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Big Ambitions News

Studio & Future Insights

[h2]Hello Ambitious Entrepreneurs![/h2]

As we gear up for the release of EA 0.3, we wanted to pull back the curtain a bit and give you a closer look into the inner workings of our studio and our grand plans for Big Ambitions.

If it's fresh in-game content or sneak peeks you're after, you might want to skip this one 😁

[h2]Reflecting on Early Access[/h2]
Launching Big Ambitions, we dared to dream of 50,000 copies sold in the first month. Instead, a staggering 200,000 of you jumped aboard. Fast forward to today, and that number's grown to a whopping 300,000!

Frankly, it's been a whirlwind. As a small indie studio, we've been on our toes, adapting to the demand, squashing bugs, and striving to provide the best customer support possible.

But growth comes with growing pains. Our EA 0.2 update, while packed with content, wasn't up to the standard you deserve. We heard your feedback loud and clear. From that point on, a few resolutions were made:
  • Quality over Speed: No more racing against the clock, even if a few claim we've left the game behind. We're now planning a minimum of 3 months of development between updates.
  • Flexible Updates: Instead of committing to a fixed feature list, we'll limit to locked release dates, ensuring more polished updates, without delays.
  • Player Autonomy: You’ll always have the choice to opt into updates at your own pace. Read more here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1331550/discussions/0/3841053719675090442/

[h2]The future of Big Ambitions[/h2]
Because of the substantial success of our Early Access release, we're now heavily expanding the scope of the game. Huge features/updates like production factories, new cities, airports, modding support, sailable boats, etc. are no longer hopes and dreams, but long-term plans.

A few people mentioned that with EA 0.3, the game is probably 30% done (assuming 1.0 comes after 0.9). This is not the case. We will go way further than just 0.10. You can expect us to be working on Big Ambitions for years to come.

Regarding our roadmap, we're now shifting things around. We'll no longer be presenting a long list of promised features. Instead, for each update, we'll announce features as we get closer to its release. We're already doing it for the EA 0.3 release: https://twitter.com/hovgaardgames

We got big ambitions ourselves. Our goal is to make the game become the best and biggest business tycoon game ever made and we're thrilled to have you alongside us. What you have seen so far is only just the beginning 😎

[h2]What's Brewing at Hovgaard Games?[/h2]
First of all, we want to expand our team, and we already welcomed two new talented colleagues. That being said, onboarding new employees dramatically reduce productivity for a limited duration. We don't want to risk getting behind schedules, so we're taking things slow and steady, making sure we find the right people.

Adding to this, 4 of our 6 employees are Spaniards, so we have recently opened an office in sunny Barcelona, Spain. Moving forward, all our future employment will be based in Spain.

Our studio's direction? Crystal clear. We're all about crafting standout management and tycoon games for our beloved desktop community. Consoles? Not in the cards. Mobile? We'll hard pass. Our hearts are set on you. ❤️

[h2]A Parting Note[/h2]
From the entire Hovgaard Games family, a massive thank you! For the referrals, the glowing Steam reviews, and your unwavering support. It's you who fuels our dreams to continue creating unique and revolutionary management and tycoon games.

All the best,
Jonas
Founder, Hovgaard Games

Build 1869: Patch Notes

Hello!

We have a small patch to fix a couple of little issues causing a few big problems! If you were having issues with the game giving you "placeholder" options in the settings, this should fix the issue for you!

  • Fixed issue where changing options before starting a game for the first time breaks the game
  • Fixed issue where Gas Station / Car Repair UI wasn't popping up properly

Hopefully, this lets you get back to enjoying the game while we continue to work on EA 0.3, which we're expecting to be ready in about 1-2 months!

