Game Dev Masters has officially released from Early Access

It has been a long road to reach this point. Going from prototype, to early itch.io versions, to steam demo plus early access, and now the official release. So much has been done over the past few years to get here and I am honored and humbled by the community support. The game is as good as it currently is directly because of you amazing players providing great feedback, suggestions, and fixes. This is not the end of the line when it comes to work on GDM, but it is an amazing milestone to reach. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to try the game, and especially those who not only tried the game but got involved with its development. The game would not be what it is today without your support. I don't want to bloat these notes with future plans, but if you want to see what is still to come, please refer to the new Road map post in the steam discussions. If you would prefer to just get the quick bullet highlights of the patch please refer to the GDM discord patch notes section.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get into the 1.0 patch changes you can expect to see when you login to the game.

The leader boards have all been reset, and only saves created post the 1.0 launch will qualify to post scores to the boards. I am not deleting any of your saves from EA. They will still work if you choose to continue playing them, but they will not be eligible to post to the global leader boards. I personally recommend you create new saves, but if you want to continue an older save you can with minimal issues. I have tested the new build with older saves and it does seem to work. That being said this is the perfect time to begin a fresh play through.

Balance Changes

There have been several edits and changes to the games balance, and this is something you can expect to see tweaked in the near future as more players experience the current balance of the game. Some of the new features added have altered the games balance in many ways, and I have worked extensively to ensure the game is well balanced and beatable on all difficulty settings.

I am not going to go over specific balance changes, you can experience these for yourself as you play the game. If you find the current balance to easy or to hard, please reach out to me with your feedback, it will all be considered as we move to alter balance in the future.

Reworks

The help glossary has had several new additions, and all existing listings have been edited and changed to fit the current state of the game. Some of the glossary had become out of date since changes to the game had been made. These are all now as accurate as they can be, and many new additions have also been added to ensure players can find the help for each aspect of the game as they need it. If anyone can't find the help they need for a specific aspect of the game let me know and we will make sure it is added ASAP. I believe I have covered the vast majority of the games features in the glossary, as well as entries for many new features.

The crypto market access has been moved out of the financial > banking menu to the studio options > crypto market. I really like the crypto market and felt it was to hidden in the banking menu for players to make use of it. The studio options menu has become quite a big navigation of features, but I did not want to add more buttons to the already large studio command bar at the bottom of the screen.

Additional pop-up tutorials have been added for certain aspects of the game to make new players more aware of how certain systems work and interact with each other. I have also edited and changed many of the pop-up language to be better suited the current state of the game.

There have been several translation improvements made to several of the languages. Huge shout out to my discord community for all there help on this aspect. The translations are still not perfect, but these changes have helped to improve the translated languages in large ways.

The opening splash screen about the game being early access has been changed to a joke I like to use in my games. I hope people enjoy the levity. I don't take myself or my work to serious, and I hope you all enjoy a bit of silly fun injected into your games like I do. I take the quality of the game very serious, but I never forget the fact that games are meant to be fun, I hope that comes through in my work.

I have reduced the larger "create xx games" milestones from 25/40 down to 20/30. With all the different ways to make money in the game forcing 40 games to be made in a play through seemed like to many. For some players who prefer to just make games this was not an issue, but this makes the game more finish able for players who prefer other aspects compared to just creating games. On top of that with the addition of digital stores you can make less games and more DLC, and updates while making big money. This change should open up your options while still allowing you to complete the final milestones.

Additions

I have added a credits menu from the main menu. In this menu there are the three following sections;

1. The game credits where you can see specific credits to contributions made to the game.

2. The community page where I have written heart felt blurbs about individual players who have impacted the game in one way or another. This ranges from amazing suggestions and game contributions, down to people in the GDM discord and twitter who just helped me mentally with their kindness and humor.

3. The Hall Of Masters. This page lists everyone who took the time to dominate the current content in the game during early access to reach the discord role of GDM Master. These are the players who mastered the game, and the role tells others that they know their stuff. These players have had a great hand in helping me balance the end-game and I am very grateful for their assistance. The "Hall Of Masters" will stand as a reminder of who the best players were during EA.

