Exciting times! Not only does today mark the first Presidential election debate in the US, its just a week away from the launch into early access of our political strategy game Democracy 4.

If you want to try your hand at implementing Universal Basic Income, or maybe you want to ban teaching evolution in schools, perhaps build a border wall, or legalize heroin, or go crazy with the money printer with some helicopter money or quantitative easing... these are all options available to you in Democracy 4.

Currently the game features the USA, UK, Germany and France, and we expect to add Canada before Early Access starts, with a list of other countries coming after that as we continue to work on the game in response to player feedback.
Here is the official trailer:

https://youtu.be/kuJGiYC4cyg

I also just added a new steam guide that explains how people can create mods for the game, which we support through steam workshop:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2242250360

...and we will add a steam guide for basic gameplay soon too (although this is also built in to the game just by hitting F1...). I'm also doing developer videos on youtube every other week to go over whats been added to the game where you can see how it plays, and you will already find some youtube lets play videos of early builds of the game.


If you are thinking of getting the game (its $26.99 BTW), then please add to your wishlist now and help us get more visibility on the store :D

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1410710

Great news fellow citizens! The latest installment in the geeky-but-popular political strategy game 'Democracy' series is coming to steam very soon, in a US election year no less. Just imagine how calm and peaceful our forums will be :D

Its been 7, yes SEVEN years since the release of Democracy 3, and global politics has changed a lot. Democracy 4 takes the series into the modern age with new features like coalition governments, media reports, Quantitative Easing & Helicopter money, Fake news and Social Media. Here is the trailer:

https://youtu.be/kuJGiYC4cyg

Democracy 4 will be released soon on steam, so please check out the store page and add it to your wishlist to keep up to date with developments. We will be coming to early access, so will have plenty of opportunity to get feedback from players on how to best balance the game, and what cool new policies to add.

Before you start typing, YES, Universal Basic Income is a policy in the game :D And yes, we are modelling cryptocurrencies too :D

As well as updating what the game covers, D4 has a revamped user-interface using slick vector graphics to dynamically resize the main screen icons based on a number of factors, and allow for infinite modding potential. We also have a palletized color system so you can play in dark mode (and soon...colorblind modes).
Without a doubt D4 is the very best version of the game, and we are very excited to share it with steam players soon.

By the way, most of the features and policies from all the Democracy 3 expansions are rolled into Democracy 4 base game, so we have all the electioneering features, and policies from extremism (plus some new policies that go further, like border walls), social engineering and clones & drones.

Plus there are some new screens and visualisations that are completely new for this game, like the voter distribution screens and the disposable income breakdown.

Anyway... we are very excited about releasing this game, and if you are interested in playing, go ahead and bash that wishlist button :D

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1410710/Democracy_4/?beta=0

At last! our DLC containing varieties of car models is now on sale. The design variety pack contains a new car design for each of the existing cat categories in the base game (Sedan, Compact, SUV, Sports, Offroad, Pickup and Small Van). You can now select the car variant for each design once you have unlocked them using the design studio.

These are cosmetic changes only, they do not affect what vehicle a customer will buy, but you may want to use them to make it easier to visually distinguish between the different car ranges within a style (such as expensive SUV versus budget SUV).
Hope ya like em!

Check out how the new designs look in this trailer:

https://youtu.be/LkRcorWhNcc

And the DLC itself can be grabbed here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1174730/Production_Line__Design_Variety_Pack/

Thanks for all your support during the development of the game, its a real labour of love!
Cliff

Full changelist for this update:

[version 1.81]
1) [Bug] Fixed rare case where some cars would have missing components at specific zoom levels (only painted components drawn) also affected cars drawn in conveyor-placement mode.
2) [Bug] Fixed bug where you could get the demolish tool 'stuck' because it didnt cancel when right clicking.
3) [Bug] Fixed bug where backspace key removed 2 characters instead of 1.
4) [Feature] Added new 'import flow analysis' feature to slots. New arrows on the import tab for the slot window lets you toggle a feature to show the import source for any selected resource.

example:

5) [Feature] New hotkey: 'P' (remappable) moves the currently selected slot (instead of having to click the move icon at the top right).

Hope you like these changes. TBH 95% of players will not notice, but if you are playing large late-game maps, those bugs may have affected you and you might find the import flow analysis thing helpful for working out why some resources are causing a bottleneck. Feedback on this is welcome.

