Changes

• Added search bar to team selection window
  
• You can now switch between windowed and exclusive fullscreen, enabled by Unity 2018 upgrade
  
• Room auras are now globally capped and mood aura calculation has improved
  
• Added ability to click arrows in material preview panel to scroll between styles

Fixes

• Made gable generation more robust, e.g. for ramp shaped roofs
  
• Autosave now happens after wage negotiations have finished
  
• Fixed bugs when merging rooms using wall drag tool inside an outdoor area and undoing
  
• Fixed update teams for project management not getting updated when renaming teams
  
• Game will now remember when a name generator failed to find a unique name and exit early to avoid simulation slow downs
  
• Game will now fallback to built-in company name generator if modded company name generator fails to find anymore unique names
  
• Fixed buggy interactions between wind turbines and blueprints
  
• Fixed Hardware Inc. map conveyor belts not being switched on by default. Can be fixed in older saves by power cycling them using connected conveyor belts
  
• Game will only warn about missing lead designer progress once, to avoid spam caused by trainer mod
  
• Failed to get cursor position: Success messages from Steam Deck now ignored
  
• Fixed temperature output usage estimations in UI to account for room size

Changes

• Added company sign customization options
  
• Highlighting for selected carpets and signs has been added
  
• Default buildings are now loaded from RAM, so custom buildings can be cloud synced with Steam

Fixes

• Fixed Gas boiler, Heat pump and Roof AC usage estimations, that would otherwise make them break too quickly and make them seem cheaper in the build menu
  
• Fixed bug that would make game think manufacturing process was invalid because a step was skipped
  
• Fixed an infinite loop bug when dragging a wall in cramped spaces
  
• Fixed divide by zero error in add-on sales calculation
  
• Fixed walls also being lowered for pillars when toggling walls
  
• Fixed component printer or assembler being marked as sending to an invalid destination in cases with many splits and merges along the assembly line
  
• Fixed staff not picking closest furniture if they had assigned rooms and the furniture was placed directly above on another floor

Changes

• All car models updated

Fixes

• Fixed fire alarms being animated on load
  
• Fixed being able to place wind turbine in the middle of road and vice versa
  
• Fixed bugs that would cause employees to get stuck until reload when deleting elevators they were using
  
• Fixed game sometimes failing to restore stolen or burnt furniture

Changes

• Made it take a little longer before lead designers quit over unmet demands
  
• Team changes in project management is now also applied instantly for support, marketing and update tasks
  
• Moved notifications out of the way of the money label in build mode
  
• Added option to update tech for project management

Fixes

• Fixed wall furniture not getting collisions updated when dragging wall out
  
• Made lead designers move computer if they are at work when they demand a private office and made them better at picking private offices when it happens
  
• Fixed employees sometimes not waiting for IT to finish fixing their assigned computers before moving onto another free computer

Changes

• Save files and some settings are now synced with Steam Cloud
  
• Canteens and lounges are no longer treated as special rooms when assigned to teams, so employees stop avoiding them
  
• Furniture that contains perishables can now define a expiration date, to avoid paying for a full refill every day

Fixes

• Game will no longer load mods with invalid name generators instead of failing silently during gameplay
  
• Fixed a couple of edge cases when placing single room duplicate in existing room, using wall drag or rectangle split causing game to break

Software Inc. has entered its beta phase, which warranted an update of the now 5 year old trailer.

• Added add-ons, which are extra products that can be developed and sold for a software or hardware product
  
• Added software updates, which allows increasing the tech level of a product to extend its life, and updates are now required to release bug fixes
  
• Added subscription-based software
  
• Added lead designers, who heavily impact the sales and marketing efforts of a product and have demands to boot
  
• Added hardware design system, so each hardware product's look can be customized
  
• Overhauled hiring with a limited hiring pool that refreshes every month
  
• Overhauled employee traits, there are currently 30 traits
  
• You can now have up to 4 founders when you start a new company
  
• Overhauled utility values and prices and added more ways to generate and store electricity
  
• Overhauled product reviews, you now get 3 reviews from various reviewers that focus on specific aspects of the product and company
  
• Improved rectangle room building and added wall dragging tool
  
• Overhauled notification system and look, issue messages now stick around until they are fixed
  
• Added bikes, body odour and bathing
  
• Save files, blueprints and some settings are now synced with Steam Cloud

You can still play Alpha 11 by switching to the legacy branch in Steam, click here to see how.

