Where can I read Startup Company patch notes?

This page lists official Steam announcements for Startup Company, including the latest post "Steam Deck-optimized version of Startup Company". Each entry links to the full changelog on Steam.

How many people are playing Startup Company right now?

Startup Company currently shows 25 concurrent Steam players on SteamScope. Player counts refresh on a rolling schedule — typically about every 30 minutes for high-priority titles.

How often are Startup Company patch notes updated on SteamScope?

SteamScope ingests new Steam announcements as they are published. Check back after major updates, seasons, or balance patches to see fresh entries at the top of this feed.

Is Startup Company patch note data official?

SteamScope republishes developer announcements sourced from Steam's public news feeds. SteamScope is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. Always verify critical gameplay changes on the official Steam announcement.

Startup Company Patch Notes & News

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Startup Company Patch Notes & News | SteamScope

Our new game "Big Ambitions" is now available on Steam Early Access!

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

1241d ago

Hi everyone, We're incredibly happy and equally scared to finally release our new game, Big Ambitions, into Steam Early Access. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331550/Big_Ambitions/

Big Ambitions is a revolutionary role-playing business sim

Big Ambitions is the successor to Startup Company. While Startup Company was all about large internet-based businesses, Big Ambitions focuses much more on the small retail businesses that grow to become huge empires. To quickly give you an understanding of the game, here's a list of its key features:

Huge Business Sandbox - Go from nothing to the most prominent tycoon in New York. Whether one business or multiple, work smart and make them thrive.
Grow any Business - Start your own gift shop, supermarket, coffee shop, or law firm. Whether it’s a single shop or making millions developing websites from a basement.
Incredibly In-depth - Take out a loan, rent multiple buildings, design their logos, renovate your stores, grab stock, manage your money, hire staff, and create your infrastructure.
Life Sim on Steroids - Need a delivery truck? Travel to a dealer and buy one. Need food? Head to a supermarket, just make sure you have a refrigerator back at home.
Own New York City - Enter any building in New York and buy it. Go from a small apartment to a dream penthouse in midtown or buy a series of skyscrapers.
Fast Cars or Investment Funds - Spend your wealth however you wish. Buy a big SUV, a speedy sports car, or the new luxurious Mersaidi S500. Maybe even risk it all at the casinos.
Make it to Retirement, or don't - Make sure you get enough sleep and stay healthy and happy. Enjoy the journey, for as you grow older, you’ll discover that money can’t buy you time... or can it?

If you want to read more about our journey developing Big Ambitions, as well as its Early Access Roadmap, I recommend checking out the official Steam announcement: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1331550/view/3653020827586553519 We really hope you'll like it and thank you so much for reading! All the best, Jonas and the Big Ambitions team https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331550/Big_Ambitions/

Introducing "Big Ambitions"

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

2155d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/0ccc778401326c13731e46ae2a88a2265cac98ae.png Hey there! After working on my first game Startup Company for more than 5 years, I’m finally ready to announce the title of my next game: Big Ambitions The website is online too: https://www.bigambitionsgame.com To give you a better understanding of what Big Ambitions is all about, we should take a look at the beginning of the game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/ec5674dfc261732196edf1fd14070d07f56d567b.png To give you an understanding of what Big Ambitions is all about, we should start at the very beginning of the game:

The New Beginning

You’re eighteen years old and living in your parents’ apartment in downtown New York. You have big aspirations to make money and become successful. However, before you can start on your journey, you need to earn some money.

Getting a job

The city offers hundreds of jobs, from flipping burgers to driving New Yorkers around in a taxicab. It’s up to you to decide which path you take. With a few thousand in the bank, you can finally rent your own space and start working on your empire. Most tycoons start simple: A restaurant, a small supermarket, or even an auto repair shop. It’s up to you, try to choose something that’s in demand for the specific area of the city you’re staying in. As you continue along your journey to success, both your wealth and life will change. With more money comes more problems.

Objectives and Goals

Your goal in Big Ambitions is to become the biggest city tycoon in New York. Your daily tasks will vary between:

Buying & selling real estate
Setting up and managing businesses such as restaurants, supermarkets, offices and more
Securing deliveries of goods for your businesses
Renovating owned properties
Managing employees
Taking care of yourself by sleeping, eating, working out and more

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/4ca98643b046498269026bfe63324bb954c45dd8.png

Lifecycle and limitations

The game comes with a full day & night cycle following a real-life schedule with rush hours, weekends and more. You have 3 main factors to maintain: Energy, Hunger and Happiness. To function as effectively as possible, you need to keep all three in balance. As aforementioned, your journey starts at the age of eighteen, but as you play your character will move through the three stages of adulthood (each having their own advantages and disadvantages):

Young
Middle-aged
Old

Engine, controls and perspective

Big Ambitions is my first game developed with an industry-standard game engine: Unity 2020. Unlike Startup Company, the game will be 3D and you will control your character using a point-and-click navigation system (similar to the one found in the Diablo franchise). However, vehicles will be controlled using the keyboard. The game is viewed from an isometric top-down camera angle and you’ll be able to zoom in, zoom out and rotate the camera which will always follow your character.

The City

The game will be set in the bustling centre of New York City. I focus on ensuring that the streets feel as authentic as possible since I really want you, the player, to feel like part of New York City. As part of my quest to deliver an authentic city experience, I’m making it so that every building in the city can be interacted with and owned. The first public build (Beta 1) will come with the following city map: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/e88272ff15c512af9eedaaa3ecbb46a4b47c1519.png I expect the final map to be 4 times bigger.

Development and release date

Similar to Startup Company, I’ll be the only developer working full time on the game. Fortunately, I’ll be hiring contractors to help me produce some core components such as the 3D models, complex Unity systems, UI design, music and sound effects. I plan to release devlogs showcasing the progress on average once a week. I’ll also continue streaming the development on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/jhovgaard Since I have, no pun intended, big ambitions for the game, I expect at least 2 years of development before the first build is ready for the public. It’s definitely a long time away but I don’t want to take any shortcuts so that I can provide the best possible experience. I’m determined to build a game that does more than entertain you - something that makes you dream big after closing the game. I hope you’re as excited about Big Ambitions as I am. I cant wait to show you what I’ve got lined up for future devlogs, so make sure to subscribe to the newsletter on the website. Thank you for reading! All the best, Jonas

Startup Company is out in Full Release!

