for free and decide on the purchase.
With the release of the Demo comes the update with many bug fixes and game balancing. Did you know that one of the biggest events added in the previous update cannot be started in the game? Or that there is a very serious bug with loading almost all Interactive Events? Well, worry not, as everything should be fixed in this update! But if you find any new bugs or have suggestions about the game, you can leave them at our Discord server or on mestoegames.com/bugsreport :D

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added a new log gathering system to help with easier troubleshooting and bug fixing
• Added automatic appearance of the company's goal for loan repayment after some time has passed since it was taken out

Mechanic Changes:

• From now on, employee's energy will also regenerate when they have their actions blocked by an Interactive Event if the context of the event does not indicate that the character is busy with something else outside of work

Game Balance:

• Reduced financial losses due to Global Financial Crisis (smaller penalties in Events, and the Peak trait increases all costs by x3 instead of x4)
• Blocked the possibility of random player character death in the early stage of the game
• Increased the cost of producing own projects with more advanced components
• Decreased the chance for the enormous success of own projects, especially if the player doesn't have the company upgrade which increases the chance for higher own projects success
• Increased the earnings from own projects with success levels: small, normal, big
• Reduced the maximum number of required completed own projects in company goals

Corrections:

• Blocked the possibility of switching between game scenes too fast (this caused the game to freeze during the transition)
• Blocked the possibility to assign an employee to action when they were on vacation
• Improved adding company goals for purchasing new locations
• Fixed the refreshing of Workstation Trackers other than assigned to player's character when adding Blackout and Sandstorm traits
• Increased the time after which transaction entries are deleted from 60 to 120 seconds
• Fixed tooltip in the last decision in the Global Financial Crisis event
• Corrected Polish translations
• Fixed typos in all translations

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed the incorrect loading of some Interactive Events (events started in the previous version of the game will still load incorrectly)
• Fixed a bug that would freeze the game after game over when returning to the Main Menu
• Fixed a rare bug with the duplication of transactions from Interactive Events
• Fixed the appearance of the wrong Interactive Event in case an employee received a pay raise when their salary was too high compared to their skills
• Fixed the incorrect loading of the Project Creator after the player tried to create a project from a commission after creating their own project, in case the player didn't have the Automatization company upgrade unlocked
• Fixed previously selected components remaining in the Project Creator
• Fixed the message list not refreshing after deleting one of them
• Fixed the inability to sort the list of messages by their type
• Fixed the inability to start the Sandstorm and Dangerous Scorpion events
• Fixed the screens not turning off in the Sandstorm event
• Fixed the lack of icons for character traits in the Blackout event
• Fixed the lack of change in translation of the month name and component names and descriptions in the Project Creator, Employees Search, and Commissions Search after a language change
• Fixed the lack of interactivity of the company goals button after creating a company
• Fixed the remaining panel for assigning employees to tasks after opening another window

[ 2021-06-18 16:04:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! First of all, Happy Pride to everyone who is celebrating! We hope that you are all doing great and that you will enjoy what we have prepared in this update! Oh, and did I mention that you can now get DevLife -20% off for a limited time? :D [Grafika z Promocj z Now Map] Anyway, this update introduces a lot of new things which I described in detail in the previous post. Please go ahead and read it if you want to know more about the new map, tutorials, Interactive Events, and UI optimization! Of course, you can also just download the game and see it for yourself! I don't want to spoil anything, but some of the new events are very well visible in the game environment, especially in the new Desert Office!
Unfortunately due to the power supply failure in our 3D Artist's computer we were not able to add new furniture and decoration that would go well with the new location. That's why there will be another small update with them as soon as this problem is solved. For further plans please refer to our Roadmap for 2021 that was posted recently.
Below you will find a full changelog, with all of the major and minor bug fixes and corrections. If you find any other problem with the game or want to leave us your feedback, please join us on our Discord server or go to mesotegames.com/bugsreport ;)

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added new location Desert Office
• Added new Interactive Events related to the locations
• Added new randomly activated Interactive Events
• Added new videos in the Interactive Tutorial
• Added an ability to skip videos in the Interactive Tutorial
• Added an ability to cancel employees current actions from their Workstation Trackers
• Added an ability to disable the possibility of employees overworking themselves, which is unlocked after purchasing the Work Schedule company upgrade
• Added quick notifications regarding the level progress of skill after learning it
• Added information about the room appearance bonus of a given piece of furniture in its information

Mechanic Changes:

• Changed the way energy costs are calculated during programming (higher amounts when working on more difficult components)
• From now on, in case the player has no company goal at the end of the month, a new one will be added

Game Balance:

• Increased the difficulty of the Global Financial Crisis (all expenses are increased during the crisis)
• Reduced the number of required completed Company Goals per year to receive additional rewards from 4 to 3
• Increased prices and bills in locations other than the Family House
• Reduced the waiting time for borrowing money from friends in the Interactive Event with players character debts

Corrections:

• Optimized UI performance
• Improved sorting of character traits in the UI (traits related to Interactive Events will now appear at the top of the list)
• Improved appearance of some environment elements when using the winter game environment
• Improved description of traits in Polish translation
• Improved switching of the lighting in locations depending on the time of day when it was purchased
• Fixed the remaining effect of a glowing window after purchasing a location
• Improved appearance of the Shower
• Fixed the clipping of books through the wall of the White High Shelf 2x2 furniture
• Fixed the animation of exiting Company Upgrades using Escape when the Company Management window was open
• Blocked the possibility of selecting the furniture under the furniture buttons in Build Mode
• Blocked the ability to drag and drop skills in the skill selection panel for learning
• Blocked the display of quick notifications with traits of employees who were not hired

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed a critical issue with Interactive Event instance IDs duplicating each other, leading to a malfunction of the entire system
• Fixed a bug that crashed the game during some Interactive Events
• Fixed a bug related to deleting Interactive Events associated with fired employees
• Fixed a bug in starting some random Interactive Events
• Fixed a bug with loading the game related to workstations
• Fixed the continuation of skill learning while a character had their actions blocked
• Fixed the appearance of hidden player traits when editing their appearance
• Fixed the inability to send employees on vacation at any time from the Employees Manager
• Fixed the drag and drop function not working correctly when selecting the required employee skills in the Employees Search
• Fixed a bug that caused required components of a commission to remain in the Project Creator after deleting the commission
• Fixed incorrect message sending and the appearance of a permanent notification regarding the possibility of creating a new company after it was dissolved, when not all conditions for company creation have been met
• Fixed bugs related to dissolving a company and deleting projects that require it
• Fixed a bug related to deleting workstations that were purchased on the company after it was dissolved
• Fixed a bug causing the character previously assigned to a search to remain assigned to it after changing employees
• Fixed a bug blocking the Interactive Event with players character debts after selecting the option to find an additional job
• Fixed missing materials of some Halloween decorations
• Fixed a bug related to forcing a Christmas look to the environment when first starting the event
• Fixed lack of translation of character traits' names and descriptions after changing the language.

[ 2021-06-04 16:38:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Welcome to the second roadmap for DevLife! Today I want to talk about plans for the nearest future of the game. As you know recently we finally released the update with Interactive Events. From now on we plan to release updates much quicker, as the base of the game is ready. Now we need to fill it with content and fix the remaining bugs!
All dates above are approximate and probably will change depending on how things will go. I have finished school and my final exams, but still, you don't know what life will bring in the future. I'll be looking for a permanent job in the video games industry and DevLife will probably remain after-hours projects. But we will see. For now, let me talk in detail about what is coming in the nearest update on the of June.

New Tutorials

First of all, we noticed that a lot of people struggle to play this game due to unfamiliarity with its mechanics. Everything is described in the text tutorial, but not many people use it. That's why we decided to make new video tutorials that will show you the basics of employees energy, learning new skills, and managing your company. If you have problems with understanding any other mechanic we encourage you to let us know so we can work on that as well.

UI Optimalization

Listening to your complaints about the overall UI performance especially on weaker hardware and in later stages of the game I spend a lot of time trying to optimize it. And I succeeded quite a lot in it. From now on a list will be reloaded only when necessary and mostly during transitions between game scenes. I have also done a lot of behind-thee-scenes tweaks that completely changed the logic of managing UI (protip for other Unity developers, don't disable your objects with UI, but instead disable the Canvas component itself, you will avoid expensive OnEnabled/OnDisabled callbacks). That means some things might not work correctly, but of course, we will try to make it as stable as possible.

Desert Office

As teased previously the next update will introduce a new location - Desert Office. As you can see on the screenshots below this location has quite a different look from the previous ones. In terms of game progress, it will be placed between Family House and City Center Office, allowing you to accommodate up to 4 employees and being the middle ground for bills and programming bonus.

Interactive Events

From now on each update will introduce new Interactive Events. Most of them will be theme-based, but some will be just random things happening in life that we will come up with. The nearest update will add more randomly triggered events which will be mostly connected to locations. Later we plan to make events surrounding pets, friends, families, love, and many more subjects. We cannot wait for you to see them.
And that preaty much all for today. As always we encourage you to leave feedback about the game and report found bugs on our Discord server or on mesotegames.com/bugsreport. Have a nice day! Roman

[ 2021-05-15 15:58:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! It is time for the next big update for DevLife introducing Interactive Events! Version marked as Alpha Build #4 (0.6.69) is now available for download on Steam! We hope that you will enjoy the content that we have prepared for this update! If you encounter any problems with the game or have any feedback or suggestions, you can leave them on mesotegames.com/bugsreport or on our Discord server :D

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added Interactive Events
• Added new character traits associated with Interactive Events
• Added display of employee traits in workstation trackers
• Added company goal for finishing a certain number of own projects with a certain number of components
• Added additional tooltips in Game UI
• Added colors for buttons opening different windows in Game UI
• Added new names for characters
• Added automatic closing of the text tutorial and environment settings windows when turning one on while the other is active

Mechanic Changes:

• Employees' vacations now last 30 seconds and can be started at any time; depending on the option selected, they regenerate the appropriate amount of energy and provide modifiers to employee satisfaction
• Added the ability to open the Commission Manager after completing the first commission search (previously it unlocked after completing the first project)

Game Balance:

• Increased number of bugs in more advanced components
• Reduced penalties for not completing commissions before creating company
• Increased deadlines for game development commissions
• Increased vacation costs
• Decreased the maximum chance for a player character death from old age to 25%.
• Decreased the cooldown of the employee salary change to 60 seconds (previously 180 seconds)

Corrections:

• Improved accuracy of predicting income from own projects
• Changed the blur in the UI (from now on it is more accurate, especially in the Pause Menu)
• Removed border in character trait icons.
• Added missing Polish translations
• Improved accuracy of predicting income from your own projects
• Improved scaling of trait icons when there is a large number of them
• Improved formatting of transaction description text for completing company goals
• Improved formatting of large numbers in Quick Notifications
• Fixed position of the arrow pointing to the project in the Interactive Tutorial
• Fixed text formatting in headers of commissions and projects panels
• Fixed text formatting in the message list in the Message Window
• Corrected appearance of characters in the Main Menu (sleeve color + incorrect leg animation)
• Corrected appearance of the list of employees in the commission summary, when more than two of them worked on the project
• Updated list of developers in the Credits

Bugs Fixes:

• Blocked the automatic deletion of unopened messages
• Blocked the possibility to try to save the game using a shortcut while in the Main Menu
• Fixed a bug that caused employees' energy to regenerate twice as fast
• Fixed overlapping of the Company Goals button with the Messages button after exiting Build Mode
• Fixed a game-breaking bug that appeared in the Main Menu when the game save didn't have a screenshot
• Fixed bugs related to adding, removing, and duplicating employee mood modifiers related to overwork
• Fixed a bug that caused the winter appearance of the Main Menu to appear every time you returned to it from the game
• Fixed a non-working button to pause game time in the Game UI
• Fixed a missing furniture model "Darkwood Desk 16:9 Monitor + 4:3 Monitor"
• Fixed a bug related to workstations causing the game to not load
• Fixed a bug locking the game after double-clicking on permanent notifications
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to fire an employee from the Employees Manager
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to change the appearance of the environment after creating a company
• Fixed tooltips appearing off-screen in Skill Trees

[ 2021-04-29 15:54:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We are happy to announce that the update with Interactive Events will premiere here on Steam on the 29th of April 2021! To celebrate this occasion, we have prepared a new gameplay trailer showing the most important elements of the game. Below you can see the most interesting features you will see in the new update:

• Added Interactive Events
• Added new character traits associated with Interactive Events
• Mechanic changes
• Fixes a huge amount of bugs

These are just a small part of the changes you will see this Thursday.

New screenshots

[previewyoutube=IxFun2aJ1cM;full][/previewyoutube] The full changelog will be published along with the update and we hope you will enjoy what we have prepared! Due to the amount of new content we have made the decision to increase the game price after the update premiere to 10,99 USD. That means it is your last chance to get the game at a lower price in case you don't already have it or as a gift for a friend!

[ 2021-04-26 16:02:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Welcome to probably the last of work in progress reports about Interactive Events. Or at least the last before the release of the first update with them.

Things left to do.

Today's post will be short as there is not much to be discussed. We just want to inform you that all events are now completed and the remaining things to do are:

• Translating into Polish
• Creating missing graphics
• Extensive testing and balancing

Update premiere.

We hope that everything will go smoothly and we will be able to release this update before the end of April. The final date will be revealed on our Discord server a couple of days before dropping the new trailer and update becoming public here on Steam for everyone. Stay tuned, don't forget to follow us on our social media, and have a great day! Roman

[ 2021-04-10 15:03:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Work in Progress report from creating Interactive Events for DevLife! Today I'll talk about the overall progress and also show you a teaser of the new map!

Release Delay

But, first things first. Unfortunately due to the level of complexity of events and the amount of work that still needs to be done this update won't be released in Q1 2021 as promised before. Just like I wrote in previous posts it will become public once it will be finished and tested. We don't want to make the CD Projekt's mistake. Right now we don't want to give any specific date but it will certainly be in Q2 2021 ;) On top of the reasons mentioned above, I have my final exams at school in May. For the past week, I had mock exams and literally haven't opened Unity even for a second to get anything done. So that's another reason for this delay.

Current Progress

Ok, so now let's talk about what is the current state of the progress for Interactive Events. Right now we have finished writing 19 from 22 planned events for the first update. That means they are written in one of two officially supported languages (English / Polish, still need to be translated to the other one), triggered in appropriate moments during gameplay, and also influence it. Right now most of them are missing some of the graphics and were not tested very much, so there still might be some bugs and branches not working as intended. That's what we are going to focus on the most in the coming weeks - finishing and testing those that are already in the game.

New Map!

