Happy new year everyone! We hope everyone has had a happy and healthy holiday season!

Also welcome to all the new players who have joined us lately, thanks for your support and all the reviews!

We have been busy gathering player feedback and bringing improvements and refinements to Mad Games Tycoon 2 and we're here to highlight some of the most recent changes to the game, with the latest patch coming out today.

Overall, there have been about 40 changes implemented thanks directly to feedback from the community and we are continuing to update the game, so we're not done yet!


The random option for both game reviews and NPC platform popularity has been reworked to give players more options and variation in each new game they start.

For reviews you can now have a random factor of +/- 3%, 6%, 9% or 12% on all your game reviews. This can add a bit more variety to your game reviews, sometimes working in your advantage, sometimes not.

For platforms, options of +/- 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% (100% will be totally random, as it worked before not a +/- % increase) of the standard NPC platform sales have been added. This will alter the successful platforms you have to release your games on and compete against with your own consoles. Making some platforms more popular, and others less popular every new game.

(Update Jan 18th, 2024 - this has been changed in the latest patch to random platform popularity - low (+/-25%), medium (+/-50%), high (+/-75) and full (this will be the 100% totally random option). This was changed for better user clarity)

-
New Sandbox options have been added, bringing the total sandbox choices for the player to nearly 50! With many of these options having further options so that players can fine tune their game to play exactly the way they want.

It is now possible to set the working speed of employees in sandbox mode. With this setting you can increase (or decrease) the work speed of employees making them complete task much faster. While this will change the balance of the game, it will also make it possible to have much smaller teams of employees accomplish similar task of large teams. Increase your indie studio feel!

You can also change the quality of NPC game releases. This will allow you to play on easy with the NPC releasing top tier games, or on legendary difficulty with competition releasing much worse games and a whole host of options in-between.

And the option to set the maximum number of staff applications was added as well.

These options continue to push forward the ‘freedom of choice’ to play your way we have intended to give players since adding the sandbox mode. We don’t want you to just have unlimited money and call that a sandbox mode. We want you to be able to experiment, play, and even break the balance of the game however you would like. Whether that is the super easy, or the near impossible!

-

Subsidiaries have gotten some attention. We have added 3 additional IP focuses for them, and a few new sorting options to make it easier to tell which are your successful subsidiaries and which are your money pits!

-

Throughout the game there have been numerous ‘quality of life’ additions, new filters, additional information added to tool tips, search functions, menu and change save states, and more.

One of the larger quality of life changes is the ability to specify automatic research across all categories, this was added a few patches ago but now lets the player have much more control over what research they want to automate.

20 additional save slots were added by request for players who like to have multiple games or multiple saves of the same game going with less limitation.

And numerous bug, balance fixes and more.

As always, you can find a full list of all the recent changes in the patch notes below or the latest up to date patch notes on the steam discussion forum.


As stated above, we still have some upcoming updates and we have a list of feedback already gathered from players we continue to utilize to see what is possible but more feedback is always welcome!

Feel free to participate in our community and let us know what you think!

Perspectives, suggestions, general feedback and the overall support from the community has driven forward the game as it nears the 3rd year anniversary from Early Access in January 21, 2021, to it’s full release in May of last year.

So again, we would like to say thank you to everyone! And lets make 2024 another great year for Mad Games Tycoon 2!


BUILD 2024.01.16A --------------------------------

- You can now sort the GameTabs (in the menu: Filter for GameTabs).
- Game options: You can now set how strongly the "Random platform popularity" works.
- Game options: You can now set how strongly the "Random Review Rating" works.
- In sandbox mode, you can now set the quality of the NPC games.
- When you develop a sequel, the gameplay features and languages are now automatically carried over from the predecessor.
- Subsidiaries menu: You can now sort by total revenue share and revenue in the last 24 months,
- Subsidiaries (tooltip): Your revenue share and monthly costs are now displayed.
- In some menus, games can now be sorted by platform type (mobile, arcade, etc.) and game type (sequel, addon, etc.).
- MOD: (NpcGames.txt & NpcIPs.txt) If you add the tag <NOSPIN>, no SpinOffs will be created from this game.

BUILD 2024.01.07A --------------------------------

- The option "Subsidiaries keep their consoles" is now also available for the standard game and in multiplayer mode.
- The guarantee amount of publishing offers is now linked to the difficulty level.
- The working speed of employees can now be set in sandbox mode.
- 20 more save game slots added.
- Game reports (list): The genre is now displayed as an icon and the release date.
- (Right games list) It is now saved in the save game whether a game is enlarged or reduced.
- (Subsidiaries) Three more slots for IP focus added.
- (Menu: My Games -> Reviews) The games can now be sorted by release date.
- (Sell licenses menu) Search function added.
- (Licenses menus) Licenses can now be sorted by suitable/unsuitable genre.
- BALANCE: The topics "Aliens" and "Robots" are now suitable for role-playing games.
- BUG: Closed game studios have bought IPs.
- BUG: (Mod) Licenses for which no good and bad genre have been set, sometimes genres have been set completely randomly.
- BUG: (Mod) No suitable genre could be set for sports licenses (except sports games).
- BUG: (Sandbox) The setting "Normal employee salary" incorrectly increased the salary by 10%.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) You could not give away the "Workshop" technology.

BUILD 2023.12.29A --------------------------------

- BUG: Not all games counted for the console bonus.
- BUG: In sandbox mode, staff salaries were sometimes calculated incorrectly.
- BUG: When Russian language was enabled, there was no contract work for console development.

BUILD 2023.11.02A --------------------------------

- Marketing: Games which are in the queue are now automatically selected.
- Men can now have blond hair.
- BUG: (Start Menu->Sandbox) Some settings were not saved.
- BUG: (Console Menu->Consten Reduction and Durability) Sometimes it was incorrectly displayed that something was "In Progress".
- BUG: The number of staff applications was too high.
- BUG: You could not add copy protection and anti-cheat software "instantly" during development.
- BUG: Closed companies offered contract work.
- BUG: (Menu -> Publishing offers) Sorting by game rating did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Menu -> Development Report) Estimated game rating could vary slightly if you opened the menu several times in a row.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Sometimes subsidiaries were identified incorrectly.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Crashes could occur in some menus after loading an old save game.

BUILD 2023.09.01A --------------------------------

- (Game concept menu -> Buy licenses, Copy protection, Anti cheat) You can now activate a checkbox to add the objects to the game concept immediately.
- (Sandbox) You can now set the maximum number of staff applications. (max. 30-150)
- (Multiplayer) You can now set the suitability of genres to be random.
- (Subsidiary menu) The management costs and genre are now displayed.

Hello everyone!

It's been about 3 months since the full release of Mad Games Tycoon 2. In that time, the game has received over 500 reviews on Steam, with the vast majority being positive, and we're very happy with the response and support the game has received from the players!

Thank you!

We continue to update the game, adding new suggestions, tweaks, and additions to make the game experience that much better!

Today we are releasing another update, which you can find the details below along with a list of all the changes over the last couple months.


Many of the changes and additions throughout our early access journey came from player feedback and we are still seeking that feedback for things we can improve even after early access has ended.

We've recently opened up a new thread on the Steam discussion forums to collect suggestions to polish the game further, but you're also welcome to post your own threads with your ideas as we continue to monitor for feedback.

And of course, any bugs you may find please let us know so we can fix them ASAP!

So join the discussion, make a post, reply here, or leave a review and let us know what you think!



BUILD 2023.08.24A --------------------------------

- (Startup options) You can now set that the suitability of the genres is random.
- (Employee search) You can now set that the employee should not have negative perks.
- (Employee search) You can now select the gender.
- BUG: (Subsidiary menu) Sorting by "Progress" did not work.


BUILD 2023.08.23A --------------------------------

- (Research Room) You can now set automatic research for all categories.
- (Multiplayer) Contract games are now blocked when a player is working on a game concept.
- BUG: (Game Concept) When you closed and reopened the menu, the selected languages were flipped.
- BUG: (Research Room) Sometimes the staff was working when no task was given.


BUILD 2023.08.09A --------------------------------

- The age of the games now also counts when evaluating bundles.
- BALANCE: Sales figures for bundles reduced.
- BUG: (Genres) The platform suitability was reset when loading Save Games.
- BUG: (Options) Sometimes the framerate was set to 30 FPS on restart.
- BUG: (Building Rooms) Sometimes the error message came up that not all rooms are accessible.
- BUG: (Console Development) When a room supports another room, some tasks did not update the percentage bar.
- BUG: Sometimes you could distribute addons by yourself even if you haven't researched production yet.


BUILD 2023.07.27A --------------------------------

- Genres now have a suitability for platform types (e.g. economic simulations sell poorly on an arcade machine).
- BUG: Fixed an error in the calculation of reviews related to obsolete technologies.


BUILD 2023.07.25A --------------------------------

- The "Task completed" icons can now be deactivated in the options.

- MODDING: (NpcIPs.txt) <PLSTATIC> = Sequels have the same platform type of <PLx>.
For example, if you set <PL17> (Personal Computer), all sequels will also be released on the personal computer (if still available) and on consoles. The sequels will then no longer be released randomly on arcade machines or cell phones.

- BUG: NPC studios were sometimes not closed if you did not activate "all" competitors at game start.


