Hello there, Landlords!


What an exciting day it is! Finally, after a year and a half in Early Access, we're releasing the game in full. As hard as it may have been at times, keeping up with the hurdles of live development throughout our EA adventure, we're all happy to have made the decision to go with it back in March 2021. Without your constant feedback and ideas, The Tenants would definitely not be the game it is today.

For this final update on our Early Access development roadmap, we didn't plan any new major mechanics and instead wanted to focus on what you, the community, have suggested over the recent months. Of course, it wouldn't be a proper full release without an actual ending to the game, although, the main storyline ending isn't necessarily the ultimate ending to your whole landlording adventure. In fact, after completing the final goal in Manhattan, you might be surprised by a rather exciting choice. Keep your headphones on while progressing towards that final mission, as Uncle Steve and all the Elite Contract clients are now fully voiced!

The one thing that undoubtedly many of you will be happy to hear about, is the outlet installation rework. From now on, the core utilities (water, electricity, and heating) can be configured inside renovation mode, meaning you won't have to constantly exit and re-enter renovation due to those pesky outlets.



Another exciting thing that the 1.0 update brings to The Tenants is a new progression system for tenants. Your renters will be able to level up all the way to level 20, giving you many dandy rewards along the way, including an option to move the tenant to a different home or even to send them brand-new clothes to wear. We've heard your feedback on the Agent system and decided to add some ways for players to interact with their agents. Now you can send your employees to enroll in special training courses that will upgrade their stats. On top of that, the agents gained the ability to look for tenants on their own. Make sure to try it all out!

Like always, we'll be monitoring the game and the conversation around it, and you can expect at least a few patches in the coming days filled with fixes and tweaks. But let's get to the cool bits, the content of today's release.

Game Ending

Each story needs its ending and The Tenants is no different in this regard. We've added the final Manhattan goal into the game which will lead you into the ending sequence. Fret not though, what's an end to the storyline itself, doesn't necessarily have to be the ending to your entire playthrough.

Quite the contrary, once you're done with the final mission, you'll have a chance to let Uncle Steve retire in peace and instead sign in a new assistant to aid you. Each of them brings in a unique ability, so choose wisely!

Upgrade System Changes

In the last update, we introduced a pretty game-changing feature, which was the Upgrade & Subscription system, and there was quite a lot of feedback concerning the former part of it. Right before publishing the update, we also felt it was not quite what we'd like it to be, but there wasn't that much time to rework it yet. Fortunately we've done just that in the recent months, and now you can handle the configuration of core upgrades (water, electricity and heating) without Uncle Steve's intervention, all inside the renovation mode.

Say goodbye to having to constantly switch between configuration and renovation as you're adjusting those socket placements!

Tenant Levels

Over our Early Access development, we've mostly focused on the renovation part of gameplay, as many of you enjoy that aspect the most. However tenants are also very important for us, and thus we've introduced the tenant progression system. From now on, your tenants will gain experience when you interact with them (be it sending them a gift, or helping them with Uncle Steve when they have an issue) as well as passively every day.

Upon leveling up a tenant, you'll be able to claim various rewards depending on your renter's level. There are some basic, although useful ones, like increasing the rent they pay, or granting you unique archetype-related items. But there are also more interesting ones, such as moving a tenant to a different house, or sending them clothes to wear.

Open House Options

Many of you asked for a better way to host Open Houses for your apartments, as there wasn't much you could do to impact what kind of customers appeared. We've reworked the OH settings panel, and now you can select specific focuses, such as tenant archetypes, occupation, age brackets, etc. Keep in mind though, that each new focus increases the price for hosting the Open House, so use them with care.

Voice Overs

We've always felt the gameplay experience was a tad too silent when playing The Tenants. With today's update, we're adding full voiceovers for Uncle Steve and all the Elite Contract clients. We've been looking for the best actor for each role for quite some time, and we're very happy with the results.
On that note, while implementing the new voice lines, we've managed to tweak the tutorial dialog display, adjusting the time intervals between each line and how long the UI stays on the screen.

Renovation Jobs Rework

One of the major points of discussion throughout our Early Access pertained to jobs and the repetitive nature of jobs, especially with big renovations that had you design the whole apartment from scratch. We took the time to go back and rework a lot of the existing jobs to make them more varied and faster to progress through. You'll now find a lot more medium-sized jobs that have you design 2-3 rooms with some of them being already work in progress.

