Beta 1.8.16 fixes bug introduced in the last patch when HR is looking for employees

Patch notes for Beta 1.8.15

Changes

• Benefits can now be applied per team and directly from the hiring window
• Benefits now affect salary expectations

Fixes

• Fixed bug in my releases window when switching between product, add-ons and frameworks after sorting a column

Patch notes for Beta 1.8.13

Changes

• Cats, deer, kangaroos and ducks upgraded
• Raccoon added
• Relevant boxes on pallets are now also highlighted green when checked in manufacturing window
• Close window shortcut key now works throughout the game
• Enter to accept now works in more windows
• Added a red line to future fire inspection reports to show which path the fire inspector took when they couldn't find any stairs
• Improved staff room assignment column filtering, to filter individual groups
• Added ability to get deal details on some deals by double clicking them
• Logos are now saved locally after editing or downloading
• Added prompts for when logo creation is about to be lost

Fixes

• Fixed cat not appearing in map after the menu cat petting update
• Fixed specific areas of rooms randomly becoming inaccessible when furniture is placed in a particular way on Windows, most noticably with conveyor belts
• Fixed cars not being loaded properly for clients in multiplayer
• Fixed ground level ramps not getting connected to the ground for clients in multiplayer, causing employees to get stuck on upper floor parking spaces
• Sort order is now remembered when switching between products, add-ons and frameworks in product window
• Fixed being able to take loans in impossible difficulty by bankrupting
• IT will now insist on repairing surveillance stations while they are in use by security staff
• Fixed assignment numbers for tasks sometimes being wrong leading to unoptimal feature prioritization
• Fixed instances of employees being stuck in a building surrounded by paths on load
• Fixed mentors trying to mentor founders with active skill ceilings
• Fixed error when trying to print add-on products

Beta 1.8.14 Fixes instability in navmesh algorithm introduced in last update

[ 2025-04-06 13:23:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Full patch notes

Changes

• Player can now pick subsidiary product specialization and subsidiaries will no longer count towards AI company limit in the market
• Project management can now handle porting tasks
• Added ability to pick cooldown between projects for project management
• Increased Phone and Console prices
• Rebalanced AI research strategy, modified by difficulty, where the highest difficulty will have almost everything patented
• Rebalanced AI company expenses to even out bankruptcies between company types
• A lot of columns have an added totals row in the list panels, which can be switched between sum, mean, median, min, max and range, depending on its value
• You can now choose to disable pause or force max time speed when day time limit is up in multiplayer
• The game will now try to auto-resolve a bankruptcy, if possible, when the player has neglected the bankruptcy warning
• All future save files will now include a company logo in the thumbnail for easier identification
• Added warning when a printer is blocked because of other boxes on the conveyor belt
• All lights now become greyscale when activating a data overlay
• Surveillance station can now be repaired while in use by security staff
• Added a send home button to the team window, useful if you've changed a team's schedule and don't want them to finish their current shift
• You can now place company logos on walls in basements
• To increase save stability, the Tools and OSs variables of the SoftwareProduct class have been deprecated in favor of various getter and setter methods, so some code mods might break. Look for the Add, Get, Remove, Has and Count methods, if your mod breaks

Fixes

• Fixed cooks putting their arms inside their heads when zooming out...
• Fixed bug that could make AI and project management order a huge amount of copies of an archived product
• Fixed mismatched tooltips in product detail window
• Fixed police drone permanently breaking rented buildings
• Fixed game not updating alpha phase team assignments in design phase when renaming a team
• Some optimization fixes for large saves that have a lot of lamps and many friendships per employee across teams
• Fixed overlapping text on some tasks in grouped task mode
• Fixed event timeline in product detail window not being consistent between tabs when units, income and reputation graphs end at different times
• Fixed labels not being aligned in role management window when UI size is not 100%, 150% or 200%
• Fixed project management porting tasks sticking around in project management window
• Mentors and social leaders no longer add to the noise level of their target's environment (but adds more to everyone else's)
• Fixed text in lists bleeding into neighbour columns

Patch notes for Beta 1.8.12

Changes

• Player can now pick subsidiary product specialization and subsidiaries will no longer count towards AI company limit in the market
• Increased Phone and Console prices
• Rebalanced AI company expenses to even out bankruptcies between company types
• You can now place company logos on walls in basements

Fixes

• Fixed labels not being aligned in role management window when UI size is not 100%, 150% or 200%
• Fixed project management porting tasks sticking around in project management window
• Mentors and social leaders no longer add to the noise level of their target's environment (but adds more to everyone else's)
• Fixed text in lists bleeding into neighbour columns

[ 2025-01-28 10:47:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update will be on the unstable branch for a couple of days, since it makes changes to the save system. Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch. Changes

• Project management can now handle porting tasks
• Added ability to pick cooldown between projects for project management
• Rebalanced AI research strategy, modified by difficulty, where the highest difficulty will have almost everything patented
• A lot of columns have an added totals row in the list panels, which can be switched between sum, mean, median, min, max and range, depending on its value
• You can now choose to disable pause or force max time speed when day time limit is up in multiplayer
• The game will now try to auto-resolve a bankruptcy, if possible, when the player has neglected the bankruptcy warning
• All future save files will now include a company logo in the thumbnail for easier identification
• Added warning when a printer is blocked because of other boxes on the conveyor belt
• All lights now become greyscale when activating a data overlay
• Surveillance station can now be repaired while in use by security staff
• Added a send home button to the team window, useful if you've changed a team's schedule and don't want them to finish their current shift
• To increase save stability, the Tools and OSs variables of the SoftwareProduct class have been deprecated in favor of various getter and setter methods, so some code mods might break. Look for the Add, Get, Remove, Has and Count methods, if your mod breaks

Fixes

• Fixed cooks putting their arms inside their heads when zooming out...
• Fixed bug that could make AI and project management order a huge amount of copies of an archived product
• Fixed mismatched tooltips in product detail window
• Fixed police drone permanently breaking rented buildings
• Fixed game not updating alpha phase team assignments in design phase when renaming a team
• Some optimization fixes for large saves that have a lot of lamps and many friendships per employee across teams
• Fixed overlapping text on some tasks in grouped task mode
• Fixed event timeline in product detail window not being consistent between tabs when units, income and reputation graphs end at different times

[ 2025-01-23 11:20:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added event to product timeline when IP is traded

Fixes

• Fixed printing deals not rewarding player immediatly when done
• Fixed subsidiary takeover event in company timeline
• Fixed floating headphones in mentoring situations
• Fixed lead designer specializations hover menu sometimes showing previous selection's specializations
• Workaround for a bug in the "Ultimate Difficulty" mod that inadvertently made the game very easy

[ 2024-11-25 12:09:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added ability for employees to mentor other employees, making them skill up faster
• Adjusted publisher deadlines
• Project management will no longer update tech of products that have a sequel out
• New work and idle animations to indicate when employees are tired or working really fast
• Improved look of ground and grass

[ 2024-10-09 16:17:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Full patch notes since last update

Project management

• Replaced project management point system with a mistake system
• You can now add previous products to a project management task to automate existing tasks
• You can now let project manager handle ordering copies or setting print job maximum every day
• The amount of projects that have active tasks for project management now increases stress for leader

Publishers

• You can now pick between different publishing deals
• Successful publishing deals now increases relationship with a publisher which makes them give better deals
• Game now adds reputation from publisher in sales and marketing calculations, but publisher takes 75% of fans from product
• Publishers now have a recoup target before lowering their royalty cut
• Publisher funding is now increased if marketing or printing is disabled
• You can now get a publisher after a product has released or publisher has closed down
• Added detailed publisher info in product detail window

Character models

• 6 new torso clothing items
• Overhauled beards
• Added tons of piercing options
• Employees' faces now age physically

Other changes

• There's a new IT-support staff related furniture that can be unlocked by owning a subsidiary
• Founders can now get stressed, but at 75% normal rate due to not taking food or bathroom breaks
• Employees no longer wait their turn when they are queued for something if they are closer, thereby heavily increasing food and toilet throughput
• Employees will now wait outside bathroom if it is occupied, instead of just not using the toilet at all
• Added a minimum 6 month grace period before spawning a company in an under served market, to give the player some reaction time
• You can now procure more gold, silver and copper at a time, and the size of the current gold object has been heavily reduced as a result
• How many bugs an employee can fix is no longer based on the most skilled person on the same team, but the most skilled person in any team assigned to the task
• Prints per month column in manufacturing window now accounts for contracts and deals being completed
• Improved manufacturing stats
• Burglar and police drone warnings are now more prominent and you can auto-follow the action
• The contract window has been split into available and completed tabs for less visual clutter
• You can now press enter to accept contracts
• Added button to show all processes across all servers
• Added progress bars to list columns for employees, teams, servers, digital distribution and assembly lines
• The game now officially supports objects that can both be snapped to something or placed on the floor directly
• You can now find locked furniture when searching for it specifically, to avoid confusion as to why some furniture is missing
• The rent overlay can now toggle the player owned color to show only grouping, to reduce confusion about the rent room accessibility error
• Somewhat reduced performance impact of having windows with lists open

Fixes

• Bunch of fixes to the character models
• Fixed bug that would incorrectly report on physical sales for subscription-based products and add-ons causing over-ordering by AI
• Fixed furniture search algorithm not properly taking verticality into account, making employees sometimes choose furniture far away on other floors
• Fixed bug where employees would sit sideways in their chair after having gone to an empty vending machine
• Fixed solar panel and leather couch not working in any data overlay
• Fix for elevators becoming stuck because they think somebody hasn't properly entered them yet
• Made it so the BetterSoftwareDevelopment mod can't cancel digital distribution platform support
• Fixed not being able to search for logos with special characters
• Fixed Walk Instead trait not actually applying properly
• Fixed long standing bug that made IT and maintenance repair tasks take zero seconds, they now take between 1 and 20 in-game minutes, depending on object complexity
• Fixed original price of precious metals not loading properly

Patch notes for Beta 1.8.6

Changes

• 6 new torso clothing items
• Overhauled beards
• Added tons of piercing options
• Employees' faces now age physically
• You can now press enter to accept contracts
• Added button to show all processes across all servers
• Added progress bars to list columns for employees, teams, servers, digital distribution and assembly lines
• Somewhat reduced performance impact of having windows with lists open

Fixes

• Fixed publisher deadline length label being wrong when days per month > 1
• Bunch of fixes to the character models

[ 2024-09-29 16:12:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch. This update has a lot of big balancing changes that are likely to cause some issues. Feel free to use the in-game reporting tool to report any issues you have, particularly with project management, publishers, IT and maintenance balancing, and employee effectiveness.

Patch notes for Beta 1.8.4

Project management

• Replaced project management point system with a mistake system
• You can now add previous products to a project management task to automate existing tasks
• You can now let project manager handle ordering copies or setting print job maximum every day
• The amount of projects that have active tasks for project management now increases stress for leader

Publishers

• You can now pick between different publishing deals
• Successful publishing deals now increases relationship with a publisher which makes them give better deals
• Game now adds reputation from publisher in sales and marketing calculations, but publisher takes 75% of fans from product
• Publishers now have a recoup target before lowering their royalty cut
• Publisher funding is now increased if marketing or printing is disabled
• You can now get a publisher after a product has released or publisher has closed down
• Added detailed publisher info in product detail window

Other changes

• There's a new IT-support staff related furniture that can be unlocked by owning a subsidiary
• Founders can now get stressed
• Employees no longer wait their turn when they are queued for something if they are closer, thereby heavily increasing food and toilet throughput
• Employees will now wait outside bathroom if it is occupied, instead of just not using the toilet at all
• Added a minimum 6 month grace period before spawning a company in an under served market, to give the player some reaction time
• You can now procure more gold, silver and copper at a time, and the size of the current gold object has been heavily reduced as a result
• How many bugs an employee can fix is no longer based on the most skilled person on the same team, but the most skilled person in any team assigned to the task
• Prints per month column in manufacturing window now accounts for contracts and deals being completed
• Improved manufacturing stats
• Burglar and police drone warnings are now more prominent and you can auto-follow the action
• The contract window has been split into available and completed tabs for less visual clutter
• The game now officially supports objects that can both be snapped to something or placed on the floor directly
• You can now find locked furniture when searching for it specifically, to avoid confusion as to why some furniture is missing

Fixes

• Fixed furniture search algorithm not properly taking verticality into account, making employees sometimes choose furniture far away on other floors
• Fixed bug where employees would sit sideways in their chair after having gone to an empty vending machine
• Fixed solar panel and leather couch not working in any data overlay
• Fix for elevators becoming stuck because they think somebody hasn't properly entered them yet
• Made it so the BetterSoftwareDevelopment mod can't cancel digital distribution platform support
• Fixed not being able to search for logos with special characters
• Fixed Walk Instead trait not actually applying properly
• Fixed long standing bug that made IT and maintenance repair tasks take zero seconds, they now take between 1 and 20 in-game minutes, depending on object complexity
• Fixed original price of precious metals not loading properly

[ 2024-09-11 11:15:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• A bunch of character animations have been overhauled
• Doubled access points for food dispensers to reduce queue time
• You can now view add-ons developed by other companies from the company detail window
• Best, then secondary HR role choice now includes skills that are within 25% of the main, instead of 50%
• Tasks now show contract deadlines when collapsed
• Employee name generation is now a bit more random
• Added prompt when exiting new game menu
• The main menu zoom into the monitor effect now only happens the first time you open the game
• Added ability to jump back in tutorial
• Game will no longer allow saving a building if you have to go through a rentable room to reach another rentable room
• Applicant appeal is now lowered after being caught comitting tax fraud

Fixes

• Game now considers room rent status when checking accessibility to show player if a room is off limits causing other rooms to become off limits
• Fixed handling of precious metals when burglars are caught with it
• Fixed police sometimes forgetting to return stolen items after arresting burglar
• Fixed not being able to replace snappable objects on upper floors
• The conveyor belt simulation will now choose performance over precision, if assembly lines are so complex that the CPU can't keep up
• Fixed deals not expiring for clients in multiplayer if host haven't been offered them
• Fixed bug that could cause time to become unsynced in multiplayer if host was trying to skip more days at a time than clients
• Fixed not being able to build road over cross sections when you own plots all around it
• Fixed not having any contracts available and founders arriving immediately when starting new company in same save
• Loans are now considered for the large growth newspaper article

[ 2024-07-07 13:42:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update will be in the unstable branch for a couple of days before releasing officially. Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch. With 64-bit numbers, you should see less errors when handling large sums of money. Compatibility with 32-bit systems won't change. Older saves will be converted automatically and will no longer work in older versions of Software Inc.
This update also introduces a way to centralize kitchens using conveyor belts!

Patch notes

Changes

• Moved from 32-bit to 64-bit decimal numbers for most money and simulation calculations to improve precision and stability
• Added food input and output for conveyor belts so kitchens can be centralized (Unlocked by completing the canteen task)
• Expanded random name generation for more product categories and companies
• Reduced the effect on colleagues when their friends retire amicably
• Luxury food can now only be delivered by cooks
• Employees now get a mood buff when eating cooked food
• Added prompt when prematurely ending network deal or hiring employee that is less than 3 years from retirement
• Furniture placed on an exterior wall can now be placed up against the edge of the wall
• Food that is thrown out due to expiring has been added to the bills breakdown of the finance window as food waste
• When trading lead designer owned IP, their actual cut is now listed in the prompt

Fixes

• Fixed subscription income not scaling with days per month
• Fixed incorrectly receiving platinum awards
• Fixed house shader
• Fixed PC addons being in the wrong location after moving and rotating table
• Fixed Unity causing imperceptible incorrect implicit conversion from float to byte colors
• Fixed old well maintained computers giving employees a big boost
• Fixed bug where the same issue notification could pop up multiple times if it was raised and fixed multiple times in the same frame
• Fixed staff arriving multiple times on the same day if they are set to leave when finished
• Multiplayer stability fix for getting stuck at midnight
• Fixed moods fading too quickly when employees are home

[ 2024-05-18 14:30:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes

Content

• New chairs
• New lamps
• New big plants
• New desk
• Overhauled cubicle wall
• Overhauled doors
• Bigger version of radiator and ventilation unit
• New car model starting from 1990s
• Expanded random name generation for some product categories

Changes

• Overhauled how employees react to wage changes, making them continually unsatisfied with getting less than they want
• Added option to force lights to be always on
• Placing unfurnished blueprints now retains structural elements, such as elevators and stairs
• Added ability to rebind key to disable grid in build mode
• Toggling first person mode now auto enables ceiling mesh generation and regenerates all room meshes
• Added new State column in employee overview window to show when an employee will arrive again
• You now get a chat message from the game about kicking old players if someone can't join a full game with less than 4 players connected
• Added ability to limit future jumps in random name generator by prefixing jumps with a '-'

Fixes

• Bug regarding building paths in multiplayer would add paths on top of paths every load causing huge performance issues (Paths will be reset in old multiplayer saves after this patch and players will only be able to see their own paths going forward)
• Better handling of secondary tasks when max task limit is enabled
• Fixed days per month setting not being retained when starting a new company in the same save
• Fixed stock notification and archive settings for products not being loaded for clients in multiplayer
• Fixed task limit being reset when renaming a team
• Fixed ceilings not being generated properly when enabled since atrium update
• Fixed old buildings being loaded in when cancelling company restart and starting new game
• Changed how fire inspector checks for escape violations so rooms with missing stair connections are always marked correctly
• Possible fix for LAN mode being nearly unplayable on some specific network configurations

[ 2024-04-15 11:24:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added option to randomize furniture look when placing
• Added ability to view all community logos sorted by popularity or newly added

Fixes

• Fixed not being able to buy subsidiaries or hire lead designers with contracts and deals disabled due to not being able to gain business reputation
• Fixed game using ? for category buttons in build mode when mods are missing the iconic tag
• Fixed roofs still being built for blueprints that are placed in the basement
• Fixed bug causing furniture replacements to fail in basement
• Fixed bugs being over counted for multiplayer bug fixing deals
• Fixed being able to set limit and maximum on contract manufacturing jobs
• Fixed employees sometimes taking large detours to stay on paths
• Fixed room boost calculation to be less dependant on order in which furniture was placed
• Fixed wall mounted objects sometimes falsely looking inaccessible with red feet when placing
• Fixed objects on atrium walls not turning on with occupants, such as TVs
• Fixed release date reminder timing with more than 1 day per month
• Fixed project management not starting print jobs for add-ons, e.g. joysticks

[ 2024-02-27 15:52:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 1.7.31 fixes a couple of game breaking bugs introduced in the last update

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.30

Changes

• Added achievements (More to come)
• Added ability to upload and download company logos from other players
• Customers are now more sensitive to the features and quality of large scoped products (e.g. operating systems), so pushing out small or low quality operating systems is a less viable strategy
• You can now view project progress details when tasks are grouped from the task dropdown menu
• You can now hover over a grouped task to get the full task view
• You can now disable contracts, deals, loans and publishers from the difficulty settings
• Renamed Impossible difficulty to very hard and added a new impossible difficulty without contracts, deals, loans and publishers
• Improved AI distribution cost planning and increased initial investment for AI hardware companies to avoid bankruptcies due to high upfront costs
• Contents insurance now always covers 100% but will increase in price as accidents happen
• You will now get sued if anybody perishes in a fire after failing a fire inspection
• Employees are now negatively affected after directly witnessing a theft or fire
• Adjusted how far employees are willing to go to avoid tight spaces, so they don't take detours in crowded offices
• Changed burglar priority to consider object worth instead of purchase price (precious metals and awards will now be high value targets)

Fixes

• Fixed bug where room that would have previously passed a fire inspection still showed as passed when it failed
• Fixed suit jacket with shirt patterns changing color at a distance
• Fixed specialization priority order not being preserved when loading applicant filter in hire window
• Fixed specialization preference for HR not being respected if the team has no valid employees or tasks to compare to
• Game will now attempt to fix players being stuck waiting for no one in multiplayer
• Fixed ground disappearing in data overlay mode
• Fixed being able to set employee ownership for furniture the player does not own
• Fixed some stability issues with using curve tool and undoing

[ 2024-01-30 19:48:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.29

Changes

• Adjusted founder dividends so they match highest tax rate
• Added percent and wage difference label to wage negotiation window
• Insurance costs are now based on sell price, divided between fire and theft, and awards and precious metals can no longer be insured
• Added ability to not insure furniture, wind turbines in rural plot are no longer insured by default
• Right click menu actions that toggle a state now has a checkmark

Fixes

• Fixed wage negotation salary input field not working correctly

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.28

Changes

• Added ability to start a new company in the same save when you go bankrupt or are bought out in singleplayer (You can rejoin a multiplayer game to achieve the same effect)
• When your founder retires you will now be able to select a CEO among your employees to take over
• Extra founder dividends is now a difficulty option starting at the current 20% going up to 100% on impossible
• Improved wage negotiation window with reject button and current salary arrow
• Changed how AI companies determine whether bankruptcy is imminent incl. considering upcoming tax bills
• AI companies will now try to sell IP when going bankrupt
• Set a hard monthly cap on stock spending for AI companies
• Added double click actions to most lists
• Added work-around for allowing player to join game even if their save isn't fully compatible with host
• All IP from unlisted bankrupt companies is now transferred directly to the public domain
• Reviews during alpha phase are now adjusted to account for current progress by default
• Added list of active tasks in employee window when an employee is selected
• The effect an award has in a room is now stated directly in the award screen
• Added ability to "soft" archive products, hiding them by default and disabling some notifications
• When grouping tasks by project, tasks that don't have a project will get a type-based label to make sure they are not hidden
• Made it clearer that the fire inspection overlay depends on the fire inspector to finish their report
• Added Detail button to post marketing task to quickly view details about product being marketed
• You can longer disable the prompt whether to fire several employees at once
• Adjusted decibel scale in UI a bit to make it more realistic
• Small usability update for server window
• Added tip to notification about visitors leaving due to bad conditions
• Reordered skill sliders in new game screen to match specialization panel
• The filter button in the deal window will now be red when all deals are being filtered out

Fixes

• Fixed regression in how navigation mesh is generated causing suboptimal pathing in some cases
• Reduced conveyor belt simulation maximum time step from 30 minutes to 3 minutes to reduce discrepancy in throughput between normal speed, max speed and time skipping
• Fixed AI companies not releasing their lead designer when they go bankrupt or are bought out
• Fixed police and burglar getting stuck if police can't find a path to burglar
• Fixed removing balcony and undoing causing error from trying to recreate furniture in the wrong order
• Fixed dragging pillar over another room and undoing causing error from trying to recreate furniture in the wrong order
• Fixed public domain IP costing money and charging royalties
• Added fix for employees being in biking state but not entering animation
• Fixed AI companies with the least amount of money being the most aggressive in the stock market
• Stability fixes for curve tool and undoing curves
• Fixed monthly and total cost of loan in new game screen being wrong
• Fixed toggling elevator exit not immediately updating room connection states

[ 2024-01-12 15:24:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is just a quick UX and bug fix update based mostly on Quill18's playthrough. Another update with balance changes and bug fixes is coming soon. Changes

• Added new fire inspection data overlay
• Added hints about CTRL+C for duplicating rooms and furniture, move furniture shortcuts, closing window shortcuts, night owl trait and sending employees home to save money
• Made requirements clearer for HR management options
• Added confirmation when promoting from the design phase
• Added new option for HR role selection that sets lower skills as secondary roles
• Nerfed private office affector for leaders from 50% to 25% boost

Fixes

• Fixed employees not immediately going to a new PC when their team is changed to a team that is not allowed in current room
• Fixed employee compatibility labels and colors not accurately reflecting when it is too low

[ 2024-01-03 16:51:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added ability to curve a room from its corners
• Overhauled skyscrapers in city map
• Added textures to trees and replaced old school placable trees
• Replaced street lamps
• Added "Leave when done" option for couriers to make them deliver their boxes ASAP when there are no boxes left to fetch (Now default behaviour for temporary couriers)
• Firings that happen within 8 hours of hiring no longer affect applicant appeal

Fixes

• Fixed bug that could cause rooms to incorrectly become inaccessible or make employees fail to path to seemingly pathable areas
• Fixed bug that would give multiplayer clients money for each existing starting wind turbine in the rural map when they rejoined the game
• Fixed game not fully converting old data mods to new multiplayer bug system, causing some to fail when a day is simulated
• Fixed available contracts being bugged after rejoining a multiplayer game
• Fixed HR not activating properly when loading saved team setups
• Fixed bug in how employee turnover rate is calculated in the early game
• Fixed lead designers losing connection to their product for local player after rejoining multiplayer game
• Fixed ALL daily addon expenses being doubled as an added royalty expense (This bug was added in the multiplayer update and may have a big impact on addon profitability)
• Fixed being able to clip furniture that spans 2 floors with furniture in the floor above
• Fixed bug in how framework IDs are assigned in multiplayer causing clashing framework IDs and wrong ownership connections
• Fixed being able to place snapping furniture on top of existing furniture when moving multiple items

[ 2023-12-21 17:02:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added ability to group tasks by type or project
• Added ability to save and load team setups
• Blueprints now save room grouping data
• Added more functionality to room grouping window
• Added option to place blueprints without furniture
• Added toggle in options to turn off texture compression for furniture mods to speed up loading
• Added Shares column to company window to show how much player owns in company

Fixes

• Fixed selling old computers from inventory not properly taking age into account and selling for more than it should
• Fixed room grouping not being recreated when undoing destroying rooms

[ 2023-11-22 16:38:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added ability to limit how many tasks a team can work on at once

Fixes

• Fixed outsourced task labels being in other player's language
• Fixed bug that might've prevented updates, price changes and marketing to immediately affect sales
• Multiplayer saves are no longer marked incompatible when the host disconnects, but waits until there's an incompatible change in the simulation (The game already made a backup save, so this should only affect edge cases)
• Fixed multiplayer games from other versions not actually showing up in Steam
• Various stability fixes

[ 2023-11-20 10:02:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added ability to replace furniture before placing blueprint
• Computers in blueprints will now automatically be upgraded or downgraded to appropriate model
• Added plot adjacency visualization if enabled in multiplayer

Fixes

• Fixed distribution platform development not loading for clients in multiplayer
• Fixed drumroll sound effect in award window not being tied to UI volume
• Fixed plots being isolated in town map with plot adjacency enabled in multiplayer (Only fixed for new games)

[ 2023-11-17 15:32:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Player is now notified of new software, category, add-on, feature and furniture unlocks and there's a window to browse them
• Awards now rememeber what/who they were awarded for (Visible when selected)
• Added support for IPv6 and overriding local ip address using Settings.txt in LAN mode

Fixes

• Fixed stairs still making floors invisible in some cases on Mac and Linux
• Fixed multiplayer game being stuck if host bankrupted with more than 2 players in the game
• Disabled port outsourcing for unreleased operating systems
• Various multiplayer stability fixes

[ 2023-11-14 21:49:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Major changes

• Online multiplayer!
• You can now customize every difficulty setting individually, including turning off taxes and removing the impact of lead designers
• There's a new logo editor, which uses a much more intuitive layer-based system. It is not as powerful and efficient as the old editor, but the old editor is still available.

Multiplayer

You can play up to 4 players on a map at a time. Each player starts on each side of the map. You are all playing in the same market, with the same competitors, deals and distribution platforms. You can outsource tasks to other players, and trade stocks, plots and intellectual property.

Price change

The game's price has increased, not only to reflect the addition of multiplayer, but also the size of the game at this point. I initially wanted to release the game for $20 after working on it for about 3 years. We're coming up on 10 years next year, and the scope has gotten so much larger than when I started.

Full patch notes for Beta 1.7

Changes

• Added multiplayer
• First day now starts at 7AM and employees will arrive same day if they are hired before their scheduled arrival
• Overhauled difficulty structure, difficulty mods will no longer work until updated
• Added ability to customize difficulty
• Disabling taxes, removing effect of lead designers, removing fires and removing burglaries are now difficulty options
• Added new simple but less powerful logo editor
• Optimized pathing step when loading a save, should be a lot faster on older < 5 core Windows computers and all newer > 4 core computers
• Added ability to enter precise amounts when buying stock
• Added option to auto save every x minutes in build mode
• Server choices for design, updates, contracts, deals, etc. are now saved to file
• Added ability to send employees home for several months by using scroll wheel on the send home button
• Awards are now added to inventory when moving company, instead of being sold
• Added SWINCBETA, SWINCBETA1 and SWINCBETA1_7 (for 1.7) define symbols for code mod compatibility, which will be updated for each version going forward (will become SWINCRELEASE eventually)
• Added compass
• You can now see how many tasks a team is assigned to during assignment
• Awards will now end up in inventory when they are not directly being sold, but just removed as a result of other actions
• Employees will also start complaining about computers that are slow due to age, as well as condition, to warn player of old computers
• Employees will now react immediately to player changing a room's team assignments
• Added lightstrips to conveyor belts to make it easier to see which are turned on
• Changed how company assets are divided among shareholders when a company bankrupts, so it will be distributed even if less than 10% of the company is listed
• Quit confirmation dialog now asks whether to save instead of whether to quit
• Furniture that contain perishables are now auto-stocked when purchased
• Bug handling has changed to use method Product.ChangeBugs(startBugs, bugs) and Product.FixBugs(fixes), data mods will be auto upgraded on load
• Updated Steamworks SDK
• Added support for on-screen keyboard in Steam
• Reduced penalty for failing to deliver on prints and manufacturing jobs to 10%
• Increased payout for manufacturing contracts
• Added icon to show whether a task is part of a deal
• Screensaver :)

Fixes

• Fixed shortcut panel not clearing after moving or duplicating furniture outside of build mode
• Fixed player work on design and development deals not actually applying to end product
• Fixed not having to pay for licenses when updating software if not also fixing bugs
• Fixed furniture rotation sound stacking after placing multiple furniture at a time
• Fixed placing a room duplicate in an existing room charging for all walls of the new room instead of just the necessary split
• Fixed wall mounted furniture being placed on top of each other when duplicating room inside another
• Fixed cases of doors and windows not getting copied over when cloning rooms
• Fixed all undo bugs when dealing with awards
• Fixed issues with basement rendering in first person mode
• Fixed subsidiaries failing to retire lead designers
• Moved security desk from Staff to Security function category
• Fixed game saying tutorial has more steps than it had due to skipped parts
• Fixed not being able to use close window shortcut with tutorial active
• Fixed furniture modding tool breaking mod when refreshing mesh in Model menu and then saving
• Fixed issue when a furniture's point of interaction inside an atrium resided in an adjacent balcony
• Increased window margin to the left of the screen so titlebar doesn't become inaccessible
• Fixed rooms becoming inaccessible to all teams if it is surrounded by other rooms outside
• Fixed game not fetching all languages that share language codes from Localizor
• "Missing qualified employees for a project"-message now specifies whether it is in regards to an update, to clear up project management issues
• Fixed all interior doors not coming back when undoing selling plot
• Reduced compression of character animations to remove foot sliding
• Fixed noise visualization not working when rooms don't have default floor mapping
• Fixed furniture sitting on the outside of a wall sometimes going inside when undoing moving a wall
• Fixed security guards not going to security desk as soon as one becomes available during their shift
• Security guards will now also hunt burglars when they are walking to/from security/surveillance desks
• Fixed all burglars near each other not fleeing when one has been caught
• Fixed product selection window sometimes filtering too many products
• Fixed lead designer not being properly assigned when renaming a team
• Fixed atrium bannister color not loading from save file
• Fixed bugs when coloring cloned buildings with balconies
• Fixed bugs relating to undoing use of wall removal tool on atriums
• Fixed bannisters not being visible on upper atrium floors
• Fixed precious metals and awards sticking around in maps that have been moved out of
• Fixed bugs when undoing changes to wall with shelves on it
• Old deals are now cleaned up to reduce file size and load/save time for long running saves
• Fixed leader inspiration warning not clearing until lead designer actually starts working again after being replenished

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.21

Changes

• Reduced penalty for failing to deliver on prints and manufacturing jobs to 10%
• Increased payout for manufacturing contracts
• Added icon to show whether a task is part of a deal

Fixes

• Old deals are now cleaned up to reduce file size and load/save time for long running saves
• Fixed leader inspiration warning not clearing until lead designer actually starts working again after being replenished
• Various multiplayer stability fixes

[ 2023-11-13 10:00:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm hoping to add the ability to outsource printing and manufacturing tasks to other players before November 12, and releasing multiplayer officially before November 20, with a launch discount.

