In this week I have mainly been working on the new help system in Startup Company (which is incredible time consuming task to create). I've found some time to ship a couple of hotfixes for Beta 22 as well. (see #news on our Discord server.)
Help System
The new help system will be introduced in Beta 23. The system will help you understand every aspect of Startup Company, this is especially interesting for new players.
The system will first be introduced in English only. Once we're sure everything is covered, I'll have to translated later to the other languages.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
Updated Roadmap
The roadmap has been updated to represent my current expectations.
Click the thumbnail to see full size.
Leaving Early Access
It's already been 1½ years since Startup Company was released in Early Access on Steam. The game has been undergoing huge changes and is now in a much more stable and accessible state than when it was released.
We feel confident that with the release of Beta 23 the quality of the game is suitable to leave Early Access and become a full release. An official full release date is yet to be determined.
So does this mean development of Startup Company will stop? Absolutely not. We just want to stop sending the signal to new players that the game is a buggy and bad experience, because we really think it's not.
I will still continue to follow the roadmap and release new features after the full release.
How do you feel about a paid DLC?
As most of you know, all development of Startup Company is done by me (Jonas). This is great as it keeps expenses down, but it also slows down how often new features can be introduced and how big they can be.
This is why I want to ask how you feel about a DLC. My idea is that the income from the DLC covers the expenses of hiring another developer who could work exclusively on new content.
As always, you guys, the community, comes first. So please let me know what you think. Should I drop the idea and just continue working solo or would you gladly pay for a DLC in order to get more content faster? All feedback is very much appreciated!
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
That's it for this week!
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Beta 22 Released!
Hi there!
Beta 22 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away!
Beta 22 introduces quite a big list of new features, changes and improvements to the game. We're very excited to see how all our players will adapt their companies to these changes and how new companies will use them to prosper! We're very eager to share this all with you!
As with each Beta release we just want to make sure that you’re aware of the fact that there might be some bugs or other unexpected issues. Jonas is on standby, ready to make sure that any discovered issues are fixed as soon as possible. If you find any bugs or experience any issues make sure to either let us know on the community hub or by joining our Discord!
New office building
After enormous demand from you guys, it's finally time to introduce the new office building. You get 2 floors and an 400 employees high limitation. Enjoy!
Improvements to Sales Executives/Leads
Beta 22 introduces two big changes to the Sales Executive: First, the maximum amount of leads has been increased. For individual Sales Executives the numbers will be:
[table]
[tr] [td]Beginner[/td][td]3[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Intermediate[/td][td]6[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Expert[/td][td]9[/td] [/tr]
[/table]
However, if you choose to team up multiple Sales Executives using a Manager, you'll be able to share leads between your executives! The lead limits for teams will be slight lowered like so:
[table]
[tr] [td]Beginner Manager[/td][td]9[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Intermediate Manager[/td][td]18[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Expert Manager[/td][td]27[/td] [/tr]
[/table]
The second exciting update to the Sales Executive is filters. You'll now be able to choose the minimum and maximum impressions you're looking for. No more rejecting offers because the impressions don't fit your time-slot. This has been heavily requested by the community.
Manual Saving
Startup Company has always been using auto-save for handling savegames. This is convenient as players don't have to remember to save. However, with a tycoon game like Startup Company, you sometimes want to try things out without having to start over if it goes wrong.
Beta 22 introduces manual save functionality. You'll now have to save your game manually and choose a name for your savegame (basically "slots" as you know it from other games). The game will still auto-save (now every 5 minutes), but instead, save to a new "hidden" savegame and not overwrite your existing savegames.
Website Logo and Name
Beta 22 includes another highly demanded feature: Changing your website's name and selecting a logo.
Improved Employees Menu
I've been able to put some hours into the Employees Menu. For a long time, it has been missing a "multi-employee actions" feature. The list was also incredibly laggy later on in the game.
The new menu introduces a couple of new features:
Added icon next to speed to show if the employee is ready to be upgraded.
Show if an employee is unseated.
Remember the selected sorting order when re-opening the menu.
Added mass action functionality allowing you to apply the following actions to multiple employees at once: remove from desk, fire, send home (1/3 days), start/stop training and release from manager.
Greatly improved performance and removing lag when having more than 200 employees.
Employee Switcher
A brand new "Employee Switcher" will also be introduced in Beta 22. It will allow you to quickly cycle through your employees. The switcher will follow the order of your Employees Menu allowing you to customize the sorting.
