As you probably already imagine from the title, this will be a very special devlog.
First, let's get right to the practical: the official release date of the Startup Company Full Version will be announced in next week. We'll finally leave Early Access and the Beta program. To celebrate, I'd like to share my story with all of you, who have been following my game for the last couple of years. It's a long read, so if you're only curious about game updates, you should probably stop reading now ːschappyː
Let's get started. It was back in 2015...
The Beginning
I was working a 9-5 corporate job as a Lead Developer. My primary task was to build websites, and I knew absolutely nothing about game development. But I loved tycoon games, and I had the desire to make one myself.
One evening, around July 2015, I was casually playing around with combining web technology (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) with some free isometric game assets I had found online. I had no goal at all. I was just curious if it was possible. Slowly, I started understanding how I could layer multiple PNG images on top of each other and make the website look like a game. It was incredibly simple, but it felt real. I continued testing ideas and researching possibilities. After a couple of weeks of investigation, I came to a conclusion: I could definitely build a game entirely in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I was experienced in all these technologies. The only limitation was that I had to keep the animations simple.
The Idea
Back when I was younger, I had tried starting up two companies. The first was a hosted e-commerce platform, basically a competitor to Shopify. We spent a year developing the platform in our spare time, but failed miserably when we learned that developers can't sell anything and that marketing is important. After that, I built a platform to manage web servers. It failed, too, because I still hadn't learned anything. However, with my newly found knowledge about game development, I was ready for my third adventure. I knew that I could build a game. I just had to decide what I would build. Fortunately, it couldn't have been more obvious: I needed to build a game that would allow me to succeed in starting a company. I quickly jumped on Steam and searched for "Startup Company"...0 results. Boom, that was it.
Livecoding
I had been working on the concept for a couple of months. I even found an up and coming artist from India, who was willing to provide me with cheap assets (I think I paid $20 per item) to get started. At the time, I was working mainly in the evenings, after work. That left me with 2 problems. First, I had already programmed for 8 hours, so I was tired and slow at solving complex problems. Second, I procrastinated too much by watching Twitch streams, chatting with friends, etc.
To overcome these issues, I decided to start streaming my development. Exactly like regular Twitch streams, but with me writing code.
Game development streams weren’t really a thing on Twitch at the time, but there was a site called Livecoding for exactly that. I signed up, got my OBS configured, and went live Saturday, October 17, 2015. I was too shy to use a webcam or even have a microphone. (English is not my native language.) Instead, I would reply to viewers directly via chat. I don't remember the duration of my first stream, but I remember the feeling: I had been incredibly productive. Because someone was watching me (between 0-1 viewers), I couldn't chat with my friends or watch stupid videos on YouTube. Instead, I had to work and keep them entertained with my progress.
I continued streaming and my followers started climbing. I got confident and eventually added both a microphone and a cam to my stream. At my peak, I had up to 100 viewers every night. People even donated me money to invest in the game.
Here's the first preview I made of Startup Company: [previewyoutube="Px7YmA0xAAk;full"]
The Hustle
As more and more people started following my development streams and signing up for my newsletter, I started to believe that I really had something.
With new motivation, I started to really put in the hours. Weekends were now dedicated to the game. I even had a rule that I had to work more hours on the game than on my full-time job, which obviously resulted in 70+ hour work weeks.
Beta 1
After working on the game for almost 6 months, I was finally ready to release Beta 1. On February 21, 2016, I made Beta 1 available to everyone who had signed up.
I remember feeling not only excited, but also very nervous. What if they didn't like it?
20 minutes later I got the first feedback. I remember it clearly: "lol, it's so boring." The feedback continued: "It feels like real work"; "This is spreadsheet simulator"; and so on.
At this point, I was seconds away from giving up completely. I didn't reply to anyone, and I didn't touch the game for days. To this day, I'm not sure why I picked up the game again. But, fortunately, I did. I reached out to everyone who had given me feedback and started questioning them about everything. I wanted to figure out what they expected and wanted from the game.