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.17

Fixes

• Random server outsourcing stability fixes

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.16

Changes

• Added ability to sell server capacity to other players as a cloud service in multiplayer

Fixes

• Fixed bugged references when joining a game with existing server tasks

[ 2023-10-31 19:17:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Players will now always start day at 7AM when joining a game to get their first day in
• Moved furniture and code mod settings into new game screen, since they are permanent changes
• Added error message to make it clear when host and client saves have discrepancies
• Made game autosave in multiplayer when game is closed by closing game window
• Game will now check through backups to see if there is a better save when joining a server

Fixes

• Fixed game saving 3 times in a row for online games with only 1 player
• Fixed multiplayer work deals bugging out when joining an existing game where the host saved before the deal took place
• Fixed security guards not going to security desk as soon as one becomes available during their shift
• Security guards will now also hunt burglars when they are walking to/from security/surveillance desks
• Fixed all burglars near each other not fleeing when one has been caught
• Fixed shared map objects like windturbines getting duplicated for player every time they joined a previous game
• Lead designers with the IP Ownership demand can no longer work as lead designer on outsourced projects in multiplayer
• Fixed issue with clients not connecting up if a new player is hosting an existing game
• Fixed clients getting stuck at midnight when the host player disconnects
• Fixed deals getting cancelled when they shouldn't and not cancelled when they should
• Fixed ID clash between network objects causing local player to gain money from selling wind turbines when removing a window or door from the network
• Fixed all players getting money when a player sold windturbines obtained through a rural plot
• Fixed parking lot player assignment sometimes being wrong when hosting game
• Fixed time buttons being unavailable when launching previous game as host in which player was waiting for other players
• Fixed project management tasks losing leader assignment when joining a game
• Changed how plot adjacency is calculated to avoid situations where a plot is unreachable
• Fixed manufacturing tasks and assembly lines not being deserialized properly when joining a game with an existing save
• Fixed some server processes not being deserialized properly when joining a game with an existing save

[ 2023-09-30 12:57:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 1.7.4 fixes game crashing when starting a new multiplayer game

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.3

Changes

• Other players can now vote to force skip day if non-ready players are AFK
• Added option to limit how long a day can last before a player is forced to skip to next day
• Added ability to change game and lobby port for LAN in settings.txt

Fixes

• Fixed deal filter not being loaded properly from save
• Fixed plots not being purchasable after a reload in multiplayer, games will need to be saved and reloaded again to fix this
• Fixed deal accepted by a player still coming in from receptionist for other players, if they hadn't gotten it yet
• Fixed an issue that would make game unable to load multiplayer saves with corrupted buildings, they should now load
• Some multiplayer saves had corrupted network data that would eventually break the game for everyone and will now be deleted on load
• Bunch of stability fixes

[ 2023-09-11 11:48:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Major changes

• Online multiplayer!
• You can now customize every difficulty setting individually, including turning off taxes and removing the impact of lead designers
• There's a new logo editor, which uses a much more intuitive layer-based system. It is not as powerful and efficient as the old editor, but the old editor is still available.

Multiplayer

You can play up to 4 players on a map at a time. Each player starts on each side of the map. You are all playing in the same market, with the same competitors, deals and distribution platforms. You can outsource tasks to other players, and trade stocks, plots and intellectual property.

Price change

The game's price has increased, not only to reflect the addition of multiplayer, but also the size of the game at this point. I initially wanted to release the game for $20 after working on it for about 3 years. We're coming up on 10 years next year, and the scope has gotten so much larger than when I started. I expect to have a launch discount when multiplayer releases officially. If you don't care about multiplayer, there's a cheaper LAN-only DRM-free version available.

Patch notes for Beta 1.7.1

Changes

• Added multiplayer
• First day now starts at 7AM and employees will arrive same day if they are hired before their scheduled arrival
• Overhauled difficulty structure, difficulty mods will no longer work until updated
• Added ability to customize difficulty
• Disabling taxes, removing effect of lead designers, removing fires and removing burglaries are now difficulty options
• Added new simple but less powerful logo editor
• Added ability to enter precise amounts when buying stock
• Added option to auto save every x minutes in build mode
• Server choices for design, updates, contracts, deals, etc. are now saved to file
• Added ability to send employees home for several months by using scroll wheel on the send home button
• Added compass
• You can now see how many tasks a team is assigned to during assignment
• Awards will now end up in inventory when they are not directly being sold, but just removed as a result of other actions
• Employees will also start complaining about computers that are slow due to age, as well as condition, to warn player of old computers
• Employees will now react immediately to player changing a room's team assignments
• Added lightstrips to conveyor belts to make it easier to see which are turned on
• Changed how company assets are divided among shareholders when a company bankrupts, so it will be distributed even if less than 10% of the company is listed
• Quit confirmation dialog now asks whether to save instead of whether to quit
• Bug handling has changed to use method Product.ChangeBugs(startBugs, bugs) and Product.FixBugs(fixes), data mods will be auto upgraded on load
• Updated Steamworks SDK

Fixes

• Fixed shortcut panel not clearing after moving or duplicating furniture outside of build mode
• Fixed player work on design and development deals not actually applying to end product
• Fixed not having to pay for licenses when updating software if not also fixing bugs
• Fixed furniture rotation sound stacking after placing multiple furniture at a time
• Fixed placing a room duplicate in an existing room charging for all walls of the new room instead of just the necessary split
• Fixed wall mounted furniture being placed on top of each other when duplicating room inside another
• Fixed cases of doors and windows not getting copied over when cloning rooms
• Fixed all undo bugs when dealing with awards
• Fixed issues with basement rendering in first person mode
• Fixed subsidiaries failing to retire lead designers
• Moved security desk from Staff to Security function category
• Fixed game saying tutorial has more steps than it had due to skipped parts
• Fixed not being able to use close window shortcut with tutorial active
• Fixed furniture modding tool breaking mod when refreshing mesh in Model menu and then saving
• Fixed issue when a furniture's point of interaction inside an atrium resided in an adjacent balcony
• Increased window margin to the left of the screen so titlebar doesn't become inaccessible
• Fixed rooms becoming inaccessible to all teams if it is surrounded by other rooms outside
• Fixed game not fetching all languages that share language codes from Localizor
• "Missing qualified employees for a project"-message now specifies whether it is in regards to an update, to clear up project management issues
• Fixed all interior doors not coming back when undoing selling plot
• Reduced compression of character animations to remove foot sliding
• Fixed noise visualization not working when rooms don't have default floor mapping

[ 2023-09-08 08:33:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Reduced saturation of generated team colors
• Added button to auto color teams based on skills and meeting time
• Changed CCTV cycle rate from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes

Fixes

• In-house products can no longer receive best product or designer awards
• Fixed some bugs in the furniture modding system introduced in the last patch
• Proper handling of modded furniture where the primary color can't be edited by player, but secondary or tertiary can

[ 2023-05-22 12:21:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Full patch notes for Beta 1.6

Changes

• All companies now have procedurally generated logos
• Added logo editor
• Added yearly awards with 4 categories
• Added shelf furniture that supports table lamp, table plants and awards for now
• Heavily improved schedule window and made it interactable + added shortcuts in team and staff window
• Added complaint when commute times are above 3 hours
• AI companies can no longer dilute shares if one company owns more than 50%
• Founder no longer reports precious metals
• Only realized gains and losses from investments are now taxed
• Improved furniture interaction distance visualization to work outside as well
• Added furniture interaction distance to couch, which is 50 meter radius
• The effect of mass layoffs on applicant appeal is now relative to company size
• More in-game UI elements are now affected by UI scaling, e.g. the context menu
• Team colors are now randomly chosen on creation
• Improved random color selection for servers, teams and assembly lines to space colors out more
• Save times in save window now use AM/PM based on player options

Fixes

• Fixed chance of getting missing sink warning, when employees are getting sick for other reasons, e.g. Just the flu trait
• Fixed taking a huge performance hit with destroy wall tool active in some cases
• Fixed random name generator getting stuck on a word after having used it 100 times
• Fixed 2 color materials not getting copied correctly when splitting room
• The AI will no longer place bids on IP that is owned by a lead designer, since it doesn't concern the company
• Fixed bug when undoing selling plot that caused an atrium to get removed
• Fixed replacing wall mounted furniture on the outside of a building placing it inside
• Fixed not being able to put company logo and title on both sides of a wall
• Fixed furniture placed on wall mounted furniture not moving with it when using wall drag tool
• Fixed wage negotiation window not closing if the only employee on the list was poached while the window was shown
• Removed review work from secondary task selection

Some logos to try

• Y2FgFGQ/3SodJCjk9uz//+rVDEyM7EbF/G2HFeYwPG3hOv7/Pxvz//r/9YwMQMDIxMJSL8HAysj+v76vyUj9v/39ym3Vhx8wsbFMtGRgZ2COWHO46pLI//9MHEwMDEycQC3MXM7c3NxHm4Q6vRZxMjEzMbMAMRsLKzMHGzszJyMHExcnAA==
• Y2FgZGKeOTMtbYZlGhAwMkn8tz+TI8caaMHM7DzhrlZq28zK//UMLEzMIOmZEEWsCEVsh//Xev6v84SoY2FnYOAAKZ05E6qUE6GU67DV+geWGx5AjeQG2QtXx4NQx3v4/2mG/2cYoEbyMbDwM3AyMQHdycTEysLExsrMzszGxMnBxMXJxMPNxMvDzMfFy8zPzgcA
• Y2ZgZGD4/5+BiYH566wvWXtF//9nZGb052dkYfmcycTKAARsjOyi3cdq/9tffnxPK9ft4ywmdiagMAcD87LihzOUjb+HMXECBZi4WPqZGLkZz3Ay8rCU5TPxAtUw8QHFGPgZ2W29rjWfjdiqM1NypuT//0wCIDlBoCZmoSQV9YCkzXf/1/+352RiZmJiYWJmZWZhZmdjYuZk52DmYuVk4uZg4uFg5uXmYebj4mUW4ONnFmQUYBISBAA=
• Dcy7EcIwFETR1b6njyU5I8UdEBMy4wKgEIaYUBldMONC6IcKiBff8ATXEQDJuH7vRw0YuJ2k4IELIuxw1fiVHZJ/XswEWLA3NdflfZNY90FqGhrG5XmG9VXS9vAZExnoxhQte7KSo9UysVX2ZjP7Hw==
• Fcw7CsJQEIXhyZnJ4+Ym5tGKvaWohZ1wERFSWLgCd2BrlcpliGBl5wZcgnuwtxNSCBbjTXn4Dr9QYGUxHS5VCYTRWBUMIpb17yHafjsKrTzNauMh6iF2bzfXVhIiY6W5fhovqReyCPSi7f2wnyDzm3PnTp22NLDyOp63/lf0hdLNbjtfqEhqMswBIMxRCMQRJxJzasBZapFnXAyAsuAqL7lOqj8=
• Y2FgZGQ/02NU/MT0v31J4Fz/5IUMTBARC6P/9m9EQ6W4bjIxMzEwMLIoTDrQtJKNNa04zpuRgUEtgYGBjYkxYs3/+nuV//8zsQPFGDiYGHabJ59j4BRgTpjwLqVegokLKMrIrfC/PnoFAw8js3RfYMfZiDM8Z3iAWniBxjLxARWw8f+v/18PMoCBmVWAPTFjW154u0UjgyATY0GEU+X3MKBiIaA0kzBIhcghbm5uHh6e//WczMyMTEwszEysLMzsrGzMXBycTNxczLzcPMx87LxM/KxMAvzMQgKCzMJ8QkwiwgA=
• Y2FgZGAoesvAxMYoPi16CnPxw3RWZmbxtqm9s+OYWJgYGBhYmRjPLb7SI6naI8TIpnDe6n89EztQmIGDifF55okGY68eIVZOxv/1JTlMXCBxbibG22lnepzEVmkx8YAEeJkYU8vmTQsN7RFi4gPyGfkVGiyApggA2UyCQCuYhZwkJCT+13MyMTMxswAJNlZmdhY2Jk4OZi4g5uHiZubj4WXi52MWYOdnFmQUYBISBAA=
• FcqrEQJBEEXR7tc9/5ldiSMHJgGqwGBQhIFCIZeqjYAUyAEkSMJqFnlPXSWOZEbwwbY2Pa/2MXtdICAijeC1GdwS7PleOeh8RmQipL9lQlk+qbveu02uYX+Q4fE+rey2sel71JGSCEOcKLxDgEQOkqIiJyk+oxY0xdBkrMMP

Patch notes for Beta 1.6.7

Changes

• Only realized gains and losses from investments are now taxed
• Improved furniture interaction distance visualization to work outside as well
• Added furniture interaction distance to couch, which is 50 meter radius
• Added option of making schedule window ugly and confusing by supporting AM/PM
• Save times in save window now use AM/PM based on player options

Fixes

• Fixed recent addition to code modding breaking some code mods

[ 2023-05-19 11:16:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes

Changes

• All companies now have procedurally generated logos
• Added logo editor
• Added yearly awards with 4 categories
• Added shelf furniture that supports table lamp, table plants and awards for now
• Founder no longer reports precious metals
• The effect of mass layoffs on applicant appeal is now relative to company size
• More in-game UI elements are now affected by UI scaling, e.g. the context menu

Fixes

• Removed review work from secondary task selection
• Fixed taking a huge performance hit with destroy wall tool active in some cases
• Fixed wage negotiation window not closing if the only employee on the list was poached while the window was shown
• Fixed chance of getting missing sink warning, when employees are getting sick for other reasons, e.g. Just the flu trait
• The AI will no longer place bids on IP that is owned by a lead designer, since it doesn't concern the company
• Fixed 2 color materials not getting copied correctly when splitting room
• Fixed bug when undoing selling plot that caused an atrium to get removed

Some logos to try:

• Y2FgFGQ/3SodJCjk9uz//+rVDEyM7EbF/G2HFeYwPG3hOv7/Pxvz//r/9YwMQMDIxMJSL8HAysj+v76vyUj9v/39ym3Vhx8wsbFMtGRgZ2COWHO46pLI//9MHEwMDEycQC3MXM7c3NxHm4Q6vRZxMjEzMbMAMRsLKzMHGzszJyMHExcnAA==
• Y2FgZGKeOTMtbYZlGhAwMkn8tz+TI8caaMHM7DzhrlZq28zK//UMLEzMIOmZEEWsCEVsh//Xev6v84SoY2FnYOAAKZ05E6qUE6GU67DV+geWGx5AjeQG2QtXx4NQx3v4/2mG/2cYoEbyMbDwM3AyMQHdycTEysLExsrMzszGxMnBxMXJxMPNxMvDzMfFy8zPzgcA
• Y2ZgZGD4/5+BiYH566wvWXtF//9nZGb052dkYfmcycTKAARsjOyi3cdq/9tffnxPK9ft4ywmdiagMAcD87LihzOUjb+HMXECBZi4WPqZGLkZz3Ay8rCU5TPxAtUw8QHFGPgZ2W29rjWfjdiqM1NypuT//0wCIDlBoCZmoSQV9YCkzXf/1/+352RiZmJiYWJmZWZhZmdjYuZk52DmYuVk4uZg4uFg5uXmYebj4mUW4ONnFmQUYBISBAA=
• Dcy7EcIwFETR1b6njyU5I8UdEBMy4wKgEIaYUBldMONC6IcKiBff8ATXEQDJuH7vRw0YuJ2k4IELIuxw1fiVHZJ/XswEWLA3NdflfZNY90FqGhrG5XmG9VXS9vAZExnoxhQte7KSo9UysVX2ZjP7Hw==
• Fcw7CsJQEIXhyZnJ4+Ym5tGKvaWohZ1wERFSWLgCd2BrlcpliGBl5wZcgnuwtxNSCBbjTXn4Dr9QYGUxHS5VCYTRWBUMIpb17yHafjsKrTzNauMh6iF2bzfXVhIiY6W5fhovqReyCPSi7f2wnyDzm3PnTp22NLDyOp63/lf0hdLNbjtfqEhqMswBIMxRCMQRJxJzasBZapFnXAyAsuAqL7lOqj8=
• Y2FgZGQ/02NU/MT0v31J4Fz/5IUMTBARC6P/9m9EQ6W4bjIxMzEwMLIoTDrQtJKNNa04zpuRgUEtgYGBjYkxYs3/+nuV//8zsQPFGDiYGHabJ59j4BRgTpjwLqVegokLKMrIrfC/PnoFAw8js3RfYMfZiDM8Z3iAWniBxjLxARWw8f+v/18PMoCBmVWAPTFjW154u0UjgyATY0GEU+X3MKBiIaA0kzBIhcghbm5uHh6e//WczMyMTEwszEysLMzsrGzMXBycTNxczLzcPMx87LxM/KxMAvzMQgKCzMJ8QkwiwgA=
• Y2FgZGAoesvAxMYoPi16CnPxw3RWZmbxtqm9s+OYWJgYGBhYmRjPLb7SI6naI8TIpnDe6n89EztQmIGDifF55okGY68eIVZOxv/1JTlMXCBxbibG22lnepzEVmkx8YAEeJkYU8vmTQsN7RFi4gPyGfkVGiyApggA2UyCQCuYhZwkJCT+13MyMTMxswAJNlZmdhY2Jk4OZi4g5uHiZubj4WXi52MWYOdnFmQUYBISBAA=
• FcqrEQJBEEXR7tc9/5ldiSMHJgGqwGBQhIFCIZeqjYAUyAEkSMJqFnlPXSWOZEbwwbY2Pa/2MXtdICAijeC1GdwS7PleOeh8RmQipL9lQlk+qbveu02uYX+Q4fE+rey2sel71JGSCEOcKLxDgEQOkqIiJyk+oxY0xdBkrMMP

Patch notes for Beta 1.6.2

Fixes

• Fixed logo editor breaking when placing a shape or image directly on top of an existing connection
• Fixed position tool in logo editor not working with UI anti-aliasing turned on (All platforms but Linux by default)
• Fixed logo editor being broken with UI scale above 100%
• Fixed logo editor sometimes breaking when breaking connection down the line of a finished logo
• Fixed logo editor breaking when trying to save with a logo that is missing connections

Patch notes for Beta 1.6.3

Fixes

• Fixed cases of logo editor breaking when disconnecting nodes
• Old save games using the modded bookshelf called "Shelf" will now load correctly
• Fixed replacing wall mounted furniture on the outside of a building placing it inside
• Fixed not being able to put company logo and title on both sides of a wall

Patch notes for Beta 1.6.4

Fixes

• Fixed last update breaking logo editor completely
• Fixed logo editor breaking if color node had invalid second input

[ 2023-05-08 16:13:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Three cooks can now queue up for a fridge at a time and fridge capacity has been increased by 10 to 50 (waiting around in queue makes cooks a bit slower)
• Cooks will now prioritize fridges closest to their stove, rather than to themselves

Fixes

• Fixed bug where some furniture primary colors would not load properly when loading save
• Fixed game reporting missing support staff because support task didn't have any tickets in queue
• Fixed bus being stuck waiting on employee that's being pushed out into the road by other waiting bus passengers
• Fixed issue with building textures having tiling issues when viewing it zoomed out at sharp angles and SSAA disabled, e.g. red lines on the floor
• Fixed room maintaining limitations when converting to pillar
• Fixed game sometimes failing to place back wall furniture on balconies when undoing
• Fixed issues when visualizing noise radii when there were too many furniture on the floor and added culling

[ 2023-04-27 11:28:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

You are now required to pay taxes, and as a big IT company, it would be unusual not to try and get out of it...

Full Beta 1.5 patch notes

(Beta 1.5.5 patch notes at the bottom) Changes

• Added taxes that have to be paid yearly and requires the production of a tax report
• Added ability to dodge taxes, store money in an offshore account and use it for various purposes
• Changed the cost of loans and added bank loans
• Added applicant appeal score to punish player for firing a lot of people or having a lot of unhappy employees
• Whenever a company closes there'll be a temporary increase in job applicants
• Seniority now lowers salary expections, instead of the other way around, as switching jobs usually increases pay + it makes hiring younger more appealing
• Added "Idle" amount to company balance sheet to show how much is being wasted in paying idle employees
• You can now see whether a team will prioritize a task as secondary before assigning it
• You can now somewhat overlap cubicle walls again
• You can now manually set the default priority from the options menu
• Changed how room boosts are calculated to avoid placing a hundred clocks being the optimal choice
• Server downtime now affects refunds
• Wall mounted furniture marked as being valid outside can now be placed directly outside, which currently includes wall lamps, security cameras and company logos
• Changed sink notification from tip to issue so people can't ignore them (Some sinks from the workshop are not marked as such and do not work properly)
• Added ability to view specializations of terminated employees for 1 year after they were terminated
• Moved shortcut panel into build panel
• Upgraded puddle shader
• Added window edges to make them easier to tell apart
• Added ability to view add-on info from parent product info window during development
• Saving a founder now also saves their skills, specializations, personality and traits
• Added the born leader trait icon above employees working slower because of it
• Added ability to change whether a product has out of stock notifications
• Added warning if no employees with support specialization is assigned to an active support task
• Snapping furniture is no longer limited to being placed on the current floor, but instead limited by the room height, including atriums

Fixes

• Fixed extra valuation on plots never actually being deducted from player account
• Fixed bug with blue channel of building material textures
• Fixed team compatibility calculation when loading game not taking friendships into account
• Fixed characters not being escaped properly from Localizor resulting in new lines and tabs being replaced with n's and t's
• Fixed being able to place furniture outside in rented maps
• Fixed being able to assign teams to a task that has already completed while assigning
• Fixed product printers not maxing out printing capacity in some cases with finished and low priority jobs left
• Fixed being able to use wall drag tool to create unsupported rooms
• Fixed cases of getting an angle error when trying to build wall against existing wall
• Fixed HR not hiring anyone because friendships raised the lower compatibility bar too much
• Fixed employees not using mini fridge if it was actively being used when they arrived
• Fixed edge aliasing issue when making thumbnails for furniture mods
• Fixed boxes getting bunched up on conveyor ramps with tier 3 conveyors at max game speed
• Fixed bugs when using wall drag tool on atriums

Optimizations

• Newspaper articles older than 5 years and archived public domain products older than 20 years are removed to increase save speed and reduce file size
• The compression and IO part of file saving has been offloaded to a background thread to reduce lag during auto-saves (Probably about 10% faster depending on hard drive speed)

Patch notes for Beta 1.5.5

Changes

• Added exception for fire inspector when reporting precious metals, as it would be impossible to avoid otherwise
• Added ability to change whether a product has out of stock notifications
• Added warning if no employees with support specialization is assigned to an active support task
• Snapping furniture is no longer limited to being placed on the current floor, but instead limited by the room height, including atriums

Fixes

• Fixed bugs when using wall drag tool on atriums
• Fixed saved founder specializations not loading properly

[ 2023-04-12 11:31:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes for Beta 1.5.2

Changes

• Added "Black market" action to offshore account

Fixes

• Fixed gold bars being spotted in basement through window that leads "outside"
• Fixed company logos being visible on floors above current
• Fixed boxes getting bunched up on conveyor ramps with tier 3 conveyors at max game speed

Patch notes for Beta 1.5.1

Changes

• Added taxes that have to be paid yearly and requires the production of a tax report
• Added ability to dodge taxes, store money in an offshore account and use it for various purposes
• Changed the cost of loans and added bank loans
• Added applicant appeal score to punish player for firing a lot of people or having a lot of unhappy employees
• Whenever a company closes there'll be a temporary increase in job applicants
• Seniority now lowers salary expections, instead of the other way around, as switching jobs usually increases pay + it makes hiring younger more appealing
• Added "Idle" amount to company balance sheet to show how much is being wasted in paying idle employees
• You can now see whether a team will prioritize a task as secondary before assigning it
• You can now somewhat overlap cubicle walls again
• You can now manually set the default priority from the options menu
• Changed how room boosts are calculated to avoid placing a hundred clocks being the optimal choice
• Server downtime now affects refunds
• Wall mounted furniture marked as being valid outside can now be placed directly outside, which currently includes wall lamps, security cameras and company logos
• Changed sink notification from tip to issue so people can't ignore them (Some sinks from the workshop are not marked as such and do not work properly)
• Added ability to view specializations of terminated employees for 1 year after they were terminated
• Moved shortcut panel into build panel
• Upgraded puddle shader

Fixes

• Fixed extra valuation on plots never actually being deducted from player account
• Fixed bug with blue channel of building material textures
• Fixed team compatibility calculation when loading game not taking friendships into account
• Fixed characters not being escaped properly from Localizor resulting in new lines and tabs being replaced with n's and t's
• Fixed being able to place furniture outside in rented maps
• Fixed being able to assign teams to a task that has already completed while assigning
• Fixed product printers not maxing out printing capacity in some cases with finished and low priority jobs left
• Fixed being able to use wall drag tool to create unsupported rooms
• Fixed cases of getting an angle error when trying to build wall against existing wall
• Fixed HR not hiring anyone because friendships raised the lower compatibility bar too much
• Fixed employees not using mini fridge if it was actively being used when they arrived
• Fixed edge aliasing issue when making thumbnails for furniture mods

[ 2023-03-30 09:53:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 1.4.16 fixes error when editing or placing modded furniture

Patch notes for Beta 1.4.15

Changes

• Overhauled stairs, added railings and ability to customize look
• Default priority is now 5
• Improved employee selection highlighting

Fixes

• Fixed roof texture mapping being bugged when roof is curved
• Fixed food despawning on load
• Fixed employee hair not greying
• Fixed being able to overlap cubicle walls
• Fixed being able to merge rooms in a way that would make them unsupported
• Fixed the Game feature Digital exclusive music being limited by physical stock and causing unwarranted out of stock messages

[ 2023-02-25 16:05:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes for Beta 1.4.14

Changes

• Added ability to rotate, offset and scale floor textures

Fixes

• Fixed roof texture tiling
• Fixed car wheels being visible in basement
• Fixed error when placing room on top of existing room and undoing

Patch notes for Beta 1.4.13

Changes

• New materials added for buildings and most of the old ones have been overhauled
• Building material system has been overhauled such that you can map 2 colors instead of just 1 and a metallic channel has been added
• Added a simple skybox for reflections, even if SSR is disabled, so metallic materials still look decent
• Hub caps are now varied across cars and randomized
• New surveillance desk 3D model dropped
• Made security's reaction to catching burglars red-handed a little more convincing

Fixes

• Fixed grid missing in furniture editor
• Fixed founders overlapping other UI elements in character menu if UI scaling is used on smaller screen resolutions
• Fixed UI sometimes breaking after loading a game if pixel perfect UI was disabled
• Fixed skyscraper window rendering being broken for like 3 years
• Fixed sky not rendering as a gradient using OpenGL
• Fixed wall drag tool not properly checking whether rooms are supported after change in some cases

[ 2023-02-14 13:55:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes for Beta 1.4.13

Changes

• New materials added for buildings and most of the old ones have been overhauled
• Building material system has been overhauled such that you can map 2 colors instead of just 1 and a metallic channel has been added
• Added a simple skybox for reflections, even if SSR is disabled, so metallic materials still look decent
• Hub caps are now varied across cars and randomized
• New surveillance desk 3D model dropped
• Made security's reaction to catching burglars red-handed a little more convincing

Fixes

• Fixed grid missing in furniture editor
• Fixed founders overlapping other UI elements in character menu if UI scaling is used on smaller screen resolutions
• Fixed UI sometimes breaking after loading a game if pixel perfect UI was disabled
• Fixed skyscraper window rendering being broken for like 3 years
• Fixed sky not rendering as a gradient using OpenGL
• Fixed wall drag tool not properly checking whether rooms are supported after change in some cases

[ 2023-02-11 12:39:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added avoidance algorithm to avoid employees clipping into buildings and each other as much

Fixes

• Fixed employee thumbnails missing beard textures
• Fixed Big Brain trait being impossible to pick with high creativity in new game menu
• Adjusted some floating point comparisons to reduce false positive wall intersection and room around room issues
• Fixed not being able to place a duplicated room such that it is twisted around an existing room
• Fixed out of stock notification breaking since changing when stock deduction is handled in previous patch

[ 2023-01-15 07:40:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 1.4.5 fixes project info window Beta 1.4.4 fixes game breaking when trying to iterate in alpha

Patch notes for Beta 1.4.3

Changes

• Introduced male pattern baldness
• Added more coloring options to wind turbine

Fixes

• Fixed bug that caused all add-on feature multipliers to be wrong, this also resets all factors to 1 for existing projects in save files
• Optimized despawning of actors in-game to reduce "tearing down" time
• Fixed undoing cloning room on top of existing not undoing style change
• Fixed not being able to make tasks show up when loading save if they were all filtered out to begin with
• Product stock is now deducted later in sales calculation so scripts can kick in beforehand, to fix Digital exclusive music feature

[ 2023-01-11 07:46:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Software Inc. has now been through 6 character model iterations over 8 years, and the final version has gained a mouth, some sclera, pretty patterns and 44 things to change about the face!

Future plans

The immediate future of Software Inc. includes a campaign system, to introduce new players to all the mechanics at a steady pace, and an upgrade of the building materials. After that I'll be brainstorming a random event system, before focusing on getting Software Inc. ready for final release.