When changing employee, the switcher will automatically stay on the same tab if it's available for the employee type.
Paying a Bonus
Beta 22 offers you the ability to pay your employees bonuses. Paying a bonus will instantly increase your employee's mood to 100%. The price is based on a combination of the employee's salary and their current mood.
The bonus is meant as an alternative to sending your employees home in order to restore mood. Once a bonus has been paid you'll have to wait 30 in-game days before paying another bonus.
Ad Contracts Daily Payment
The number one question asked since Ad Contracts were introduced has been "Why do I lose money when the finance overview says I earn money every day?". Most players never noticed that contracts were paid upfront and if you had a contract running for 7 days (for example) it would mean you'll have 6 days with no payments.
Beta 22 changed this and instead made payments happen daily.
I personally wasn't too happy with this change, as I liked the realism of having to take into consideration when contracts were paid out (I know a few of you agree with me). However, the frustration and confusion for new players simply wasn't worth it.
Scheduled Training Days
HR Managers will be updated too. Scheduled training days work identically with "Days Off" by simply allowing you to define weekdays in which the employee should train.
Once an employee starts a training day this cannot be cancelled (same with days off). "Days Off" and ''Training Days'' cannot be scheduled to the same weekdays (obviously).
Limitations have also been added: Setting "days off" requires an Intermediate Level. Setting "Training Days" requires an Expert level.
Improved Queue System
The current production system for developers, designers, etc. allows you to switch between the Repeat and Queue functionality. In Beta 22 those two functionalities are combined into one: an ''Infinite Repeating Queue''. The queue size has also been increased to 10.
Components will remain in the queue after they have been produced. The blue background indicates which component is currently in development.
Updated employee demands
"Fire Employee" is now rarer and will only occur for existing employees, and not new candidates.
Employees' demands are now more realistic, especially with desks, including demanding the correct Programmer/Executive desk at Expert level.
Differ the number of new demands generated on employee upgrade based on level.
New loans
Beta 22 brings two new loans allowing you to loan 1 and 2 million. Loans will only be available if you meet the minimum company valuation (valuation of all websites combined). Fever Inc (the 600k loan) has also been limited to companies with a minimum valuation of 1.2 million.
Last chance before bankruptcy
I've added an additional mechanic which gives the player a last chance before the company is declared bankrupt. The offer only comes if the player owns more than 15% of his website, hasn't bought out the investor and no loan options are available in the banks.
Improved hosting stats
The stats in the bottom of the hosting centre has been improved to support larger numbers. A "bottleneck alert" has also been added to make it easier to understand what to increase in order to increase produced CU.
Furniture/desk inventory
When removing furniture and desks from your office they will now be added to your "purchase inventory", allowing you to save items for later use.
Improved UI for placing unassigned employees
Beta 22 makes it much easier to find the right employee when you have a lot of unassigned employees. The new table allows sorting and introduces a "Hired" column, making it easy to find the newly hired employee.
Changes:
We made a lot of minor changes as well, which are outlined in the bulleted overview below:
Fixed bug causing employee not to quit if ignoring competitor offer.
Fixed bug causing employees with missing requirements not showing as flashing overlay.
Fixed two memory leaks causing lag in late-game.
Fixed bug causing merging competitors to fail or end prematurely.
Fixed bug causing events to be launched too early (at game start)
Fixed bug causing hosting building temperature not to update correctly.
Fixed bug causing employee name changes not to update on overlays.
Added support for panning using arrow keys.
Added PageUp/PageDown keyboard shortcut for changing floor.
Added Q/E keyboard shortcut to toggle between employees (switcher).
Improved sliders when buying/selling competitor stocks.
Added time limitation to investment offers.
Limited feature efficiency from a maximum of 104% to a maximum of 100% (only affects new savegames, not existing ones).
Changed overlay label to "At home" when not at the office.
Added "sell" feature to rack devices
Added the new 6-frame hand animations.
Suppressed "office upgrade"-confirmation when renting the very first office.
Show relevant Research category when clicking on "Research more" tips.
Added hovering + sorting to Manager's employee list.
Improved UI of rack stats and (mass)configure view.
Added localisation for watt, kilowatt and megawatt.
Added popup to the rack's Add Device view, allowing you to see throughput and size before buying.
Added warning when trying to add a device to a rack with no space left.
