You can now buy your competitors! This feature was quietly released several weeks ago but has been getting many updates, bug fixes and additions from player suggestions.
Once purchased you have many options to control their decision making process. You can tell them what genres and topics to develop for, what consoles to focus on, whether to develop exclusively for your own consoles, what game engines to use, and how long to spend developing their games. You can also make them prioritize certain IPs, set how much they pay per copy to publish games (or publish their games for them!) and many other choices!
To buy a company you can select from the statistics menu at the bottom of the screen, then select publishers and developers. From here you can select what company you would like to purchase if you have enough funds to do so!
This feature continues to get additional functionality in the on-going beta detailed below.
You'll also find a full list of the most recent changes since the last Steam announcement in the patch notes listed below.
Development Update!
There are a lot of exciting changes on the way to Mad Games Tycoon 2. One of the biggest behind the scene changes has been a restructuring of the way the game handles a lot of the data files. This technical change was necessary to make future changes possible (such as the buying, selling and trading of game IPs between companies).
Because of the size of this change and it changing the structure of many files, this change once it moves out of the beta branch in a few weeks will break save compatability with the previous version of the game. Any saved game made on the 2022.04.06A Build or prior to this build will not be compatible with future updates.
Currently this change is in an opt-in beta branch only for further testing and feature improvements. Below you can find out instructions on how to participate in this beta if you would like to see the new changes and continue to get future updates before it is officially released.
Once this beta version moves to official release, it will not be possible to play an old saved game made on or before Build 2022.04.06A
We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause with your current saved games, but we also appreciate the understanding that this change was necessary to make Mad Games Tycoon 2 the best it can possibly be going forward!
As announced previously, there are still changes coming to consoles, the game pass, multiplayer and many other improvements on the way in future updates!
Opt-In Beta
If you would like to participate in the on-going beta you can opt-in and update your game to the latest changes by
-Right clicking on the game in your Library ->
-Goto properties -> -Goto Betas ->
-And then select the beta test build from the drop down menu.
Understand that there will be some unexpected bugs in this version of the game and your previous saves prior to the beta update will not be playable unless you roll-back to the previous build while it is still available. Once this beta moves to official release, there will no longer be a previous version of the game available to roll-back to.
Besides the technical changes some of the current changes in the beta include the ability to trade IPs between your subsidiaries, view subsidiaries award histories, some changes to the way the Mad Games Awards works and additionally all upcoming changes and updates will be exclusively on this beta branch until it goes live.
If you are on the current release build, you will not be seeing many (if any) updates as of late or going forward until the beta version is released.
A future announcement will accompany the full release of this beta build to let everyone know that a brand new save will be required if it was not made on the beta version
Latest Patch Notes
BETA ONLY BUILD 2022.04.26A - 2022.04.27A --------------------------------
2022.04.26A: - "Subsidiaries Menu": You can now move IPs to you or subsidiaries. - NPC Publishers/Developers, Subsidiaries: You can now view their awards. - You can now get "Golden Records" ect. for contract games. - "Mad Games Awards": Requirements to win an award have been adjusted. Requirements are now displayed as tooltip in "Mad Games Awards". - BUG: Bonus sales when an arcade port exists did not apply to NPCs. - BUG: Arcade machines received the bonus for the Christmas season. - BUG: Wrong developer was specified for commissioned games. - BUG: If you had a lot of fans, it could happen that all fans disappeared. - BUG: In multiplayer NPC games were not sent.
2022.04.26B: - Place objects: Move camera and deselecting objects with right mouse button should work better now. - BUG: When you gave a self-made IP to a subsidiary, different bugs occurred. - BUG: You did not receive fan letters. - BUG: You could lose publisher relationship with your own company if you used an NPC publisher.
2022.04.27A: - If you win at the "Mad Games Awards" you get a bonus on the sales. - BUG: IP prioritization was not reset when you swapped an IP. - BUG: When you created a budget game, the game name was taken with TAGs. - BUG: If you released a budget game or a GOTY edition of a moved IP, the game was not displayed.
BETA ONLY BUILD 2022.04.20A --------------------------------
- Many bugs have been removed.
BETA ONLY BUILD 2022.04.14A --------------------------------
The new build is only available as a beta. Since all old save games are no longer compatible, this build is only for players who want to test the new version. Since all data structures have been changed, I expect many bugs.
- Special new features are not included in this version (only some improvements and changes).
- Build mode: If you hold down the left Control key and click on an object, it will be copied (even if the build menu is not open). - Construction mode: With the right mouse button you can deselect the current object. - Subsidiary: You can now select up to 4 platforms that your subsidiary should prioritize. - In the options, you can now activate / deactivate the [★] marker for subsidiary games. - Remove game from market" menu: search function added. - Game development -> "Engine selection" menu: search function added. - Game development -> "Engine selection" menu: The technology level of the engine and the lowest technology level of the platforms are now displayed. - BALANCE: Revenue of F2Ps increased significantly. - BUG: If you picked up a co-worker and touched a room button with the mouse pointer, you could not drop the co-worker. - BUG: You could create ports and successors of F2Ps that were previously MMOs. - BUG: There were problems with game names when you converted an MMO to an F2P. - BUG: F2P games from NPCs were not removed from the market. - BUG: Removed some issues that caused subsidiary companies to not release new games. - BUG: Sometimes successors were released with the addition of "III" and "3". - BUG: If you distributed an NPC game, you could release GOTY editions, budget editions, etc. - BUG: Subsidiaries: For old save games, the engine was set to "Without Engine". - BUG: Game development: enlarged some buttons because the text was too small in some languages.
Here is an overview of the updates, the last weeks:
- Subsidiaries: You can now set the company to focus on three IPs. - Subsidiaries: You can now instruct your subsidiaries to use their own engine. - Subsidiaries: You can now set from which quality a game is automatically published by the subsidiary. - BALANCE: Selection for screenshots revised. (More graphic points are needed now) - BALANCE: NPCs now wait longer for development for remasters. - BUG: NPC companies sometimes used genres that have not been unlocked yet. - BUG: (Minigolf) Animation of the ball fixed. - BUG: (Subsidiaries) IP focus was not saved in SaveGame.