Patch notes for Beta 1.4.1

Changes

• Character model has been completely overhauled
• A bunch of new clothing items and hairstyles have been added
• Faces now have 44 shape parameters that can be changed by pulling the face directly
• Characters can now have different body types
• Most clothing items can now have patterns

Fixes

• Fixed bug that could cause the game to break when using translations (E.g. German from Localizor)

Beta 1.4.2 Fixes game breaking when changing eyebrow color with no hair

[ 2023-01-06 16:54:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added Friend maker trait and changed some traits in personality graph
• Best friends now reduce social decay for the rest of day after any interaction
• Added ability to see which products are using a framework
• Framework now shows up under tools in product detail window and amount paid is recorded

Fixes

• Fixed employees not prioritizing assigned seats over unassigned seats for eating, loitering and meetings
• Fixed employees still being censored if their bathroom visit was interrupted
• Fixed code pie chart in design document being wrong for system if project had OSs selected
• Fixed cases where the list of features in a project or framework would be cut off at the end
• Fixed some optimization issues caused by guests with deals and a large amount of furniture

[ 2023-01-03 16:54:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes for Beta 1.3.19

Fixes bug from 1.3.18 that broke design progress updates in UI

Patch notes for Beta 1.3.18

Changes

• Added button to apply market analysis results to product market targeting
• Design tasks with mandatory lead designer will now wait for them if they are too far behind on progress in iteration 1
• Some columns can now be searched using an input field
• Rebalanced friendship effect on mood from losing team members
• It now takes twice as long to go from friends to best friends

Fixes

• Fixed game breaking in some cases when toggling watch trait in character creation menu
• Fixed name being randomized in character creation menu when loading saved character

[ 2022-12-09 15:07:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added advanced toggle in character creation menu to toggle specialization and creativity
• A good mix of traits are now picked by default in character creation menu
• Made it easier to switch traits in character creation menu
• Assemblers will now switch to prioritize components that match, rather than most completed assemblies, if assembly line is completely backed up, because player hasn't built enough assemblers

Fixes

• Fixed lower floor windows and doors not rendering in atriums with opaque windows enabled
• Fixed replacing worn headphones not correcting rotation of new object properly
• Preventative fix for game crashing when translating bits for a save with so many mods installed it would create hundreds of products per year (Old saves are still borked (Can be fixed by increasing stack size of executable to at least 10 mb))
• Made it clearer when employee is stuck waiting for elevator with Silent But Deadly trait

[ 2022-12-08 14:25:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

If you've had the issue where the game crashes at "Translating bits" your save file is sadly not recoverable, sorry. The issue has been fixed for future save files and would only happen in saves where an employee had several hundred friendships. Changes

• Changed wording around friendship mechanic in employee detail window and added tip about forming friendships to Acquaintances icon

Fixes

• Saves that crash the game when translating bits are permanently destroyed (Caused by employees with hundreds of friendships at the same time), but the core issue has been fixed for future saves
• Fixed issue cleaning up friendships when employee was destroyed that made you unable to save game

[ 2022-12-04 11:55:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update allows employees to become friends, which can improve their team's compatibility and effectiveness, but also increase the impact of losing team members.

Patch notes

Changes

• Added employee friendship mechanic
• Added tooltip support for list column headers, used sparingly so far
• Adjusted audio positioning so everything isn't as silent when zoomed in
• Trait filter in lists can now be filtered by requiring all selected traits instead of just any of them
• You can now assign staff to the outside for fixing wind turbines and batteries

Fixes

• Fixed only being able to toggle columns with a game loaded
• Fixed columns in employee window not properly loading toggle state from save
• Fixed bug in calculation that checks whether employees are seated next to each other, which would pass through cubicles in some cases

[ 2022-12-01 16:34:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes for Beta 1.3.13

Fixes

• Fixed blueprint window, traits and role grid no longer working because Unity decided to break all IPointerClickHandlers

Patch notes for Beta 1.3.12

Changes

• You can now resize windows by dragging on the left, bottom or right edge
• You no longer have to run the game for a couple of minutes after starting a new game or loading to enable skipping time
• You can now right click on list columns to toggle them, which will be remembered per save file
• Column widths are now saved separately for each product overview window

Fixes

• Fixed game breaking when trying to turn pillar into atrium
• Fixed shadow box for rooms turned into atriums sticking around

[ 2022-11-22 13:01:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Rooms that fire inspector failed to get to using stairs are now added to inspection report
• You can now build atriums on top of existing rooms if they have the exact same ground plan

Fixes

• Fixed tutorial illustrations sometimes not showing up
• Fixed too aggressive culling of big objects seen through windows of lower floors
• Fixed all list views not working correctly in main menu and new game screen
• Fixed benches not working anymore, as they weren't being counted as seats

[ 2022-11-21 12:22:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update introduces an overhauled security system. Your employees will now call the police when they see a burglar, and security cameras have to be actively monitored by a security guard using a surveillance desk, which allows one guard to surveil four places at once. Security guards will still work as normal if there are no surveillance desks, but security cameras will not work without building a surveillance desk.
We're currently working on several big updates behind the scenes, which is why these past couple of updates haven't been very big. I won't spoil it all, but I'm currently in the process of adding a campaign system, which will just be a simple linear experience, to help introduce all the mechanics, without being too dry and text heavy.

Patch notes for Beta 1.3.10

Changes

• Added custom mouse cursor that reacts to UI (Can be disabled in options)

Fixes

• Fixed shortcuts not showing up on screen when building blueprints
• Fixed table grouping optimization making game unstable in some cases

[ 2022-11-16 12:43:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update introduces an overhauled security system. Your employees will now call the police when they see a burglar, and security cameras have to be actively monitored by a security guard using a surveillance desk, which allows one guard to surveil four places at once. Security guards will still work as normal if there are no surveillance desks, but security cameras will not work without building a surveillance desk.
Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch. I have also made some big changes in code to optimize CPU use, which I expect will cause some instability. I'll keep a close eye on reports and push patches quickly.

Beta 1.3.7

Changes

• Added message when security camera isn't connected

Fixes

• Fixed error when selling and replacing server
• More optimization stability fixes

Beta 1.3.6

Optimization stability fixes

Beta 1.3.5

Changes

• Overhauled burglary logic and added surveillance desk

Fixes

• Fixed doors not having shadows with more shadows enabled
• Fixed employees getting stuck in air if current task was reset while on lift
• Fixed project management leaders not being saved correctly when moving company to new building
• Atrium build stability fixes
• Lots of CPU optimization work

[ 2022-11-03 17:53:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update brings atriums to Software inc. allowing you to extend rooms upwards and add balconies.

Patch notes for Beta 1.3.4

Fixes

• Fixed being able to build floating balcony, which would break game
• Fixed error when building balcony with free angle tool and moving mouse to a wall on a different building
• Fixed atrium balconies breaking when destroying them while atrium is not top most
• Fixed being able to break game by splitting an atrium through a balcony if the split happened along the same wall
• Fixed design document window not closing after starting project if there were any warnings

[ 2022-10-30 12:32:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Made it easier to see and control which side a balcony will be created on when using free-angle build tool

Fixes

• Fixed being able to remove lower atrium rooms
• Fixed staff not prioritizing lounges when looking for couches
• Fixed cost of atriums and balconies
• Miscellaneous atrium building stability fixes

[ 2022-10-28 13:31:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Made wall drag tool work for atriums in some cases

Fixes

• Fixed furniture that pokes through roof sticking around after building atrium
• Fixed game freezing when spawning fire inspectors with atriums present
• Fixed some atriums not loading back as atriums if they had been split previously before saving
• Room temperature is now updated instantly when heaters and fans turn on so employees don't feel cold for a millisecond
• Fixed game bugging out after merging rooms due to snapping furniture not updating correctly
• Miscellaneous atrium building stability fixes

[ 2022-10-21 12:59:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this update you can build atriums using the atrium tool and balconies by splitting the upper atrium areas as you would any other room. Note that the atrium tool probably isn't 100% stable in some edge cases, so be sure to save often when editing atriums (CTRL+S to quick save by default) and please send a report with a save file and steps to reproduce, if your atrium is bugging out, by pressing P in-game.
Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes

Changes

• Added ability to build atriums and balconies

Fixes

• Fixed watches still rendering when employees leave
• Fixed some missing localization strings

[ 2022-10-18 14:47:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Atriums are pretty much finished, but I've decided to add support for balconies as well, which will take a little while longer to finish. Changes

• Added glass and railing type fences

Fixes

• Fixed splitting room with rectangle room tool being more expensive than using free angle tool
• Fixed quarter turn stairs that wrap around wall mistakingly being re-parented to adjacent room on load
• Fixed bugged insulation calculation from last patch

[ 2022-10-06 13:41:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update took a little longer since I was hoping to add atriums, but they aren't quite ready yet, so they'll have to wait for the next update.

Patch notes

Changes

• Large windows will now merge with other adjacent large windows across room corners at or below 90 degrees
• Pre-marketing tasks are now shown for project management tasks
• Added more info to development progress detail window about requirements and unqualified employees
• Made shortcut list animation more obnoxious since people still aren't noticing it
• Added visualization to see where rooms are in basement when viewing ground floor and vice versa

Fixes

• Fixed game breaking after undoing merging a pillar and a room using wall drag tool
• Fixed windows and doors not snapping to a wall when wall is about 1 meter wide and diagonal at a grid intersection using standard building grid
• Fixed cases of being able to clone rooms on top of one another in certain circumstances
• Fixed thumbnail generator in furniture editor broke in last patch
• Take-over notification now differentiates between whether company was bought out or went bankrupt
• Fixed not being able to select security cameras when ceiling furniture is hidden
• Fixed conveyor belts being turned off on a custom rentable map

[ 2022-09-28 10:58:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this update

Beta 1.2 overhauls the digital distribution mechanics, requiring you to develop and support your distribution platform and compete directly against the AI companies with their own platforms. This update wraps up beta 1.2 testing with a bunch of fixes and some improvements to the manufacturing mechanics. Lasse and I are currently working on a larger graphical overhaul of some elements of the game, which is why this patch is smaller than usual. I will post more details once we get closer to release.

Patch notes for Beta 1.2.2

Changes

• Added 3 tiers of conveyor belts for building tight assembly lines
• Added ability to highlight all boxes on the premises related to a printing job
• Split up "Select furniture types in rooms" to make it more useful for selecting specific furniture
• Added warning when conveyor belts are facing each other
• Improved work progress detail window
• You can now reload a single furniture mod with the RELOAD_FURNITURE_MOD command

Fixes

• Fixed door signs sometimes being visible on lower floors
• Fixed subsidiaries being able to open digital stores
• Fixed not gaining access to add-ons when taking over project management projects
• Employees will no longer offset their arrival times due to slow commutes by more than 4 hours, since some saves had people arriving 27 hours early
• Fixed game thinking work was missing applicable employees due to active iteration in alpha phase
• Fixed game not highlighting project management tasks when issues popped up referring to tasks in project management
• Updates and add-ons are now considered when determining how long it's been since player's last release in a software category
• Employees will now try to arrive near a lounge in case there are no applicable team rooms or PCs
• Fixed creating new company in a custom building would set that building as auto-save target and break it on save
• Fixed being able to use server group that doesn't exist by moving into building with servers from the future on the premises
• Fixed using arrow keys to change slider values in furniture editor not moving by 1% increments for some sliders
• Fixed not being able to edit new alt styles in furniture editor until reload
• Fixed being able to release distribution platforms as consumer products by assigning it to a subsidiary

[ 2022-09-13 14:44:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Please note that save files from Beta 1.2 are not compatible with Beta 1.1, so if you think you want to go back to Beta 1.1, make sure you don't overwrite your save files in Beta 1.2. Beta 1.1 save files will work fine in Beta 1.2, but your digital distribution platform will be reset on load. Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes

Changes

• Overhauled digital distribution so all companies can open their own store and digital products have to be sold through them
• Digital distribution platforms now require software to be developed and maintained for them
• Player can make exclusivity offers to only sell a product in their store
• Separated digital distribution and manufacturing tasks into 2 windows
• Moved utility interface from finance window to its own window
• Overhauled main bottom button panel and added new Logistics category (Code mods can add their own buttons and categories as well)
• Added window to manage an assembler's component queue
• Added K to toggle max interaction distance visualization for selected furniture or furniture being built
• Bottom left info panel will now say when an employee is working on secondary tasks
• Rebalanced support ticket generation speed
• ISP cost reduced
• Added RelativeServer record to features for modding that multiplies/divides server requirements rather than adding up
• Added quit confirmation if last save was > 1 minute ago
• Increased number of rooms an employee will search for a fridge, from their desk, to put their lunch in, from 2 rooms to 3
• Assemblers will now throw out the least developed assemblies first when full, for chance to actually finish an assembly, in case player has balanced it wrong
• Added warning when product is too expensive and losing sales
• Tech levels will now lose revelancy more slowly to avoid products being outdated on release due to the update system
• Wall mounted furniture can now be placed right up against wall split if angle formed by walls is above 180 degrees

Fixes

• Force recompilation of code mods, due to breaking change in last update
• Fixed AI sometimes engaging in cross-holding, allowing for infinite money exploit
• Fixed rotation of corner tables when mirroring rooms
• Software updates didn't add new bugs due to bug
• Fixed tutorial videos not always playing
• Helicopter pads built from basement floor are now blocked by roads above
• Fixed collision issues when building furniture under roads or roads above furniture
• Fixed employees getting stuck on stairs when they had their pathing interrupted
• Fixed staff receiving company car benefit on hire
• Fixed features not being auto selected for sequels when new forced features have been unlocked for software
• Added way to break out of save loading screen on computers that are way below minimum requirements
• Fixed update ETA being wrong

[ 2022-07-28 10:57:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added ability to colorize windows and doors + added different looks to standard door
• Added ability to put signs on doors
• Police will now ignore parking assignments
• Added unfixed bug count to collapsed support work item
• Reduced width of the wall-mounted conveyor belt so it fits right up against walls
• Fire inspection fines now scale with company size
• Added button to view/select servers in server window
• Server connections are now preserved when cloning rooms or building blueprints
• Room use limits no longer apply to pass-through, e.g. a designer can pass through a programmer-only room to get to another room
• The "center" of a room will now move if it is not within the room itself, e.g. if the room is U shaped
• You can now see path connections when building or removing paths
• Added button to select all of the same segment type in a room, e.g. all doors, works the same as "Select furniture types in selected rooms"
• Added ability to change lead designer for project management design tasks

Fixes

• Fixed furniture editor not handling holdable points correctly
• Fixed not being able to open add-on details from distribution window
• Environment overlay now shows furniture impact on environment
• Fixed patent list in company detail windows
• Fixed pie chart labels in design document window
• Fixed missing lead designer for subsidiaries notification not dissapearing when company is closed
• Fixed instances of prematurely finishing game load, when another wave of navigation mesh generation was expected, causing rooms to appear unreachable on load
• Fixed normal mapping not working for furniture atlas shader when RGB mapping was disabled
• Fixed framework boost not being scaled by framework quality in design document window
• HR will no longer hire designers with demands
• Fixed daily hiring pool for HR management not having a limit if player or other HR team had made no similar searches
• Fixed employees being able to go through a blocked passageway one-way, leading them to get blocked-in on the other side
• Blocked passage warning for elevators and stairs are now visible on both floors
• Made anti z-fighting scaling on cubicle walls more subtle
• Fixed single team selection not working properly after filtering by search and then picking with mouse instead of enter
• Fixed missing spec warning in update window not refreshing after reopening
• Fixed ambiguity of distribution deal notifications
• Cancelling a project management task didn't unhide any running update tasks
• Fixed position of tools in update window sometimes getting jumbled
• Fixed employee education filter not filtering out employees with big brain trait ready for education in locked specializations
• If an employee fails to find a path to a furniture that wasn't ruled out by team assignments, they will skip any other candidates in the same room to improve performance
• Employee satisfaction effect from salary changes no longer decays while they are gone
• Final release window is now scaled to always fit on screen independent of UI scaling

[ 2022-06-07 14:37:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added search bar to team selection window
• You can now switch between windowed and exclusive fullscreen, enabled by Unity 2018 upgrade
• Room auras are now globally capped and mood aura calculation has improved
• Added ability to click arrows in material preview panel to scroll between styles

Fixes

• Made gable generation more robust, e.g. for ramp shaped roofs
• Autosave now happens after wage negotiations have finished
• Fixed bugs when merging rooms using wall drag tool inside an outdoor area and undoing
• Fixed update teams for project management not getting updated when renaming teams
• Game will now remember when a name generator failed to find a unique name and exit early to avoid simulation slow downs
• Game will now fallback to built-in company name generator if modded company name generator fails to find anymore unique names
• Fixed buggy interactions between wind turbines and blueprints
• Fixed Hardware Inc. map conveyor belts not being switched on by default. Can be fixed in older saves by power cycling them using connected conveyor belts
• Game will only warn about missing lead designer progress once, to avoid spam caused by trainer mod
• Failed to get cursor position: Success messages from Steam Deck now ignored
• Fixed temperature output usage estimations in UI to account for room size

[ 2022-05-10 15:53:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added company sign customization options
• Highlighting for selected carpets and signs has been added
• Default buildings are now loaded from RAM, so custom buildings can be cloud synced with Steam

Fixes

• Fixed Gas boiler, Heat pump and Roof AC usage estimations, that would otherwise make them break too quickly and make them seem cheaper in the build menu
• Fixed bug that would make game think manufacturing process was invalid because a step was skipped
• Fixed an infinite loop bug when dragging a wall in cramped spaces
• Fixed divide by zero error in add-on sales calculation
• Fixed walls also being lowered for pillars when toggling walls
• Fixed component printer or assembler being marked as sending to an invalid destination in cases with many splits and merges along the assembly line
• Fixed staff not picking closest furniture if they had assigned rooms and the furniture was placed directly above on another floor

[ 2022-04-25 15:38:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.19

Changes

• All car models updated

Fixes

• Fixed fire alarms being animated on load
• Fixed being able to place wind turbine in the middle of road and vice versa
• Fixed bugs that would cause employees to get stuck until reload when deleting elevators they were using
• Fixed game sometimes failing to restore stolen or burnt furniture

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.18

Changes

• Made it take a little longer before lead designers quit over unmet demands
• Team changes in project management is now also applied instantly for support, marketing and update tasks
• Moved notifications out of the way of the money label in build mode
• Added option to update tech for project management

Fixes

• Fixed wall furniture not getting collisions updated when dragging wall out
• Made lead designers move computer if they are at work when they demand a private office and made them better at picking private offices when it happens
• Fixed employees sometimes not waiting for IT to finish fixing their assigned computers before moving onto another free computer

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.17

Changes

• Save files and some settings are now synced with Steam Cloud
• Canteens and lounges are no longer treated as special rooms when assigned to teams, so employees stop avoiding them
• Furniture that contains perishables can now define a expiration date, to avoid paying for a full refill every day

Fixes

• Game will no longer load mods with invalid name generators instead of failing silently during gameplay
• Fixed a couple of edge cases when placing single room duplicate in existing room, using wall drag or rectangle split causing game to break

[ 2022-04-16 16:40:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

New trailer

[previewyoutube=aZz_eP2lcUE;full][/previewyoutube] Software Inc. has entered its beta phase, which warranted an update of the now 5 year old trailer.

Major changes

• Added add-ons, which are extra products that can be developed and sold for a software or hardware product
• Added software updates, which allows increasing the tech level of a product to extend its life, and updates are now required to release bug fixes
• Added subscription-based software
• Added lead designers, who heavily impact the sales and marketing efforts of a product and have demands to boot
• Added hardware design system, so each hardware product's look can be customized
• Overhauled hiring with a limited hiring pool that refreshes every month
• Overhauled employee traits, there are currently 30 traits
• You can now have up to 4 founders when you start a new company
• Overhauled utility values and prices and added more ways to generate and store electricity
• Overhauled product reviews, you now get 3 reviews from various reviewers that focus on specific aspects of the product and company
• Improved rectangle room building and added wall dragging tool
• Overhauled notification system and look, issue messages now stick around until they are fixed
• Added bikes, body odour and bathing
• Save files, blueprints and some settings are now synced with Steam Cloud

You can still play Alpha 11 by switching to the legacy branch in Steam, click here to see how. Alpha 11 save files are compatible with Beta 1, but won't take advantage of many of the new features, like add-ons and hardware designs.

New price

With the release of beta 1 the price of Software Inc. goes from $14 to $16 (Depending on your region). The plan was always to increase the price of the game as it neared completion. This would make the game cheaper the earlier you bought it, as a reward for backing it early. The game is now 5 times bigger than I originally planned and I've been developing it for 7 years, rather than the 3 I initially planned for. Your support and feedback, and my enjoyment of developing Software Inc. has motivated me to continue improving on the game for so long, and it has made the game so much larger than what it would've otherwise been. Now it's at the point where I'll be spending most of my time polishing what is there, rather than expanding on it (I won't rule out feature creeping completely, though ;). This includes finishing up some game mechanics that aren't quite there yet, like digital distribution. And I'll finally be pushing towards actually finishing the game. Thank you so much for sticking with me all this time! But also thank you for not sticking with me all this time, but just playing it a couple of times 3 years ago and forgetting all about it, I still appreciate the support!

[ 2022-04-11 20:07:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.16

Changes

• Employee notification will now select and move to employee when clicking, instead of opening detail window, when there is only one
• Nerfed hosting deals a bit
• Added support for spawning notifications from background threads
• Added hint about spacing out component printer output to avoid excessive recycling

Fixes

• Fixed grass not refreshing when undoing destroying path
• Fixed bug with watch in new game menu when changing personality after enabling watch trait
• Fixed traits filters for HR not being copied over when copying team

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.15

Unity made some undocumented changes in 2018 that broke crash reporting. Not sure if it's ever going to work in Linux or OSX again

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.14

Changes

• Employees with the private office demand will now wait around for their assigned computer, in case it's broken or being fixed by an IT supporter
• Added date for next phase change for active projects in project management window
• Style picked in style picker panel is now applied to furniture placed from inventory
• Added fallback toggle in furniture editor in case the mod is not available on target PC
• Added label to main menu when new version is available

Fixes

• Fixed company sign no longer showing up
• Fixed a bunch of bugs relating to the wall dragging tool and undoing
• Fixed not being able to close wage negotiation window if player rejected poach deal with only employee left in negotiation
• Fixed bug where duplicating room could cause doors and windows to be improperly attached to wall
• Table grouping is now recalculated on load to fix any corruption

[ 2022-04-09 13:08:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.13

Changes

• Upgraded from Unity 2017 to Unity 2018
• Reduced impact of low creativity score for easy and medium difficulty
• Project managers can now schedule updates
• Subscription-based toggle is retained when clicking Make sequel from releases window
• All errors found in furniture mods is now also displayed in main menu modding window
• Added ability to pick lead designer specialization in new game menu
• Added creativity estimation to design document window

Fixes

• Product and component printers will no longer work in rented maps when the rooms they are in has not been rented
• Fixed employees working bugs in update tasks being counted in such a way that player was not getting warning about missing specializations
• Fixed fire inspectors requiring alarms and sprinklers in outdoor areas
• Fixed how speed of update task is calculated
• Fixed project management cancelling support work before any sales had been made
• Fix for employees getting stuck waiting for an elevator until reload
• Game will no longer load build and navigation boundaries that are defined in clockwise order in modded furniture

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.12

Changes

• Added P-key to report screenshot and added screenshot preview to feedback window
• Game no longer freezes on launch while loading steam workshop mods
• Added window to visualize who is working on what for development tasks
• Staff will now ignore which rooms they are assigned to when looking for a couch to loiter on

Fixes

• Fixed receiving money for wind turbines when moving from rural plot, when they haven't been purchased yet
• Fixed unlocking new furniture not making furniture visible immediately if build mode is active

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.11

Changes

• Made lead designers with the private office demand prioritize rooms with only 1 PC, if they haven't been assigned to any (Finding a PC is still FCFS)
• Made right click to drag compatible with all tools that use right click to cancel
• Separated subscription based, software, hardware and add-on income in finance window
• Added tooltip to finance window about not being able to use interest from bonds until withdrawn
• Lead designer private office demand is now only breached if another employee in the room is also sitting at a computer

Fixes

• Fixed lead designers having experience with software types that are not out yet
• Fixed new task priotization algorithm for HR hiring and education ignoring player chosen specialization filter
• Fixed changing the wrong team color if the team list is sorted by color
• Fixed game breaking when publisher would try to market add-ons during development

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.10

Changes

• Publishing deals now affect any forced add-ons as well, e.g. joysticks
• Improved output of furniture editor when saving furniture with no base

Fixes

• Made the demand breach notification work for founders demanding private offices
• Fixed dirt paths no longer being visible
• Fixed game sometimes overestimating active workers on a project causing slowdowns
• Fixed IPs becoming public domain while a sequel is being developed and cancelling development
• Fixed getting message about console running out of stock, when it was really a joystick halting sales for it

[ 2022-04-03 14:59:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.9

Changes

• New 3D models for heat pump, wind turbine and battery

Fixes

• Fixed companies cancelling player distribution deal when they didn't have any to begin with
• Fixed employees holding up food queue after already having had food
• Fixed furniture editor not working properly with furniture that doesn't have a base
• Fixed not being able to place buildings along road on north or west side of the map
• Fixed out of stock message going away after a couple of seconds
• Fixed AI IP deals not taking add-ons into account and having negative values for products not making profits yet

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.8

Changes

• Added ability to mute issue notifications
• Capped crunchtime hangover at 1 year

Fixes

• Fixed fire alarm not shutting off after fire when restoring rooms
• Probable fix for employees randomly getting stuck going into car, until reload
• Fixed game breaking when undoing replacing furniture
• Fixed broken furniture still applying room boosts
• Fixed furniture mods breaking due to having sub transforms with the same name as the furniture, which could make lamps break game
• Fixed not being able to place furniture outside if there were any pillars present on map

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.7

Changes

• Added lead designer inspiration warning
• Added creativity progress bar when hovering over applicable design tasks
• Reduced creativity impact on sales for easy and medium difficulty
• Reduced publisher marketing efforts to a point where they can make a profit
• Added ability to see all specialization stars in employee window
• Added development progress of all specializations to peer review window at time of review start
• Separated Food and Coffee bills

Modding

• Removed furniture UpgradeFrom variable, you only need to define UpgradeTo now

Fixes

• Fixed active users doubling every month if product has any add-ons
• Fixed active users gained from add-ons and active user loss modifiers not being scaled down by days per month
• Fixed bug introduced in recent patch where notifications would collapse after 5 seconds when interacted with, instead of cancelling collapse action
• Fixed furniture being placed on wall behind the closest wall for furniture that can be moved vertically
• Employees will no longer neglect hunger and bladder while chatting away at the water cooler

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.6

Changes

• Added links to wiki in mod editors if there are no mods to edit
• Moved contract alpha phase Promote button to match design phase

Fixes

• Fixed cases of employees ending up with 5 traits
• Fixed game showing education available for specializations that haven't been unlocked yet
• Added build menu categories to default localization
• Fixed lead designer's Active Projects count being misleading, as it wasn't updating every frame
• Fixed getting errors about furniture not fitting anywhere because the modded furniture it was placed on was not loaded
• Fixed being able to place cubicle walls up against a wall in such a way the game wouldn't register as inside the room

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.5

Changes

• Added warning about no applicable lead designers
• Changed reviewer score weighting a bit, so who's who and trend won't hurt the player's feelings as much
• Changed how reviewers determine level of marketing to account for company reputation

Fixes

• Fixed GLTF importer having flipped UV map, hardware designs in mods will need to have thier UVs flipped after this patch
• Fixed getting furniture assignment error when changing team name
• Fixed placing outside only furniture giving player wrong error message when trying to place in room or fenced area
• Fixed game breaking when firing lead designer from demand selection
• Fixed infinite loop of leader tutorials being spawned when opening company detail window
• Fixed game breaking when trading IP with archived products that are lead designer owned
• Fixed not being able to upload .obj files to the workshop for hardware designs
• Fixed localization generation from console not working
• Fixed game breaking when firing a lead designer who is currently working on a contract
• Fixed furniture not being visible from upper floors when it pokes through the outer wall and walls have been lowered

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.4

Fixes

• Fixed not being able to rename software in development
• Fixed game breaking when calling temporary staff with subway nearby causing them to spawn before the AI was initialized
• Fixed bugs with personality and trait selection when switching between founders
• Fixed watch being saved with founder
• Fixed old saves breaking when game would try to archive old products
• Fixed map position in main menu when there are no save games
• Made boxes wait 0.25 seconds before going on a pallet instead of going on because it was blocked for a single frame
• Fixed new deterministic RNG resulting in bad randomness, like employees getting sick all the time or never
• Fixed salary staying at $0 when rehiring a founder as lead designer after buying them out
• Fixed issue where a mod could not have the same path as another if the first part of their root folder names matched

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.3

Fixes

• Fixed support doing working animation when they are waiting for reports
• Fixed 10% speed boost tip on specialization stars not disappearing when moving mouse
• Fixed update task SCM description
• Fixed capitalization of names in reviews
• Fixed getting IP owner error when promoting to alpha with a lead designer that has the IP owner demand
• Fixed issue where merging a room into a room which had an elevator could cause some issues down the line that would break the game
• Fixed staff accidentally reserving computers when subways are present, making them unavailable for employees, until computer is re-assigned or replaced
• Fixed market analysis window being bugged for a year in old saves
• Fixed digital add-on sales not being summed properly causing player digital distribution share to get over 100%
• Fixed game breaking when releasing a product or finishing a contract with a lead designer that has since been fired

Patch notes for Beta 1.1.2

Fixes

• All code mods will need recompilation on launch to avoid old mods crashing the game because they are no longer compatible

[ 2022-03-23 17:04:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Beta 1 is finally out for you to test!

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch. Alpha 11 saves are compatible but will not take full advantage of new features.

Major changes

Add-ons

You can now release products for your products, for maximum productivity!

Improved utility system

The utility system has been massively improved with more options to generate and store electricity.

Biking

Your workers will now be able to bike to work and smell bad in the process.

Lead designers

There's a new class of employee in the game, which has huge effects on your products and your HR.

Hardware designs

You no longer have to imagine what your products will look like in the hands of your customers.

Hiring pools and traits

It's now much easier to find the exact employee you want, but also harder to find tons of them. Plus each employee have unique quirks.

Multiple founders

You no longer have to start your company off alone.

Better reviews

No more run-on sentences, you get 3 simple sentences to sum up your product, but with a little more flair than before.

Improved building

You can now drag walls and plop down room prefabs in existing rooms.

Better notifications

Notifications are now grouped and easier to manage.

Updates

Upgrade the tech of your products and manage patching schedules.

Furniture editor

You can now edit furniture mods using an in-game visual editor.

