Ready for even more Big Ambitions content? We have just released Beta 7. Here's what's new:
Beta 7 comes with a lot of new content:
New furniture: Luxurious speaker
New furniture: Luxurious TV
New furniture: Gaming PC
Play videogames feature
Improved characters and clothing
Improved customer AI
Customizable customer queues
Investment funds
Improved pedestrian AI
Controller Mode and improved character controls
Steam Deck support
Garment District: More F1 apartments
Sleep quality (based on environment)
Adding more boats and yachts to the marina
Super luxurious residential apartment
New vehicle: Mercedes AMG GT inspired
Limited energy boost from caffeine consumables
Volume slider for car radio
And much more...
We hope you like these changes!
Remember, you can already get access to our beta releases by pre-ordering either the silver or gold version at https://www.bigambitionsgame.com
To see what's coming next, check out our roadmap over here: https://www.bigambitionsgame.com/roadmap
All the best, Hovgaard Games
Here comes Beta 6!
Hi there!
Ready for even more Big Ambitions content? We have just released Beta 6. Here's what's new:
Beta 5 comes with a lot of new content:
Revised Uncle Fred dialogs + voice acting
Difficulty levels: Impacting competitiveness, tax rates, etc.
Custom Game Mode: Adjustable unlocks, progress, starting money, etc.
Allow skipping tutorial/Uncle Fred
HR Manager (HQ): Allow auto-hiring, temp employees, salary negotiation, etc.
Bizman Schedule: Auto-fill feature
Major performance optimization
Radio/music added to stores and businesses (speakers)
Support for imperial units and 12-hour time
New app: Notifications - listing all earlier notifications
New vehicle: Rolls Royce Phantom inspired
Flatbed added to IKA Bohag to transport up to 8 boxes
And much more...
We hope you like these changes!
Regarding our next couple of betas (7 and 8), we expect to spend a little bit longer on these (1½-2 months). We'll soon update our estimates on the roadmap.
Remember, you can already get access to our beta releases by pre-ordering either the silver or gold version at https://www.bigambitionsgame.com
To see what's coming next, check out our roadmap over here: https://www.bigambitionsgame.com/roadmap
All the best, Hovgaard Games
Beta 5 is here!
Hi there!
Another month, another beta. This time Beta 5, probably our "easiest" and most stable update so far.
Beta 5 comes with a lot of new content:
Furniture/appliance delivery service
New vehicle: Mustang 67 inspired
New vehicle: Ford F-150 inspired
Revised loan system
Improve pedestrian AI
New special: Casino
Introduce parking zones
Adding physical employee demands
Improve vehicle handling/controls
Introduce employee aging and retirement
Allowing collapsing UI overlays
Additional new tracks and jingles to the radio
Support for UI scaling (%)
Optimized UI for long words/sentences (localization)
Everyone on the team worked really hard on this one and we hope you like the changes! ❤
Remember, you can already get access to our beta releases by pre-ordering either the silver or gold version at https://www.bigambitionsgame.com
To see what's coming next, check out our roadmap over here: https://www.bigambitionsgame.com/roadmap
All the best, Hovgaard Games
We are delaying Big Ambitions
Hi friend!
Let's jump right to it: We are canceling our planned full release in August 2022. Let me explain why...
When we started working on Big Ambitions back in 2020 it was on a relatively small budget, all coming from our first game "Startup Company". We had enough to continue working on the game for 2 years, including me doing the programming and one 3D artist doing the graphical side of the game.
As the game slowly started to come together, our following started to increase, way faster than expected. To put things into perspective: at release 20,000 players had "Startup Company" on their Steam wishlist. For Big Ambitions, that number is now 55,000 players!
Not only did wishlists start to look better, but pre-orders also started to ramp up. As more and more players continued to buy the pre-orders on our website, we could reinvest everything into hiring more people to work on the game. To results are quite clear:
We started with 2 people. Now we are 5, all thanks to your support!
So basically, our own ambitions for Big Ambitions have become... bigger.
Instead of limiting ourselves to our initial budget, we have changed our plans and now go for a much bigger, much deeper game, and that takes a little bit more time.