Hi there! We are releasing our second expansion to Production Line: Car Factory simulation on the 23rd October! This expansion is a cosmetic-only change to double (yes DOUBLE) the variety of car design styles in the game! You can now pick from 2 different looks for every car design in the base game (Sedan,SUV,Sports,Compact,Offroad,Pickup & Small van).

Mini trailer showing the new designs:
https://youtu.be/LkRcorWhNcc

Here is the store page so you can add the DLC to your wishlist :D

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1174730/Production_Line__Design_Variety_Pack/

Plus if you have not checked out the game for a while, please do as we have released a whole bunch of updates over the last few months that massively improve the playability, performance and stability of the game, mostly in response to player feedback, which has been excellent.
Oh and if you enjoy the game but have not got around to reviewing it, leaving a positive review is REALLY appreciated :D

Oh and if you bought the game way, way back when it first entered early access...you will not be aware that we already released one expansion for the game, which added both a supercar design and the silly doors on the cars of millionaires and billionaires, appropriately titled 'doors that go like this', which you will find here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067630/Doors_that_go_like_this/

How can you run a sprawling car factory without gull wing doors? :D

BTW we keep this forum thread up to date to tell people what changes we make to the game, so you can see if an idea you have for the game is already being worked on:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/591370/discussions/0/1290690926863304299/

Thanks for all your support. production Line has over 100,000 happy steam players and that makes us very very proud (and pays for food for 3, yes THREE cats). :D
🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗

1) [BUG] Fixed bug where graphics on RHS of screen corrupted when viewing maintenance overlay on a screen wider than 4096 pixels.
2) [Feature] Search bars on R&D and task picker now create a drop down of items to click on as well as zooming to the first item.

3) [GUI] There is a new button on the showroom screen that allows you to toggle between the normal and (new) summary view.

4) [Bug] Fixed wrong display of points-per-minute on the R&D screen for designs. (purely a visual problem).
5) [GUI] Battery indicator now shows supply values over 100%.
6) [Bug] Fixed bug where if you changed a floor tile using the factory decoration several times, then removed a slot, only the first change is remembered.
7) [Feature] Mods can now include scenarios in the \modname\data\scenarios folder and they will be recognized. (still only 1 per map for now).
8) [Bug] Fixed some bugs relating to manufacture of powertrains (upgrades were not mutually exclusive) and stop start engine upgrade not requiring the correct components.
9) [Bug] Fixed rare bug that gave an error about being unable to highlight a tutorial window.
10) [GUI] Improved and expanded initial tutorial
11) [Bug] Aluminium is now available as a resource everywhere once you research alloy wheels OR aluminium bodies.
12) [Bug] Fixed error in the way imported components were being calculated on the components efficiency screen, meaning they were sometimes assumed to be imported when stockpiles were being run-down instead.
13) [Bug] Fixed UI anomaly on the lines showing incoming resources to a slot on huge maps when partially zoomed in.
14) [Performance] major speed-up of the processing of customers for late-game with many customers and cars in showroom for a long time.

Thats all for now :D

Hi all! Here is a relatively big update to the game with lots of cool stuff...

[version 1.79]
1) [BUG] Fixed timing bug that affected the speed that some slots operated in certain combinations of upgrade.
2) [GUI] You can now scroll on the marketing screen using the mouse wheel.
3) [Bug] Fixed crash bug on certain fixed hour boundaries if a debugger was detected.
4) [Bug] Fixed crash bug when placing supply stockpiles rapidly after one another when frame rate was low or number of slots really high.
5) [GUI] Sort order and direction now remembered for the vehicle design screen, the expenses list and the component (efficiency) list.
6) [GUI] Income screen now has sortable columns.

7) [GUI] The bottom-right screen event messages now have delete buttons so they can be closed immediately.

8) [Bug] Fixed some weird incorrect characters in certain areas of Italian language text.
9) [Bug] Fixed hyper rare crash bug relating to advisors and multithreading.
10) [Bug] Fixed crash bug when moving visual inspection slot with all upgrades.
11) [Balance] Reduced market value of a hybrid powertrain to $7,500. Increased cost of Hybrid Powertrain to $1,950.
12) [GUI] An extremely long list of minor changes and tweaks to colors / positions, fonts etc for various parts of the UI.
13) [GUI] Search bar added at the top of the slot picker!