Over the next year, I ended up rewriting the game completely two times. The root cause of the boring gameplay was my desire to make it complex and realistic. I tried to simulate real life "development models" and "deployment processes." Geeky stuff that sounded cool on paper, but was awful in a game.
At last, I finally figured out that a game had to be simple enough for the player to fully understand what was going on. When playing a game, you want to understand exactly what is going on, so that you can make smart decisions. This is also the reason that I have insisted on keeping the game casual and sometimes unrealistic. I tried the opposite.
It wasn't good.
The Early Access Release
Fast forward a year. It's Summer 2017. The game had evolved a ton. It was a good experience, and people were playing it for an average of 2 hours.
I had already set the release date: August 11, 2017. The game was up on "Steam Coming Soon." I knew from my earlier failures as an entrepreneur that marketing was the most important thing, especially now, 3 months prior to the release.
At this point of time, I completely stopped working on the game. Instead, I went into full-blown marketing mode. I literally sent more than 500 emails with Steam keys to YouTubers and Twitchers. If they didn't reply to me, I would message them on Twitter or even crash their live stream on Twitch. I would even appear in their comments section. If you were contacted by me back then: I'm sorry, I know I must have been annoying.
A lot of small YouTubers covered the game. It started slowly. Most had fewer than 1,000 subscribers. But then, my game was covered by "GrayStillPlays" on YouTube. The whole thing went nuts from there. The number of people wishlisting the game began climbing like never before.
On Friday August 11, 2017, I pushed the button on Steam and Startup Company went live. Within an hour, the game was on the frontpage of Steam. At its peak, the game had more than 1,400 people concurrently playing the game.
It took me a couple of days before I fully understood what had happened. The upcoming Monday I knocked on my boss' door, only to tell him that I would like to resign.
Life as a Game Developer
I had to stay in the job for six weeks after my resignation. It was a stressful time. The huge increase in players caused a lot of bugs to show up. I couldn't accept it, if any of my players had a question that was unanswered or a bug that wasn't fixed right away.
At the same time, I had no experience in community management. I was way too emotionally attached to my game, and a single bad review would literally ruin my whole day, especially if it was valid.
Fortunately, I learned, over time, to handle all that stuff. Today, I work a healthy amount of hours, and I've read enough negative reviews for them to not change my mood.
After the release, I started documenting all development progress through the devlogs here on Steam. (You can check them out, as they are all still available).
The Next Chapter
Right now, I'm working on Version 1 of Startup Company. Obviously, I can't make a full release, without also bringing you the biggest content update for the game ever. So far, Version 1 contains more new content than the last 5 beta updates, and I'm only halfway done. If there's a time to be excited as a Startup Company player, it's now!
I'm also actively negotiating with another studio to help me bring Startup Company to Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. There will, of course, be an official announcement about this later.
And finally, me and my colleague Mark are working on Localizor, our new community translation platform, which has really started to take off lately. You can check it out here: www.localizor.com
Thank You
No matter how long you've been following me and Startup Company, I just want to say thank you for all your feedback, bug reports, ideas and suggestions, negative and positive reviews, mods in the workshop, and comments and likes on my devlogs.
Having a community like this is truly a blessing. Startup Company would never had been possible without you.
That's all for today. Remember to keep an eye on the announcements at the end of next week. Something is coming...
Thanks for reading!
All the Best, Jonas
Beta 29 is now available!
Hi there!
Beta 29 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away!
It's been 42 days since the last beta update. While Beta 29 isn't the biggest update, it delivers some important changes. One of these changes has been in the pipeline for more than a year!
Let's jump right into it and see what's new.
CEO Backstory
The CEO's backstory allows you to select which skill your CEO had before becoming a CEO. You'll be able to choose between developer, designer, or manager. No matter which role you choose, the CEO will still be able to participate in recruitment. All you have to do is manually switch between his roles.