Added tooltip explaining manager bonus. Lowered the bonus when a manager isn't at the office.
Improved demands view in employees' stats menu.
Allowed employees to demand for "Coffee Machine" to be fulfilled by "Industrial Coffee Machine"
Features' level marked with blue if at framework's maximum.
Changed "Sell Out" achievement percentage from 10% to 50%.
Stopped action-depending events from firing when the time machine is active.
Changed the minimum marketing campaign conversion rate from 0% to 1%.
Improved UI of "change desk" view.
Added "Go to Manager" button to all employees.
As always, we're dedicated to making sure everything runs smoothly by fixing potential issues, listening to the community and continuing the development by working towards Beta 23.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
All the best,
Jonas & Robert
Devlog #41
Hi everyone,
This last week the main focus has been bugfixing, performance optimizing and searching for memory leaks. The new 400 employee limitation is really (really) hard to optimize, but we're am getting closer to a solution.
Fortunately there's some great news this week!
Improved UI for placing unassigned employees
Beta 22 will make it much easier finding the right employee when you have a lot of unassigned employees. The new table allows sorting and introduce a "Hired" column, making it easy to find the newly hired employee.
Beta 22 release date
It's finally time to announce the release date of Beta 22: March 15. If you have been following the Devlogs you probably know that Beta 22 will introduce a ton of changes and add a bunch of new features.
This means I'm going to spend the remaining time until release on testing and fixing bugs. Therefore there won't be any Devlog next week.
Minor changes
Fixed bug causing employee not to quit if ignoring competitor offer.
Fixed bug causing employees with missing requirements not showing as flashing overlay.
Fixed two memory leaks causing lag in late-game.
Fixed bug causing merging competitors to fail or end prematurely.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
That's it for this week!
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Devlog #40
Hi everyone!
This week I've continued the work on improving usability and adding "Quality of Life" features. Together with below, I've also been putting some time into preparing the game for Japanese. Today I can confirm that Beta 22 will officially add official support for Japanese!
Updated employee demands
"Fire Employee" is now more rare and will only occur for existing employees, and not new candidates.
Employees demands are now more realistic, especially with desks, including demanding the correct Programmer/Executive desk at Expert level.
Differ the amount of new demands generated on employee upgrade based on level.
New loans
Beta 22 brings two new loans allowing you to loan 1 and 2 million. Loans will only be available if you meet the minimum company valuation (valuation of all websites combined). Fever Inc (the 600k loan) has also been limited to companies with a valuation of minimum 1.2 million.
Last chance before bankruptcy
I've added an additional mechanic which gives the player a last chance before the company is declared bankrupt. The offer only comes if the player owns more than 15% of his website, hasn't bought out the investor and no loan options are available in the banks.
Improved hosting stats
The stats in the bottom of the hosting center has been improved to support large numbers. A "bottleneck alert" has also been added to make it easier to understand what to increase in order to increase produced CU.
Furniture/desk inventory
When removing furniture and desks from your office they will now be added to your "purchase inventory", allowing you to save items for later use.
Minor changes
Fixed bug causing events to be launched too early (at game start)
Fixed bug causing hosting building temperature not to update correctly.
Fixed bug causing employee name changes not to update on overlays.
Added support for panning using arrow keys.
Added PageUp/PageDown keyboard shortcut for changing floor.
Added Q/E keyboard shortcut for toggle between employees (switcher).
Improved sliders when buying/selling competitor stocks.
Added time limitation to investment offers.
Limit feature efficiency from maximum 104% to 100% (only affects new savegames, not existing ones).
Changed overlay label to "At home" when not at the office.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
That's it for this week!
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Devlog #39
Hi everyone,
This update is similar to the update of last week, I've been working around the clock to get as many "Quality of Life" improvements and fixes ready for Beta 22. I'm close to "feature locking", which means testing (which will be very intensive this time) and translation of the new strings in Beta 22.
Centralized Clockrate Controller V2
After the first version of the CCC was released I noticed very few players used the "rules feature". Although I still continued to get the question "What can I do against DDoS attacks?".
What I learned was that the current CCC simply was too complicated for most players. Very few players fully understood the activation and deactivation functionality and thereby avoided using it at all.
To fix this, Beta 22 will introduce a greatly simplified CCC. You no longer define activation and deactivation percentages, but instead simply set the clock rate you want the racks to switch to in case of a DDoS attack or a viral boost.
