Game Dev Masters Update 3 - show me the $$$

Update 3.0 is Now Available

Important Info

To install the latest version, please delete your old files where you extracting them and download the new v3 .7z file and then un-pack and run gdm.exe.  Please note due to changes in the save structure this update will not work with old save data.  It might crash or just throw up errors behind the scenes but the arrays DO NOT exist in the old save so please start fresh.

TLDR

This newest update focuses on adding finance systems into the game.  These include Tracking / Banking / Stocks.

Tracking

I have added 3 forms of finance tracking for you to use. 

An overview which gives you years at a glance showing game sales / costs as well as other costs / sales, and of course that years gross.  This chart is good for a quick idea to see how you are progressing each year.  These per year results are also being used in the calculation of your companies valuation each year.  I have also added a credit rating but I am unsure how I want to setup the algorithm to handle increasing and decreasing of your rating.  For now you are stuck at F rated.

I have also included a simple graph that displays per week revenue / cost charts as well as this can be turned to monthly.  These don't really add anything to the game-play but they are a nice way to reflect on your previous years / months / weeks and maybe spot some trends in your own game-play you can improve.

I have added a log of events that tracks your previous income / expenses.  I feel this actually serves a good purpose as it is easy to be paying attention somewhere else and not see a cost / income event pop up then notice your cash is way up or down and be like wtf??  Now you can simple check the log which will give you all the info you need, as well as they are time stamped for your convenience and always list newest to oldest in descending order.

Banking

Accounts

I have added 2 types of accounts.  The first is a simple low interest account which you can deposit and withdraw from at any time.  This account yields 6 % interest every quarter (3 months).  This account does not calculate at the quarter end, there is no exploit of putting money in just before interest gains it is being calculated every week leading up to payment.  This will deny shenanigans :)..

The second account is a high interest account that requires you to lock in for a set amount of time.  Interest raises as you increase the time you are locking the money down for up to 1 year at 30%.

Loans

I have added the ability to take out one loan at a time.  The size of the loan is determined by your companies valuation and your credit rating.  You have a slider for the loan size as well as the term length.  There is a lot of freedom for how long you want a loan to run which will be added to monthly expenses.  The loan can also be fully paid off at anytime you wish / can afford.

Portfolio

Lastly I have added a portfolio option.  This options allows you to sell %s of your company for cash, but you lose that % of the revenue from sold games.  This can be a good boost of cash but over time this will cost you a lot.  You are able to re buy your stock back when you can afford it regaining the power to control 100% of your company.

All Ai companies are now for sale.  You can purchase stock %'s in any of the Ai companies up to 100% control.  Every time they sell a game you get your holdings % portion of there sales.  This is a great way to setup sustainability of your company over the long term, although it will require some investment.  I am still working to dial in the Ai routine to ensure its worth while to buy stock but also not Over powered.  

I had to change the Top 10 Companies to no longer show release months for there games as it was possible to exploit buy stock right before a release.  I am know showing what quarter games are being released.   It's not perfect you can still have a good idea when a game will release but I have capped stock purchases so that you can not go into the red just to cheese a payout.  I will continue to work on the balance as well as keep any exploits I can think of out.  Please if you find any share them with me.

Final Thoughts on the patch

I think we now have some good financials in the game at least for now, I will be moving onto a new task for next week but there are a few small things I still wanna tackle with finances.  

I am thinking of adding the ability to pick if income / costs go to the bank or your on hand money as well as I wanna show bank acc on main HUD and perhaps force training / research to on hand use money but the rest can pull from bank??  Currently everything pulls from on hand except banking uses bank and deposits interest directly into the bank I intend to expand this with options and what not..