- Subsidiaries: You can now set the company to focus on a specific IP. - Subsidiaries: You can now set the games to be distributed primarily by their own publishers. - Subsidiaries: You can now choose a default for topics. - Subsidiaries: "Settings for all subsidiaries" -> The selected genre will no longer be copied to all subsidiaries. - Subsidiaries: Once an NPC company is purchased, difficulty bonuses or deductions are disabled. - NPC companies are now locked for a certain amount of time until you can buy them. - Options: It is now possible to set that employee terminations are no longer displayed. - Employees who want to take a break now move objects instead of running out of the room. - Games in which a subsidiary is involved are now marked. - BALANCE: (Subsidiaries) Approved development time now has a greater impact. - BUG: When creating a commissioned game for an NPC, the IP was not maintained further by the NPC (no new games appeared). - BUG: The fanbase (genre) could be deleted for subsidiaries. - BUG: The review settings of the special IPs did not work anymore. - BUG: Sometimes the year 1976 was not displayed in the menu "Finance->Financial statements". - BUG: You could add copy protection and anti-cheat software while developing arcade games. - BUG: NPCs released budget games within a year.
- Entertainment cost for subsidiaries is now linked to the difficulty level. - Subsidiary fanbase is now based on "Preferred Genre". - BALANCE: Revised selection for screenshots. - BALANCE: Upgraded subsidiaries should now create less bad games. - BUG: NPC games had "pets" as subtopic extremely often. - BUG: Fixed bug with subgenre selection for NPC games. - BUG: When distributing an NPC game, it was no longer shown as IP to the developer. - BUG: Fixed a bug in the calculation of game reviews. - BUG: NPCs should now not use multiple arcade systems when developing an Arcade Cabinet Game. - BUG: When distributing an NPC game by yourself, the IP was no longer maintained by the NPC (no new games were released). - BUG: Subsidiaries -> Preferred Genre: You could choose a genre which was not unlocked yet. - BUG: Rotating objects with the "F" and "R" keys did not work correctly. - BUG: When the message box for unlocks is displayed, it could happen that the pause mode was terminated. - BUG: NPC games should now be removed from the market significantly less in the first week.
- "Automatically remove games from the market" is now enabled by default. - MODDING: Platforms that are automatically owned by the player at game start must now be marked with "[STARTPLATFORM]". - BALANCE: Market load reduced by genres and topics. - BALANCE: Salary for commissioned games slightly increased. - BALANCE: AA & AAA game size costs lowered.
- In the main GUI, you can now see an icon at the bottom left that shows how many employee applications are available. - The start settings (company name, logo, difficulty etc.) are now saved / loaded. - The basic costs for the production of games is now linked to the difficulty level. - BALANCE: Penalties for cancelling an exclusive contract increased and are now linked to the difficulty level. - BALANCE: (Platform sales figures) Impact of exclusive games increased. - BALANCE: Game reviews of static IPs should now be more trackable. - BALANCE: Salary for commissioned games revised. - BALANCE: Hype for sequels and spinoffs reduced. - BUG: Salary for commissioned games was not adjusted to the new development costs. - BUG: (Distributed NPC games) For budget games, the guarantee amount was incorrectly displayed again in the revenue display. - BUG: Slovenia's flag is the same as Slovakia's - BUG: (Mad Games Awards) fixed bug in winner selection. - BUG: If you double clicked the button for the GameTab filters, you could no longer leave the pause mode. - BUG: For distributed NPC games, "No Engine" was displayed instead of "InHouse Engine". - BUG: (Develop paid addon) Wrong tooltip was displayed and it was not shown if Subgenres was not unlocked yet. - BUG: "Publisher & Developer -> Distributed Games" menu: Games from the player were not displayed. - BUG: (Own Engines) Sometimes games were shown that didn't use your engine. - BUG: The "Censored" graphic was not deactivated when selecting a staff member who was in the bathroom.
Buying NPC companies is now available in its basic form. In the course of development, this feature will be expanded. Since this feature is very complex, I expect many bugs and strong balance weaknesses. If you notice anything, please report here in the forum.
- If you are developing an exclusive game, a portion of the development costs will now be covered. - Game options: You can now set consoles to have their lifespan extended based on market strength. - The cost of the game size and game type now depends on the difficulty level. - In the options you can now set that "Random Events", "Mad Games Awards" and "Mad Games Convention" are not displayed. - Slovenia and Croatia added as locations. - (Multiplayer) traffic significantly reduced. - You can now add games to the waiting list even if your console hasn't been released yet. - MODDING: If you set "[DEVELOPER]false" in the Publisher.txt file, the company will no longer develop its own games. - MODDING: The review rating for NPC IPs is now randomly calculated with +-10. - BALANCE: Star designers can only create a hype of maximum 50. - BALANCE: Prices for special marketing increased. - BALANCE: Retro games from NPCs now only have a maximum game size of "A". - BALANCE: (NPC games) selection of platforms and engines revised. - BUG: When closing and reopening the top 10 charts on the main GUI, the up/down icons were reset. - BUG: (Multiplayer) Fixed bug when syncing new games. - BUG: (Multiplayer) Sometimes the game charts were not syncronous. - BUG: Tooltips were positioned incorrectly when enlarging the GUI. - BUG: Fixed bug when placing doors. - BUG: Sometimes an NPC game was created immediately when starting the game. - BUG: (Multiplayer) A crash could occur when developing a game. - BUG: (Multiplayer) It could cause a crash when looking at a teammate's office.