Meanwhile, our 3D Artist Bartek is working on a new map! It's going to be the middle location between Family House and the City Center Office. It's going to be cheaper, but also give you fewer bonuses and less space for your employees. The plan is to add it in a separate update soon after the one with Interactive Events. In this update, you'll also get events that are connected to a given location. That means you will be able to trigger them only when you are currently in it. You can check some Work in Progress screenshots below :D



And that's pretty much it for today. Once again sorry for the delay but we hope you are going to enjoy the update when it will finally come out ;) Have a great day! Roman

[ 2021-03-13 16:30:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! It's Roman again and welcome to the next Work in Progress report from working on Interactive Events for DevLife. First of all, I want to let you know, that the game is on a -25% sale during Lunar New Year on Steam! So if you have been hesitating with your purchase, or you want to make a gift for a friend, this is a great opportunity to do so.
Today I wanted to talk a little bit about why Interactive Events are taking so long to make and what challenges we have to overcome during the creative process. You will also get to see some more graphs and graphics from events that are already finished. So first things first. The main reason for delays is the level of complexity and the multitude of branches and options in each event. We need to make sure, that the traits your employees have, actually impact what you can do in them. And as you know, there is a lot of character's traits already in the game and more is coming in the future. On top of that, most of the events that we are adding in the nearest update influence gameplay, and thus they require additional coding to blend into the game systems.
The second biggest challenge in adding Interactive Events are the graphics that will be shown during them. They need to be in a very particular art style, reflect what is happening in the event, and be as inclusive as possible because in DevLife you can be anyone. Unfortunately, it's very hard to pull off, especially without tons of money and resources. We mostly use stock footage that our new, first-time graphic Mateusz is editing by adding some filters and making small adjustments. That's why, at least at the beginning, some of the graphics might not be as accurate and representative as we would want them to be. We will do everything within our power, to make them as best as possible, but we ask you to look upon them with a somewhat gracious eye.
The last thing I wanted to talk about today is partially connected to the previous point. During the writing of events, we need to make sure we are using inclusive language, that doesn't assume the gender of the player. And to be honest with you, it's hard. Being raised in the white, cishet, monogamous culture really impacts how you think and thus write. But on the other hand, acknowledging that forces you to think outside the box and hopefully gives better results. Let's not forget that we also ship the game in two languages - English and Polish. First of all, it doubles the amount of text that we need to prepare, but also provides additional challenges. English is quite flexible in terms of being gender-neutral because you can just use they/them pronouns. Of course, it doesn't solve all of the problems, but Polish on the other hand is much more difficult in this matter.
Most of the words have both male and female suffixes and varieties and there is no widely used alternative (we have a neuter type, but it is almost not used in our language), and the political situation in our country, especially to LGBTQ+ community, doesn't bode well for rapid change. The option of adding alternative event texts for both options not only requires additional work but would also be dependent on the body type of the player's character. And that would be hurtful for people who don't fall into the binary split. Anyway, we already have a simple, effective, though not so common solution. When the text can't be rewritten to neutral form we will use words with both of the suffixes and a space for people who would like to use any other form (example: "miy_a", "lekarz_ka" etc.).
So that's pretty much everything that I wanted to share with you today. I hope you will stay tuned for the next updates from us here and on our Discord server. I don't really know what more I can post for you, because I don't want to spoil you too much, about each event. That's why the next post probably will be just screenshots of the finished graphs and maybe some graphics prepared by Mateusz. We shall see. Have a wonderful day! Roman

[ 2021-02-11 18:05:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since we posted anything here. But that's because we've been working hard (and also playing a lot of Cyberpunk... :P) on the most complex and ambitious system for the game - Interactive Events. Today I wanted to show you the progress made throughout Christmas and the first weeks of 2021. If you want to up-to-date with everything that is going on with DevLife we encourage you to join our Discord server as I post there stuff way before then here on Steam.
On the screenshot above you can see the first version of the UI for the events. It contains the graphic for the event, its description, and available choices. On the surface, it looks very simple, but there is a lot of logic behind it as some options are only available under certain conditions and your choices must have an actual impact on the gameplay.
To complicate things even more I had to make an editor that would allow for easy creating and tracking of branches in each event. The best way of doing it was to make a graph with nodes that have different functionality. I've never done anything similar to this so it was a great learning process for me. I decided to use xNode, as a framework for handling the drawing of the editor. This has greatly facilitated the whole process. If you would like to see how this system and editor for it came to life, you can check out live streams that I've done on my personal YouTube channel. [previewyoutube=dEH5BzH5Br8;full][/previewyoutube] The system is now in the fine-tuning phase and most functions are implemented and working. Now comes the tricky part of creating the events themselves. For the first update with this feature, we plan to convert applicable game mechanics (for example: bankruptcy, changing employees' salaries, etc.) to work as Interactive Events. Then in the next months, we will be adding theme-based events that will focus mostly on one subject (for example: pets, family, etc.).
It's a lot of work to predict all possible combinations of traits and other factors and because of that, we are targeting the Q1 of 2021 as the time of release for this update. But even that is subject to change and as we don't want to make CD Projekt's mistake and release an unfinished product. So it will come to the game when it's ready :D That's all for now! Have a great day. Roman

[ 2021-01-20 17:10:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Whether you celebrate Koliada, Yule, Christian Christmas, or just spend your time with loved ones, we hope that you are safe and well. We wish you all the best for this magical time of the year and the years ahead :) The event itself will take place from the 21st of December to the 4th of January and we've prepared a couple of things for this occasion:

• New Christmas decorations in Build Mode
• Atmospheric soundtrack by GWriterStudio
• Snow and Christmas decorations in the environment
• New Steam achievements

We hope that you will enjoy it :D Please share your Christmas screenshot with the community here on Steam or our Discord server. You can access the Cinematic Camera by pressing F6. Use F7 to take a screenshot. They are stored in Documents/DevLife/Screenshots. We've also added the option to change the game environment at any given time to those from events. Once the event has started the game will force the look associated with this event, but you still will be able to change it to whatever you like. Rremember though that achievements and some of the features of events will be available only during their time. Of course, additionally, we fixed bugs reported by the players and as always you can check the full changelog down below.

