Hi All,

Alpha 114 is live on the beta branch. This fixes up a few issues:

-Viewing status tab of certain objects does not cause crash
-Audio On/Off status corrected in homescreen audio options menu
-Prevented some crashes when clicking to build certain objects outside of grid boundaries
-Fixes text labels of product thought bubbles

More to come soon folks!

Hiya

Testing the beta branch really helps me progress the game faster, so thanks for those who have dropped in to check their saves or build a quick station in this build.

Following feedback last night I have fixed a hard crash that happened in the morning when restocking shops, so it should be good to go for further testing.

To opt into the beta branch, right click on Overcrowd in your library and select from the Beta tab the beta build.

Alpha 113:

-fixed crash when creating string for restocking shops
-greatly reduced frequency of sobbing - sorry this took a while! I know it was a bit much.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Hi All!

A quick update!

I’ve just uploaded a new build to the beta branch:
-Added Steam screenshots
-Made UI changes which lay the groundwork for localisation
-Moved build into GameMaker 2.2.3
-Various bug fixes

Also, VERY EXCITINGLY, Nerd3 is streaming the game on Twitch tonight at 8pm (BST) - so in a few minutes - https://www.twitch.tv/nerdcubed. If you can, drop by and check it out, and maybe even give Dan some tips on how to play and build the most efficient station!

We’re planning to go live with more languages in the next couple of weeks. Thanks very much to everyone who is helping to translate the game. If anyone would like to contribute you can add your translations at https://app.localizor.io/game/9/translations.

Hi all,

I've been working recently on localising the game for non English-speaking regions, which explains why updates have been slightly quieter than at other points after launch.

This is more of a coding job than translation (though that has to happen too!) - mainly requiring updating the way the interface and text are set and drawn.

I'll be looking at Chinese and Russian initially, then some other European languages later on too. Drop me a line in Discord if you're interested in helping with translation.

You can expect updates to quicken and address those quality of life issues when this is done - i'm afraid localising has taken a little longer than I expected (should have known!).

Still, inbetween that quite large job I've managed to get a few more features and bug fixes in:

-FEATURE: Ability to assign mouse wheel to controls (in case you didn't realise you can redefine controls in options)
-FEATURE: Ability to map zoom in and zoom out
-FEATURE: when you load the game, objects do not create building dust
-BUG: addressed rare issue placing with crash placing plants
-BUG: addressed rare issue with crash on power cell lvl 2
-BUG: addressed rare crash when calculating temperature in a cell where temperature is not defined
-BUG: prevent hard crash when attempting (incorrectly) to build a track on perimeter when no concourse exists on either axis
-BUG: addressed rare issue where turnstile cause crash when direction or rotation becomes undefined
-BUG: maps now load facing the correct direction they were saved in

Stay tuned for more updates soon!

Hi All,

You may have noticed I had to roll back alpha 109 - this was because of issues caused by moving over to Gamemaker 2.2.3. However, as of yesterday, alpha 110 is live. This brings in all the changes from 109, but I have kept the build in Gamemaker 2.2.1 for now to ensure smoother running.

I'll be looking at jumping over to Gamemaker 2.2.3 in due course, following more testing on the beta branch. I'll keep you posted.

In other news, we just broke 200 reviews (203 at the time of writing!). This is great news, and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to support the game that way. Also, as Overcrowd is a (primarily) management game (though with puzzle-like elements of course) - I wanted to thank you if have you tagged the game as 'management' - this really helps us find our way into the right bits of Steam. Ta!

Stay tuned for more updates!

To confirm those alpha 110 changes:

-Sell track removes any train ready notifications hanging on side of screen if existing
-After selling a room, after loading a game, you can now build on cell where door opened
-Build goals that match your current tech tree (tech level)
-Fixes certain behaviours at spawn (brute, vandal, anarchist) losing there behaviour state after spawning
-Earning all bonds does not elevate "tech gate"/unlock next tech level and associated behaviours until a bond is earned at next station
-prevented sometimes having commuter behaviours in zone 5 before you have unlocked the tech gate to deal with it
-BALANCE: plants do less rep bonus (less frequent).
-BALANCE: staff first aid available in zone 5

Hi all,

I've been working on some more fixes for you. This build also updates the game to run in the latest version of Gamemaker Studio 2 (2.2.3). This should help the long term stability of the project.