- You can now cancel publisher exclusive contracts. - Market analysis menu: Added sorting and search function. - Game development: When selecting the genre, you can now see the market oversaturation and the genres of your most recently released games. - Game Development: You can now open the Market Analysis menu from the Genre and Topic menus. - Added two company locations. - Sports game sequels now have the year date in the name. (for example "Football 95", "Football 96") - NPC companies now use copy protection and anti-cheat software for their games. - Special IPs of NPC companies: the overall rating is now based on the minimum rating set, instead of every game being a super hit. - MMO hype now affects existing subscriptions. - You can now click on the current trend in the Main GUI to open the "Genre Popularity" menu. - Best Games of All Time" menu: You can now filter games by genre. - Added subgenres and subtopics for special NPC IPs. - (MMOs and F2Ps) Best value for subscriptions and active players is now displayed in the game tooltip. - MMO Charts & F2P Charts" menus: You can now sort by current numbers and the highest value. - BALANCE: Subscriptions of MMOs reduced. - BALANCE: Reduced the number of NPC games that got only 1% review score. - BALANCE: Player consoles are licensed much more often and NPCs pay additional attention to market strength. - BUG: If a save game file was broken, it could happen that you could not load save games anymore. - BUG: "Mad Games Convention": You could choose a console on the smallest booth. - BUG: (Game development menu) The sorting function of engines was always reset. - BUG: Setting of top 10 charts on the main GUI was not saved. - BUG: (Hide walls) Some walls were not hidden.
Mad Game Tycoon 2's First Year Anniversary!
Celebrating One Year of Early Access!
In celebration of one year since the beginning of Early Access, Mad Games Tycoon 2 will be on sale this weekend only for 25% off! This limited time offer is the largest discount the game has received, and will likely be the largest discount the game will receive until after release!
With the game having had over 100 updates since its release last January, this is an excellent time to get involved in the game if you have not yet!
Work continues on the game and there are still many additions and improvements in the process of being implemented, but we believe the game in its current state is a great representation of our vision for the game and the progress it continues to make.
A thank you to everyone who has bought the game, left a review, provided feedback or sent bug reports! Your support has helped the game get this far and continues to push it forward.
And a special thank you to all the game translators for their hard work. Your translation work has helped make the game playable in over 16 languages and allowed many new players to enjoy the game who would not have been able to without your work!
Thank you!
A Summary of the Changes, Additions, and Improvements from Throughout the Year
Many improvements have been added in comparison to the original Mad Games Tycoon before and after the release of Mad Games Tycoon 2 Early Access - many players who have already played are familiar with these changes already but for anyone new here is a summary of some, not all of the changes (you can find a full list in the patchnotes thread on the discussion forum) -
Everything listed below is already present in the game, some things are still undergoing balancing, improvements or have additional changes coming but they are playable now!
Multiplayer! It's possible for you and your friends to play together and against each other! You are able to compete for the top spots on all the charts, for employees, contract work and of course compete for Game of the Year awards! You can also share research and financial assistance when you don't feel like crushing the competition! Just start a lobby in game and invite your friends to play! (Additional work is being done on this feature)
Larger and varied maps! No longer do you have to move (like in the original Mad Games Tycoon) when you've outgrown your studio. The game offers multiple campus style maps where adding an extra building to create your next triple A title is only a click away! There is also a sandbox map, which offers one huge building from the start letting you grow your studio at any pace you wish without having to buy extra space.
A new employee system You now create your own character at the start of the game with their own traits. Other employees have also special traits (both positive and negative) and a morale system based on how well they feel they're treated. If you give them too much crunch time, not enough breaks, let the studio get too cold or dirty and don't offer them amenities like a lounge they can quit!
Dozens of changes to game development Honestly too many to list here but I'll try to note some key differences and features in general -
-Games now have an IP rating. - Do you want to build the next great game franchise? Now you can! The IP rating of a game grows as you release better and better games. If you happen to sweep the Year End awards you'll see your game IP get massive gains and become envy of all the competition! All the big IPs compete on a top 100 chart, with the biggest IPs getting boost to their game sales and merchandise sales. There is also an IP menu listing the history of each of your IPs, and all its stats and awards.
- So many game types! - In addition to creating your standard games, you can create sequels, spin-offs of existing games, GOTY editions, budget versions, game bundles, remasters, MMOs, F2P, addons/expansions for games, standalone addons and port your games to Arcade machines or cell phones!
-Arcades! - Participate in the Arcade boom of the 70s and 80s by building a workshop and creating (or porting) Arcade games. Set the price and quality of your machines and watch the orders come in as your technicians try to keep up with demand.
-Individual Platform Market Shares - Do you want to release games for PC gamers only? Is your company exclusively a game developer for consoles? Do you have a game series that you feel should only be on a portable handheld system? This is all possible, as there are multiple platform types with their own market shares and active user bases.
-Hundreds of genre combinations with their own settings - Every combination of genres is unique, a skill based puzzle game will have different settings than a skill based action game. It's up to you and your studio to figure out the most optimal settings for each through development and quality assurance game reports.
-Specialized fan bases - Is your company known for releasing amazing RPGs? Expect to gain a large fan base of RPG fans who want the next great RPG and might be a bit less interested in buying your new Racing game!
-Platform variations - In addition to the types of platforms having their own market share, every individual PC and console has its own technology level and complexity rating. You need to make sure the game engine you are using to develop your game is not too advanced for the platform you wish to develop on, and if the platform is very complex expect a much longer and buggier development process!
Become your own truly independent studio
-Create your own consoles! Create a home or handheld console and compete against other console makers for market share. Try to become the #1 console that everyone must have! (Additional work is being done on this feature)
-Publish your own games, and the games of other companies! Create your production lines, build your storage rooms and become a full-on publisher as you produce your own games and negotiate with other companies to publish their games!
-Build your server rooms to host your MMOs and F2P games. Watch the number of players increase, but be sure to keep the interest in your game high or risk letting all that server space go to waste!
-Deal with support calls from your fans - Keep an eye on your fan meter, your new big hit may be increasing support demands and unhappy fans will forget about your company if they are not addressed!
Progress through the eras and create gaming history! There are multiple starting dates from 1976 all the way up to 2015 but the game does not end there, you can go much further into the future if you wish! Starting in 1976 you will experience the progress of technology with new tech, items and other advancements becoming available as the years pass. Can you keep up with the progress of innovation, or will your company become a once great memory of a bygone era in gaming history?
