The fourth major update for Insider Trading has been pushed as the game enters its first Summer Sale!
Thanks for your continued (or newly found) interest in Insider Trading.
This 1.4 update brings four new characters to the game. Three correspond to the card types that didn't have a character of their own, alongside one that introduces a slightly different game mode.
New Characters
Four months have passed since release, and during that period, there have been various suggestions as well as plans on the development side to create new gameplay concepts. These new characters were created to realize those ideas.
With some characters altering the game more drastically and some affecting it in a tamer sense, I hope these deliver a wider experience as you play through Insider Trading.
While all four new characters each have a unique unlock condition, most are related to meta-progression, such as requiring a certain win count.
If you have invested hours into Insider Trading already, you may notice a few new characters unlock as soon as you launch the update.
Below, I will go through basic summaries of what each of these characters does.
Spoiler alert: If you wish to figure them out by playing yourself, please skip ahead to the 'Bug Fixes' section.
Plutocrat
Plutocrat starts with 'Authority' type cards.
When playing Plutocrat, your balance will not reset to $1,000 every week. Instead, only the given target amount will be deducted.
A new approach and strategy will be needed when playing the Plutocrat, as this factor shakes up the dynamics significantly.
Plutocrat naturally comes with a long list of other traits to support its concept:
- Balance will not reset to $1,000 every week; only the weekly target amount will be deducted.
- Skipping is replaced with the option to short, as skipping is worthless for this character.
- Weekly target amounts scale exponentially faster between both weeks and difficulties.
- Games end quicker, with week 4 being the final week on lower difficulties, and week 5 being the final week on higher difficulties.
- Starts with a unique card, 'Bribe', which provides direct cash based on the consecutive days it is played.
The Crowd
The Crowd starts with 'Ideology' type cards.
Compared to the Plutocrat, The Crowd is a milder but very solid character.
It offers supplementary tools for editing your queue, leading to easier token management, synergy creation, and a more stable game overall. It will make daily queue setups less stressful without harming the overall challenge of the game.
- An extra move and discard each day is free.
- Starts with a unique card, 'Revolutionism'. This resets the move/discard cost when it gets discarded, though it has a chance to delete itself in the process.
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies starts with 'Junk' type cards.
This is a character designed to deliver a random experience each run, testing your ability to adapt to different setups.
With the ability to delete cards permanently, Lord of the Flies begins runs with a fully randomized starting deck.
- Starts with two random types instead of regular Bulls and Bears.
- The entire starting deck is filled with random cards, spawned based on the available types.
- Can 'ROT' cards to permanently delete them from the deck, at the cost of tokens.
Limitless
'Character' may not be the best term to describe Limitless, as what it offers is more of a sandbox mode.
Limitless allows you to customize the cards and perks you start with, the target multipliers you wish to challenge yourself with, and various custom settings that alter the gameplay.
While you cannot unlock Steam achievements or characters when playing Limitless, it provides room for theory-crafting and personal challenge runs.
Currently, it provides options to modify target amounts, toggle short selling, start with all types, allow skipping card selection, stack balance through weeks, and a couple of others.
If there are any further customizable settings you wish to see in this mode, I am always open to hearing your thoughts.
Bug Fixes
Last but not least, we have the regular bug fixes. Thanks to everyone who reported issues.
- Fixed 'COMPUTER' not spawning rare cards that were added in patch 1.3.
- Fixed cards that check 'consecutive day' flags occasionally failing to function properly (FANATICS, MISINFORMATION, etc.).
- Fixed JUNKY disabling pill usage on the day it was picked up.
- Fixed BOTTOM FISHER and SURFER occasionally displaying the wrong color (green/red).
- Fixed SURFER scaling beyond the described -30% limit.
- Fixed the description for FACTORY.
- Fixed the description for MATING SEASON.
- Fixed a random crash when pressing RELAXANT.
- Fixed a couple of translations based on submitted suggestions.
When I launched the game in February, I had a general list of things I wished to bring to the game through post-launch updates.
Those were: controller support, balancing, onboarding improvements, new cards, and new characters.
With this 1.4 patch, I have completed this initial checklist. Now, I am seeking new areas to move on to, both related and unrelated to Insider Trading.
There are two objectives I currently have set up. One is my next game, and the other is the mobile port of Insider Trading.
While Insider Trading will continue, update frequencies and developmental support for it will decelerate from here on. Monthly updates, as I have done so far, will no longer be feasible. I am a solo developer after all, and as I transition to one project, I must naturally loosen up on the other.
I have said this enough times that it may sound redundant at this point, but again, thank you so much for your continued interest in Insider Trading.
I was a complete amateur when I began this project two years ago, figuring out what to do with my life. It is only through your support and passion that both the game and I have come this far.
Thank you, and I hope to see you in the next announcement, whatever that may be about.
Enjoy the update and this year's Steam Summer Sale.