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

2305d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/f5b869a8a17b843a8adb704adbc80a3eecc756ff.png Hi everyone! Today is the day! After four years and nine months of hard work, I can finally and proudly announce the Full Release of Startup Company! If you read my special devlog about how Startup Company became a thing, you can probably imagine how excited I am about this. Today is the day I'm releasing the game I've been dreaming about. Startup Company is now officially out of Early Access.

Introducing Version 1 - Packed with new stuff!

I hope you're ready for this, because this update will be much longer than you're used to. Here's what's new in Version 1... {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

2 New Website Types

By popular demand, you can now start the following two new website types: Dating Platform & Gaming Platform {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/30dbfbc10aa472fa4d7cb9e1c88a1b24c23858f3.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

New feature: Profile Page

A new Profile Page feature is now available for all Gaming & Dating platforms. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/c52207398b23a8e1af25b543661792320e91e792.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

20 New Competitors

With the new website types, I had to add some new competitors too. I asked my colleague Mark for some help naming these new competitors. As you can see, he was surprisingly creative! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/d63452af353a1734dcf113e6f66f197197cffc6a.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

New feature: Early Retirement

Some of you really wanted to be able to retire early. I've listened and you can now find a "Retire now" button in your CEO's Retirement menu. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/32ea20d65517d091203a67cf24383655c18e468b.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Employees Menu: Mass-Upgrades!

I got more requests for this feature than I could count. Now it's here, upgrade all your employees at once! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/72b9c952f69e839c6f82b518e3a34370e08c538f.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Customize the "Days per year"

In order to get a nice balance between simulating a day's work and the progression of years, I've ended up shortening a year to 50 days in Startup Company. Some of you really did not like that, so I added the option to define the length of a year through the Custom Game menu: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/12a3fdf6501110b82b9d1d471772a30f8b5288bc.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

New feature: Sell Your Website

This feature request has been so popular that you'll even find mods adding the functionality. I'm happy to report that it's now natively in the game. Obviously websites can only be sold if you've already bought out all the investors. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/6ae6d1ff5feca48c9e81bba8bcd64b5ef8875ddb.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

In-game Achievements

As Version 1 introduces a "direct download" option, I have created an achievements menu in-game, meaning achievements are no longer limited to Steam users. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/e28ca3aab2de932b6b4f4ffa80f571a0b6ecab47.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

New office items!

We've now got some new cool items for your office:

Huge Slide: What's a big headquarter without a huge slide?
Game Console Area: Again, a sign of success. You need it.
Large Plant & Rectangular Plant: This is the sequal to the current "plant in a vase."
Indoor Tree: Big offices always have indoor trees for some reason. Now you can too.
Privacy Walls: Give your employees a bit more privacy with these walls.
Privacy Box: A box canceling all noise coming from inside it. Very modern.
Egg Chair: Probably the most expensive chair in the world.
Letters (A-Z): Motivate (or unmotivate) your employees with these letter-shaped objects.

All the new items except the letters can be demanded by new employees and come with various new bonuses. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/6d37508abfba5573503f989c9ebbee526ec7a3c4.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Improved HR Management

Most of you have probably experienced losing a good employee, simply because you didn't accept a salary raise in time. You can now let your HR Managers handle this. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/668c3037c3881e1527b1c1228beefac568ef0f77.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Better Production Plans

The production plans has now been moved to an independent tab of the Inventory Menu. Options to more precisely control production behavior has also been added. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/5f6a31b50c7f22cb420b6f27389577812024f1cb.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Other Improvements

Fixed components incorrectly shown as locked.
"Game paused" shown when the time machine running.
Slider's maximum salary too low.
Limited Help System to one instance per website.
Reduced organic growth.
Introduced Jeets earlier in the game.
Added logo selector to "new game dialog."
Improved auto-save to save only after further progression.
Added random name generator to "new game" dialog.
HR manager's exhaustion is now easier to understand.
Newly hired employees can no longer be fired right away.
Fixed overlays causing people to get stuck on slower computers.
Fixed bug allowing outsourcing tasks to be completed instantly.
Purchased furniture can now be sold again.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Bugs and balancing

As with any release, there will of course be bugs and changes that need rebalancing. As always, I'll monitor the Steam discussions and apply hotfixes ASAP. I'm also planning on releasing a few updates to address various UI/QOL issues. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

What's next at Hovgaard Games?

So much! As we're now a full-blown company with the resources to explore multiple paths, our roadmap looks like this:

Localizor.com

With Localizor we're revolutionizing the way games are translated by building an intelligent and community/crowd-based platform. We'll continue to invest heavily in improving the platform. Visit Localizor.com

The Next Game

I can't count how many times I've been asked, "Is there another game coming from Hovgaard Games?" I can finally reply with a confident "Hell yes!" We're already busy creating the first concept art and I can't wait to show you everything. For now, I'll give you a few hints:

It's once again a tycoon/management game.
The camera angle is topdown/isometric and the gameplay is something we're confident you have never seen before in this genre.
The budget for the new game is 50 times (!) bigger than it was for Startup Company.

Make sure to follow Hovgaard Games on Steam to stay updated! Once again! I hope you enjoy Startup Company – now in it's final form ːschappyː Thanks for reading and for your continuing support! All the best, Jonas and the Hovgaard Games team

It's been a long journey

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsModAct_969847436_1572727045.484_0ModAct_444533432_1577488815.418_0ModAct_969847436_1581121471.692_0

2347d ago

Hi, everyone! As you probably already imagine from the title, this will be a very special devlog. First, let's get right to the practical: the official release date of the Startup Company Full Version will be announced in next week. We'll finally leave Early Access and the Beta program. To celebrate, I'd like to share my story with all of you, who have been following my game for the last couple of years. It's a long read, so if you're only curious about game updates, you should probably stop reading now ːschappyː Let's get started. It was back in 2015...

The Beginning

I was working a 9-5 corporate job as a Lead Developer. My primary task was to build websites, and I knew absolutely nothing about game development. But I loved tycoon games, and I had the desire to make one myself. One evening, around July 2015, I was casually playing around with combining web technology (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) with some free isometric game assets I had found online. I had no goal at all. I was just curious if it was possible. Slowly, I started understanding how I could layer multiple PNG images on top of each other and make the website look like a game. It was incredibly simple, but it felt real. I continued testing ideas and researching possibilities. After a couple of weeks of investigation, I came to a conclusion: I could definitely build a game entirely in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I was experienced in all these technologies. The only limitation was that I had to keep the animations simple.

