Devlog #2 | Major Update Alpha 0.3: Boss, purpose, suffering

And here I am again with a devlog. Right now I have the opportunity to actively work on the game, and I realized that I can roll out small updates every 2-3 weeks. You can't add a massive amount of content in that time, but implementing a base for a new mechanic + fixing a few bugs + tweaking the balance after testing is totally doable.

I'll stick to this approach for now, considering the list of things I plan to add to the game is only growing.

A lot of interesting tweaks made it into this update. I won't keep you waiting:

1. The Boss. This is the main character and chaos generator. Now he can invent game events that will "improve" the player's life for a while. There are 5 of them right now. Here, for example, is one of those events. Familiar, isn't it?

1. The Goal. Why are we even doing all this? Because we love our job? Hell nooooo.I had to add some motivation to the game, so now the player's goal is to buy a super expensive car.

To do this, I introduced the concept of a "salary". In the first month of work, it's not motivating at all — only $1000. But later we will be able to spend the boss's loyalty points (which we get for completing his tasks for the month) to increase it.

But be careful. Your salary is also deducted from the office budget.

1. Suffering. Because what's office life without suffering, right?

• Crunches. Yep, want to make your employees stay and work until 8:00 PM? Be my guest. Just don't forget about the mood penalty for 48 hours and the loss of efficiency the next day.

• Onboarding. Now employees have to adapt to the company (-10% efficiency for a week after being hired) and to the project (-20% efficiency during the deep dive into the project on the first day).

• Morning Mood. You don't always come to work glowing with happiness, do you? Well, neither do your employees. Now an employee can show up in the morning in different states, which will affect their work for the whole day.

• Burnout. Our favorite word. Now, if an employee stays in a sad or miserable mood for a long time, their burnout level will increase. And burnout will directly affect their efficiency. Keep your workers happy!

Right now, the core loop looks like this: you have a task, let's find out what's going to stop you from completing it. Maybe someone got sick? Or maybe a request for time off? Or maybe competitors will poach someone? Or maybe the boss will freeze hiring? Or maybe someone just smells terrible and ruins the mood for the whole office?

While I'm continuing to work hard on the base mechanics, it feels like I already have a playable build that can provide a couple of hours of gameplay. So I'll slowly start thinking about Steam playtests and maybe releasing a demo version.

And by the way. Thank you for 500 wishlists! Your support is incredibly important to me, and I truly feel it!