Movie IP Licenses
I have added a new system to the game that allows you to pay money to buy the rights to use a movie license as your game. These are all puns based on some of the best movies ever made, and I had some amazing community suggestions for these, as well as I added many of my own. In total there are over 100 movie IPS in game. From the studio options > License IPs menu you will be shown 3 potential IPS you can buy. They each have a cost and a % increase on sales. You can refresh these 3 IPS for a small fee and the cost + sales percent is randomly generated using a weighted procedural system. It is possible to get a good deal on a high sales increase but low-cost purchase to use. Once you click on an IP that you wish to use and confirm purchase you will be taken to the game dev screen with the name of your game locked off. All other aspects are selected by you, and game scoring is identical to non-IP games. However, if you used an IP, it will multiply your sales by its given % allowing you to really increase copies sold.

Epic Engine
We added the "Epic Engine" to the game, and yes that is a riff on unreal engine from epic. This new engine will always be there much like the default engine, but this engine has high engine power with built in features. Unlike other engines making use of the epic engine will cause you to lose 15% of your game's revenue, and you will not learn new engine research from making games in the epic engine. However, this engine will always have the power to surpass the current requirements for engine power and give you access to big features you can use to improve tech + design totals. Every few years a new version of the epic engine will be made available replacing the older version, and this engine will always have the power to make all sizes of games at all years during your play through. This is not meant to replace your own engines in any way, but it will provide you an option if you are lacking in engine research. You can make use of this engine to make high scoring games and then make use of engine discovery to get your own research back on track. For those players who prefer to take a more passive stock and crypto based play through this engine will allow you to still make great games when you chose to do so. This engine will also allow you to add powerful features for DLC creation.

Game Add-ons
I have added a new system to the game that allows the addition of some add-ons for Self-Published games. You can now add Cover art, Ost soundtracks, game maps, and a deluxe version upgrade. after you hit self-publish you will see the add-ons menu for optional add-ons. Each add-on has a cost and will increase the sales price of your game. Essentially this is a way to increase the power of a self-published game bringing them closer to digital stores. Digital stores are still the superior route if done right, but this brings self-published games much closer than before. However, if you make a bad game and add some extra add-ons to the game you are basically just digging yourself further into debt by increasing the development costs of a failure. If you know you have made a great game, then adding in some of these optional add-ons is a great way to bring up those sales figures.

Crypto Sorting
I have added the ability to sort the crypto market list in a various number of ways. The first click on a section will sort them from high to low, and the second will sort them from low to high. So, if you want to see the most expensive or cheapest crypto coins, or maybe which coins have the biggest market change this week. You can now do so much easier.

Custom Consoles
I have added a custom console system to the game. I know this is one many players were asking for, but it was a complex addition and needed a lot of time to nail down. Based on feedback from my community we decided that custom consoles will be made available in office 3 and 4 only, making it a later game aspect. I did not want to make this a forced part of the game, so no milestones have been added surrounding consoles. I instead tried to create a system that would be a great form of passive income for players who want to put in the time to create, market, and launch exclusives to drive up their sales. This is a great source of passive income once you have put in the work that should help you easily pay your bills as you work on other aspects of your studio.

I will now break down the way consoles work below in both short and long hand;

• As previously stated, you need to reach office 3 to being console creation
  
• To access the custom console menu, you do so through the studio options > custom consoles section
  
• If you have not already created a console only the create console option will be available to you when you go to this menu
  
• To create a console, you need to select the 4 hardware options for each section. GPU / Storage space / Chipset / RAM
  
• Based on the year the gaming audience has a technical requirement you must surpass to make sales
  
• Each piece of hardware has a cost, a tech point increase, and a manufacturing time
  
• Once your console no longer meets the tech requirement for a new year it will stop selling
  
• Based on the hardware power you will have a price range you can charge per console unit
  
• You can max the hardware and smash the requirements if you chose, but the cost of creation will be high
  
• Sales of your console will increase based on the year to simulate the growing gaming audience
  
• Late game years where higher creation costs are required are balanced out by higher potential sales
  