Patch notes

Changes

• Added add-ons, which are extra products that can be developed and sold for a software or hardware product
• Added software updates, which allows increasing the tech level of a product to extend its life, and updates are now required to release bug fixes
• Added subscription-based software
• Added lead designers
• Added hardware design system, so each hardware product's look can be customized and randomly generated, also moddable
• Overhauled hiring with a limited hiring pool that refreshes every month and paying to filter applicants, instead of unlocking more information
• Overhauled employee traits, there are currently 30 traits and the game picks 2 good and 2 bad or 1 good, 1 neutral and 1 bad based on employee personality
• You can now have up to 4 founders when you start a new company
• Overhauled utility values and prices, added details in finance window, added more ways to generate and store electricity and added gas for the central heating unit
• Overhauled product reviews, you now get 3 reviews from various reviewers that focus on specific aspects of the product and company
• Added new product launch window for easy overview of reviews and post release actions
• Improved rectangle room building and added wall dragging tool
• You can now place single room blueprints or duplicates inside existing rooms and it will automatically be split if necessary
• Overhauled notification system and look, issue messages now stick around until they are fixed
• Made it prohibitively slow to make large scale products with very few employees
• Added bikes, body odour and bathing
• Added firefighters
• Perishable prices have been adjusted to account for each portion representing one month's worth of portions
• Drastically increased cost of renting
• Drastically increased dividend percentage
• Product loss has been renamed to expenses
• Added expenses breakdown for player products in product detail window
• Gross product revenue is now calculated correctly by not subtracting royalties, distribution cuts, etc. which is now included as expenses
• ISP and server electricity costs are now calculated as an expense
• Improved character customization UX
• You can now view what each difficulty setting does in the new game screen
• Removed follower cap when marketing in design and alpha phases
• Level 3 developer specializations now adds a speed increase
• Close window shortcut now works on all windows with an X button, instead of just non-modal windows
• Added error message if printers or assemblers are sending components to the wrong place
• Improved incompatible assembly line message
• Assembly line grouping can now cross pallet connections, though components still aren't valid on pallets
• Added automatic component assembler load balancing at the receiving end, so sending components to assemblers at different rates won't back them up as easily
• Founder's effectiveness is now affected by more things
• Added button to duplicate a team
• Added ability for HR to auto-prioritize specializations based on active tasks
• You can now scroll to zoom in manufacturing graph
• Added ability to deactivate distribution deals on demand
• All companies will now start selling stocks, instead of only companies in need of funds
• AI companies going bankrupt before acquisition by the player will now try to course correct
• Some employee moods now decay when they are home as well
• Products are now archived (still viewable) after 10 years with no activity, to improve performance and reduce save file size
• Solar panel now generates income from surpluss production
• Added right side garage port
• Improved performance of manufacturing overlay
• Added level 3 game feature "Reverse Uno"
• Lowered volume of UI reverb when placing stuff in bad acoustic environments
• Bunch of optimizations

Modding

• Added an in-game editor for furniture mods
• Added warning about modded furniture with highly detailed models in Mod Window (Also modded furniture can now have LODs using LOD1 and LOD2 in Models table)
• The SoftwareType.Category label has been removed from the game
• Specialization features can now be forced for a subset of software categories and while having an unlock date
• Company names now contain a randomly generated word, and split up computer, console and phone name generation
• Added mod loading times to mod window in main menu
• Added the % modulo operator to SIPL

Fixes

• Fixed pillar to room tool clicking through UI
• Improved precision of wall curve tool and fixed it breaking on very long walls
• Fixed being able to profit off digital distribution even if server capacity isn't there
• Fixed patent work being invalidated if another company researched tech that was older than the one being patented
• Fixed rooms being marked as not accessible if you had to cross the same room twice to get there, due to blocking furniture
• Fixed language combo not refreshing immediately when loading language from Localizor
• Fixed it being almost impossible to get level 3 Service specs when hiring
• You no longer lose reputation by not working on a support or marketing deal accepted after 8 AM on the first day
• Fixed grass not updating immediatly after placing, moving or destroying furniture that should remove the grass
• Fixed AI porting their products to operating systems that have unrealistically high license prices
• Fixed employee being assigned to unreachable furniture error popping up on load because team assignment graph hadn't finished generating
• Fixed cases of burglars getting stuck if they had decided on something to steal but their path was reset in the meantime for whatever reason
• Fixed cases of fire inspectors requiring fire alarms or sprinklers in outdoor areas
• Fixed employees beeing too picky about when to wait in line and when to use a neighbouring object, causing them to wait too long for a toilet
• Fixed quaterly and yearly report not summing up correctly depending on current date
• Fixed AI releasing products right after 00 on the last day of a month causing the game to show their sales as if they were from 1 month in the future
• Rooms that are inaccessible due to team assignment will now show error outside of build mode as well
• Pallets will now complain about being unreachable if they are blocked in and have no conveyor output
• Fixed rotation of corner carpets when flipping rooms, but this time remembered to actually save changes to carpet prefabs
• Fixed "Infinity" being a valid price for products
• Fixed employees not aging in thumbnails
• Fixed splitting and merging rooms while nav mesh was rebuilding causing race conditions
• Fixed programmer+artist employees working slower on features that only require one or the other, if code and art still needed work in other features
• Fixed new blueprints not working when downloaded from steam workshop
• Fixed company's stock reaching 0% or less due to rounding error
• Fixed employee thoughts not being updated at same rate as they were affected, causing them to flicker with many active employees
• Fixed cases of printers continuing to print components from tasks that have been unassigned from their assembly line
• Fixed game breaking when mirroring cloned rooms with roofs attached
• Reduced 2x SSAA + SSR effect on GPU
• Fixed interaction triggered furniture sound effect players having the wrong distance setting, making them audible from further away

[ 2022-03-13 13:19:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its been about 6 months since I started development on Beta 1, so it seems the latter part of my initial guestimate of development taking 3-9 months was correct. At this point all planned and unplanned mechanical parts are in place, greased up and interlocked, now the whole thing just needs a lick of paint, i.e., bug fixing, some balancing, localization support, and content, like how is a joystick made? What does a DLC contain? And what should a review say for a product designed by a visionary lead designer? " Lead designer?" I hear you mutter.

Lead designers

So, this was the feature I teased in the last progress update as a "maybe if I have time", and I decided that I did have enough time. Each project (Not including add-ons, contracts, and deals) will now require a lead designer, who is in charge of deciding how a product should work and feel. Lead designers will have 3 stats which determine how well their ideas turn out for a project:

• Their creativity, which is innate and is revealed as they expand their portfolio.
• Their inspiration, which drains during a project and replenishes during downtime.
• Their skills. Every time you release a product, the lead designer(s) will gain experience with the software (or hardware) type in question.

Lead designers will require extra resources in terms of salaries and custom demands, each presenting unique gameplay challenges.
How do you find great lead designers? You might be lucky and find some out-of-work lead designers, or you can poach them from your competitors, but by far the least expensive option is hiring young designers and hoping to find a prodigy.

Multiple founders

You'll now be able to start your company as a joint venture. You can start with up to 4 founders, and each founder gets an equal share of the company (excluding the main founder, i.e., yourself), which you cannot absorb until some years have passed. Note that dividend rates have been heavily raised in Beta 1, so extra founders do not come cheap.

Building system upgrades

When using the rectangle room tool to split a room, I made some big assumptions on how those splits would look, making its use very limited. I have now made the rectangle room tool split algorithm way more generalized to handle virtually all split tasks and some merge tasks. I then combined the rectangle room tool with the merging tool to create the wall dragging tool.
This generalized room split algorithm also made it possible to "stamp" single room clones into existing rooms, like copying an entire toilet and pasting it inside a room without first having to carve out space for it.

The rest

The verdict on save compatibility is still out. It's currently working, but Alpha 11 games won't play very well in Beta 1. I'm reading through all your feedback and bug reports, and I've gotten a ton of important fixes in so far. Keep 'em coming, but also note that there's a good chance stuff has been fixed already. A snippet of changes since the last progress update:

• Fire fighters will now move out to help save your headquarters from going up in flames
• Difficulty values are now displayed in the new game screen
• I made it a lot easier to pick colors for your founders' clothes and stuff
• The follower number when marketing is no longer hard capped
• The manufacturing graph is now zoomable
• You can now disable distribution deals on a per company basis
• Some employee moods now decay while they are at home
• Bunch of main loop optimizations, should improve performance of the office simulation

My self-imposed deadline dictated that I release Beta 1 before the start of April, and I'm fairly confident I can make it before then, but I was also confident this update wouldn't take more than 6 months So, let's just agree to say, "Beta 1. Probably sometime before April". Thank you for your patience. Can't wait to see what you think!

[ 2022-01-12 20:18:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its been exactly 3 months since I released the last patch. Since then, Ive finished 50% of my planned tasks for Beta 1. However, since each task vary in complexity, Im probably not 50% done yet. But lets get on with what I have done so far.

Hardware designs

Ive added the ability to design how your hardware products will look and Lasse has been hard at work making it work and look great. This system will be fully moddable and hopefully it will add a bit of life to all the endless text-only lists of products and make them feel a bit more tangible.

Overhauled hiring and traits

[strike]Ignore the unintended Dexter reference.[/strike] Traits have moved from independent/social, fast learner/hard worker and lazy/stressed to individual traits that are determined by an employees personality, sprinkled with some RNG. Additionally, there is no longer an infinite pool of employees lined up to be hired or deallocated, but itll be much easier to filter through applicants as the hiring system is moving from pay-to-view to pay-to-filter.

Improved notifications

Notifications have been somewhat unhelpful up until now, mainly because it was hard to tell important from trivial messages, causing people to ignore them altogether, but also because issues would stick around even if they had already been fixed. This has changed in Beta 1 and Ive added more complex interactions, making them super extra helpful.

Improved release process

Ive overhauled the final review system, combined the post-release marketing and printing prompts, and merged it all into a single flashy release dialog, to make releasing new products a bit less anticlimactic.

Add-ons

Youll now be able to release DLC for your games, or joysticks for the most popular console on the block, to milk each product for all theyre worth. With subscription-based software, releasing content for your products will also help bring back old customers, to gain those sweet extra monthly payments.

The update-update

Bugs are no longer magically transported to your customers devices as soon as you fix them, youll now have to develop and release patches, which will also present an opportunity to upgrade tech levels, for even more subscription-based income goodness.

Save compatibility

I'm not sure I can guarantee save compatibility with Alpha 11 currently. I have not yet broken compatibility, but engine-related issues might force my hand later down the line. In any case, Alpha 11 should still be available, even after Beta 1 is out officially, so you can keep playing old saves, and a lot of the new mechanics in Beta 1 wouldn't be accessible from Alpha 11 saves anyway.

The rest

• You can now get a detailed breakdown of expenses for products you have developed
• HR can now auto-prioritize specializations based on active tasks
• Assembly lines can now cross over pallets connections
• Fixed a bug causing AI to buy OS licenses from player for porting, even if OS license was ridiculously expensive
• Fixed it being almost impossible to get level 3 service employees when hiring
• Tons of other fixes and improvements

I also have another super secret mechanic planned, which will involve a new class of employee. I will reveal more when I get there. As for when you'll be able to play it: I'm still on track with my initial estimate of 3-9 months. With the progress I've made so far, that estimate is narrowed to 3-6 months from today, as long as there aren't any major roadblocks. Thanks for sticking around! Hope youre as excited as I am :D

[ 2021-10-06 20:04:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

This should be the last patch before work on Beta 1 starts. Changes

• Added ability to see what competitors are researching
• AI will now prioritize researching tech that hasn't been researched in a while and isn't currently being researched by a lot of other companies
• Added more errors when employees are assigned to furniture in rooms they are not allowed in
• Feature tooltips are simplified in simple design document mode to avoid confusing new players

Fixes

• Fixed AI having higher chance of doing research with more days per month, making patents more difficult to obtain
• Fixed rotation of corner carpets when flipping rooms
• Game will now remove submarket values below 0 from mods, to avoid breaking game

[ 2021-07-06 12:51:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added car model LOD to improve performance with many cars on screen at once
• Updated main font, to make period and comma clearer, and monospace current time and money, to avoid jittering
• Ability to refill refillable furniture from the bottom left info panel
• Assembly line window now lists the effectiveness of printers and assemblers in each group

Fixes

• Fixed last column in finances window cutting off data if looking at a previous date in yearly or quaterly mode
• Fixed outdoor navigation mesh not refreshing after undoing curving wall on ground floor, potentially causing issues navigating until something else changes
• Fixed cases of furniture not being reachable even though it should be
• Fixed bug that could cause burglars to break if they entered a room with an elevator and a security guard in close proximity

[ 2021-06-23 10:11:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added nav mesh building as a step in game loading to avoid starting up with blocked areas for big saves on very slow PCs
• Added ability to see how long current vacation is going to last for selected employee
• Added window to analyze competition in product detail window
• Modded furniture can now snap to multiple different types of snap points at a time
• Ability for furniture mods to group snap points together, so only one can be used at a time, by assigning an ID to the Group record of a snap point
• Added EXPORT_FURNITURE_POINTS command to export snap and interaction points into modded furniture file

Fixes

• Fixed issues with snapping furniture in basement
• Fixed OS showing up in port window while already being ported to, if it was fully released in the meantime
• Fixed pallet points not connecting up reliably at angles due floating point precision
• Fixed game breaking on rented maps with player owned pillars, because game tried to generate grids inside them as if they were rooms
• Internal rotations for snapped furniture are now reset on load to avoid incorrect rotations when duplicating rooms and furniture

Alpha 11.7.60

Fixes

• Fixed furniture rotated the wrong way when cloning after last update (also rotates chairs back to face table in borked saves)
• Fixed competition analysis window having wrong max number on y-axis label

[ 2021-06-06 16:39:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Research now provides a 10% development speed boost to applicable features
• Added custom tooltip to features in design document detailing market targeting and speed modifiers
• Added submarket analysis window to visualize saturation of markets over time
• Licenses are now paid per employee per project instead of per company
• Added overview of tool licensing to product detail window
• If map seed starts with "NOLAKES", no lakes will be generated
• Rebalanced employee weighting of waiting to use furniture vs walking longer for it
• Added diagonal interior highlights to selected rooms
• Better handling of errors in level 3 feature scripts from mods
• Increased starting capital of hardware based companies to reduce chances of bankrupting early

Fixes

• Fixed instances of assembly lines not being updated correctly after undo or putting in inventory
• Fixed bug causing all rooms to become inaccessible to a team after renaming it, if no room on the map was assigned to any teams
• Fixed converting room to pillar deleting valid items on the other side of walls
• Meeting rooms no longer need to be assigned to a team
• Fixed not being able to manage parking spots above pre-built roads in city and town maps
• Employees will now discard reservation of computers as soon as they go to leave, to avoid making them unavailable for employees just arriving
• Furniture will now discard employee reservations immediately if they are unable to approach them
• Fixed snow on top of pillars in basement
• Added shadows to road elements when "More shadows" is enabled
• Garage ports can no longer be placed facing fenced areas, as it would break pathfinding

[ 2021-05-10 12:15:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Increased how far employees will travel for canteen to 75 meters from 50
• Made impossible difficulty a little easier
• Pillars will now say they are pillars in the info panel when selected
• Made data overlay list scrollable

Fixes

• Fixed being able to change game speed while save was loading
• Fixed grass not refreshing when undoing road changes
• Fixed reputation changes from deals not applying correctly with more days per month
• Fixed undoing moving furniture sometimes breaking stuff, if what they were moved from was deleted in the interim (Would often give harmless error messages about snap points when save was reloaded)
• Fixed overwriting old save file not changing its days per month setting until game was restarted
• Fixed blueprint groups re-appearing after deleting them and not being able to delete them again
• Fixed snow and grid z-fighting in some instances
• Fixed verified bug count when restarting support on a product that already had bugs fixed
• Fixed multiple chained conveyor ramps and box elevators not correctly picking which way boxes should go

[ 2021-04-27 20:34:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

To continue playing alpha 10, you should switch to the "Legacy" branch in steam, click here for example.

Whats new?

Graphical upgrade

During the development of alpha 11, Lasse, who made the current character model, joined Coredumping and increased the company size to 2 people. Hes already begun improving the art style and creating new art for the game. Here are some of his massive upgrades over the previous programmer art:

Hardware inc.

I finally caved to the most demanded feature request and added hardware manufacturing to Software Inc.
To be honest, I just decided to add conveyor belts to improve the product printing aspect of the game and hardware was a simple shoe-in at that point. Hardware adds an entirely new layer to console and phone development, and greatly improves the potential of mods.

Unlock new furniture rewards

Software inc. has gotten fairly big in terms of game mechanics over the last couple of*checks date* Many years! So, to avoid people only seeing a small part of what the game has to offer, Ive added a new reward system to guide you through the games mechanics. The rewards are not gating any major features, can easily be unlocked and persist through all save games. Ill definitely be adding more as I come up with ideas for rewards

New tools to create your dream HQ

Style panel

Picking the colors and materials of your software mansion has become a lot easier with the style panel. Im hoping this change will result in a lot less default grey rooms in your screenshots!

Rounded and smooth walls

You can now stretch walls into circular shapes and smooth over any hard edges.

Temperature, security and acoustics

Building your office in Software Inc. brings forth new challenges for you to plan around and overcome. The new temperature regulation system means you can build rooftop ACs and distribute cool air throughout your office through inconspicuous floor grills and/or plop down electric radiators in every single room until your electric bill explodes.
Just make sure you dont watch it all go up in flames due to poor fire safety and lax security systems. Or just get it insured, maybe, I dont know. You may also notice a slight echo when placing down the first table in your new office. Big empty halls will now be a horrible place for your employees ear holes, but luckily, its easy to combat with some well-foamed walls or well-furnished spaces.

Overhauled software development system

The development system has been completely revamped to promote creativeness, make research more interesting and make interdependencies clearer. This change will also have a huge impact on the "update"-update, which you can read more about below. This change adds the notion of tech levels that are researched over the years to unlock better technology for existing features. Target demographics are now simulated in the form of submarkets, which will impact which features you should pick for your software. Frameworks have been added, which allow you to speed up development by reusing old code or licensing it from competitors. Finally, special features have been added to the game, which contain small scripts to alter the simulation in unexpected ways, fully moddable!

New employee education system

Your employees' educational specializations are now split up into 3 stars, which limit which features they can work on, and their base skill in each role now fully controls their effectiveness and how much quality they can add to a product. You can easily send multiple employees out for education and you'll finally be able to queue up several courses at a time. Your development staff aren't the only ones with fancy degrees anymore, as leaders now have their own specializations, which control which managerial tasks they can perform, and the Support role has been split into Support, Marketing and Legal, each with their own specialization level.

Publishers

You can now get help with funding, marketing and distribution through the use of publishers, if you're willing to part with a percentage of the profits.

The future of Software Inc.

Immediate future

After keeping up with support for this release, I'll start working on the "Update"-update. This update will include the ability to release updates and extra content for already released software and, in extension, the ability to sell your software as a subscription service. My plan is to push this update out as part of Alpha 11. Which is to say it shouldn't break save compatibility, but I can't guarantee anything at this point. I expect this update will take a while, as it touches a lot of core systems, which was written anywhere between now and 5 years ago, and it will include a lot of new UI work/rework. So there'll likely be the usual major-alpha-testing-release 3-9 months radio silence.

Towards Beta 1

When the "Update"-update is out officially, the game will move into beta, which means no more large mechanical overhauls and more focus on polish and balancing. The first mechanics I want to tackle in beta are research, subsidiaries, project management and digital distribution. The research and digital distribution mechanics still have some work to go before being completely done and the subsidiary and project management mechanics seem like the usual suspects, when it comes to gameplay issues I see raised in the community.

[ 2021-04-16 06:50:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Component printers and assemblers will now automatically be grouped into assembly lines, which should result in less pile ups and I'm hoping it'll make them easier to manage. Changes

• Component printers and assemblers are now automatically grouped into assembly lines, which can be assigned to active printing tasks
• Component printers in an assembly line are now stalled periodically when assigned to tasks that don't need them, avoiding extra component pile ups from other tasks that do
• Updated Manufacturing tutorial
• Missing recycler message is now only shown for assemblers assembling the final product
• Added ability to quickly change room to pillar and vice versa
• Added percent input field when selling stocks and changed percentage calculation when adding more shares, so it is equal to the amount of company share lost
• Burglars no longer sneak while being arrested
• Made furniture culling more aggressive when rendering shadows from the sun to improve shadow rendering performance
• Added more variety to contract company names
• Added new task filters to filter deals and contracts

Fixes

• Fixed security getting stuck in sitting animation if going from loitering to standing guard
• Fixed stock window breaking when player is worth less than $0
• Fixed cases of staff being stuck turning around due to floating point precision error
• Fixed employees sometimes being teleported to bus on load if bus was driving away when saving
• Fixed bug where employees would skip elevator queuing entirely
• Game will now display the correct error for snapping furniture when the room placement is invalid
• Fixed rent data overlay not displaying unrentable rooms correctly
• Fixed first loaded save after launching game generating nav meshes extremely slowly due to the low default minimum thread count in the .NET threadpool
• Fixed game freezing for a while on big saves due to the aforementioned nav mesh generation issue
• Doors and rooms will no longer have the inaccessible/blocked marker if they are in the process of generating nav meshes
• Fixed cooks being stuck trying to get food to a tray with no food in hand
• Fixed game freezing when placing furniture in rapid succession in rooms with lots of stuff, due to main thread waiting for navmesh generation to finish
• Fixed room meshes not being batched correctly for shadowing, decreasing shadow rendering performance for complex buildings
• Fixed rare cases where code that scales furniture to avoid wall clipping could end up scaling something, that was placed near a wall without clipping it, by a high factor

[ 2021-04-09 16:00:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Replaced grass system with something simpler and more performant

Fixes

• Fixed being able to place in-floor objects over stairs and elevators
• Fixed selection detection for corner carpets
• Made thread safety more robust for pathfinding and navmesh generation, to avoid furniture being marked as unreachable because the navigation mesh was still being generated
• Fixed NaN progress in alpha stage, if employee with exactly 0% art or code skill was working both art and code
• Fixed cases of data in list columns not being visible immediately

Alpha 11.7.48

Changes

• Optimized grass shader
• Most graphics options now default to lowest setting on intel graphics processors
• Fixed some furniture textures causing darker furniture after being copied

Fixes

• Fixed issues with staff randomly not being able to reach certain areas
• Fixed grass being rendered through floors if mask is refreshed during early hours, due to fog

[ 2021-03-08 11:08:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• "Upcoming releases" window has been upgraded to a full calendar view of all upcoming releases and deadlines
• Added ability to only apply interior or exterior style to rooms using style panel
• Rounded and Inverse corner carpets can now be placed on the same tile
• Improved parking space and dead end avoidance for AI cars
• Garage port can no longer be built on floors that don't have road access
• Textures loaded from furniture mods are now compressed to preserve VRAM, but take a little longer to load
• Optimized server wire rendering
• Increased how far off pallet pickup and drop points can be from a pallet and still work
• Optimized gamma handling

Fixes

• Fixed AI releases being too centered on December
• Made "Rooms inside rooms" error even less likely to occur when just free-building up against other rooms
• Fixed furniture at edges of room sometimes getting lost when splitting room and undoing
• Fixed furniture moving to mouse position when rotating while holding alt
• Fixed style panel not working for furniture in Custom Map mode
• Fixed people stepping out into the middle of the road if they have nowhere to go and the nearest exit is directly in front of the road
• Improved loading order when moving company to empty plot, to avoid ID clashing
• Fixed not being able to place multiple copied wall furniture in some cases
• Fixed cases of server wires not lining up when server was placed up against a wall
• Fixed reloading modded furniture not cleaning up old data from VRAM
• Fixed progress panel on marketing work being incorrect when marketing options are not selected in order

Patch notes for Alpha 11.7.44

Fixes

• Fixed pallet pickup points no longer working
• Fixed saves having environment re-generated on load causing doubling of trees, water, plots, etc.
• Fixed UI breaking when scrolling horizontally using pad or wheel in lists that are exactly as tall as there are items
• Fixed calendar software filters not working when modded software categories contain no descriptions

[ 2021-02-23 14:02:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added option to use solid ground instead of void as world background
• Adjusted fog distance based on camera zoom level

Fixes

• Added fail safe to avoid components suddenly not printing
• Fixed being able to place furniture inside each other up against walls using scaled grids
• Fixed deleting wrong style in style panel if selected object had unsaved style
• Fixed couriers giving up completely if trying to fetch boxes from a blocked garage port
• Fixed top floor being unreachable in Hardware Inc map

[ 2021-02-15 17:05:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added ability to place and rotate furniture, rooms, doors and windows with no grid by holding Alt
• Added red outline to intersecting furniture when placing new furniture

Fixes

• Fixed some list content not being visible at first until interacting with it
• Fixed furniture silently becoming unreachable if moved in a specific order under certain conditions
• Fixed cost not displaying correctly when dragging conveyor belts or just moving furniture
• Fixed server dropdowns not updating instantly when server configuration changes
• Fixed specialization panels not updating instantly when new specializations unlock
• Fixed game sometimes breaking when deleting a room outside of build mode in the same instant an employee decides to use a furniture in it

[ 2021-02-09 16:04:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Made it easier to create and save styles on the fly using the style panel
• Ability to filter selection directly in style panel
• Added RGB PC in 2015 and moved Holo PC to 2030
• You can now enable code mods from the Mod window in the main menu
• Improved position of computers and computer peripherals

Fixes

• Fixed build mode shortcuts being obscured by style panel
• Fixed specialization 2 and 3 project management settings being reset when leader quits or changes to leader with lower specializations
• Fixed framework option being reset when starting new project management task
• You can no longer drag a column to be completely invisible, never to be seen again
• Fixed replacing furniture not resetting color
• Fixed bug where very bright lights could end up becoming black holes instead
• Added self correcting code to save system ID assignment

Graphics

• New subway model
• New helicopter model
• New Holo Computer
• New RGB Computer
• New Mini fridge
• New Fridge

Alpha 11.7.37 and Alpha 11.7.38 fixes save corruption bug

[ 2021-02-06 17:08:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added a style panel to quickly pick colors and texture designs for rooms, roofs, paths and furniture, before and after placing them
• The fire report now has a button to select offending rooms
• Made fire inspector more lenient towards fire alarms in small rooms if there are alarms in adjacent rooms
• Updated furniture material (Atlas and Masked) and furniture variable (AltStyles, CustomHeight, etc.) sections on modding wiki

Fixes

• Walls are now accounted for when deciding which room to apply reverb to in build mode
• Fixed placement of custom wall height furniture slowly breaking the higher up you are
• Fixed unlocking the 800 square meter reward in custom map mode
• Main menu no longer loads entire patch note list at once, to avoid lag
• Fixed modded lamp furniture not having light range set correctly since shadow update
• Fixed cases of furniture not being fixed when broken while state is above zero percent

Alpha 11.7.34 Fixes style panel breaking because Unity puts "(Clone)" in instantiated objects' names

[ 2021-02-03 17:29:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the testing branch. Please note that the hardware mechanic will not be available in older Alpha 11 saves, since they require changes to the software types, which are embedded in the save file. However, they will still load.

Major changes

This update adds conveyor belts, forcing you to plan out your logistics in more detail than just placing down some printers and some pallets. With conveyor belts comes a lot more options for how boxes travel from printer to courier. They can be routed through walls, floors and even out of a building directly to a parking lot.
Hardware manufacturing seems like a natural offshoot from conveyor belts. Hardware manufacturing currently affects how you have to approach console and phone development. You also unlock new hardware contracts with 2 business stars, and you'll receive hardware manufacturing deals whenever a competitor develops a console or phone operating system.
Employees will sadly no longer partake in majestic flights through empty elevator shafts. Elevators now require queueing and load balancing. 2 new larger elevators have been added and each of them has a display showing current floor, load and direction.

Roadmap changes

The final release of Alpha 11 has been pushed back a couple of times now. It mainly came down to the fact that the convention mechanic hasn't panned out the way I intended, when I brainstormed it. I've decided to make Alpha 11.7 the final update before I release it officially. The convention mechanic has been shelved for now in favor of the new hardware mechanic. The "updates and expansions" update is still planned and I'm still planning on making it a part of Alpha 11.

Patch notes

Alpha 11.7.3 (2020-10-12)

Fixed boxes and printers not being simulated when skipping time

Alpha 11.7.2 (2020-10-12)

Fixes

• Fixed contracts not refreshing on pre-alpha 11.7 saves
• Fixed game breaking when trying to pick component outputs on pre-alpha 11.7 saves
• Fixed game breaking due to AI changes in couriers being incompatble with pre-alpha 11.7 saves
• Fixed instances of boxes getting stuck

Alpha 11.7.1 (2020-10-12)

Changes

• Added hardware toggle for software categories, making them physical distribution only and altering their sales simulation
• Added hardware manufacturing, allowing players to print products from components using a series of printers and assemblers
• Added hardware contracts and made contract generation algorithm pick more varied contracts
• Boxes now have to be transported using conveyor belts
• Elevators are now simulated with limited capacity and load balancing
• Added security desk to micro manage security staff locations
• Employees' work timer no longer starts until they have walked into the office, and they offset their arrival time by how long their commute takes
• Default room style has changed to drywall and concrete floors to encourage player customization
• Overhauled look of UI
• Heavily increased payout from bigger contracts
• Updated default rent buildings and added a new building for hardware manufacturing
• Added TOGGLE_SPEC_CAP console command

Fixes

• Fixed bug causing software with categories overriden in mods to always be priced at 0, making the AI bankrupt constantly
• Fixed not being able to override name generator when modding existing software with no categories
• Fixed bug where bus could get stuck waiting all day for employee that didn't plan on using it
• Fixed bug in path calculation causing employees to lose several meters every day when playing at max speed
• Fixed snapped furniture not always getting corrected to avoid wall clipping, causing PCs to not line up with chairs
• Fixed being able to pick software features unsupported by any OS, as long as OSs had already been selected
• Fixed subsidiary price adding player stock worth twice, making it almost twice as expensive as intended
• Various other fixes

Graphics

• Old Computer
• 90s Computer
• Laptop
• Modern Computer
• Elevators
• Product printers

[ 2020-10-12 10:51:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Localizor

Software Inc. is now available to translate on Localizor.com. So if you want to help me localize the game, join up over there and start earning points.

What's new

This update adds a task system, that rewards you with new furniture, when you complete certain tasks. The reward system is meant to guide you through the game's features, so they are not hard to get and the new furniture isn't gating any important mechanics. I've also fixed the incessant complaint spam that would happen when your employees were being annoying and demanding the most basic of office facilities.

Patch notes

Alpha 11.6.1 (2020-06-14)

Changes

• Added new task system with furniture rewards
• Added a bunch of new furniture and new minor mechanics to go along with them
• Couriers now carry actual rendered boxes to the van, 9 boxes at a time (represented as 3), instead of all at once
• All complaints are now listed in a single window, no longer requiring immediate action and the mechanic has been rebalanced
• Room boost calculation have been overhauled and added to room info panel
• RoleBuffs have been renamed to UseEffects for furniture modding, however it is automatically converted for existing mods
• Chairs now have an ergonomic score (Chair.MiscPotential) that affects sick leave, effectiveness and mood
• DLL mods now have to be placed in their own folder, rather than straight in the DLLMods folder
• Employees ready for education now have a green dot in the employee overview
• Company financial overview no longer counts hidden transactions in the final sum, e.g. intercompany transactions
• Updated UI for transferring IP, to allow for transferring multiple IPs to a subsidiary at once

Fixes

• Fixed cases of HR not picking specializations correctly when educating and hiring
• Fixed bug causing modded furniture not loading in normal and extra maps correctly
• Moving into buildings created after Alpha 11.6 that are from an earlier year than the current game, will no longer break furniture as if they've been sitting around for all those years
• Fixed all employee complaints being counted towards chance of lawsuit, despite not being listed in the final reasons
• Burglars now instantly despawn if they get stuck somehow, to avoid locking the player out
• Added safeguard if AI gets stuck in a "Dummy" node loop
• Employees will no longer go for empty vending machines
• Courier van color was never initialized

Graphics

• Phone
• Drawing Tablet
• Calculator
• CCTV

[ 2020-06-14 16:00:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click here to see how to join the testing branch

Overhauled stock system

I actually sat down and read about how the stock market works and overhauled the stock system, based on what I learned. In hindsight, just making stuff up and patching exploits with weird hacks probably wasn't the best approach. You now trade in actual shares instead of having 5 "stock slots". Furthermore, other companies can now start a hostile takeover of your company, if they own more than 50% of your shares. Don't be afraid to report the numerous exploits this new system probably adds to the game.

Stocks and bonds

The "savings account" mechanic has been split into stocks and bonds, where the previous system has been aptly named "bonds investments", as that was what I had inadvertently made, apparently. Stocks allow you to be more risky with your money, hopefully earning a couple extra percent off your savings every year.

