This Grand Life has now been fully released onto the main branch on Steam and Itch.io.
A big thank you to all the players who have been on this journey with me. We’ve grown our careers, bought our first homes, become landlords, started our own businesses and invested in stocks. We’ve been homeless, alcoholics, avid collectors and lottery winners.
If you’re looking for even more content, remember there’s Steam workshop support. Here you can find some mods like Vlade’s megamod, which has a large number of additional career paths like sports star and criminal.
Thanks for playing This Grand Life, I hope the game helps you in your real life in some little way!
With This Grand Life’s full launch coming up on April 17th, I have updated the TEST branch to Release 1.00. On launch day, this version will be put on the main branch and everywhere else. The main additions are a local scoreboard and the new Berlin map (as voted for by the community).
The local scoreboard will keep track of all the lives you’ve lived. Every time you win a game, a final score is calculated and added to the board. Below is what it looks like with some scores I made up.
Next is the Berlin map. Berlin’s map traits are Engineering Powerhouse, Diverse Architecture and Automotive Pioneer.
You can purchase a Large Garage at Brandenburg Gate to begin collecting the city’s unique collectibles, luxury cars. All the collectible car names are based on German brands and range from the Folkswaggin Gulf to the Porch Sports Car. This is by far the most expensive collection in the game.
The special thing about these collectibles is that you can ride them just like you would a normal car! They travel faster but are also more expensive to run, especially the higher-end cars. They also never break down and don’t require repairs.
Another small change is all collectible containers getting their own default theme colour now, which you can still paint over if desired.
Finally, a little fun fact that I discovered about This Grand Life’s players – the same number of people have played the stock market as have played the lottery. Coincidence?
Here are the full list of changes in Release 1.00:
Added Berlin as playable city
Added Berlin collectible and drivable cars
Fixed Infonet not showing more than 10 items when viewing all jobs at location
Fixed employee and materials window not following freelance business window colour scheme
Changed ‘debt due next week’ to show negative amounts
Tweaked and enabled scoreboard
Added functionality for collectibles to be used as normal possessions
Alpha 2.6 has been released. This is mostly a re-balancing and minor improvements update.
Now your business supervisors can auto-buy materials to the amount you set at the start of each week, as long as you have the money to afford it.
I also noticed that not many people bother to change their default business theme with Cans Of Paint, so each business will get its own colour theme now. You can still repaint it yourself if you don’t like the new defaults.
A useful addition for education is a new Teaching Tutors home service, available from the Small House and above. When this service is active, a part of your degree or diploma will be completed automatically at the end of each week. This costs quite a bit of money, but it helps automate the studying process for those who can afford it. I would suggest unsubscribing when the academic term is not running, otherwise you are just wasting money!
Alpha 2.6 Change log:
Added freelance business supervisor auto-buying materials option
Added Teaching Tutors home service to Small House and above
Reduced auction fee from 5% to 3%
Reduced effectiveness of electric scooter and small car
Changed spouse income from Misc Income to Family Income
Tweaked travel time modifier calculation
Added travel time modifier display
Workers no longer quit when you can’t afford wages, debt added instead
Need to pay two week’s wages when firing employees
Finished moving 99% of English into data files
Added default freelance business themes
Fixed education tooltip not displaying whether semester-only studying
The release launch date is set for This Grand Life on 17th April, 2018!
What does this mean?
This means there won’t be any more major features added. The next two months will involve polishing up the game, tweaking some mechanics and adding other minor features.
Also from the poll we ran a few weeks ago, Berlin was the most voted for city to appear in the game. I’ll be working on that and it should be available for launch day.
I’ll be spending more time working on promotion and getting the word out, so game updates won’t be as fast and furious as they were during the early days of development.
It’s great to see so many people have enjoyed the game so far, and I’m looking forward to see what the future holds!
Alpha 2.53 has been released, just in time for Valentine’s Day (almost). I started talking about the dating portion of the game in the last update. After some tweaking over the past week, here is how the family portion works.
Family
You can start a family even if you’re not married by activating the ‘Yahoo’ action with someone. All you need is a high enough relation.
Every time you Yahoo, your fun increases and there is a chance of a baby appearing. Once a Yahoo is successful, a new Family section will appear on the Social window.
Your newborn child’s relation with you is an overall measure of how well they are doing. If you don’t play with them or can’t afford their expenses, they will suffer. If they suffer too much, Child Services will take them away and you will be very sad. On the other hand, if you have high relations with your child on their birthday, you will get a happiness boost from seeing them grow up well.
Speaking of which, if you relationship with your spouse (husband/wife) falls low enough, you will get a few warnings. If you ignore the warning signs, you will be divorced. Divorce has severe consequences, just like in real life. I won’t spoil the surprise and let you discover it for yourself.
As your children grow older, they will become more expensive to raise. As you become wealthier, the cost will also increase. This is to simulate things like sending them to private school, polo lessons and whatever else rich children do (I have no idea).