Alpha 11 save files are compatible with Beta 1, but won't take advantage of many of the new features, like add-ons and hardware designs.

With the release of beta 1 the price of Software Inc. goes from $14 to $16 (Depending on your region). The plan was always to increase the price of the game as it neared completion. This would make the game cheaper the earlier you bought it, as a reward for backing it early.

The game is now 5 times bigger than I originally planned and I've been developing it for 7 years, rather than the 3 I initially planned for. Your support and feedback, and my enjoyment of developing Software Inc. has motivated me to continue improving on the game for so long, and it has made the game so much larger than what it would've otherwise been.

Now it's at the point where I'll be spending most of my time polishing what is there, rather than expanding on it (I won't rule out feature creeping completely, though ;). This includes finishing up some game mechanics that aren't quite there yet, like digital distribution. And I'll finally be pushing towards actually finishing the game.

Thank you so much for sticking with me all this time! But also thank you for not sticking with me all this time, but just playing it a couple of times 3 years ago and forgetting all about it, I still appreciate the support!

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Changes

• Employee notification will now select and move to employee when clicking, instead of opening detail window, when there is only one
  
• Nerfed hosting deals a bit
  
• Added support for spawning notifications from background threads
  
• Added hint about spacing out component printer output to avoid excessive recycling

Fixes

• Fixed grass not refreshing when undoing destroying path
  
• Fixed bug with watch in new game menu when changing personality after enabling watch trait
  
• Fixed traits filters for HR not being copied over when copying team

Unity made some undocumented changes in 2018 that broke crash reporting. Not sure if it's ever going to work in Linux or OSX again

Changes

• Employees with the private office demand will now wait around for their assigned computer, in case it's broken or being fixed by an IT supporter
  
• Added date for next phase change for active projects in project management window
  
• Style picked in style picker panel is now applied to furniture placed from inventory
  
• Added fallback toggle in furniture editor in case the mod is not available on target PC
  
• Added label to main menu when new version is available

Fixes

• Fixed company sign no longer showing up
  
• Fixed a bunch of bugs relating to the wall dragging tool and undoing
  
• Fixed not being able to close wage negotiation window if player rejected poach deal with only employee left in negotiation
  
• Fixed bug where duplicating room could cause doors and windows to be improperly attached to wall
  
• Table grouping is now recalculated on load to fix any corruption

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Changes

• Upgraded from Unity 2017 to Unity 2018
  
• Reduced impact of low creativity score for easy and medium difficulty
  
• Project managers can now schedule updates
  
• Subscription-based toggle is retained when clicking Make sequel from releases window
  
• All errors found in furniture mods is now also displayed in main menu modding window
  
• Added ability to pick lead designer specialization in new game menu
  
• Added creativity estimation to design document window

Fixes

• Product and component printers will no longer work in rented maps when the rooms they are in has not been rented
  
• Fixed employees working bugs in update tasks being counted in such a way that player was not getting warning about missing specializations
  
• Fixed fire inspectors requiring alarms and sprinklers in outdoor areas
  
• Fixed how speed of update task is calculated
  
• Fixed project management cancelling support work before any sales had been made
  
• Fix for employees getting stuck waiting for an elevator until reload
  
• Game will no longer load build and navigation boundaries that are defined in clockwise order in modded furniture

Changes

• Added P-key to report screenshot and added screenshot preview to feedback window
  
