Rules

The year is 2021. I’ve been operating since 1990. Started with antiviruses and now worth 30B. I figured hardware was the next step so I built a factory for my phones and headphones. What’s next?

I absolutely love this game! With some free time, I decided to re-create the UI, aiming to unify, modernize, and simplify a few elements. It’s still very much a work in progress, but I’d love to hear your thoughts! I took a lot of inspiration from Cities Skylines II.

My hope is that the developer likes this enough to implement something similar! If the developer is interested in this, I can continue developing the UI concept out further.

Please keep in mind this is a wip draft, many of the buttons are missing, among other things. The spacing of UI elements can be improved.

Light Mode Concept

Dark Mode Concept

I recently got some copper as a procurement, but it sits in my office and I don't know what to do with it. Is there anything to do with it?

Hey everyone,

Now that founders can have stress, which could be a good thing for difficulty, I'm not quite a fan of the fact that you cannot decide whenever or not they can feel stress or not.

Can we add a character trait that deletes the stress jauge so that we can play the game we used to before the update ? I'm not really ready yet to explore on the game with the founder stress mechanic.

Good luck to the team!

Hello, I have my save file (Last Played: January 2024) sitting at 250 Million but there's so many projects and I don't remember what I was working towards, so I thought I'd start a new game:

1. I heard Leadership is very important now. Is it worth to make one founder a Leader and have him lead through the early stages? Or is it that "Leadership is not worth it with a team of 4 founders, but it's good for future use"? Other than that, what is the new meta for 4 Founders in general (I like not wasting much time in the beginning and want to get to mid-game quickly, so I thought I'd roll with 4 founders again)

2. What is the fastest way to Digital Distribution? Is the answer something like "Whatever takes you to 300 Million the fastest"? In my earlier playthroughs I always pumped out software but this time I want to evolve into a digital service center essentially.

3. I also wanted to dabble in Hardware but from what I'm understanding if you go Hardware, you pretty much go Hardware. The skills aren't transferrable either (what would you do with a 2D artist if you need Hardware, what would you do with a L3 Hardware guy if you need Software). Is it a faster route to big money compared to software? I have played games like Factorio before, but I am not extremely fond of the whole "this takes 3 units of time, this takes 2, this takes 6 units of time, gotta arrange for that...."

4. I always start in 1980 to have a headstart by the time I reach the 90s. Am I wrong?

5. Finally, back when I used to play the game, launching an Antivirus was the best bet, and then I remember this evolving into rushing an OS and then launching a sequel with 3D support (?). What is a solid early game strategy now? All dedicated guides on the internet are very outdated, if someone knows a guide from 2024 I would really appreciate it.

Thank you :)

Hey everyone,

Software inc is a game I've been playing the past months and absolutely love it, had a blast playing it this summer and everything went well.

Decided to take a break from it and motivated myself to start a new game today, repeating my usual scenario but I don't know if it's the new update that's doing this but my main characters aren't working at all ?

I usually love to make up to 4 characters, each specialized in something, and have them work together for the first few millions but all they do is come into the office, stare at the screen for hours and do absolutely nothing ?

The effectiveness is said to be at 0% and I have no clue why as this never happened before, is there anything that changed in the last updates that's causing this ?

Hey guys,

I'm new to this game, and I'm trying to figure out how the hardware manufacturing is working. I picked the biggest contract I got and set up the printers and stuff. I placed it like the blueprint told me, except I divided it in 2 separate lines. The thing is, producing this hardware cost me a few million dollars, and it doesn't seem profitable to me. Am I missing something?

The assembly lines end in 2 heli pads, seems to me easier than organizing the trucks to pick up.

Hey!
I seen some outdated tutorials, and I'm still lost.
Somehow My Project management sux:

• Manager loosing all efficiency

• 1/3 of all people involved are without tasks

• no new projects in development

After all - im loosing money in the long run.

Can anyone tell me, step by step how to do this?

I know how to set up hiring and HR, but I am aware how this can impact the rest, so assume I know nothing, ok?

Steam Post
Changes

• Added ability for employees to mentor other employees, making them skill up faster
• Adjusted publisher deadlines
• Project management will no longer update tech of products that have a sequel out
• New work and idle animations to indicate when employees are tired or working really fast
• Improved look of ground and grass

I just decided to build my own office building and after moving in I am finding my teams to be much slower in design and development (It took 3 years to complete the design phase)

I produce mainly games with the odd OS release.

How would you set up the teams to be as effective as possible?

I tried to start a new game with hardware manufacture so I started with producing a joystick for 3rd party console. But it seems that even without marketing every active user^(1) wants to buy 2 copies for far more than suggested price. 3 months of work and then then 20 million in profit.

Is this how it works for now or did I mess something up in the settings?

1. Every active user times physical market share, it seems people don't want to buy digital copies of the joysticks which is whole different bug.

When using a 2D, 3D, or audio editor you created, does anything other than the tech level have any impact on the software you make with it?