Patch notes

Alpha 11.5.3 (2020-03-15) Salvages saves that were corrupted from investments, but investments will be set to wrong stock. Alpha 11.5.2 (2020-03-15) fixes saves being corrupted if any savings were invested in stocks (This is why we use the testing branch)

Alpha 11.5.1 (2020-03-15)

Changes

• Overhauled software company stock system
• Split savings account into stocks and bonds investments
• Added range slider to chart window to improve timeline scrubbing when viewing company balance
• Added ability to make popups from feature scripts and added popup when sued for spying

Fixes

• Fixed hired stat counting potential hires in the hire window instead of actual hires
• Fixed employee animation not being applied on load
• Fixed bug in SIPL causing it to fail finding methods when calling a function in a function parameter
• Fixed bug in SIPL making it unable to parse variable names that begin with a keyword
• Corrupted saves failing on team deserialization will now be able to load again

[ 2020-03-15 18:26:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Modding wiki

I finally updated the documentation needed to make mods for alpha 11. The wiki has been rewritten, meaning you can no longer find modding info on it for Alpha 10 and earlier versions of the game. You can find the wiki here.

Roadmap

Reward system

I'm adding a task/reward system for the next update. It's no secret that Software Inc. does not hold your hand at any point. You are expected to figure out what you want to do yourself, using the various systems the game has to offer. A lot of players, myself included, need some guidance, to help figure out what is possible. I hope to address this with a task system, that rewards you with furniture unlocks. I will not be gating any of the current furniture behind this feature, and most of the unlocks will be cosmetic or gimmicky, without throwing the game's balancing off, of course.

Official release

When the reward system is done, I will focus on polishing Alpha 11, so I can release it officially.

Conventions and updates

I will then start working on convention and update mechanics, which will probably go in separate releases. However, I expect to avoid breaking save compatibility, so these features will still be part of Alpha 11.

On to beta

When the convention and update mechanics are ready and released, I will move out of alpha and into beta. This does not mean I won't add any more features or that early access will be ending any time soon. Beta just means I won't be overhauling any of the main features, in a way that would completely break save compatibility, as I've done with each major update during the alpha phase. I'm still planning on working more on the deal system, project management and stocks, but the focus will be on bugs, polish and content. How the game plays at this point will be pretty close to the final version, though.

Patch notes

Lasse updated 14 furniture models for this patch.

Alpha 11.4.7 (2020-02-14)

Changes

• Teams are now sorted in selection window based on when they were last chosen for a type of task
• Added ability to assign a color to teams

Fixes

• Fixed being able to make products that had no OS support for fundamental features
• Fixed research button not notifying player of new research unless it had been clicked once
• Tons of other fixes

Optimizations

• Improved performance of pathfinding system
• Added LODs for vertex heavy furniture

Graphics

• Lamp
• Floor lamp
• Florescent lamp
• Outdoor lamp
• Desk lamp
• Coffee machine
• Espresso machine
• Toilet
• Sink
• Water cooler
• Big plant
• Floor plant
• Table plant
• Table cactus
• Briefcase
• Broom
• Coffee cup
• Food plate
• Hammer
• Pot
• Water cup

[ 2020-02-14 17:04:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Coredumping grows

The Software Inc. team has grown by one, as we now welcome Lasse, whose work youve already seen on the character models and cars, in the game. Lasse will be working part-time on making the game look a lot better, while he studies. For this update, hes improved a bunch of furniture, that sorely needed it, and updated the trees.

New temperature system

You can no longer plop down single units to cool down an entire building, instead youll need outputs for their cool air or hot water to disperse throughout your rooms. Youll be able to automatically place them, and you wont need to worry about temperature at all if you are just renting rooms. This change comes with a cool overlay visualizing how pipes and vents snake through your building. It also adds roof mounted ACs, which is the first item in Software Inc. to poke through the roof of a building.

Digital distribution and deals

Digital distribution no longer works on a per company level and is no longer exclusive. Companies will automatically sign up for your platform if the price is right, but you wont get to sell 100% of their digital products. This also means Ive been able to heavily reduce ISP costs. The amount of deals you receive is no longer based on your business reputation, instead your business reputation controls how much money you will be offered. This means you should be seeing a lot more deals.

Yes, I saw the video

The funding + lawsuit exploit has been fixed.

Changelog

Alpha 11.4.2 fixed bug when cloning or deleting rooms adjacent to walls that are smoothed Changes

• Completely overhauled temperature system and furniture
• Digital disitribution is no longer exclusive or requires the player to make individual deals
• Heavily reduced ISP costs
• Player now receives all deals, but the payout depends on their business reputation
• Guests with deals will now lose their patience if the reception waiting room is too cold, dark, dirty and ugly
• Added smooth shading to curved walls
• Publisher now handles pre-release marketing automatically
• Companies will no longer offer publishing deals if they've sued the player
• Publisher funding is now based on company reputation
• Release schedule control for publishing deals is no longer optional
• Market recognition will no longer decline, if player hasn't released anything for a while
• Reduced how much employee skill impacts quality
• Rebalanced business reputation gain from support and marketing deals
• Employee requirements now scale with the amount of work left on a task, to avoid the last features in design or alpha taking a too long
• Satisfaction and effectiveness data overlays now work for employees + added germs, social and stress overlay
• Sidewalks are now generated dynamically on roads + added lip to suspended roads
• Improved furniture snapping (Especially helpful for Emonadeo's modular shelves mod)
• Burglars now prioritize the cost of furniture higher when deciding which room to steal from first
• The team selection window now shows minimum team compatibility instead of average
• Police now show up quicker
• Software reviews no longer conclude by only considering whether the price is good
• Added online poll to main menu
• Removed leading zero when using AM/PM time

Fixes

• Fixed big lag spike when deleting furniture
• Fixed employees sometimes getting stuck forever after a fire, if a path leads up to the entrance of the building
• Fixed wrong license price calculation after changing price on a product
• Fixed AI using tools and supporting operating systems that the player had put ridiculously high prices on
• Fixed AI porting to both released and unreleased version of an OS, if player ever supported it in unreleased form
• Fixed employees pretending to work in design phase even though their specialization levels were too low
• Fixed getting "transfer to subsidiary" message when trading IP nobody is interested in
• Fixed locked furniture not getting removed when buying an office building "from the future" and refunding the cost
• Fixed contents insurance price not taking days per month into account
• Out of range errors caused by the Start Options mod no longer make the game unplayable
• Fixed not being able to build anywhere due to malformed paths
• Various other fixes

Graphics

• Tree models
• Instant coffee
• Wall lamp
• Stove
• Medium + Small Server
• All Product printers
• AC unit
• Roof AC
• Electric radiator
• Ventilation
• Radiator
• Small heater
• Ceiling fan
• Central heating

[ 2020-01-12 11:48:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Main changes

Perishables like coffee, snacks and food must now be refilled every day at a monthly cost (Done automatically). This also means there's a limit to how many employees one fridge, vending machine or coffee machine can satisfy. A small mini-fridge has been added as a free alternative to the vending machine. Tech levels are no longer limited by which operating systems you choose to support. This change might seem somewhat unrealistic, but removing it will speed up tech adoption rate in the market, improve the benefits of researching and patents and finally, it will enable the ability to create updates for your software (this mechanic won't be out for quite a while, though).
The first page of the design document has been completely overhauled to resemble the old design document more. This allows players who don't won't dive into the complexity of the new software system to still play the game as normal. The design document tutorial has been split up into 3 different tutorials to account for this change. Stocks are now valuated based on a running average of the income from a company's primary services and products. This should eliminate any exploits using loans, funding, etc. However, I'm not convinced this is the best solution. Plus a ton of bug fixes and optimizations. Alpha 11.3.5 Fixes(2019-11-24)

• Fixed issues with design document sometimes not enforcing tech level limits
• Fixed bug where tools dependencies would get disabled if the software had network features
• Fixed not being able to see buttons in design document properly with active subsidiary
• Fixed "Accept all and close" in wage negotation window showing hourly salary change
• Fixed UI antialiasing fix for Linux breaking tons of UI collision checks

Alpha 11.3.4 Fixes (2019-11-23)

• Disabled UI antialiasing by default in Linux to fix bug where the screen would glitch in-game
• Fixed game breaking when project management couldn't find a applicable tool

Alpha 11.3.3 fixes bug occurring when project management tried to launch alpha review. Alpha 11.3.2 fixes bugs when splitting room and loading trees.

Alpha 11.3.1 (2019-11-23)

Changes

• Overhauled how stocks are valuated, mostly eliminating exploits
• Tech levels are no longer limited by operating system support
• Patent royalty and expiration have been reduced to account for income boost
• Perishables like coffee, snacks and food are now simulated, giving coffee machines, fridges, etc. a capacity and a monthly refill cost
• Added a small capacity mini fridge as a free alternative to the vending machine
• First page of design document has been simplified and tutorials split into simple, advanced and full
• Increased burglar cooldown further
• Doubled speed of fires and effectiveness of sprinklers, and heavily increased fire speed if nothing is present to burn
• Fires will no longer spread to a room that has already been put out
• Contents insurance is now paid out daily rather than monthly after a fire or burglary
• Added contents insurance payout notification
• Added repair and restore all button to build mode
• Added leader multitasking specialization and increased max leader specializations to 9
• Leaders now gain a little leader skill when doing any task
• The end quality of a product now affects how much it speeds up development of a sequel
• Added speed boost info to design document window
• Improved pathfinding when fleeing from fire
• Bug verification speed no longer depends on average team programming skill
• Made energy debuff kick in faster and improved coffee energy boost to combat it
• Company assets are now distributed equally among share owners when they bankrupt, otherwise it is sold off randomly
• Improved research UI feedback
• Changed tree shader to vary colors between trees

Fixes

• Framework and publishing royalties are now actually added to owner's account...
• Fixed employees taking 2 vacations in a row if their vacation started in January
• Fixed game getting stuck in fire mode because a basement spread its fire to the outside
• Fixed game getting stuck if burglar was caught on a road ramp, making police unable to get to them
• Security staff will now scare off burglars while walking between entrances as well
• Fixed art skill increasing in alpha phase with no art work left
• Fixed employees working at half speed in alpha phase if working as artist and programmer with only art or code work left
• Fixed design promotion warning having wrong info and appearing when promoting early in any iteration after the 1st
• Removed small chance of still selling copies with outrageous prices
• Fixed review count being wrong in the review start window in some cases
• Fixed undo not working for curve tool if colinear wall points were optimized out in the meantime
• Fixed issues loading software localizations in XML format. Please use the CONVERT_LOCALIZATION_TYD command to convert your localizations to the new format
• Various other fixes

Optimizations

• Heavily optimized saving and loading times
• Optimized employee pathfinding by pooling path lists
• Optimized grass system

[ 2019-11-23 14:33:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm upgrading from 11.1 to 11.2 to signify the substantial balancing changes I've made. I still have some bigger research issues to sort out. The game has gotten a lot more stable, and you should be able to play it without running into any major bugs or corruption (pending an Alpha 11.2.2 patch). The game might still have some bigger balancing issues and I will keep my eye on feedback. The response to fires and burglaries have been pretty split, so I've added an option to disable it. I'm a bit saddened by this, since it removes some of the cool building layout challenges you get from having to consider security and safety, but I know some of you don't care for the building aspect of the game to begin with.

Alpha 11.2.2 (2019-10-14)

Fixes

• Fixed bug in save system that would break when serializing a hashset caused by pending lawsuit queue
• Fixed bugs in stock system
• Fixed face textures not getting applied properly when loading a saved founder in the customization menu
• Various other fixes

Alpha 11.2.1 (2019-10-13)

Changes

• Completely overhauled how market recognition is gained and how many fans are gained per sale
• Made simulation more forgiving of quality and marketing efforts
• Reduced marketing effort necessary to break into market
• Ability to queue employee classes and improved UX for education
• Greatly decreased employee requirements for porting tasks
• Added warning to avoid calling couriers unless it's an emergency
• Contracts will only wait 2 months before auto-starting and auto cancel if way past deadline
• Made Room Repair and Restore furniture buttons pulse to attract attention
• Increased effect of severance pay on lawsuit chance
• Added lawsuit reasoning if further explanation is necessary
• Internal lawsuits will now be bundled to a single class action lawsuit if possible
• Employees will now only sue for a specific number of reasons when fired
• Clarified research button text
• Art contracts now net less money since they avoid bugs
• Added software complexity warning to design document
• Reduced business rep from support deals and disabled bug fixing
• Heavily increased market recognition decay cooldown for software types
• Changed how speed decreases during design phase from slowing down at the end of each iteration to slowing down in the last iteration. Overall time hasn't changed
• Added option to disable burglaries and fires

Fixes

• Undo system now remembers furniture assignment, which also works for restoring furniture after fires and theft
• Empty server groups are now preserved after fire and theft to avoid having to re-assign processes
• Fixed publishers handling printing and marketing no matter what player selected
• Fixed steam workshop buildings not loading at all
• Fixed founder having too many specialization points
• Fixed reputation gain from design document deals
• Fixed specialization progress bars and employee job assignments not resetting after a design phase iteration
• Fixed security guards not being able guard doors on elevated roads and incorrectly guarding upper floor rooms
• Fixed language setting resetting on launch when using workshop localization
• Hopefully patched crash bug occuring due to in-game console
• Security will no longer guard entrances that are only accessible from assigned rooms, i.e. bathrooms
• Window resize button disappeared after collapsing window
• Fixed a bunch of localization issues due to one cool bug reporter

[ 2019-10-13 19:31:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

IMPORTANT

This is a testing release, meaning your saves might break and the game might become unplayable sooner or later. You can enable backups in the options window. I will be watching the bug reports closely and patching often. You shouldnt play the game right now, if you want a stable experience. You can find information on joining the testing branch here.

What has changed

Base mechanics The entire flow of the game has changed, with the intention of making the game a little less chaotic and cryptic and making software more customizable and personal. To accomplish this, difficult to follow feature inter-dependencies have been removed. Software is now clearly split up into specializations and you no longer need to toggle all features to achieve good sales. Furthermore, Ive added tech levels to replace patentable features, which are much more general and allow the market to run procedurally with no hard limits. Finally, Ive added submarkets to make each product feel more unique and give the player more of a choice to define their product.
Upgrade to Unity 2017.4 The game has been through Unity 4, 5, (5.6) and now 2017. The major reason for wanting to update once again was to solve a bunch of crash issues and benefitting from Unitys long-term support. The version of Unity I used for Alpha 10 hasnt been supported by Unity for almost 2 years. There are some drawbacks here, of course. Mainly compatibility. You can no longer play the game using DirectX 9, which means Windows XP is out (Minimum requirements have always been Windows 7, to be fair). The game no longer supports 32-bit OSX, i.e. it only supports OSX 10.9+, which deprecated 32-bit. To me, these feel like minor concerns compared to the benefit of getting a game that is a great deal more stable, I hope you agree. Other cool stuff The progressbar has returned to the alpha phase! I know this was a big point of contention for many of you, but the changes Ive made, coupled with the iteration mechanic, has made the progressbar suitable again. A lot of you also disliked all the physical distribution stuff (I dont know if this was because you guys thought you were forced to own printers?), but you can now let a publisher handle all that stuff. The wall curve tool!
Game engines are gone, and you now have software frameworks instead, which work for all software types. Check the patch notes! Modding Old data mods will no longer work. Period. Software has changed completely, both in structure, granularity and file type. Ive not yet updated the modding wiki, Im very sorry. I will get it updated before the official release of Alpha 11, so you have time to check the new stuff out. For now, Ive uploaded the base game files so you can get an example of how software looks now: https://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php/Modding#In-game_content All mod files that used XML now use to TyD. Furniture, material and localization XML files will still load, for backwards compatibility. You can read about TyD here: https://github.com/TynanSylvester/TyD/blob/efe423af6569e9c8bd7a2eee4837dd0f04421d51/Readme.md You can convert your localization XML files to TyD files by using the console command: CONVERT_LOCALIZATION_TYD YourLanguageNameHere

Patch notes

Alpha 11.1.4 fixes (2019-10-03)

• Roads would flicker on OSX
• Some geometry became black when looking in top-down mode (Z)
• Having SSAA disabled would break mouse projection when toggling top-down mode (Z)
• Design tutorial will now continue when marketing window is closed, instead of requiring a press release, to avoid getting temporarily stuck
• Having food go bad could break game under certain circumstances
• You can now change operating system support in the design document after adding an OS exclusivity publishing deal, to avoid going back and fourth
• Publisher wasn't registered properly for printing or marketing, so they never did any
• Added publisher information to player release window and product detail window
• You can no longer toggle build mode while a modal window is open

Alpha 11.1.3 fixes (2019-10-03)

• Game would fail to load if non-existing language was set in the settings file
• Save game would faild to load due to (Clone) name sticking around from Unity, saves broken due to this bug should work again
• Moving company does not retain leasing mode status in new building

Alpha 11.1.2 fixes (2019-10-03)

• Game sometimes failed rebuilding all furniture after fires and burglaries
• Error message when clicking on empty areas in specialization star chart
• Crash dump and log file location was wrong in Windows build
• New default buildings weren't updated

Major changes

• Overhauled feature system, with special scripted features
• Added submarkets
• Added tech levels
• Overhauled skill and specialization system
• Added iteration mechanic to development phases, removing over-design mechanic and adding back progress bar to alpha phase
• Added publishing deals, currently only offered by AI to player
• Added software frameworks
• Overhauled marketing -> service role and added lawyers and lawsuits
• Added wall curve tool
• Employee salaries are now evaluated on an hourly basis, which enables part-time employees and adds a monetary penalty for working them for longer than usual
• Upgraded to Unity 2017

Minor changes

• Added bathroom sinks and germs
• Added fires and burglaries
• Added contents insurance
• Overhauled software peer reviews
• Computer price and performance scales dynamically based on available computers on the market
• Sitting near other employees with no cubicles or walls in-between will now affect how quickly social need deplete, depending on compatibility
• Employees now dislike working at night, but can be compensated for it to increase their mood
• Added lakes that will be spread around maps and block plot purchases
• Overhauled sun position and color and made it affect skybox and fog
• Software needs are licensed monthly during development and operating systems are bought per employee during development
• Removed delay phase during development
• Added different animals to each biome

UX

• Overhauled design document window to be multi paged
• Print ordering window now starts out with a suggested value
• You can now add and remove operating systems from a porting job and the entire task won't get stuck on an in-development operating system
• Added new tip speech bubble that will replace some hints
• Changed hiring window compatibility rating to be least compatible person on team, rather than average
• Overhauled console to have almost unlimited history and be height adjustable
• Added color blindness UI colors

Modding

• Added new atlas material for modded furniture, allowing having multiple textures for one piece of furniture that can be mixed and matched by the player
• Data mods and localizations are moving from XML to TyD
• All mod types can have a Localization folder with relevant localizations and they will be appended to the main localization files
• Base features no longer exist
• Implemented a compiler/interpreter from scratch to allow custom scripts in software feature definitions

Fixes

• Employee skill when hiring is now based on benefits rather than company reputation
• Fixed not being able to mod roof and path materials
• Fixed furniture interaction sound effects not playing since updating to Unity 5.6
• Roofs are now offset based on surrounding rooms, making it easier to build roofs up against rooms
• Fixed longstanding bug where the clock would never actually hit 59 seconds, effectively skipping an in-game minute every hour adding up to almost 5 hours in a year

[ 2019-10-03 11:47:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Current Status

Ive finished all planned feature overhauls/additions at this point (except for conventions, more below). Now I need to do some usability, bug/testing and balancing passes, and finally rewrite tutorials and mod documentation, before I can release the initial testing build.
Alpha 11 development is now creeping on its 6th month. Alpha 10 took about 5 months from start to the initial testing release and alpha 9 took about 4 months. As the game gets more complex, overhauling core features takes longer, due to all the side effects a change has on the games systems. With this in mind, Im now pretty certain Alpha 11 will be the last major alpha release before I move on to the beta phase, so I avoid spending an entire year on yet another alpha. Beta doesnt necessarily mean I wont add new features, it just means I wont be touching the core gameplay mechanics.

Convention mechanic delayed

Ive decided to scrap conventions for the initial testing build. I dont want to delay Alpha 11 any further. In Software Inc. terms, I havent even finished the design phase on this mechanic, so Im putting it off for now.

Curve tool

You can now use a tool to click and drag walls to make them curve. Each segment of the curve must be at least 1 meter wide to allow for doors and windows, but the segment widths can be scaled dynamically while you are creating the curves.

Fires

A number of furniture now have a chance to start a fire when they break. Fires will spread and burn down furniture if not stopped, and die out after some time. All elevators in a building are disabled while the fire is ongoing. You can place fire alarms to alert people in a building and sprinklers to stop fires faster in a room.

Burglaries

Burglars will appear now and again and steal whatever they can. You can place security cameras around your premises to alert the police and hopefully apprehend them before they steal too much. Inventory lost from burglaries and fires can be recouped by a new contents insurance feature.

Other notable changes

• Updated to Unity 2017 for a ton of bug/crash fixes (This will deprecate support for Directx9, 32-bit OSX and Ubuntu version < 14.04)
• Improved the porting task so you can add and remove operating systems and not get stuck on in-development operating systems
• Software review system has been overhauled to give more control and be less vague
• All mods can now contain localizations, which makes localization handling better in mods and allows a single mod to contain translations of its written content in several languages
• You can now individually pick specializations in the new game screen

[ 2019-08-24 10:54:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Current status

The base mechanic overhaul I wanted to achieve for Alpha 11 is pretty much done at this point and Ive been working through the new big additions to Alpha 11 this past month. I still have to do a round of bug fixing and balancing when Ive finished the additions, which could be quick or drag out, I cant say for sure at this point.

New additions

To reiterate what I wrote last month, product updates will not be present in the initial test release, to avoid delaying it more than necessary. Im only working on features that would break save game compatibility for the initial release. Iterative development Iterative development focuses more on working through a project several times, while reconsidering the design and refactoring, to end up at a final product, as opposed to the traditional waterfall model of working out a full design initially and sticking 100% to it throughout development. You will be able to iterate on your design several times during the design phase to increase chances of creating a good quality product without too many bugs. However, a more effective use of your time will be to iterate during the alpha phase: When you finish a software review during the alpha phase, instead of not really being able to do anything about all the frowning smiley faces, you will be able to temporarily stop development to improve the design, based on your newfound knowledge, and increase the end quality of your product. Publishing You will now be able to hand off some of your profits to a competitor, to avoid having to print copies or micromanage your marketing efforts. You will even be able to fund projects with a publisher to get your company off the ground early on or to lessen risk later. Frameworks Game engines have been a special class of software, since they are the only dependency in Software Inc. that requires supporting the same operating systems when using them for development. In contrast to using a 3D modelling or music app for development, you cant run your game without a game engine once your game is done. This added a bunch of unneeded complexity to the game, so they are being deprecated in favor of frameworks. You will now be able to create a framework when developing any type of software, which can be licensed to other companies and reused in future projects to reduce development time. Game frameworks will be analogues to game engines. Service role As all roles now have individual specializations, the marketing role is being deprecated in favor of a new Service role, which can specialize in Marketing, Support and Law. Lawsuits You can now be sued by your employees or other companies, which requires service employees with the law specialization to fight. Conventions I called this "conferences" in earlier posts, but it seemed misleading considering what I wanted the mechanic to encompass. You and other companies will be able to hold and attend conventions in a select number of conference halls with individual booth layouts. Each booth has an area which can be filled with equipment to market and entice convention guests. This will be purely UI based, there wont be a fully rendered conference hall full of people, as that would require a whole alpha version by itself or maybe just a different game entirely.

Other notable changes

• Lakes have been spread around maps
• You can now place sinks, which employees will seek out after visiting a bathroom to avoid spreading germs. Failing to place sinks will lead to nearby employees getting sicker more frequently
• Employee salaries are now calculated on an hourly basis and automatically scale with their hours, meaning you can now have part-time employees and you can no longer give employees extra hours without compensating them
• Employees now dislike night shifts, which you can combat with a night shift compensation benefit
• Sun position and color calculation has been revamped, adding a new colorful dusk and more striking shadows at dawn and dusk
• Most modding features have tentatively switched to TyD from XML
• Computer performance and price now dynamically scale based on other computers available, e.g. a computer from the 1980s wasnt slow and cheap in the 1980s
• Fixed roofs being hard to place adjacent to room walls

[ 2019-06-23 20:10:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Current status

Development has been progressing smoothly. I've almost finished the overhaul of the development mechanics, I still need to rewrite software types, balance and bug fix. When the overhaul is done, I have to add some new features, before I can release the initial test version, including conferences and publishing deals (You can read more about it in the Trello). I don't expect the initial test version to have the software update mechanic, as that requires quite a bit of work by itself. I expect to be able to add it without breaking save files, so it isn't worth delaying for.

What has changed

Education and specializations

Specializations are now split up into three separate levels, rather than one continuous value. Each level has a major impact on gameplay, rather than just being a quality multiplier. For programmers and artists each level decides what level of features they can work with and not the quality they add, which means the "minimum specialization" hack I added in alpha 10 is no longer needed. Product quality is now controlled by the base skill of an employee and development speed is simply controlled by employee satisfaction, making it much easier to guesstimate timelines in the game. This change will most likely also bring back the progress bar in the alpha phase, which I know was a major pain point for some of you.
Leaders and marketing employees now also have specializations, which means you no longer send leaders off to a single HR course, instead you unlock HR features by levelling up leaders' HR specialization. As employees increase their skill in a role, they also slowly earn experience which you can use to unlock the next level for a specialization, making education more RPG-like, but also way simpler and more discernible.

Features and the design document

Most of the feature dependency systems have been removed, to declutter software and simplify creating new software. As such the feature tree has been removed completely. Software now consists of a few main features (up to one for each specialization) and contain a bunch of smaller sub-features that satisfy each target market differently. The main features can depend on other software, like how 2D graphics will depend on having a 2D graphics editor, but sub-features can't have any dependencies, other than their main container feature.
There are no longer patentable features, instead each specialization has a tech level that can be researched and patented. Each main feature has a tech level based on its specialization, which impacts the satisfaction of your target markets and development time. The design document has been pagified to accommodate the new target market selection screen. It currently consists of 4 pages: General information, dependencies, target markets and overview/team assignment.

Level 3 features

Each "sub-feature" has a level that controls its impact and the required level of employees to work on it. The max level features don't add anything to product quality, but actually change gameplay in some unique way. To accommodate this change I've written an interpreter from scratch, so you can write C# like code directly in your XML mod files, to add new and interesting features to your software types.

Other stuff

• Software licenses are now only paid for needs (Not operating systems), and they are paid monthly during development, instead of as a onetime fee at the beginning.
• The delay phase preceding the beta phase of development has been removed.
• You can no longer "over-design" a product, the design phase just ends at 100%
• The skill of applicants no longer depend on company reputation, but company benefits.
• I made some 3D animal models in my spare time to practice, which will be spread around the maps.

[ 2019-05-03 10:49:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 10.10 adds the long requested feature: Paths. You can now build paths from the road construction menu and since employees walk slower on grass in this update, paths won't just be for looks.

Alpha 10.10 highlights (including Alpha 10.9.9)

Changes

• Added path system
• Added secondary role and task system, so certain tasks and roles can be prioritized over others
• Ability to drag selection to rectangle to select employees, furniture and parking spaces (using multi select will filter by current selection)
• Improved selection responsiveness
• Employee walk paths are now drawn when selected
• Snow is now dynamically added to exterior walls, roofs and paths (modding guide here: https://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php/Material_Modding )
• Added grass (you can increase the amount or disable completely in graphics options)
• Employees now walk 25% slower on grass
• Added performance column to active deals
• Road crossings are now added dynamically to improve look of roads and parking
• Added warning to product detail window when product has no more people to sell to
• Elevated roads no longer appear blocky in miniatures
• Added footprints and direction to dirt, and improved dirt spread
• Employees now actively look at what they're interacting with and randomly around when idling and walking
• Replaced newsfeed with offline patch notes in main menu
• Duplicate shortcut now works for rooms (in build mode) and room clone button works for furniture
• Anchor grid is now mapped to G by default and mapping is shown on grid gizmo
• Ability to use arrow, esc and enter key in save game window
• Price overlay when building will now default to being colored according to current bank balance
• Select building now includes roof in selection
• Improved how game generates nav and build mesh boundaries for modded furniture when using AutoBounds. Specifically sets minimum width and height for nav mesh and converts build mesh to a line if very thin. This should fix bugs with cubicles, if updated by author (If you are re-using the vanilla cubicle, leaving out nav and build boundary from the XML would be the best solution)

Fixes

• Fixed bug causing AI companies to sometimes heavily underestimate physical sales and not order enough copies
• Fixed room textures getting purged on Linux when changing resolution (would cause rooms to be black)
• Fixed options window spawning new controls every time it was opened
• Fixed snow and rain sticking to screen
• Fixed undo placing houses and skyscrapers in custom map mode not working
• Fixed employees walking through houses in town maps after load
• Fixed camera zoom being overridden by default value on load
• Coffee liquid held by employees on other floors would stay visible
• Fixed wall top edge sometimes having holes or poking out over outdoor areas
• Clone/blueprint tool will now correctly handle (recursively) surrounded open spaces in a building when checking for collisions
• Fixed FURNITURE_DEBUG lines not being drawn on top of everything else
• Fixed path to log file on Linux sometimes being incorrect

Optimizations

• Improved dirt mesh data handling
• Optimized all particle systems and disabled particle pausing to try and fix crashes caused by particle systems

[ 2019-02-17 12:56:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 10.10 adds the long requested feature: Paths. You can now build paths from the road construction menu and since employees walk slower on grass in this update, paths won't just be for looks.