• Game no longer freezes on launch while loading steam workshop mods
  
• Added window to visualize who is working on what for development tasks
  
• Staff will now ignore which rooms they are assigned to when looking for a couch to loiter on

Fixes

• Fixed receiving money for wind turbines when moving from rural plot, when they haven't been purchased yet
  
• Fixed unlocking new furniture not making furniture visible immediately if build mode is active

Changes

• Made lead designers with the private office demand prioritize rooms with only 1 PC, if they haven't been assigned to any (Finding a PC is still FCFS)
  
• Made right click to drag compatible with all tools that use right click to cancel
  
• Separated subscription based, software, hardware and add-on income in finance window
  
• Added tooltip to finance window about not being able to use interest from bonds until withdrawn
  
• Lead designer private office demand is now only breached if another employee in the room is also sitting at a computer

Fixes

• Fixed lead designers having experience with software types that are not out yet
  
• Fixed new task priotization algorithm for HR hiring and education ignoring player chosen specialization filter
  
• Fixed changing the wrong team color if the team list is sorted by color
  
• Fixed game breaking when publisher would try to market add-ons during development

Changes

• Publishing deals now affect any forced add-ons as well, e.g. joysticks
  
• Improved output of furniture editor when saving furniture with no base

Fixes

• Made the demand breach notification work for founders demanding private offices
  
• Fixed dirt paths no longer being visible
  
• Fixed game sometimes overestimating active workers on a project causing slowdowns
  
• Fixed IPs becoming public domain while a sequel is being developed and cancelling development
  
• Fixed getting message about console running out of stock, when it was really a joystick halting sales for it

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.

Changes

• New 3D models for heat pump, wind turbine and battery

Fixes

• Fixed companies cancelling player distribution deal when they didn't have any to begin with
  
• Fixed employees holding up food queue after already having had food
  
• Fixed furniture editor not working properly with furniture that doesn't have a base
  
• Fixed not being able to place buildings along road on north or west side of the map
  
• Fixed out of stock message going away after a couple of seconds
  
• Fixed AI IP deals not taking add-ons into account and having negative values for products not making profits yet

Changes

• Added ability to mute issue notifications
  
• Capped crunchtime hangover at 1 year

Fixes

• Fixed fire alarm not shutting off after fire when restoring rooms
  
• Probable fix for employees randomly getting stuck going into car, until reload
  
• Fixed game breaking when undoing replacing furniture
  
• Fixed broken furniture still applying room boosts
  
• Fixed furniture mods breaking due to having sub transforms with the same name as the furniture, which could make lamps break game
  
• Fixed not being able to place furniture outside if there were any pillars present on map

Changes

• Added lead designer inspiration warning
  
• Added creativity progress bar when hovering over applicable design tasks
  
• Reduced creativity impact on sales for easy and medium difficulty
  
• Reduced publisher marketing efforts to a point where they can make a profit
  
• Added ability to see all specialization stars in employee window
  
• Added development progress of all specializations to peer review window at time of review start
  
• Separated Food and Coffee bills

Modding

• Removed furniture UpgradeFrom variable, you only need to define UpgradeTo now

Fixes

• Fixed active users doubling every month if product has any add-ons
  
• Fixed active users gained from add-ons and active user loss modifiers not being scaled down by days per month
  
• Fixed bug introduced in recent patch where notifications would collapse after 5 seconds when interacted with, instead of cancelling collapse action
  
• Fixed furniture being placed on wall behind the closest wall for furniture that can be moved vertically
  
• Employees will no longer neglect hunger and bladder while chatting away at the water cooler

Changes

• Added links to wiki in mod editors if there are no mods to edit
  
• Moved contract alpha phase Promote button to match design phase

Fixes

• Fixed cases of employees ending up with 5 traits
  
• Fixed game showing education available for specializations that haven't been unlocked yet
  
• Added build menu categories to default localization
  
• Fixed lead designer's Active Projects count being misleading, as it wasn't updating every frame
  
