Update 6

So finally following through on the first update after getting back to work on this game. There's been a great deal of work done this year

Multiplayer

It's in and verified working! This wasn't too much effort, thanks to being done in all previous iterations of the codebase. Most of my time has been  spent on the security side, still a bit of work to go to make it a little harder to cheat but that can wait.

Godot 4

I upgraded to Godot 4 and updated the front end for this new iteration. Now you can finally play a game, which naturally exposed a lot of little mechanics I missed with just running the game through automated testing. This took up the majority of my time this year, it's come a long way and is starting to feel like a real game.

Balance Lab

After getting the game into a playable state the next step was adding a very basic NPC/AI that can hire and design/develop products. With this I could build an automated balancing system that will help significantly in balancing the game to an enjoyable state. It's been a lot of fun and the web reports it generates have once again exposed areas that need a little love.   

I've attached a recent example report showing my current focus on the market simulation. As you can see from the graphs everyone quickly goes bankrupt at the moment, so there's still a lot of work to do. 

Current Focus

I'll keep working on the market logic, once at least a few companies can sustain themselves I'll move over to improving the experience of updating your products and fixing bugs.