-Perform market research - Always be prepared for the upcoming popular trends, know when it is time to shift your focus from one console to another and watch the digital age begin to take hold of game sales!
- Research new technologies as they become available and watch your studio become more experienced in these advancements through development and contract work.
-Sign exclusive contracts with publishers you have built relationships with. Until you are ready to go fully independent and publish your own games, forming these relationships and the financial incentives they provide can be critical to the growth of your company!
-Follow the history through dozens of charts, the history menu, full IP menus that list the entire series history and all of its awards, sales, and revenues, and a historical Year End awards menu that list each year's award winners!
-Random events and random historical events - Whether you have random events on, or decide to go the historical route and deal with events from gaming history, there is always the possibility of an unexpected twist around the corner to deal with!
An ever evolving world of competition Presently the game contains over 90 competing companies, these companies can release every game type that you can, they utilize IPs and many companies even have exclusive IPs that only they develop! They release new platforms, offer contract work and even try to keep some of their own titles exclusive to their platforms. And in a future not yet released addition, you will be able to buy-out these companies and influence their decisions!
-New companies through the years - The earlier start date you pick, the more you will see new companies come into the market and begin competing against everyone. You may start with 10 or 20 competitors but by the end be competing against all 90+!
-Tons of A.I and balance improvements - A lot of background work has gone into creating a more active, intelligent and competitive A.I/NPC. These companies will regularly give you a challenge for the top spots on charts and compete for the results of Year End awards on the harder difficulty levels!
-Difficulty levels and speed levels! - From Very easy all the way up to Legendary difficulty, there is a difficulty level for everyone to pick at the start of a game. The higher you go in difficulty you will find the competition steps up their challenge, your sales and reviews will be more difficult and making that first billion dollars won't be so easy! While playing on an easier difficulty allows for a much more casual gameplay experience!
And if you find normal speed too slow, or too fast, you can optionally alter how fast time progresses, giving you more time in each year to develop games, or progressing to the later years much faster! Keep in mind this will impact how difficult the game is.
-Modding capabilities! Many changes are possible with simple text editing ( backup your files! ) from adding new genres, companies, technologies or platforms there are a lot of possibilities. There is also an active helpful community ready to answer questions and who have created mods, guides and tools to help with this. (Due to frequent updates in early access, mod compatibility is regularly changing so keep this in mind when making changes, keeping backups can help mitigate this)
Dozens and dozens of other changes, additions, and improvements and also more things to come! As started earlier, We cannot list every change but there have been many, many quality of life improvements, conveniences added, big and small changes to features and a general focus on making gameplay as smooth and fun as possible!
A lot of work and passion has gone into creating this game and this work and passion continues to go into it!
I hope this list gives you more of an idea what is in Mad Games Tycoon 2 and you decide to join us in this early access journey as we keep working towards full release!
Recent changes detailed
Here are some details on the most recent changes since the last Steam notification update -
-There is now a mini weekly top 10 chart on the main screen, showing you which games top the sales charts for PC & Consoles, Mobile games, Arcades and F2P downloads! This chart be toggled on and off with the new button next to your contract reputation at the top of the screen.
-Additional employee groups can now be created, increasing from the previous 12 max to 25 now. This should allow you enough groups to manage your large number of employees better.
-For balance, NPC console market share now increases faster upon first being released. These consoles should be more useful to develop for in the beginning now and more accurately resemble the initial launch demand consoles go through.
-Companies now have exclusive IPs. This was noted above, but now each company will have exclusive IPs that they focus on. They will work more intelligently to build up these IPs with sequels and spinoffs and create competitive games that will increase their value and place on the charts! There exist over 100 different IPs spanning over the decades that belong to the various companies each with a genre, topic and scheduled time of appearance.
-NPC's exclusive IPs can now be further modded allowing you to add subgenres , subtopics and target group . These extra customization options should allow for much more specialization and variety when adding IPs to NPCs companies.
-11 new companies. These companies and their associated IPs will serve as extra competition in the various genres they specialize in.
-17 new company locations - Many more options to choose where your company is founded.
-25 new Topics/Themes - This will add extra variety when creating games and the Racing genre got some extra attention specifically. The game now contains 255 topics/themes in total.
- It's now possible to click your money listed on the bottom task bar in the game and open up your monthly balance. This provides a much easier and quicker way to keep an eye on your monthly income and expenses!
-Lots of changes to NPCs/A.I -
The higher the difficulty you play on, the more competitive the NPCs will become with their releases.
Console developers will try to focus on their own platforms with their releases.
NPCs will use IPs better and have had some bugs with IP gain fixed, so they now create valuable IPs just like players and the logic behind their development choices has been improved. They also now have a variation in their development speeds depending on the company.
-Lots of bugs and balancing of issues fixed - A few of these bugs affected review scores, Remastered games had their sales improved, and there were some other calculation errors resolved.
Latest Patch Notes
Below are the full patch notes since the last Steam notification update (always can find the latest on the forum) -
(Build # represents the date the patch was released)
- It is now possible to display the weekly top 10 charts on the main GUI. - 25 staff groups can now be created. - Added two disk hardware components for handhelds (tech level 4 & 5). - The staff tooltip now displays the group name. - NPC console market share now increases more upon console release. - The tooltip of consoles now shows the number of units sold. - BALANCE: Effect of heaters increased. - BALANCE: Puzzle games and strategy games now make a good combination. - MODDING: For NPC IPs, subgenres , subtopics and target group can be added. - BUG: If your console made extremely high losses, it was credited as profit. - BUG: If you created an addon for a "AAA" game, "99999" was shown as the maximum gameplay feature.
