Startup Freak is finally in full release with a number of requested features, UX improvements, and bug fixes! It's been a fun and challenging journey and the game has come quite a ways from its early days on itch.io and Steam early access launch. My aim has always been to bring you an experience that's unique and different, and captures a more faithful and in-depth look at software making and software startups.
But first, let's look at what's new:
Features
Added an "Experiment Mode" where you start with $1,000,000 so you can try out strategies at your heart's leisure. Achievements are disabled in this mode.
Added 24 new investor traits.
The overall products stats are now shown in the main view so you don't have to jump to the backlog.
You can now disable tutorial hints in the options menu.
You are now prompted to confirm when trying to overwrite a save file or load a save file.
Employees' salary can now only be reduced to 50% of their market value, and they take a few sprints before quitting. This avoids getting around paying redundancy by forcing the employee to quit.
Network topology graphics have been updated.
Add a "Guide" button to the main menu which opens the related article in Steam community. Be sure to check it out if some of the concepts in the game are unclear.
When moving to a new office, once the credited furniture have been placed you automatically exit "place mode". This avoids accidentally purchasing new items.
When opening the backlog, the view is automatically restored to feature mode.
Bug Fixes
Fixed: clicking on an employee does not open the right tab and focus that person.
Fixed: the store panel on the left does not use up the whole vertical space on tall resolutions.
Fixed: changing the screen resolution after the investment area has been opened causes clipping or a black bar at the bottom of the screen.
Fixed: when closing the investor UI there is a small pause.
Fixed: when closing the investor UI the store panel on the left can get stuck.
Hope you enjoy the changes. Happy starting up!
Beta 0.11.0 is Here!
G'day Startup Freaks!
Version 0.11.0 is indeed here. Now I know it has taken a while to get there, but that's not for a lack of working at it! This release focuses on some big UI changes which involved complex changes in the code. Excuses aside, let's have a look at what's in this build:
New Store UI
The biggest change in this release is the introduction of a new UI for the store. One of the biggest issue with the previous UI was that getting to and placing furniture was clunky and time-consuming. There is now a new slide-in UI on the left hand of the screen where you can get to the office store, as well as offices and logos. More importantly, when placing furniture you can easily span around and place multiple instances of the same item. The UI remains translucent while this happens.
Post Level-10 Task Perks
Another important change is that now all backlog tasks provide some form of bonus or benefit beyond level 10 (some tasks previously would have no additional benefit after this level). Here is a full listing of all tasks and what you can expect beyond level 10:
Infrastructure - Reduce overall infrastructure cost by 1%
Branding - Increase visitor count by 1%
All Marketing Tasks - Increase visitor count by 1%
Market Research - Continue opening up more areas on the product map
Job Advertising - Continue to increase the pool of candidates
Company PR - Continue to increase candidate quality
See Investors - Continue to find new investors
Office and Supplies - Reduce office rent by 1%
Other Improvements
Beyond these, many more bug fixes and improvements have been made to the game, such as:
Context menus are much improved. A lot of annoying situations where the context menu would popup, for example when dragging the product map, have been fixed.
Did a lot of balancing, and made the easy industry (Photo Sharing) easier and more accessible.
Fixed one of the offices having a $0 monthly rent (I apologize to all squatters).
Fixed a bug where a very large company valuation at the end of the game would actually cause the total cash to become negative.
Many many more fixes.
So What's Next?
Startup Freak has come a very long way since its early Beta versions on itch.io, and eventually its Early Access release on Steam. I have added a few large scale features, as well as many smaller improvements and fixes. At this point the plan is to put the game into full release some time in March. My focus will be to add extra polish and balancing to the game, fix any bugs, and also add content where possible. I'm also keen to add/improve some tutorials so that new players have a better idea of how to progress in the game.
The honest truth is that because Startup Freak launch was smaller than I anticipated it has not been possible to dedicate full time, and/or more cash to it. It remains something I work on in my spare time while holding a full-time job. Therefore it has made more sense for me to improve and solidify what's already there instead of indefinitely adding big new features and bloating the game without consolidating them.