• Fixed getting errors about furniture not fitting anywhere because the modded furniture it was placed on was not loaded
  
• Fixed being able to place cubicle walls up against a wall in such a way the game wouldn't register as inside the room

Changes

• Added warning about no applicable lead designers
  
• Changed reviewer score weighting a bit, so who's who and trend won't hurt the player's feelings as much
  
• Changed how reviewers determine level of marketing to account for company reputation

Fixes

• Fixed GLTF importer having flipped UV map, hardware designs in mods will need to have thier UVs flipped after this patch
  
• Fixed getting furniture assignment error when changing team name
  
• Fixed placing outside only furniture giving player wrong error message when trying to place in room or fenced area
  
• Fixed game breaking when firing lead designer from demand selection
  
• Fixed infinite loop of leader tutorials being spawned when opening company detail window
  
• Fixed game breaking when trading IP with archived products that are lead designer owned
  
• Fixed not being able to upload .obj files to the workshop for hardware designs
  
• Fixed localization generation from console not working
  
• Fixed game breaking when firing a lead designer who is currently working on a contract
  
• Fixed furniture not being visible from upper floors when it pokes through the outer wall and walls have been lowered

Fixes

• Fixed not being able to rename software in development
  
• Fixed game breaking when calling temporary staff with subway nearby causing them to spawn before the AI was initialized
  
• Fixed bugs with personality and trait selection when switching between founders
  
• Fixed watch being saved with founder
  
• Fixed old saves breaking when game would try to archive old products
  
• Fixed map position in main menu when there are no save games
  
• Made boxes wait 0.25 seconds before going on a pallet instead of going on because it was blocked for a single frame
  
• Fixed new deterministic RNG resulting in bad randomness, like employees getting sick all the time or never
  
• Fixed salary staying at $0 when rehiring a founder as lead designer after buying them out
  
• Fixed issue where a mod could not have the same path as another if the first part of their root folder names matched

Fixes

• Fixed support doing working animation when they are waiting for reports
  
• Fixed 10% speed boost tip on specialization stars not disappearing when moving mouse
  
• Fixed update task SCM description
  
• Fixed capitalization of names in reviews
  
• Fixed getting IP owner error when promoting to alpha with a lead designer that has the IP owner demand
  
• Fixed issue where merging a room into a room which had an elevator could cause some issues down the line that would break the game
  
• Fixed staff accidentally reserving computers when subways are present, making them unavailable for employees, until computer is re-assigned or replaced
  
• Fixed market analysis window being bugged for a year in old saves
  
• Fixed digital add-on sales not being summed properly causing player digital distribution share to get over 100%
  
• Fixed game breaking when releasing a product or finishing a contract with a lead designer that has since been fired

Fixes

• All code mods will need recompilation on launch to avoid old mods crashing the game because they are no longer compatible

Click here to see how to join the Unstable branch.
Alpha 11 saves are compatible but will not take full advantage of new features.


You can now release products for your products, for maximum productivity!


The utility system has been massively improved with more options to generate and store electricity.


Your workers will now be able to bike to work and smell bad in the process.


There's a new class of employee in the game, which has huge effects on your products and your HR.


You no longer have to imagine what your products will look like in the hands of your customers.


It's now much easier to find the exact employee you want, but also harder to find tons of them. Plus each employee have unique quirks.


You no longer have to start your company off alone.


No more run-on sentences, you get 3 simple sentences to sum up your product, but with a little more flair than before.


You can now drag walls and plop down room prefabs in existing rooms.


Notifications are now grouped and easier to manage.


Upgrade the tech of your products and manage patching schedules.


You can now edit furniture mods using an in-game visual editor.