- Added 73 new special IPs for NPCs. - Added 6 new NPC companies. - Added 5 new themes. - 11 new company locations added. - You can now click on your money in the GUI to open the monthly financial overview. - NPC companies now have different development speeds. - The game toolltip now displays the topic and target audience. - Developer and Publisher menu: NPC companies can now be sorted by number of games developed / games distributed. - BALANCE: Founding date of some publishers and developers adjusted. - BUG: Complaint icons of employees were on top of each other. - BUG: LOD for some lockers were set incorrectly. - BUG: (Multiplayer Lobby) If "Random Events" was disabled, you could still enable "Historical Events". - BUG: Sales figures for arcade machines were calculated incorrectly. - BUG: Calculation error for sold units related to pack content for standard editions and deluxe editions corrected. - BUG: The gameplay feature "In-App Purchases" deducted more gameplay points as the level increased. - BUG: Picking up staff sometimes did not work. - BUG: NPC games could have a platform selected multiple times.
- NPCs that make consoles prioritize their own consoles for their games. - Mintendu and Siga create games exclusively for their consoles (unless they are mobile and arcade machine games, or there is no matching console). - NPCs now choose the topic of their games more intelligently. - The game tooltip now shows the platforms on which the game is available. - BALANCE: Sales figures of remasters increased. - BUG: Bug in the German text file for topics removed.
- NPC companies now have specially assigned IPs. - Added 5 new developers: Maxus, Code Design, BioSoft, Beta Softworks, TEKMO. - 20 new topics added. - Company logos are now sorted. - NPCs can now create F2P mobile games and MMO mobile games. - Menu "Create Spin-Off" and "My IPs": IPs can now be sorted by "Neglect". - Develop Free Updates Menu: Addons and ports can now be hidden. - New background graphics: Birds now fly over the map. - IP tooltips: It now shows how many weeks have passed since the last game for the IP was released. - BALANCE: NPC companies should now prioritize creating successors and spinoffs of successful games. - BALANCE: The higher the difficulty level, the less frequently NPC companies license player engines. - BALANCE: Sales of NPC games reduced. - BUG: (NPC games) Remaster and GOTY editions did not have the license set. - BUG: NPCs no longer used in-house engines. - BUG: (IPs menu) F2P games showed "Units sold" instead of "Downloads". - BUG: Replaced some duplicate NPC game names.
- Malaysia, Indonesia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia and Iceland added as company location. - Search function for company location added. - Game names of ports can now be changed afterwards in the "Development Report". - MODDING: Games can now have more than 99 gameplay features. - BALANCE: NPC companies now release games faster in the early years. - BALANCE: (NPC games) development costs for games adjusted. - BALANCE: NPC companies now release better games as difficulty increases. - BALANCE: NPC companies maximize their IPs faster with increasing difficulty. - BALANCE: NPC companies now develop more games that match their fanbase. - BUG: MMO addons did not have "[A]" set. - BUG: (Pack menu) Some numbers had a wrong format. - BUG: Due to incorrect TAGs in game names, text errors could occur in game names. - BUG: Addons for manufacturer exclusive games became multiplatform games. - BUG: When you wanted to dismiss the player character, a message box appeared unnecessarily. - BUG: (Pack Menu) Sometimes the retail prices changed when a game had "automatic price" enabled. - BUG: (NPC games) Spin-off sequels had the wrong game name. - BUG: (NPC games) The AI could create multiple remasters of a game. - BUG: History had text errors. - BUG: Sequels of games with a rating of 100% were sold significantly less. - BUG: If the progress of technologies had the value "NaN" due to cheat tools, the research could not be completed. - BUG: There were some bugs in the calculation of game ratings. - BUG: (Multiplayer) A crash could occur if an object did not have the correct position. - BUG: (Commissioned games) Games were offered for platforms that have already been removed from the market. (Retro games excluded) - BUG: Collision box for minigolf was buggy. - BUG: If an NPC won an award (e.g. "Game of the Year"), there was no bonus for his IP.
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! And soon to be Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! And soon to be Happy New Year!
We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday season and to add to the holiday cheer Mad Games Tycoon 2 is participating in the Steam Winter Sale at 20% off!
It is a great time to get the game and join in on the fun! We are closing in on 1 year of Early Access and we're proud of the work done on the game so far but there is still more to come!
You may also notice a certain holiday legend appear in your game as a legendary employee!
Thanks for all the reviews everyone, you're awesome!
A huge thank you to everyone who has left a review of the game, just in the last couple weeks we've garnered nearly 300 new reviews of the game and we're happy to see the vast majority of players are enjoying the game!
Highlights of recent changes
Here are some highlights from recent patches since the last Steam notification update! And at the end of this post will include all the latest patch notes. As always, to find the latest patchnotes check out the Steam discussion forums and the patchnotes thread as not every patch gets a Steam notification update.
- New items have been added to the game! Several new decorations for your studio, a mini golf leisure item and the next levels of production machines as well.
- Contract games have been reworked so that the games offered are now associated with each company offering the contract. These contract games are now a shared pool between all players in multiplayer also.
- The fan shop has been added to the game! Now through the support room you can sell merchandise for your various IPs.
- Significant changes to improve the performance of the game, these changes should be obvious in a lot of menus and also make the late game a much smoother experience
- Historical random events have been added! Can you survive the 1980's gaming crash?
- 12 new company logos and 15 new themes/topics have been added to the game
- Achievements now give different in game bonus' (You can find these in Management -> Achivements)
- Game ports now have the advantage of being developed faster than standard games. This should increase their value.
- MMOs now have the disadvantage of taking longer to develop. This should help balance their income/expenses more.
- Character Creation: 4 new hairstyles and 2 new beards added.
-New charts! You can now see which games have the highest turnover! Everyone loves more charts!
- Many quality of life changes a few notable ones are :
When a developer legend appears, his profession is displayed in the message
Now when your employee's max out their skills in the training room you will see a notification above their heads
You can now sort themes/topics by matches and mismatches when developing a game
Hype will now be displayed on minimized game tabs on the sidebar
Player settings are now saved when starting a new game, no more needing to recreate the same character every restart!
You can now change copy protection and anti-cheat software during game development. No more being stuck with old protection right before a new release!
Fan letters now show the genre and can be sorted by genre
In the options you can now set the camera to rotate 90 degrees
You can now change the design priority during development!