BUILD 2023.07.21B --------------------------------

- NPC developers are now closed after historical data (can be disabled in startup options).
- (Game Completed - Screen) An icon is now displayed when a special marketing action is still in progress.
- (Develop console -> Built-in game) Added genre filter function.
- (Stats -> Publisher) It is now possible to sort by subsidiary.
- (Options) Framerate can now be set to 160, 165, 180, 200 and 240.
- BUG: (Own consoles) The bonus for "hit games" was only counted from games with 91% review instead of 90%.
- BUG: (Own consoles) You could choose a freeware game as pre-installed game.
- BUG: (Publishing offers) The tooltip no longer showed the estimated rating.
- BUG: (Publishing Offerings) Sorting by estimated quality did not work.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) It could happen that you could select a subsidiary of a fellow player as publisher.
- BUG: If NPC games you distribute had a hype over 100, the message for overhype was displayed.
- BUG: If you disabled some messages, they were also not displayed in the history.


BUILD 2023.07.13A --------------------------------

- MODDING: (NPC-IPs) You can now force a target platform with "<PLx>".
- MODDING: (NPC-IPs) You can now set the game as exclusive with "<EX>".
- MODDING: (NPC-IPs) You can now set the game as an MMO with "<MMO>".
- MODDING: (NPC-IPs) You can now use "<F2P>" to set the game as F2P.
- BUG: You could not create bundles and addon bundles with 5 stars.
- BUG: Global random factor was no longer rolled at game start.
- BUG: NPCs were mainly using the "Animals" theme.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) NPC game names were not randomized.


BUILD 2023.06.23A --------------------------------

- MODDING: You can now assign Legendary Employees the profession "Game Tester" <Q> and "Office Worker" <O>.
- MODDING: (Genres) If you set "[SUC YEAR]true", successors will display years.
- MODDING: Successors of sports games are now not hardcoded with a year.
- MODDING: (NPC IPs) You can now use "<ROM>" and "<ARA>" to force successors to use Roman or Arabic numerals.
- MODDING: (NPC-Game Names) You can now set the topic "<Tx>" and subtopic "<STx>".
- MODDING: (NPC-Game Names) You can now set the target group "<TGx>".
- MODDING: (NPC-Game Names) You can now force successors to use Roman or Arabic numerals with "<ROM>" and "<ARA>".
- MODDING: Matching genres and age rating of topics, is now loaded from the English file instead of the German one.
- BALANCE: Support calls increased.
- BUG: In the production menu you could enter a negative number.
- BUG: In the developer legends database there were duplicate names.
- BUG: In the database of licenses there were duplicate names.
- BUG: (Console development) The task "Cost optimization" was not saved / loaded in the savegame.


BUILD 2023.06.08A - 2023.06.16B --------------------------------

- Multiplayer: Autosave now works.
- Performance improved.
- Production menu: Buttons for quick input added.
- Options: Auto-save can now be disabled.
- Buying objects: The hotkeys for snapping toggles are now the keys T and G. (to avoid problems with AZERTY keyboards).
- Game Development: When continuing development on a completed game, you can now set how many weeks development should continue.
- Support requests are now linked to difficulty.
- Game tooltips: The name of the IP is now displayed.
- BALANCE: Support requests reduced.
- PERFORMANCE: Gamepass menus should now open faster, and the framerate should now not drop as much.
- BUG: Steam achievements for which you had to have difficulty "Legendary" were also unlocked on low difficulty levels.
- BUG: InputFields no longer worked correctly.
- BUG: Outline shaders fixed.
- BUG: (Gamepass menus) The framerate should now not drop as much.
- BUG: On some PC systems the color scheme was wrong.
- BUG: NPC developers too often chose their main genre for their games.
- BUG: Contract games you didn't accept were released on the wrong platform.
- BUG: (GamePass -> Manage Games) The platform dropdown was not saved.
- BUG: (NPC games) Fixed bug with platform selection.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) When a player left the game, a wrong player could be deleted.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Profit sharing for own engines did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed bug when sending IP rating.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Some data of games was not transferred.

BUILD 2023.06.12B was released today (June 12th, 2023) and the update required a critical fix for game performance issues found in long term saves. This fix required the game engine (Unity) to need to be updated to the latest version.

Because of this, a lot of code had to be updated and re-written. You will likely receive a few more updates over the next few days to fix any problems we find.

There is a possibility users may experience some bugs introduced from this update, and we are monitoring all feedback to fix any issues that arise ASAP.

If you find anything unusual going on with your game, please feel free to let us know about your issue on the forum.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause players who experience issues, but this fix was critical for smooth and quality long term game play and was not found until after the game's release.


The game now officially supports Mac OS! With the game now ported to Mac OS, our Apple friends are welcome to join in on the fun, and if you find any issues with the port, please report them on the forum!


BUILD 2023.06.12B --------------------------------

Engine Update from Unity2019 to Unity2022

The game has been updated to the latest version of the Unity engine. The main reason was the extreme framerate drop when you opened menus, for example, and thousands of games were displayed. Even after you closed the menu, the framerate remained very low.

The changes may have created new bugs, as many functions also had to be completely rewritten or updated. If you notice something, let me know.

The following points may be particularly affected:

- Graphic effects
- Multiplayer
- Steam connection
- Startup


BUILD 2023.06.02A --------------------------------

- Mac version is now available.
- BUG: If you sold extremely many games, the profit could be negative.
- BUG: (Russian language) When you loaded a save game, the genres were displayed in English.

The day has finally come! After over two years of early access, we are proud to officially release Mad Games Tycoon 2 today! We hope everyone can see all the hard work that has went into the game, and that you enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed developing it!

We would like to again thank everyone for all their support throughout early access. Special thanks to all our translators, modders, guide creators and everyone from the community who have provided us with dozens and dozens of bug reports, balance feedback and other suggestions. And even though early access is ending, our support for Mad Games Tycoon 2 will continue.

While we have never given exact road maps (the pressure involved doesn’t fit our style) we will still be listening to the community for feedback and also will be ready to fix any issues that are reported as well.

We are excited to announce for our Mac players that there will soon be a Mac port of Mad Games Tycoon 2 so that you can officially join in on the fun!

And over the past week we have been working to improve the in-game information with new and improved tool-tips and a revised tutorial that provides a bit more helpful information for new players.

Mad Games Tycoon 2 now supports Steam cloud saves! (For any players who have been in the middle of a multiplayer game prior to this update and find their saves missing - If you want to use old multiplayer save games, you (and all your teammates) have to rename the save file "mpXXX.txt" to "mpXXX.sav" once.)

We’ve also added a new competition setting for both single player and multiplayer games. At the highest level (Tough) you’ll find you need to play a lot more strategically to avoid oversaturating the market with the same type of games and losing significant amounts of sales (and money). This also can increase the competitiveness of multiplayer, as your friend’s games can now have a greater impact on your releases if you increase this setting.

There has also been improvements to the way publishers handle marketing your games, increases to the cost of marketing your own consoles and a better balance for the support room dealing with tickets from free to play games.

And as always, bug fixes for everything we’ve found reported. The full list will be provided below.
We hope you enjoy the game, have tons of fun and we would love to hear your thoughts – so feel free to leave a review, a comment below or come participate on our Steam discussion forums.

See you in the game!



BUILD 2023.05.31A --------------------------------

- Steam Cloud Saves now works.The singleplayer savegames are renamed automatically. If you want to use old multiplayer savegames, you (and your teammates) have to rename the file "mpXXX.txt" to "mpXXX.sav" once.
- Added new launch option to make competition tougher.
- (Create game) The appropriate target group is now highlighted when you create a game report.
- (Custom Console) Warranty cases now generate support requests.
- Finished games that have not yet been released can now lose hype.
- Improvements to existing and additional tool tips added.
- Revisions to the existing tutorial to provide more helpful information.
- Added 6 new studio logos.
- MODDING: For licenses it is no longer necessary to specify both genres.
- BALANCE: F2P games don't generate so many calls/emails (support requests) anymore
- BALANCE: Marketing for own consoles is more expensive now.
- BALANCE: NPC publishers now place more ads.
- BUG: (Sandbox) Even if you have "No employee needs" enabled, your employees have run to the trash can.
- BUG: If you converted an MMO to F2P that did not have the gameplay feature "In-App Purchases", no in-app purchases were made.
- BUG: If you developed an addon, an incorrect number of maximum gameplay features for "AAA" games was displayed.
- BUG: (Custom Consoles) Wrong texts were displayed in the "Cost Optimization" and "Improve Durability" menus if you didn't select a console.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) For engines of fellow players, the turnover and the number of sold licenses were not updated.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Negotiation of publishing offers did not work correctly for clients.
- BUG: Games with a maximum rating of 79% had a rapid loss of sales.
- BUG: Budget games were put into GamePass when the original game was available in GamePass.
- BUG: You could release ports before the main game was released.

Hello again everyone! Getting right to it, we're excited to announce that Mad Games Tycoon 2 will be leaving Early Access May 31st!
There will continue to be updates and support for the game! We do feel Mad Games Tycoon 2 is ready for those players who have been waiting for a more final version of the game. Whether they begin their first long term save, or decide to finally make a purchase of the game - there are many hours of fun to be had and we're excited for anyone who has been waiting to play!
And of course, for all the players who have been playing MGT-2 throughout early access, many of you with hundreds of hours of playtime, thank you for your support! Your suggestions, feedback, and bug reports throughout the last nearly 2 1/2 years have been invaluable in making Mad Games Tycoon 2 the game it has become! So again, thank you!



The last several weeks a lot of work has gone into improving the experience for creating and selling consoles. Some of those changes include -

Console Game Bonus System Now how many games your console has released for it, and the quality of your games (as well if they are exclusives) has a significant impact on the sales of your console. With a few exclusive 90%+ hit games you can quickly boost your weekly console sales, with the overall potential of your library being able to reach a +300% sales bonus. When you release a console, you'll find all the needed information on the console sidebar tab detailing this system. Having a game pass on your console influences your console sales also.

Console Durability The quality of your technicians will now affect the durability of your console, additionally you can set the warranty length for your console which will impact both your cost and sales.

Console optimization You can further optimize your released consoles to decrease their overall production cost and increase their durability. This will allow you to drive down the cost of your pricey new console, with the sale price having a greater influence on how many consoles you sell each week. Hype also has a bigger impact on your console sales.

Some other additions include a market dominance mechanic for custom engines, changes to retro games, several balance improvements and a host of bug fixes. You'll find the full patch notes listing below.


We are excited to be reaching the conclusion of our over 2 year Early Access journey but we're not done yet! We still need any and all bug reports you may have, feedback on the game balance and your input on suggestions of what can be improved. While not everything can be implemented, we are always listening and taking into account the feedback we get from our community.


BUILD 2023.05.24B --------------------------------

- When you publish your own console, you can now set funding so that more NPCs develop exclusive games for your console.
- Some keyboard layouts can now be selected in the options.
- Financial overview: Server costs are now displayed separately.
- History search function added.
- BALANCE: Pro consoles are now outdated later.
- BUG: Trendsetter did not set a new unpopular theme.
- BUG: Windows of buildings should now not cause problems if you use the AutoBuild function.
- BUG: Fixed different bugs in multiplayer mode.
- BUG: If you released games as Budget, GOTY-Edtion etc. it could crash.
- BUG: (NPC games) Fixed bugs when selecting player consoles.
- BUG: (NPC games) Sometimes exclusive games were displayed as multiplatform games.
- BUG: (Options) Sound volume bug fixed.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) You could not give "Hardware Department" and "AAAA Games" research to your teammates.

BUILD 2023.05.15A --------------------------------

- Own consoles: Durability added. The more experienced your staff, the fewer technical problems your console will have.
- Own Consoles: In the price menu you can now set the warranty length.
- Tooltip for own consoles: Bonus and production costs are now displayed.
- BALANCE: Sales figures for own consoles increased.
- BALACNE: (Own consoles) Production costs now have no influence on sales figures.
- BALANCE: (Own consoles) The sales price now has a stepless effect. Every dollar less that your console costs now has a positive effect.
- BALANCE: (Own consoles) Cost optimization is now more expensive and less effective.
- BUG: Doors could cause a crash in rare cases.
- BUG: In-app purchases were made when the gameplay feature was not activated.
- BUG: Console development: if you cancelled the "Reduce production costs" task, you were not refunded the correct amount of dollars.

BUILD 2023.05.03A --------------------------------

- Console bonus: The quality of the games is now divided into 6 levels.
- Console Bonus: Game Pass is now added.
- Own Consoles: Production costs can now be reduced by the "Cost Optimization" action.
- Subsidiaries -> IP Exchange menu: Sorting function added.
- Tooltip for own consoles: Total expenses are now displayed.
- Reviews for own consoles: Difficulty level will now be included in the rating.
- BUG: Achievements "Have at least X employees" was incorrect.
- BUG: (Marketing -> Message "Wait until Hype has dropped below X") The number was sometimes not updated.
- - BUG: When you shrunk a room, all objects outside the room were picked up at the same time.
- BUG: (Console Bonus) Games that were released as secondary marketing (e.g. budget games) were counted as a full game.
- BUG: (Announced Platforms): You could sort announced platforms by users to determine the success of a console before release.
- BUG: (Mad Games Awards) When you received an award, an incorrect value was displayed in the tooltip.
- BUG: Fixed some bugs when rating your own consoles.
- BUG: "Game Portable Advance" had an incorrect successor.
- BUG: (Publish performance enhanced consoles) The selling price was not updated.
- BUG: (Create Spin-Offs) The search function did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Engine Development) You could select a performance enhanced console that was still in development.
- BUG: (Motion Capture, Game Updates) Employee costs were not added to the game development costs.

BUILD 2023.04.21A --------------------------------

- Own consoles: Bonus system added. The more games available, the higher the sales figures.
- GameTabs: The percentage of digital sales is now displayed in light blue in the bars.
- Added sound for treadmill.
- Mad Games Awards: The developer of the games is now also displayed.
- Reviews of retro games now ignore the technology lag.
- Sales prices for arcarde machines are now saved and set (before always $1000 was set)
- Custom Engines: Market dominance added.
- Custom Engines: You can now no longer cheat by changing the profit share. The profit share is now saved at the time of licensing.
- Create Game Report", "Mad Games Convention" menus: Search function and genre filter added.
- Menus "Create Addons & Updates", "My Consoles -> Game List": Genre filter added.
- BALANCE: Hype now has a significantly higher effect for own consoles.
- BUG: (Power increased console) Even if the new console had a higher value, the hype of the original console was set.
- BUG: Legendary developers who were in graphics studio, sound studio, etc. did not generate hype.
- BUG: Objects that collided with doors were not automatically selected.
- BUG: For rooms without staff, the staff menu, pause work and lock AI were not hidden.
- BUG: (Sandbox) setting of staff salaries were sometimes not calculated correctly.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed bug when sending engines.
- BUG: (Own Engines) The sales price was not added to the turnover.
- BUG: (Own consoles -> Available games) Contract games were displayed that have not been developed yet.
- BUG: (Own consoles) If you sold your console below the production cost, you did not get a bonus on the sold units.
- BUG: (Menu -> Room personnel) The sorting reset itself when you loaded a save game.

Hello everyone! We hope you've been continuing to enjoy playing Mad Games Tycoon 2!

Since our last Steam notification update, there have been tons of changes, tweaks, and improvements to the game. In this post we will highlight some of the most notable changes over the last several months of updates. As always, you'll find the latest and most up to date list of changes on the Steam discussion forum in the patch notes thread and at the end of this post will be a full list of changes.

Also, stay tuned for an announcement soon on Mad Games Tycoon 2 leaving Early Access!


So over the last couple months some of the most notable changes include -

Create upgraded versions of your existing consoles! You can develop and release enhanced versions (pro, slim etc) of your current consoles. This allows you to extend the life span of your aging consoles and give them a boost in sales and performance. Many new console cases were also added to enhance this feature.

Copying and pasting of rooms! You can now copy and paste existing rooms to create multiple rooms of the same type and layout, or rearrange your studio in a snap.

Buying and selling of IPs If you need some extra cash, or if there is an IP you would really like to own you have the option to buy and sell IPs. This is in addition to the already existing feature allowing you to transfer IPs from subsidiaries you own.

Release your game as Freeware Releasing your game as freeware can give you a lot of goodwill with fans, increasing their following of your studio and helping future releases sell more.

Game performance improvements Significant work has been done improving the game performance, with the game going through multiple performance improvement passes to make for a smoother experience when playing. Additionally, many new options have been added so you can adjust the game performance further.

Multiplayer improvements The multiplayer lobby has been revised, you can now buy companies in multiplayer, it's possible to sabotage other players, players can go bankrupt and experience negative effects due to bankruptcy. Many bug fixes and other QoL improvements to multiplayer also.

New music and game variety 10 new soundtracks have been added to the game, 144 new in-game screenshots have been added, 500 new game names and a new system to add more variety to spin-off titles has been implemented as well.

A new map! The Lagoon City map has been added to the game. This unique map surrounded by water brings the total choice of maps to 6.

Balance improvements The game has received balance improvements on all difficulty levels, and many of the game's features have been tweaked and balanced to create a better experience for players.

Bug fixes, Quality of Life improvements and more! There have been dozens and dozens of bug fixes, quality of life improvements, new options, adjustments to existing menus and features to make the game more user friendly and enjoyable to play. You'll find the full list below with details of every change in the patch notes.

As noted above, we're getting closer to the end of Early Access. Support for the game will NOT be ending at the end of EA, but right now is an excellent time to report any bugs or unusual behaviors with the game, and any quality of life improvements you may wish to see before release!

So we kindly request if you have any reports or feedback on this, there is an ongoing thread in our Steam discussion forum, you can make your own post or you can reply to this announcement. We will be monitoring feedback to make any necessary changes. We wish to ensure that at full release the game is as optimized and fun to play as possible, thank you!




BUILD 2023.04.11A --------------------------------

- Performance improved.
- Game development: An icon is now displayed for anti-cheat and copy protection when better software is available.
- Added 10 new soundtracks.
- Options: The sound of the cleaning robot can now be deactivated.
- Options: All staff displays can now be disabled. (This is recommended if you have several hundred employees. The performance increases by about 50%)
- Menu "Statistics -> Platforms": The platforms can now be filtered by type.
- Menu "Statistics -> Platforms": You can now see announced platforms.
- Multiplayer: You can now set whether NPC studios can be bought.
- BUG: The new genre filters did not work correctly.
- BUG: Fixed bug when creating budget games and GOTY edition.
- BUG: Extremely high InApp purchases had their values changed to negative.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) If you had to go bankrupt, fans and IP values were increased instead of decreased.

BUILD 2023.04.06A --------------------------------

- Performance improved.
- Save games are now loaded much faster. (only works when you save and load again).
- Added genre filters for different menus.
- BUG: Sometimes the review menu was not closed for performance-enhanced consoles.
- BUG: Crash could occur when developing a performance-enhanced console.
- BUG: You could develop a performance enhanced console that had no enhancements.
- BUG: You could develop an upgraded console of a console that has already been removed from the market.
- BUG: Menu "Own Games -> Commissioned & Distributed Games": If you used the sort function, sometimes not all games were displayed.
- BUG: When you wanted to publish an upgraded console, sometimes you could not close the menu.

Info:
Due to the many changes (performance), new bugs may occur. Let me know as soon as you notice something.

BUILD 2023.04.01A --------------------------------

- You can now develop a performance-enhanced console of an already released console.
- Games can now be converted as freeware.
- Console development: You can now select the previous model.
- Create game concept: Incorrect gameplay settings tested via game report are now marked in red.
- Added 16 new cases for own consoles.
- If own consoles are cheaper than the production costs, they now get a bonus on the sales figures.
- In the menu "Development report for own consoles" the hardware components are now displayed.
- Reviews of mobile games now take the low tech level into account.
- Added genre filters for the menus "Game Reviews", "Fan Letters", "Game Concepts".
- Menu "Statistics -> Publisher & Developer": Added best list to see which developer has received the most awards.
- Menu "Best Games of All Time": You can now filter by game size (B,AA,AAA etc.).
- Best selling games" menu: You can now filter by game size and genre.
- Menu "Subsidiary -> Turnover": You can now see the total profit (lifetime).
- Menu "Subsidiary -> Studio Settings": You can now add your own consoles that are still in development to the priority list.
- Trash is no longer stacked on a position.
- BALANCE: General sales figures for own consoles increased.
- BUG: If you sold & re-purchased an NPC studio, the statistics for sales were not reset.
- BUG: (Contract games) ports were not initialised correctly. As a result, you could change some settings that were supposed to be locked.
- BUG: (Multiplayer: Subsidiary Settings) It was not possible to set a console as a priority that had been developed by a player.
- BUG: (Subsidiary Settings) You could only choose your console as priority if you allowed third party studios.
- BUG: (Subsidiary Settings) The progress bar for the game in development was incorrect.
- BUG: If you cancelled the development of a console, various bugs could occur.

BUILD 2023.03.15A --------------------------------

- Multiplayer: Sabotage is now available.
- Multiplayer: Players now go bankrupt if they are unable to pay. This has several negative effects.
- Added a new object: "Treadmill"
- Research: You can now set the staff to wait for new research.
- Pathfinding: Improved the distribution of staff queues in front of objects that are close together.
- (Game start - Options) You can now set the development duration to "Short development duration".

- Menu: "Labour market":
* You can now hide employees with negative perks.
* You can now sort by the number of positive perks.

- BUG: If you pressed "ESC", the tutorial was ended.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) In the staff menus, the "All" settings were reset every few seconds.
- BUG: (Staff in room menu) If no staff were assigned to the room, the average skill displayed was "NaN".
- BUG: (Own consoles) When you reached the limit of 1 billion consoles sold, the user numbers suddenly dropped rapidly.

BUILD 2023.03.08B --------------------------------

- Added a new map.
- The value of IPs now scales with the current year.
- When developing a remaster, you can now change the platform type.
- Publisher & Developer Menu: You can now hide companies that are not for sale.
- Added new menu for map selection.
- Multiplayer lobby revised.
- All lists with IPs now also show the value of the IP.
- Subsidiary settings: You can now also copy the prioritised genre, topic, publisher priority and engine for all subsidiaries.
- Subsidiary settings: You can choose which settings should be copied for all subsidiaries.
- The option "Advanced Pathfinding" is now always active and can no longer be deactivated.
- BALANCE: The value of IPs can now be up to $200,000,000.
- BUG: (Own Consoles -> Available Games) A review result of 0% was displayed for games that have not yet been released.
- BUG: The job "Implement copy protection" should no longer appear as long as there is no copy protection.
- BUG: (Automatic production) Sometimes no Deluxe and Collectors editions were produced.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) There were graphics errors on the map "abandoned bunker" when you looked at a fellow player's studio.

BUILD 2023.02.09C --------------------------------

- IPs can now be bought and sold.
- (Free Update & F2P Updates) You can now set how often the automatic should be repeated.
- Subsidiaries -> Development Report: You can now change the name of the game (which is in development).
- Options: The frame rate can now be set to 144.
- 141 new game screenshots added.
- 500 new names for NPC games added.
- Change platform during development: Added button to delete platforms.
- (Multiplayer) The option "Platform popularity increases platform lifetime" is now also available in multiplayer.
- (Multiplayer) Modified license names should now be sent to clients.
- Arcade machines: The default setting for components is now 5 stars.
- New language / translation available: Thai
- Readability for Chinese script further improved.
- BALANCE: Subsidiaries should now make better games on higher difficulty levels.
- BALANCE: Games by NPC companies now get a higher review on easy difficulty levels.
- BUG: Moving and copying rooms sometimes did not work.
- BUG: MMO addons ignored current internet users.
- BUG: Non-existent objects were sometimes assigned to rooms, which could cause a crash.
- BUG: Text in unlock menu was cut off for some languages.
- BUG: Company value of NPC studios could increase infinitely.
- BUG: It could happen that the own player (CEO) demanded more salary.
- BUG: No developer was set for addon bundles.
- BUG: If IPs were swapped with a subsidiary and a game was still on the market, serious bugs could occur.
- BUG: Adding additional platforms during development did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Tooltip Contract Games) The number of AAAA games was not displayed.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) In the lobby, the wrong number of NPCs was displayed for clients.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) TAGs were displayed in the licence names for clients (e.g. "<G+3>").
- BUG: (Multiplayer) If you loaded a save game, all room items were sent unnecessarily.

BUILD 2023.01.23B --------------------------------

- Performance improved: Due to the many changes, there may be new bugs. Let me know if you notice anything.
- Sandbox: Employee salary can now be set to 0.
- (Addons) If you bought the publisher of the main game, you can now distribute the addon yourself.
- The sales figures of self-distributed games and games distributed with a publisher are now identical.
- In multiplayer, the number of NPC companies can now be selected.
- BALANCE: Exclusive games now sell better and have a greater impact on console sales.
- BALANCE: Profit sharing of publishers adjusted.
- BALANCE: Effect for the setting "Platform popularity increases platform lifetime" increased.
- BALANCE: Game ratings on Legendary difficulty are now slightly better.
- BALANCE: Hand dryers now give a little motivation.
- BALANCE: (MMOs) Subscription numbers for NPCs increased.
- MODDING: The manufacturer of platforms can now be linked independently of the manufacturer name. "[PUB]"
- BUG: The doors in the map "Bunker" did not open.
- BUG: If you sold a subsidiary, a crash could occur.
- BUG: It could happen that subsidiaries continue to launch consoles on the market.
- BUG: If you activated "Historical Events", there were no more random events after the year 2026.
- BUG: If you enabled "Do not show random events", the game would sometimes pause and you could not continue.
- BUG: The number for motivation regeneration/loss was incorrect.
- BUG: (MMO & F2P Charts) The position was incorrect if you changed the sort order.
- BUG: (Develop Addons and Updates) Games were still shown when the IP was archived.
- BUG: (Staff Search) Sometimes the set perk was ignored.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) The sales figures for own consoles (clients) were incorrect.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed bug when loading NPC game names and IPs.

- Added search functions for the following menus:
* Price & Package Contents
* Budget Games
* Game Bundles
* Addon Bundles
* GOTY editions
* Prices for Arcade machines
* Prices for Mobile Games
* Prices for MMO subscriptions
* Manage InApp Purchases
* Selling price for consoles
* Taking consoles off the market
* Statistics -> Engines
* Statistics -> Platforms

- Archived IPs can now be hidden in the following menus:
* Budget Games
* Game Bundles
* Addon Bundles
* GOTY editions

BUILD 2023.01.16A --------------------------------

- Move rooms:
* Wall objects (e.g. pictures) that are placed in the hallway are now also moved.
* Employees that are located in the room are now also moved.

- IPs can now be archived. This means that the games will no longer be displayed if you want to develop a successor or SpinOff, for example.
- A message is now occasionally displayed on the screen when staff members complain about something.
- Sandbox settings are now saved.
- Sandbox: Support requests can now be set as a percentage.
- Employees who do not perform any task do not lose motivation (except for complaints like "It's too cold").
- Multiplayer: You can now view which subsidiaries your teammates have bought.
- BALANCE: RPGs and strategy games are now a good combination.
- BALANCE: Subscription numbers for Game-Pass slightly revised.
- BALANCE: Company values raised on low difficulty levels.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Random events (like banking crisis or video game crash) were not syncronous.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed bug when connecting to lobby.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed some errors when transferring game databases.
- BUG: A small cabinet had no collsion box.
- BUG: The "Room crowded" icon for employees was not always displayed.
- BUG: (Sandbox menu) The settings for support requests were not saved.

