I've tried to pull out all the stops on this one. I really hope you enjoy it!
If you're a day-1 buyer, please consider leaving a review on the DLC's store page, once you've had a chance to check it out.
DLCs don't tend to get many reviews and it can be really helpful for prospective players to hear other players' thoughts on them. ːsteamthumbsupː
One final request: The game has gone through rigorous testing but if you notice any bugs while playing, please let me know via the Steam forums.
New achievements
To celebrate the launch, I've added two new sandbox achievements to the game:
Sandbox Trials - Limited Veteran - In Sandbox mode, have 80 different species of animals in your aquarium using the Limited Supply preset on hard difficulty or higher.
Sandbox Trials - Quick Start Veteran - In Sandbox mode, reach 10,000 Prestige using the Quick Start preset on hard difficulty or higher.
The theme of this pair of achievements is to give veteran players something to reach for in Sandbox mode especially when playing with one or more DLCs. Good luck!
v4.0 Update
The game has also got a significant update alongside the launch of the expansion. For a more in-depth look at some of the new features check out last week's post:
This time around I have a full changelog to share with you (see below). This is of course in addition to all the brand new mechanics and features within Deep Freeze itself!
Thanks and enjoy!
Tim Twice Circled
Changelog
Feature: You can now toggle each DLC individually during Sandbox setup. Rank up levels will be adjusted accordingly.
Feature: You can toggle on/off care requirements and equipment breakdowns in Sandbox mode.
Feature: Added 'Passive Mode' preset to Sandbox. (Same as Creator mode but has care requirements and breakdowns switched off)
Feature: Basic Divider is now available in base game.
Feature: You can press Page Up/Page Down to levitate in first person mode. You fall back to earth if you move.
Feature: Added latin names for every official animal. Hover over the (i) or the animal portrait to find it.
Feature: U-Shaped tank is now extendable.
Feature: Every object's rank is now shown within it's description (hover over the (i)).
Balance: Staff start with 15 skill at level 1 and gain 30% every level.
Balance: Lemon Shark max size reduced to 75
Balance: Copperband Butterflyfish now eats Live Mysis.
Balance: Clownfish now worth +2 Prestige if with an anemone.
Balance: Prestige reduction for animals with large aquascaping/land requirements
Balance: Prestige increase for combinations of the following factors: large size, greedy, skill required, live food and expensive food.
Balance: Starfish moved from Other Inverts to Echinoderms
Balance: Jellyfish moved from Other Inverts to Jellyfish
Balance: Leopard Clam moved from Anemones, Gorgonians and Clams to Bivalves.
Balance: Capped positive prestige from cheap vending machine and gift shop sales to 6 prestige points.
Balance: Improved flexibility of many sandbox objects to work better when playing on 'limited supply' and 'everything available' presets.
Balance: You are not offered breeding objectives in sandbox if you cannot currently unlock the 'light' required (if any).
Balance: U-shaped tank is now unlocked when you start Carbon City level.
Balance: Large tunnel tank can now support lights.
UI: Level up staff on the management window and their individual staff window.
UI: Option to disable staff level up messages.
UI: Schedule multiple talks at single podium.
UI: Added 'Not in aquarium' toggle which has the same effect of count=0 in the search.
UI: Added range highlight on hover.
UI: New 'enclosed' paperclip icon for messages that have objects inside.
UI: Search by rank, ecology, science and prestige.
UI: 'Skill required' icon is now incorporated into the task icon.
UI: Hide warnings now hides all warnings, even deadly ones.
UI: Reduce maximum search text.
UI: Stop control characters in input boxes.
UI: You can now see if a supplement needs doing today (0/1) or has already been given (1/1).
UI: Breeding parents are stated on Breeder icon at all times.
Graphics: Added shoaling/grouping behaviour to many animals across base game and all DLCs.
Graphics: Reduced water wave in 1st person mode.
Graphics: Improved animals transition between land and water.
Graphics: Fixed minor issues with sponge, broom and mic headset animations.
Fixed bug: You cannot set vending machine and gift shop prices negative.
Fixed bug: Water continued to ripple when paused via entering menu.
Fixed bug: Highlight flickers when hovering near the edge of an object.
Fixed bug: Green Pellet Dispenser was called Greens Pellet Dispenser.
Fixed bug: Hovering over a zone button in the zone menu and pressing escape caused all the zones to remain shown.