The number of exclusive games for each platform is now displayed in the tooltip
Additionally the tooltip for publishers and developers now displays how many games they've published and developed!
On the object purchase menu, Objects can now be shown and hidden by category
Added the search function for the following menus: "Update Engine", "Develop Updates", "Game Concepts", "Game Reports", "Fan Letters", "My IPs"
"Port Game" will not unlock until you have published a game
Sequels and spin-offs can now be developed on other platform types
You can now hide platforms that have a too low tech level for the game you're developing
Addons are now marked with [A] in the game name
Icon for garbage replaced. No more confusing the icon with hunger!
And many more changes! Dozens of bug fixes, balancing to the gameplay and features as well. The full list is below.
Feature wishlist!
Many of the changes in the latest updates came from feedback from the players, and several more things yet to be added were suggested by players as well!
In the spirit of the holiday season what are some things you would most like to see added to the game? Whether a simple quality of life change, a balance of an existing feature or ideas for upcoming changes post a comment with your wishlist!
On the forums you will find many suggestions that have already been made, community updates with list of suggestions we have reviewed and the ability to communicate with us any concerns/bugs or ideas you have for the game!
No promises that Santa will bring you everything you wish for, but we do appreciate and gather feedback on how to improve the game where possible!
Latest patchnotes
(Build # represents the date the patch was released)
BUILD 2021.12.22 --------------------------------
- Game development: You can now hide platforms that have a too low tech level. - Game Development: Themes can now be sorted "Matching" and "Mismatching". - Game porting: MMOs and F2Ps are hidden once they have been ported to computers & mobiles. - Hype will be displayed for scaled down game tabs. - Bonus hype for spin-offs is now taken from the latest game of the IP. - Addons are now marked with [A] in the game name. - When a staff member has maximized a skill in the training room, a max icon is now displayed above their head. - Added charts for games with the highest financial turnover.
- New decoration objects added: 10 pictures, 3 rugs, 3 lamps, 3 plants, 1 table - New global random event: "Worldwide supply shortages" - Develop sequels: Added toggle to show only games that have already been taken off the market. - Buy Objects: Filters are now saved in the save game. - "Port Game" will not unlock until you have published a game. - When a developer legend appears, his profession is displayed in the message. - Added 15 new themes. - Engine tooltip: the release date is now displayed. - Added search function for the following menus: "Update Engine", "Develop Updates", "Game Concepts", "Game Reports", "Fan Letters", "My IPs". - BALANCE: NPCs now pay more attention to the licensing price and profit sharing of player engines. - BALANCE: The release date of "Beam Deck" is now February 2022. - BUG: Weeks to release for budget games set from 52 to 48 weeks. - BUG: Some old save games had their sales numbers set to 0. - BUG: (Character creation) Security function added to restore skill values destroyed by cheats. - BUG: When closing the filter menu for the games list, the automatic pause was stopped.
- The number of contract works is now displayed at the room dropdowns. - Platform sales through exclusive games: Bonus sales now take market share into account. - Added menu: Stats -> Publishers & Developers -> Publishers - Added new item: Mini Golf - Buy objects: Objects can now be shown and hidden by category. - Added 12 new company logos. - Platforms: Number of exclusive games is now displayed in the tooltip. - Publisher & Developer Tooltip: It is now displayed how many games have been distributed / developed. - Console Development: Added search function for pre-installed game. - BUG: When picking up a staff member, the pause mode was stopped for a short time. - BUG: Sometimes the engine was not set when you developed a contract game. - BUG: It was possible to use licenses more than once. - BUG: NPCs did not license engines with level 1. - BUG: Pathfinding didn't always work when staff wanted to take a break. - BUG: Fixed some animations. - BUG: Release date fixed. (0 weeks and one week had the same effect). - BUG: Sales prices for bundles were not saved. - BUG: (Console development) You could select a GOTY game as a pre-installed game.
- Sequels and spin-offs can now be developed on other platform types. - You can now change the design priority during development. - The list of selected employees now adapts to the screen resolution. - Statistics menu added: Stats -> Info & History -> Profit from merchandise items. - Game ports now have the advantage of being developed faster than standard games. - MMOs now have the disadvantage of taking longer to develop. - "Random events based on history" can now be activated. - Character graphics: 4 new hairstyles and 2 new beards added. - In the options you can now set the camera to rotate 90 degrees. - BALANCE: Fanshop sales penalty reduced (when no game is on the market). - BUG: Themes of commissioned games were not displayed as appropriate (green) or inappropriate (red). - BUG: No default price was set for merchandise items. - BUG: "Automatic selling price" for self-produced games was way too high. - BUG: (Games) A negative value was displayed for extremely high sales figures. - BUG: When changing the company logo, the NPC with this logo was disabled. - BUG: (Multiplayer) When updating an engine, the newly selected special platform was not displayed to the other players.
- Performance significantly improved, as well as the opening of some menus improved (eg the Personal menu). * Due to the many changes, new bugs may have appeared. Let me know if you notice something. - Fanshop completely reworked. * The support department has to take care of the fanshop. - Fan letters: The genre is now displayed & it can be sorted by genre. - BALANCE: Sales figures for fanshop reduced. - BUG: (Fanshop) Unlocking of fan items did not work correctly. - BUG: (Arcade and mobile games) You could activate unauthorized gameplay features by copying the game concept. - BUG: (Engine development) Sometimes the platform was not set. - BUG: (Quality Assurance) The "Wait" function for game reports did not work. - BUG: A crash could occur during character creation. - BUG: Room lines were not displayed until the camera was moved. - BUG: (Game development) The button "Set optimal settings automatically" ignored contract games.
- The fanshop is now available at the button "Management". - The merchandise items are unlocked depending on IP popularity. - "Fanshop" and "My IPs": It is now possible to sort by merchandise profit. - BALANCE: Sales of merchandise items reduced / Purchase prices of items increased. - BUG: (Fanshop) The sorting function did not work. - BUG: (Fanshop) "No entry" message was positioned incorrectly.
Note: Since you can't call the fanshop when the support department is doing a task, it might make more sense to call the fanshop with the main buttons (e.g. the button at the bottom with the phone). (Let me know if the balacing is bad).
- You can now change copy protection and anti-cheat software during game development. - Archive: Added button to (un)archive everything. - Room menu dropdown enlarged because texts are too small in some languages. - Icon for garbage replaced. - BALANCE: 3 contract games are created at the start of the game. - BUG: Contract games were not shown at the game concepts. - BUG: You could not create game reports for contract games. - BUG: (Multiplayer) The wrong developer was displayed for contract games. - BUG: Exclusive games could increase sales of platforms that have already been removed from the market. - BUG: When an NPC self-publishes a contract game or publishing offer, no message was displayed. - BUG: It was possible to create MMO addons for mobile games. - BUG: Sometimes a staff member with the perk "Iron" went to the toilet. - BUG: Contract games were not displayed in the archive. - BUG: Platform 2 to 4, successors and spinoffs could no longer be unlocked with contract games. - BUG: Fixed some bugs related to licensed player engines. - BUG: Copy protection and anti-cheat were also automatically selected for arcade machines. - BUG: Cancellations for arcade machines stopped at less than 50 orders. - BUG: Some Achievements could be unlocked with NPC games. - BUG: Discarding a completed game did not work correctly. - BUG: (Update engines) The special platform was already taken at the beginning of the development. - BUG: Engines that are being updated were not displayed in the "Stats->Engines" menu. - BUG: Your profit share for licensed engines was calculated incorrectly.
- Contract games completely revised. They are now connected to the NPC AI. - New objects added: "Production Machine IV", "Production Machine V". - Achivements now generate different bonuses. (Management -> Achivements) - Menu "Start new game": Player settings are now saved. - Multiplayer: Contract games are now shared with all players. - BALANCE: Server capacity increased. - BALANCE: Tech-8 handhelds can now be created as early as 2024. - BUG: When copying game concepts, you could have the same main and subgenre for contract games. - BUG: (Game porting) If you closed the "Development Report" menu, the name of the game could be changed. - BUG: Contract games sometimes had the same name used multiple times. - BUG: The pause mode was terminated when you looked at the contract games in the statistics menu. - BUG: When creating an MMO addon for a ported game, the game name was incorrect. - BUG: If you had a lot of subscriptions to an MMO, the subscription fees were calculated incorrectly. - BUG: (Multiplayer): Connection problems could occur since the last update. - BUG: (Multiplayer): Sometimes you could not give technologies to your teammates.
Steam Achievements, Upcoming Features, A Game Giveaway and More!
Steam Achievements, Upcoming Features, A Game Giveaway and More!
It's time for an update! As always, to find the latest and most up to date list of changes for the game check out the Steam Discussion forums and you will find a patchnotes thread that is kept up to date 'Day of' each patch. The game is developing at a quick pace and not every update gets a notification on the steam page!
In this update you will find highlights of recent changes along with full patch notes at the bottom, a look at what is still upcoming for the game, and a chance to get a free copy of Mad Games Tycoon 2!
Highlights of recent changes
In the most recent update for the game, Steam achievements have been added to the game! Additional achievements, some with in-game rewards, along with more achievements for upcoming features will be coming in future updates.
Two new maps have been added to the game! These new maps provide interesting new gameplay challenges, with the sandbox map providing you a massive fully unlocked building from the start to play with!
Tabs and filters for the released game list! A highly requested feature, it is now much easier to manage your list of released games on the right side of the screen with extra options to organize and display the games how you wish.
Several new charts! Now included are weekly charts for mobile, arcade and F2P games, a most popular IPs chart and a new chart for most played F2P games. These help bring more life and competition to the game world as you compete for the top spots.
Many new changes to the A.I competition! NPC games now have IPs associated with them, use license, create spinoffs, ports and GOTY editions. Work continues on this to make your A.I competitors (and later on subsidiaries ) both more challenging and human-like.
A lot of 'under the hood' changes - Faster load times for saved games, performance improvements, staff A.I improvements and many bug fixes. This also includes lots of QoL improvements, and general balancing and tightening of the gameplay.
You will find a full list of changes since the last post at the bottom of this update. Again, always remember to check the steam discussion forum for the most up to date list of changes! . Also post your suggestions and any bugs you may find there as well!
Upcoming Planned Features
While there is not a public roadmap of all the upcoming features and changes, here is a list of a few (not all) of the changes to expect in future updates! Many of these have been first actively discussed on the forums (with some of the ideas coming from there as well), so if you participate on the forums you might know some of these already!
Some of these features are still in the 'planning' stage and will be expanded on later.
Acquisitions of other companies! This feature continues to be worked towards, with many of the listed changes to the NPC A.I being made to ensure that once this feature is added and you purchase a subsidiary that it can do everything you want it to.
Fan merchandise for your games.
A game pass feature.
Expanded console creation options - slim and pro versions of consoles, subscription services (such as the game pass) and other improvements intended to expand on your console choices! Console sales and revenue will also be fine tuned as more options are added.
Additional Multiplayer features. Sabotaging other player's studios, giving support, victory conditions and more.
More revenue options for your support department, allowing you to monetize support calls from fans.
Auto furnishing of rooms! A highly requested QoL feature from MGT-1, this will will be added once the item list is more completed.
New starting options, challenges, events and more! New things are regularly being added to give players more choices on how they like to play, adding extra difficulty options, new events that can both help and hinder the player and generally just improving the game experience. The late game experience will continue to improve as we get even further into early access also.
And more! The list of additions, changes and the priority of this list is always changing. We want to make the best game we can!
The game is very much in active development, work is being done on the game regularly and there is no slowdown coming soon with the game expected to be in full development early access for several more months. We hope you are both excited for what's to come, and support and enjoy the game in it's current state also!
Mad Games Tycoon 2 Giveaway!
If you haven't had a chance to play Mad Games Tycoon 2 yet, or maybe you have a friend who doesn't have the game yet but you would like to play multiplayer together - now is your chance!