Twitch Integration (and Discord too)

For the creators among our community, we've prepared a special treat. The treat being new Twitch integration features that involve viewers casting votes to impact the streamer's playthrough, as well as viewers appearing in-game as customers, tenants, and job clients. To enable Twitch integration, go into options and connect your account.

While we were at it, we also added Discord integration into The Tenants. Once you enable the option to share your current activities on Discord, your friends will know if you're currently chilling in the main menu, or getting schooled by Uncle Steve.

The Next Steps

The full release is but a step in our overall commitment to the game. Post-launch we'd like to focus on free upgrades to the base game, DLCs with the scope of actual expansion packs, as well as other platform / console ports. Below you can find our roadmap for the next chapter of The Tenants.



We can't promise any dates yet, but if you've been following the game for a while, you'll know we don't like to twiddle our thumbs, and we'd like to keep that momentum going.

In regards to other platforms, the plan right now is to work towards ports for the Steam Deck, Mac, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. We'll investigate other options and update you on our plans if we come to any conclusions. Porting The Tenants to consoles is a tricky endeavor, as it'll require us to rework the whole interface and controls from scratch, but we'll do our best to get them out to you as soon as possible.

Well, actually, we can already talk about one platform though. The word on the grapevine is that The Tenants will be available on GeForce Now starting November 3rd, so be sure to mark your calendars!

Full Patch Notes

Features

• Implemented tenant progression system with 20 levels including a few brand-new mini-features (sending tenant clothes, moving house, swapping traits).
  
• Implemented new agent mechanics: sending them to training courses to level up their stats & searching for new tenants.
  
• Implemented new end game missions and 3 new manual workers.
  
• Implemented Twitch integration.
  
• Implemented Discord integration.
  
• Implemented an alternate way to browse items in renovation mode.
  
• Implemented fixed-price apartment deals that appear from time to time.
  
• Implemented the ability to undo your last action in renovation mode.
  
• Implemented changeable wallpapers and phone skins.
  
• Reworked the Open House panel and added the ability to target specific demographics.
  
• Reworked the Upgrades system to allow placement of core upgrade outlets (water, electricity, heating) in renovation mode.

Content

• Added a special reward set for everyone that played the game during Early Access.
  
• Added 4 new Elite Contracts.
  
• Added voiceovers for Uncle Steve & Elite Contract clients.
  
• Added 20 new achievements.
  
• Added special archetype item sets obtainable through leveling up tenants.
  
• Reworked many of Total Renovation jobs (mostly in the Slums and Suburbs) to have fewer required rooms.
  
• Reworked the cleaning setups in many renovation jobs.

General

• Optimized loading times and RAM usage in general.
  
• Reworked the room assignment system in jobs. Now the issues with room identification shouldn't appear anymore.
  
• Added an "are you asleep?" popup that appears after 5 minutes of inactivity. Can be disabled in options.
  
• Added the option to set auto save frequency, including the ability to turn them off.
  
• Overhauled item scaling for a lot of items to make it all more consistent.
  
• Re-enabled the trashing system.
  
• Added a button to mark all messages as read.
  
• Added a particle effect to the tenants affected by Magician's tricks.
  
• Added a floor based version of the water outlet.
  
• Added an indication in the Texting app if the tenant is job-related or not.
  
• Added a visual effect that indicates which rooms are related to your current job.
  
• Added a visual effect that indicates when the furniture you're placing is touching walls.
  
• Now renovation job listings also display the number of rooms that you'll have to renovate.

Balance

• Implemented the Occupation Bonus and Subsidy systems to increase income from renting in the early game.
  
• Reworked the tag assignments for all furniture and reduced the overall number of tags.

Bugs

• Fixed an issue with giant accessories such as guitars.
  
• Fixed a number of issues with the cockroach invasion and rat infestation in creative mode.

Needless to say, the whole team is beyond thrilled to have finally made it here! There's still more to come, and we will be releasing more information regarding our post-launch development roadmap, future expansions, and platform ports in the coming weeks. Lastly, we would like to thank you for your continuous support since last year's Early Access release; we couldn't have done it without you all! Join us on The Tenants Discord community server, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date.

Thank you,
Ancient Forge