When they finally reach 16 years old, you can kick them out of the house. At this point, the game calculates how many good and bad birthdays your child experienced. If they had a few good birthdays, you will get a permanent boost to happiness. This can be very useful in generating a steady trickle of lifetime happiness, especially if you manage to raise multiple children well. On the other hand, too many bad birthdays for your child and you get a permanent happiness decrease.
If your child has experienced too many bad birthdays by the time they reach 16, all is not lost. You can keep them at home to try offset the negative impact by giving them some good birthdays before they leave. However, note that the cost to raise them will continue to increase the longer they stay at home.
Modding Changes
There are also some changes that allow multiple overlapping mods at same time. The old system should still work so your current mods won’t break, but creators will have to update their mods to take advantage of the new system.
Changelog Alpha 2.50 – 2.53
Expanded default names list
Added Social section to profile window
Added seeking date actions
Added gift giving mechanics
Added relationship score for each person
Added relations change from dating
Added call mechanics
Added end of week social warnings
Added child expenses calculation
Added child actions
Added location travel to date
Added propose, marry and yahoo actions
Added failure to pay child expenses consequence
Implemented child being taken away for neglect
Implemented child birthday happiness effect
Implemented divorce mechanics
Implemented forced childcare if no spouse
Added Relationship Roundup subscription
Added spouse expenses
Added family statistics
Added more portraits
Removed log file being overwritten when game updated
Spouse earnings now increase along with your wealth
Spouse earnings are more random each week
Added permanent happiness change event depending on child development
Added combine tag for modding
Modified all city location data to be compatible with new location modding
Fixed broken possession unriding vehicle
Removed Steam check for loading mods from mod folder
The Steam test server has been updated to Alpha 2.5 with the new relationships and family feature. If all goes well, it will be released to everyone next week. This will likely be the final major feature before Release in a few months.
There is a new subscription in the game, Relationship Roundup which gives relationship and family advice. It works similar to the Lively Livin’ and Businezz Biweekly subscriptions.
Seeking A Date
Relationships start by firstly finding a date. You can do this from the new ‘Social’ button on the profile window next to the existing ‘Business’ button.
Just like freelance businesses and the stock market, relationships are completely optional. You can ignore that whole part of the game by never turning it on.
Once you have activated dating, new actions will start appearing at random locations every week. These actions will be things like ‘Ask For Number’ that help you get a date. Being rejected for a date decreases your fun, so try not to get rejected too many times in one week.
Dating A Date
When you have successfully met someone, there are a few things you can do to increase your relationship like going on a date, calling or gifting a collectible.
The higher your existing relationship with the person, the harder it is to increase it even more. If you can get your relationship high enough, the option to propose and marry that person will become available.
Of course being a finance simulator, the engagement ring and wedding will cost money.
In general, the cost of everything to do with relationships increases as you become wealthier. If you are poor, your partner will be more willing to accept an onion ring instead of a gold ring. On the other hand if you are very wealthy, your partner will expect a very expensive wedding. This is unlike most other mechanics in This Grand Life, where things get much easier the richer you become.
There is more to talk about regarding the family portion of the game, which I will talk about next time.
Hooray! It’s arrived. Steam Workshop support is now available for This Grand Life, which means modders can create their own Cities, Career paths, Education courses, Collectibles and so on. If you want to subscribe/play a mod, it will need to be done from the Steam interface. If you want to upload a mod, you can do it from the new in-game workshop button.
Throughout development I’ve tried to keep moddability in mind, so there really are a lot of things that can be changed. Think a degree takes too long? Or maybe the Janitor earns too much? You can modify those values. Using education as an example, you can create a map trait that changes study speeds and then add it to the map to change all education speeds. Or you can overwrite the data for one degree only and leave everything else the same.
Some players have been asking to be a criminal. It seems to be a popular thing for some reason. I don’t think it fits in the base game, so I’ve added a Professional Thief freelance business to the Workshop. It’s a good mod example that uses the business, education and possession systems. Killing two birds with one stone, as they say.
When you add a mod, the products it adds will even appear in the in-game Infonet as if they were part of the game. Players can easily find information about where the modded items are sold, where courses are located, etc.
You can even use event triggers to create your own scenarios, similar to the tutorials and Sue Doku scenario.
I still haven’t moved all the translatable text to data files, so there is still quite a lot of hard-coded English. I am gradually progressing towards this goal.
More Advanced City Options
There are also two new advanced city options in this update, Infrastructure Funding and Worker Organisation. Changing Infrastructure Funding will modify the tax rate and travel times to simulate how well the roads and public transport are maintained. Changing Worker Organisation affects overall wages and job competition. Be careful with this one, moving it to the extremes could make it impossible to afford rent or impossible to find any job openings.
What’s Next?
As I was planning out the relationships and family part of the game, I came to realise it can’t be done as a small feature. There are too many interconnected parts. So I’m going to be making relationships a major feature, similar to the freelance business and stock market mechanics. This means it will take a few more months instead of the usual couple of weeks to implement. Hopefully there will be plenty of mods to entertain you in the meantime!