The Idea

Back when I was younger, I had tried starting up two companies. The first was a hosted e-commerce platform, basically a competitor to Shopify. We spent a year developing the platform in our spare time, but failed miserably when we learned that developers can't sell anything and that marketing is important. After that, I built a platform to manage web servers. It failed, too, because I still hadn't learned anything. However, with my newly found knowledge about game development, I was ready for my third adventure. I knew that I could build a game. I just had to decide what I would build. Fortunately, it couldn't have been more obvious: I needed to build a game that would allow me to succeed in starting a company. I quickly jumped on Steam and searched for "Startup Company"...0 results. Boom, that was it.

Livecoding

I had been working on the concept for a couple of months. I even found an up and coming artist from India, who was willing to provide me with cheap assets (I think I paid $20 per item) to get started. At the time, I was working mainly in the evenings, after work. That left me with 2 problems. First, I had already programmed for 8 hours, so I was tired and slow at solving complex problems. Second, I procrastinated too much by watching Twitch streams, chatting with friends, etc. To overcome these issues, I decided to start streaming my development. Exactly like regular Twitch streams, but with me writing code. Game development streams weren’t really a thing on Twitch at the time, but there was a site called Livecoding for exactly that. I signed up, got my OBS configured, and went live Saturday, October 17, 2015. I was too shy to use a webcam or even have a microphone. (English is not my native language.) Instead, I would reply to viewers directly via chat. I don't remember the duration of my first stream, but I remember the feeling: I had been incredibly productive. Because someone was watching me (between 0-1 viewers), I couldn't chat with my friends or watch stupid videos on YouTube. Instead, I had to work and keep them entertained with my progress. I continued streaming and my followers started climbing. I got confident and eventually added both a microphone and a cam to my stream. At my peak, I had up to 100 viewers every night. People even donated me money to invest in the game. Here's the first preview I made of Startup Company:

The Hustle

As more and more people started following my development streams and signing up for my newsletter, I started to believe that I really had something. With new motivation, I started to really put in the hours. Weekends were now dedicated to the game. I even had a rule that I had to work more hours on the game than on my full-time job, which obviously resulted in 70+ hour work weeks.

Beta 1

After working on the game for almost 6 months, I was finally ready to release Beta 1. On February 21, 2016, I made Beta 1 available to everyone who had signed up. I remember feeling not only excited, but also very nervous. What if they didn't like it? 20 minutes later I got the first feedback. I remember it clearly: "lol, it's so boring." The feedback continued: "It feels like real work"; "This is spreadsheet simulator"; and so on. At this point, I was seconds away from giving up completely. I didn't reply to anyone, and I didn't touch the game for days. To this day, I'm not sure why I picked up the game again. But, fortunately, I did. I reached out to everyone who had given me feedback and started questioning them about everything. I wanted to figure out what they expected and wanted from the game. Over the next year, I ended up rewriting the game completely two times. The root cause of the boring gameplay was my desire to make it complex and realistic. I tried to simulate real life "development models" and "deployment processes." Geeky stuff that sounded cool on paper, but was awful in a game. At last, I finally figured out that a game had to be simple enough for the player to fully understand what was going on. When playing a game, you want to understand exactly what is going on, so that you can make smart decisions. This is also the reason that I have insisted on keeping the game casual and sometimes unrealistic. I tried the opposite. It wasn't good.

The Early Access Release

Fast forward a year. It's Summer 2017. The game had evolved a ton. It was a good experience, and people were playing it for an average of 2 hours. I had already set the release date: August 11, 2017. The game was up on "Steam Coming Soon." I knew from my earlier failures as an entrepreneur that marketing was the most important thing, especially now, 3 months prior to the release. At this point of time, I completely stopped working on the game. Instead, I went into full-blown marketing mode. I literally sent more than 500 emails with Steam keys to YouTubers and Twitchers. If they didn't reply to me, I would message them on Twitter or even crash their live stream on Twitch. I would even appear in their comments section. If you were contacted by me back then: I'm sorry, I know I must have been annoying. A lot of small YouTubers covered the game. It started slowly. Most had fewer than 1,000 subscribers. But then, my game was covered by "GrayStillPlays" on YouTube. The whole thing went nuts from there. The number of people wishlisting the game began climbing like never before. On Friday August 11, 2017, I pushed the button on Steam and Startup Company went live. Within an hour, the game was on the frontpage of Steam. At its peak, the game had more than 1,400 people concurrently playing the game. It took me a couple of days before I fully understood what had happened. The upcoming Monday I knocked on my boss' door, only to tell him that I would like to resign.

Life as a Game Developer

I had to stay in the job for six weeks after my resignation. It was a stressful time. The huge increase in players caused a lot of bugs to show up. I couldn't accept it, if any of my players had a question that was unanswered or a bug that wasn't fixed right away. At the same time, I had no experience in community management. I was way too emotionally attached to my game, and a single bad review would literally ruin my whole day, especially if it was valid. Fortunately, I learned, over time, to handle all that stuff. Today, I work a healthy amount of hours, and I've read enough negative reviews for them to not change my mood. After the release, I started documenting all development progress through the devlogs here on Steam. (You can check them out, as they are all still available).

The Next Chapter

Right now, I'm working on Version 1 of Startup Company. Obviously, I can't make a full release, without also bringing you the biggest content update for the game ever. So far, Version 1 contains more new content than the last 5 beta updates, and I'm only halfway done. If there's a time to be excited as a Startup Company player, it's now! I'm also actively negotiating with another studio to help me bring Startup Company to Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. There will, of course, be an official announcement about this later. And finally, me and my colleague Mark are working on Localizor, our new community translation platform, which has really started to take off lately. You can check it out here: www.localizor.com

Thank You

No matter how long you've been following me and Startup Company, I just want to say thank you for all your feedback, bug reports, ideas and suggestions, negative and positive reviews, mods in the workshop, and comments and likes on my devlogs. Having a community like this is truly a blessing. Startup Company would never had been possible without you. That's all for today. Remember to keep an eye on the announcements at the end of next week. Something is coming... Thanks for reading! All the Best, Jonas

Beta 29 is now available!