The CEO is the first and only employee type that can handle multiple skills.
New Fusion Hardware
Beta 29 introduces brand new "Fusion" hardware. Both new hardware items are very expensive, but are also the most efficient seen so far.
Fusion Server
Generates a lot of heat, but it's also the first server to produce all three types of throughput.
Fusion Heat Transformer
Incredibly expensive but reduces temperature by a stunning -55 Celsius (-67 Fahrenheit).
New Enhancement Feature: Help System
This headline might be confusing. It's not an in-game help system – it's a new enhancement feature you can add to your website. Adding the Help System will not only allow you to increase overall satisfaction (it counts as a regular feature), but it also greatly reduces the number of generated support tickets.
Tidal Power Investment Project
A third investment project is now available: Tidal Power. It will unlock both the Fusion Heat Transformer and the Fusion Server. The upfront payment is $28 million and the minimum daily budget is $1.2 million.
Minor changes
Beta 29 also contains a lot of bug fixes and improvements. The most exciting ones are
Employee Menu: Order by age added
Retirement warnings added
New achievements: "The Wave" & "Dangerous Future"
Help us translate!
Even though the community has been very busy translating Beta 29, there are still a couple of untranslated strings. The following languages are incomplete: Portuguese (BR), French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Turkish.
If you want to help out, whether it be voting for suggestions or writing your own, simply click the button below to get started:
As always, I'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issues or bugs, please send me a message on our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in the Steam discussions.
I really hope you like all the new changes and features!
Best, Jonas
Devlog #59
Hi everyone,
This devlog was originally planned for last week. Fortunately we had some good progress on Beta 29, which allowed me to postpone the devlog till today, but also include the official release date of Beta 29!
Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Fusion Server
The Fusion Server is here! It's expensive and generates a lot of heat, but it's also the first server to produce all 3 types of throughput.
Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Tidal Power Investment Project
The new Tidal Power investment project will unlock both the Fusion Heat Transformer and the Fusion Server. The upfront payment is $28,000,000 and the minimum daily budget is $1,200,000.
Beta 29 Release Date
I think you'll like this one: Beta 29 will be publicly available this Friday (February 7) at 20:00 CET (11am PST).
The update contains the following:
CEO Backstory
Tidal Power Investment Project
Fusion Heat Transformer & Fusion Server
New enhancement feature: "Help System"
New achievements: "The Wave" & "Dangerous Future"
And other smaller improvements and fixes
There will be a small happening over at our Discord server. I'm looking forward to see you!
Remember the translations!
I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations
Thank you for reading and see you in Friday! ːschappyː
All the best, Jonas
Devlog #58
Hi everyone,
I had some great progress on Beta 29 recently. Everything is coming along much faster than expected. I even hope testing will begin at the end of next week. I'll keep you updated in the next devlog.
Beta 29 Sneak Peek: CEO Backstory
This week I finalized the most popular change in Beta 29: The CEO's backstory. Basically you get to select which skill your CEO had before becoming a CEO. This will allow him to act as a Developer, Designer or Manager. He'll still be able to do recruitment. All you have to do is manually switch between his roles. As you can see below, I added a small icon for that.
Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Help System
The headline might confuse you. It's not an in-game help system. It's a new Enhancement Feature you can add to your website. Adding the Help System will not only allow you to increase overall satisfaction (as it counts like a regular feature), but it also greatly reduces the amount of generated support tickets.
Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Order by age
A small but useful update. You can now order by age in the employees menu.
Beta 29 Sneak Peek: Retirement warning
Another small but useful update. You now get a warning 1 year before an employee will retire.
Beta 29 Sneak Peek: New Fusion Hardware
Beta 29 will also introduce new servers and airconditioners. We categorize them as "Fusion hardware". Bruno did his best to make it look as badass as absolutely possible. He nailed it, don't you think? ːschappyː
That's all for this week
Also remember I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations
Thank you for reading and see you in the next devlog ːschappyː
All the best, Jonas
Beta 28 is now available!
Hi there!
Beta 28 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away!
I'm happy to once again present you another big update for Startup Company. This update is really for you, as every single change and feature is based on community feedback.
Let's jump right into it and see what's new.
Dynamic DDoS Attacks & DDoS Protection
In Beta 28 I have greatly increased the effect of DDoS attacks both in duration, strength and how often they happen.
To help you counter these attacks we're introducing another Enhancement Feature: The DDoS Protection. Similar to the Adblock Obfuscator you can improve the feature from 0-100%. At 100% you'll be almost invincible to DDoS attacks.
DDoS Protection has a flaw though: The system will automatically ask users if they are a robot or not. This will annoy your users and result in increased dissatisfaction.
Introducing Jitter
Understanding your users is a vital part of succeeding as a startup. This is why we're introducing Jitter. Users will send out Jeets expressing their feelings.
You'll also get weekly updates from the StockTraders account giving you hints on what companies to invest in.
I'll introduce even more types of Jeets over the next beta releases.
Updated Stock Market and UI
After a ton of requests (you guys really like investing in stocks), I've finally fixed the buggy stock market. Beta 28 will introduce brand new mechanics that makes the stocks much more dynamic.
The UI has also been updated:
Added a transaction log to better track whether you're making money or not.
Added a 1% trading fee for both buying and selling.
Increased the amount of days stock prices are tracked.
Fusion Power Plant & Fusion Framework 2020
The second investment project is now available: The Fusion Power Plant. Once you have completed this investment you'll unlock the Fusion Framework 2020 which allows to reach even higher feature levels and add more features to the same website.
The projects are incredibly expensive therefore it's only for well-established companies.
Other minor changes
Decreased the effect of Viral Boosts.
Increase hours to recruit intermediate and expert employees.
Decrease the chance of headhunting superstar employees.
Added support for UI scaling as a replacement for "Big UI" (moved to top left corner of the main menu).
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game? Check out our Conflux board.
As always, I'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issues or bugs, please send me a message in our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in the Steam discussions.
I really hope you like all the new changes and features!
Best, Jonas
Devlog #57
Hi everyone,
Intro....
Beta 28 Sneak Peek: UI Scaling
After being in the pipeline for a long time I finally found time to add a UI scaling feature. The old "Big UI" option has been removed.
Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Fusion Power Plant & Fusion Framework
I'm happy to present the second investment project: The Fusion Power Plant. The upfront payment will be $22,000,000.
By completing this project you gain access to the new Fusion Framework 2020. The framework allows you to upgrade your features all the way to level 7000. You also get a total of 12 feature slots!
In Beta 28 I have greatly increased the effect of DDoS attacks both in duration, strength and how often they happen.
To help you counter these attacks we're introducing another Enhancement Feature: The DDoS Protection. Similar to the Adblock Obfuscator you can improve the feature from 0-100%. At 100% you'll be almost invincible to DDoS attacks.
DDoS Protection has a flaw though: The system will automatically ask users if they are a robot or not. This will annoy your users and result in increased dissatisfaction.
Beta 28 Release Date
We're busy testing Beta 28 right now. If you want to help out, come join us on Discord. The official release date is: December 27 at 19:00 CET (10am PST).
That's all for this week
Also remember I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations
Thank you for reading and see you in the next devlog ːschappyː
All the best, Jonas
Devlog #56
Hi everyone,
2 weeks ago Beta 27 was released. It has been very successful! Reviews has been more positive than ever, thank you! The build was also very stable, I have only spent 1 week on fixing bugs:
Fixed bug where retirement sequence didn't start from step 1.
Fixed bug making it impossible to unlock "The Sun Is The Future"
Recruitment: Changed max value of salary and bonus slider to support new superstar employees.
Show daily payment when negotiating ad contracts
Added "In stock" value to Production Plans
Updated localization files
Fixed yet another "Employees not retiring" bug
Fixed bug where retirement tax percentage didn't update after transferring.
Fixed bug where both main menu and game soundtrack would play simultaneous
Fixed issue where "years till retirement" could go into negative
Fixed bug where new candidates would contain fire demands right away.
Fixed bug making it impossible to upgrade to new office for some old savegames.
Fixed error being thrown if employee was fired while having their dialog open.
Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Jitter and the in-game browser!
Beta 28 will introduce a new in-game browser. The first website you can visit is Jitter. From here you can get:
Info on how to improve your website and what annoys your users.
Which companies might be interesting to invest in.
Random rages from angry people.
If you have some cool ideas about things users could "jeet"about, feel free to submit your suggestions in the comments section.
Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Updated Stock Market and UI
After a ton of requests (you guys really like investing in stocks), I'm finally fixing the buggy stock market. Beta 28 will introduce brand new mechanics that makes the stocks much more dynamic.
The UI has also been updated:
Added a transaction log to better track whether you're making money or not.
Added a 1% trading fee for both buying and selling.
Increased the amount of days stock prices are tracked.
Beta 28 Sneak Peek: Tidal Power Plant
The next investment project will be the Tidal Power Plant. Once you have completed this investment you'll unlock the Fusion Framework 2020 which allows to reach even higher feature levels. I'll talk more about this in a future devlog.
That's all for this week
Also remember I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations
Thank you for reading and see you in the next devlog ːschappyː
All the best, Jonas
Beta 27 is now available!
Hi there!
Beta 27 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away!
It has been 72 days since the latest beta (26) was released. I'm super excited to announce Beta 27, which is the biggest update to the game, both for content, and lines of code.
Let's jump right into it and see what's new.
Career Mode
Beta 27 introduces a brand new Career Mode, which is also the new primary game mode.
When you start the game, your CEO will be 18 years old. As the game progresses your CEO will now age along with your employees. At the age of 67, you will retire and the game is over.
As you're playing, your main objective is to move money from the company account to your retirement fund to secure your future.
Custom Game
"Custom Game" allows you to configure the game exactly how you like. Don't like investors? Turn it off. Don't like the new retirement feature? Turn it off. Hate that you have to research everything? Turn it off! Wanna go crazy and build your dream? Turn up your starting money.
Retirement Fund
From the CEO window you'll now able to access the Retirement tab. From here you can move money from your company account to your personal retirement fund. You'll have to think this through as your investors need to receive an equal cut (unless you have bought them out).
You'll also have to consider taxes. Paying out everything in the same year will hit you with a huge tax charge.
Investment Projects
If we look at the world today, most successful entrepreneurs are investing in massive projects which move the world forward. Elon Musk with SpaceX and Tesla. Jeff Bezos going to space with Blue Origin and Mark Zuckerberg is aiming to provide access to the internet to everyone with internet.org. In Startup Company Beta 27 you'll be able to do the same. Each investment project will give you access to special abilities. Investment Projects are accessed via the city map.
The projects are incredibly expensive therefore it's only for well-established companies.
Beta 27 introduces the first project out of 3: Space-based Solar Power.
Superstar Employees
Have you ever worked with someone that was incredibly fast? In Beta 27 you'll now be able to hire those superstar employees.
The superstar employees are very rare and can only be found using expert-level Recruiters. They require a very high salary, but can also reach base speeds of up to 900%.
Improved Inventory
The Inventory Menu is probably the least used feature in Startup Company. Hopefully, this will change with Beta 27.
You'll finally be able to see both consumption, demand and production for each component/module.
This new information will allow you to make your office more efficient and cut down on overproduction.
Other minor changes
7 brand new achievements.
Ability to disable workstation limits (be aware of lag).
Designed Company & Benefits menu.
Increased game speed (twice as fast in 3x speed).
Beginner Kits for all employees are automatically researched.
Sliders/UI for Sales Executives has been improved.
27 various bug fixes.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game? Check out our Conflux board.
As always, I'll be monitoring the release very closely for any potential issues that might arise or that we might have missed during testing. If you encounter any issues or bugs, please send me a message in our Discord channel (link provided below) or create a post in the Steam discussions.
I really hope you like all the new changes and features!
I have to go now, It's time to get started on Beta 28 ːschappyː
Best, Jonas
Devlog #55
Hi everyone,
Another week went by and another Daily Deal has come to an end. The impact on our Review Score has been enormous this time. From 100% out of 18 reviews to 61% out of 41 reviews in 2 days. I won't lie, the "demotivational impact" is equally enormous. I'll keep my eyes away from the reviews until things are back to normal. If you have any issues with the game, please reach out to my directly ( jonas@hovgaardgames.com or Discord). The game is 100% stable and if you have any issues with the game I guarantee to fix it within 24 hours.
With that off my chest, let's look into some exciting news!
Improved Contract Filters
A lot of you have probably struggled with setting the right max impressions for your Sales Executives. Beta 27 changes how max impressions is calculated, so it won't suddenly drop to lower amounts. I also added a textbox to easily enter the desired amount.
No more researching beginner kits
I had a lot of complaints that players found it annoying that you had to combine the "Beginner Kit" after researching the a new employee type. All beginners kits are now instantly available in all new savegames.
7 new achievements
Beta 27 comes with 7 new achievements mainly focused on the new features: [table] [tr] [th]Achievement[/th] [th]Goal[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Fast Support[/td] [td]Reach an average response time lower than 2 hours with more than 500 tickets[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]The Average Worker[/td] [td]Secure a retirement fund of more than $500,000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Upper Middle Class[/td] [td]Secure a retirement fund of more than $1,000,000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Biggy Shot[/td] [td]Secure a retirement fund of more than $45,000,000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Mister Biggy Biggy Shot[/td] [td]Secure a retirement fund of more than $200,000,000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Mister World Wide[/td] [td]Secure a retirement fund of more than $3,500,000,000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]The Sun Is The Future[/td] [td]Invest 100% of Space-based Solar Power[/td] [/tr] [/table]
Changes to game speed
I have decided to increase the speed of the game, mainly to reduce waiting time in stale periods of the game.
The following changes has been applied to Beta 27:
In-game minutes changed from 200ms to 150ms
2x Speed ticks changed from 2 to 5 in-game minutes
3x Speed ticks changed from 5 to 10 in-game minutes
These changes will dramatically increase the speed, especially when playing in fast-forward mode. I hope these changes makes you feel more in control of the game's progression.
Release date of Beta 27
I can finally announce that Beta 27 will be publicly available November 2, 2019 at 10:00am PT (18:00 CET). You can participate in the countdown on our Discord server. Make sure to subscribe to the CEO role by writing !subscribe in any channel.
That's all for this week
Also remember I'm continuously uploading new strings for translation to Localizor. So if you want to help translate the game, this is the place to go: https://www.localizor.io/game/1/translations
Thank you for reading and see you in the next devlog ːschappyː
All the best, Jonas
Startup Company is Steam's Daily Deal!
Daily Deal! Grab it while you can!
For the next 48 hours you can snatch up a copy for yourself, or a friend, at 50% off! This means that Startup Company will be available for purchase for only $6.5 (or your regional equivalent)!
Need help? Got any questions?
Then don't keep it to yourself. There's a huge community around Startup Company including a lot of amazing people who're ready to help you out.
Our Discord server have more than 5000 members often with more than 500 online users. You can join by clicking the button below:
The next update is just around the corner and it's a big one!
This might be the perfect time to purchase Startup Company. The next update is Beta 27 and we're busy finding and fixing all the bugs right now. The test is public. Once you own Startup Company you can join the test team by reading the pinned message in the #testing channel on our Discord server.
I hope you’ll have a ton of fun with Startup Company!
