First of all, I’m sad to let you know that Festivals - Headliners won’t be able to take part in Steam’s Next Fest the coming week. These past few weeks have been filled with unforeseen personal circumstances, and the current version of the game, along with a bunch of changes and new features which are almost ready but not quite yet, couldn’t be finished in time to be able to get the demo version ready and reviewed in time for Next Fest. So instead we’re planning to take part in the October edition of Next Fest, for which the date still needs to be announced. Hopefully this will also allow us to stick with our initial goal of releasing the early access version of the game soon after our next fest participation. [h2]Some background insights[/h2] Being an Indie game, and me not being the best at marketing anyway, Festivals - Headliners really depends on positive media coverage during public events like Next Fest, and participating with a half-finished, buggy game would be a waste of the possible attention the game could get. The change in Steam’s policy on allowing games to participate in Next Fest no more than once has only made this worse, so we really need to be careful how we can best use our chance to be included. While it would probably be possible to get some working version of the game out on a relatively short term, I’ve decided I want to stick to my original goal of making Festivals - Headliners an awesome simulation game with a great player experience, and I’ll need more time to get us there. That being said, some changes are coming to my professional life to allow me to spend more time on passion projects like this, so with any chance, more updates are to be rolled out for playtesting soon! [h1]Vending Workers[/h1] One of those updates rolling out soon are vending workers, the crew to staff commercial objects and sell products to your visitors. You will need to hire a bunch of them during the show phase, or your commercial vending object can not be used by visitors (or other crew). [h1]Booking Performances[/h1] It will soon be possible to book performances yourself instead of relying on a generated set of performances. A simple user interface has been created where you can see information about a performance, the associated costs and the attractiveness of each act. You can easily book, rearrange and cancel booked performances from the Stage InfoPanel. Note that performances can only be canceled (and by that refunded) before the performance has started. [h1]Attractiveness Mechanic[/h1] Another update coming to playtest soon is the new event attractiveness mechanic. This rating is based on a couple of things: [list] [*] Your event site has a base rating, which is determined by the map you select to host your event on. This is static and doesn’t change over time. [*] The attractiveness rating of each object you place on your event site. Each object now has an attractiveness, certain objects like fences and generators have a low rating, while nice looking food trucks or decorations have a high rating. [*] The performances you book for your event count highest towards your total events total attractiveness. You can use the new performance booking interface to optimize your lineup, and get the best rating possible. [/list] The total attractiveness rating of your event is shown at all times in the statusbar, and can be hovered over to show detailed information about the components making up current attractiveness. [h1]Product Resources and Stock Keeping[/h1] Currently under heavy development is the new (product) resources mechanic, where you will need to make sure each object has enough resources in stock, in order to be able to sell products to your visitors or feed your crew / performers. New Storage objects will be added to allow you to keep resources in stock and ready to be used to resupply vending objects during your event. Certain types of resources require a certain type of storage, like burgers need to be stored in a refrigerator, and beer needs to be stored in tanks or beer kegs. Also, an additional “Runner” crew type will be added, which will make sure resources are transported between objects, and if no resources of any type are available anymore, they will transport them from the resource spawn point.