I'll continue to do bug fixes and minor improvements to the game beyond the full release. I really appreciate all your support and feedback.
Happy Starting Up!
Beta 0.10.0
Hi Startup Freaks!
Yes, Beta 0.10.0 is finally here and to celebrate, a 20% promotion will be kicking in shortly! Without beating around the bush, let's get into what's new:
Copycats and Patents
I had already talked a bit about this in a previous update, and it has evolved since then. Let's go over the basics:
State of Affairs #4
Patents
I thought I would quickly share a couple of screenshots to explain how to the "patent" mechanic will work. The idea is that at some point later in the game, you will start facing competitors trying to copy your better features. You'll see a message like this:
As the text explains, a copied feature incurs a rating penalty. Your options are to ignore and let it happen (can be a valid choice), or patent the feature. Features that are being copied will be flashing so you will be able to identify them. You can file a patent from the feature details screen:
Patenting has an upfront cash cost, and will use up operations effort. Both go up exponentially based on the size of the feature so you'll want to think twice about patenting every feature.
Once the feature is patented, you'll see a special striped border around it:
I'm still trying to balance this feature so the numbers are all still being changed, but so far I'm happy with the overall design and I think it adds another dimension to the game.
Infrastructure
Besides the patent mechanic, I also wanted to pay a bit of attention to the infrastructure section. There are two changes I'm making here for the next release:
Adding a "detail" view. One the of the things that was sorely lacking here is numbers. You will now be able to see a few key information such as visitor vs user traffic being generated in each data center, how much traffic is coming into a data center from outside (i.e. from other data centers that are not active), and most importantly the exact server load that is being used in each data center.
Currently the spread of visitor traffic among regions is randomized at first but remains constant throughout each game. I am changing this so that throughout the game there are occasional shifts in where visitors are coming from. This should keep this part of a the game more dynamic and make you need to keep in top of where it's best to place servers.
I'm still a couple of weeks away form uploading this update; mostly focused on play-testing and balancing. It'll get there soon :)
State of Affairs #3
Hi Everyone,
As you have noticed, the last update, 0.9.0 was a little while ago. This is just a short update to let you know that development is still progressing with Startup Freak, alas a little slow at the moment. My purpose here is not to make excuses but I just want to give you a bit of background and context as to why this is:
Startup Freak, as you might know, has been a passion project and something I have worked on tirelessly in addition to my day job for the past 2.5 years. A huge amount of my personal time, including nights and weekends have gone into it. The past couple of months I have let myself reclaim some of that time and focus on other things. Keep in mind I'm still working on the game; just not as much.
I have done a good bit of brain-storming around larger system / feature changes. One of the areas, for example, is the concept of a "super feature" which requires you to do all sorts of research and information gathering to work out the optimal shape, size and make-up of the feature (filled a few butcher-papers worth of ideas). However I have not been able to settle on a good / meaningful / interesting concept here. This kind of goes back to one of the primary difficulties I have had with the design of this game: because a "Startup", even a software one, is such a broad and all-encompassing subject, it's really hard to design something that puts you in the shoes of an entrepreneur, allowing you to make meaningful decisions. Either I have to add an incredible amount of content to the game (something that is beyond a 1-person studio), or I have to settle for more generic / abstract features, which is something that I have already had negative feedback about.
In short, I'm parking some of these ideas until and unless I can come up with something really enjoyable and meaningful, and can be at least somewhat concrete.
For now my focus instead is going to be enhancing, improving, and increasing the depth of existing features. I'm currently actively working on a "patenting" concept whereby your features are at risk of being copied by other companies unless you protect them with a patent. This will build right into the backlog / feature UI and should add another interesting element to balance.
Beyond what I have said above, I'll be adding some more informational UI, for example to the Data Centers, to give the player more understanding of what is happening. That and a few more improvements will be coming in the next release which at this point will likely be in August.
Thanks again for all your support and understanding, and making it this far in a text-heavy post! I'll be aiming to put out update posts more regularly to let you know of the progress.