14) [Bug] Fixed missing resource options for the import priorities tab for non-standard powertrains (hybrid etc).
15) [GUI] Both direction drag now works in map editor create new zone.
16) [Balance] Hybrid powertrain never becomes common now.
17) [GUI] Improvements to UI for placing resource conveyors.
18) [Bug] Fixed GUI bug where the AI-research icons on a research-facility popup did not drag with the parent window.
19) [GUI] Hovering the mouse over the sales/showroom button now expands that white bubble to show a detailed showroom breakdown.

20) [Content] 5 new researchable marketing options: Social media,Sponsorship,Product Placement,Billboards and Banner ads.

21) [Content] Better car light graphics.

Hope ya like all these changes. I think the new lights look cool, and I'm glad I finally got around to expanding on the marketing options. let me know what you think :D

Hi all! Here is the latest update to the game! Full changelist:

[version 1.78]
1) [GUI]Fixed bad formatting of car sales values over $2billion.
2) [Content] Added new researchable upgrade for the visual inspection slot which makes the checks take much longer but very high chance to spot defects.

3) [Content] Added new researchable slot to manufacture hybrid powertrains.

4) [GUI] Improved a number of tooltips and requirements on the research screen to hide pointless tooltip information, reformat short ones, and make requirements more sensible.
5) [GUI] Clicking any box on the market matrix (sales) where you have a design for that price/body style now opens the design window for the first matching design.
6) [GUI] The text on the market analysis window for each car design can now be clicked on to open the vehicle design screen.
7) [GUI] Added visual up/down indicators to the columns in component efficiency and finance expense screens to indicate/reflect the current sorted column and direction.
8) [GUI] You can at last drag-and drop research queue items to re-arrange them!

9) [GUI] Added search bar to the top right of the research screen. start typing in there to find a tech from its name.

Hope you like these changes! Feedback welcome. I have a list of small GUI changes todo, and also plan on looking into some late game marketing options to boost sales for those ultra-huge factories.

Lots of UI improvements in this one. Here is the complete list
1) [Bug] Fixed crash bug when deleting a smart junction with an open config window for that junction, then adjusting its settings.
2) [Bug] Fixed misleading yellow warning for sunroof on some designs where panoramic sunroof was unlocked and common but not valid on that body style.
3) [Bug] Fixed missing import config options on the fit seats slot for nappa, red and white leather seats.
4) [GUI] Finance screen tabs now autosize where possible to save taking up too much space.
5) [GUI] Expenses tab on finance screen now sortable up/down on each column. Pie charts now sorted by cost.

6) [Bug] Fixed crash bug when marketing window is open at the point when a marketing campaign ends. Also the customer/revenue stats now update in real time.
7) [Balance] Brand awareness from high sales (organic) now easier to achieve and has a bigger effect. This is now shown on the brand awareness box.

8) [GUI] Options screen now includes the option to disable the red flashing and facility pop-ups when no research is currently taking place & facilities exist.
9) [Bug] Fixed bug where you could still click on or right-click-delete a blueprint when those blueprints had been deliberately hidden.
10) [Bug] Fixed hang when connecting resource conveyors to a vast list of unconnected stockpiles with the slot notices activated.
11) [GUI] Vehicle design screen now shows design preview icons by names (if space permits) unless it needs the space for longer names.
12) [GUI] Vehicle design screen feature strips are smaller and the market price has been moved to the tooltip.

13) [GUI] A number of user-interface and formatting changes (improvements hopefully) to the research and development screens.

14) [Balance] Increased both the cost and the research speed of research offices and centers by 10%.
15) [GUI] Changed some of the UI colors and added support for a proper color palette loaded from a bitmap.

These changes mean that its now SUPER easy for me to change the color palette used for the UI, so I'm very open to feedback on that (FWIW its a file inside \data\bitmaps called color_palette.png, you can edit it yourself).

Hopefully the extra data that is now shown when hovering the mouse over a feature on the vehicle design screen is helpful tom players. This calculates the actual *real world* cost of the resources required, taking into account cases where you are producing some or all of them in-house, and how much the raw materials thus cost.

Thanks for all your support, ideas, and kind words about the game.