Alpha 11 plans

As you may or may not have noticed, Alpha 11 development has been delayed quite a few times now. The planned features for Alpha 11 have been quite clear in my mind, but I've been unable to figure how to add those features, without breaking other parts of the game. I've finally figured out how to make it happen, but this is turning out to be quite a big overhaul. Since Alpha 11 might be one of, if not the last Alpha release, I think having it be a major overhaul of the main game mechanics makes sense, as this might be my last chance to rectify the issues I have with the game. I'll be looking out for bug reports on the new path system, while I plan out how to implement Alpha 11. I'll start implementing Alpha 11 once I'm confident the new path system is stable. Once my plans for Alpha 11 are finished, I'll have a good idea of how long it'll take to finish the initial release, but for now I'll guestimate it at somewhere between 3 and 9 months. I'll keep you posted at https://twitter.com/SoftwareIncGame

Alpha 10.10.1 changes

• Added path system
• Added grass
• Employees now walk 25% slower on grass
• Added secondary role and task system, so certain tasks and roles can be prioritized over others
• Improved selection responsiveness
• Snow is now dynamically added to exterior walls, roofs and paths
• Road crossings are now added dynamically to improve look of roads and parking
• Added warning to product detail window when product has no more poeple to sell to
• Anchor grid is now mapped to G by default and mapping is shown on grid gizmo
• Replaced newsfeed with offline patch notes in main menu

Fixes

• Fixed undo placing houses and skyscrapers in custom map mode not working
• Fixed employees walking through houses in town maps after load
• Fixed camera zoom being overridden by default value on load

Know issues

• Angle and distance widgets don't dissapear after building path if computer is lagging a lot

[ 2019-01-29 11:11:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

The official Software Inc. soundtrack is complete! You can get it here This update mainly contains bug fixes and optimizations. Notably, I've updated to Unity 5.6 from 5.5 to try and mitigate several crash issues. Work on Alpha 11 is still ongoing, but it is still in the design phase. Alpha 11 will be the final iteration of the development mechanic, so I want to make sure I don't make any big mistakes. Changes

• Move to Unity 5.6
• Added syntax highlighting to mod source code reader
• Hold R while placing furniture to randomly rotate based on current angle snap
• Ability to control camera with touch using 2 fingers (Only tested on an MS Surface (which does not meet minimum requirements FYI))

Fixes

• Saves broken by having the start options mod installed and upgrading to alpha 10.8 without installing the updated mod will now have their difficulty setting clamped on load, if it is out of range
• Undoing deletion of rooms in basement could break game
• The previous bug could break saves such that altering rooms in the basement and ground floor would behave weirdly. A process to fix save files during load has been added, but might not work in all cases
• People no longer talk to themselves in empty meetings...
• Mod source code reader would break on long source files
• Various other fixes

Optimizations

• Optimized drop-down list handling
• Random optimization work in market simulation and main game loop

[ 2018-11-13 23:06:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Slanted roofs and code modding is officially out. You can read more about code mods in my last announcement. I tested Software Inc. on the latest version of Ubuntu and had some issues launching it, which was fixed by forcing fullscreen mode and re-launching and restarting until it just started working, which I guess is par for the course. The launch parameter to force fullscreen is: "-screen-fullscreen 1 -screen-width 1920 -screen-height 1080 -disableresolution", but switch out 1920 and 1080 with your screen resolution. When the game launches successfully you can set the game to fullscreen in the graphics options and remove the launch parameters, if you so desire.

Alpha 10.8.4 fixes

• Fixed duplicating outdoor areas
• Fixed having to re-validate mods when using RELOAD_DLL_MOD

Full changelog for Alpha 10.7 and 10.8

• Added slanted roofs
• New Autumn track by Sinnott Soundworks
• Added 2 new startup maps, a garage and a skyscraper
• Basements are now separated for blueprints and cloning
• Doubled starting cash on easy mode
• Changing team arrival and leave times will now take immediate effect
• Whether project management makes a product in-house will now depend on base product

UX changes

• Build menu category list now uses thumbnails instead of checkboxes and text
• Added calendar window when date is clicked to see employee and staff working hours
• Ability to manage staff room assignment from staff window
• Pressing the focus button (space by default) now cycles between all selected objects
• Ability to highlight unsupported rooms if cloning or blueprint creation fails

Fixes

• Fixed room grouping bugging out when re-grouping rooms
• Fixed bug regarding how door blockage is checked for doors to upper floor parking. Doors going nowhere or in basement will now show as blocked
• Various other fixes

Modding changes

Code modding

• Added system for compiling C# in-game and securing access to certain types
• More confirmation has been added before loading new or changed dll mods
• Added code mods to the Steam workshop
• ModMeta is now an Abstract Class rather than an Interface and the FloorMod has been updated to show examples
• DLL mods will now be queried to save and load data from save files
• Changed WindowManager interface to avoid misuse of active window lists that would cause crash (Use OnlyHide, StartHidden, Shown and OnClose to control lifecycle)
• Game assembly now includes xml documentation to help develop dll mods in Visual Studio (Only some of the codebase have been commented so far, mostly UI stuff)
• Improved logged message when an error occurs loading a dll mod

XML modding

• Deprecated mesh and snappoint Parent tag in furniture mods and added Parent ATTRIBUTE to all tags that searches everything in the furniture with a name(Use ComponentName tag to name Meshes and InteractionPoints, Name tag for Transforms)
• Multiple and custom lights for modded furniture using the LampScript's Lights variable(will automatically find all light components in a furniture if not manually set, at the expense of performance)
• Modded furniture can now optionally have the IsIconic variable set to an array of category names, if it should be used as a thumbnail for custom categories

[ 2018-10-11 15:20:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 10.8.2 fixes some issues with mod loading. You can now upload and download code mods in the Steam Workshop! First off: Do not download code mods if you don't want to ruin your PC, but also don't want to verify the safety of the mod. Here are some quick Q&As to explain what this change means:

What is a data mod?

As you most likely haven't noticed, because I literally just changed it, mods in the workshop are no longer called "Mods" but "Data mods". Everyone who has a "Mod" on the workshop should re-upload it to gain access to this new exclusive title. A data mod is basically a mod that doesn't change how the game works, but gives the game more content to work with, which is what mods on the workshop have done so far.

What's the difference between code mods and data mods?

Code mods are written using a programming language and actively change how the game works, add new mechanics on top of it or they pretend to be mods while they quietly mine bitcoin in the background.

Aren't there already code mods on the workshop?

The way code mods work in Software Inc. can pose a serious threat to your computer, since they have the same access to your files and internet that the game has, but have the advantage of not being developed by me. Because of this, I had decided not to allow code mods on the workshop. Clever modders got around it by uploading their programs as text files, which is obviously not an ideal situation.

If code mods are so insecure, why are you allowing them now?

This latest update includes a way to load mods that are still in text format and actively tries to shut off parts of the mod that would access your internet or files. Please note that the mods can still be very dangerous. I will try my best to moderate code mods on the workshop, but feel free to study the files, find and flag any malicious code yourself. The game will prompt you to read the code directly in the game before it loads any new or updated code mod.

I want to make my own trainer. Where do I start?

You can just skip right along on here to the wiki, to read more about creating your own fancy cheats: https://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php/Code_Modding

Changelog

Changes

• Added system for compiling C# in-game and securing access to certain types
• More confirmation has been added before loading new or changed dll mods
• Added code mods to the Steam workshop

Fixes

• Game would break during loading when installing DLL mods for the first time
• Pre 10.7 blueprints that only contains basement rooms would break the game

[ 2018-10-09 22:52:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Slanted roofs are finally in! I hope this makes up for the slightly misleading roofs in the town map screenshots I released, leading up to alpha 10. Slanted roofs are currently purely cosmetic. I'll try to figure out some way to utilize them in a future update, but for now, they are free in-game. I made some big changes to the DLL modding system, which will break all current DLL mods. See changes at the end of this post. This marks the end of alpha 10. I'm keeping Alpha 10.7 in testing for a short while, to make sure there aren't any major issues.

Alpha 10.7.2 fixes

• Fixed employee working hours in calendar window going 1 hour too long
• Fixed modded furniture with lights stopped working

Alpha 10.7.1 changes

• Added slanted roofs
• New Autumn track by Sinnott Soundworks
• Added 2 new startup maps, a garage and a skyscraper
• Basements are now separated for blueprints and cloning
• Doubled starting cash on easy mode
• Changing team arrival and leave times will now take immediate effect
• Whether project management makes a product in-house will now depend on base product

UX changes

• Build menu category list now uses thumbnails instead of checkboxes and text
• Added calendar window when date is clicked to see employee and staff working hours
• Ability to manage staff room assignment from staff window
• Pressing the focus button (space by default) now cycles between all selected objects
• Ability to highlight unsupported rooms if cloning or blueprint creation fails

Fixes

• Fixed room grouping bugging out when re-grouping rooms
• Fixed bug regarding how door blockage is checked for doors to upper floor parking. Doors going nowhere or in basement will now show as blocked
• Various other fixes

Modding changes

DLL modding

• ModMeta is now an Abstract Class rather than an Interface and the FloorMod has been updated to show examples
• DLL mods will now be queried to save and load data from save files
• Changed WindowManager interface to avoid misuse of active window lists that would cause crash (Use OnlyHide, StartHidden, Shown and OnClose to control lifecycle)
• Game assembly now includes xml documentation to help develop dll mods in Visual Studio (Only some of the codebase have been commented so far, mostly UI stuff)
• Improved logged message when an error occurs loading a dll mod

XML modding

• Deprecated mesh and snappoint Parent tag in furniture mods and added Parent ATTRIBUTE to all tags that searches everything in the furniture with a name(Use ComponentName tag to name Meshes and InteractionPoints, Name tag for Transforms)
• Multiple and custom lights for modded furniture using the LampScript's Lights variable(will automatically find all light components in a furniture if not manually set, at the expense of performance)
• Modded furniture can now optionally have the IsIconic variable set to an array of category names, if it should be used as a thumbnail for custom categories

[ 2018-10-06 22:20:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

This patch contains fixes for every bug reported in-game since the official release of alpha 10.

Development update

I've taken some much needed time off since alpha 10 released, which is why I've been mostly quiet on social media. I plan on releasing another Alpha 10 update introducing slanted roofs, after which I'll move on to Alpha 11. The planned features, as they are listed on Trello now, will not change at this point. I will most likely still randomly add features not on Trello, like the previously added multi-floor parking, outdoor areas and upcoming slanted roofs, but I'm aiming for beta at this point, which means a complete freeze on new gameplay changing features (not including what's on Trello). I don't expect to reach beta within at least one year. Once in beta, development will focus on bugs, balancing, steam integration, localization and adding content.

Patch notes for alpha 10.6.9

• Fixed a bug that would allow a product to get sales with any price, if it was the sole release on an OS with active users
• Fixed game freezing due to HR hiring more than 300 employees in one go and optimized team compatibility calculation a bit
• Fixed deleting rooms under unowned roads when buying plot and added a warning
• Fixed being able to see and control product under development by going to product details from design document window
• Fixed tutorial arrows when UI is scaled
• Fixed money, reputation and market recognition dropdown panels not closing in build mode
• Fixed game breaking when filtering columns in product detail window
• Fixed default custom material for modded furniture having full emission/glow (use _EmissionColor)
• Fixed some issues with AC and central heating not updating when being moved or not having correct Type
• Fixed marketing deal not showing progress due to wrong value scaling
• Fixed debug spawning guests breaking game(will also fix bugged saves)
• Clarified error message when trying to change price of a free product
• Various other fixes

[ 2018-09-03 12:48:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 10 is now stable enough for an official release. I might still have some changes that are big enough to warrant an update or two for Alpha 10. I want to cram as many features in as possible before moving on to Alpha 11, since the bulk of features planned for Alpha 11 will render Alpha 10 saves completely incompatible, as usual. If you are not done with your Alpha 9 save file and want to continue playing Alpha 9, you can switch to the "old" branch by right clicking the game in Steam and going to properties and then betas. I recommend going through the tutorials, as they have been updated to reflect changes in gameplay and new additions. A lot of strategies and play styles from Alpha 9 will not work in Alpha 10, since hiring and employee skills have been overhauled.

Alpha 10 highlights

• Ability to lease rooms
• Ability to relocate company
• New plot system
• Added map editor, town map, map generation string, rain and thunder
• Multi-floor parking
• Ability to mod room material textures
• Overhauled hiring mechanic and employee skill system
• Overhauled employee satisfaction mechanic and added customizable employee benefits
• Ability to assign multiple roles per employee
• Ability to control subsidiary releases and assign tasks
• 5 new tracks from Sinnott Soundworks
• Added ability to change the price of a product
• Removed scenarios and added ability to take out loans in new game screen
• Overhauled temperature mechanics to instantly reflect changes instead of simulating in realtime
• Software sales are now calculated per OS market, so software released for different OSs are no longer in direct competition
• Plus massive amounts of bug fixes, QOL improvements and optimizations

Finally, I want to stress that Software Inc. is still in alpha, which means major features are still in development, so the gameplay might feel unbalanced at times, which is only exacerbated by the fact that nothing in Software Inc. is scripted. Sometimes the market lines up in a way that makes the game very easy, kind of like how Software Inc. became this (relatively) big success, considering I'm just one person who hasn't released any other games before. I've tried my best to balance the market, but I've also tried to keep it to a minimum, as the effort is basically wasted in the long run.

Changes since last patch

• Rebalanced marketing deal and hosting deal reputation effect and made companies cancel deals with bad player performance
• Made computer-auto-assign more likely to assign employees to computers in rooms that fit their role, if assigned
• IT support would sometimes not unreserve a PC, making it unavailable for use by employees for a random amount of time

[ 2018-08-11 19:07:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 10.6.7 changes (2018-08-03)

• Added rain and thunder
• Added tutorial arrows to context menu

Fixes

• Fixed not saving employees' current retirement fund sum (Was still deducted from company monthly, so this was purely cosmetic)
• Fixed tutorial bugging out when going from Welcome to Leasing tutorial

Optimizations

• Switched to PA Particle Field system for snow and rain

Alpha 10.6.6 changes (2018-07-31)

• Added interaction point indicator when placing furniture
• You can now rotate snapping furniture using keyboard, instead of just click dragging

Fixes

• Fixed furniture placed on high shelves not being selectable
• Doorways that are blocked weren't ignored by pathfinding system, causing employees and staff to give up instead of trying alternative routes when pathfinding to a room
• Couldn't translate software features in product detail window
• Loosing reputation on marketing deals
• Going to build mode, pressing esc, and esc again shows non build mode windows in build mode
• Various other fixes

Optimizations

• Glass door stickman rendering

Alpha 10.6.5 changes (2018-07-17)

• New summer track from Sinnott Soundworks
• Remember team selection in hiring window
• Use hearts instead of a smiley face for market recognition
• Clarified outdoor furniture error message to include "fenced areas"
• Ability to copy multiple lines of commands at once in the console

Fixes

• Fixed HR not hiring anyone because a few people on the team were dragging compatibility down below minimum standards
• Taking over a project from project management doesn't update next release date on task
• Starting a support or marketing task on a product released using project management will now take over active task instead of doing nothing

Alpha 10.6.4 changes (2018-07-11)

• Overhauled distribution deal bidding mechanic
• Balanced digital distribution cost
• Greatly increased accuracy of ISP cost calculation
• Ability to see bandwidth percentage for each distribution client in the distribution window
• Balanced hosting deal income
• Added keyboard shortcut to button tooltips and keyboard bindings for toggling team labels and wire mode
• Split physical and digital distribution tutorials and updated digital distribution tutorial with fixes and going over the new bidding mechanic
• Job satisfaction can now affect chance to call in sick

Fixes

• Fixed game sometimes bugging out in distribution window due to how the physical copies sold value was retrieved
• Fixed localization of specializations on new pie chart legends
• Checking furniture collision on replace did not account for rotation correctly and would allow furniture to overlap and stick through walls after being replaced
• Tutorials shouldn't auto skip after first tutorial message if skip condition was met before the message was shown

Alpha 10.6.3 fixes (2018-07-06)

• Fixed not being able to expand work items because buttons would pop up
• Fixed game bugging out if opening info window on a project that has dependencies in beta

Alpha 10.6.2 changes (2018-07-06)

• Ability to use software that is in beta for product needs (Allows you to develop games for game engines in beta)
• Press ctrl to autocomplete a room when building up against previous rooms
• New build track from Sinnott Soundworks
• Count employee sick days and show in employee window, complaint window and wage window
• Count complaints and resignations handled by HR and show in HR management window
• Specialization degrade should change based on difficulty
• Instead of hiring very low compatibility employees, low skilled leaders in HR will now just take longer to find applicants that are less compatible on average
• Add product detail button in distribution window and total copies sold column
• Filter furniture assign window by teams/roles assigned to room and include role with name
• Added legends directly on piecharts
• Specialization pie chart in design document is now separated by art and code (This is a temporary fix, as the design document will be overhauled in Alpha 11)
• Project info window now includes specialization chart
• Shift + click a label in a chart legend to only show that stat (helpful for quickly isolating one item in a company's cashflow chart)
• Renamed "units sold" to "Net units sold" to clarify that refunds have been deducted from the total
• Lowered leader skill gain from HR
• Added AI company specialization to company detail window

Fixes

• Fixed bug caused by one or more mods setting software as an OS dependency without that software actually depending on an OS. Mods with this issue will be disabled and mods will now be incompatible if they cause this issue together
• Employee complaint demands were calculated incorrectly
• HR will now reject complaints if the employee has already demanded too much
• HR should not educate employees that are about to retire
• Fixed some license key/pc combinations resetting license key every time offline version launched
• Fixed race condition during new game load that could cause game to not finish pre-simulation, causing general instability, and missing companies and products
• Fixed some issues with furniture mod error logging and added base furniture name case insensivity
• Added fix in cases where rooms grouped for rent would be recursive, causing an out of memory crash when loading a rentable building
• Budget is now set automatically when accepting marketing deals
• Rare race condition when checking furniture availability could cause game error when loading game or placing furniture
• Fixed game bugging out if employees are fired while interacting with them in the role management window
• Added custom string formatter to avoid game bugging out if localization uses the wrong number of arguments in a string
• Fixed plot panel being in the wrong place for larger GUI scales
• Various other fixes

I've done some "behind the scenes" design work on Alpha 11, and I've ironed out most issues I had with how the new feature system should work. I'm fast tracking alpha 10, so I can move on to alpha 11. I don't expect more than a hotfix or two before I officially release alpha 10. Note that this does not mean I'm throwing out all the feedback you have provided for alpha 10, it just means I'm putting off working on it, until I get the new feature system in place, as that will heavily impact gameplay. Changes

• Added new plural/singular localization XML nodes, which contain both the translation itself in singular and plural form, plus the subject as a postfix in lowercase in a single XML tag
• Added ability to compare localization UI files from Console by writing e.g. "COMPARE_LOCALIZATION French English"
• New winter track from Sinnott Soundworks
• Added ability to change the price of a product
• Changed how price affects sales when price is below market average
• The AI will now try to port software to new operating systems and also kindly ask any dependent software developers as well, e.g. game engines for games. This should decrease the chance of the player gaining a lot of money purely by the virtue of being first on an OS
• Ability to see and change multiple teams' work assignments in the team window
• Added warning popup when two employees dislike each other to help identify the exact employees
• Compatibility is now shown for each team when changing teams for one employee
• Specialization chart no longer counts specializations below the minimum team spec level when calculating average for a team, which makes it easier to see the effect of raising minimum spec level on software quality
• Added price warning and ability to change price before release if a product is priced way over market average, as this was causing some unintended 0 sale products
• Increased amount of game dev companies to fill out void in categories (only affects new games)
• Rebalanced stress levels to make stressed employee way less stressed and lazy employees a little more stressed
• Rebalanced personalities traits so all extremes are possible and average personality combination has medium trait values
• Employees will now automatically prefer to use computers which boost roles they are assigned to (note that it is still first come first served, so someone less suited for a PC might call dibs before a better suited employee does, you can reverse this by assigning manually)
• Half follower loss rate if release date has been announced
• Improved computer auto assignment
• Furniture tooltips should go away once action has been carried out by player
• Grouping rooms for rent that are already grouped in the map editor will now ungroup them all
• Work item filters are now saved
• Proper tutorial for new team window options
• Rebalanced print deal payouts
• Added warning when subsidiary is running out of money
• Improved company cashflow chart color, order and highlighting

Fixes

• All active print deals would get cancelled every time a company went bankrupt
• Toggling all in the multi select window would untoggle everything that had been filtered by the current search
• Products which had a million dollar price tag could end up generating sales if no other product had been released in the same category for at least 5 years
• Sometimes AI companies would avoid releasing software in a specific category because another company was planning to do it in several years
• Lazy employees left too early on average
• Stove quality state had no bearing on cooking
• Trees visible underground on load
• Made furniture ownership checks more robust to avoid them switching around on load (won't fix previous saves)
• Fixed employees walking in and out of the elevator when reaching their floor for no reason
• Made employees more likely to pick parking spots that are closer in height to where they want to go
• Fixed instances of employees walking through cars and backtracking when going from parking space to room on upper floors
• Moved chair repair point closer to avoid it getting blocked by stuff behind the chair
• Changed "Not qualified for assigned tasks" to "Not qualified for active tasks" to clarify that it does not apply to finished assigned tasks

[ 2018-05-29 13:07:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

The multi floor parking lot update is finished and this update is mostly focused on bugs, balancing and UI updates, hence the move to alpha 10.5. I'm planning on doing another balancing pass in the next patch, but please keep in mind that balancing is not a priority currently. I'm trying to make sure the game is playable, but as game mechanics change often, keeping the game well balanced during alpha is not feasible. I will focus a lot more on balancing and the learning curve when Software Inc. reaches beta, until then you might experience suddenly getting rich, because the AI didn't make sensible choices or gaining fans is too easy, etc. I only have a couple of "bigger" features I want to add in Alpha 10, so I expect to make it to alpha 10.6 or 10.7, before I move on to Alpha 11. Changes

• Added cloud shadows
• Made trees jiggle in the wind
• Removed max cap on how much specialization level an employee can gain by working
• Specializations will now decrease for employees each month, but less as they age, so they start specializing as they get older depending on what they work on most often/have been educated in
• Business reputation now also positively affects average base skill for each wage bracket when looking for applicants
• Specialization charts comprising multiple employees will no longer count employees not assigned to the role shown
• Added warning when changing role of someone controlled by HR
• Added multi select functionality to the Your Releases window
• Turned up yellow color in data overlay mode, as it was making it hard to discern temperature
• Boosted employee skill gain from working a tiny bit
• Put consumer reach in product detail window

Fixes

• Industrial fans aren't cooling correctly and servers aren't giving off noticeable heat
• Employees gain both code and art skill in alpha phase even if project doesn't use that skill
• Undoing server deletion doesn't register and recreate server connections + other undo initialization issues
• Guests should be removed from game if time is skipped
• Per month column in distribution window did not account for print jobs inactive due to hitting maximum
• Scrollbar in hire window specialization chart was cropping art bars
• Print and server deals stuck around after buying out company bugging out game
• "Find owner" in product detail window not scrolling company list correctly in some cases
• Fixed employees getting stuck on ground floor ramp
• Employees set as artists and programmers would work slower on a project that only had either code or art work to be done
• PC addon boosts were applied based on role instead of work done in alpha phase
• Fixed save games breaking if a server furniture mod failed to load
• Various other fixes

[ 2018-04-30 18:24:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 10.4.6 fixes trees not getting removed Alpha 10.4.5 fixes another bug regarding clashing object IDs when undoing Had some fun stomping around with a microphone to create footstep sound effects in 10.4.4.

Alpha 10.4.4 changes

• Added footstep SFX, which can be changed in modded floor materials by adding FloorType tag with value set to either Wood, Ceramic, Carpet(default) or Concrete
• Increased game world SFX volume

Fixes

• Fixed issue with clashing object IDs after relocating company or starting in rent office causing potentially unpredictable behavior when loading the save file later on
• Hiring window bug when no team is selected
• Tables were not getting regrouped for meetings, canteen and lounge after undoing
• Bug when deleting tables used by employees while eating if the delete prompt is disabled
• Employees would miscount available chairs for a table group due to the new chair repair action
• The position leaders would use to socialize with employees at their PC would sometimes become unavailable by being JUST inside a cubicle wall
• Pathfinding would generate buggy paths when employees are walking directly from a room to a ground level parking space
• Added error if contracts in a mod has categories defined
• Employees would zigzag going between rooms and roads from certain angles
• Various other fixes

Optimizations

• Turned interaction name from string to enum to reduce string comparisons. Makes it harder to mod AI, but not currently relevant

I had a brainfart in the last update and added sidewalk pathfinding as a separate system from the normal pathfinding, but it turns out I could just unify these two systems, which means you can now build rooms with doors up against elevated roads, and employees will use that door to get off parking lots, if it makes sense to do so. This will allow you to connect buildings directly to elevated parking lots or add elevators to get from a parking lot to the ground.

Alpha 10.4.3 changes

• Employees can now move directly between rooms and elevated roads
• Ability to use arrow, home, end and ctrl+a keys in lists if last clicked thing was a list item

Fixes

• Game would bug when undoing road changes above a second story ramp
• Fixed employees choosing very suboptimal paths outside in some cases

Optimizations

• Optimized room graph generation

Alpha 10.4.2 fixes games with assigned parking spaces not wanting to load.
This update comes with a new, completely unplanned, multi-floor road building system. The road building system has been arbitrarily limited to 3 floors for performance reasons and since a small parking lot can now hold 3 times as many cars, which should be plenty considering the game wasn't balanced towards having thousands of employees on the premises. Note that road pricing has also been updated, keeping the standard roads and parking on the ground at 5000 in-game standard rate currency. You cannot build below roads and, as before, you have to build 2 floors above the road to avoid clipping cars. However, you can now build roads and rooms over roads you don't own, to connect plots in city and town maps. Changes

• Multi floor parking
• It is now allowed to build rooms and roads over ground level roads on plot you don't own, for connecting plots in city and town map
• Added error messages to blueprint building and room cloning
• Added warning if cook doesn't have access to serving trays
• Leader room role assignment takes priority over anything else, meaning leaders won't prioritize rooms assigned to one of their other roles
• Turned car noise distance down and increased the low pass + low volume effect to shield off noises outside the current room

Fixes

• Minimum specialization cap was not saved
• Keep track of employees' retirement plan deposits so it figures in the termination report as a payout
• Fixed long standing bug where cars would slowly arrive later and later until the road was changed
• Fixed cars spawning on top of each other
• Maintenance will now fix chairs while in use
• Clicking a notification would make the camera keep panning to the target position when trying to drag the screen
• Room role assignment was applied incorrectly when prioritizing which room to go to, so employees would not always prefer rooms with their role assignment
• Room role assignment rules were accidentally applied to staff making them more likely to work in role assigned rooms(not including IT, maintenance and cleaning staff)

Optimizations

• Improved car pathfinding cache

[ 2018-04-15 23:46:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 10.3.2 changes

• Updated vending machine, central heating, fridge and 90s PC models

Fixes

• Fixed auto graphic settings option not working due to target framerate being 60 fps by default
• Submeshes in imported furniture is now merged so they have selection outlines
• Added missing error handling to hour input fields
• Fixed employees getting their classes and vacation cut short by relocating
• Furniture animation speed always 1 (fridge)
• Various other fixes

This release features a completely overhauled temperature system:

• Room temperatures now instantly reflect temperature changes, instead of simulating temperatures in realtime
• Water and electricity costs now depend on how much your heating and cooling elements are actually needed, e.g. a radiator will not use water or degrade in quality during warm summer days
• Tundra and desert temperatures have been re-balanced
• Each heating/cooling element now have much clearer area and power stats that control how much they can heat/cool.
• Rooms have an insulation stat controlled by adjacent rooms and windows (can be viewed from the data overlay).

Changes

• Overhauled temperature mechanics
• Ability to set individual employee benefits
• Ability to set minimum specialization skill on a team before an employee is allowed to work with it in code and art
• The role column in the employee window now uses sprites instead of text to show assigned roles
• Seasoned devs will now have more specialized education rather than none at all
• Added christmas bonus benefit
• Ability to control HR specializations for new hires
• Added target framerate option for non Vsync mode
• Added thermometer to UI indicating outside temperature
• Cleaned up team window
• Rooms should always show area, and multiple selected rooms should show aggregated area

Fixes

• Fixed HR preferred age label not updating
• Lowered hype effect on sales to avoid sudden hype causing random sales drops
• Select furniture types in rooms would keep some previously selected objects
• Buildings from workshop not loading on systems with case sensitive paths
• Removed printing alerts for traded products to avoid spam after company takeover
• Fix plot near bus stop in leased mode, so employees don't walk into a building from the bus (this fix is not retroactive)
• Rooms over a road cause unsupported message when placing blueprints or cloning rooms
• Retroactively fixed some furniture mods breaking saves
• Game would bug when pressing enter after searching in multi selection window like furniture assignment
• Improved car pathing logic and cornering speeds
• Developed a tool to batch spell check XML files and spell checked all XML files

Optimizations

• Added character LOD and added a unified low poly shadow caster. This will most likely only impact very low spec systems. If you're having performance issues on a newer system and your GPU is stressed, disable "More shadows"

Known issues

• Auto graphic settings option no longer works, due to the new framerate target option. You can get around it by temporarily disabling VSync and setting the framerate target to -1 before running the tests. Will be fixed in next patch.

[ 2018-04-07 16:57:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Reviews should affect bug count and quality
• Bigger plot option for rural map, more expensive but simpler expand progression
• Show average team skill and spec against selected employee in hiring window
• Change HR and time settings for multiple teams in a row
• Ability to save and load character defaults in new game screen
• Ability to delete room styles
• Ability to localize key names for key bindings if name is longer than one character by writing KeyCode + KeyName as written in UI, e.g. KeyCodeDelete

Fixes

• Leasable black material had gotten selectable as floor in-game
• Raised lower compatibility chance of employees hired by competent HR
• Slightly decreased effect of disliking a team member
• Difficulty setting was not saved after starting a new game in a building
• Further decreased skill effect on support ticket response rate
• Fixed newspaper writing article before game had calculated feature score
• Fixed plot window for multi monitor setups

Known issues

• Preferred age label in HR not updating
• Renting multiple building units at once will cause loud cash register SFX

[ 2018-03-15 16:02:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've gone ahead and updated the modding wiki to reflect the changes in alpha 10.

Software modding

https://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php/Modding#Alpha_10_changes

Furniture modding

Furniture mods can now use their own textures AND still benefit from custom player coloring. This will allow you to bake in AO among other things: https://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php/Furniture_Modding#Meshes_and_materials

Material modding

Last but not least, you can now add your own building materials and upload them to the Steam workshop: https://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php/Material_Modding

[ 2018-03-01 13:32:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Disclaimer: THIS IS A PRE-RELEASE FOR TESTING! Do not grow attached to your save files the first couple of days after this release. I'll be monitoring bug reports closely and patch often, but expect possible save file corruption. Alpha 9 save files are not compatible with Alpha 10

Major changes

Work on alpha 10 has focused on balancing expenses and adding more options regarding your company's physical presence, namely the ability to relocate your company, buy and sell plot areas, and lease rooms one at a time. Furthermore, employee mechanics have received a giant overhaul in regards to employee satisfaction and education, including a new benefit system that allows you to give and remove perks for all your employees.

Going forward

I'll be spending the next couple of weeks stabilizing all the new features and documenting the new modding capabilities. I still have a lot more I want to add and improve in alpha 10 before I move on to alpha 11, so there is no concrete timeline at this point. The new development/feature mechanics did not make it in this release. I underestimated how much work it needed and it fits thematically better with alpha 11, in which I'll be focusing more on the development mechanics in general.