Build 1868: Patch Notes

Hello, it's time for the 2023 Steam Summer Sale! If you haven't grabbed your copy of Big Ambitions, Uncle Fred insists you do so today! And while you're doing that, we just wanted to drop a tiny hotfix to fix a couple of annoying issues:

  • Fixed some issues if you changed options/settings in the main menu before starting the game
  • Fixed some issues if you cancel while waiting in line for a checkout counter
  • Fixed an issue with hotkeys being activated while naming a business
  • Fixed an issue where some UI like using the TV or sleeping were activated while in VoogleMaps
  • Fixed an issue where a couple of items like the restaurant booth could push you outside while designing your store
  • Fixed an error where you could start the Uncle Fred tutorial while in sandbox mode
  • Fixed a color/design issue with Cabinet End (right) not matching the others


Now enjoy the summer as we continue working on some really, really big things for EA 0.3! We can't reveal too much yet but be sure to start decorating your stores …an announcement should be happening in a few weeks!

Hovgaard Games

Build 1867: Patch Notes

Greetings to you all!

We've got a little patch here to "clean up" a bug and add a couple quality of life fixes while we're at it.

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]
  • Cleaners forgot how to clean, and stores were being called dirty even when they weren't…that should be fixed now.
  • We told the AI to calm down and leave a few buildings for the player! If you're already in a saved game with no free buildings, it might take a few weeks for it to balance out, but after that, it should be a lot easier to find available buildlings.
  • In EA 0.2, Uncle Fred starting sending you to the wholesaler to get deliveries, but with a $1,000 delivery fee, that was a bit unreasonable. It's now much easier to handle at $400.
  • If your business was temporarily closed, the employees weren't getting credit for their 4-days a week or 5-days a week demands. This has been fixed.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the "MarketInsider" objective to display twice for some languages instead of showing the proper business school objective.
  • Insurance
    • Employees should no longer ask for insurance at 50% skill. They will wait until they are closer to 100%.
    • Insurance has a 10-employee minimum. Previously, if you had fewer than 10 employees, the insurance wouldn't activate. Now it does activate, but you pay for the 10 employee-minimum.
    • Previously, if you tried to get Gold Insurance but your HR Manager was too low level, it just didn't offer you Gold. Now it shows you Gold but explains why you can't get it.
Note about translations: Most of our translations are done by the community on our site "Localizor". When new features come out, we put the new strings up on Localizor, but until the community translates them, you might find some strings that are still in English.

If you're interested, you can participate in translating here:
https://www.localizor.com/big-ambitions



From Hovgaard Games, we you hope enjoy this patch while we continue to work on EA 0.3!

Build 1865 + 1866: Patch Notes

Hello to all you fancy businesspeople!

We have a hotfix ready for you to take into the weekend! With this hotfix, we're reintroducing the new Employee Demands feature from EA 0.2, but with a much better implementation this time! We're also continuing some balancing - this time with office businesses!

[h3]Reinstated new and improved Employee Demands update[/h3]

Instead of impacting your hundreds of employees all at once, we've limited it to a max of 3 or 4 new employee demands per day

  • Employees now send a message with their updated demand, which includes a link directly to that employee so you can manage them.
  • These demands won't impact their schedule status (full-time vs part-time, etc)

[h3]Office Jobs - Big Revamp[/h3]
  • Balancing - Office job fees previously were able to be increased up incredible high - this has been balanced to be more in-line with their retail counterparts.
  • You'll also want to keep an eye on the hours and days you're open to find which hours are most profitable to work in.
  • 1-Person Offices now get clients! Fixed a bug where previously they wouldn't get any.
  • Customers-per-hour was confusing as some clients would stay for more than 1 hour. Now clients all stay for 1 hour each to make things more clear, which means it's possible to hit your maximum customers per hour!

[h3]UI[/h3]
  • Fixed some UI in widescreen issues
  • Fixed Warehouse UI says "closed"
  • Fixed issue preventing Warehouse / Headquarters exterior signs from being edited
  • Added price label to diploma school panel
  • Added tooltips to some custom game modifiers in main menu
  • Fixed Fuel never shows 100%, even when full
  • Fixed roulette "Please select a number" bug

[h3]Floating Vehicles[/h3]

With EA 0.2 we fixed a bug that was causing vehicles to fall through the parking garage. But then we realized some people's vehicles were still down there, so we summoned them all back up to the surface. The problem is - this caused some warehouse vehicles to begin floating.

