Hi everyone!
Last year, on March 10, we released Big Ambitions into Steam Early Access. Celebrating our 1-year anniversary, we want to give you some insight into our studio's current situation and how we see the future.
If it's fresh in-game content or sneak peeks you're after, you might want to skip this one ????
The "Experimental Branch" Approach
Until now, we have released our updates directly to the live branch on Steam, relying fully on selected testers and our own playtesting to catch all the bugs.
We're changing that, starting with the upcoming EA 0.5. We looked at how other successful Early Access titles manage updates and concluded that adopting an experimental branch-release strategy is the way to go.
For new releases, we'll initially publish them on a new "Experimental" branch on Steam. This allows everyone to test the new features and help us iron out any remaining bugs or identify needs for changes and rebalancing. Alongside this, we'll release a Steam announcement, highlighting the major new features but not the full changelog, as it might change based on feedback.
Once the update is available on the Experimental branch, we'll start addressing the issues, shipping hotfixes, each accompanied by an independent Steam announcement.
Finally, once we believe the update is fully tested and stable, we'll move it to the live/default branch, along with a "Major Update"-type Steam announcement, including a video showcasing the new features and a full changelog.
With this approach, we hope to see many more of you jump in and help us catch critical issues before they affect anyone's save games on the live/default branch!
Please note: Experimental Branch saves are not compatible with the full release
You will be rolled back to your EA 0.4 savegame when EA 0.5 is fully released.
EA.0.5 Release Date
Speaking of the Experimental branch, EA 0.5 will be released onto the new Experimental branch on March 27. As just mentioned, we'll post an announcement here on Steam with further details. The full release to the default branch is expected to be around mid-April.
The Return of the Big Ambitions Roadmap
Back in August, we decided to remove our public roadmap. We needed the freedom to rethink the scope of our game without being bound to features promised when we were a small studio trying to survive.
Our situation has since changed. We're no longer in survival mode, and our vision for the game is much clearer than it was six months ago.
That's why we're introducing what's popularly called "A Living Roadmap."
The term "living" means the roadmap will evolve. The features presented are not promises but a glimpse into what we're working towards. As we progress, we might find that certain features are not suitable or feasible and will remove them from the roadmap.
That being said, we're confident that our vision for the future is solid.
You'll notice the roadmap doesn't include any dates. This is intentional. We're no longer in survival mode, so we see no reason to rush updates just to meet arbitrary deadlines. Moving forward, we'll release updates when they're ready. As a rule of thumb, we aim to limit development time between updates to 3 months.
You can always find the latest version of the roadmap on our website.
Studio and Future Plans
At Hovgaard Games, things are better than ever. Our young team is maturing rapidly, and we're probably twice as productive as we were six months ago.
Currently, we are 7 people working full-time and 100% remotely on Big Ambitions. Looking six months ahead, we aim to increase that number to 10. More specifically, we're in the process of hiring a Game Producer. After that, we plan to hire one 3D Artist and one Unity Developer. It won't happen overnight, but we'll take our time to ensure we find the right people.
If you're interested in any of those positions and have a strong love for management and tycoon games, be sure to follow our LinkedIn profile.
Thanks for Reading!
Finally, I just want to thank all of you in our community for the positive and supportive energy you bring. We often share screenshots of your kind comments and positive reviews in our internal Discord channels, and it always brings happiness and motivation to the whole team. So, thank you!
All the best,
Jonas
Founder, Hovgaard Games
