[h1] Development Update for 2024 [/h1] Happy new year everyone! We hope everyone has had a happy and healthy holiday season! Also welcome to all the new players who have joined us lately, thanks for your support and all the reviews! We have been busy gathering player feedback and bringing improvements and refinements to Mad Games Tycoon 2 and we're here to highlight some of the most recent changes to the game, with the latest patch coming out today. Overall, there have been about 40 changes implemented thanks directly to feedback from the community and we are continuing to update the game, so we're not done yet! [h1] Highlights of recent changes [/h1] The random option for both game reviews and NPC platform popularity has been reworked to give players more options and variation in each new game they start. For reviews you can now have a random factor of +/- 3%, 6%, 9% or 12% on all your game reviews. This can add a bit more variety to your game reviews, sometimes working in your advantage, sometimes not. For platforms, options of +/- 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% (100% will be totally random, as it worked before not a +/- % increase) of the standard NPC platform sales have been added. This will alter the successful platforms you have to release your games on and compete against with your own consoles. Making some platforms more popular, and others less popular every new game. (Update Jan 18th, 2024 - this has been changed in the latest patch to random platform popularity - low (+/-25%), medium (+/-50%), high (+/-75) and full (this will be the 100% totally random option). This was changed for better user clarity) - New Sandbox options have been added, bringing the total sandbox choices for the player to nearly 50! With many of these options having further options so that players can fine tune their game to play exactly the way they want. It is now possible to set the working speed of employees in sandbox mode. With this setting you can increase (or decrease) the work speed of employees making them complete task much faster. While this will change the balance of the game, it will also make it possible to have much smaller teams of employees accomplish similar task of large teams. Increase your indie studio feel! You can also change the quality of NPC game releases. This will allow you to play on easy with the NPC releasing top tier games, or on legendary difficulty with competition releasing much worse games and a whole host of options in-between. And the option to set the maximum number of staff applications was added as well. These options continue to push forward the ‘freedom of choice’ to play your way we have intended to give players since adding the sandbox mode. We don’t want you to just have unlimited money and call that a sandbox mode. We want you to be able to experiment, play, and even break the balance of the game however you would like. Whether that is the super easy, or the near impossible! - Subsidiaries have gotten some attention. We have added 3 additional IP focuses for them, and a few new sorting options to make it easier to tell which are your successful subsidiaries and which are your money pits! - Throughout the game there have been numerous ‘quality of life’ additions, new filters, additional information added to tool tips, search functions, menu and change save states, and more. One of the larger quality of life changes is the ability to specify automatic research across all categories, this was added a few patches ago but now lets the player have much more control over what research they want to automate. 20 additional save slots were added by request for players who like to have multiple games or multiple saves of the same game going with less limitation. And numerous bug, balance fixes and more. As always, you can find a full list of all the recent changes in the patch notes below or the latest up to date patch notes on the steam discussion forum. [h1] Community Engagement [/h1] As stated above, we still have some upcoming updates and we have a list of feedback already gathered from players we continue to utilize to see what is possible but more feedback is always welcome! Feel free to participate in our community and let us know what you think! Perspectives, suggestions, general feedback and the overall support from the community has driven forward the game as it nears the 3rd year anniversary from Early Access in January 21, 2021, to it’s full release in May of last year. So again, we would like to say thank you to everyone! And lets make 2024 another great year for Mad Games Tycoon 2! [h1] Full Recent Patch Notes [/h1] BUILD 2024.01.16A -------------------------------- - You can now sort the GameTabs (in the menu: Filter for GameTabs). - Game options: You can now set how strongly the "Random platform popularity" works. - Game options: You can now set how strongly the "Random Review Rating" works. - In sandbox mode, you can now set the quality of the NPC games. - When you develop a sequel, the gameplay features and languages are now automatically carried over from the predecessor. - Subsidiaries menu: You can now sort by total revenue share and revenue in the last 24 months, - Subsidiaries (tooltip): Your revenue share and monthly costs are now displayed. - In some menus, games can now be sorted by platform type (mobile, arcade, etc.) and game type (sequel, addon, etc.). - MOD: (NpcGames.txt & NpcIPs.txt) If you add the tag , no SpinOffs will be created from this game. BUILD 2024.01.07A -------------------------------- - The option "Subsidiaries keep their consoles" is now also available for the standard game and in multiplayer mode. - The guarantee amount of publishing offers is now linked to the difficulty level. - The working speed of employees can now be set in sandbox mode. - 20 more save game slots added. - Game reports (list): The genre is now displayed as an icon and the release date. - (Right games list) It is now saved in the save game whether a game is enlarged or reduced. - (Subsidiaries) Three more slots for IP focus added. - (Menu: My Games -> Reviews) The games can now be sorted by release date. - (Sell licenses menu) Search function added. - (Licenses menus) Licenses can now be sorted by suitable/unsuitable genre. - BALANCE: The topics "Aliens" and "Robots" are now suitable for role-playing games. - BUG: Closed game studios have bought IPs. - BUG: (Mod) Licenses for which no good and bad genre have been set, sometimes genres have been set completely randomly. - BUG: (Mod) No suitable genre could be set for sports licenses (except sports games). - BUG: (Sandbox) The setting "Normal employee salary" incorrectly increased the salary by 10%. - BUG: (Multiplayer) You could not give away the "Workshop" technology. BUILD 2023.12.29A -------------------------------- - BUG: Not all games counted for the console bonus. - BUG: In sandbox mode, staff salaries were sometimes calculated incorrectly. - BUG: When Russian language was enabled, there was no contract work for console development. BUILD 2023.11.02A -------------------------------- - Marketing: Games which are in the queue are now automatically selected. - Men can now have blond hair. - BUG: (Start Menu->Sandbox) Some settings were not saved. - BUG: (Console Menu->Consten Reduction and Durability) Sometimes it was incorrectly displayed that something was "In Progress". - BUG: The number of staff applications was too high. - BUG: You could not add copy protection and anti-cheat software "instantly" during development. - BUG: Closed companies offered contract work. - BUG: (Menu -> Publishing offers) Sorting by game rating did not work correctly. - BUG: (Menu -> Development Report) Estimated game rating could vary slightly if you opened the menu several times in a row. - BUG: (Multiplayer) Sometimes subsidiaries were identified incorrectly. - BUG: (Multiplayer) Crashes could occur in some menus after loading an old save game. BUILD 2023.09.01A -------------------------------- - (Game concept menu -> Buy licenses, Copy protection, Anti cheat) You can now activate a checkbox to add the objects to the game concept immediately. - (Sandbox) You can now set the maximum number of staff applications. (max. 30-150) - (Multiplayer) You can now set the suitability of genres to be random. - (Subsidiary menu) The management costs and genre are now displayed.