Changelog:

• Added Christmas Event
• Added the possibility of changing the appearance of the environment to those related to the events at any given time
• Increased scrolling speed of color panels in the Character Creator
• Fixed a bug that prevented the switching of environment sounds activity in the settings
• Fixed the lack of carpets models (they appeared under the floor)
• Fixed bugs with cars appearing on maps when they should not be visible
• Fixed a bug related to slowing down the game time using keyboard shortcuts when it was speed up and paused by a player

[ 2020-12-20 17:00:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! It is time for the next big update for DevLife! Version marked as Alpha Build #3 (0.5.61) is now available for download on Steam! For this occasion, we prepared a short video that walks you through the most important changes and new features in this update. [previewyoutube=N93Qix_33pA;full][/previewyoutube] We hope that you will enjoy the content that we have prepared for this update! If you encounter any problems with the game or have any feedback or suggestions, you can leave them on mesotegames.com/bugsreport. This year, you can expect one more update, which will fix reported bugs and add one surprise. You will find more information about it on our Discord server and Social Media :D

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added character traits
• Added video games skill tree
• Added new customization options for characters
• Added new character avatars
• Added new vacation options for employees
• Added permanent notifications about unlearned skills
• Added possibility to renegotiate employees' salaries
• Added the possibility of an employee leaving the company when their mood remains low for a long time
• Added negative modifiers to the mood of employees when their salary is inadequate to their skills
• Added information about the skill level and its progress to the next one at the nodes in the Skills Trees
• Added the ability to return from Company Upgrades to the game by pressing Escape
• Added the ability to increase the level of company upgrades by double-clicking on it
• Added the ability to toggle the permanent notifications
• Added a button to close the text tutorial in its upper right corner
• Added new names for employees

Mechanic Changes:

• From now on, the addition of energy increases the energy limit to 20 if the employee is overworked below this levitel
• From now on, it is possible to send an employee on vacation at any time as long as their energy level is not maximum and they do not perform any other activity

Game Balance:

• Increased number of bugs in more advanced components

Corrections:

• Improved accuracy of predicting income from own projects
• Improved the addition of energy to the employees when they were overworked
• Improved adjustment of tooltip sizes to their contents
• Improved formatting of quarterly distribution costs of own projects in the project financial summary
• Improved text formatting in commissions summaries
• Optimized performance of street vehicles
• Reduced number of light sources that cast shadows
• Improved overall game performance

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed the possibility of putting furniture outside locations
• Fixed the suspension of learning progress after going to the Pause Menu
• Fixed incorrect loading of saved resolution when starting a game in a window mode
• Fixed bugs caused by clicking Escape when moving between scenes
• Fixed a bug that allowed the employee to be sent on vacation from the Employee Manager several times
• Fixed unnecessary display of the progress bar in workstation trackers after the game is reloaded
• Fixed the display of information about the possibility of increasing the level of company upgrade when it has been maxed out
• Fixed an error that caused the lack of location models in the Main Menu
• Fixed reset of ambient sound volume settings when changing music volume in Pause Menu settings
• Fixed a bug that caused the employee who worked on the component to not be added to the employee list after moving to the Skills Tree
• Fixed not copying some data when Deep Copying employees
• Fixed the display of incorrect message with own project when it was in the last quarter of its distribution

[ 2020-11-23 17:00:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome to the DevLife Halloween Event! We hope that you are doing great and have an awesome spooky season :D The event itself will take place from the 29th of October to the 5th of November and is going to be available in the game every year. We've prepared a few things for this occasion:

• New decorations for Halloween in Build Mode
• Spooky soundtrack made by GWriterStudio
• Special, scary camera filter
• No lights in locations during nights
• Halloween decorations in the environment
• New Steam achievements

We hope that you will enjoy it! Please share your Halloween screenshot with the community here on Steam or our Discord server. You can access the Cinematic Camera by pressing F6. Use F7 to take a screenshot. They are stored in Documents/DevLife/Screenshots. Of course, weve also fixed the most critical bugs reported by the players and you can check the full changelog down below.

Changelog:

• Added Halloween Event
• Fixed the bug that caused the commissions search window to not open
• Fixed a bug related to workstation trackers that prevented the game from loading
• Fixed a bug related to the employee search that prevented the game from loading
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to autosave too often
• Fixed bugs related to changing screen resolution and refresh rate in the settings
• Fixed the lack of post-processing effects in the Character Creator
• Fixed tooltips in Social Media buttons in Main Menu
• Improved compatibility of videos in tutorials on Linux

Next Update

At the same time, we worked really hard on the next big, planned update, which is going to introduce character traits and video games skill tree to the game, so you can expect more information about it very soon ;)

[ 2020-10-26 18:00:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! The first major update - Alpha Build #2 (0.4.58) - is now available on Steam! As we announced earlier, we focused on making the game more enjoyable for you and also adding new quality of life features and improvements proposed by the community.

