Polish & clarity update

Release Notes

Polish & clarity update with new founder wizard

Overview

This update tidies up a few more rough edges from early game: clearer screens when things are locked, a biography that actually reflects your origin story, more realistic political news, easier navigation to unlock ventures, and a cleaner path to building your own game engine.

Founder Origin story

Starting a fresh run now opens a full Origin Story flow before your studio exists. You shape your founder through illustrated story chapters, not a dry stats screen.

How to start

Title screen → New Game

That opens the Origin Story Wizard.

What you do (four steps)

1. Run setup — Difficulty, era, stock market complexity, strict mode, and other run options (same knobs as before, now inside the wizard).

2. Identity — First name, last name, portrait (preset or your own upload).

3. Story — Five chapters of branching choices with scene art:

   • Childhood — Where you grew up

   • The Fork — The path that locks your background (e.g. university, garage hacker, retail clerk, military, artist)

   • Your Path — Background-specific scenes

   • Defining Moment — A pivotal call

   • The Threshold — The moment you commit to building

4. Confirm — Review your founder sheet: core stats, traits, political alignment, starting cash, studio name, then Begin your run.

What your choices actually do

Each choice nudges your starting founder — not just flavour:

• Core stats

• Traits and persona lean

• Industry compass (creative vs commercial, people vs product)

• Political alignment (economic + social axes)

• Starting cash (story-driven seed money)

• Opening biography — written from your path and shown on My Profile

You can go back through chapters, randomise a run, or close mid-wizard (you’ll get a confirm if you’ve made changes).

Where it shows up later

• Founder Life → My Profile → Overview — Biography opens with your origin story, then grows with your career

• Founder stats, traits, and alignment from day one reflect what you picked

Existing saves: Unaffected. Only new games use the wizard. Older saves get a sensible biography backfill where possible.

Founder biography from your origin story

Your My Profile biography now starts from the choices you made in the Origin Story wizard — background, traits, and path — then grows with your career over time.

Where to see it: Founder Life → My Profile → Overview (Biography section)

For existing saves: Older saves get a sensible backfill from your founder background if no origin story was stored.

High Roller — clearer locked screen

What changed: Before you qualify for High Roller, the locked screen is now a plain, readable layout (same vibe as Wine Cellar) instead of sitting over a busy background.

What you’ll see:

• Why it’s locked

• Progress bars for net worth and personal cash

• A short “what awaits inside” teaser list

Where to see it: Founder Life → High Roller (when locked)

Statecraft Wire & News Patch

What changed: Headlines and governance situations that name-check your studio (e.g. “Platform Scandal”) only appear once you’re actually newsworthy, shipped games, reputation, public listing, hardware/platform work, regulatory heat, and similar.

Where to see it: Newsstand → Statecraft Wire and Political → Statecraft Wire

Early game: Generic national situations still happen; you won’t get player-centric scandal coverage before you’ve done anything worth covering.

Passion ventures — “Open Mogul Profile” buttons

What changed: Locked passion/venture screens now include a clear Open Mogul Profile button so you’re not told to go to Mogul Profile with no way to get there.

Applies to:

• Wrestling Federation

• Fitness Chain (Gym Chain)

• Space Venture

• Football Chairman

• Wine Cellar

• Yacht Collection

• Real Estate

Where to see it: Open any of the above while locked → use Open Mogul Profile

(Car Manufacturer and Golf Club already had this pattern.)

Engine Lab replaces legacy engine builder in Operations

What changed: The old “Game engines (F-15)” block in Studio Operations is gone. Custom engines are now founded and managed only through Engine Lab.

Studio Operations card

Where: Studio → Company → Operations → Engine Lab

• Not founded yet: Unlock progress (calendar year, qualifying shipped games, cash gate) and Open Engine Lab

• Already founded: Status line (name, phase, version) and Manage in Engine Lab

• AddedLegacy engines (finishing out)Read-only panel if an old save still has F-15 engines in progress or completed — no new develop/market controls

Engine Lab is easier to find

Where: Games → Engine Lab — tab is always visible from early game (locked/founding state is shown on the screen itself).

New F-15 engine starts blocked

You can’t start a new legacy $50k / 52-week engine from Operations or via the old action — you’ll get a message pointing you to Games → Engine Lab once you qualify.

“Second engine R&D slot” upgrade

Hidden from the upgrade tree for new games. If an old save already owns it, in-flight legacy slot-2 engines can still finish.

Player Guide

Updated to note engine R&D lives in Engine Lab only; Operations just links there.

Existing saves: Completed legacy engines still appear in project pickers and can still earn license revenue. In-progress legacy engines keep ticking weekly.