I've been testing this build in the beta branch for a few days. Feel free to use the beta branch - it is open - just be sure to mention your version number in any bug reports your file. I tend to update info on the beta branch in Discord rather than here.

I'm continuing for now to working on some other bug fixes before moving onto some quality of life updates, some of which should assist in staff management. We've been chatting about various approaches in the Discord server lately. Feel free to drop by and let me know what (if anything!) you'd like me to address.

Finally, thanks to everyone who left a review through the Steam Sales - we're at 200 now! Each one is a massive help to a tiny developer like us and I really appreciate it. Thanks also for those of you have tagged the game, as this helps us find our right spot amongst other management games.

Alpha 109:

-Sell track removes any train ready notifications hanging on side of screen if existing
-After selling a room, after loading a game, you can now build on cell where door opened
-Build goals that match your current tech tree (tech level)
-Fixes certain behaviours at spawn (brute, vandal, anarchist) losing there behaviour state after spawning
-Earning all bonds does not elevate "tech gate"/unlock next tech level and associated behaviours until a bond is earned at next station
-prevented sometimes having commuter behaviours in zone 5 before you have unlocked the tech gate to deal with it
-Updated to GM 2.2.3
-BALANCE: plants do less rep bonus (less frequent).
-BALANCE: staff first aid available in zone 5

Hi all,

Today I managed to fix a bug that - I believe - was the cause of a rare saving glitch. This issue would cause the game to occasionally freeze with no error on "save and exit", and then corrupt your campaign. Yes, annoying! I'm so happy that this should be fixed now, and it should I hope bring a bit more stability to your experience!

Just to keep you posted, I'm away next week so there won't be any updates. But don't worry, I'll be back soon and you can expect many more updates following. Now that the game is starting to get there in terms of stability, I can't wait to get stuck into new features and improvements.

To clue you in, near the top of list will be some quality of life updates and staff management improvements/possible reductions in the micro (yes, I heard you loud and clear!). I'm also planning some localisation work and following this hopefully a scaleable GUI. Alongside this there will be continued bug fixes, and then we can get onto some cool new features and objects!

Thanks to everyone once more for your continued support and patience during the first month. Again, especial thanks for those of you who took the time to leave a review - these are so important for a tiny developer like us to help keep the game under the spotlight of Steam's all-seeing algorithm!

Alpha 103 changes:

-updated fan lvl 2 to face correct direction in se/nw direction
-fixed occasional crash with no error/game freezing up when using "save and exit" which would then corrupt campaign
-removed "cost neutral" text in station set up phase as no space in lower res

Greetings commuters,

Some more hotfixes for you. Thanks for those of you continuing to file the bugs, been a big help!

-buying at a shop delays time till commuters feel late slightly (shopping lots will not make commuters feel as late)
-prevent crash when moving chair just as staff about to sit on it (why would you do that, so cruel!)
-protected against undefined heat check variable causing rare crash
-does not autosave when moving objects
-updated way objects solid grid data loaded to reduce rare risk of saving in wrong location
-removed debug text on turnstile exit
-fixed rare crash where user could erroneously attempt to place track at right angles of a track blueprint at edge of concourse if hovered on blueprint and rotated and clicked.

Hi all,

Today I finally tracked down and fixed an annoying navigational glitch where commuters sometimes remain stuck to a turnstile exit. This looks to be down to a problem with them recording if they had used the turnstile before. I've altered the way they choose to use turnstiles slightly so this should prevent that.

A few other things too:

-cannot place doors for rooms if the outside door cell is occupied by solid
-in windowed mode, windows remember position between saves/loads
-Commuters can use turnstiles more than once. Prevents nav bug where commuters sometimes got stuck on turnstile exits
-addressed possible issue with crash placing room door

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well. This update I've been focusing on a rare hard crash caused by an occasional save corruption. These changes should reduce the likelihood of the game crashing on load. I've also fixed an issue with moving objects.

Thanks for continuing to file any bugs you come across. Stay tuned for more hotfixes and updates.

-addressed possible glitch loading stairs
-can correctly move ticket machines, maps, lvl 2 powergens, grills, and billboards correctly even when balance < £0
-no longer autosaves mid floor editing/sculpting or object scrapping to prevent rare save corruption errors saving during these processes
-prevent bill boards erroneously saved off floor space from crashing loads
-can no longer place grills on cells with only wall corner pillars