Final Playtest Begins 31 July

The previous Music Manager Playtest ended on 10 July and I have been busy working through the feedback since then.

I am now planning to launch the third and final Playtest on 31 July.

A COMPLETE LOCALISATION OVERHAUL

The weakest area of the previous Playtest was the localised translations.

Localisation support was introduced during the Playtest and I kept patching it as problems appeared, but the underlying system was flawed. Some sentences were built from separately translated fragments, which meant they could not form naturally in some languages. The translation catalogue had also become bloated with obsolete scenes and unused text, which stretched the quality checking too thinly.

Rather than continuing to patch that system, I have replaced it completely.

The localisation catalogue has been reduced from almost 11,000 strings to just under 6,000. This should allow for more natural translations and much more focused quality checking across every supported language.

I have also overhauled the way translated text is displayed in the game. The new system is already much better at handling longer translations without text overlapping or disappearing beyond the interface. I am still working through the remaining display issues and will complete this over the next week.

BETTER FEEDBACK FROM PR ACTIVITIES

A tester pointed out (thanks Dad!) that interviews and promotional appearances could happen without giving the player enough information about the result.

PR activities now generate both a notification and an in-game email, showing how the event went and what affected the outcome.

The Music Video PR tactic has also been fixed after an earlier update broke it.

PR tactics will now be automatically populated when they are added to a campaign. This should reduce some of the repetitive setup while still allowing players to change every setting if they want full control.

OTHER FIXES

A bug that prevented procedurally generated acts from displaying their musician details correctly has been fixed.

I will also be adding alternative ways to submit feedback from inside the game. The aim is to make it easier to report problems and send suggestions without interrupting normal gameplay.

AN APOLOGY REGARDING PLECCY

During the previous Playtest, I repeatedly asked players to send questions to Pleccy so that I could review the responses and improve the system. I kept raising this because nothing appeared to be coming through.

Unfortunately, the problem was entirely on my side.

The system worked when I tested it on my own computer, but failed for everyone else. This meant that questions submitted by players never reached me.

That issue has now been fixed.

I apologise to everyone who took the time to submit a question. I was not able to make proper use of the time you invested and I should have identified the problem sooner.

Please continue sending questions to Pleccy during the next Playtest. I will now receive them and be able to use them to improve its answers.

THE FINAL PLAYTEST BEGINS 31 JULY

Once the remaining localisation and interface fixes are complete, the third and final Music Manager Playtest is planned to begin on 31 July.

Please take part and continue sending feedback. Every report and suggestion helps me improve the game before release.