We have already updated our roadmap to include some of the exciting new content (anyone said yachts? 😎). You can check it out here: OPEN ROADMAP
So when is it coming?
To avoid further delays, we won't announce another release date until we are actually ready to release. It won't take forever though, probably something like Q4 2022 or Q1 2023.
One last practical thing: if you ordered the regular version and feel unhappy because of this delay, just send an email to support@hovgaardgames.com and we'll of course refund the full amount.
The abovementioned naturally does not affect the silver or gold version. Both still grant immediate access to the game, meaning there's no change if you ordered one of those.
Thank you again for your continuous support by pre-ordering Big Ambitions. You guys are rockstars! 💪
Best wishes, Jonas and the rest of Hovgaard Games
Don't forget to add Big Ambitions to your wishlist!
Up until the Big Ambitions demo was released, we still had a policy in place for our gold and silver supporters to only allow selected people publishing gameplay videos - also known as media embargo. This has now been lifted!
Feel free to share any videos or screenshots of the current version as you like.
We own the publishing rights for all the music in the game, so you don't even have to worry about playing the car radio in your media. Let's spread the word!
We’re happy to announce that, after two years of hard development, we’re attending Steam Next Festival!
As part of the festival, there’s a free demo of Big Ambitions available right now, which will let you try the early game and check how it feels starting your empire in New York City!
Hope you like it, have fun!
All the best, Hovgaard Games
Release of Beta 3
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Beta 3 Release
Steam Next Fest is almost there, and we’ve focused the development towards polishing the game, doing some heavy bug fixing and preparing the demo (which will be available to everyone on June 13th!).
Alright, let’s go!
Localization/translation support
One of the most asked features by our non-English speakers is finally here: using our fancy tool (Localizor), you can now help us translate the game into different languages. There’s a new option in the options menu: “Language”! We still have a looong way to go before having the game fully translated, but some fellow players have already gone ahead and started translating in various languages.
You can suggest or vote for translations at https://www.localizor.com/big-ambitions. We’ll really appreciate any help!
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City taxis
Another widely asked feature: taxis! In New York! Yay! Just find a taxi, click it, and choose the building you want to travel to. Quicker, easier but a bit more expensive.
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Improved lighting and time of day feeling
The natural lighting has been heavily improved, both in interior and exterior. New York has never been more beautiful!
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External building details
The art team has been working hard (as always!) on new decorations for the buildings: scaffoldings, roof details, etc.
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Reworked employee demands
As you may know, all the employees had the “free weekends” demand… And that was all. We’ve removed “exhaustion”, replaced it with “satisfaction”, and added several new demands making it harder than ever to keep your employees happy.
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New furniture
Four new carpets are now available at Ika Bohag, and changing rooms for clothing stores can be bought at AJ Pederson & Son.
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Neighborhood filter on Voogle Maps
Another requested feature: filters on Voogle Maps for the neighborhoods!
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Character portraits
One of the tasks on our “to-do list” was adding character portraits that, in fact, represented the character that you were playing. It’s time to say goodbye to our old (young?), standard, handsome boy with a weird posture that was used on the placeholder portrait (on both save games list and in-game).
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Other improvements
ALT + R now does inverse rotation when placing an item
Added P as shortcut for placing items
Added ESC as shortcut for canceling placement mode
Updated vehicle names with community-made ones
More sounds and better ambience sounds
New subway stations
New notifications
Added street signs
Added lights to all AI buildings
Adjusted some food saturation and added energy generation for cups of coffee
Added icons to workstations on BizMan Schedule
Improved building hider
Added age to the player
Added remaining distance to guiders
Updated tutorial
12 fixed issues since beta 2 🐛
#177 - Management courses: One hour too much added when reopening dialog
#203 - Building Hiding when standing close, even if not blocking the view
#215 - EconoView: Unused business buildings shown as empty lines
#788 - Loading a game that was saved while paused will load in a very bright state
#1095 - after i new mintuer i always need to relaod
147 feedback reports have been successfully handled, and 18 issues have also been fixed and shipped during Beta 2.
Get access now!
Beta 3 is available to all our gold and silver supporters. You can get access right now by buying the gold or silver version of Big Ambitions at www.bigambitionsgame.com
We use the up-vote count below to measure how many of you read these devlogs. If you enjoyed it, please let us know by hitting the like 👍 button below, thanks! ❤
Don't forget to add Big Ambitions to your wishlist!
We use the up-vote count below to measure how many of you read these devlogs. If you enjoyed it, please let us know by hitting the like 👍 button below, thanks! ❤
Beta 2 Release
It’s time! The biggest update of Big Ambitions (so big that we had to delay its release) is here. Are you ready to see the changes? Let’s go!
New neighborhood: Midtown
The map has been expanded! A third neighborhood has joined the game: Midtown. Fancy and with unique buildings, it’s really worth it to spend a couple of evenings (in-game, of course!) walking around there. Enjoy the awesome job the art team has done!
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Market demands
Although visually is almost unnoticeable, this is a big change: the way customers look for products has been completely reworked. No more expensive jewelry stores generating several millions a day, sorry!
Products now have a demand value, which depends on the base price of the product and the amount of businesses selling it. This means that expensive stuff is harder to sell and that competition must be contemplated. We’ve also added new random events, like shortages and hypes for specific products, which can modify either the import price of the product or the demand value. Market Insider App has received an update to match the changes, don’t worry!
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Auto parking on Luxurious Saloon
Parking can be tricky sometimes in Big Ambitions. But, for now on, if you’re rich enough to afford a Luxurious Saloon, you’ll be able to auto park it. Fast and easy!
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New retail building
If one of your dreams in Big Ambitions is creating a big supermarket, then this is your moment! M1 building has been added to the game. With a surface of 1000m2, it can have up to 75 customers per hour.
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New business type: Web Development Agency
There’s one new office business type: Web Development Agency. Set up some computers, add a bunch of programmers, and… Voila!
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New main menu
As we get closer to the launch of Big Ambitions, we have to focus on things not directly related to gameplay. One of them is the main menu: it has been completely redesigned and improved with cool features such as the News and Updates panel! Also, saves are now splitted into characters.
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Autosaving
Together with the rework of the main menu, we’ve enabled autosaving. It happens every in-game midnight, and will prevent the loss of progress in case of a crash or power failure. We store up to 3 recovery saves for each character, which can be loaded from the “load menu” by enabling “Show recover saves”.
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Improved item overlays
More fancy stuff! Item overlays have received a redesign. They’re now hidden by default, and appear when hovering the mouse over the item itself. If an item is missing requirements or has low/empty stocks, an icon will appear and will always be visible.
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Improved schedule
One of the most annoying things of setting up a large law firm was managing the employees. We’ve done some changes here and there, like removing the space between different workstations, adding the ability to move employees between workstations by dragging, adding a “Shared schedule” option and adding toggles to all days for changing the open state. The result is something more responsive and clean!
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Improved cleaning
This improvement has been widely asked in the community, with different approaches. We’ve come to a solution that tries to meet all players' demands: cleaning slots now depend on cleaning workstations instead of mops (yay, one new item!), customer service employees come with cleaning skills, aaand… You can freely choose when the cleaning happens throughout the day.
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Improved customer capacity UI
It was a bit confusing how customer capacity was handled, so we have updated how that information is displayed.
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Added sell buttons to items and vehicles
You can now sell any item/vehicle with a simple click! It will refund a 50% of the initial cost, but will let you get rid of old vehicles and furniture.
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Building preview and more information on BizMan presentation
It’s important to know what you’re buying before actually buying it, so… We’ve added a preview button that will let you see the building itself, and customer capacity and traffic index are now displayed on the rent view in BizMan.
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Desktop workstations set up
Some people have tried to set up their own desktop workstations by buying chairs, computers and desks, instead of buying the all-in-one desktop workstations. The thing is… That made more sense! So, desktop workstations are no longer available in stores, and both lawyers and programmers will need a workstation with a computer, a desk and a chair.
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Other improvements
There are a lot of small quality of life improvements and additions. Some of them are:
Added current address information on bottom right corner
Added warehouses as possible destination for logistics managers
Added default lights to buildings
Added various objects to rooftops of buildings
Added “Static Background Image” option for Phone Apps (fixes whitescreen issue on Intel GPUs)
“Business has no employees assigned” hourly message only appears when the business is open and has no employees assigned at all
Added more sounds! Including random sounds for NPCs
Grouped daily money transactions
Improved tables performance and added sorting options
Updated tutorial
Disabled controllers input
67 fixed issues since beta 1 🐛
#251 - Inventory count can be extremely hard to read on bright background
#315 - First day rent for business building + first day wage not registered in BizMan
#1063 - Employees aren't automatically assigned to business
#1064 - Packing then replacing a drinks fridge fully restocks it.
#1065 - Can't deliver soda to coffee shop using warehouse and truck
#1070 - Dev Console Opens Automatically When Starting NEW Game
Get access now!
Beta 2 is available to all our gold and silver supporters. You can get access right now by buying the gold or silver version of Big Ambitions at www.bigambitionsgame.com
We use the up-vote count below to measure how many of you read these devlogs. If you enjoyed it, please let us know by hitting the like 👍 button below, thanks! ❤
Don't forget to add Big Ambitions to your wishlist!
We use the up-vote count below to measure how many of you read these devlogs. If you enjoyed it, please let us know by hitting the like 👍 button below, thanks! ❤
Beta 1 Release
It’s the end of the month, and that means that is time for an update! After almost a year of alpha releases, we’re now moving the production phase from alpha to beta, releasing the first beta version of the game. Let’s see the new features!
New car controller & traffic improvements
As promised, we’ve changed the car controller to a more responsive one. We’ve also added engine sounds for the different vehicles. And, with this upgrade, we took the opportunity to improve the traffic, removing almost all bottlenecks and making the AI drivers smoother.
Time to update your phone! One more app is available on Big Ambitions, this time focusing on your character. There’s a lot to add to this app, but right now it has some basic information, plus a bunch of personal goals (similar to achievements) to complete!
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Acquire competitor businesses
You can now buy competitor businesses. It’s expensive, but will let you get that perfectly located building that you wanted! When acquiring it, both the furniture and the stock from that business will remain.
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New buildings
We have two brand new buildings available in the game: a large-sized residential apartment and a small office to build cozy headquarters and law firms.
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Interior designer improvements
The art team has been working on new walls and floors, and we’ve added the possibility to change the colors of them, expanding the interior designer UI. With those additions, there are now available up to 24 floors and 38 walls. Will that be enough?
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New furniture
This version comes with a bunch of new furniture that can be bought from Ika Bohag, like trash bins and product panels, that are smaller and cheaper alternative shelves for the cheap gifts. We’ve also added the option to place furniture on the walls, adding paintings of different sizes, clocks and TVs.
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Other improvements
There are a lot of small quality of life improvements and additions. Some of them are:
Added the ability to attach chairs to tables
Added signs and reorganized the drive-in wholesale shelves
Added sorting filters to the MyEmployees App
Added dropdowns to shelves to select the type of product to sell
Marketing can now be done for law firms
Added “hours until opening” information to buildings resumes
Added the option to call the wholesale through the Contacts App
Added new objectives
Improved cargo on shelves (split items with different sizes and automatically merge boxes)
Added BusinessLayoutSets (modding)
New sounds: on game save, on writing in a text field, on dragging slider, on pause, on play, on shop enter
Added sounds to subway
Added ambience sounds to the park
26 fixed issues since alpha 10 🐛
#268 - Wrong button label "Empty shelf" for DrinksFridge, no such button at all for SaladBar and MetalShelf
#357 - EconoView showing income of 10 sold CheapGifts although in BizMan stock has just reduced by 9.
#980 - Car's cargo dialog stays open when moving using WASD
#981 - Camera sometimes off when leaving apartment
#986 - Options: Elements extend too far to the right
#987 - Jensen Capital only allowing initial loan of $40
Get access now!
Beta 1 is available to all our gold and silver supporters. You can get access right now by buying the gold or silver version of Big Ambitions at www.bigambitionsgame.com
We use the up-vote count below to measure how many of you read these devlogs. If you enjoyed it, please let us know by hitting the like 👍 button below, thanks! ❤
Don't forget to add Big Ambitions to your wishlist!