Changes

• Added add-ons, which are extra products that can be developed and sold for a software or hardware product
  
• Added software updates, which allows increasing the tech level of a product to extend its life, and updates are now required to release bug fixes
  
• Added subscription-based software
  
• Added lead designers
  
• Added hardware design system, so each hardware product's look can be customized and randomly generated, also moddable
  
• Overhauled hiring with a limited hiring pool that refreshes every month and paying to filter applicants, instead of unlocking more information
  
• Overhauled employee traits, there are currently 30 traits and the game picks 2 good and 2 bad or 1 good, 1 neutral and 1 bad based on employee personality
  
• You can now have up to 4 founders when you start a new company
  
• Overhauled utility values and prices, added details in finance window, added more ways to generate and store electricity and added gas for the central heating unit
  
• Overhauled product reviews, you now get 3 reviews from various reviewers that focus on specific aspects of the product and company
  
• Added new product launch window for easy overview of reviews and post release actions
  
• Improved rectangle room building and added wall dragging tool
  
• You can now place single room blueprints or duplicates inside existing rooms and it will automatically be split if necessary
  
• Overhauled notification system and look, issue messages now stick around until they are fixed
  
• Made it prohibitively slow to make large scale products with very few employees
  
• Added bikes, body odour and bathing
  
• Added firefighters
  
• Perishable prices have been adjusted to account for each portion representing one month's worth of portions
  
• Drastically increased cost of renting
  
• Drastically increased dividend percentage
  
• Product loss has been renamed to expenses
  
• Added expenses breakdown for player products in product detail window
  
• Gross product revenue is now calculated correctly by not subtracting royalties, distribution cuts, etc. which is now included as expenses
  
• ISP and server electricity costs are now calculated as an expense
  
• Improved character customization UX
  
• You can now view what each difficulty setting does in the new game screen
  
• Removed follower cap when marketing in design and alpha phases
  
• Level 3 developer specializations now adds a speed increase
  
• Close window shortcut now works on all windows with an X button, instead of just non-modal windows
  
• Added error message if printers or assemblers are sending components to the wrong place
  
• Improved incompatible assembly line message
  
• Assembly line grouping can now cross pallet connections, though components still aren't valid on pallets
  
• Added automatic component assembler load balancing at the receiving end, so sending components to assemblers at different rates won't back them up as easily
  
• Founder's effectiveness is now affected by more things
  
• Added button to duplicate a team
  
• Added ability for HR to auto-prioritize specializations based on active tasks
  
• You can now scroll to zoom in manufacturing graph
  
• Added ability to deactivate distribution deals on demand
  
• All companies will now start selling stocks, instead of only companies in need of funds
  
• AI companies going bankrupt before acquisition by the player will now try to course correct
  
• Some employee moods now decay when they are home as well
  
• Products are now archived (still viewable) after 10 years with no activity, to improve performance and reduce save file size
  
• Solar panel now generates income from surpluss production
  
• Added right side garage port
  
• Improved performance of manufacturing overlay
  
• Added level 3 game feature "Reverse Uno"
  
• Lowered volume of UI reverb when placing stuff in bad acoustic environments
  
• Bunch of optimizations

Modding

• Added an in-game editor for furniture mods
  
• Added warning about modded furniture with highly detailed models in Mod Window (Also modded furniture can now have LODs using LOD1 and LOD2 in Models table)
  
• The SoftwareType.Category label has been removed from the game
  
• Specialization features can now be forced for a subset of software categories and while having an unlock date
  
• Company names now contain a randomly generated word, and split up computer, console and phone name generation
  
• Added mod loading times to mod window in main menu
  
• Added the % modulo operator to SIPL

Fixes

• Fixed pillar to room tool clicking through UI
  
• Improved precision of wall curve tool and fixed it breaking on very long walls
  
• Fixed being able to profit off digital distribution even if server capacity isn't there
  
• Fixed patent work being invalidated if another company researched tech that was older than the one being patented
  
• Fixed rooms being marked as not accessible if you had to cross the same room twice to get there, due to blocking furniture
  
• Fixed language combo not refreshing immediately when loading language from Localizor
  