Changelog:

New Features:

• Added commissions manager
• Added employees manager
• Added locations manager
• Added the possibility of canceling the learning of skills
• Added the required level of the company in its upgrades
• Added support for additional components in projects from commissions (chance for additional reward)
• Added easier removal and replacement of employees in components and searches
• Added limitation of the maximum number of components in projects (new company upgrade)
• Added a new company upgrade that enables automatic assignment of components required in commissions to the project
• Added additional tooltips in the skills trees
• Added the ability to change employees in the skills trees
• Added the ability to select / upgrade skills in the Skill Tree with a double click on LPM
• Added unchecking of the currently selected skill in the skill tree by clicking on its background
• Added the ability to return from the skills trees with the Escape button
• Added the ability to control the camera by dragging while holding the LPM
• Added the possibility of not accepting commissions from fans
• Added automatic deletion of outdated messages
• Added more certain company goals activated to guide the player to further growth
• Added a panel summarizing the company's goals in the company manager
• Added a button to prematurely finish the distribution of own project
• Added shortcuts in company upgrades (same as in skills trees)
• Added additional tooltips for company upgrades
• Added information about available company upgrade points in the Company Manager
• Added information about the possibility of increasing the level of company upgrade
• Added minimum values for additional rewards for the fulfillment of company goals
• Added additional buttons to Social Media in Main Menu
• Added translations of the game into other languages created by the community
• Added translators to credits
• Added information about the translation created by the community

Mechanic Changes:

• The game time has been accelerated twice (month lasts 30 seconds)
• From now on, the personal bills of the characters will be calculated on a quarterly basis (company bills without changes)
• The amount of energy that an employee uses to create components now depends on the time elapsed between adding progress points
• Modified the number of skills points received for higher levels of experience
• Limited number of company upgrade points available after the establishment of another company when the previous one was dissolved / bankrupt
• Improved the algorithm calculating the required experience for advancement to the next levels
• From now on, experience from commissions will be also obtained if there is at least one completed but not tested component in it
• From now on, an additional reward for the company's goals will be received after completing 4 goals in a year

Game Balance:

• Reduced penalties for bugs in commissions
• Improved balance of own projects (greater impact of components, reduction of maximum cost, the overall increase of costs and awards)
• Improved balance of company goals in the late game
• Adjusted number of bugs in test components

Corrections:

• Corrected project and search panels (if they were previously collapsed, they remain so)
• Fixed the lack of display of the Context Menu for selecting the employee to search after clicking on the employee's avatar in the search panel
• Fixed the lack of display of the workstation menu after clicking on the employee avatar in the workstation tracker
• Fixed the volume sliders in the settings (they now work more linearly)
• Fixed the tooltip background in the skills trees
• Fixed the missing translation of information about the lack of employees who worked on the commission
• Improved formatting of the company's annual money balance value in the company's financial summary message
• Reduced speed and increased lifetime of programming points appearing above the workstations
• Changed the messages button icon
• Changed the color of the maximum energy of an employee in the employee's energy bar to make it more readable
• Removed % from the description of the current value of the Creditworthiness company upgrade
• Improved formatting of large numbers in tooltips with experience
• Fixed tooltip with level progression in the skills trees (always showed the player's character)
• Fixed the non-fading car in the City Center Office location
• Optimized clamping of the main camera position
• Fixed the double minus and color of the company's negative balance in the message with the company's annual finances
• Fixed scaling of checkboxes descriptions in settings
• Fixed the position of the list of company goals after entering the build mode
• Improved formatting of large numbers in the message about additional awards for company goals
• Improved text scaling in employee and commission search settings
• Corrected the display of inappropriate notifications in some combinations of adding/deleting required components / skills in the searches
• Fixed missing light sources in objects that are supposed to emit light
• Reduced resolution of volumetric illumination (performance improvement without visible quality change)

Bugs Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that damaged saves after an employee who was learning a skill was fired / retired
• Fixed incorrect assignment of employees to components after closing the Context Menu with employees without selecting an employee
• Fixed the remaining of an employee in the search after removing them from the workstation
• Fixed blocking of the game after double-clicking on the permanent notification
• Fixed graphic artifacts in the City Center Office location
• Fixed loading of night lights (windows)
• Fixed incorrect loading of furniture unlocks
• Fixed a bug that blocked work on components after the project panel was collapsed
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to exit the build mode using a shortcut while moving the furniture
• Fixed a bug blocking the save after buying a new location when one of the employees was learning a skill
• Fixed the company's non-disappearing transactions, which caused a very long loading of the company's finance panel
• Fixed the fading of the UI after double-clicking on the buttons in the Main Menu
• Fixed bugs caused by double-clicking on shortcuts to the Skills Trees / Company Upgrades
• Fixed an issue with loading Interactive Tutorial videos when using a language created by the community
• Fixed an error with leaving the camera between locations when the game was saved while moving between them
• Fixed incorrectly loading furniture category buttons in build mode
• Fixed errors related to dragging the required components / skills in the search of commissions / employees
• Fixed the lack of refreshing of the character's name in the project / search panels after their change
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to start distribution of your own project after loading the game
• Fixed no renaming of locations after changing the game language