For example, is the option to support drawing pads required to get the boost from your artists using a drawing pad?

I've built a starting print factory that can print/ship 324k copies a month. At first I got a number of printing deals that were reasonable, but I've finished them all, haven't received any new ones, and there's only one left. It's asking for 5.4m copies in only a few months though, which is way beyond me.

Can I take the deal without any penalty if I don't fulfill the number of copies they want by the expiration date? Contracts have penalties for not meeting them, but the UI for deals doesn't say anything about it.

Edit: Sorry, another question I can't find: does the temperature in any room other than employee offices matter? It doesn't seem to. For example, if I don't bother adding heat/AC to the meeting room, the employees don't seem to care (their temperature bar is fine during the meeting). Same with canteen, break room, etc.

I don't see how it would affect staff either, since they don't have needs bars like employees. Maybe it affects the lobby/guests though?

I'm trying to do a printing job. Build the printers, garage door and all. It says my van has no place to park. I build parking, I have 2 employees, they occupy the area. Can't make the park exclusive for the courier?

Hi all. Just had a couple of quick questions about sequels and if they are worth it/when to do them etc.

My first product was a mildly successful 2D Editor that was released in 1982. Sales were good but naturally died off over time and now the product only has 2800 active users remaining but brings in a bit of cash from licenses each month.

It is now 1985 in the game, so 3 years after release and I'm considering options for my next product. The question I have now is should I make a sequel to my 2D Editor? I can't really add any additional features because it will create wasted interest (currently at 1%) and equally there isn't much point in swapping features as I'm roughly in the sweet spot for market analysis. So will making a sequel with the same features actually sell? Or would an all new IP be a better option?

The answer to the above may or may not answer this as well, but when is the best time to do a sequel?

So as the development of the games goes forward including more and more features I thought it would be one that would improve realism a lot.

Even the most basic modifier of increasing minimal cost of everything (development, energy, marketing, printing, production, rent, wages and water) by 2% a year would change the game for the better. That could be applied with better care having a sort of global/state economy simulation in the back that would pop out a number for each year. As it's based on real world of course the software market would boom anyway, but each year the simulation could apply a factor of how consumer spending can grow based on what companies and people can afford. In some years inflation could go down to near 0%, on a bad year you could hit let's say 10% and it would take a few years to get back closer to the usual 2,5% that the developed world irl aims for.
The development cost would also increase in a more realistic way, not just because you have more workers and bigger projects. Additionally some national minimum wage could be a factor that increases in the background, so you would avoid silly low wages for e.g. for support workers. I can hire a low salary support for $1,000-1,700 a month and high for $2,600 in 1980 and in 2023 in game. In California in 2023 minimum wage would be around $2,700, as a real world example of strong software sector, but in 1980, in California, you could get away with paying $500 a month.
In the most ambitious outcome of the idea you would have factors changing different costs by different factors each year. Oh a bad year for production - it goes up 6% in cost. Thankfully at least water prices increased by just 1%. Uff... the commies passed new minimum wage bill I have to pay 10% more and so on. Same idea could be applied to the taxes, as the rate should fluctuate somewhat e.g. in the US effective corporate tax rate went down from some 30% in 1980 to 15ish% in 2023, with high of almost 40% and floor of little above 10%.
It might be less intuitive, because we only have good understanding of the current prices, but would improve the state of the game. What are your thoughts?

It's been a while since I played any software inc is the added Tax is city's just addition income tax on top of what the game is already set at?

Why does it say I have 3/2/2 shouldn’t it be 3/3/3?

Thanks :D

I want to try and start a game with 4 founders (i can start with 2 or 3 tho, so if you got a better idea than 4 please share) and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what traits and skills to give them so they complement eachother.

Any suggestions?

I built parking garages but the issue is when people try to use ramps it forms a classic boston four way car collision grid lock situation that burns 20 minutes to solve

I tried more ramps to make it less clogged but these idiots still only go to the same entrance clogged and full of car pileup

How do you design your parking? I know with 3 shift set up the parking demand reduces but as a result of current parking pile up I think, I see people coming and leaving work far outside their scheduled shifts which is screwing my 3 shift system up and causing many complaints (even with a 3 hour margin of error between shifts)

I'm seeing both employees leaving 3 hours later and arriving 3 hours earlier. It's then resulting in dozens of complaints of working nights for folks that are 8 am shift start scheduled.