Full changelog

Changes

• Ability to relocate company
• New plot system
• Ability to lease rooms
• Balanced construction and building costs
• Rebalanced employee costs and skills, and overhauled hiring mechanic
• Ability to control subsidiary releases and assign tasks (More to come)
• Overhaul employee satisfaction mechanic
• New employee benefit system
• New spring and build track from Chris Sinnott
• Overhauled business reputation to be more predictable
• Overhauled HR mechanic
• Added Rural, Town, City and Cold, Temperate, Warm map types
• Overhauled room rendering and added ability to mod room material textures
• Add ability to use colorable textures for the standard furniture material, instead of forcing the default UV map
• Ability to sum financial sheet or cashflow chart by month, quarter or year
• Add proper data overlay window
• Added key (F) to align furniture to nearest wall when placing
• Better control of door direction when building
• Doors should not open when employees are just passing by
• Remove insurance account (now savings account) interest cap, but lock interest for years after depositing depending on amount
• Software sales are now calculated per OS market, so software released for different OSs are no longer in direct competition
• Added loading screen and fixed long loading times caused by music decompression
• AI company salaries should be higher than bills
• Ideal product price should be determined statically in SoftwareType or SoftwareCategory tag
• Improved AI printing strategy
• Market simulation now uses release dates for hype calculation, no release date gives no hype
• Deprecated scenarios and changed how starting funds are chosen
• Add select all button to wage negotiation window
• Add specialization pie chart to contract window
• Add wall skirting
• Chairs now degrade in comfort over time
• Drag camera now uses momentum, can be mapped to already mapped keys and will default to right click
• Ability to generate the same map twice using a text string
• Open chart window and products window from company window
• Open company window from stock list
• Output different symbols from employees depending on work being done
• Tutorials can use dynamic values

Fixes

• Holes in a blueprint floor plan were counted as rooms, which would make it so you couldn't duplicate a floor on top of itself unless the floor plan consisted of separate whole areas
• Cap active users to OS users
• Could not make games for in-dev OSs
• Count loans due in stock worth
• Employees will now move to the furniture they are assigned if they are currently using the same type of furniture, which they do not own
• Failing to deliver on a print deal will now account for time left on the deal to discount the penalty
• Difficulty option and PC upgrades weren't being applied to alpha dev speed
• Fixed long standing bug causing windows to become invisible if they were the same height or width as the screen on last launch
• Physical copies weren't returned to stock after having been refunded
• Reset search when changing build category
• Right hand holdables not aligned properly

Optimizations

• Group furniture by type to increase query speeds
• Optimize market simulation
• Ability to turn windows opaque and don't render any room content below current floor in gfx options

Known issues

• Can't update material mod in steam workshop after initial upload

[ 2018-02-28 18:44:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

It’s been one month since I last released a patch, so I thought I would update you on how alpha 10 is coming along.

New plot system and map layouts

I have overhauled the plot system, so instead of slowly expanding a rectangle, the game now generates pre-shaped plots with individual pricing, which you can buy upfront or take out a mortgage for. The plots will be laid out differently depending on which map type you have chosen for your company. In addition, instead of picking between forest, city, tundra and desert you now pick the climate and environment individually: Cold, temperate or warm, and rural, town or forest. Map layouts are now generated based on an input string, instead of just being completely random, so you can generate the same map as many times as you want, by reusing the input string.

Renting buildings and moving your company

In alpha 10 you’ll be able to rent in a larger building, as opposed to buying an empty plot and creating your building from scratch. This will help you a lot financially in the beginning and help if you’re having trouble getting creative on an empty plot. Depending on the building you're renting into, you’ll be able to rent out more rooms as you get tight on space. Since buildings don’t just randomly generate themselves, alpha 10 will include a map editor where you can create maps with buildings, designate which rooms are up for renting and share them on the workshop. If you decide you no longer want to rent or you can’t afford your building, alpha 10 will include the option of moving your company to a new map, whenever you want, making your current building available for new companies.

Roadmap

Other than polishing and debugging the new systems I’ve just described, I plan on rebalancing construction costs in alpha 10, to make sure expenses keep up with income, so making a million dollars will no longer be an instant win condition. I also want to rebalance employee skills and overhaul the hiring process, to make skilled employees the exception, rather than what you’ve come to expect from late game. If development doesn’t drag on for too long, I also want to overhaul the entire feature system, as this work will be necessary for adding software updates/expansions in alpha 11, but it could just as well be delayed until then. Finally, the much requested “multiple roles per employee” will be added, so you can have a programmer/designer or an artist/marketer/leader, etc. Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience!

[ 2017-11-10 16:40:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Music by Chris Sinnott is finally in, with more to come! Full changelog: Changes

• Group right click buttons
• Added music
• Instead of having a default room style, you should be able save and apply custom styles
• Ability to group rooms and blanket assign them styles and staff
• Dialog confirmations can now be ignored on an individual basis
• Improved cook serving tray priority logic
• Amount of people who can take food from a serving tray at a time is no longer limited by space around the tray
• Mark roles in green which comprise the most skill when selecting teams
• Added ctrl+z to undo in build mode

Fixes

• Undoing deleting rooms would not recover all their settings
• Various other fixes
• Product detail window header was off

Optimizations

• Random optimizations to employee simulation

[ 2017-09-25 12:31:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update changes some gameplay mechanics, so I've decided to put out in testing for some days before releasing it officially. Music by Chris Sinnott is finally in, with more to come! Changes

• Group right click buttons
• Added music
• Instead of having a default room style, you should be able save and apply custom styles
• Ability to group rooms and blanket assign them styles and staff
• Dialog confirmations can now be ignored on an individual basis
• Improved cook serving tray priority logic
• Amount of people who can take food from a serving tray at a time is no longer limited by space around the tray

Fixes

• Undoing deleting rooms would not recover all their settings
• Various other fixes

Optimizations

• Random optimizations to employee simulation

[ 2017-09-23 13:18:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 9 is finally out!

New major changes include:

• Software development has been completely overhauled to focus more on risk management and marketing planning than watching progress bars fill up
• Software quality evaluation is now more complex, amount of work done and the quality of that work is calculated seperately
• The amount of bugs in a product are no longer known up front making support tasks and bug fixes theoretically endless and instead hinging on good player planning
• Project management has been completely overhauled
• There is now a clear divide between digital and physical distribution, and the market changes as the years go on
• The player has to pay for physical copies of their products upfront to be sold or produce and deliver copies themselves using printers and couriers
• The player can make other companies subsidiaries when taking them over to keep them in the game and control their funding
• Undo button in build mode
• Noise levels are now calculated realistically instead of across entire rooms
• UI sound effects
• A bunch of UX improvements

Alpha 9 changes the core gameplay a lot. The main focus was to add more player interaction to the early game by requiring more attention and planning from the player during product development and release, while some of the new mechanics add risk and uncertainty to player choices, without being straight up random. Removing the development progressbar could at first glance seem to just be obfuscating information from the player, this is not the case, however. A lot of underlying code has been reworked, which makes the progressbar obsolete, as project progress can no longer easily be quantified to a percentage. The overall timescale of the game has not changed, so don’t be afraid to use your experience from alpha 8, but note that your strategy will probably not be effective in alpha 9, unless you pay attention to the new pre-marketing mechanics. I will continue to monitor alpha 9 issues for the next couple of weeks, before I move onto alpha 10.

Current plans for alpha 10 include:

• Completely overhauled software feature system, to get rid of the "Select all" mechanic and add endless research
• Being able to move your company to a different plot
• Being able to rent rooms in a larger building
• New plot system, that includes plot "chunks" with individual characteristics
• Rebalanced costs, to balance out late game
• Rebalanced hiring and education system

You can see the entire roadmap for Software Inc. on https://trello.com/b/9I286Mhu/software-inc

Finally, a word on the long development time of alpha 9.

Alpha 9 took at least 5 times as long as any previous alpha did, mainly due to the fact that alpha 9 touched core gameplay, which had to be rebalanced, debugged and required a lot of feedback. Most of the alphas have focused on adding new mechanics, which takes a lot less time than working on existing ones. Having to move a long distance, taking my driver’s license, suddenly not having internet and having a knife-to-finger related injury (almost healed up now) certainly didn’t help, thankfully these are all one-off adventures.

[ 2017-09-06 08:36:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

The crash issue is still present, however rare, I suspect they are caused by outdated drivers. I'm including some debug info in this release, if it doesn't uncover any other crash issues, I'll release alpha 9 officially as is.
Changes

• Added left and right, half and quarter turned staircases
• Added option to auto-configure graphics settings
• Updated performance impact label for SSAA and More shadows to be clearer
• Added default graphics settings
• Info for active deals in deal window

Fixes

• Server wiring could cause endless loop crash in rare cases
• Bus was not being filled optimally
• More workshop upload error handling
• Various other fixes

[ 2017-07-25 16:24:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've decided to hold out on the discount feature indefinitely and to delay controlling subsidiary releases until alpha 10. I've decided on this, as I want to get moving on alpha 10. Alpha 9 has already taken too long. Changing existing mechanics takes a lot longer than adding new ones and I've been anxious about the response to the gameplay changes introduced in alpha 9. To make up for not getting discounts and subsidiary control in alpha 9, I've introduced the long awaited Undo button in build mode. When I'm positive the undo button is stable, I'll release alpha 9 officially and move on to alpha 10. In the meantime, the undo button will auto save every time it's clicked with a 5 second cool down, to make sure your game can be recovered. Changes

• Ability to undo in build mode
• Delete walls between rooms as alternative to right click and merge
• Added names to staff list and ability to assign rooms to staff using a list
• Updated Steamworks SDK
• Updated to Unity 5.5.4f1

Fixes

• Fixed bugs relating to cooks
• Company filter gets stuck for all releases list
• Various other fixes

[ 2017-06-16 01:42:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've been considering whether to skip alpha 9 completely and move straight on to alpha 10, as the feedback has been kind of mixed and I don't want to give a bad impression for first-time players. I've decided to stay with alpha 9 and do one last overhaul of the alpha phase by making code and art progress easier to read using a small generic number, rather than the "lines of code" metric, and putting an estimate of the final value in the design document window. I want to stress that having a progress bar no longer makes any sense, as the underlying quality of a product can no longer be condensed into a single number without being very misleading, and it would ultimately make the game more confusing. Changes

• Switched to code/art units and added estimate in design document (all current contracts will fail)
• Made alpha phase endless, where code quality will very slowly decrease when being over developed
• Added ability to filter lists by column values
• Add the (Any) indication to leader role labels
• Disable confirmation dialogs option
• Task type filter now shows everything when all toggles are off, which they are by default
• Running out of company names will no longer result in an error but will be logged
• Ability to instantly release products using modded software from console
• Add in-dev OS dependency warning

Fixes

• Newspaper will not mention lack of potential sales for new companies, since it's relative
• In-house products should not count towards sequel bonus
• Failed steam workshop mods will now show real name in bug report and a list of mods that failed to load are given in the options window
• Mod loading code wouldn't note software type name in error message when failing to parse XML
• Various other fixes

[ 2017-06-08 14:59:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 9.7.4 fixes trees staying when building rooms. Alpha 9.7.3 fixes not being able to load new saves. Alpha 9.7.2 fixes mod loading and marketing warnings on contract work. Sorry it took so long. I'm hoping to release alpha 9 officially soon, however I'm still not completely confident in how the new mechanics are presented. Changes

• Furniture status now degrades while time is being skipped, this will greatly increase repairs needed for some furniture(PCs and servers should be the same)
• Created 2 new product printers and added SFX
• Courier now has box capacity instead of product capacity, so copy printing can scale
• Added courier animation
• Show current shipping capacity in distribution window
• Shift+x to close active window
• Game should remember its auto save file and not overwrite existing auto saves
• Ctrl+S should save to current save file if any, otherwise autosave
• Updated marketing tutorial
• Turned down noise level of computers
• Don't keep products in design for project management when they are done and leader doesn't have any action points, just queue them up for dev
• -OffsetWindow can be used to make multi monitor work on Windows if window is not centered
• Change vacation end to range with number instead of month
• Save past peer reviews
• Toggle to see assigned furniture
• Balanced post-marketing effort needed to compete
• Balanced hosting, printing and marketing deals (Active hosting deals from old saves will give too much money)
• Deal filter
• Improved all colliders to make selection more accurate, especially for employees
• Print deal failure consequence should be to pay half of remaining copies and 5% reputation hit depending on severity
• Ability to create team from team selection window
• Furniture and blueprint thumbnail generation improved
• Added crunch time for teams which makes employees work faster at a cost, excluding founder
• List of active distribution deals in distribution window
• Added follower warning popup to projects promoted to alpha
• Work item buttons can blink red to help the player take action
• You can now control name generation for individual company types in mods using the NameGen tag
• HR is enabled by default for teams with an HR educated leader and HR options no longer do anything by default (previous saves need to enable wage and complaint handling manually)
• You can now see which products your receive or lose royalties from in the finance window
• Changed style of snap point indicators when placing furniture
• Updated to Unity 5.5.3p3 to get profiler working

Fixes

• Quality decline warning didn't account for leaders working any role
• Fixed navmesh generation near pallets and tables which could cause an entire room to become unreachable
• Audio visualization would crash graphics card on DirectX 9
• Fixed employee base skill increase based on work being done
• Team vacation end month wasn't saved
• Fixed main menu news not showing
• Employees taking double vacations
• Game would break completely in main menu if settings file was locked
• Project management wasn't hyping in dev phase
• HR now forces education instantly
• Employees would repeatedly be trained for HR by HR if that was the last education chosen by the player
• Salaries weren't calculated for employees on vacation or education
• Can't move furniture when bankrupt
• Wall lowering affected wall segments on lower floors
• Employees wouldn't eat at tables with serving trays on it
• Destroying a room would sometimes fail to reset people in it making them stuck in the air
• Various other fixes

[ 2017-05-16 02:15:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

I re-did all the tutorials and improved the tutorial system, hopefully this will help explain the new development mechanics properly. Please tell me if this did not help. I also added sound effects throughout the UI. Music should hopefully be coming soon. Subsidiaries are now in. You can currently only deposit and withdraw money from them (It also changes how patents, IP and distribution is handled between you and your subsidiaries), but I plan on adding the ability to control projects in the future as well. Changes

• Re-do all tutorials and improve tutorial system
• Add UI sound effects
• Subsidiaries
• Add confirmation popup when press build has been released
• Keep contracts of varied difficulty depending on company rep
• Use stable sorting algorithm for listview to maintain order between sorts(e.g. sorting by skill and then team will now show employees ordered by skill and grouped by teams)
• Lower contract reputation gain
• Manual support option for project management
• Don't reset SCM selections
• Increase courier cost and double carrying capacity
• Warning pop up when quality of project is going down fast
• Add "hired for" role variable, which HR will use to force correct role and manage education(Will only work for employees hired in alpha 9.6+)
• Add HR education missing budget warnings
• Standardize red counter on buttons, use for retirees, research, overloaded servers, and remove event window
• The game will now display feedback IDs for player when feedback/bugs have been reported in-game, to help support in communities
• Releasing press release or press build without release date warning
• Have collapse label function which is shown instead of category when workitem is collapsed
• Select all/none buttons for team selection window with multi choice
• Multi select window should be searchable if it has more than 10 items
• Make furniture assignable from employee list if no employees are selected
• Add auto team assign to rooms, which will try to assign each employee in a team to a computer in the selected rooms
• Speed up team reviews
• You can have up to 10 bugs with no penalty in contracts
• Leaders can no longer lower quality in development
• Update to Unity 5.5.3f1
• Write employee return date when selected if on education

Fixes

• Check for GPU instancing support in audio overlay
• HR budget was bugged and education was free
• Couriers can carry more with more days per month
• Warning icons not working in multi monitor mode
• Deleting all save files and clicking continue will lock game
• Fixed furniture outside parent on load when furniture origin was on room boundary
• Employees will show as working on support even if their roles don't match
• Project management missing design warning shows up even if it unwarranted
• Fixed possible bug where project management wouldn't pick best needs
• Various other fixes

Optimizations

• Don't update hidden fields of collapsed work items
• Legacy localization loading code was taking 10 seconds on load for no reason

[ 2017-04-09 21:39:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mostly bug fixes and usability improvements. Contracts should be a lot easier now. All tutorials will be updated in the next patch. Changes

• Removed upper limit on how far employees will travel to find a canteen, this should be controlled through room assignments instead
• All noise sources are drawn in build mode
• Temperature data overlay now goes from blue to green to red
• Lowered volume of phones
• Support work should show active users
• Ability to scroll financial sheet
• Bills breakdown in finance window should be extended to other categories
• Add arrows to parking space builder
• Ability to limit printing to specific stock + storage value
• Call courier option, will go back and fourth between van and boxes until there are no boxes left, expensive cost per box shipped
• Added status label to hype marketing task indicating follower loss
• Limit AI printing deal sizes
• Moved in-game AudioManager to Unity's AudioMixer system
• On call IT should be able to push away employees from computers if they are very broken
• "No project set" warning for project management
• Warning about releasing software if a press release is being written or press build is underway
• Reject deals to remove clutter
• Add extra wall toggle that also hides all doors and windows
• Debt clearance message should be popup, not messagebox
• Alpha phase up to 10% faster based on difficulty
• Founder's effectiveness can now be positively affected
• Contracts now have lines of code and mb art requirements which are shown on the work task(Contracts from previous saves will fail)
• Quality and progress is judged separately for contract work, where progress gives money and quality gives reputation
• Balanced contract reputation impact

Fixes

• Product windows are not scaled with UI
• Decibel label not offset correctly with scaled UI
• Computers became unusable after replacing them due to not updating chair connection
• Beta print jobs were cancelled on release
• Post marketing costs were being counted twice in product loss
• Press release costs were not being subtracted
• Design specialization progress not updated in UI in some cases(e.g. network for games)
• Printers were still dropping state even when off
• Reworded reviews to be clearer on what they mean by "knowing" a company
• Various fixes

Optimizations

• Make noise sphere shader instanced
• Optimized noise floor overlay calculations and drawing
• Optimized furniture iteration throughout codebase

[ 2017-03-10 02:06:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

9.4.2 fixes instances of saves not loading.
The noise mechanic has been completely revamped. I've been testing out the pre-marketing mechanics based on your feedback, but it seems to work fine when I try it, so the problem with it might be the current lack of tutorials. I'll try to finish the tutorials up for the next update. When tutorials are finished and the game is balanced enough to allow a fair play through, I'll release alpha 9 officially and start working on getting subsidiaries in (still alpha 9). Changes

• Changed how refunds are calculated
• Added proximity based noise system with new noise overlay
• Rebalanced all noise making furniture and actors
• Made employees quicker at answering support tickets
• Couriers should prioritize pallets
• Added confirmation dialog when promoting from alpha to beta
• Review costs should be under bills in finances window
• Room segments should have privacy setting to decide whether the room can be used for toilets
• Added confirmation dialog when setting release date indicating how many months/years left
• Project management AI will avoid picking operating systems in categories that lack features, e.g. phones in the 90s
• Write press build articles
• Updated to Unity 5.5.2f1
• Show printing capacity in distribution window
• Write press release articles

Fixes

• Renaming a team would add it to all teams for all project management work
• Cased openings sometimes not build when cloning/placing blueprint
• Doors and windows between rooms and outdoor areas weren't being built when cloning/placing blueprints in some cases
• Fix dialog window positioning on larger UI scales
• OSs sales sometimes extremely low
• Overworking art for better quality in alpha phase was not enabled
• Fixed updating mods on Steam workshop
• Fixed being able to build a wall through a room by aligning the wall with the room corners
• Various bug fixes

Optimizations

• Cache computer chair connection

[ 2017-02-28 17:12:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

I still haven't gotten around to balancing contracts and marketing, but there have been huge changes to the simulation balancing overall. Some of these changes will not carry into old saves, as there have been some changes to the software types and AI company types, read more below. My internet situation seems to have resolved after I permanently switched to LTE and installed network cables in the walls. I went from 300 mbit/s to 100, but oh well. Changes

• Add finance button to main bottom panel
• Save name of each individual bill and show breakdown in company finance window
• Toggle between sheet and graph in finance window and have 4 months of backlog instead of 2 months and an average
• Printers and pallets should have info when selected
• Add stretchable cased opening (doorway with no door) max 3 meters, limited to interior walls
• Noise should bleed through walls, where different environments have different levels of background noise, and windows and doors decrease noise isolation depending on wall area
• Move audio listener closer to ground
• Added support for custom work types in DLL mods
• Added ability to check log file and copy to clipboard from main menu
• Put print deal income in Deals section of company finances
• Add last months product gross column to player releases window
• Refund column for player releases
• Add team button to contract window
• Contract peer reviews should be based on required quality, not actual quality
• Sweep selecting an already selected object (ctrl + left mouse drag) will engage sweep deselect mode
• Changed marketing costs back to being charged once per day or when done, instead of every second

Balancing

• Made some big changes to sales simulation to increase market interaction, average out sales in each software category, raise the overall average and reduce high selling outliers
• The follower mechanic has heavily impacted balancing, so it has been scaled back and is now affected by refunds
• Changed how the speed of quality addition is calculated, which greatly impacts the alpha phase
• Speed up alpha phase a little
• Game engine development has been taken over by AI companies that also make 2D, 3D and audio editors, as they could not make a living on game engines exclusively (Note this won't affect old saves, so your game might be unbalanced if you do not restart)
• Reduced game engine development time as it was backing up tech progression(Does not affect old saves)
• Chance of picking all features have increased for AI and the chance of picking low feature OSs like phones have decreased to make sure features like 3D aren't unrealistically delayed
• Increased average quality of AI company releases
• AI companies will try to release software that's missing in the market within their specialization
• Improved AI company budget planning to avoid too many bankruptcies and buyouts

Fixes

• Can't update mods
• Fixed scaling of copy order window
• Current month for company finance sheet wasn't being updated enough
• Marketing budget set in marketing window does not account for currency
• Printers should only be on when printing so they don't break suddenly for no reason
• Can select wall segments through ground
• Room area was not recalculated before lighting propagation when merging rooms causing incorrect indirect lighting between rooms
• Fixed bug where framerate would tank if there was unreachable parking spaces
• Fixed parking space pathfinding so cars can drive around parked cars
• Forgot to remove in-development OS dependency error message when releasing new software for project management
• Replacing a table furniture with a non table furniture was broken and could crash game with infinite loop
• Product detail window was missing refund number
• Rare chance that AI companies would buy each other out in one move, removing both companies from the game
• Employees would try doing alpha work they aren't allowed to because of their role, causing stress and slowdowns
• Bankruptcy message needs tweaking and company balance entry should include insurance account to avoid insurance counting as a loss
• Clear employee effectiveness stats when they meet, to not give the impression they are still affected by things from last day
• Project management action points reset when loading game
• Various other bugs

Optimizations

• Made progress bar a MaskableGraphic instead of having two image components, this also enables gradients
• Improved popup duplicate check

[ 2017-02-18 13:06:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Don't worry, I'm not at all done balancing the game and I haven't gotten to contract work yet. This release is mostly to avoid getting the same bug report over and over. I'm currently working at a snail pace due to my internet situation. I just got a 4G router today. I put my phone's SIM card in it, so I'm currently maxing my data cap, not receiving phone calls and drowning in ethernet cables, until I receive a new SIM card. The cable company that decided to cut my connection without ever informing me have not responded to my inquires and don't really seem to care (They weren't informed I moved in. I didn't know they existed, so I just signed up with an ISP). Known issues

• Can't update previously uploaded workshop mods

Changes

• Made reviews more clear when the price is too high
• Add overall score and review accuracy to peer review window
• Progressbar for review work
• Show needs/OSs in info window for software
• Put contract/deal info in info window for software work items
• Add enter to accept on team selection window
• Balance printing job offers
• Overhauled tutorial system to make it easier to change and add new tutorials
• Balance support ticket generation
• Project progress should go to 200%, going above 100% increases quality, but is obviously very inefficient
• Add warning when starting print job when no printers are present
• Warn the player when physical copies of a product does not meet demand, causing lost sales
• Add warning message when furniture could not be replaced due to size
• Lower bandwidth requirements across entire game
• Upgrade power of all servers to and balance bills
• Software work needs release date visible always

Fixes

• Error bubbles do not scale according to GUI scaling
• Should never lose more fans on cancelling support than active user count
• Missing categories for printing furniture
• Dates were not being loaded correctly when having more days per month, which could cause instabilities (Somehow worked out in alpha 8???)
• Fixed design phase sometimes not updating progress bar

[ 2017-02-06 02:09:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

If you are following me on twitter, you'll know my internet connection has been disconnected and it'll take at least 5 days to get it back. As I don't have access to my build server I can't release the mac version until I get my internet back. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. This is mostly bug fixes. I have read all your feedback and will be working on balancing the game and implementing your feedback the next couple of days for alpha 9.2.1. Changes

• Add doors and windows to blueprint placement model
• Pause game when error message appears
• Add missing funds warning to furniture replacement window

Fixes

• Bug in how averages were weighted caused product quality to always be really low, despite high reviews
• Forgot to localize Network specialization
• Can't save blueprints
• Retroactively fixed save files breaking when employees retire
• Removed possibility of having marketing window open throughout development and then starting pre-marketing tasks after release and fixed sometimes not updating choice from pre to post
• Fixed team compatibility being -1 at load time causing negative effectiveness
• Fixed changing language will break game and need restart
• Furniture replacement button visible for furniture with no replacements
• Fixed employees leave times +-30 min based on laziness
• Various other bugs
• Can't create a second project management group

[ 2017-02-02 14:20:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 9.1.2 hotfix

Fixed not being able to promote from alpha and credits window not working

IMPORTANT NOTES

• ALPHA 8 SAVES ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH ALPHA 9
• TUTORIALS ARE BROKEN
• GAME BALANCE MAY BE EXTREMELY BROKEN
• PLEASE GIVE FEEDBACK
• MODDING: FEATURE CATEGORIES(SPECIALIZATIONS) ARE NOW MANDETORY AND FURNITURE UPGRADE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED AGAIN, SEE http://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php?title=Furniture_Modding#Replacements.2Fupgrading

Major changes

• Alpha and beta phases have been overhauled to replace progressbar system with peer review system
• Pre-marketing has been divided into seperate actions and post-marketing is now an endless money sink, with different requirements per software category
• Product support is now endless and demand is dynamic based on product success
• Project quality calculation has been overhauled
• Overhauled product review article generator to give better feedback
• Overhauled project management to be assigned per leader and more managable
• Overhauled distribution mechanics
• Added printers for player to print physical copies of products

Still to come in alpha 9

• Price discounts
• Subsidiaries
• Tutorial updates
• Press build newspaper review (Forgot to add this)
• Monthly bill breakdowns
• More product printers

Alpha 9.1.1 patch notes

Changes

• Ability to develop software for in-development OSs
• Instead of forcing the player to chose what to do when they lose, give them 24 hours to rectify the situation, so they have more options than just loans, insurance or stocks
• Updated to Unity 5.5.0f3
• Save files are now compressed and only take up about 20% of what they used to
• Added an extra wall toggle where only outer walls and furniture facing camera are hidden
• Changed upgrade categorization for furniture to use group names instead of direct furniture names, so furniture A can be upgraded to funiture B if furniture A's UpgradeFrom or UpgradeTo equals furniture B's UpgradeTo name, so mods don't break when new furniture is added
• Removed mini-games
• Contract window should have same Team/Artist/Design count information as design document window
• Are you sure you want to promote from design warning
• Have info button on dev work items to show the info in the design document
• Make multi select window scrollable, so server options become manageable
• Difficulty should not affect employee skills, only ease of market breakthrough
• Ability to pause work items, especially needed for new endless marketing task
• Add ctrl+S autosave keyboard shortcut and saving indicator in top right corner
• Software categories should not have direct reference to RandomNameGenerator, to enable modding random name generators without changing any software
• Turn CompanyType "Types" into Dictionary to enable AI companies making software in several specific categories for the same software type, null = all categories
• Added save file backup option to combat corrupted save files, enabled by default
• Instantiate product windows separately, but keep track using ID
• Move product window action buttons below list
• Add current floor level indicator
• Make parking spaces selectable and add ability to limit use to anyone, staff, cooks, delivery, guests or employees
• Right click priority buttons on tasks to instantly max or min priority
• Server temperature is now scaled with its current load
• Added staff tooltips to explain their function
• Skyscraper prettification
• Replaced payment list in insurance window with terminations list, which also shows role, team and years hired
• Only show one sick message per day
• Made Big Server Rack mod part of main game
• All newspaper articles are now saved forever and divided by date in the interface
• Made UI.xml parsing recursive so there's is no limit to tree depth when localizing to allow more freedom for categorizing
• Balanced contract work a little
• Re-did color grading and tonemapping
• City environment should be default
• One software feature can now have different specializations depending on whether the actual work is art or code based, using

Fixes

• Employee idle button not hidden in build mode
• Upgrading a server on a table with chairs would not delete table
• Fixed employees not taking vacation if sent on education after they went home
• Bug in save system that would sometimes fail to load huge saves with a buffer size exception
• Added in extra file flushes despite closing stream, since some save games seemed to be missing data after exactly 1 or 2 megabytes written
• Employees should note their work day length and which hour they arrived at work and base their departure time on that, instead of always leaving at a set hour, since that could be 24 hours away if they arrive very late due to traffic congestion
• Screen zooms when scrolling with cursor between work tasks
• Fixed tangents of walls near windows and doors so that they don't appear to be misaligned in certain light conditions at certain angles
• Insurance window auto corrects value of input text if non standard currency is used
• Insurance account and company weren't associated when loading a previously saved game, breaking stock worth calculations
• Accidentally made lowest bid instead of highest when no one on market can afford stock
• Fixed furniture getting squished in rare circumstances due to comparing squared magnitude with non squared magnitude
• Fixed bugs in WindowManager.AddElementToElement
• Removed duplicate entries from UI.xml localization file

Optimizations

• Enumerate employee thoughts, problems and affecters, should not localize them each frame and save to file
• Move in-world warning icons from OnGUI to Canvas to increase performance and to have them behind the HUD
• Replaced most masks with RectMask2D
• Make a IconFillBar and use it to replace the current reputation stars
• Changed A* path node connection list to hashset
• Optimized skyscraper mesh generation code

[ 2017-01-31 23:46:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey lovely people! Iâ

[ 2017-01-18 21:49:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

The bad news is that I won't be able to release alpha 9 before I move offices, but the good news is that all functionality for the initial testing release is complete, I just need to polish everything up, as all timing and balancing is completely broken at this point, and then I need to write some sentences for the new review generator. I'll be packing down all dev equipment tomorrow and I'll be setting up the new office during the weekend. My ISP has confirmed I should have an internet connection on the 20th of December, so I'll be able to pick up work in the last couple of weeks of December. Hopefully I'll be have something ready during late December, but if not, I'll most definitely have something ready early January.

[ 2016-12-15 15:06:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's now been almost 2 months since the last update. I'd like to say I've made huge advancements, but the truth is these have probably been the slowest months in the development of Software Inc. A lot of non-programming related work has come up during these past months. I'll be moving to a new location on the 15th of December and development should pick up again and be back to full speed from January. The good news is that the amazing support I've received from you has allowed me to work in my company for at least another 4 years, which means I'll be able to finish Software Inc. in good time and start working on a new game as well. I'm currently done with the bulk of gameplay changes for Alpha 9. There's still a lot of polishing, bug fixes and balancing to be done, before it's ready for release. As always, I'll be doing a testing release initially, to make sure things are relatively balanced and bug free. I'm hoping to have this initial release out before I move to the new location, but if I don't make it before the 15th December, it'll most likely be out in January. To make sure you get this release earlier, I've decided to cut some features for the initial release, but I'll make sure to “make room” for the features in the save files, so they'll be out by the time Alpha 9 is done.