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsModAct_969847436_1572727045.484_0ModAct_444533432_1577488815.418_0

2368d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/37d531c1a406cefad73aa7b5aa8ad0cea13d3f77.png Hi there! Beta 29 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away! It's been 42 days since the last beta update. While Beta 29 isn't the biggest update, it delivers some important changes. One of these changes has been in the pipeline for more than a year! Let's jump right into it and see what's new. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

CEO Backstory

The CEO's backstory allows you to select which skill your CEO had before becoming a CEO. You'll be able to choose between developer, designer, or manager. No matter which role you choose, the CEO will still be able to participate in recruitment. All you have to do is manually switch between his roles. The CEO is the first and only employee type that can handle multiple skills. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/fbf04b7b45770ff6c5fdcfc3708032697c63570f.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

New Fusion Hardware

Beta 29 introduces brand new "Fusion" hardware. Both new hardware items are very expensive, but are also the most efficient seen so far.

Fusion Server

Generates a lot of heat, but it's also the first server to produce all three types of throughput.

Fusion Heat Transformer

Incredibly expensive but reduces temperature by a stunning -55 Celsius (-67 Fahrenheit). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/4ffe3b0190cbd31d328cdcaa2c2363c275722aa9.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

New Enhancement Feature: Help System

This headline might be confusing. It's not an in-game help system – it's a new enhancement feature you can add to your website. Adding the Help System will not only allow you to increase overall satisfaction (it counts as a regular feature), but it also greatly reduces the number of generated support tickets. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/2a9db4bf7b385fcab5c9d8a51cc1e202eb425bdb.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Tidal Power Investment Project

A third investment project is now available: Tidal Power. It will unlock both the Fusion Heat Transformer and the Fusion Server. The upfront payment is $28 million and the minimum daily budget is $1.2 million. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/a7a915feaa54c5e886cb995cf0cdde71b3ced655.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Minor changes

Beta 29 also contains a lot of bug fixes and improvements. The most exciting ones are

Employee Menu: Order by age added
Retirement warnings added
New achievements: "The Wave" & "Dangerous Future"

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Help us translate!

Even though the community has been very busy translating Beta 29, there are still a couple of untranslated strings. The following languages are incomplete: Portuguese (BR), French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Turkish. If you want to help out, whether it be voting for suggestions or writing your own, simply click the button below to get started: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/66c7d3d26f6516cce3c7174c8facad75a11d49d3.png https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png As always, I'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issues or bugs, please send me a message on our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in the Steam discussions. I really hope you like all the new changes and features! Best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Devlog #59

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsModAct_382931822_1572282624.262_0ModAct_382931822_1573840394.245_0ModAct_382931822_1577124987.004_0ModAct_969847436_1578856039.737_0

2371d ago

Hi everyone, This devlog was originally planned for last week. Fortunately we had some good progress on Beta 29, which allowed me to postpone the devlog till today, but also include the official release date of Beta 29! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Fusion Server

The Fusion Server is here! It's expensive and generates a lot of heat, but it's also the first server to produce all 3 types of throughput. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/409bac0a71b6a639cd408386e311829ba679a4d7.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Tidal Power Investment Project

The new Tidal Power investment project will unlock both the Fusion Heat Transformer and the Fusion Server. The upfront payment is $28,000,000 and the minimum daily budget is $1,200,000. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/a7a915feaa54c5e886cb995cf0cdde71b3ced655.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Release Date

I think you'll like this one: Beta 29 will be publicly available this Friday (February 7) at 20:00 CET (11am PST). The update contains the following:

CEO Backstory
Tidal Power Investment Project
Fusion Heat Transformer & Fusion Server
New enhancement feature: "Help System"
New achievements: "The Wave" & "Dangerous Future"
And other smaller improvements and fixes

There will be a small happening over at our Discord server. I'm looking forward to see you! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Remember the translations!

I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations Thank you for reading and see you in Friday! ːschappyː All the best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Devlog #58

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsModAct_382931822_1572282624.262_0ModAct_382931822_1573840394.245_0ModAct_382931822_1577124987.004_0

2394d ago

Hi everyone, I had some great progress on Beta 29 recently. Everything is coming along much faster than expected. I even hope testing will begin at the end of next week. I'll keep you updated in the next devlog. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: CEO Backstory

This week I finalized the most popular change in Beta 29: The CEO's backstory. Basically you get to select which skill your CEO had before becoming a CEO. This will allow him to act as a Developer, Designer or Manager. He'll still be able to do recruitment. All you have to do is manually switch between his roles. As you can see below, I added a small icon for that. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/0e639309159711df2fc7ca805da1f480874b4f11.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Help System

The headline might confuse you. It's not an in-game help system. It's a new Enhancement Feature you can add to your website. Adding the Help System will not only allow you to increase overall satisfaction (as it counts like a regular feature), but it also greatly reduces the amount of generated support tickets. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/2a9db4bf7b385fcab5c9d8a51cc1e202eb425bdb.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Order by age

A small but useful update. You can now order by age in the employees menu. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/eb708edecd11d938ec2ceb1db4191a380f6c5626.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Retirement warning

Another small but useful update. You now get a warning 1 year before an employee will retire. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/d3c51533f4923222c12055043310a029c80a10d5.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: New Fusion Hardware

Beta 29 will also introduce new servers and airconditioners. We categorize them as "Fusion hardware". Bruno did his best to make it look as badass as absolutely possible. He nailed it, don't you think? ːschappyː {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/09439fb9cd6b8be1566c507a77de9b3a019a79b7.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

That's all for this week

Also remember I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations Thank you for reading and see you in the next devlog ːschappyː All the best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Beta 28 is now available!