BUILD 2022.12.24A / BUILD 2023.01.07A --------------------------------

- Labor market:
* The total salary of all selected employees is displayed.
* Added button to reject all applications.

- Sandbox:
* You can now set the number of bugs.
* You can now set the salary of employees.
* You can now set subsidiaries to keep their consoles.
* You can now make some settings more difficult (e.g. -50% games sold).

- Create free updates:
* You can now sort by number of updates created and number of bugs.
* The number of bugs is now displayed.
* Games without bugs can now be hidden.

- Porting a game:
* It is now displayed which ports have already been created.
* You can now choose to show only certain ports.

- Subsidiary settings: You can now choose a prioritized publisher (which is also a subsidiary fimra).
- Game development: You can now pin fan letters.
- Your consoles will now also generate fans.
- Create Addons: You can now sort by number of addons created.
- Now the salary for contract games increases slightly every year.
- In the options you can now disable the money popups.
- Minimized GameTab: Arcade machine games now show orders instead of stock.
- Selecting objects is now much more precise. (Collision boxes optimized)
- MODDING: The engines features 0,20,34,46 are no longer statically fixed as minimum feature. Now the date "JAN 1976" counts.
- BUG: Monthly auto-save did not work correctly.
- BUG: Sometimes the sale price of NPC games was not set.
- BUG: Fixed some graphics bugs with characters.
- BUG: (Game development) Most employee salaries were not added to development costs.
- BUG: Sometimes employees were not color-marked when you touched them with the mouse.

BUILD 2022.12.23B --------------------------------

- You can now buy all publishers and developers.
- You can now buy publishers and developers in multiplayer.

>>> Info: These two functions are very complex and therefore can create new critical bugs. Let me know if you notice anything.


- Licenses are now included in the game rating.
- The goodwill of NPC studios is now linked to the difficulty level.
- BALANCE: Games from subsidiary companies should now not be rated so badly.
- BUG: GameTab filters for MMOs & F2Ps did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Licenses) Subgenre did not affect sales numbers.
- BUG: Automatic production produced deluxe and collectors editions for budget games (etc.).
- BUG: If you stopped the development of a game, it could crash.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) The NPC company values were not syncronized.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Contract games and publishing deals were not syncronized.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed an error when loading save games.

BUILD 2022.12.14A / BUILD 2022.12.18A --------------------------------

- Added game size "AAAA".
- Buy DevKits / Select Platforms for Game Development: You can now filter platforms by their type.
- Automatic item placement: You can now select the maximum item level.
- Standard production and arcade production can now be automated.
- Engine development: You can now activate all features of a specific tech level via dropdown.
- Options -> Autosave: You can now autosave every month.
- Automatic production: The calculations for automatic production have been revised.
- Sandbox: Support requests can be disabled, production speed can be adjusted.
- Some gameplay features now require platforms to be internet enabled.
- 9 new gameplay features added.
- 2 new hardware features added.
- BALANCE: Fan stores now generate more revenue. The holiday season and summer slump now affect sales.
- MODDING: Added spinoff names for all genres. "[ALL]"
- MODDING: Gameplay feature can now require other gameplay features (e.g. "Online Multiplayer" requires "Multiplayer Matchmaker") "[NEED_GPF]"
- BUG: Using the hotkey "5" you could unpause the game unintentionally.
- BUG: (Staff search): Some tooltips were incorrect.
- BUG: (Employee Search) The selected perk was reset when you closed the menu.
- BUG: (NPC games) Fixed some bugs in gameplay feature selection.

BUILD 2022.12.12A --------------------------------

- NPC games: Names for SpinOffs are now read from a file. This means that the names of the games are no longer so "random".
- Staff search: A desired perk can be specified.
- Copy rooms: The process is no longer aborted after you have copied a room. This allows you to create multiple copies more quickly.
- Messages: Added a button to show only a maximum of 3 messages.
- Windows now create room quality.
- Automatic placement of items in already built rooms: The rooms are now completely rebuilt.
- Game Pass -> Charts: You can now remove games from the game pass in this menu.
- Sandbox: All buildings can now be unlocked.
- Sandbox: The capacity of storage space and server can be adjusted.
- BALANCE: Some special platforms for NPC engines adjusted.
- BUG: If you cancel a lifted object with "Escape", the data for quality, heating etc. was not updated.
- BUG: Publishing offers were fixed.
- BUG: (Game development) You could copy the concept settings for ports.
- BUG: Sometimes you could create multiple sequels of the same game.
- BUG: When you built a room, sometimes the windows were not cleared.

BUILD 2022.12.03B (Hotfix) --------------------------------

- BUG: When you moved or copied a room, a crash could occur.
- BUG: Fixed some bugs in multiplayer mode.

BUILD 2022.12.02A --------------------------------

- Rooms can now be copied and moved.
Info: Due to the new functions, the windows are no longer visible in old save games.

- NPC-Companys: Calculation of the company value revised.
- BUG: You could select NPC platforms for manufacturer exclusive games.
- BUG: If you transferred an IP from your subsidiary, the goodwill was calculated incorrectly.
- BUG: (Menu "Labor market" and "Personnel") It was not displayed how many employees are in workshops.
- BUG: Suitable topics for genres were displayed even if you did not start a sandbox game.

BUILD 2022.11.20A / BUILD 2022.11.29A --------------------------------

- Subsidiaries: You can now already see which game is in development in the selection menu.
- Sandbox settings: Added checkbox to enable all / nothing.
- Engine development: Added sorting function for special genres, added button to show popularity of genres
- The menus "Development report -> Own consoles" and "Own console completed" have been slightly revised.
- Game development: Topics can now be sorted by "Uses".
- Sandbox: Suitable topics for genres can now be displayed.
- Building doors only open when people want to go through the door.
- Performance improved.
- BUG: (My Consoles -> Console Details) Sometimes a console was shown as backwards compatible.
- BUG: (Custom Consoles -> Add Console Features During Development) The feature "Backward Compatible" was displayed.
- BUG: (Subsidiary) If you stopped development of the current game, no new game was developed.
- BUG: (Subsidiary) Sometimes it was displayed that the current game will be finished soon, but no game is in development.
- BUG: When you loaded a save game, a few frames passed before the pause mode was activated.
- BUG: (Game Pass) The calculation of games that were no longer on the market was incorrect.
- BUG: In rare cases, the Room menu displayed an incorrect number of jobs.
- BUG: If you added gameplay features during game development, the amount of work was calculated incorrectly.
- BUG: It could happen that you received a trash award or hit award when you had not yet released the game.
- BUG: If many employees could not find a free object in the lounge, there was an extreme frame drop.
- BUG: Fixed some buttons that turned other buttons blue when clicked.
- BUG: (NPC games) The review of bundles was calculated incorrectly.
- BUG: Sometimes NPCs did not receive awards.

It is now easier than ever to get a new game started your way! The new sandbox mode allows you to begin your game development journey as a small startup company, an established industry titan or somewhere in-between!

A lot of work has gone into the new and improved Sandbox mode. You have nearly two dozen options to customize your game, from starting year and funds to boosting how many games or consoles are sold. Choose if your employees get sick, become unmotivated and how fast they learn and what is unlocked for you right from the start! Tailor it to the exact challenge you want, finding the perfect balance for your play style.

New options have and continue to be added to this mode and we're always receptive to additional feedback so let us know what you think!


Game Pass has been added to the game. Now starting around the year 2004, games you or your subsidiary companies have developed can be added to your game pass. You can setup a server room, name your pass, the monthly fee, select what platforms it's available on and begin building a large library of games through backwards compatibility!


Development is still ongoing! New features and improvements on existing gameplay features and mechanics will continue to be released over the coming weeks.

Currently, a lot of focus is going into improving the performance of the game, it's very important to us that everyone has a smooth, fun experience when playing! Along with this process, a lot of tweaks and quality of life improvements are being added as they are found or suggested.

Console development and mechanics will see improvements.

Multiplayer will also receive future updates improving it's stability, features and adding more options.

And of course, we're always monitoring feedback from players to make additional improvements to the game!

Thanks to everyone for all the support, and have a safe and happy holiday season!



BUILD 2022.11.17A / BUILD 2022.11.18A --------------------------------

- Market research: The interest of players in a Game Pass is now displayed.
- Added new filter options for the right games list (MMOs, F2Ps, retro games)
- Self-distribute games from subsidiary: Added "X" button to cancel the process.
- Games that have multiple properties are now marked like this. Example: "MMO-Sequel"
- Menu "Own consoles -> Console details": Now the backward compatible consoles are shown.
- Whether you get experience for gameplay features and engine features is now tied to difficulty.
- Performance improved.

- Sandbox
* Studio level can now be selected.
* Show optimal gameplay settings.
* Staff can learn up to skill 100.