• Sales of your console are based on the year + the hype of your console + your current market share of your console + a factor based on your consoles price
  
• You can enter an optional name for your console, if no name is used then "My Custom Console" will be used
  

Once you have selected your 4 pieces of hardware to be used for this custom console. You can see the listed manufacturing costs, the required tech power, your consoles tech power, and the manufacturing time needed before your console hits the market. When you confirm and hit create console you will see the in-development screen. From here you can see the remaining time, your hype, and market share. You can run small, medium, or large hype campaigns during this time. Each campaign has a cost and a special amount required to reach. Provided you have a good team with high research and perhaps some "Rush Work" skilled workers, you can use this manufacturing time to hype up your console.

Once the manufacturing time has passed a new entry will be displayed under the main details panel top right. This is the same location that current self-published games are shown as well as income changes. This will show you the hype, market share, weekly sales, and total sales for your console at a glance. This panel updates its stats weekly.

If you visit the custom console menu while your console is on the market, you can view the review console page. This page allows you to see all the relevant details about your current console and its sales. From here you can also que up additional marketing campaigns to increase your consoles hype, thus increasing its weekly sales.

Market share has the largest impact on how well your console will sell, and should not be neglected if you hope to have a high passive income stream from your custom console.

In order to increase the market, share you need to create and launch console exclusives for your console. Once you have a console on the market for sale when you create a game you will find your custom console below the existing consoles in the platform section of the game development HUD. If you select your console a new option will appear below platforms at the main menu of development allowing you to toggle console exclusive on or off.

Games made on your console have no difference than existing consoles. They can be ported, make DLCs, and everything else you would expect. However, if you make the game exclusive, they cannot be ported to other systems lowering their potential sales. This will instead increase your market share based on the size and quality of the exclusive that you create. Making exclusives will allow your custom console to earn substantial weekly income, especially when combined with high hype.

Each week that passes you lose 2% hype on your console, and each month passes you lose 1% market share. Meaning you will need to release at least 1 console exclusive each year to counter market share loss, or more if you wish to take over the market.

If you have a high market share (97% is possible in game leaving 1% on all other platforms) then games sold on your system will have better sales than other releases. The market share reflects the market for buying consoles. Having a low market share does not mean there aren't many players with that system. It means new players that year are buying other systems and their potential sales pools are now higher.

Provided you create a system with enough tech to sell for a few years, run some hype campaigns to keep hype high, release some console exclusives. You will have a very strong income stream added to your studio allowing you to get crazy with crypto, acquisitions, or whatever strategy you have.

The one current limitation is that the player does not have the ability to create their own digital store presence such as their own STEAM. So, you can only self-publish games made on your custom console. The complexity of your own digital stores was a bit beyond the time frame for this release date, but is something I would like to visit in a future post launch update if players are enjoying the console system.

This is a brand-new system in the game and I tried to keep it from breaking the existing game or forcing a certain play style. Please give me feedback around your experience with this new system and we will work to make improvements as they arise. I personally enjoy what I came up with, but I am a tad bias so please feel free to talk consoles with me anytime.

Conclusion

This is what I was able to manage for this patch. On top of several bug fixes and bug hunts and small minor tweaks and changes not worth mentioning. I hope you all enjoy the current state of the game and find it more than worth the asking price, which is staying the same. I am not increasing the cost as we leave early access. Having a game feel like it was worth the cost is a big factor for me as a player and keeping the lower price helps ensure that is the case.

I have worked extensively on this patch to ensure as few bugs as possible, and hopefully zero bugs. However, there are so many hardware setups and different player types that it would be arrogant to think I attempted to mimic every type of player in my pursuit of bug hunting. So please, if you find any issues do not hesitate to contact me via steam, discord, twitter, email, or whatever means best suit you. I will be playing and hanging out over the next few weeks ready to spring into action for any issues. I am very confident and proud of the current state of the game, and I believe it is ready for release. Thank you to everyone for their support and for your time. I hope you have as much fun in game as I do, and I look forward to smashing all of your GDM scores on the leader boards. Bring it on.