As I’m writing this post, only the Windows version is available. The Linux version will hopefully be up before Monday and I will have a demo up for Linux as well. I will specifically be testing Software Inc. on a machine running Ubuntu 14. I’m not sure about the Mac version yet, it will be up as soon as I have a chance to test it. Naturally, you will have access to all versions as they become available if you buy it now.
Assuming Software Inc. gets through Greenlight(Browser link here –Steam link here), you will also get a Steam key.

Pricing

The game is currently 10$ and will be throughout the pre-alpha phase.
My plans are for it to be 12$ in alpha, 14$ about half-way through the alpha, 16$ during beta and finally 18$ at release, excluding any tax that may apply to your country. These prices may change at any point.

Early access

I’ve chosen to do early access because I don’t have a lot of money to sink in to this project. I really want it to have pretty character-models with cool animations, a pretty graphical user interface and proper quality assurance. All of these things are expensive and I’m already out around $2000. If I don’t raise enough funds for these things, I will still finish Software Inc. and you will still get a playable game in the end, but it probably won’t feel as nice as it could have. I won’t be cutting any features that I have planned, though!

Immediate future

I’m currently working on my bachelor thesis in a group of 3, which we will be defending in the beginning of April, so development will move slowly during these next couple of months.

I expect to release a playthrough/tutorial/devlog-thing at some point in the near future, so look forward to hearing my horrible accent and squeaky voice!

Semi-distant future

Other than my thesis, I have a job, which contractually takes priority, and I expect to have a job throughout the development of Software Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing as though I’m only one person right now, development might move a little slow, but I’m an effective programmer and I have been able to get Software Inc. to a playable and almost feature-complete state within 6 months without any help, while taking courses and working a job. So in any case, I expect it to take around 2 years to finish from now and unless something horrible happens, I will be finishing it!

Click here to play the new demo.

Software Inc. has been featured in three articles this last month, you can read them here:
Indieroundup.com (Playthrough)
Nordicgamebits.com (Interview)
P911-magazine.com
(The last one is in French)

For this update, Software Inc. has had a base mechanic completely replaced.

Instead of the old Innovation/Stability/Usability sliders when designing software, a feature system has been added. Features control development time, Innovation, stability, usability, how many artists are needed and they can depend on features in various ways. 3D rendering can supersede 2D rendering, music can depend on whether the selected audio tool has a music editor and 8-bit audio can depend on whether ALL operating systems selected support it. All of these features and their dependencies are of course moddable in the full version, using simple XML files.
I hope this addition makes the design process feel more intuitive.

To make all this work I had to make a simple editor for it (Shown below). It is windows only, but I might release it when Software Inc. releases. In the end, I hope to enable editing mods directly in-game.

I also fixed up the building system, by having the furniture you’re currently building actually show while your placing it. And you can no longer build rooms in the middle of nowhere without support.

I updated the name generators with some new words, the results are great, with names such as:

• Foot Simulator of Death
• Spacewars in Space
• Baby Rebirth at night
• Horse Tycoon in Space
• Fish Manager Ultra
• Horse Killer At Night

The name generators are completely moddable and can be edited with plain text files.

You can see an always up-to-date list of all changes here: Changelog

Why isn’t Software Inc. out yet? My plan was to release the game at pretty much the same time as the Greenlight went live a month ago, but I’ve been let down by a third party. Basically, someone messed up two months ago and I’ve been paying for it. Hopefully, it will soon work out. I’m doing what I can, but I have limited time available to go around and fix stupid bureaucratic mistakes.

Finally, remember to vote for Software Inc. on Greenlight! You can open the Greenlight page in your browser by clicking here, or directly in steam by clicking here. Software Inc. is currently 48% of the way to the top 100.