- BALANCE: Sales of Collectors Editions reduced.
- BALANCE: Interest rate from credit increased.
- BUG: (Menu "Game Pass - Games") Sometimes the check mark was not displayed when the game is available in Game Pass.
- BUG: (Message settings) The checkbox "Enable/Disable All" could cause a crash.
- BUG: (Change Platform menu) You could add more platforms for arcade games.
- BUG: "Extended platform lifetime" option also affected arcade machines.
- BUG: "Rights Games List": NPC games you distribute were not displayed.
- BUG: "IPs of NPCs": IPs were displayed that have not been published yet.
- BUG: You could not develop a sequel, spinoff, remaster, etc. of games previously owned by a subsidiary.

BUILD 2022.11.14A --------------------------------

- Technology level 9 added.
- Sandbox: Added new options.
- Job games now also generate fans.
- Job market & employee overview: You can now see how many jobs are free.
- You can now view the sandbox settings in the options menu.
- Tooltip: (Engine features) It now shows the release date.
- BALANCE: Employees no longer quit through Crunsh as long as their motivation is above 80%.

- BALANCE:
*** From start year 1985 subgenre and subtopic is unlocked.
*** From start year 1995, platform slots are unlocked for game development.
*** From start year 2015, marketing department is unlocked.

- BUG: If you stopped developing a sequel/remaster, you could not develop one.
- BUG: (Realistic development time) The graphics studio ignored the setting.
- BUG: Graphic bug removed from desks for graphic studio.
- BUG: Critical bug removed that could cause some functions to not identify remasters, addons, successors, etc.
- BUG: If you unlocked all items in sandbox mode, a message box was still displayed that the items were unlocked.

BUILD 2022.11.10A --------------------------------

- Sandbox mode revised
- NPC consoles can now be backwards compatible.
- Production rooms can now support each other.
- Subsidiary settings: You can now have games automatically put into Game Pass.
- Right Games List: An icon is now displayed when the game is in Game Pass.
- When you publish a multiplatform game with only one platform, it now automatically becomes an exclusive game.
- When you publish a game and have Game Pass, it will ask if you want the game to be added to Game Pass.
- BUG: Fixed a bug when building rooms.
- BUG: Crash could occur if you put old games into Game Pass.
- BUG: (Order games) The value "Weeks in development" always stayed at 0.

BUILD 2022.10.19A - BUILD 2022.11.07A --------------------------------

- Game Pass is now available.
Note: Bugs can still occur and balancing can be very poor. Let me know if you notice anything.

- Console Development: You can now select which consoles your new console is backwards compatible with.
- Engine development: The version number can now be set automatically.
- Achivement for "Survival Game" added.
- You can now reserve server rooms for MMOs, F2Ps or Game Pass.
- You can now view the game settings in the options.
- IPs Transfer menu: added buttons to transfer all IPs.
- Game Development: Added buttons to automatically adjust engine features to the tech level of the platforms.
- Staff Groups: Added buttons to remove / add all staff from a grouper.
- If you increase the subscription price for MMOs, it will now affect the existing subscriptions.
- Game development: added buttons to remove platforms faster.
- Added new map: "Abandoned Bunker"
- Show messages menu: Added checkbox to select all or nothing.
- Added button to delete all messages.
- BALANCE: (Subsidiaries) Increased chance that subsidiary will develop manufacturer-exclusive games if you have more than one owned console on the market.
- PERFORMANCE: Sorting functions optimized.
- BUG: The genre "survival game" was not suitable with any other genre as a subgenre.
- BUG: The bundles of NPCs were treated as a separate IP.
- BUG: If you disabled the message "NPCs announce games", nothing was shown in the overview list for announced games either.
- BUG: Map "Bunker": There was a bug with pathfinding.
- BUG: (Room-Window) The correct number of stars for engine features were not displayed when you developed a game.
- BUG: (Market Research) Consoles of the player were not taken into account.
- BUG: NPCs did not create survival games.
- BUG: Fixed some duplicate NPC game names.
- BUG: The "Best Games of All Time" list did not work correctly.
- BUG: IPs transferred from subsidiaries were still marked "purple" and the wrong owner was displayed.
- BUG: Release date was set incorrectly when distributing an NPC game.
- BUG: Sometimes you could release budget games multiple times.
- BUG: If you bought an NPC company with which you had a publishing exclusivity contract, the contract was not terminated.
- BUG: Sound problems could occur if you placed too many machines.
- BUG: The NPC could create successors of budget games.
- BUG: Game development: "Enable/disable all features" button did not work correctly.
- BUG: Console development: "Internet capability" did not have a cost.
- BUG: In rare cases you could not publish your game.
- BUG: Game development: "Change platform" menu did not work correctly.
- BUG: If you sold a subsidiary, sometimes the game that was in development was not published.
- BUG: The option "Automatically open menu when all bugs are removed" did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Sandbox) Not all genres were unlocked.
- BUG: (Automatically buy items for rooms) Wrong costs were calculated.
- BUG: (Quality Assurance) "Game completed" window always opened when 0 bugs were reached but the game was not completed yet.
- BUG: Messages that were not visible on the screen were deleted even after the display time expired.

BUILD 2022.09.27A --------------------------------

- Sandbox mode: All available genres and topics are unlocked at game start.
- Subsidiaries can now also publish bundles & addon bundles.
- Create Addons / MMO Addons: Added search function for gameplay features.
- Auto-place now also works for "room remodel".
- BALANCE: It is now possible to develop a level 8 handheld as early as 2024.
- BALANCE: Bad games no longer become million-sellers later in the game.
- BUG: (Right Games list) Sometimes the sales figures for consoles and games were incorrect.
- BUG: More addons could be sold than the main game was sold.

- BUG: Fixed a bug in the calculation of design settings.
- BUG: Fixed an error in the topic data.
- BUG: Fixed bug in calculating game reviews related to sub-genres.
- BUG: You could add more platforms that are not unlocked during development.
- BUG: Polishing, bugfixing etc. did not finish when you canceled a commissioned game.
- BUG: In some menus (Create Addons, View Game Concepts, etc.), gameplay features were incorrectly displayed as inappropriate or appropriate.
- BUG: Create Addons / MMO Addons: "Automatically select matching gameplay features" did not work correctly.
- BUG: The job market did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Clients did not have topics unlocked at launch.

A lot of work has been put into the game since the last Steam notification update! As always, you can find the latest patch notes in the Steam discussion forum. This is the easiest and fastest way to stay up to date with the development of the game.

Here is a summary of some of the key changes with the full notes listed below!

- Sandbox Mode! - A much requested feature! It is now possible to start the game in sandbox mode (Selected under 'game modes'), with this game mode you will have unlimited funds and begin the game with just about everything unlocked (that is currently available in your starting year) and ready to develop with! Achievements in this mode are disabled.

- Automatic Room Furnishing and Decorating - Now when building a room, or remodeling an existing room you have the option to allow the game to automatically place the necessary items, work stations and decorations for that room! This was another highly requested addition that should save players a lot of time when playing.

- A New Genre - Survival Game & 48 New Topics - You can develop games based on the Survival genre (Available in the mid 1980s) and there are 48 new topics to build your games around! These topics include things like Court Cases, Hotels, Restaurants, Multiple different ancient civilizations and more!

- New Starting Options - When you start a new game you can now choose between standard development times, or realistic development times. With realistic development times, games will take considerably longer to develop. Additionally, you now have the option to choose any year between 1976 and 2020 to begin your new game!

- 9 New Publishers/Developers - New Publishers/Developers have been added to the game, along with their IPs. Adding extra competition to the game, and new companies that you can buy and take over!

- Additional Control Over Your Subsidiaries - You can now see the exact game that your companies have in development, view the full development report of the game and cancel the game they are working on if you decide you want them working on something else.

- MMO & F2P Marketshare Improvements - The market for both MMOs & F2P is now based on how many players have access to the internet in that given year. You can see this percentage through Market Research and the number will grow as the years advance.

- Overall Game Performance Improvements - Multiple updates to improve the performance of the game, the pathfinding (more about that below) and make the game more stable as the years go by and your company grows!

- Tons of Quality of Life, Tweaks and Additions to Existing Features, New Items, Balance Changes and A.I Improvements - You can see the full list below, but many menus have additional filters, easier access and other tweaks. Collision boxes on some items have been improved. New items such as Luxury Toilets and Modern Heating. The development time, game size requirements (A, B, etc) and requirements to get quality reviews have all been better balanced.

The A.I for both employees, and competitors has been improved, with your employees making smarter decisions when fulfilling needs and their pathfinding being improved (Work on this is ongoing).
Competing NPC companies make additional use of ports (from Arcades -> PC/Consoles), have had their Arcade sales numbers boosted and more.

Employees now request salary improvements through negotiations as they become better skilled.

You have the option to charge for customer support in the Support Room now, there are additional statistics for merchandising in the Fan Shop and many more quality of life improvements, tweaks and much more listed in the patch notes below!


And there are still more changes in the works! Console Creation/Development still has improvements and changes coming. Game Pass is still coming to the game. Multiplayer will have performance improvements and additional options/features added plus other unannounced changes and suggestions from the community!

And of course continuing to do more bug fixes, quality of life changes, performance improvements and balance changes to create the most fun and smooth gameplay experience possible!

Thank you for supporting the game! All the reviews, suggestions, bug reports and feedback has continued to push the game to be better and better!