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsModAct_969847436_1572727045.484_0

2410d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/a2cc3a47e5f9a1d6e02c5a64ff452ced03700d61.png Hi there! Beta 28 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away! I'm happy to once again present you another big update for Startup Company. This update is really for you, as every single change and feature is based on community feedback. Let's jump right into it and see what's new. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Dynamic DDoS Attacks & DDoS Protection

In Beta 28 I have greatly increased the effect of DDoS attacks both in duration, strength and how often they happen. To help you counter these attacks we're introducing another Enhancement Feature: The DDoS Protection. Similar to the Adblock Obfuscator you can improve the feature from 0-100%. At 100% you'll be almost invincible to DDoS attacks. DDoS Protection has a flaw though: The system will automatically ask users if they are a robot or not. This will annoy your users and result in increased dissatisfaction. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/48071932d8a42535c73a73aee3372eaf01a09a03.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Introducing Jitter

Understanding your users is a vital part of succeeding as a startup. This is why we're introducing Jitter. Users will send out Jeets expressing their feelings. You'll also get weekly updates from the StockTraders account giving you hints on what companies to invest in. I'll introduce even more types of Jeets over the next beta releases. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/02b91c942229862a20353aa48511d1de289797fb.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Updated Stock Market and UI

After a ton of requests (you guys really like investing in stocks), I've finally fixed the buggy stock market. Beta 28 will introduce brand new mechanics that makes the stocks much more dynamic. The UI has also been updated:

Added a transaction log to better track whether you're making money or not.
Added a 1% trading fee for both buying and selling.
Increased the amount of days stock prices are tracked.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/5a9e06f0656849dea44ba6b16f0973cca9776914.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Fusion Power Plant & Fusion Framework 2020

The second investment project is now available: The Fusion Power Plant. Once you have completed this investment you'll unlock the Fusion Framework 2020 which allows to reach even higher feature levels and add more features to the same website. The projects are incredibly expensive therefore it's only for well-established companies. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/cfd1b5100fbbbbbbc6b720cae359f2844a3bcda7.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Other minor changes

Decreased the effect of Viral Boosts.
Increase hours to recruit intermediate and expert employees.
Decrease the chance of headhunting superstar employees.
Added support for UI scaling as a replacement for "Big UI" (moved to top left corner of the main menu).

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game? Check out our Conflux board. As always, I'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issues or bugs, please send me a message in our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in the Steam discussions. I really hope you like all the new changes and features! Best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Devlog #57

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsModAct_382931822_1572282624.262_0ModAct_382931822_1573840394.245_0

2414d ago

Hi everyone, Intro....

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: UI Scaling

After being in the pipeline for a long time I finally found time to add a UI scaling feature. The old "Big UI" option has been removed. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/55dd2e9554434b15960e8370d6f6b04d36a26d33.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Fusion Power Plant & Fusion Framework

I'm happy to present the second investment project: The Fusion Power Plant. The upfront payment will be $22,000,000. By completing this project you gain access to the new Fusion Framework 2020. The framework allows you to upgrade your features all the way to level 7000. You also get a total of 12 feature slots! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/4510a98a725c7465d759fb9a89f08a28447680c0.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Dynamic DDoS Attacks & DDoS Protection

Beta 28 Release Date

We're busy testing Beta 28 right now. If you want to help out, come join us on Discord. The official release date is: December 27 at 19:00 CET (10am PST). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

That's all for this week

Devlog #56

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsModAct_382931822_1572282624.262_0

2452d ago

Hi everyone, 2 weeks ago Beta 27 was released. It has been very successful! Reviews has been more positive than ever, thank you! The build was also very stable, I have only spent 1 week on fixing bugs:

Fixed bug where retirement sequence didn't start from step 1.
Fixed bug making it impossible to unlock "The Sun Is The Future"
Recruitment: Changed max value of salary and bonus slider to support new superstar employees.
Show daily payment when negotiating ad contracts
Added "In stock" value to Production Plans
Updated localization files
Fixed yet another "Employees not retiring" bug
Fixed bug where retirement tax percentage didn't update after transferring.
Fixed bug where both main menu and game soundtrack would play simultaneous
Fixed issue where "years till retirement" could go into negative
Fixed bug where new candidates would contain fire demands right away.
Fixed bug making it impossible to upgrade to new office for some old savegames.
Fixed error being thrown if employee was fired while having their dialog open.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Jitter and the in-game browser!

Beta 28 will introduce a new in-game browser. The first website you can visit is Jitter. From here you can get:

Info on how to improve your website and what annoys your users.
Which companies might be interesting to invest in.
Random rages from angry people.

If you have some cool ideas about things users could "jeet"about, feel free to submit your suggestions in the comments section. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/a28300d07c33c40867b26da5597a6ca4c8161174.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Updated Stock Market and UI

After a ton of requests (you guys really like investing in stocks), I'm finally fixing the buggy stock market. Beta 28 will introduce brand new mechanics that makes the stocks much more dynamic. The UI has also been updated:

Added a transaction log to better track whether you're making money or not.
Added a 1% trading fee for both buying and selling.
Increased the amount of days stock prices are tracked.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/5f7f0057b735ffe5cae000f7109ffb7ba384e1cf.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Tidal Power Plant

The next investment project will be the Tidal Power Plant. Once you have completed this investment you'll unlock the Fusion Framework 2020 which allows to reach even higher feature levels. I'll talk more about this in a future devlog. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/922bfe6339d50fb9dc67d1e7e96a007ccadb4ce9.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

That's all for this week

Beta 27 is now available!

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

2465d ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/6726e991b4e12a957fbfd54825b29f94bd28a534.png Hi there! Beta 27 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away! It has been 72 days since the latest beta (26) was released. I'm super excited to announce Beta 27, which is the biggest update to the game, both for content, and lines of code. Let's jump right into it and see what's new. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Career Mode

Beta 27 introduces a brand new Career Mode, which is also the new primary game mode. When you start the game, your CEO will be 18 years old. As the game progresses your CEO will now age along with your employees. At the age of 67, you will retire and the game is over. As you're playing, your main objective is to move money from the company account to your retirement fund to secure your future. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/8ec86ecef3cd792a969212d70e78c82b1b7b62c5.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Custom Game

"Custom Game" allows you to configure the game exactly how you like. Don't like investors? Turn it off. Don't like the new retirement feature? Turn it off. Hate that you have to research everything? Turn it off! Wanna go crazy and build your dream? Turn up your starting money. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/6fe33857af30f2777f4e528987001707ca6fcabc.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Retirement Fund

From the CEO window you'll now able to access the Retirement tab. From here you can move money from your company account to your personal retirement fund. You'll have to think this through as your investors need to receive an equal cut (unless you have bought them out). You'll also have to consider taxes. Paying out everything in the same year will hit you with a huge tax charge. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/da8c1ec8b7f19eb7f05391ace094666bcd37f1ce.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Investment Projects

