Hello Empire builders!

Another exciting update to the game. 

New Game Plan

Originally, I planned to participate in the Steam Next Fest in October and release the game in November. I realized that there's just too much work left to hit that timeline without sacrificing quality...

So here's the new plan:

Participate in the Steam Next Fest in February, and release in March (Hopefully). Participating in the Next Fest is crucial - it's the biggest visibility opportunity Steam offers!

Let’s dive into what’s new!

Shops & Factories Visual Updates

The burger shop now has an interior (still a work in progress), so it’s no longer just an empty room with a gray box inside.

I’ve also added new models for the Fruits and Vegetables farm. 

AND! I've started adding animations to factories! Eventually, I will animate all the shops and factories to make the game feel more alive. 

Stats & Graph

Management games have a lot of data and many ways of showing it. Usually they use graphs and tables.

My game is no different. I've started working on displaying information about profits, production and sales. 

Factories and shops have a stats quick view now, that will show you:

• (Factories) How much you've produced and which ingredients.
• (Shops) What was sold, how much, and the profits.

I'm also working on a Daily Summary. This will show you gathered info from all the shops & factories for a given date. 

For even a broader view, I'm making a dynamic graph system. You'll be able to see profits, production, and sales on a larger scale, with (hopefully) some nice lines and charts.

Localization System

Making this game accessible to as many people as possible is important to me. Localization is crucial for that. 

I added the support for localization in the game. While it's too early for translations, the system is up and ready!

Other Updates

There have been plenty of other updates over the past few weeks, but the ones above are the major ones. Here's a quick list of the other updates:

• The factory buying menu now has subcategories.
• Color palette applied to all UI components that were missing it (Main menu, pause/settings menues, Modal,  and a few more). 
•  New font.
• Added a tooltip (very important!). The upper HUD now includes a quick look at the active and total shops & factories owned. 
•  More minimap indicators

Bug fixes

Of course, no update is complete without some bug fixes. Those damn bugs...

• Fixed Shops & factories outlines.
• The pedestrians are back! Fixed the bug where pedestrians would fall after changing to the lower level. 
•  Fixed a multiplayer-related bug. 
•  Shop particles no longer reset when switching levels mid animation.

That's pretty much it for this update!

Check out the devlog for more details:

You can also catch live development of the game on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tom_milman

Until next time,
Tom.