- Poya
Beta 0.9.0
Hey fellow Startup Freaks! as promised Beta 0.9.0 is here with a bunch of improvements! Our focus with this release was mostly around employees, their skills, and training. A few other improvements and bug fixes have been made too. Here is the full list of features and fixes:
Features
Added a new training UI. You can now train any of the employees' existing skills, not just their primary one!
Training now requires an up-front payment as well as implicit cost of the salary spent. You can clearly see the total cost, and how long before you can expect a return on your investment.
You can only train an employee to a maximum level of 25.
The employee UI now displays the "direction" of happiness so it's easier to tell if an employee is getting happier or sadder.
After an investor offer is accepted, you can now see the exact skill bonus that he/she applies to your employees. The bonus is also displayed on the shareholder UI.
Added sound effects to the investment mini-game.
Security features, performance features, and tests, display an area of effect during design so it's easier to tell exactly which squares are affected.
Similarly, the market research selection circle displays an area of effect.
Bugs
Fixed: Happiness emoji colors don't match the happiness bars in the employee UI.
Fixed: Happiness emojis appear in front of the skill tooltip UI.
Fixed: Investor skill bonuses don't apply to people in the current candidate pool.
What's Next
As I had mentioned in my previous post, we'll be taking longer for the next release. I really have some ambitious goals and would like add some larger features for the mid-late game with the aim of adding more depth. I really appreciate your patience and will be sure to post regular progress updates. If there are major issues hot fixes will still come out per usual.
Enjoy!
State of Affairs #2
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to give you a bit of an update on what's cooking in the Startup Freak kitchen! Since the last update I have been working on a number of improvements based on feedback from players. I won't go into a lot of detail here (I will post about it when the update is ready), but a few of them are related to employees and their training, and some other UI quirks. The update will be released within the next week.
A Humble Request
There are two things that I would really appreciate a lot. 1) Reviews on Steam and 2) Giving us feedback in any shape you like (email, discord, discussion board, etc).
What's Beyond the Next Update
As I had mentioned in a previous post, I have dedicated a couple of smaller updates to making general improvements and bug fixing. The next update, however, will include larger changes and some new mechanics which will hopefully move the game into some new territory! Here are some of the things I have in mind:
A mechanic around features being copied by competitors, and the ability to protect them with patents.
A new mechanic that is only at a conceptual stage (will need prototyping). I can't give you too much detail, but I can say that if it works out, it will probably be called "super features".
Some significant balancing around task levels. At the moment most backlog tasks become ineffective past level 10, however as you build up your team it becomes too easy to get to that level.
Improvements to tutorials and better explaining game mechanics.
Other improvements as time allows.
As you can expect, these are big changes and will take some time, so the next update may not be out quite so soon. I'll be sure to post updates so you know how things are moving forward. And as always I'll be listening for feedback and bug reports and if a quick update is needed, will get it out as soon as possible.
Some Notes on Feedback From Players
There has been a lot of feedback both in discord, the community forums, and reviews. I appreciate all of it. There have been a lot of positive notes and I think people enjoy the unique aspects of this game. I would say the negative feedback broadly falls into one of two categories:
Length and replayability of the game:
There has been some feedback around this and we are listening. One of the unique aspects of the game is that unlike most tycoons, the game is turn based. This means there is next to no "padding" in the game. You are constantly making decisions, which in turn can make the average game shorter. My focus with some of the new mechanics (see section above) is to add new challenges in the mid-late game, increase the challenge, and make the games longer.
A few people have also mentioned that there should be an endless mode where you sell your company and use the cash to start a new one. I really think this would not work on many levels. The game is about startups. Creating a new company using millions or even billions of dollars will take all challenge out of the game. Having said that, you don't have to sell your company at a given point in time. You can continue to build out your product indefinitely. Again some of the new mechanics and balancing should hopefully help with keeping the late game more interesting.