We hope that you will enjoy the changes and that we have managed to eliminate all critical bugs. If you have any comments or new suggestions about the game, feel free to let us know at any time! Found a new bug? You can report it on mesotegames.com/bugsreport or on our Discord server. Have a wonderful day! Roman

[ 2020-09-11 14:58:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! Its Roman again and welcome to the promised devlog with the roadmap and more details on plans for the future. But before we start I would like to thanks everyone that played the game, left their feedback, and reported found bugs! Thanks to you we can make this game better and more enjoyable for you! :D
We will of course start with things that await us in the nearest future. As we announced previously in the first bigger update will focus on adding quality of life features that will make DevLife more readable and easy to play. A lot of them are based on your suggestions, so if you have any more of them feel free to message us. To mention only a few of them you can expect:

• New and reorganized windows that will allow you to manage your commissions, employees, and locations more easily
• Enhanced skills trees with additional tooltips and shortcuts
• Possibility to cancel learning of a skill
• Automatic assignment of components required in the selected commission
• Rewards for additional components in the commissions

Of course, the list goes on. But these are the most important ones. We will also work on the balance of the game, especially in the late stage, and fixing all of the found bugs. We dont have any precise date for this first update, but we want to release it as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the next month.

Characters Traits

What is going to distinguish DevLife from other similar games is the focus on roleplaying and telling stories of the life of your characters. But first, those characters need to have traits that will determine who they are. Thats going to be the main feature of the update that we hope to release by the end of the year. Active Character Traits will have their own modifiers that will influence different parts of gameplay. To name a few examples:

• Kind - increases mood of your employees
• Hard-working - increases the speed of working on components
• Wroth - increases penalties to the employees mood

Passive Character Traits wont give you any bonuses but they will allow you to be more immersed in the characters and will also unlock new events and their possible outcomes. Here are a few examples:

• Animal Lover
• Metalhead
• Vegan
• Polyamorous

Of course, your employees and other important people in the life of your characters will have their own traits which might affect your relationships with them. During the creation of your character, you will pick your start traits, but they could change based on your decisions in the game. This mechanic will be introduced later with the Interactive Events. At first, the number of character traits will be limited to a certain number but we will be adding more as the game develops.

More Customization Options

Although character customization is already a part of DevLife is limited to only a few options. Thats why we are going to add more of them in the coming updates. You will be able to choose from new hairstyles, facial hair, and clothes. And who knows maybe we will add even more customizable features at a later time.

Video Games Skills

If you play DevLife then you probably like video games :P Thats why the next skill tree in the line will be the one about creating them. And making games is not that easy, trust me. But of course, in DevLife it wont be that hard! As in the previous skill trees, you will have options for design, programming, and testing to unlock.

Interactive Events

Interactive Events are definitely the most ambitious and most complicated mechanic that we want to implement in the game. Thats why we will need more time to finish it. In those events, you will be put up to different things that happen in the life of your characters and the people around them. It will be up to you on how you will handle them. Of course, you wont be able to do whatever you want. Many available decisions will be based on the traits of the characters involved in the event. I could write much more about the different aspects of this system, but I think an example will do the best job. So, one day you noticed that a cat was wandering around your house. It looks very hungry and neglected. You have two possible decisions to make. You can feed the cat or just ignore it and go back to work. Lets say that your character has an Animal Lover trait. Because of that, the only available option is the one where you decided to feed it. Of course, the cat keeps coming to you in the next days so you adopt him. Thanks to that your character gets a mood bonus for having a pet. Unfortunately, after some years your cat dies which makes you very sad and depressed and you get a negative mood modifier. In the meantime, you might get random events involving your cat that will require your actions. For example, he might get naughty and start destroying your furniture. If you react with anger you might lose your Animal Lover trait or even get rid of the cat. The possibilities are almost infinite!

Thematic Content

In the first update with Interactive Events, we will focus on translating the game mechanics that are already in there into this new system. It will be things like running low on money, the bankruptcy of your company, or employees wanting to go for early retirement. After that, we plan to release thematic content packs that will include events surrounding a given theme. Like animals, music, or relationships. We will keep working on them until we decide that this is our last word on the game and that it is ready for the full release.

Desktop Applications Skills

Also in the next year, we will add our last planned skill tree. You will be able to unlock new skills involving making Desktop Applications and create companies that will specialize in it.
Things listed above are not only ones that we will be working on. Here are some more that we dont have any specific dates for, but they will surely appear in the game as soon as they are finished.

New Locations

New locations will allow you to hire different numbers of employees and also better manage your bills and spendings. They will also provide some more variety of game environments and events specific to a location. On our Discord server, you can expect some work in progress screenshots and announcements about maps that we will be working on. You can also leave your feedback on what you would like to see in the game!

More Furniture

Of course, these new locations will require some unique furniture to place in them. And let's not fool ourselves, the choice available in the current version of the game is not that spectacular. So we will definitely add more furniture in the coming months.

Your Suggestions

The main reason for starting in Early Access is to involve our community in building this game. Thats why we will listen to your feedback and needs and add features that you requested. So if you have any cool idea for a mechanic that you think would fit DevLife perfectly, or you find something not working right, dont hesitate to reach out to us and let us know!
Thats will be all for now. I hope that you get the general idea of what our plans for DevLife are. Once again remember to join our Discord to get some behind the scenes materials and get involved in making decisions about the game. Have a nice day! Roman

[ 2020-08-31 15:18:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog:

- The maximum number of components in own projects was limited to 10 - From now on, after dissolving of the company, all of the own projects will be terminated - Fixed the malfunctioning of energy-related employee mood modifiers - Fixed an error that blocked the finishing of a commission after the deadline passed - Fixed a bug that made it impossible to search for commissions in the late game - Fixes console errors caused by night lights - Fixed the appearance of game notifications after returning to Main Menu - Fixed an error that prevented finishing work on a project if the employee who worked on it is no longer working for the company - Fixed a bug that caused randomization of commissions without any components - Fixed the possibility of moving the camera in the welcome message in the Interactive Tutorial

Thank you so much for your warm welcome of DevLife in the Early Access.

In particular, we would like to thanks all of those who reported the bugs and left their feedback on the game. If you find any more bugs please report them to us and we will try to solve them as soon as possible ;)

[ 2020-08-22 21:20:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! DevLife just released in Steam Early Access! The game is now available for you to buy and play. We hope that you like what weve prepared for the premiere! But of course, thats not our last word! If you have any thoughts on the game or you found some bugs then feel free to message us on our social media, join our Discord server, or go to mesotegames.com/bugsreport.

Because we start in Early Access it means that the game is not complete yet, so we will be adding new features and mechanics in future updates.

I will go in detail about our development plans in the next DevLog that should be live in a few days. But for now, here is a general Roadmap for what you can expect in the coming months:

• First update with quality of life features (like commissions manager panel or additional tooltips) based on your feedback, as soon as possible.
• New customization options and character traits by the end of the year.
• Interactive Events in the first half of 2021.
• Updates with theme-based events until we decided that there is nothing more to add to the game.

We hope that you will stay tuned for further information about our game. The best way to do that is to join our Discord server and of course, follow us on social media:

• Twitter
• Facebook

Thats all for today, so we will see you next time! Bye! Roman

[ 2020-08-21 17:10:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! Its Roman from Roman Studio. Well my real name is Jakub Kiryluk and Im the lead game designer on DevLife, but everyone knows me as Roman, so Im going to introduce myself like that. And dont judge me for the studio name, ok? Today my PR guy - Adrian - asked me to write a dev log about the game so Im going to talk a little bit about what DevLife is, how it was made, and also what are the plans for the future. Though, I will tell you more about the last topic after the game releases on August 21st in a separate dev log with a full road map and more details.

So lets start by asking the most basic question - What is DevLife?

Well like with other basic questions there is no simple answer. At its core DevLife is a simple management tycoon. You start your career in the IT industry just before hitting eighteen. Its up to you to decide what will be the main focus of your character. You can be a programmer, designer, or tester and specialize in different categories like Websites and Mobile Apps. Then, of course, you start your own company, hire employees, take bigger contracts, and so on. If you still dont have any idea of what Im talking about then go watch the official gameplay on our YouTube channel. It should give you a good look at what to expect. [previewyoutube=M4XKjTsTCEQ;full][/previewyoutube]

What really distinguishes DevLife from other similar games is the focus on the life aspect.

And life is not always easy. In other games when you go bankrupt it mostly means game over. But not in DevLife. You play through the whole life of the character, so no matter what will happen you will still be able to continue playing. The ultimate end will be your death! On your way there, you will have to face different obstacles and its up to you to decide how you will handle them. Thats how we start the part where I talk about the cool stuff, thats not ready yet. I really want to put the emphasis on storytelling and role-playing in this game, so our plan is to add character traits and interactive events that will shape the story of your characters. As I said before I wont go into details here but expect the possibility to adopt some cats or find a love (or loves) of your life! At least in the game And of course, we will add more content, like additional skill trees (Video Games and Desktop Applications) or customization options.

If youve been following us for a longer period of time you might remember something called DevTycoon.

Well, its nothing else than the previous incarnation of DevLife. It was originally started by Denis Szwarc (a guy from Germany who watched my old video tutorials for Unity, thats how weve met and become friends, hes making another game called EarthX, so go check it out :D) and even got released but then the idea of focusing on the life aspect of the game was born. Because the code and whole structure of the project were quite badly made (at that time mostly by me) we decided to rebuild the project from scratch. And here we are. Over a year later. Getting ready for the release on Steam! I hope that you will enjoy what weve prepared for the premiere and that you will stick with us for longer. We want to make this game the best possible so your feedback will be invaluable. Thats all for today, so go follow us on social media, join our Discord for news and update, and of course, wishlist DevLife on Steam! Best to all of you! Roman

[ 2020-08-15 13:00:10 CET ] [ Original post ]