If we look at the world today, most successful entrepreneurs are investing in massive projects which move the world forward. Elon Musk with SpaceX and Tesla. Jeff Bezos going to space with Blue Origin and Mark Zuckerberg is aiming to provide access to the internet to everyone with internet.org. In Startup Company Beta 27 you'll be able to do the same. Each investment project will give you access to special abilities. Investment Projects are accessed via the city map. The projects are incredibly expensive therefore it's only for well-established companies. Beta 27 introduces the first project out of 3: Space-based Solar Power. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/dd226b9f0ec19d12d686f0e2aa935fffd84d4870.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Superstar Employees

Have you ever worked with someone that was incredibly fast? In Beta 27 you'll now be able to hire those superstar employees. The superstar employees are very rare and can only be found using expert-level Recruiters. They require a very high salary, but can also reach base speeds of up to 900%. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/ae1df1e033a9291bce6e044b15cc922b4ccfc687.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Improved Inventory

The Inventory Menu is probably the least used feature in Startup Company. Hopefully, this will change with Beta 27. You'll finally be able to see both consumption, demand and production for each component/module. This new information will allow you to make your office more efficient and cut down on overproduction. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/f10dc378f0971576b246479bd07937f9711d4dd1.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png

Other minor changes

7 brand new achievements.
Ability to disable workstation limits (be aware of lag).
Designed Company & Benefits menu.
Increased game speed (twice as fast in 3x speed).
Beginner Kits for all employees are automatically researched.
Sliders/UI for Sales Executives has been improved.
27 various bug fixes.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/70a17695ae1bb6781144e152e87fb0d77aeb030a.png Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game? Check out our Conflux board. As always, I'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issues or bugs, please send me a message in our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in the Steam discussions. I really hope you like all the new changes and features! I have to go now, It's time to get started on Beta 28 ːschappyː Best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Devlog #55

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

2473d ago

Hi everyone, Another week went by and another Daily Deal has come to an end. The impact on our Review Score has been enormous this time. From 100% out of 18 reviews to 61% out of 41 reviews in 2 days. I won't lie, the "demotivational impact" is equally enormous. I'll keep my eyes away from the reviews until things are back to normal. If you have any issues with the game, please reach out to my directly ( [email protected] or Discord). The game is 100% stable and if you have any issues with the game I guarantee to fix it within 24 hours. With that off my chest, let's look into some exciting news!

Improved Contract Filters

A lot of you have probably struggled with setting the right max impressions for your Sales Executives. Beta 27 changes how max impressions is calculated, so it won't suddenly drop to lower amounts. I also added a textbox to easily enter the desired amount. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/ad1af7a929ddf316c92b3b96735e5a5ca5364f38.jpg

No more researching beginner kits

I had a lot of complaints that players found it annoying that you had to combine the "Beginner Kit" after researching the a new employee type. All beginners kits are now instantly available in all new savegames. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/04c78fabbb8945bf02feed0b0b9637d8c1810cbf.jpg

7 new achievements

Beta 27 comes with 7 new achievements mainly focused on the new features: Achievement Goal Fast Support Reach an average response time lower than 2 hours with more than 500 tickets The Average Worker Secure a retirement fund of more than $500,000 Upper Middle Class Secure a retirement fund of more than $1,000,000 Biggy Shot Secure a retirement fund of more than $45,000,000 Mister Biggy Biggy Shot Secure a retirement fund of more than $200,000,000 Mister World Wide Secure a retirement fund of more than $3,500,000,000 The Sun Is The Future Invest 100% of Space-based Solar Power

Changes to game speed

I have decided to increase the speed of the game, mainly to reduce waiting time in stale periods of the game. The following changes has been applied to Beta 27:

In-game minutes changed from 200ms to 150ms
2x Speed ticks changed from 2 to 5 in-game minutes
3x Speed ticks changed from 5 to 10 in-game minutes

These changes will dramatically increase the speed, especially when playing in fast-forward mode. I hope these changes makes you feel more in control of the game's progression.

Release date of Beta 27

I can finally announce that Beta 27 will be publicly available November 2, 2019 at 10:00am PT (18:00 CET). You can participate in the countdown on our Discord server. Make sure to subscribe to the CEO role by writing !subscribe in any channel.

That's all for this week

Devlog #54

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

2486d ago

Hi everyone, It's been a month since my last devlog and I must admit I'm surprised how many of you have reached out to me and asked what was going on with the silence. I wasn't aware how many of you follow these logs. I really appreciate that! ːschappyː The reason for the silence isn't that exciting tho. One of the week I've spent attending the Unity Unite conference here in Copenhagen. The rest of the time I've been busy with prepping Beta 27 for testing. It has been heavy work for sure, but definitely worth it! Beta 27 will be, without doubt, the biggest update in the history of Startup Company.

Custom Game Mode

I have completely redesigned the "New Game" menu. You'll now be able to select "Custom Game" which allows you to configure the game exactly how you like. Don't like investors? Turn it off. Don't like the new retirement feature? Turn it off. Hate that you have to research everything? Turn it off! Wanna go crazy and build your dream? Turn up your starting money. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/6f8afea8a9df15867c5122ed76621679c3c24e12.gif

The new beginning...

This one comes without a screenshot, as I don't wanna spoil anything. However I can say that there's now an actual ending to the game and it happens when your CEO becomes 67 years old and retires. You'll also be able to continue playing in a new way.

Redesigned Company Menu

The company profile has been slightly redesigned. The main reason has been a lot of new players would have trouble finding the "Benefits" menu. I've renamed the menu and combined the two tabs. It's a small thing, but I believe it has annoyed a lot of players. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/0757c59002c356b16d1f6cb623f912b879cdfe02.jpg

We're now secretly testing Beta 27!

Yes! I have given our moderators access to the Beta 27 branch and they are now busy testing and finding the biggest bugs. When they finally stop reporting bugs, I'll invite all of you on Discord to start testing too. It can be any time now so make sure to subscribe to our CEO role by writing !subscribe in any channel!

That's all for this week

Also remember I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://app.localizor.io/game/1/translations Thank you for reading and see you in the next devlog ːschappyː All the best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Devlog #53

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementsworkshop

2520d ago

Hello everyone, It's been a very busy two weeks so let's jump right into it!

Investment Projects

If we look at the world today, most successful entrepreneurs are investing in massive projects which move the world forward. Elon Musk with SpaceX and Tesla. Jeff Bezos going to space with Blue Origin and Mark Zuckerberg is aiming to provide access to the internet to everyone with internet.org. In Startup Company Beta 27 you'll be able to do the same. Each investment project will give you access to special abilities. Investment Projects are accessed via the city map. The projects are incredibly expensive therefore, it's only for well-established companies. Today I'm announcing the first project of 3: Space-based Solar Power. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/afa211c48a5e16b0690b2120c387e0bf5ad0d6ff.jpg This project gives your company access to hiring new superstar employees.

Superstar Employees

Career Mode: CEO Aging & Retirement

Beta 27 will introduce a brand new Career Mode, which will also be the primary game mode. When you start a new game, your CEO will be 18 years old. As the game progresses your CEO will now age with your employees. At the age of 67, you will retire and the game is over. As you're playing, your main objective is to move money from the company account to your retirement fund. You'll have to think this through as your investors will need to receive an equal cut (unless you have bought them out). You'll also have to consider taxes. Paying out everything in the same year will hit you with a huge tax charge. Below is a very early screenshot not containing investor cut or "retirement fund goals". The screenshot also shows the new topbar with a progress bar for both the current day and the CEO's retirement (purple). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/67959c5243f2499d32d8e951fe6a3e1898e6055d.jpg All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.

That's all for this week

I hope these changes bring excitement to you all. Beta 27 is shaping up to be one of the biggest updates. I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://app.localizor.io/game/1/translations Thank you for reading and see you in next devlog ːschappyː All the best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Beta 26 Released!

Miedemantussteam_community_announcementspatchnotes

2543d ago

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/eba52c06ac510d0504576807959587f37b683142.png Hi there! Beta 26 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away! We're super excited to bring to you Beta 26, which introduces a very controversial feature: Outsourcing. To understand why, we have to go back to Beta 17. Back then, we had something called "Contract Work". The feature was removed in Beta 17 because it was such an easy way to earn money. It was probably the most unpopular decision I have ever made. Fortunately the game ended up being much better, as I was finally able to correctly balance out websites. You can read the original devlog here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/606800/announcements/detail/1709565386033916765 Today, with Beta 26 we are reintroducing "Contract Work" as Outsourcing. The feature has been completely rewritten and is now much more integrated with the rest of the game's ecosystem. It is "part 1" as I plan to introduce even more features in future updates.

Outsourcing: Completing tasks for money

You can use Outsourcing in two ways. To deliver components and receive money, or to request components and pay money. To generate extra income, you have to first hire an Outsourcing Executive. Then you'll have to win the task by sending a good offer. The mechanics are similar to recruitment, but here you'll be competing against other companies. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/176f6c89b869eb821271a9d93a7410451b3cada2.gif

Outsourcing: Get components/modules delivered

The second part of outsourcing is getting other companies/competitors to deliver components and modules to your company. This is especially useful if you have a sudden demand for some specific components or modules or if you simply don't have the space to hire more employees. To create a task simply use your Outsourcing Executive. You can define up to 4 requirements (max 500 each). The shorter the deadline you define the more expensive it will be. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0081a7ba9b7e2483fb56d2f7526138b56ad3518f.gif

Outsourcing: Market Prices

The new Market Prices Menu allows you to make clever choices based on the demand and prices of specific components/modules. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/2339b616eef0e9c4f36c25123a5a3a869ae72dd5.jpg

Another round of performance optimization

Improving performance across the board. This time the code that updates overlays has been improved. In my specific test case I went from aroung 20 FPS to a minimum of 120 FPS. I'm feeling pretty happy with that!

Pay bonuses to multiple employees

By popular demand, you can now pay bonuses to multiple employees at once using the Employees Menu. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/40e19e27488aa4ac0694fd7f9e5d6c11707c5112.gif Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game? Check out our Conflux board. As always, we'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issues or bugs, please send us a message in our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in the Steam discussions. That's it for Beta 26! Best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Devlog #50

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

2554d ago

Hi everyone, Better late than never, but here it is: Devlog number 50!

Localizor has been updated and we need your votes!

We recently shipped a big update to Localizor, our community translation tool. We realized that having moderators for each language was a huge bottleneck. Instead, we made everyone a moderator by simply asking you to vote for the correct translations. You can start voting right away: https://app.localizor.io/game/1/translations As you go through the translations, you'll gain 1 point per vote. Later on you'll be able to convert these points into exciting gifts. I can't show it just yet, but I'll promise it will be worth your time and effort :schappy: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/d1179a6fe196bacbc001c4e5926c303b1a7b645b.jpg

Outsourcing: Component/Module demand

A new parameter has been added when bidding and receiving bids for outsourcing tasks: Demand. Next to each component/module you'll see a red, yellow or green indicator. Green means low market demand, red means high market demand. The higher the demand, the higher the price. Demands are dynamic and change based on the state of the game and how you play (or what tasks you create). https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/4b5312e50752613ac3fa162b36dff14a89f12ea3.jpg

Outsourcing: Market Prices

A new tab has been added to the outsourcing menu, allowing you to see current prices and demands for components and modules. This view will allow you to make clever choices based on the demand and prices of specific components/modules. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/2339b616eef0e9c4f36c25123a5a3a869ae72dd5.jpg

Another round of performance optimization

We've been working on improving performance. This time the code that update overlays has been improved. In my specific test case I went from ~20 fps to minimum 120 fps, so that's quite an improvement. iTzCallumUK's quote describes it too (the pause issue has also been fixed): https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/e5332feebe8557bbe0e404c45b4f305362c42057.jpg

Beta 26 ready yet?

No, not yet. We still need to complete various things, such as:

Testing and improving outsourcing for the later stages of the game.
Added tool-tips and improved usability/UI for outsourcing.
Translating new strings (they are not ready yet, I need to complete the tool-tips first).

If everything goes well, my guess is that we're able to release the new update on August 16, 2019! :schappy: That's all for this week. All the best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

New trailer + Outsourcing feature available until Sunday!

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcements

2565d ago

Hi everyone, Today is an exciting day, as we have some awesome stuff to announce. Let's jump right into it!

New trailer

For a long time the Startup Company trailer has been out of date and didn't give you the impression of Startup Company that we wanted. We completely redid our entire trailer from scratch and we're really proud of it! Make sure to check out the new trailer, we hope you like it as much as we do! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKtUgM2S1qs

Outsourcing: Right from the beginning

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/d8ec7dc029225f0ca5d5052c8cffecf132a0acbd.jpg If you choose the "Bootstrapping / No investor"-mode you'll now have the new Outsourcing Executive unlocked right away. This means you can finally build up your company's bank balance, before investing and creating a website.

Outsourcing: Real-time bidding

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/176f6c89b869eb821271a9d93a7410451b3cada2.gif The AI bidding for outsourcing tasks has been greatly improved this week. Each competitor has a different level of "competitiveness". For now, only the "public bidding" is available, but we are also working on a "1-bid-system" where each competitor only has one chance to send an offer. These type of bidding "rounds" will be used specifically for larger tasks.

Outsourcing: Up for testing until Sunday!

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/21ba8f3213a8763253fae2c4c207d6b978d4a4a4.png Because of the complexity of the new Outsourcing feature, we've decided to invite all of you to test what we've developed so far. We'l use the feedback provided by you to make the feature even better! However, you'll have to be fast! You'll only have access to the feature up until this Sunday! (July 28, 2019) Please note: your save-game for this specific test is temporary! Your progress will be lost after Sunday, unless you manually backup the .sg file! In order to access the test, please follow the instructions below: * In Steam: Right click Startup Company and select Properties * Select the "Betas" tab * Enter torremolinos2019 in the text box * Click "Check Code" * Select the new version in the dropdown menu. If you're unable to make the code unlock the branch, try to restart your Steam client. Feedback can be sent like this:

The comment section of this thread.
In the #testing channel on our Discord server.

Thank you in advance for you help! We're super excited to hear your feedback! All the best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Beta 25 Released!

jhovgaardsteam_community_announcementspatchnotes

2585d ago

https://i.imgur.com/x7Vnj64.png Hi there! Beta 25 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away! We're super excited to bring to you Beta 25, which will introduce new features that will change the game play and introduces new challenges for you to manage as CEO!

Major change to website satisfaction: Dissatisfaction

Beta 25 changes how website satisfaction is calculated. How it worked in Beta 24 The website satisfaction was calculated by simply using the average of all features' satisfaction. You could have a Landing Page with 100% satisfaction and "Banner Ads" with 15% satisfaction. This worked okay, but it was super confusing to new players, as the red smiley would show 5% for "video ads" and 15% for "banner ads", indicating that "video ads" would be less annoying to the user. How it now works in Beta 25 There are now two options for a feature: Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction. Base Features will only produce Satisfaction and Revenue Features will only produce Dissatisfaction. The total website satisfaction is calculated by first taking the average of your base features and then subtracting the dissatisfaction from all the revenue features. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/abb262d2eba91b2c6c9df6f5b2bccae63c37f23f.jpg Hopefully this change will make it more clear to new players how everything is calculated. Please notice: Existing Revenue features will continue to use the old model to avoid breaking your save-game. If you want to switch to the new model, you'll have to remove and add the revenue features.

AdBlockers

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/2f8a22fc2ab25d4a884134cb02b8a0241ad0b5cd.png Adblockers are now a part of the game and will directly affect how many impressions is generated (and can be monetized) for ad features. Small websites will have a very low ad-blocker penetration as they haven’t yet been discovered by many ad-blocker programs. As a website gets more users, the more ad-blocker programs will register the site and start blocking ads.

AdBlock Obfuscator

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/31088a74ece430d2d22ec4b850cc484a2701c1a3.png The obfuscator will cover up your ads in messy Javascript code that makes it much harder for the AdBlockers to detect your ads. If you don’t continue upgrading the obfuscator, it will be less efficient over time (as AdBlockers become smarter). The obfuscator is also the first time we see Research Points being used to upgrade a feature. Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game? Check out our Conflux board. As always, we'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issue or a bug, please send us a message in our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in our community hub - which we'll be closely monitoring while Beta 25 is rolled out. That's it for Beta 25! Best, Jonas https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/28693489/0c1ca7ac449e5f5cf87e27e7aa571c5c6a2f45d9.png

Startup Company news & patch notes

Startup Company news & patch notes

Big Ambitions is a revolutionary role-playing business sim

Big Ambitions is a revolutionary role-playing business sim

Remember to wishlist & follow!

The New Beginning

Getting a job

Objectives and Goals

Lifecycle and limitations

Engine, controls and perspective

The City

Development and release date

Introducing Version 1 - Packed with new stuff!

2 New Website Types

New feature: Profile Page

20 New Competitors

New feature: Early Retirement

Employees Menu: Mass-Upgrades!

Customize the "Days per year"

New feature: Sell Your Website

In-game Achievements

New office items!

Improved HR Management

Better Production Plans

Other Improvements

Bugs and balancing

What's next at Hovgaard Games?

Localizor.com

The Next Game

Russian, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Japanese, Italian, Turkish and Hungarian

April 10, 2020

Countdown has begun on our new website!

Questions and Answers

The Beginning

The Idea

Livecoding

The Hustle

Beta 1

The Early Access Release

Life as a Game Developer

The Next Chapter

Thank You

CEO Backstory

New Fusion Hardware

Fusion Server

Fusion Heat Transformer

New Enhancement Feature: Help System

Tidal Power Investment Project

Minor changes

Help us translate!

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Fusion Server

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Tidal Power Investment Project

Beta 29 Release Date

Remember the translations!

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: CEO Backstory

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Help System

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Order by age

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Retirement warning

Beta 29 Sneak Peek: New Fusion Hardware

That's all for this week

Dynamic DDoS Attacks & DDoS Protection

Introducing Jitter

Updated Stock Market and UI

Fusion Power Plant & Fusion Framework 2020

Other minor changes

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: UI Scaling

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Fusion Power Plant & Fusion Framework

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Dynamic DDoS Attacks & DDoS Protection

Beta 28 Release Date

That's all for this week

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Jitter and the in-game browser!

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Updated Stock Market and UI

Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Tidal Power Plant

That's all for this week

Career Mode

Custom Game

Retirement Fund

Investment Projects

Superstar Employees

Improved Inventory