Steam Post
#Full patch notes since last update
Project management

• Replaced project management point system with a mistake system
• You can now add previous products to a project management task to automate existing tasks
• You can now let project manager handle ordering copies or setting print job maximum every day
• The amount of projects that have active tasks for project management now increases stress for leader

Publishers

• You can now pick between different publishing deals
• Successful publishing deals now increases relationship with a publisher which makes them give better deals
• Game now adds reputation from publisher in sales and marketing calculations, but publisher takes 75% of fans from product
• Publishers now have a recoup target before lowering their royalty cut
• Publisher funding is now increased if marketing or printing is disabled
• You can now get a publisher after a product has released or publisher has closed down
• Added detailed publisher info in product detail window

Character models

• 6 new torso clothing items
• Overhauled beards
• Added tons of piercing options
• Employees' faces now age physically

Other changes

• There's a new IT-support staff related furniture that can be unlocked by owning a subsidiary
• Founders can now get stressed, but at 75% normal rate due to not taking food or bathroom breaks
• Employees no longer wait their turn when they are queued for something if they are closer, thereby heavily increasing food and toilet throughput
• Employees will now wait outside bathroom if it is occupied, instead of just not using the toilet at all
• Added a minimum 6 month grace period before spawning a company in an under served market, to give the player some reaction time
• You can now procure more gold, silver and copper at a time, and the size of the current gold object has been heavily reduced as a result
• How many bugs an employee can fix is no longer based on the most skilled person on the same team, but the most skilled person in any team assigned to the task
• Prints per month column in manufacturing window now accounts for contracts and deals being completed
• Improved manufacturing stats
• Burglar and police drone warnings are now more prominent and you can auto-follow the action
• The contract window has been split into available and completed tabs for less visual clutter
• You can now press enter to accept contracts
• Added button to show all processes across all servers
• Added progress bars to list columns for employees, teams, servers, digital distribution and assembly lines
• The game now officially supports objects that can both be snapped to something or placed on the floor directly
• You can now find locked furniture when searching for it specifically, to avoid confusion as to why some furniture is missing
• The rent overlay can now toggle the player owned color to show only grouping, to reduce confusion about the rent room accessibility error
• Somewhat reduced performance impact of having windows with lists open

Fixes

• Bunch of fixes to the character models

• Fixed bug that would incorrectly report on physical sales for subscription-based products and add-ons causing over-ordering by AI

• Fixed furniture search algorithm not properly taking verticality into account, making employees sometimes choose furniture far away on other floors

• Fixed bug where employees would sit sideways in their chair after having gone to an empty vending machine

• Fixed solar panel and leather couch not working in any data overlay

• Fix for elevators becoming stuck because they think somebody hasn't properly entered them yet

• Made it so the BetterSoftwareDevelopment mod can't cancel digital distribution platform support

• Fixed not being able to search for logos with special characters

• Fixed Walk Instead trait not actually applying properly

• Fixed long standing bug that made IT and maintenance repair tasks take zero seconds, they now take between 1 and 20 in-game minutes, depending on object complexity

• Fixed original price of precious metals not loading properly

#Patch notes for Beta 1.8.6
Changes

• 6 new torso clothing items
• Overhauled beards
• Added tons of piercing options
• Employees' faces now age physically
• You can now press enter to accept contracts
• Added button to show all processes across all servers
• Added progress bars to list columns for employees, teams, servers, digital distribution and assembly lines
• Somewhat reduced performance impact of having windows with lists open

Fixes

• Fixed publisher deadline length label being wrong when days per month > 1
• Bunch of fixes to the character models

1. Do the amount of Days a month increase the time it takes to Develop Software?
2. Does the Quality of Inhouse products matter?
3. Does the Expected Interest in a products increase over time?

Not so much for me but for a friend. I've played the game enough that it isn't an issue but the game has also updated alot and I've fallen behind.

I'm curious on alot of the min-max stuff and would also like to share with a friend (he's knew)..

Some examples are, having people not skilled use to hurt projects. I believe this is no longer a issue and they just stop working?

Does have too many teams/people on projects still negativity effect it and how so?

Basically what are the kinda hidden things that factor in for project quality and speed?

I've had the game for a few years so i guess new player isn't very true but I always fail at some point early on. I like to start in the 80's/90's stage because i think it would be fun but i always struggle to get out of doing nothing but contract work. Any tips are welcome.

Been enjoying the game a lot and tried looking up posts but can't for the life of me figure out why I can manufacture successfully but sometimes my assembly line is perfect and other times its got varying ineffectiveness for some piece or component

Example one here is a HDD, you can see the final assembly on left is 0% effective while one on right is fully effective

I have a long 10 building chain of conveyors that lead through multiple floors to a single heli pad btw where I have a recycler right before the heli pad

I can't tell what I'm doing wrong or why sometimes one is ok but the other isn't? Is it something with my conveyor belts not wired up right or adequate spacing? Idk help appreciated. Tried examining in assembly view but no luck

Same issue here on motherboards

Mini daughter boards are totally screwed, with all 3 final assembly spotty and the second mini assembly also messed up, no idea why

Laptop case is perfectly fine

HDD is busted on final assembly for 1/2

Hi guys, I have some confusion regarding the frameworks. I developed an Operating system and also made the framework with it, so now when I am making a sequel to it all the features that I added in my previous version are showing as blue marks, so does it mean that I do not need to do them again and just add new features?

I bought a non-DRM version of software inc via the Humble store, I’m on Beta 1.7.33. I recently downloaded their Beta 1.8.3 version from there. Is there somewhere where I need to put the update file in order for the update to reflect on the game? If so where?