I hope this makes the CCC easier to use and easier to understand.
Improved Employees Menu
I've been able to put some hours into the Employees Menu. For a long time it has been missing a "multi employee actions" feature. The list was also incredible laggy late game.
The new menu introduces a couple of new features:
Added icon next to speed to show if the employee is ready to be upgraded.
Show if an employee is unseated.
Remember the selected sorting order when re-opening the menu.
Added mass action functionality allowing you to apply the following actions to multiple employees at once: remove from desk, fire, send home (1/3 days), start/stop training and release from manager.
Greatly improved performance and removing lag when having more than 200 employees.
Employee Switcher
A brand new "Employee Switcher" will also be introduced in Beta 22. It will allow you to quickly cycle through your employees. The switcher will follow the order of your Employees Menu allowing you customize the sorting.
When changing employee, the switcher will automatically stay on the same tab if it's available for the employee type.
Paying a Bonus
In Beta 22 you'll be able to pay your employees bonuses. Paying a bonus will instantly increase your employee's mood to 100%. The price is based on a combination of the employee's salary and their current mood.
The bonus is meant as an alternative to sending your employees home in order to restore mood. Once a bonus has been paid you'll have to wait 30 in-game days before paying another bonus.
Ad Contracts Daily Payment
The number one question asked since Ad Contracts was introduced has been "why do I lose money when the finance overview says I earn money every day?". Most players never noticed that contracts was paid upfront and if you had a contract running for 7 days (for example) it would mean you'll have 6 days with no payments.
Beta 22 will change this and instead make payments happen daily.
I personally wasn't too happy with this change, as I liked the realism of having to take into consideration when contracts was paid out (I know a few of you agree with me). However, the frustration and confusion for new players simple wasn't worth it.
Scheduled Training Days
HR Managers will be updated too. Scheduled training days works identical with "Days Off" by simply allowing you define weekdays in which the employee should train.
Once a employee starts a training day this cannot be canceled (same as with days off). "Days Off" and ''Training Days'' cannot be scheduled to the same weekdays (obviously).
Limitations has also been added: Setting "days off" requires Intermediate Level. Setting "Training Days" requires Expert level.
Improved Queue System
The current production system for developers, designers, etc. allows you to switch between Repeater and Queue functionality. In Beta 22 those two functionalities will be combined into one: an ''Infinite Repeating Queue''. The queue size has also been increased to 10.
Components will remain in the queue after they have been produced. The blue background indicates which component is currently in development.
Minor changes
* Added the new 6-frames hand animations.
* Suppressed "office upgrade"-confirmation when renting the very first office.
* Show relevant Research category when clicking on "Research more" tips.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
That's it for this week!
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Devlog #38
Hi everyone,
This week I've been working exclusively on Beta 22. It's been very different compared to the last 6 months of development, as the only new feature of Beta 22 is the bigger office (called Headquarter). Instead Beta 22 introduces tons of improvements and fixes to existing features, all requested by the community (you guys).
Improvements to Sales Executives/Leads
Beta 22 will introduce two big changes to the Sales Executive: First, the maximum amount of leads are being increased. For individual Sales Executives the numbers will be:
[table]
[tr] [td]Beginner[/td][td]3[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Intermediate[/td][td]6[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Expert[/td][td]9[/td] [/tr]
[/table]
However, if you choose to team up multiple Sales Executives using a Manager, you'll be able to share leads between your executives! The lead limits for teams will be a bit decrease:
[table]
[tr] [td]Beginner Manager[/td][td]9[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Intermediate Manager[/td][td]18[/td] [/tr]
[tr] [td]Expert Manager[/td][td]27[/td] [/tr]
[/table]
The second exciting update to the Sales Executive is filters. You'll now be able to choose the minimum and maximum impressions you're looking for. No more rejecting offers because the impressions doesn't fit your timeslot. This has been heavily requested by the community. I hope you all like it! :-)
Manual Saving
Startup Company has always been using auto-save for handling savegames. This is convenient as players doesn't have to remember to save. However, with a tycoon game like Startup Company, you sometimes want to try things out without having to start over if it goes wrong.
Beta 22 will introduce manual save functionality. You'll now have to save your game manually and choose a name for your savegame (basically "slots" as you know it from other games). The game will still auto-save (now every 5 minutes), but instead save to a new "hidden" savegame and not overwrite your existing savegames.