-------
- Sandbox mode: All available genres and topics are unlocked at game start.
- Subsidiaries can now also publish bundles & addon bundles.
- Create Addons / MMO Addons: Added search function for gameplay features.
- Auto-place now also works for "room remodel".
- BALANCE: It is now possible to develop a level 8 handheld as early as 2024.
- BUG: Fixed a bug in the calculation of design settings.
- BUG: Fixed an error in the topic data.
- BUG: Fixed bug in calculating game reviews related to sub-genres.
- BUG: You could add more platforms that are not unlocked during development.
- BUG: Polishing, bugfixing etc. did not finish when you canceled a commissioned game.
- BUG: In some menus (Create Addons, View Game Concepts, etc.), gameplay features were incorrectly displayed as inappropriate or appropriate.
- BUG: Create Addons / MMO Addons: "Automatically select matching gameplay features" did not work correctly.
- BUG: The job market did not work correctly.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Clients did not have topics unlocked at launch.


BUILD 2022.09.12A - BUILD 2022.09.16A --------------------------------

- Added 48 new topics.
- Added a new genre: Survival Game
- NPC-Games: The points for graphics, sound etc. are more realistic now. Adjusted to difficulty level and year.
- Charts menus: Subsidiary games are now color coded in the charts.
- The start year is now freely selectable (maximum 2020).
- Matching or mismatching gameplay features now change when selecting a subgenre.
- Slider settings: When using a main genre and subgenre, the main genre is now prioritized.
- You can now fill empty platform slots during development.
- NPC companies can now create bundles.
- Employee AI: When employees get sick, they now abort their current path and go directly to the doctor's cabinet.
- The higher the starting year, the more available employees are at the start.
- Multiplayer: Data from modified topics is now sent to clients.
- BALANCE: Required points (graphics, sound etc.) for good ratings reduced. (Very hard & Legendary)
- BUG: Dart sound was not played as 3D sound.
- BUG: You could cancel the development of a game for which a port is currently being developed.
- BUG: You could not create addon bundles from remasters.

- Launch Options: You can now choose between standard and realsitic development time.
- Features with low experience have a higher development time. (Maximum 50% slower)
- Number of bugs is now related to the experience of features (the less stars, the higher chance of a bug).
- BALANCE: Minimum number of required gameplay features for game sizes reduced.
- BALANCE: NPC companies should release more games in the first year.
- BALANCE: NPC companies should not develop bigger games (B+, A etc.) so early.
- BUG: For mobile and arcade platforms, the tooltip displayed the exclusive game bonus.
- BUG: "Support room" sometimes did not work correctly.

BUILD 2022.09.11A --------------------------------

- Right Games list: Added filter to show only self-developed games.
- Sick employees now run slower.
- At some objects, employees now wait until the object has been released by the other employees.
- It is now graphically displayed when the trash can is full.
- Icons for target group added.
- The negative effect of market oversaturation now depends on the difficulty level.
- Game sizes (B, A, AA etc.) now require a minimum number of gameplay features.
- The bigger a game is (B, A, AA etc.), the longer the development time.
- Performance improved.
- BALANCE: More points (graphics, sound etc.) are now needed to get a good rating. Therefore, well-trained staff is now much more important.
- BUG: Collision box for training room desks fixed.
- BUG: Animation for arcade production was not played when doing a contract work.
- BUG: In multiplayer the offices were not sent to all players.
- BUG: If you enabled "Don't show random events", sometimes an invisible menu was opened.
- BUG: When you loaded a save, all employees were teleported to their destination.
- BUG: "Paid customer support" toggle was sometimes not saved.
- BUG: Development speed bonus/penalty for MMOs / ports was given only in the development room (not in graphics studio, sound studio etc.).
- BUG: When placing an object, there could be a crash.

BUILD 2022.09.07A --------------------------------

Performance has been improved. Due to the many changes, new bugs may appear. Let me know if you find something.

BUILD 2022.09.03A --------------------------------

- Rooms can now be automatically equipped with objects.
- Added 9 new publishers/developers.
- Your employees will now run to the bathroom if the distance is too far.
- Pathfinding improved. (has to be activated in the options, because it has to be tested better)
- Console development: Added search function for hardware components.
- Some collision boxes revised.
- BALANCE: In sandbox mode all platform slots and licenses are now unlocked.
- BUG: Icon of "Siga Master Deck" fixed.
- BUG: Crash could occur when letting contract work be done automatically.
- BUG: Fixed bug with automatic price adjustment of games.
- BUG: Menu "Own games": Incorrect number of games was displayed in some leaderboards.
- BUG: Sometimes games from subsidiarieshad a review rating of 0%.
- BUG: In Sandbox mode, you could not buy NPC companies that were more valuable than $1 billion.
- BUG: Fixed collision box and rotation of a lamp and a radio.

BUILD 2022.08.16A - BUILD 2022.08.25B --------------------------------

- Sandbox mode added.
- NPCs can now port games from arcade systems to PCs/consoles.
- Automatically update items: Costs are now displayed.
- Labor Market: Significantly fewer employees are created who have a useless profession. (For example, technician if you haven't researched a hardware department).
- Game reviews now show the platforms.
- Ukrainian language added.
- NPCs now announce their games.
- Games released for consoles without internet can no longer be distributed digitally.
- If you cancel a task in the sound studio, graphics studio, etc., you will no longer receive all the money as a refund.
- The better your game is, the higher the chance you will get XP.
- New event: "Disappointed fans" (Will be executed if you release a series of bad games)
- BALANCE: The gameplay feature "Controller Support" and the platform "Arcade System 500" is unlocked at the start of the game.
- BALANCE: (NPCs) development time for addons are much shorter.
- BALANCE: Employees should now ask for a raise sooner.
- BALANCE: Increased sales of arcade machines for NPCs.
- BALANCE: (Start year: 1985) Quality assurance is now unlocked.
- EXPLOIT: You could reduce the cost of tasks in the graphics studio, sound studio, etc. if you added gameplay features only during development.
- MULTIPLAYER: The development report of games is now updated every second.
- BUG: When loading a save game, water ran from all sinks.
- BUG: In the menu "Salary negotiations for employees" a text was always displayed in German.
- BUG: Fixed a bug in the tutorial.
- BUG: NPCs could develop addons for mobile games.
- BUG: (NPCs) bug when creating SpinOffs fixed.
- BUG: If you changed the name of an IP, the sorting function (by alphabet) no longer worked.
- BUG: The collision box of a carpet was too big.
- BUG: The collision boxes from the old radio and the modern radio were different sizes.
- BUG: If the setup file was broken, the game could crash.
- BUG: The development costs at graphic studio, sound studio etc. were calculated incorrectly if you had more than one game in development or loaded a save game.

BUILD 2022.07.11A - BUILD 2022.08.12A --------------------------------

- You can now do the salary negotiations of employees manually.
- You can now charge for customer support.
- Fanshop: You can now set a default price for new IPs and view overall statistics.
- You can now open the customer support menu under the main button "Management".
- In some menus with IPs there are now more sorting functions like "Turnover", "Sales" and "Number of games".
- IP tooltip: The release date is now displayed.
- New item added: Luxury sink
- Menu "Stock": Games that have been taken off the market are now marked red.
- Subsidiary Settings Menu: Added buttons to remove all platforms and all IPs.
- In the options you can now set that the market research is automatically displayed as soon as it is finished.
- Release of budget games, GOTY editions: It will now display how much hype the game is receiving upon release.
- AI: The AI no longer releases budget games and GOTY editions on very old consoles.
- Game Tooltip: Platforms that have been removed from the market are highlighted in red.
- The gameplay feature "In App Purchases" is no longer activated by the automatic.
- Console development: There are more colors to choose from.
- Sales screen for games: Console names are now displayed for manufacturer-exclusive games.
- Own consoles: As soon as the console is no longer sold, the user numbers and market share slowly decrease.
- Performance slightly improved.
- BUG: Removed some bugs that could cause a crash or not let the month pass.
- BUG: (Create spinoff) sorting function did not work correctly.
- BUG: "Automatically sell stock" did not work for games that have already been removed from the market.
- BUG: Sometimes the wrong console was displayed in the market research.
- BUG: In the GameTabs, "Units sold" was displayed 1 too few.
- BUG: During development the work priority could be set below 100%.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed some bugs in sending data.

BUILD 2022.07.06A - BUILD 2022.07.08A --------------------------------

- Added cancel button when you want to create bundles or addon bundles.
- Multiplayer: Added option to allow all players to set game speed.
- Console development: You can now choose the console color via color palette.
- The hype of budget games, GOTY editions and addon bundles decreases the older the game is.
- History -> Mad Games Awards: Added buttons to jump to the first and last page.
- BUG: Sometimes games were awarded several years in a row at the "Mad Games Awards".
- BUG: Some bugs removed in connection with the new subsidiary features.
- BUG: Budget games and GOTY editions of NPCs had no user rating.
- BUG: NPC games had an incorrect release date.
- BUG: IP rating did not drop if you neglected your IP.
- BUG: Removed bug in the game database that could cause a crash.

BUILD 2022.06.27A - 2022.07.05A --------------------------------

- Subsidiaries:
* You can now see which game your subsidiary is developing.
* You can now view a development report of the game that is under development.
* You can now cancel the game in development.
* You can now manually remove games that your subsidiary is distributing from the market.