• Fixed it being almost impossible to get level 3 Service specs when hiring
  
• You no longer lose reputation by not working on a support or marketing deal accepted after 8 AM on the first day
  
• Fixed grass not updating immediatly after placing, moving or destroying furniture that should remove the grass
  
• Fixed AI porting their products to operating systems that have unrealistically high license prices
  
• Fixed employee being assigned to unreachable furniture error popping up on load because team assignment graph hadn't finished generating
  
• Fixed cases of burglars getting stuck if they had decided on something to steal but their path was reset in the meantime for whatever reason
  
• Fixed cases of fire inspectors requiring fire alarms or sprinklers in outdoor areas
  
• Fixed employees beeing too picky about when to wait in line and when to use a neighbouring object, causing them to wait too long for a toilet
  
• Fixed quaterly and yearly report not summing up correctly depending on current date
  
• Fixed AI releasing products right after 00 on the last day of a month causing the game to show their sales as if they were from 1 month in the future
  
• Rooms that are inaccessible due to team assignment will now show error outside of build mode as well
  
• Pallets will now complain about being unreachable if they are blocked in and have no conveyor output
  
• Fixed rotation of corner carpets when flipping rooms, but this time remembered to actually save changes to carpet prefabs
  
• Fixed "Infinity" being a valid price for products
  
• Fixed employees not aging in thumbnails
  
• Fixed splitting and merging rooms while nav mesh was rebuilding causing race conditions
  
• Fixed programmer+artist employees working slower on features that only require one or the other, if code and art still needed work in other features
  
• Fixed new blueprints not working when downloaded from steam workshop
  
• Fixed company's stock reaching 0% or less due to rounding error
  
• Fixed employee thoughts not being updated at same rate as they were affected, causing them to flicker with many active employees
  
• Fixed cases of printers continuing to print components from tasks that have been unassigned from their assembly line
  
• Fixed game breaking when mirroring cloned rooms with roofs attached
  
• Reduced 2x SSAA + SSR effect on GPU
  
• Fixed interaction triggered furniture sound effect players having the wrong distance setting, making them audible from further away

It’s been about 6 months since I started development on Beta 1, so it seems the latter part of my initial guestimate of development taking 3-9 months was correct. At this point all planned and unplanned mechanical parts are in place, greased up and interlocked, now the whole thing just needs a lick of paint, i.e., bug fixing, some balancing, localization support, and content, like how is a joystick made? What does a DLC contain? And what should a review say for a product designed by a visionary lead designer? "… Lead designer?" I hear you mutter.


So, this was the feature I teased in the last progress update as a "maybe if I have time", and I decided that I did have enough time.

Each project (Not including add-ons, contracts, and deals) will now require a lead designer, who is in charge of deciding how a product should work and feel. Lead designers will have 3 stats which determine how well their ideas turn out for a project:

• Their creativity, which is innate and is revealed as they expand their portfolio.
  
• Their inspiration, which drains during a project and replenishes during downtime.
  
• Their skills. Every time you release a product, the lead designer(s) will gain experience with the software (or hardware) type in question.

Lead designers will require extra resources in terms of salaries and custom demands, each presenting unique gameplay challenges.



How do you find great lead designers? You might be lucky and find some out-of-work lead designers, or you can poach them from your competitors, but by far the least expensive option is hiring young designers and hoping to find a prodigy.


You'll now be able to start your company as a joint venture. You can start with up to 4 founders, and each founder gets an equal share of the company (excluding the main founder, i.e., yourself), which you cannot absorb until some years have passed. Note that dividend rates have been heavily raised in Beta 1, so extra founders do not come cheap.


When using the rectangle room tool to split a room, I made some big assumptions on how those splits would look, making its use very limited. I have now made the rectangle room tool split algorithm way more generalized to handle virtually all split tasks and some merge tasks. I then combined the rectangle room tool with the merging tool to create the wall dragging tool.