Fixed bug: You are no longer offered tanks as "aquascaping" for breeding purposes by Emmanuel Tosh.
Fixed bug: Game froze if you removed the last empty tile within 20 tiles of a guest.
Fixed bug: Podium contribution to ecology/science income estimate is more accurate.
Fixed bug: OSX resolution changes made by editing global.data take effect first time now.
Fixed bug: in some resolutions, the main menu would not return to the centre after it moved to the left at least once.
Fixed bug: if an animal eats another animal when it's been hungry for at least a day, the health loss is not reset correctly.
Fixed bug: staff portrait would sometimes be invisible in zoning menu.
Fixed bug: level file name was shown when first saving after starting a new level.
Optimisation: Animal ledger was updating even when closed under some circumstances.
Optimisation: Sped up sandbox objective generation.
Deep Freeze: Release date and quality-of-life update
The latest expansion for Megaquarium: Deep Freeze, is coming out next week on the 18th October!
In this post we're going to check out some of the improvements that will be coming alongside the new DLC's release. These improvements affect all players, whether or not they own any of the DLCs. ːsteamthumbsupː
Staff improvements
For starters, it'll be possible to level up your staff directly from the staff management window.
A single click and bam - levelled up!
By default you can continue to level up your staff via the message log as well. However, you can toggle this off and do all your levelling up in the staff window if you like. Very useful in big aquariums!
Next we have a balance change. Currently all staff skills start at 10 and increase 10 each time you level them up. This is simple and easy to understand but leads to a bit of a strange improvement graph. At level 2, they are twice as quick, then gain another 50% at level 3. From there on it's diminishing returns.
This has made the first couple of level-ups much more important than subsequent ones, which I think is a missed opportunity.
With the new update, skills will start at 15 and improve by 30% each level. This makes every single level up important.
In addition levelling all the way to 10 now rewards you with a base skill of 159 (+60% compared to current build). Alongside the latest accessories from Deep Freeze this should go some way to alleviating feeding bottlenecks in huge aquariums.
Salaries will adjust for the changes in skill, so it won't change the economic balance of the game.
Shoaling animations
This one has been on players' request list for a long time! Some animals will now form groups in the tank.
This is a purely aesthetic change. I'm really pleased with the variation it creates in the display. As an added bonus I've made animals with the 'wingman' tag follow a large animal in the tank, just like they do in the wild!
Improved podium UI and balance
You will be able to schedule different talks on different days at a single podium thanks to its updated UI.
In addition I've tweaked the simulation/balance a bit. The more valuable the talk, the higher the skill required to give it. Any staff can attempt any talk but if they are not skilled they will take a lot longer to give the talk.
What's more, guests will get bored and wander off mid-talk, leading to less points. On the flip-side, skilled talkers will complete talks in less time while generating their full value.
Basic divider
Since the release of the Architect's Collection I've come to rely on dividers (half walls) to create soft divides in the aquarium. I've decided to make the basic divider part of the vanilla game while all the fancy ones still remain part of the Architect's Collection.
Skill level/task icon combined
The 'requires skill' icon will appear on top of the task icons, rather than separately. This small change makes it easy to grasp all the important info without looking in multiple places.
Passive mode
This is quite big news! Passive mode is a new sandbox preset which turns off care requirements and equipment breakdowns. You can build an aquarium almost like you're painting a picture.
It's up to you whether you let guests in or if it's a private creation for your eyes only!
Latin names
Ever wanted to pin down the exact species featured in the game? All official animals will have their latin name listed when you hover over their (i) icon.
Range highlight
The range of an object will be highlighted by hovering over it e.g. Tanks, vending machines, seating, toilets, posters. Previously this only appeared during initial placement.
Believe it or not, there are still many more improvements I didn't get a chance to mention. Discover them all when the update goes live next week!
Until next time,
Tim Twice Circled
Deep Freeze In-depth: Polar Dome Preview!
In case you weren't aware, Megaquarium is getting a new expansion: Deep Freeze.
This time we are focusing on the polar dome, a brand new tank with a whole lot going on.
Keep a lid on it
Polar domes are the first tanks in Megaquarium to have roofs (strictly speaking the abyssal tanks from last week's post share this honour). This deceptively simple addition opens multiple possibilities.