- Console Development: You can now add console features during development.
- MMOs and F2Ps: Sales figures are now related to players who have internet access.
- Remove Game from Market Menu: You can now set at what sales numbers games should be automatically removed from the market.
- Options: You can now set the "Game Complete" menu to open automatically once all bugs have been removed.
- Market research: It is now displayed what percentage of players have access to the Internet.
- Console Development: The development costs for console features are now displayed in absolute terms (cost increases due to console complexity are added).
- Pre-orders of standard games are now cancelled if buyers have to wait too long.
- Licenses with genres not yet unlocked are no longer offered.
- Licenses become more expensive over time.
- Console development: A button has now been added to the development report menu to view console details.
- Development Report: The IP rating is now displayed there.
- Added a new hardware feature for consoles.
- Reduced traffic for multiplayer.
- BALANCE: Complex custom consoles are now more expensive to develop.
- BUG: In rare cases, contract games could cause a crash.
- BUG: Sometimes a crash would occur if you were developing a remaster or porting a game.
- BUG: The NPC was developing games for platforms that did not exist.
- BUG: The NPC copied some wrong data from the original game for budget games and GOTY editions.

BUILD 2022.06.02A - 2022.06.16A --------------------------------

- New object: Modern heating for open plan offices added.
- Added new object: Luxury toilet.
- Licenses now have one suitable and one unsuitable genre. This can also have a negative impact on sales.
- Added three more types for licenses: Comics, Board Games and Toys.
- Fanshop: It now shows the profit of the current and the last month.
- Three new achivements added.
- Develop updates & addons: Development costs limited. Otherwise they increase infinitely.
- GameDev menu: Added search function for licenses.
- Create budget games and GOTY: You can now cancel the process.
- (Multiplayer) Publisher & Developer menu: Teammates are only shown as publishers if they have researched production.
- (Multiplayer) Mini-Game Charts: Games of teammates should now be colored red.
- (Multiplayer) Number of NPC developers increased to 40.
- MOD: You can now enter a release date for licenses. <Y1996>
- BALANCE: In the end-game, about 60% of buyers will now prefer a digital version.
- BALANCE: It now costs significantly more to convert an MMO to F2P.
- BALANCE: (Objects for lounges) The price and regeneration value for motivation has now been adjusted to the size of the object.
- BUG: You could develop updates for games developed by subsidiaries.
- BUG: (Develop free updates) Incorrect development costs were displayed in "Content".
- BUG: When you tried to place an object, sometimes the filter for heat, equipment, etc. was displayed incorrectly.
- BUG: Automatic activation of gameplay features sometimes did not work.
- BUG: Legendary Achievements were not unlocked in-game on low difficulty levels.
- BUG: (Console) Bonus sales for exclusive games could have a negative value.
- BUG: (NPC games) Spin-off sequels had the wrong name.
- BUG: Addons could not be added to the waiting list until the main game was released.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) When you created budget, GOTY, bundles, the game data was sent twice.
- BUG: Objects that generated heat, etc. cast outside of their building.

BUILD 2022.05.25A - 2022.06.01A --------------------------------

- 3 new console feature added and 5 new gameplay features added.
- You can now start playing the game in 2020.
- Custom Consoles -> Available Games Menu: Own games are now highlighted in green.
- History: Added buttons to jump to the first and last page.
- Gameplay Features Tooltip: The release date is now displayed.
- Game development: When a gameplay feature is required for a console, it is now automatically activated.
- The minimized console tab now displays the hype and market share.
- Multiplayer: Studio level of teammates should now be sycronized.
- BALANCE: Budget games, GOTY games etc. now only take 50% of the hype.
- BUG: MMOs that have been converted to F2Ps could cause a crash.
- BUG: Fixed some errors in the file for NPC game names.
- BUG: You became "Publisher of the Year" while not distributing any games.
- BUG: You could publish budget games from games that were put in the drawer.
- BUG: Fixed some serious bugs in multiplayer.
- BUG: Graphical bug in room buttons removed. (two lines were displayed)
- BUG: On the map "European Estate" some doors did not animate.
- BUG: When you took over an IP and developed a successor, you could choose game sizes, genres etc. that you haven't unlocked yet.
- BUG: NPC companies could not be purchased for too long a period of time.
- BUG: (GameTabs - F2Ps) Active players and interest were no longer displayed.
- BUG: MMOs that have been converted to F2Ps could no longer be removed from the market.
- BUG: If you changed the GUI scaling, object tooltips were positioned incorrectly.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) It could happen that no new employees applied anymore.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) The number of hit awards was not sent correctly.
- BUG: (Income and expenses numbers on the map) Sometimes expenses were displayed in green.
- BUG: Sometimes employees waited a long time before charging motivation.

BUILD 2022.05.19B & 2022.05.20A --------------------------------

- When you go over a room button, it will be put in the foreground.
- When you start a new game, your randomly unlocked genre is no longer selected as Unpopular.
- Budget games, GOTY games, and addon bundles are now taking over the rest of the hype.
- Subsidiaries no longer delay a game's release as long.
- Pre-orders are cancelled due to a price increase.
- BUG: (Multiplayer) Several different bugs removed.
- BUG: If the game is automatically saved when a subsidiary releases a game, that game was not released.
- BUG: For pre-orders, the sale price was ignored.
- BUG: If you purchased a license, 0 uses was displayed.
- BUG: You could buy NPC companies right at the start of the game.

With the release of BUILD 2022.05.18A, this includes all the changes from the previous opt-in only beta.


Due to changes in the data structure, all saved games made on BUILD 2022.04.06A or earlier will not work with the latest update. Any saved games made during the beta should work if you opted into this process over the last few weeks.


We apologize for any inconvenience this causes, but these changes were necessary to improve the game and add additional features going forward


One of the major changes included in today's patch for anyone not previously playing on the beta is the ability to now transfer your game IPs between the various studios you own. So if another studio has an IP you really want, you can now buy that studio and transfer the IP from them to your studio, or buy a studio and prioritize that they work on an IP you have created and transferred to them!

Thank you to everyone who helped test and report bugs during the opt-in beta process, and we look forward to continuing our work on the game!



The latest update also includes a new map! The European Manor! This map has a total of 6 different buildings, all new scenery and different challenges and strategies with the new layout of the map.



BUILD 2022.05.18A --------------------------------

INFO:
The beta build has now been converted to a default build. Therefore, old save games are unfortunately unusable. Save games that were created with the beta build should still work.


- A new map has been added.
- Game development: The last engine used is now automatically selected.
- If you win at the Mad Games Awards, you will receive a bonus on sales.
- BUG: Sometimes you could build rooms that blocked other rooms.
- BUG: NPCs gave out more points than allowed in their games in the design focus category.
- BUG: Subsidiaries sometimes developed spinoffs while being forbidden to do so.
- BUG: NPC companies did not develop MMOs until the player unlocked MMOs.
- BUG: "Sandbox Map": You couldn't build rooms before the garage door.
- BUG: You received contract work from subsidiary companies.
- BUG: When you select your own console for a subsidiary to develop for as a priority, that console takes up two slots when the game is released
- BUG: Sometimes your subsidiary stopped releasing players when you put focus on certain IPs.
- BUG: If you assigned four consoles to your subsidiary, it ignored that and chose the player consoles first.
- BUG: If you assigned an engine to your subsidiary, it was incorrectly sold to the subsidiary at cost.
- BUG: Number of awards was displayed incorrectly.
- BUG: If a subsidiary hands you a game to publish on the same week that the Mad Game Awards take place, that game will receive worst game of the year.
- BUG: IP prioritization was not cleared when you swapped an IP.
- BUG: When you created a budget game, the game name was taken with TAGs.
- BUG: If you released a budget game or a GOTY edition of a moved IP, the game was not displayed.


BETA BUILD 2022.04.26A - 2022.04.27A -------------------------------- Included in today's patch for anyone not previously in the beta

2022.04.26A:
- "Subsidiaries Menu": You can now move IPs to you or subsidiaries.
- NPC Publishers/Developers, Subsidiaries: You can now view their awards.
- You can now get "Golden Records" ect. for contract games.
- "Mad Games Awards": Requirements to win an award have been adjusted. Requirements are now displayed as tooltip in "Mad Games Awards".
- BUG: Bonus sales when an arcade port exists did not apply to NPCs.
- BUG: Arcade machines received the bonus for the Christmas season.
- BUG: Wrong developer was specified for commissioned games.
- BUG: If you had a lot of fans, it could happen that all fans disappeared.
- BUG: In multiplayer NPC games were not sent.

2022.04.26B:
- Place objects: Move camera and deselecting objects with right mouse button should work better now.
- BUG: When you gave a self-made IP to a subsidiary, different bugs occurred.
- BUG: You did not receive fan letters.
- BUG: You could lose publisher relationship with your own company if you used an NPC publisher.

2022.04.27A:
- If you win at the "Mad Games Awards" you get a bonus on the sales.
- BUG: IP prioritization was not reset when you swapped an IP.
- BUG: When you created a budget game, the game name was taken with TAGs.
- BUG: If you released a budget game or a GOTY edition of a moved IP, the game was not displayed.