Alpha 1.4 is out and contains the new freelance/contractor business feature. I gave an introduction to this feature in the previous post here. Today, I’ll talk about some other changes surrounding this new feature.

The most recent transactions are now listed when you click on your main account balance. This is useful if you have multiple businesses and they start generating income/deducting expenses from your account. You can see where the money is going, whether it’s paying for wages or materials, etc.

Your own businesses can also be assigned a hotkey now, so you can quickly access it. Just click “Pin” on the business you want to hotkey, and select a number from the list. This is helpful if you want to check up on your business, accept any available jobs and assign workers to jobs. Then once you’re done, press the hotkey again to close the business window and get back to your life.

There’s a new subscription, the Businezz Biweekly which provides you with advanced tips on running a business.

Since you’re running a business, you also get tax deductions. For those that are unfamiliar with how it works, a tax deduction is a reduction in your taxable income mainly from expenses you incur from running the business. Any business expense is a tax deduction, so for example if you made $10000 from the business and spent $7000 on marketing, materials, etc then you would only be taxed on your $3000 profit. You can see your total business income and expenses on the income statement of each business.

You can also sell a business if you have had enough of being an entrepreneur. The final sale price is influenced by recent business profits, brand reputation and awareness, and a few other factors. Your business is considered a sole proprietorship, which means its profits or losses are added to your personal tax return each financial year (and you are taxed at your personal tax rate, not a business tax rate).

As mentioned last time, the base price for This Grand Life will be increasing after this weekend. So if you want it at the lower price, head over to Itch.io before Monday!

Remember you can still vote in the online poll for what you want to see next. More content is currently in the lead so I’ll be working on that for the next update.

Here’s the full list of changes for Alpha 1.4:

New Features

• Added Plumbing business and Plumber’s Toolkit possession
• Added Graphic Design business and Calibrated Monitor possession
• Added Catering business and Commercial Kitchen possession
• Added different rarities for different freelance jobs
• Added job openings taking into account owned possessions and not just worn clothing
• Added brand reputation, awareness and marketing for freelance jobs
• Added reputation hit when freelance work not completed on time
• Implemented economy effect on freelance jobs available
• Added Business button to profile dashboard
• Added auto-cancelling marketing and quitting workers if you can’t afford them
• Added existing names pool as potential employees names
• Added business startup fees
• Added Income Statements for each freelance business
• Added materials requirements for each business
• Added variation to employee wage negotiation skill
• Added hotkeys assignable for Freelance Business
• Added recent transactions to receivables/payables summary
• Added Businezz Biweekly subscription
• Added selling business functionality

Gameplay Changes

• Renamed Beer to Carton Of Beer
• Doubled happiness penalty from being fired from regular job
• Added Diploma requirement for Library Assistant and Work Experience requirement for Librarian
• Implemented business tax deductions
• Wealth calculation includes business value

Bugfixes/Improvements

• Reduced size of save files
• Implemented click to zoom for freelance jobs
• Moved Hours Spent button from profile dashboard into Statements
• Fixed Tickets To CatCon not expiring after a month
• Added Warranty to tooltip when purchasing breakable goods
• Disable hiding work button
• Reworked Tax Statement to include more income and deduction details
• Added windowed full screen to option
• Fixed Subscriptions adding money instead of taking it away
• Changed actions on business panel arrangement from alphabetical to data order
• Switching from main menu to game now instantaneous
• Clicking on Home or Job on dashboard now travels there instead of camera zooming
• Fixed crash when pressing load game button with no saved games