Community Update Spring 2025

Hi Everyone!

First of all - my sincere apologies for the lack of updates, both to the game and the community, these past months.

I had a post-release holiday planned for September and October, and sadly wasn't able to release a (small) monthly update prior to my departure. Upon returning, I had to get back to doing some regular work to pay the bills, and I just didn't get around to that initial, and eventually subsequent game updates.

Because I didn't want to put out a community update after no updates had been made available for the actual game, especially considering its current state, I also kept putting off letting you all know the most important thing - I'm still intending to finish the game, and during the past few weeks I luckily have been able to also spent some time on actual development, parts of which I intend to release soon! Several (technical) updates have been written these past few months which were never released, and I've included those below to give you an idea of what's to come (soon or at a later time).

There will also be a change to the (originally intended) update release cycle, as I've found taking the time round off and push out updates very regularly (biweekly / monthly) takes away too much time from actually developing the game, especially when implementing / fixing larger game features. Therefore, I'm committing to releasing a major update every 4-6 months, with smaller bugfix releases in between when they come up and are already ready for release. I hope this will alleviate some of the perceived pressure I put myself under, and will result in a better game in general in the end, and hope you all will understand 😌.

Already Released

Blueprints

Designed to allow you to more easily replicate your events, you can now save your event setup at any point during your event production as a blueprint, from the in-game menu. You can then select your blueprint when creating a new event.

All placed objects are saved as part of your blueprint, but booked performances are not included. Blueprints are specific to the site they were created on, so they are most useful when transferring entire festival sites.

Ticket Sales

It has been made possible to sell tickets for your events! Prices can be configured from the Finance tab in the Event Control Center Panel. Tickets are sold in 3 tiers:

• Early Access: These tickets are sold while you progress from the PreProduction to LoadIn phase, while you are designing your event site and booking performances

• Regular: These tickets are sold during the LoadIn Phase, while your crew is constructing the event site

• Door: These tickets are sold during the Show Phase, so while your actual festival is (already) taking place

Note that in order to be effective you should probably use some fences and place an entrance around your festival site.

Short Term

These are some of the features I hope to release in the coming 1-2 months, so somewhere around spring 2025:

Tutorial Extension

Complete the current tutorial and add UI highlights while progressing through the various steps / objectives, to make it more clear what is expected of the player. Some of the more complicated gameplay elements like security, fences and entrances will be moved out of the default tutorial and return later in a dedicated tutorial (scenario).

Gameplay Settings

Allow more configuration by the player to how to game functions. For instance, the edge scrolling behavior of the camera can be disabled. Also, how the simulation will handle vending objects with not enough stock or crew to serve visitors will be handled can be configured.

Gameplay Mechanics Configuration

As not all mechanics in the game, like the security (entrances, fences) or the stock-keeping (storage, runner crew) mechanics, are appreciated by all players equally, to say the least. I’m currently working on more extensive “Gameplay Mechanics Configuration”, which allows you to disable some or most of these mechanics entirely during (sandbox) gameplay, like playing without finances / unlimited money. Presets will be provided, but you will be able to play the game just the way you like!

Medium Term

Staged Tutorial Scenario’s

Split the tutorial into multiple stages, so not all mechanics have to be explained at once, and make these smaller tutorials specific to a site, so more in-depth guidance on game mechanics can be provided. An example of this is the security tutorial scenario, where fences, entrances, access points and security staff are explained.

Workshop Blueprint Sharing

Allow blueprints to be shared on the Steam workshop.

Long(er) Term

Performances

A new timetable based user interface to book performances for stages will be added, which will also allow you to set time between performances manually. This will allow a performance to be dragged-and-dropped to another time or stage altogether, as long as the performance (preparation) has not started yet.

Also, filters will be added to the performance selection, and a preview feature where you can pre-listen to an artist's performance will be added, allowing you to quickly find the perfect talent for specific timeslots during your festival. Overall this should make the process of booking talent for your event a lot easier.

Redesigned Event Setup

Many complaints have been received about the event setup screen, where you can select the dates and duration of your event and its construction phase, being too complex and buggy. While most bugs in that screen are purely cosmetic (and as such not actual bugs but improvements), it is very unclear and very unpleasant to use, which is not what a game should be about.

To properly improve this, the single screen will have to be split up in multiple consecutive screens, where you’d first select a venue, dates would be set automatically, but could be adjusted manually if you’d like to. Better explanations will be added, and the overall setup flow of the game should be a lot nicer.

That's it for now, I'm currently working on the next update which I hope to have out soon, keep an eye on the Steam Community page for the latest updates!