Website Logo and Name
Beta 22 is also including another highly demanded feature: Changing your website's name and selecting a logo.
Minor improvements
Added hovering + sorting to Manager's employee list.
Improved UI of rack's stats and (mass)configure view.
Added localisation for watt, kilowatt and megawatt.
Added popover to rack's Add Device view allowing to see throughput and size before buying.
Added warning when trying to add device to a rack with no space left.
Added tooltip explaining manager bonus. Dimmed bonus when manager isn't at the office.
Improved demands view in employee's stats menu.
Allow employee demand for "Coffee Machine" to be fulfilled by "Industrial Coffee Machine"
Feature's level marked with blue if at framework's maximum.
Changed "Sell Out" achievement percentage from 10% to 50%.
Stopped action-depending events from firing when time machine is active.
Changed minimum marketing campaign conversion rate from 0% to 1%.
Improved UI of "change desk" view.
Added "Go to Manager" button to all employees.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
That's it for this week!
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Beta 21 Released!
Hi there!
Beta 21 is now available. Restart Steam to get it right away!
We’ve just launched Beta 21 after extensive testing and made it available for everyone! Beta 21 is an exciting Beta version as it adds a lot of new features that add a whole new dynamic to the game, including features that were highly requested by players in our community.
As with each Beta release we just want to make sure that you’re aware of the fact that there might be some bugs or other unexpected issues. Jonas is standing by to make sure anything that might go wrong will get "hotfixed" as soon as possible. If you find any bugs or experience any issues make sure to either let us know on the community hub or by joining our Discord!
Support Tickets
We’ve now successfully added support tickets to Beta 21. These are basically questions and issues coming from your users that you will have to handle. It adds a whole new dynamic to Startup Company where you have to make sure that your users will be happy with the support that you provide them.
Tickets has to be handled within 36 hours. Anything later than that will decrease your Support Satisfaction.
Support Team
Tickets come in 3 different complexities (difficulties): low, medium and high complexity. To solve them, you have to hire new employees for a brand new role: Supporter.
As with any other employee type the Supporter comes with various degrees of experience such as Beginners, Intermediates and Experts.
All Supporters resolve tickets at the same speed (relatively to their own speed of course), but Intermediate and Expert Supporters will eventually become unhappy if they're forced to solve too many tickets below their level of expertise.
Support Dissatisfaction
If you fail to handle support tickets in time, it will directly impact your website's overall satisfaction.
The support dissatisfaction is working a bit different from Features as the decrease is subtracted directly from the subtotal of your current website satisfaction.
Recruiters and Headhunting
Beta 21 will introduce a revised recruitment functionality. You'll now have to use a "Recruiter" (or your CEO) in order to find and headhunt new employees.
You'll be able to poach (better known as steal) employees from your competitors and negotiate salaries and signing bonus in order to persuade them to take you up on your offer.
The new feature also allows you to research the candidates demands.
The CEO
A highly requested and popular demand of the community was the ability to add the CEO to the game. Beta 21 will deliver on that promise and will allow you to introduce "yourself" to the game as the CEO (Chief Executive Officer).
The first time you launch Beta 21 you will be required to customize your CEO. All CEOs will have a personal "bonus" that affects the rest of the game (see screenshot for more details).
The CEO will act identically with the new "Recruiter" employee type, however uniquely for the CEO he won't require a salary or age at all (I know, it's unrealistic, but imagine the Steam reviews if I retire the player themselves).
Age & Retirement
A new and very important feature will be added to all employees: age. As time goes by, your employees will start to age. It won't affect performance (mood or speed), but once the employee reaches the age of 65 he/she will retire.
Note: All employees from existing save games will be set to an age between 25 and 30 years old.
New office building postponed until Beta 22
In previous Devlogs we mentioned that a new office building will make its way into Beta 21. However, we were unable to optimize and test the new office building for Beta 21. It will make its entry in Beta 22 instead.
As always, we're dedicated to make sure everything runs smoothly by fixing potential issues, listening to the community and continue the development by working towards Beta 22.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Devlog #37
Hi there,
The past week has been very productive. Beta 21 is almost ready (more about that) and the development preparations for Beta 22 has started.
The new building will be available in Beta 21, so you'll have to wait a little bit longer, but the building is so big I wanna make sure we have enough time to improve the performance.