This generalized room split algorithm also made it possible to "stamp" single room clones into existing rooms, like copying an entire toilet and pasting it inside a room without first having to carve out space for it.

The verdict on save compatibility is still out. It's currently working, but Alpha 11 games won't play very well in Beta 1.

I'm reading through all your feedback and bug reports, and I've gotten a ton of important fixes in so far. Keep 'em coming, but also note that there's a good chance stuff has been fixed already.

A snippet of changes since the last progress update:

• Fire fighters will now move out to help save your headquarters from going up in flames
  
• Difficulty values are now displayed in the new game screen
  
• I made it a lot easier to pick colors for your founders' clothes and stuff
  
• The follower number when marketing is no longer hard capped
  
• The manufacturing graph is now zoomable
  
• You can now disable distribution deals on a per company basis
  
• Some employee moods now decay while they are at home
  
• Bunch of main loop optimizations, should improve performance of the office simulation

My self-imposed deadline dictated that I release Beta 1 before the start of April, and I'm fairly confident I can make it before then, but I was also confident this update wouldn't take more than 6 months… So, let's just agree to say, "Beta 1. Probably sometime before April".

Thank you for your patience. Can't wait to see what you think!

It’s been exactly 3 months since I released the last patch. Since then, I’ve finished 50% of my planned tasks for Beta 1. However, since each task vary in complexity, I’m probably not 50% done yet. But let’s get on with what I have done so far.


I’ve added the ability to design how your hardware products will look and Lasse has been hard at work making it work and look great. This system will be fully moddable and hopefully it will add a bit of life to all the endless text-only lists of products and make them feel a bit more tangible.


Ignore the unintended Dexter reference.

Traits have moved from independent/social, fast learner/hard worker and lazy/stressed to individual traits that are determined by an employee’s personality, sprinkled with some RNG. Additionally, there is no longer an infinite pool of employees lined up to be hired or deallocated, but it’ll be much easier to filter through applicants as the hiring system is moving from pay-to-view to pay-to-filter.





Notifications have been somewhat unhelpful up until now, mainly because it was hard to tell important from trivial messages, causing people to ignore them altogether, but also because issues would stick around even if they had already been fixed. This has changed in Beta 1 and I’ve added more complex interactions, making them super extra helpful.



I’ve overhauled the final review system, combined the post-release marketing and printing prompts, and merged it all into a single flashy release dialog, to make releasing new products a bit less anticlimactic.



You’ll now be able to release DLC for your games, or joysticks for the most popular console on the block, to milk each product for all they’re worth. With subscription-based software, releasing content for your products will also help bring back old customers, to gain those sweet extra monthly payments.





Bugs are no longer magically transported to your customers devices as soon as you fix them, you’ll now have to develop and release patches, which will also present an opportunity to upgrade tech levels, for even more subscription-based income goodness.

I'm not sure I can guarantee save compatibility with Alpha 11 currently. I have not yet broken compatibility, but engine-related issues might force my hand later down the line. In any case, Alpha 11 should still be available, even after Beta 1 is out officially, so you can keep playing old saves, and a lot of the new mechanics in Beta 1 wouldn't be accessible from Alpha 11 saves anyway.

• You can now get a detailed breakdown of expenses for products you have developed
  
• HR can now auto-prioritize specializations based on active tasks
  
• Assembly lines can now cross over pallets connections
  
• Fixed a bug causing AI to buy OS licenses from player for porting, even if OS license was ridiculously expensive
  
• Fixed it being almost impossible to get level 3 service employees when hiring
  
• Tons of other fixes and improvements

I also have another super secret mechanic planned, which will involve a new class of employee. I will reveal more when I get there.

As for when you'll be able to play it: I'm still on track with my initial estimate of 3-9 months. With the progress I've made so far, that estimate is narrowed to 3-6 months from today, as long as there aren't any major roadblocks.

Thanks for sticking around! Hope you’re as excited as I am :D