We will be giving away 2 free copies of the game. All you need to do to participate in the opportunity to get a steam key of Mad Games Tycoon 2 is comment below mentioning your favorite past or present game console to play on (PC, NES, Sega Genesis, PS3 etc)
On Friday November 12th, 2021 two people will be selected at random from the comment section and contacted sometime after by community manager Panda with their steam key!
Feedback is appreciated!
Post a review! Participate in our steam forum and discord (link in the forum). Give us your thoughts on the game, what you enjoy, what you would like to see improved and any bugs or suggestions you may have! We appreciate the feedback and support! The game is in early access but always improving!
Thank you for your support of Mad Games Tycoon 2! it helps keep pushing us forward!
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And here are the most recent patch notes! (the build number represents the date the patch was released)
- Added 69 Steam Achievements. - Added two new handhelds for the endgame. - Charts menu: "Most played F2Ps" added. - Filter function for right games list: Added TAB to filter games that are in the queue. - Port Game: Games that can only be ported as mobile games will be hidden until mobile is unlocked. - Game tooltips: Subscriptions for MMOs and active players for F2Ps are now displayed. - BUG: "Add Gameplay Features menu": sorting function sometimes did not work. - BUG: Server costs were not displayed in the balance for F2P games. - BUG: "Create Ports": Games were displayed for which no ports can be created. - BUG: Buying items for rooms: TVs and radios were not displayed for the sound studio.
- Added filter function and TABs for right games list. - Right games list is no longer blurred. - Menu "Statistics -> Developer": You can now see which games and IPs the developer has published. - Game settings: You can now enable "Random Genre Combinations". - Weekly Charts: You can now see if a game has fallen or risen in the charts. - Mad Games Convention: When selecting games and consoles, the hype is now displayed and you can sort by hype. - Hardware components for arcade machines is now saved / loaded in Save Game. - "Arcade machine prices"-Menu: The profit and the average quality of the components are now displayed. - BALANCE: There are no more "Golden records" for addons. - BUG: Games that were already removed from the market were still displayed in the weekly charts. - BUG: If you enabled random platform popularity, at some point "all" platforms were removed from the market. - BUG: The room lines were positioned incorrectly when redesigning a room. - BUG: (Game Concept) When you created a port, you could use the "Auto Design Settings" button to change the settings. - BUG: Sometimes employees worked in the wrong room. - BUG: (Contract games) You couldn't choose an engine that had a higher technology level than the platform. - BUG: It was possible not to give your company a name. - BUG: (Publisher & Developer Tooltip) The date was incorrect. - BUG: While employees were waiting for a new game report, they still continued to work.
- Added weekly chars for mobile, arcade and F2P games. - NPCs now use licenses for their games. - Menu "Own games -> Distributed games": Games can now be sorted by release date. - Added "F2P Downloads" menu. (Own games -> F2P Downloads) - "Random Platform Popularity": Platform lifetime is now related to sales figures. - BUG: (Balance sheets) Marketing costs for own consoles were not displayed correctly. - BUG: Employee Search menu: dropdowns were not saved. - BUG: (Publishing offers) Budget games were offered. - BUG: Sometimes game names were not set for commissioned games. - BUG: (Multiplayer): If you changed the name of an IP, it was not sent to the other players. - BUG: In the revenue menu of games the guarantee amount was not displayed correctly. - BUG: Profit sharing for publishing offers was calculated incorrectly.
Info: Due to the new AI, old save games may have strange AI behavior (e.g. duplicate game names, etc.).
- The IP system is now also used for NPCs. - Publishing offers completely revised: Unaccepted games will be distributed by NPC publishers, IP system added. - You can now view the most popular IPs (Charts -> Most Popular IPs) - Console development report: It is now shown how many weeks the console is in development. - NPC AI improved: NPCs can now create spinoffs, ports and GOTY editions - Staff AI improved. - Performance improved. - NPC addons now have random names. - MULTIPLAYER: Publishing offers are now sent to clients. - BUG: Console development: No message was displayed if no lead technician was selected. - BUG: Manual and automatic selection of lead engineer and designer did not work correctly. - BUG: Game bundles could have an already assigned name. - BUG: Games that were on the waiting list could become "Game of the Year" etc. - BUG: The AI created a remaster of a game several times.
- Load time of Save Games significantly improved. Save Games that are only a few weeks old are automatically updated. For very old Save Games there is no compatibility grant.
- Create Bugdet Games & GOTY Editions: The last selected name is now set automatically. - Performance improved. - MODDING: Removed restriction for maximum 200 gameplay features and 200 engine features. - BUG: Servers were heavily affecting performance. - BUG: Room connection arrows no longer worked correctly. - BUG: Package contents of bundles sometimes did not work correctly. - BUG: Reviews of budget games: the hit/trash award was not displayed correctly.
- Two new maps added. - Contract games icon: The tooltip now shows how many B,A,AAA games are available. - Employees no longer walk huge distances when making spontaneous phone calls, etc. - Unassigned employees now stay mainly in areas with heaters or room quality enhancing objects. - The development report now shows how many weeks the game has been in development. - Archive (game reports, game concepts, fan letters): Contract games can now be hidden. - Performance improved. - BUG: Sometimes staff members were teleported unnecessarily. - BUG: In very rare cases, the game could crash if unassigned staff did not find a way to their destination. - BUG: In the later game, there was a microstutter when changing weeks.
- New genre combinations give +10% units sold. - New theme combinations give +3% units sold. - The last selected lead designer and engineer will now always be set automatically. - Game development / Addon development: The AntiCheat software is now automatically selected. - Staff menus: You can now sort people by "Best Skill". - Job market: You can now sort people by "Latest applicants" and "Best Skill". - Lead Designer & Technician Menu: Search function added. - The "Commercial Failure" and "Surprise Success" events are now disabled if you have random events disabled. - Added about 300 new game names for NPC games. - BUG: Game reports from Contract Games did not work correctly. - BUG: Calculation errors could occur when sales were extremely high.