For starters we can keep seabirds. You might not think of these as aquatic creatures but the Atlantic Puffin spends most of its life at sea and only needs land to breed!
From a gameplay perspective, there are two new quantities to track:
Air Volume - Required for "active flyers" who need plenty of space to swoop.
Perch Capacity - This works similarly to Land Capacity, giving a place for your flying friends to perch between dips in the water.
The other feature of an enclosed tank is that it can be air conditioned. This is necessary for the polar animals who spend some of their time out of the water and are used to chilly conditions!
Air conditioners can be located remotely from your tanks using compressors. These act like pumps but for air instead of water.
An enriching experience
Polar animals also introduce a brand new type of aquascaping - enrichment! These objects provide mental stimulation so your animals don't get bored.
Enrichment has unique mechanics compared to other aquascaping: the first object of each type is worth more than subsequent objects of the same type. In other words, variety is key when it comes to meeting enrichment needs.
Each enrichment object is a different size and shape, so there's never a 'one size fits all solution'. In summary: the tank design puzzle just got even more satisfying!
The return of breeding
I'm sure many of you will be delighted to read that breeding makes a return in Deep Freeze. This time the focus is on polar mammals and birds.
As you might expect, breeding these animals has its own feel compared to the breeding in Freshwater Frenzy. For example, many of these animals lay just one or two eggs; so it's really important to ensure the tank parameters stay on point.
On the other hand, predation is easier to avoid because the eggs are out of the water limiting the number of hungry animals that have access to them!
Ice ice baby
Enrichment is not the only aquascaping requirement in Deep Freeze to break with convention. Some of your animals like ice floes to sit on. The only way to create these is to cool the air down to freezing temperatures using extra air conditioning!
But don't worry, there is an unexpected upside! Freezing the floes creates additional land capacity allowing you to create even more stunning polar dome exhibits!
Polar party
One of my constant goals when designing Megaquarium is to give players as much creative freedom as possible, but with plenty of interesting mechanics to shape that creativity.
With this in mind, I'm really pleased with how polar domes have come together for Deep Freeze. They are the most flexible tank yet - with scope for land, sea and air animals to all live together. Within that flexibility comes so many interesting decisions:
Will I freeze the ice to create extra land capacity?
Will I build the tank big enough so that flyers have adequate air volume?
But that will increase the air conditioning needs - especially if I'm freezing the ice floes...
And what mix of aquascaping will I spread across the substrate to fulfil the needs of the various fish, mammals and birds I include in the tank?
While the abyssal animals we learned about last week demand a lot of attention from your aquarists and staff management skills, the polar animals demand it from your design skills! My hope is that, together, they'll combine to create a gameplay experience you will really enjoy!
Until next time,
Tim Twice Circled
Deep Freeze In-depth: Abyssal animals primer!
In case you missed it, Megaquarium is getting a new expansion: Deep Freeze.
Today we take a deeper look at some of the new abyssal species and the tricky challenges associated with looking after them.
The perfect habitat
In Deep Freeze you gain access to a new style of tank: The abyssal tank!
These tanks are designed to recreate the conditions found in the abyssal zone so that your creatures feel right at home.
The cost of science
But there's a catch. For the first time in Megaquarium history, these tanks consume science points.
But remember, science points are also used to unlock new equipment. Build too many abyssal tanks and you'll find your research progressing at a sea snail's pace!
Observe closely
Another Megaquarium first! Many abyssal creatures require observation, some as often as every single day.
This means some animals need to be fed, observed and given a supplement in a single day. Thankfully there are some accessories that can help with this - more on that another time!
Filter feeders
On the bottom of the ocean, under 3000m of water, there's not enough light for plants to survive. In this region, carnivorous corals thrive, lending crucial aquascaping and decoration to your tanks.
The monstrous Bubblegum Coral grows to 3m tall and needs a constant supply of live mysis shrimp to keep it fed!
Burdensome beasts
You'll only have access to abyssal animals in limited numbers, and that might be a good thing! They need high water quality, have awkward compatibility issues, tricky tank requirements and many eat nothing but live food!
However, if you manage to build a collection and look after them well, they'll reward you and your guests with a show like no other!
Until next time,
Tim Twice Circled
Announcing Megaquarium: Deep Freeze - Deluxe Expansion!
I'm delighted to announce a brand new expansion for Megaquarium: Introducing Deep Freeze!
This is Megaquarium's most ambitious expansion to-date, chock full of popular elements from previous expansions plus loads of brand new features including a five-level campaign.
Later in the post I'll be touching on a couple of the key ideas for this expansion, but for a top-level rundown head over to the store page.
Remember to wishlist so you'll be notified when it goes live! ːsteamhappyː
The expansion will be priced at $13.99 (or your regional equivalent) and will launch in mid-October on both GOG and Steam.
As usual this expansion will be launching alongside a big upgrade to the base game with improved UI, animation and rebalanced gameplay. More on those another time.
Two for one!
In Deep Freeze we've added two unique biotopes unified by a central frozen theme. On one side you have the abyssal animals. These are deep ocean species that dwell in the perpetual darkness.
On the other side we have the aquatic polar animals who need a special enclosed polar dome supported by racks of compressors and air-conditioners!
Each type of habitat has specific design challenges associated with it. However, there are some core mechanics that reach across. The result is varied gameplay with a unified theme.
Giving me chills
I love coldwater animals and in this expansion I'm delighted to fill out the roster with some amazing species. Every single animal in Deep Freeze requires cold water.
But we've not stopped there. Many of the animals from the deep ocean and polar regions don't just need cold water, they need it to be positively freezing! That's where the 'Superchilled' requirement comes in.
More to come
During my playtesting I've really loved how much variety Deep Freeze adds, especially when combined with the other expansions. It's possible to build a truly MEGA-aquarium!
There is so much to talk about with Deep Freeze, over the course of the next few weeks I look forward to revealing more features and details.
To make sure you don't miss a thing, click the 'follow' button under the trailer on the main store page and at the top of my developer page.
Until then,
Tim Twice Circled
Simfest 2023 begins today and Megaquarium is part of it!
I'm thrilled to announce that Megaquarium is part of Simfest – the Steam festival celebrating all things related to simulation games.
From today through the 24th of July, 10am PDT 2023, you can save 60% off the base game plus 30% off each of the DLCs.
Make sure to check out all that's on offer across Simfest, there's a bunch of titles on discount as well as demos for games that are coming soon, all within the wonderful Sim genre!
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In Megaquarium news, as many of you know, I have been working on something new for the game for several months. I'm not in a position to share more details at this time, but I'm getting close so watch this space! ːsteamhappyː
v.3.0.9 Staff gate added to Architect's Collection!
Hello aquarium architects. I hope you've had a great start to the year. I've been working on a little update for you guys. Let's take a look.
Staff gate added to Architect's Collection
Shortly after the Architect's Collection DLC launch, a suggestion was made to me. With the addition of all the new "dividers" (a selection of low wall-like objects which block movement but not visibility), was it possible to add a divider which only staff could pass through?
I'm very happy to announce that the all-new Staff Gate has been added to the Architect's Collection with this update.
This object is essentially a cross between the Staff Door and the One-Way Gate which was added to the base game last November. Like the Staff Door, only employees can use the Staff Gate, but it has the nice low aesthetic associated with the One-Way Gate that makes it look good paired with the dividers added with the Architect's Collection.
In the above picture I've used the Staff Gate to separate off a section of the aquarium where I'm storing gift shop refills away from potentially thieving guests.
In fairness, a One-Way Gate from the base game facing in the correct direction could be used to achieve the same result.
Here is where the Staff Gate comes into its own. When you have just a single line of dividers but want to allow an employee to take a short-cut rather than walk all the way around the route.
Like almost everything else in the Architect's Collection, the Staff Gate is paintable so you can customise it to your liking. What will you use it for?
Changelog
Along with the Staff Gate there are bunch of bug fixes and improvements included with this update:
Feature: Added Staff Gate to Architect's Collection.
Fixed bug: Double clicking trade button very fast would cause multiple animals to be traded away while filing only a single trade slot.
Fixed bug: Impossible "Biodiversity" objective offered in sandbox mode.
Fixed bug: Floating plants in Feeding Platform Tank appeared at the wrong height (FF).
Fixed bug: Fixed occasionally bugged UI with guppy breeding (FF).
Fixed bug: Sand eel appears in wrong place when staff carrying it and a tool belt does a fixing task.
UX: Fixed UI positioning in save and load menus in non-English languages.
Optimisation: Sped up message log loading.
Modding: If only English strings are present, these will be used even when the selected language is not English.
