Power to the People News

For the past few weeks we've been working hard on adding content and new features to the game. But we've also focused heavily on bug fixes, performance improvements and user interface work to make the players' experience better across the board.

[h2]Company info window[/h2]

Without a doubt, our biggest achievement in the past weeks has been the addition of the new "company information window". Here you can find all sorts of useful data regarding your company... But that's not all! You can now choose a power distribution method for your company to use. Would you like to prioritize efficiency? Or trying to keep your power lines balanced so they don't overload? It's up to you!



[h2]New environment art[/h2]

All of the environment art in the game (things like trees, rocks, bushes and flowers) has been redesigned from scratch. The game doesn't only look prettier, but also more realistic, as the props will change depending where on the world you're playing. We have everything to make your Power to the People experience better, from impressive cacti to exotic rainforest trees, from cute flowers to creepy dead trees.



[h2]More capable switching stations[/h2]

The switching stations that had already been implemented in the game are now more powerful than before! You can now use them to monitor the power demand of an entire city or to react to changes in the weather such as wind speed and solar irradiance. They'll allow you to automate some aspects of your power grid to make sure that everything is always running at peak efficiency!



[h2]Better performance[/h2]

Thanks to some painstaking profiling and optimization work, the game runs better than before. One of the biggest achievements on that front has been making the save / load game process run a lot faster than it used to! Now you can go from the main menu to one of your saved games in just a couple of seconds, when it used to take up to 15 before. Good stuff!

[h2]More options in the settings screen[/h2]

As part of our efforts to improve usability, we've also added a few new settings for players to customize their experience. In this iteration, we've added the option to toggle between different date/time formats and imperial and metric units. Even more options, like adjustable camera panning speed, notifications behavior and advanced sound settings are coming soon.



[h2]Balancing the game[/h2]

We are now in the process of gathering feedback in order to make sure the difficulty curve in the game is reasonable. It's a long process that requires a lot of trial and error, but one that is necessary in order to create a fun and engaging experience. We'll keep working hard for as long as it takes to make sure that you all can have fun once Power to the People is released!

[h3]Click here to join our Discord channel[/h3]



Don't forget to wishlist and follow the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1413370/Power_to_the_People/


✉️ 👉 Sign Up for closed tests here

as Alex keeps the power on in Power to the People!

About
Build and maintain a power grid for a constantly growing population, while fighting off all kinds of disasters in this thrilling resource management experience. It's time for you to give "Power to the People"! Do you have what it takes to keep the lights on?

Hello everyone! And welcome to another development update for Power to the People. Hold on to your hats, as we've been adding so many new things to the game that we don't even know where to start! So, let's start with the big ones:

[h2]Completely redesigned levels[/h2]

This is the big one. Since our last update, we've completely redesigned all levels in the game and proceeded to add a few new ones. Now there is a total of 12 levels, all set in different countries in all five continents. Different energy sources, different weather, different landscape... The Power to the People experience is more diverse than ever before!



[h2]World events[/h2]

Do you like to be kept on your toes? Are you always up for a new challenge? Then you will love our new "world events" feature. Every now and then, random events will take place, affecting the way you play the game. It might be a wind turbine manufacturer issuing a recall for defective parts. It might be a new foodie trend that causes increased power consumption during dinner. It might be a set of restrictions on where you can place power lines due to trying to protect an endangered species... But one thing is for sure, you will have to act quickly and adapt!



[h2]Mayors in cities[/h2]

Every now and then, the mayors from the different cities in the map will kindly (or not so kindly) provide you feedback. Their help will be really valuable in detecting problems on the way your power grid is performing. You don't like being told what to do? No worries, you can turn them off in the settings!



[h2]Landmarks[/h2]

As we've said before, we now have 12 levels in the game, that are very different from each other... But we still wanted to give them a personal touch! So now every level has a special building called a "landmark" that makes it unique. It's extremely important that you keep it powered 24/7, though... Otherwise customer satisfaction will plummet, and the mayor will want to have a word with you!



[h2]New tutorial[/h2]

A brand new tutorial is here! The "expert tutorial" will teach you some valuable tips and tricks on how to handle big cities by using multiple substations and power sources. In this one, the tension between Bob and Hertha reaches new heights!



[h2]New visual effects[/h2]

We've been mostly focusing on big picture stuff, that's true... But we also took a bit of time to create some small visual tweaks. Now, some of the research items in the tech tree will cause visible changes in the world. For example, researching "Power Saving Lights" will change the color of city lights from "high pressure sodium lamp yellow" to "LED white". And researching "Solar Panels Tax Incentives" will make small solar panels appear in the roofs of houses. Small details, but ones we believe help with immersion!



[h3]Click here to join our Discord channel[/h3]



Don't forget to wishlist and follow the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1413370/Power_to_the_People/


✉️ 👉 Sign Up for closed tests here

Hello everyone! Welcome to Development Update #8. It's been over a month since we last posted here, but that doesn't mean we haven't been hard at work. We have some very exciting news to share with you all.

[h2]Partnership with Crytivo[/h2]

We're thrilled to announce that we have entered a partnership with the indie publisher Crytivo to bring Power to the People to Steam and beyond. We are confident that this cooperation will help us elevate the quality of the game and make sure that more people learn about it.



[h2]New level selection screen[/h2]

Behold the brand new level selection screen! It looks beautiful, if we might say so ourselves. By dragging this gorgeous globe around you'll be able to decide where in the world you'd like to play.



[h2]Perks and challenges[/h2]

Each level in the game will now feature a set of perks and challenges to make things more interesting. They are different from level to level and they also change depending on which difficulty setting you choose. These reflect economic and cultural traits from different parts of the world, making the experience of playing each level unique!



[h2]More levels[/h2]

We've started working on adding several new levels to the game! Right now we're fine tuning Sydney and Siem Reap and soon we'll start on Agra and Abuja. There will be a few more to come during the following weeks, so stay tuned!

[h3]Click here to join our Discord channel[/h3]



Don't forget to wishlist and follow the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1413370/Power_to_the_People/


✉️ 👉 Sign Up for closed tests here

[h2]Power lines VFX[/h2]

We're super proud to announce that, after working for some time on a brand new custom shader, Power to the People now features some very cool visual effects on power lines. You can now see the power flowing through your cables, so you can understand how your power grid is working with just a quick glance.



Also, it looks cool, doesn't it? But if you don't like it, no worries, you can still turn it off in the settings window. Which brings us to our next point

[h2]New settings window[/h2]

The old settings window was getting crowded, so we decided to proceed with a full redesign, grouping options under different tabs. We've also added settings to turn antialiasing and VSync on and off, and key bindings are now customizable! Overall, nothing too exciting, but a set of tweaks to make players' lives better.





[h2]Autosave[/h2]

Speaking of making players' lives better, we've also now added an autosave feature. If you turn on the autosave setting, your game will be saved automatically at the end of each day. Once again, not a very thrilling feature, but once that improves the overall user experience.

[h2]Improved usability[/h2]

As part of our plans to improve UX, we've also added a few explanatory tooltips to the End of Day window, tried to make it more clear that the number in brackets after a city name is its population, made the Research Points indicator pulse if you have enough of them to unlock a new tech and rewrote some of the texts in the tutorials. Small changes that add up to a more pleasurable experience for our players!



[h3]Click here to join our Discord channel[/h3]
Don't forget to wishlist and follow the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1413370/Power_to_the_People/