Progress on Alpha 9

Development no longer works by filling up a progress bar, instead the game now differentiates between code and art progress, and the actual quality of the work done. There's no longer a clear indication of when a product is done, because that doesn't really make sense in the real world and it makes the gameplay a little too simple. To find out how good your product is during development, you'll have to do “peer reviews”, by letting your employees, other companies or clients look over your alpha and rate it.
The pre-marketing tasks have been split up and now force you to make timing based decisions. Pre-marketing will attract followers to your product, which represent guaranteed purchases, but you should be vigilant to not lose them again, and make sure you deliver a worthy product, on time. When you product is released, there is no longer a set amount of marketing you have to do each month, instead you'll just have to throw enough employees and money at it, to make sure your product has better exposure than your competitors.
Support will now play a bigger role in the game. Support tickets will dynamically follow active user count, there will be no clear indication when support has finished and bugs will have an impact on your sales in the form of refunds.
Project management has been fixed and completely overhauled. You can have more teams per phase, you can queue up your own projects at will and design and development phases can interleave. There's no longer any education needed and project management tasks are assigned directly to a leader, who must actively work to accumulate “action points” to advance projects. There's also been a bunch of optimizations, bug fixes and improvements. Notably, you can now develop products for operating systems that are still in development.

Planned for later releases of Alpha 9

The initial release of Alpha 9 will not include these features, but I expect them to be out and compatible with Alpha 9 saves.

• Subsidiaries, which lets you buy out a company without closing them down.
• Discounts, the ability to change the price after release and simulate the effects of this.
• Individual distribution channels will be removed from the game and replaced with a much simpler system, that will still allow the player to host their own online distribution channel. The player will also have to pay to have physical copies printed of each product.
• The ability for the player to print their own or other companies' products, which will involve building product printers and hiring transportation.

[ 2016-11-26 23:59:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Added idle worker indicator button and game now specifies problem when employee is selected
• Employees will now try to go to a water cooler to relieve stress if they are completely stressed out
• Removed releases from "upcoming events" window, player should check "upcoming releases" window instead
• Having HR "force roles" disabled would force employees to "any role", which was more confusing than helpful

Fixes

• Elevator and stairs had become upgradable but would crash the game if attempted
• Changed employee thought "Stressed" to "I feel stressed"
• Staff list wasn't sorted correctly when sorting by arrival/departing times
• Fixed inconsistencies in current selection when employee or staff window is manipulated

Optimizations

• Removed unnecessary employee computations when game is paused

[ 2016-10-02 14:44:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Contains some minor fixes to the marketing window and furniture replacement window. For details see the last update.

[ 2016-09-28 22:50:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sorry for the delays! I've had a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on and I'll be moving to a new office in december (I'm currently sharing my office with my wife). I expect this update to be in testing for a couple of days and then I'll finally move on to alpha 9. I'll do my best to get alpha 9 out before 2017, there are still some missing pieces in regards to how the new mechanics will work together. Changes

• Replaced furniture upgrade with furniture replacement menu (Furniture mods will need to use a comma separated list for "UpgradeTo" and "UpgradeFrom", read more in Mod Wiki)
• List installed mods in options window
• Pick team for porting and save choice

Fixes

• Insurance withdrawal and depositing was not scaled by currency
• No matter how many employees are educated at a time in HR or AutoDev, the same amount is charged
• Marketing window not using last team picked
• Updated "Employees" and "Build Mode" tutorial, BUILD MODE2, EMPLOYEES9, EMPLOYEES11, EMPLOYEES12 and EMPLOYEES13
• Pressing X would close the tutorial window
• Build mode search only worked for lower case characters
• Fixed wrong rotation for furniture on tables when upgrading tables
• Lasse fixed clothes clipping errors
• Fixed needs not correctly appearing in design document for some software categories present in mods

[ 2016-09-26 15:04:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Updated to Unity 5.4.1 to test whether the Nvidia Optimus issue has been fixed, nothing else has changed.

[ 2016-09-12 19:15:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update should fix the employees never leaving issue (Could also cause them to not eat and socialize). It also replaces the furniture rendering system, so out-of-memory crashes should be eliminated. I'm keeping my finger on the rollback button for now, as I've updated to the next major Unity version, which could cause incompatibilities, but I've successfully tested it on Ubuntu and OSX. The new trailer should be up later today, which features music from Chris Sinnott (Sinnott Soundworks), who's currently working on the soundtrack for Software Inc. I still have some non Software Inc. related stuff I have to take care of, but I should be back to full speed within the month and alpha 9 should be out before we hit 2017. Hopefully, I'll be moving to a bigger office with less distractions next year, which will help me getting more work done. After alpha 9, I have some major mechanics left to implement and then I'll move on to the beta phase, where I'll focus more on content and balancing. I still expect to add new features during beta, but it won't as often as it is currently. Between now and beta could take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.

[ 2016-09-10 11:23:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've updated Unity to 5.4. Due to the large amount of different colored furniture the game has to render I developed a solution some months ago, where I combine all furniture into one big object for the graphics card to render all at once. This trades in memory for performance. However, the game has been crashing for some people because the GPU would run out of memory. Unity 5.4 introduces GPU instancing, which allows me to draw each type of furniture all at once, no matter their color. This might slow performance as all furniture is no longer being drawn at once. If you have a lot of varied furniture from mods, this will be slower, but on the other hand, if you have a lot of similar furniture, like many tables and computers, these will be rendered very quickly. I've traded some performance for stability, but overall the game should still perform a lot better compared to last year. Note that GPU instancing only works for DirectX11+ and OpenGL 4.1+, if your computer is very old or hasn't been updated for a long time the game might see a big performance hit with a lot of furniture present on screen at once. If your computer is that old it would probably crash out of memory at that point anyway, though. Since new versions of Unity can prove quite unstable, I'm keeping this in testing for a while to see if the game suddenly stops working for some configurations. Fixes

• Road visible from basement after loading game

Optimizations

• Switch to GPU instancing for furniture
• Switch to GPU instancing for cars
• Switch to GPU instancing for roads

[ 2016-09-03 06:24:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update includes minor bug fixes and improvements. Changes

• Ability to filter work by selected rooms/employees
• Hovering over room noise now lists sources of problem
• Updated Unity to 5.3.6p2
• Choose team before accepting contract
• Remember teams chosen for different tasks and auto select them next time(Does not work for work assignment)
• Add ability to change arrival time for multiple staff members at once

Fixes

• Using the rectangle building tool to split a room in a specific way could cause the game to break or crash completely
• Upgrading a server and a table at the same time spawns the server in the table
• Added some debugging and made a small change to try and fix the employees not going home issue, please send your save file if you run into this problem
• Fixed work items sometimes not initializing in GUI after loading game
• Fixed bugs in furniture look function causing employees to make undesirable choices when picking furniture to use
• Hole in ground stays after deleting room above staircase from basement
• Elevator snapping distance too big, making it hard to build adjacent elevators when elevators on other floors are already built
• Wall building sometimes fails with intersection error when it should have split the wall

[ 2016-08-27 11:54:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Work on alpha 9 has not started yet, as I'm still working on marketing materials and focusing on the business side of running a company. I've fixed some bugs that have cropped up since the last patch and I've updated to Unity 5.3.6f1, which encompasses several months worth of UI patches. As I'm not completely sure how it will affect the game, I'm keeping the patch in testing for some days. Changes

• Updated Unity from 5.3.5p3 and Unity UI from 5.3.4f1 to version 5.3.6f1

Fixes

• Fixed bugs in furniture look function causing employees to make undesirable choices when picking furniture to use
• Hole in ground stays after deleting room above staircase from basement
• Elevator snapping distance too big, making it hard to build adjacent elevators when elevators on other floors are already built
• Wall building sometimes fails with intersection error when it should have split the wall

[ 2016-08-06 22:07:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here’s a quick patch to fix the most glaring bugs of the last release. Before listing the changelog I’d like to reveal my plans for alpha 9. Note that my plans for alpha 9 might change at any point if something becomes infeasible or doesn’t work well with the rest of the game. First point of business is the notion of quality. Currently, quality and development duration are synonyms in Software Inc., which doesn’t really make much sense. I plan to separate quality from development progress, such that quality can vary during development, depending on employee skill. Secondly, I want to get rid of the progressbar in the alpha phase of development. The progressbar mistakenly gave the impression that software should always be outstanding and that releasing early is not a viable strategy. Ideally the average quality of the software you release should be exactly that: “average”. I’m introducing peer reviews instead. You’ll be able to send a build to your employees to test and report back the current state of the product, the accuracy of which will depend on a number of things. I’ll also add “Lines Of Code” and "Art assets" metrics, which will allow you to “learn” when a product is done. But the completeness of a product should not be as apparent as it is now. Bug count will also be obfuscated. Bugs will impact product success through refunds, and I’m currently debating with myself whether bugs reported through support work should be fixed in separate patch releases, and not directly as it is now. Pre-marketing is going out and instead you’ll be gaining product followers by utilizing press releases, press builds and going to conferences. Announcing a release date and sticking to it will have positive effects on marketing. Post-marketing will no longer have an upper limit, but you’ll have to actively compete by throwing as much money as possible at marketers and ads. I’ll be overhauling the newspaper to focus solely on player products and make reviews more detailed. I’ll make innovation, stability and usability more transparent and give the player complete control over balancing them. I want to introduce subsidiaries, which will allow you to buy out a company without closing it, and then controlling it, much like automation, but with the added ability to keep in the background and let them do their thing.

Alpha 8.11.14 changelog:

Changes

• Lowered social needs, now takes twice as long for people to feel isolated
• Employees will try to meet at watercooler every 3 hours if they have low social stat, instead of once per day
• Removed coffee vapor, not worth the performance cost

Fixes

• Audience retention was not scaled with days per month
• Fixed trying to check feature dependency for features that are not compatible with selected software category. Found by selecting "Fighting" category in "Game" software from mod
• Fixed employees sometimes not leaving behind items, so they end up holding on to them forever, breaking their behavior, e.g. not going to the watercooler because they already have water

[ 2016-07-27 11:34:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

I can finally start work on Alpha 9. As with the past major alpha versions, this could take 1-3 months before I have something ready, especially now that I need to overhaul a large part of the core mechanics. Look here for more details in the upcoming days. I'll also be spending the next couple of weeks updating all marketing material, as most of it is a year old. Major changes include:

• New car models and animations by Lasse
• New car sound effects
• Cars now take 4 people instead of 2 and busses take 12 instead of 8. Parking spots have been reduced to 2 spots to avoid clipping issues
• New save format means faster saving, smaller file size and I have more control over the process
• You can now sell stocks to highest bidder
• Graphs now have tooltips so you can inspect values
• Columns in lists now save your width preference
• The dialog window looks way better!
• You can now use ctrl/alt/shift/cmd modifers for binding keys, but you can no longer bind these keys directly. If you have any issues try resetting the key bindings.
• Fixed 720p resolution
• A bunch of fixes, optimizations and UX improvements

Changes in 8.11.13: Changes

• Added icons and colors to dialog windows for info/warning/error/question

Fixes

• Fixed left wheels rotating in the wrong direction
• Fixed room labels in topdown mode

[ 2016-07-24 13:52:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sorry this is taking so long, but I want to fix as many bugs as possible before I start work on alpha 9. Changes

• Save listview column widths
• Added personality traits to customization menu
• Preview colors in customization menu directly on buttons

Fixes

• Contract time should be counted in days if applicable
• Fixed a bunch of null reference bugs

Optimizations

• Optimized team compatibility calculation

[ 2016-07-19 14:34:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Depending on bug reports, this might be the last update before I move on to alpha 9. Changes

• Lower minimum resolution height to 720p
• Added tooltip with value and date for company line chart and product bar chart

Fixes

• ZZZ should only appear when not doing anything in front of a computer or when loitering
• Line chart should average values if there are more values than pixels on screen
• Fixed game sometimes breaking when starting new game due to road pathfinding initialization

[ 2016-07-07 14:40:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

The cars have been overhauled! There is still some optimization and bug fixing left for this version before I'll push it out officially, but I wanted to get the working system out for testing ASAP. Changes

• Car models replaced and new car related character animations added
• Car SFX replaced
• Busses now take 12 passengers instead of 8, cars take 4 instead of 2 and there are only 2 parking spots instead of 4 per road cell.
• If nobody is interested in stock, the game asks if you want to sell to highest bidder
• Room accessibility is now determined by path from outside, instead of amount of doors

Fixes

• Fix build menu for multi monitor screens
• Put in "missing furniture mod" warning
• Include mod names when loading them from Steam cache for more descriptive error messages

Optimizations

• IT and maintenance staff optimization. Would lag a lot late game with 20 or more present in a large building. Still more optimization to be done

[ 2016-07-03 21:13:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sorry about my mess up in the last update. Fortunately the faulty update was only out for 1 hour and it appears that at most 7 people were affected. Unfortunately someone had to run into the issue for me to find it. Your save files should still be recoverable by replacing them with the "savefile.sav.bak" version, unless you loaded the game, saved it, exited the game, then loaded it and saved it again. The save system has been fixed up and I've run some tests that compares every single variable of every single object in a save file, to make sure there are no differences between the old and new save files. This new version also saves an "orig" version of your save file, which is your save file exactly as it was before this update. If you have any save files from the last update, make sure to revert to the "bak" version. To switch back to a backup save file, go to the Saves folder where you installed the game, delete the bad save file and remove the ".bak" from the end of the backup version. Fixes in this version

• Fixed not being able to change List<> variables in furniture mods
• Limit company and employee name length
• Limit amount of vertices being added to line charts to avoid mesh size error

[ 2016-06-25 16:22:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update has been rolled back to prevent further corrupt save games as the save system is broken. To roll back to your old saves, go to the Saves folder where you installed the game, delete the bad save file and remove the ".bak" from the end of the backup version. [strike]Alpha 8.10.36 tests a new save system, which might break your save files. To mitigate this the game will save a backup version in the old format every time you save a game, which you can switch to in the event something goes wrong. This means the game will save two files, which takes up extra space and takes a little more time. You can switch back to the default branch in Steam if you want out. To switch back to a backup save file, go to the Saves folder where you installed the game, delete the bad save file and remove the ".bak" from the end of the backup version. The purpose of the new save system is to reduce file size, increase save speed and give me 100% control over the process, so I can reduce the amount of save breaking changes I make to the game. Alpha 9 will still not be compatible with Alpha 8. Fixes in this version

• Fixed not being able to change List<> variables in furniture mods
• Limit company and employee name length
• Limit amount of vertices being added to line charts to avoid mesh size error

[/strike]

[ 2016-06-25 02:23:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Edit: 8.10.35 fixes employees continuously switching between working and not working and upgrading furniture not updating highlights properly
As you might have noticed, we are still on Alpha 8 despite the major changes, this is due to the fact that Alpha 8.10 does not break saves from Alpha 8.8!

Major changes:

-The character model has been replaced with the work of a talented artist ( https://twitter.com/lassejhansen ) and new character customization features have been added -Improved color window
-Added cubicle walls with advanced noise dampening calculations
-Added canteen functionality with cooks and stoves, the old fridge is now an inferior vending machine
-Added furniture modding with Steam workshop support
-Employees now have stress and social needs and improved personality traits -Improved build menu -Added an in-game feedback/bug-reporting tool -Tons of bug fixes -Tons of UX improvements -Tons of optimizations Still to come in Alpha 8: Improved car models and animations, sound effects and parking mechanics Planned for Alpha 9: A complete overhaul of the development, support and marketing process: Progress bars are going out and player involvement is coming in.

[ 2016-06-21 13:25:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 8.10.34 includes random bug fixes and optimization. I optimized some code dealing with work and skill increase which has the potential to really mess things up, so I'm keeping alpha 8.10 in testing for another day. Changes

• Failing to load or save valid game should allow player to open reporting tool directly

Fixes

• Fixed Windows build not including log file and Mac build not including screenshot when sending report
• Fixed employees demanding less if they're more proficient in a lower paying role than they were hired for

Optimizations

• Distributed employee work algorithm over several frames

[ 2016-06-20 10:28:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

I didn't receive any crash reports, so I've integrated a reporting tool directly into the game, which will ask you to report it, if it has detected any crashes. If I don't receive any crash reports this week, I'll release Alpha 8.10 officially Changes

• Updated to Unity 5.3.5p3
• Feedback and error reporting from in-game
• Team name in automation window

Fixes

• Game complains about furniture ownership on load
• Fixed memory leak in furniture mesh combiner
• Employees getting stuck on stairs and in doorways
• Fixed graying hair color

[ 2016-06-16 11:39:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

If you have or had the crash bug in the New Game screen, please try to reproduce the crash and send the crash report files to SoftwareInc@Coredumping.com The faster I get this bug fixed, the faster I can move on to Alpha 9. Windows builds have doubled in size to facilitate better crash reports, the file size will half when the bug has been fixed. Changes

• Added line numbers and more descriptive errors to XML reader
• Furniture mods can use HEX colors if the value starts with #
• Added arrows to scrollbars to emphasize purpose
• Rewrote work tutorials to explain the actual purpose of each phase of development
• Central temperature units should provide capacity information when selected
• Optional keybindings for grid tools

Fixes

• Fixed bug in XML reader with tightly packed tags
• Extra line of defense for ground navmesh error
• Fixed HR ignoring preferred age

[ 2016-06-13 14:56:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Updated to Unity 5.3.5p1
• Resize build menu width with screen size and increase height
• Filter furniture by room or by function(Furniture has new FunctionCategory variable)
• Several room categories per furniture(Category variable is now an array of strings)
• New character/staff customization content and building textures

Fixes

• Changed beard and makeup textures to overlay instead of multiplied
• Various fixes

[ 2016-05-29 18:01:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

I started disabling Unity features in the customization menu to try and mitigate the crashing issue. Fixes

• Staff furniture interaction code was completely bugged from last update causing them to fail their tasks if they have assigned rooms
• Various fixes

[ 2016-05-26 09:39:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

There is no news on the crash bug, but it seems a lot of Unity games are suffering from it at the moment. If you have the crash issue, try setting launch options to "-force-gfx-direct" and please report back if it works.

Alpha 8.10.28 changes

• Room labels only visible if not default
• Updated to Unity 5.3.5f1

Fixes

• Fixed bugs dealing with how room walls are split when building nearby rooms
• Various fixes

Optimizations

• Improved employee state update performance

Alpha 8.10.27 Changes

• Made color dialog more intuitive and added hue slider option
• Made glass material available for furniture mods using "Glass"
• No part of a window should ever be off the lower part of the screen and some part of a window should always be visible
• Employees will no longer request negative raises, so it's up to the player to figure out if an employee is getting overpaid
• Added Meeting room limit and made room limits more strict in regards to loitering, meetings and eating
• Staff will now always prefer using furniture in assigned rooms, especially helpful for cooks

Fixes

• A lot of random fixes

[ 2016-05-19 09:19:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Due to a bug in Unity, the game currently crashes on a select few computers running Windows 8 and Windows 10 and I therefore can't release Alpha 8.10 officially. There is currently no clear indication of when this bug will be fixed, but if you've been holding off on the testing version for stability reasons, you might as well switch, as you most likely aren't affected. Note that this patch changes balancing a bit, so I might need to iron it out in a hotfix. You can switch to the testing version by right clicking the game in your Steam library, clicking properties, BETAS tab and selecting "testing" from the dropdown, no password needed. Changes

• Reduce random factor effect and decrease average sales
• Lowered effectiveness threshold from 300% to 200% for funny keyboard animation

Fixes

• Made price gouge prevention more robust
• Employees are not physically touching keyboard after placing a PC addon
• Various bug fixes

[ 2016-05-15 01:06:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'll stop adding new stuff now and focus on bug fixing so I can release 8.10 officially. Alpha 8.10.25 fixes fences not being colored and Unity was updated to 5.3.4p6 Random bug fixes for Alpha 8.10.24. I updated the Steam API in Alpha 8.10.23. Everyone who has been experiencing crashes, please test it again.

Alpha 8.10.22 changes

• Changed server process redelegation interface

Fixes

• Cache Steam Workshop items to avoid Steam failing to query them
• Fixed steam workshop query maybe causing crashes
• Various fixes

Alpha 8.10.21 changes

• Added FURNITURE_DEBUG console command to show furniture boundaries and points for selected furniture

Fixes

• Switched OBJ file loader to faster and more stable commercial solution
• Fixed employees sitting down and standing up constantly when loitering

Alpha 8.10.20 changes

• Added option to bring up console whenever an error occurs, on by default
• Slow social need decline further
• Add warning if cook is missing stove or fridge

Fixes

• employees don't want to eat in team canteens
• Use lounge prioritization when loitering, always

Optimizations

• Optimized loitering state and furniture repair query

Alpha 8.10.19 fixes

• Cooks don't put food on serving trays in team rooms (Again)
• Fixed furniture AutoBound and EXPORT_FURNITURE_BOUNDS bugs
• Fixed navmesh generation bug

All changes from Alpha 8.10.16 to 8.10.18: Changes

• Overhauled office ambience SFX based on noisiness
• Added phone SFX
• RELOAD_MOD command to reload a mod at runtime (doesn't change currently running game)
• TOGGLE_CEILING to toggle generation of ceiling meshes (bad performance and doesn't work with stairs)
• Added CompanyType compatibility check when toggling mods

Fixes

• Being able to merge indoor and outdoor areas
• Cooks don't put food on serving trays in team rooms
• Cleaners should clean outdoor areas
• Missing cost tooltip on cooks
• Increased navmesh generation resolution
• Fixed employee noise calculation
• Fixed phones and drawing tablets never turning on
• Dim lights in daylight
• Rooms that circle in on themselves will make degenerate floor support polygons that self intersect
• New room wall optimization approach
• Various fixes
• Audio listener should follow camera in 1st person mode
• Fixed loading game with modded furniture causing "ghost" furniture
• Fixed cleaning staff trying to clean outdoor areas
• Employees should no longer get stuck, ever
• Various fixes

[ 2016-05-09 21:58:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 8.10.17 changes:

• RELOAD_MOD command to reload a mod at runtime (doesn't change currently running game)

Fixes

• Rooms that circle in on themselves will make degenerate floor support polygons that self intersect
• New room wall optimization approach
• Various fixes

Alpha 8.10.16 changes:

• TOGGLE_CEILING to toggle generation of ceiling meshes (bad performance and doesn't work with stairs)
• Added CompanyType compatibility check when toggling mods

Fixes

• Audio listener should follow camera in 1st person mode
• Fixed loading game with modded furniture causing "ghost" furniture
• Fixed cleaning staff trying to clean outdoor areas
• Employees should no longer get stuck, ever
• Various fixes

Alpha 8.10.15 improves boundary generation for furniture mods and adds EXPORT_FURNITURE_BOUNDS command to improve loading performance Alpha 8.10.14 fixes various bugs with the workshop, modded furniture, UI not loading with disabled console, etc. Changes

• Integrated furniture modding into game and added Steam Workshop support (Go to http://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php?title=Modding#Furniture_modding for more info)
• Moved mod loading errors to console
• Made console key rebindable and set default key to home
• Changed recommended team size presentation in design document

Fixes

• Fixed error logging
• Various fixes

[ 2016-05-04 16:08:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 8.10 should be out officially any day now... Changelog for Alpha 8.10.8 - 8.10.12 Changes

• Replaced cheat menu with debugging console, which has exception info(-debugconsole to enable and press 9 to show in-game)
• RGB hex field in color dialog

Fixes

• Gates sometimes not created when placing blueprints
• Ground mesh not updating when deleting basement rooms with stairs
• Build mode search bar and design document pricing stopped working because Unity deleted all inputfield events after update
• Attempt at fixing broken while loop error in room optimization algorithm
• Random navmesh fixes, trading in algorithm speed/building lag for stability

Optimizations

• Optimized away an animation layer to improve performance with a lot of employees present
• Added null mesh to cull animation for non visible animators
• Disable animators for employees who are home

[ 2016-05-01 18:20:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 8.10.11

Changes

• Replaced cheat menu with debugging console, which has exception info(-debugconsole to enable and press 9 to show in-game)

Fixes

• Attempt at fixing broken while loop error in room optimization algorithm

Optimizations

• Optimized away an animation layer to improve performance with a lot of employees present
• Added null mesh to cull animation for non visible animators
• Disable animators for employees who are home

Edit: Alpha 8.10.10 has navmesh fixes Edit: Alpha 8.10.9 adds a hex field to the color dialog Edit: Alpha 8.10.8 has random fixes and error log updates Changes

• Created furniture mod (http://softwareinc.coredumping.com/forum/index.php?topic=1263.0)
• Currency short form
• Ability to update existing blueprint

Fixes

• Employees will leave watercooler for meetings
• Cooks should only use assigned rooms
• Fixed being able to split room to make it float in the air
• Random fixes

[ 2016-04-29 18:11:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Ability to change employee names
• Delete key hint
• Customization menu should reflect graphics options
• Changed how furniture and room segments are referenced to allow for easier furniture modding in the future
• Updated the customization tutorial (Localization change: CUSTOMIZATION5)

Fixes

• Random stuff

[ 2016-04-27 23:17:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

EDIT: 8.10.3 Fixes

• Furniture meshes stay after room gets deleted
• Navmesh bugs due to chair offsetting
• 3m round table broken
• No handling of employees eating at the same table

8.10.2 Fixes

• Blueprints and cloning stopped working due to Unity breaking mesh reference for no reason
• IT breaking when computer gets deleted and employee breaking when toilet or coffee machine gets deleted
• Serving trays breaking on load if they have food
• Employees eating at round tables would break game
• Food visible on other floors
• Meetings can be held in canteens
• HR window not saving recruitment numbers and budget
• Interior walls clipping at above 180 degrees
• Faces not rendering on DX9

[ 2016-04-25 22:51:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

This version might be in testing for awhile as there are many new systems to debug. All employees in previous saves will have randomized styles to fit the new character model and all fridges will be replaced with vending machines. Known issues: Faces turn black on DirectX 9 New version of Unity has increased game size for debugging purposes and they don't plan on changing it. Biggest impact on OSX. Changes

• Added canteen and cooks
• Character model replaced and customization system reworked
• Added unofficial support for .NET mods
• Update to Unity 5.3.4, should fix NVidia Optimus issues
• Ability to change gamma
• Censoring on toilet
• Improved employee status info in UI with progress bars
• OS devtime should not have effect on porting
• Only employees talking should increase noise significantly and cubicles should control how much noise an employee makes
• Add hint about how more employees do not make development faster
• Different types of tasks should have different stress factors
• Companies with less than 4 employees shouldn't have to fulfill social needs
• Independent employees should be more independent, as their social needs only relate to their working hours
• Made it so interaction points can have a minimum requirement, warning appears if less than the minimum is unreachable

Fixes

• Fixed central heating and AC calculation
• Fixed leaders not being social with employees at computers they own
• Fixed leaders yoyo-ing between socializing with employees and working for no reason
• Fixed bug in how AI companies calculate feature dependencies
• Fixed game freezing when there are errors in room edge definitions
• Handled case where room edge definition had the same start and ending edge
• Fixed game lagging if cleaning staff can't get to a dirty room
• Fixed degenerate triangles in navmesh causing buggy paths
• Fixed path weighting issues
• Work tasks sometimes stop updating
• Extend inner walls to outerwall to avoid window see-through
• Unavailable furniture should be ignored for room cloning and handled in blueprint info screen

Optimizations

• Improved performance when wiring server clusters by preserving the largest cluster
• Furniture is now combined per floor instead of per room to reduce draw calls

[ 2016-04-25 12:01:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Edit: 8.9.3 fixes some bugs Changes

• Added stress buffer zone so it doesn't fluctuate wildly at 0%
• Lowered stress effects of many tasks at once
• Laziness now affects bug count
• Leaders will visit employees at desks to improve social need for them both when they are low
• Stocks should not be purchasable with loaned money
• Employees now make noise when socializing around watercooler
• Reduced bandwidth number in design document as it was misleading in most cases

Fixes

• Fixed hired maintenance spawning instantly
• Fixed some navmesh errors
• Fixed unreachable furniture message jumping to staff instead of furniture
• Fixed exceptions in other threads not getting logged

[ 2016-04-08 02:47:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

All mods with personalities will break in this update. Aptitude, leadership and diligence tags need to be replaced, more details here: http://softwareinc.coredumping.com/wiki/index.php?title=Modding#Personalities_and_incompatibilities I suggest either waiting until these changes are released publicly or having all 6 tags defined for compatibility with both alpha 8.8 and alpha 8.9. I'll make a thread for feedback, as the new employee needs, need to be balanced. Note that this version might not be released publicly and the changes will instead be released as part of Alpha 8.10. Changes

• Cubicle walls with noise reduction calculation
• Upped noisiness of furniture and severity of noise pollution
• Employee social needs
• Employee stress
• Leadership is now "Independent - Social", independent employees has a lower need for socializing, but social employees are good leaders
• Diligence is now "Lazy - Stressed", lazy employees try to skip work but stressed employees get easily stressed
• Aptitude is now "Hard worker - easy learner", hard workers work up to 110% faster, but easy leaners learn new skills quicklier
• Added new visualization for personality traits
• Employee energy, hunger, bladder, social and stress shown when selected
• Added watercooler for socializing(No animations yet)
• Replace default name generators in mods by writing [REPLACE] in the name generator file

Fixes

• Fixed mods without personalities not being uploaded to the Steam Workshop
• Fix team selection for deals

[ 2016-04-06 18:25:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Summary: Changes

• Improved room cloning collision checking and visual representation
• Added some information to blueprint window
• Added 64-bit version for Windows
• Added stairs
• Added ability to create tutorial translations
• Added cloning with basement
• Add "Thumbnail.png" to root mod folder for Steam Workshop thumbnails

Fixes

• Wall segments not offset correctly in blueprint thumbnail
• Fixed IT getting stuck repairing something if nothing else needs repairing
• Fixed hired staff first day arrival time
• Fixed subtracting full price when cloning rooms or placing blueprints, even if something was not built
• Handle when a room is created, which has zero size, causing an avalanche of bugs, such as cleaners not cleaning. Still need to figure out how these rooms appear in the first place
• Windows and doors sometimes not getting copied when cloning or creating blueprints of partial buildings

Optimizations

• Batch building meshes by caching materials
• Batch car meshes by caching materials and lowering color variation

[ 2016-03-30 23:55:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

EDIT: Alpha 8.8.3 Enables stairs for basements, cloning with basement, "Thumbnail.png" for Steam Workshop thumbnails and fixes IT not working EDIT: alpha 8.8.2 adds the ability to create tutorial translations and fixes some bugs This update will be released officially in the next two days if nothing goes wrong. Changes

• Improved room cloning collision checking and visual representation
• Added some information to blueprint window
• Added 64-bit version for Windows
• Added stairs. Not available for basement yet, will come later

Fixes

• Wall segments not offset correctly in blueprint thumbnail
• Fixed IT getting stuck repairing something if nothing else needs repairing
• Fixed hired staff first day arrival time
• Fixed subtracting full price when cloning rooms or placing blueprints, even if something was not built
• Handle when a room is created, which has zero size, causing an avalanche of bugs, such as cleaners not cleaning. Still need to figure out how these rooms appear in the first place

Optimizations

• Batch building meshes by caching materials
• Batch car meshes by caching materials and lowering color variation

[ 2016-03-28 15:16:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

EDIT: Alpha 8.7.2 vastly improves thumbnails for blueprints. EDIT: Alpha 8.7.3 fixed bugs in miniature generator and added delete button to blueprint window I've added a building blueprint system, which allows you to select a building and save to a file, which you can then build again, exactly like cloning rooms. You can also upload your blueprints to the Steam Workshop. I'll be releasing this publicly tomorrow if nothing goes wrong. Also fixed some bugs.

[ 2016-03-23 01:14:41 CET ] [ Original post ]