Software Inc. News

• Added ability to colorize windows and doors + added different looks to standard door
  
• Added ability to put signs on doors
  
• Police will now ignore parking assignments
  
• Added unfixed bug count to collapsed support work item
  
• Reduced width of the wall-mounted conveyor belt so it fits right up against walls
  
• Fire inspection fines now scale with company size
  
• Added button to view/select servers in server window
  
• Server connections are now preserved when cloning rooms or building blueprints
  
• Room use limits no longer apply to pass-through, e.g. a designer can pass through a programmer-only room to get to another room
  
• The "center" of a room will now move if it is not within the room itself, e.g. if the room is U shaped
  
• You can now see path connections when building or removing paths
  
• Added button to select all of the same segment type in a room, e.g. all doors, works the same as "Select furniture types in selected rooms"
  
• Added ability to change lead designer for project management design tasks
  

• Fixed furniture editor not handling holdable points correctly
  
• Fixed not being able to open add-on details from distribution window
  
• Environment overlay now shows furniture impact on environment
  
• Fixed patent list in company detail windows
  
• Fixed pie chart labels in design document window
  
• Fixed missing lead designer for subsidiaries notification not dissapearing when company is closed
  
• Fixed instances of prematurely finishing game load, when another wave of navigation mesh generation was expected, causing rooms to appear unreachable on load
  
• Fixed normal mapping not working for furniture atlas shader when RGB mapping was disabled
  
• Fixed framework boost not being scaled by framework quality in design document window
  
• HR will no longer hire designers with demands
  
• Fixed daily hiring pool for HR management not having a limit if player or other HR team had made no similar searches
  
• Fixed employees being able to go through a blocked passageway one-way, leading them to get blocked-in on the other side
  
• Blocked passage warning for elevators and stairs are now visible on both floors
  
• Made anti z-fighting scaling on cubicle walls more subtle
  
• Fixed single team selection not working properly after filtering by search and then picking with mouse instead of enter
  
• Fixed missing spec warning in update window not refreshing after reopening
  
• Fixed ambiguity of distribution deal notifications
  
• Cancelling a project management task didn't unhide any running update tasks
  
• Fixed position of tools in update window sometimes getting jumbled
  
• Fixed employee education filter not filtering out employees with big brain trait ready for education in locked specializations
  
• If an employee fails to find a path to a furniture that wasn't ruled out by team assignments, they will skip any other candidates in the same room to improve performance
  
• Employee satisfaction effect from salary changes no longer decays while they are gone
  
• Final release window is now scaled to always fit on screen independent of UI scaling
  

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
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
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!