Mechanics not explained well:
While a lot of effort has gone into the game tutorials and explaining game concepts, I know some players are still facing a challenge. Some of it has to do with the terminology and words used. We'll be looking to improve this; by adding more tutorials, having more "in your face" reports and dialogs as information becomes available in the game, and spreading a few tool tips around the UI for additional information.
Translations
When the game was released there were two options for translation: either the game would make enough that could afford to have it translated to different languages commercially, or the player base would volunteer to help translate it. Unfortunately the game has not made enough to make the former possible. Several people have volunteered and translated portions of the game (thank you so much for that!), but I think there is too much text in the game and some of it is highly technical, making it difficult for volunteer translators. The game has around 8000+ words, many of which are in the elaborate in-game emails (something that actually took a lot of time to write but most players won't even read haha).
Anyway all of that is to say that I would still love to release the game in other languages, but it will depend on one of the options above working out.
Thanks and have fun!
Beta 0.8.1 - Hot Fix
Hi Everyone,
While we are working on new features for Startup Freak, we have had a couple of bug reports that we thought were too important to leave for a later release, so we are getting those out in this hot fix. Here they are:
Bug Fixes
Fixed: Sometimes changing the price of a plan (usually to a price that's much higher than the market expectation) causes the game to get into an error state in the following sprint.
Fixed: Employees will try to walk to a furniture that's being moved by the player, causing an error.
Fixed: Sometimes a furniture that's being moved can't be placed back down (related to the above).
Unfortunately if your game save is already in an erroneous state, it's not possible to continue playing it. The new auto-save system should help with that so check your earlier saves.
Thanks!
Beta 0.8.0
Hi Everyone!
A whole week has passed since the launch of Startup Freak, and it has been an emotional roller coaster. Thank you so much for all your support and feedback; Our discord server is now getting pretty big and we are receiving a ton of awesome ideas on the idea board!.
We have had a few people talk about the difficulty of the game and how some concepts are not clearly explained. We are working on improving these in the game, but in the meantime please head over to this community disucssion and check out some of the tips and guides.
Meanwhile we haven't been sitting around and checking the bank account (OK maybe a little)! Version 0.8.0 is already here with a bunch of improvements:
Features
Added auto-saving. There are 3 slots, and auto-saves happen every 10 sprints.
Added a button for fixing all product bugs.
Added a context menu button to features to fix all bugs for that feature.
Added extra buttons in the marketing UI to increment/decrement the spending by $10,000 (your fingers will thank us).
Increased the capacity of the 'Amaranthine' (level 10) server.
Auto-upgrade items like chairs and desks now show the number of items that will be upgraded next to the price.
The task details page where the research level is displayed now shows exactly what type of skill is required.
If the player purchases anything that is too expensive (more than 30% of total cash), a confirmation message is displayed.
Before moving to a new office, a confirmation message is displayed with the cost of the move.
Bug Fixes
Fixed: the marketing tooltips sometimes appear behind other UI elements.
Fixed: sometimes the initial pricing hint for the analytics product is larger than the allowable maximum ($9999)
On the issue of bugs, we are still seeing some error logs that are hard to explain or reproduce. On our end we are adding more logging so hopefully we can track them down, but we really need your help too. If you are seeing the game crash or behave incorrectly, please get in touch. Your save files will be especially helpful to get any issues sorted.
Have fun launching!
Beta 0.7.3
Firstly a huge thanks for all the awesome support from all the fans leading up to, and during launch! Hanging out with all of you on discord was a blast. Also a whole lot awesome videos have been hitting YouTube. I'm humbled and glad that people are enjoying the game!
With all of that behind us, we are back to the business of improving the game. First, a couple of particularly annoying bugs have been raised by a number of people; Build 0.7.3 addresses these:
Bug Fixes
We are still seeing some bugs in our logs but would really appreciate if you can report any issues you are seeing. Having first hand information and reports from players will help us hugely in improving the quality and stability of the game.
A Quick Guide
We have been getting a number of feedback items about the difficulty of the game and lack of explanation about things like Churn. We are looking for ways to improve on these, but in the mean time put together a simple guide to help with a few of these concepts. Hopefully this helps some:
