City Game Studio News

Hey everyone!

I'm still gathering your feedback, but this time directly through the bug report form. Fortunately, there haven't been too many issues, but enough to warrant a small update that will further improve your gaming experience.

So, this is a minor update that fixes bugs and slightly improves performance, so let me break it down for you right away.

The first bug fix comes from the old save file migration system. Indeed, since the beginning of City Game Studio, I've implemented a system that allows your save files to evolve. This means that even if you have a save file that's 5 years old, the migration system will make it compatible with the latest version of City Game Studio. The migration will take a few seconds though. Anyway, this save system had a small bug directly related to the studio director. And it's now fixed.

Another bug, also with the studio director, involved the pricing of game ports. Let me explain: when the studio director ports games, they set the price for the ports themselves, and there was a bug in there that could make game ports free. Rest assured, this doesn't happen often and it's what we call a corner case. It's now fixed.

One last bug has been fixed that concerned games that were at the end of their lifecycle. In fact, it could happen that some games were cancelled before being released to the market, which caused an internal bug. Nothing visible to you, but I still prefer to fix this kind of bug.

And the last change is a micro-optimization that will display long lists of elements (employee list, studio list, game list...) a bit faster. It's not much—on high-performance computers you won't see the difference, but on older computers you might notice a slight improvement.

That's all from me. I've already gathered plenty of feedback for v1.26, which will once again be a great update! Thank you for continuing to grow the City Game Studio community.

See you soon,
Have wonderful holidays,
Take care of yourselves in the meantime
Xavier aka Binogure

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a bug when migrating old save files (pre-v1.24.0)
  
• Fixed a bug with the studio director when porting games to a new platform (pricing issue)
  
• Fixed an issue when discontinuing a game (incorrect calculation)
  
• Fixed an issue when listing competitors' studio buildings (wrong studio area)

Miscellaneous:

• Micro-optimization: using bitwise operations instead of modulo operator

Hey everyone,

you're loving v1.25.0 and it shows. Your feedback has been incredibly positive, and that really means the world to me. That said, there are a few hiccups, some small bugs that slipped through, and even though I tested as thoroughly as I could, they made it into the release.

Most of the issues revolve around the studio director not saving configurations properly. There's also a resolution problem, and another one with game ports, all of these have been fixed. I've also worked on another fix concerning the return to main menu. It happened fairly often that when you'd go back to the main menu, you'd encounter a crash. Worth noting that you didn't lose any progress, but a crash is always a terrible experience, and I'm sorry about that.

Anyway, this version is even more stable than the previous one, and I hope you'll have an even better time playing!

I've already started working on v1.26, and you're really going to love it. Especially since you've given me plenty of great suggestions. In the meantime, here's the full list of changes below.

Talk to you very soon,
Take care
Xavier aka Binogure

[h3]Bugfix[/h3]

• Fixed an issue preventing studio director management on low resolution displays (below 1360x768)
  
• The studio director could port games to consoles that weren't powerful enough (which wasn't ideal)
  
• The studio director didn't save the platform & dematerialized store parameters correctly
  
• The studio director didn't save the game size parameter correctly
  
• The studio director could port games even when an exclusivity contract was active
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred when returning to the main menu

Hello everyone!

Here we are, v1.25.0 has just been released and the changes are as numerous as they are significant. So without wasting a single second, let me tell you about the major changes in v1.25.0.

[h3]Game of the Year[/h3]
This is the biggest change in v1.25.0 as we're completely overhauling the Game of the Year feature. The interface has been completely redesigned to make it more consistent with the rest of the game. The first version of Game of the Year dated back to 2020 if I remember correctly, and in the meantime the game has undergone several graphical overhauls.

What's changed is the presentation of information. City Game Studio now shows you much more clearly which game has the best chance of winning the award. This allows you to make more informed decisions. It's now possible to view the history of games that have won this award.

And the cherry on top, when you win this title, you can now place a trophy in your studio that will boost your employees' morale. I would have liked the trophy to have more references to the winning game, but the game's data structure doesn't allow it without significantly impacting performance. And I preferred to sacrifice that part to gain performance.


[h3]The Studio Director[/h3]
With every update, the studio director gets modifications. And all the modifications come from your suggestions, which tells me you really love the studio director. The big change for the studio director is the ability to port games to other consoles. Don't worry, you're the one who decides the console compatibility rate, allowing you to ensure quality ports.

Indeed, the higher the compatibility rate between two platforms, the better the quality of the port. And conversely, the lower the compatibility rate, the worse the score will be.

And since the studio director had a somewhat cluttered interface, I also took the time to rework it to better organize the information and allow you, once again, to make the best decisions. I hope you like these changes!

[h3]The Interface[/h3]
I completely redesigned the interface for game and console sales. Gone are the curves and hello to histograms. We lose some information on marketing expenses, but we gain visibility on profits.

All sales curves have been reviewed, and some are colored to better match game types. For example, when you work with a publisher, the curves will be yellow. If you publish a game, then the curves will be blue, and if you hire a studio to develop a game that you publish, then the curves will be green.

Regarding console sales information, there's now a gauge indicating production cost reductions. It's handy, and it lets you know where you stand in terms of sales. Because the more a console sells, the more production costs will drop.

In this sales panel, on the right, there are also menus where some elements are disabled. And I've added tooltips to explain why elements are disabled. In fact, there are a lot of changes to these panels, and I invite you to launch the game to check them out.

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]
When you publish a game, if a producer is assigned to the game, they'll be automatically unassigned from the game, allowing you to use them right away. It's no longer possible to assign a producer to an already published game. This is a change that will reduce micro-management.

I've also added some cheat codes allowing you to get servers for free, or to complete all kinds of games and remakes.

On top of all that, the options panel has been reviewed and fixed to make it a bit more readable. Especially for adjusting the game's graphics. A tooltip will indicate what impacts game performance the most, allowing you to have a better gaming experience.

New options have appeared. Notably 120 FPS or windowed fullscreen mode (which works well this time).

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
There are many, you'd think I only introduce new bugs! So some in-game achievements had no translation. That's fixed. The studio director was selecting game engine features randomly, which led to bad games.

When you sold or destroyed a studio, the furniture wasn't sold, it was destroyed, making you lose a few thousand or even millions in the process, sorry about that.

A fairly rare but annoying bug, some minigames could completely freeze the game. Sorry about that one... I should have caught it sooner.

Contract duration was miscalculated when playing in slow or very slow mode.

A player found a way to port the same game over and over to their own console. This allowed making tons of games and money in minimum time.

Another small bug this time, you could crack the same game multiple times.

This is a non-exhaustive list of changes, and there are many more, but I'll spare you the smallest ones.

V1.26.0 is already in the pipeline, with planned small changes for the save interface, new game creation, but especially updates, DLCs and adding a DRM component to game consoles. I won't say more about these changes, but I think it will greatly change your gaming experiences!

Thank you for reading me, it was like every major update, a wall of text, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have ideas and suggestions, the comments are there for that!

See you very soon
Take care of yourselves
Xavier aka Binogure

Hey everyone!

Today I have a little announcement that will make beginners happy, but also those struggling a bit with CEO mode (yeah, I know, it's not easy!).

[h3]A Guide to Get Started Right[/h3]
I've written a comprehensive guide that explains everything you need to know to start your adventure. Inside, you'll find:

• The different game sizes (Indie, Normal, Big, AAA) with all the details: how many fans you need, how much it costs, how long it takes
  
• How to get a good score for your games (gauges, associations, point production...)
  
• The differences between Easy mode and CEO mode

[h3]The Secret Strategy to Beat CEO Mode[/h3]
Okay, "secret" is a bit of an exaggeration, but still! CEO mode is the most difficult mode in City Game Studio, and honestly, at the beginning, it's really hard to survive. So I wrote a three-phase strategy that works really well:

• How to start well on the Odyssey
  
• When and how to create your first game engine
  
• How to exploit the arrival of the Atari 2600 to explode your revenue

It's a method I've tested myself several times, and it really puts all the odds in your favor to succeed in CEO mode.

[h3]The Guide is Available Here[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3620069205

Don't hesitate to give me your feedback, share your own strategies in the guide's comments, and most importantly, have fun!

And if you have other questions or want me to add things to the guide, let me know. That's what I'm here for!

Happy gaming everyone!
Xavier aka Binogure

Hey everyone!

This week I've been hard at work, even though I haven't pushed any changes to Steam's unstable branch. So v1.25.0 will contain a tiny change that you haven't seen yet, even if you're a regular on the unstable versions!

[h3]This Week's Recap[/h3]
I've made quite a few fixes that will mainly impact GOG players, but also a crash that affects all players this time. And there's a small change in the sales graphs to show you profits rather than just revenue. So if you run a marketing campaign and it doesn't pay off, you'll see it directly in the curves, and I think that's pretty cool.

You've asked me to be able to choose between curves and histograms, I'm thinking of working on that for v1.26.0. This option will be in the game's options panel, because it's not something super simple to implement, and I don't want to clutter the game's interface. I hope you'll understand.

On a completely different note, I've continued my work on City Game Studio 2, and I'm happy to tell you that the game now runs on the latest version of Godot Engine. A crucial milestone has just been reached, and from now on I'll be tackling the new interface design for the game as well as updating the mood board for this new installment. I'll keep you posted as development progresses. Right now I can't share much, but know that bugs detected by Godot 4 are being backported to City Game Studio, making the gaming experience even better!

[h3]What's Coming[/h3]
We're getting terribly close to December 10th, when v1.25 will be released, so you can imagine I'm not going to introduce new content just days before publication. However, I've been working on the roadmap for 1.26 and on the menu we'll have a better interface for managing save files, but also updates and DLCs will be revised and I'd like to overhaul employee training as well as the entire building construction section to make it clearer and more intuitive.

There you have it, I hope you like the program, and if you want to see new things appear in this roadmap, come share them in the comments!

In the meantime, see you on December 10th for the next big update!
Take care
Xavier aka Binogure