Change to the Supporter
In the last Devlog, it was announced that the Supporter employee would introduce a new mechanic where Beginner Supporters would be faster at resolving "Low Complexity Tickets" than Expert Supporters. A lot of you weren't very happy with this approach, so I decided to change it:
All Supporters now resolve tickets at the same speed (relatively to their own speed of course), but instead Intermediate and Expert Supporters will become unhappy if they're forced to solve too many tickets below their level of expertise.
I hope this change feels more natural to everyone :-)
Improved arms animations
The animations of arms will be improved from 3 frames to 6 frames. This change is intended to make everything feel a bit more smooth.
Beta 21 release date
We're now at the final stage of preparing the Beta 21 release. All strings has been sent to the translators. I'm targeting a Friday release, but nothing official yet, as I'm still awaiting confirmation from the translators. Fingers crossed!
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
That's it for this Monday!
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Devlog #36
Hi all!
Last week we made some exciting announcements regarding the new features that will be available in Beta 21. A highly requested community feature was the ability to set up a customer service / support department, which will be making it's way into the game. This won't be the only exciting new feature for Beta 21, as we're planning to reveal a bunch more in this Devlog!
You can click here to read the previous Devlog in which we also unveiled cool features for Beta 21.
Recruiters and Headhunting
Beta 21 will introduce a revised recruitment functionality. You'll now have to use a "Recruiter" (or your CEO) in order to find and headhunt new employees.
You'll be able to poach (better known as steal) employees from your competitors and negotiate salaries and signing bonus in order to persuade them to take you up on your offer.
The new feature also allows you to research the candidates demands.
Age & Retirement
A new and very important feature will be added to all employees: age. As time goes by, your employees will start to age. It won't affect performance (mood or speed), but once the employee reaches the age of 65 he/she will retire.
Note: All employees from existing save games will be set to the age of 25.
The CEO
A highly requested and popular demand of the community was the ability to add the CEO to the game. Beta 21 will deliver on that promise and will allow you to introduce "yourself" to the game as the CEO (Chief Executive Officer).
The first time you launch Beta 21 you will be required to customize your CEO. All CEOs will have a personal "bonus" that affects the rest of the game (see screenshot for more details).
The CEO will act identically with the new "Recruiter" employee type, however uniquely for the CEO he won't require a salary or age at all (I know, it's unrealistic, but imagine the Steam reviews if I retire the player themselves).
Progress of Beta 21
Right now we're super busy fixing bugs and testing out the new features. They still need a lot balancing. The new office building is also in the making (we hope to be able to present it in next week's Devlog).
Finally everything needs to be translated and tested on all platforms. You should expect a release in 2-3 weeks if everything goes well :-)
Do you have suggestions or ideas for the game?
Check out our Conflux board.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
That's it for this Sunday!
Best,
Jonas & Robert
Devlog #35
Hello everyone!
This week is an exciting week for us, as we're going to share some of features with you, which are planned for Beta 21.
It's always very interesting for us to implement new features and to see how the players will be managing and coming up with ingenious methods on optimizing everything. These new features will effect gameplay up to a certain degree where you'll have to manage another aspect in your Startup Company!
Support Tickets
Beta 21 will introduce support tickets. These are basically questions and issues coming from your users that you will have to handle. It adds a whole new dynamic to Startup Company where you have to make sure that your users will be happy with the support that you provide them.
Tickets has to be handled within 36 hours. Anything later than that will decrease your Support Satisfaction.
Support Teams
Tickets come in 3 different complexities (difficulties): low, medium and high complexity. To solve them, you have to hire new employees for a brand new role: Supporter.
As with any other employee type the Supporter comes with various degrees of experience such as Beginners, Intermediates and Experts.
However, unlike the other "production" employees the Supporters should be paired with matching ticket complexity. For example: Expert Supporters will be slower at resolving low complexity tickets than Beginner Supporters.
To overcome this challenge, you'll be able to set up Support Teams which will limit its members (employees) to the selected complexities.
Support Dissatisfaction
If you fail to handle support tickets in time, it will directly impact your website's overall satisfaction.
The support dissatisfaction is working a bit different from Features as the decrease is subtracted directly from the subtotal of your current website satisfaction.
All the notes that are listed above are simply a preview of what's coming up in Startup Company. These new changes and items are not yet available in the public build of the game.
We'd love to know what you think about the new features that are planned for Beta 21, make sure to leave a comment!