We have fixed that all so it doesn't happen again, but you might want to check your warehouse to see if your vehicles are floating. If so, just walk up and click on them, and they should drop back down!

[h3]New part of old Uncle Fred Quest[/h3]

We've already prevented this from happening to anymore, but some players who were already in the Uncle Fred quest line have been brought back to the "turn off Temporarily Closed" quest for the Fast Food Restaurant. The problem is, they've already gotten rid of their fast-food location.

If that happens, just rent a retail building and turn it into fast-food location, then toggle the "temporarily closed" switch. This should complete the quest so you can move forward and get back to where you previously were!

[h3]FIXES[/h3]
  • Fixed bug causing some HQ-based employees to not regenerate satisfaction.
  • Fixed Hoarder Achievements only updating on a new hour
  • Improved barriers placement (placing rope/belt/shop barriers now have more freedom)
  • Increased HR Manager max employees from 25 to 50
  • Increased passive skill gain for AI employees when working
  • Reduced traffic aggressiveness
  • Ensure there's always an available building to satisfy the second Uncle Fred Business size
  • Fixed fired HR Managers breaking insurance manager dialog
  • Fixed can't reach 100% cleanliness in some scenarios
  • Fixed Treadmill could be placed inside other objects
  • Fixed can't walk under pullup bar when attached to door
  • Fixed interior designer changing all colors of items of the same type
  • Fixed could refill cash registers from far away
  • Fixed could hire a cleaner for a Warehouse
  • Fixed couldn't reach 100% Interior Design Score in certain buildings (A1, A2, C1, M1)
  • Fixed 3 5th Avenue wrong pallet position
  • Fixed player's customer service skill disappearing
  • Fixed can't load some old savegames
  • Fixed Old Logistics schedules wouldn't delete when shutting down a business
  • Fixed Marketing Campaigns wouldn't cancel if the Business was switched to a Headquarters
  • Fixed Salad Bar has no placement arrow
  • Fixed TimeMachine on split-shift ignoring break between shifts
  • Fixed Purchasing Agent training is now done after deliveries to prevent delivery failures due to prices going under the minimum purchase order
  • Fixed player could pick up and move some objects while interacting with them
  • Fixed can enter building while riding subway
  • Fixed Restaurant Booth attaching random items and getting stuck (you can put small flowers on it)
  • Fixed "Graphic Tablet with screen" now also satisfies "Graphic Tablet" demand
  • Fixed BizPhone's message notification not going away in some cases
  • Fixed Bling Cribs Achievement wasn't counting deliveries. It should properly count any new items you put in the apartment, but any items it missed before still won't count
  • Fixed some issues causing the camera zoom to stop working
  • Fixed Persona Goal Achievement to say 90m apartment instead of 100m
  • Fixed if store is "temporarily closed" employee's scheduled hours didn't satisfy their demands
    • Added alert that the store is temporarily closed
  • Fixed run animation not making step sounds
    • Reduce volume of footstep sounds
  • Soft-Locks
    • Fixed can get stuck in Vantander reception
    • Fixed cancelling some dialogs soft-locking the game
    • Fixed sleeping on Luxury Yacht/Yacht soft-lock
  • Uniform
    • Fixed some female shirts in uniform had weird shadows
    • Fixed uniform customizer heads disappearing
    • Fixed "Missing Uniform" complaint to only include those who are currently working
    • Fixed "Are you sure" dialog unpausing early

[h3]Enjoy![/h3]

Hopefully this clears up any remaining issues with EA 0.2, but remember to report any problems so the team can fix them!

From the team at Hovgaard Games, we hope you enjoy!

UPDATE: Build 1866

We have introduced buffs/advantages for existing savegames to ease adaption of the changes in Build 1865:

  • Only for savegames started before Build 1866: Internally forced demand to 100% for all office-based businesses.
  • Only for savegames started before Build 1866: Disabled employees' ability to generate any new demands.