Alpha 2.4 Changelog
Added Infrastructure Funding advanced option
Added Worker Organisation advanced option
Added display for wage adjustments from advanced options
Added education cost adjustment display when applying to study
Upgraded internal data files writing system
Implemented product editing, city map loading and portrait loading for modding support
Implemented Steam Workshop uploading support
Added check in options.xml for mod folder if couldn’t auto find it
This update adds Amsterdam as a playable map and advanced city options to make each playthrough even more unique. Also a reminder that the game’s price will be increasing next week and the demo has been updated to the latest version.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Let’s start with Amsterdam, a city famous for its coffee and canals! This map has three traits – Bicycle Paths, Coffee Shops and Relaxed. Its focus is on lots of fun but limited time.
Bicycle Paths make the new Motored Bicycle transport option 100% more effective. The Motored Bicycle is stealable unlike the Scooter and Car, so you have to consider that before purchasing one.
Coffee Shops adds the Consume Coffee action to certain eating establishments, which provides a large amount of fun for a relatively low cost.
The Relaxed map trait means you lose 10 hours each week from everyone taking longer to do things. It’s quite a big hit, which is designed to encourage the player to seek out time-efficient actions like Consume Coffee to recover needs faster.
The Canal is Amsterdam’s unique location and contains the Canal Cruise as another source of large amounts of fun. Here you can buy a Large Vase to start collecting Tulips. Considering the first ever economic bubble started in the Netherlands over Tulips, I thought this was a fitting collectible to add to the game.
Advanced City Options
Advanced city options are an addition I’m excited about. Once you think you’ve mastered the game, it’s time to dive into these settings to create a very different playthrough. They are meant for advanced players only, since they can severely unbalance your life if you’re not careful.
The simplest option is the currency setting, which is more of a cosmetic change to go with the new Amsterdam map. The other options make the game significantly easier or harder, depending on the life goals you have chosen.
You can set the Central Bank to be very incompetent or very vigilant. Above you can see the difference between the two extremes. In the top image with the incompetent Central Bank, the economy went from 15% to -5% inflation over a few years, which is absolutely insane. Remember your rent, wages, real estate, share portfolio etc are affected by this as well. The bottom image shows a much more competent Central Bank, and the economy is more stable (although not completely controllable).
You can also lower or raise your overall income tax rate by adjusting funding levels for different services. For example, setting the Police Service to be completely defunded will save you some taxes over your lifetime. However, this means criminals operate with impunity and your house has a 50% chance to be robbed pretty much all the time. They will even steal your casual clothes.
The Education and Healthcare funding levels can be similarly adjusted. The scales work exponentially, so the further you go from the default values in either direction the more extreme the experience. Defund everything and your taxes will be much lower, but be prepared to be constantly robbed while paying your massive education loan and avoiding getting sick at all costs. Overfund everything and your taxes will be much higher, can you afford rent from your remaining paycheck while studying your inexpensive degree?
Combined with the existing traits system, there are many possibilities for different playthroughs.
What’s Next?
There are more advanced city options I want to add for an even crazier life. I’ll also be experimenting with advanced character options. The work to move all translatable text into data files continues as well.
Alpha 2.3 Changelog
Added Amsterdam map, street names and associated products
Moved Celebrity Concerts to be city-specific
Added map traits Bicycle Paths, Coffee Shops and Relaxed
Added Motored Bicycle to Shopping Mall
Fixed Electric Scooter reducing travel time more than stated
Added Tulip collectibles
Implemented event Mega Sale in Amsterdam
Converted some popups into non-popups
Made Custom Game default to random avatar
More hard-coded English into data files
Added Advanced Options page
Added currency selection option
Relabel Privilege for Traits and Education to Privilege Cost
Added Central Bank Vigilance advanced option
Slightly increased default health tax rate
Added Police, Health and Education Funding advanced options
Changed low health medical bill to a debt payment
Added winning custom game internal check
Changed Sold Objects in Income Statement to use object’s financial type instead
Slightly increased chance of corporate bankruptcies
In this update I’ll talk about end-game statistics, achievements, some new expensive items and other miscellaneous changes. The process of adding Steam achievements had the unexpected issue of not being able to test them unless they were officially published to the Steam page. As a result I’ve had to focus on releasing the achievements this time, and Amsterdam has been pushed back to the next update.
End-game Statistics and Steam Achievements
When you win or lose a game, you will be able to see some statistics about your current play-through like amount of taxes owed, time worked, collections completed, etc. There are a variety of statistics that can be displayed here, and they will only appear once you’ve triggered whatever is being counted at least once.
Steam achievements are something that Steam keeps telling me to implement, and so here they are. They aren’t overly difficult to complete, and I think the average player who enjoys the game should be able to get most of them without feeling like they are “achievement grinding” too much. Achievements also help me as the developer see what percentage of players are using the stock market, playing with real estate, or even completing the tutorial!
Expensive Items
There are a few additional high-end items to purchase at the Shopping Mall and Appliance Store. Don’t buy them if you live in cheaper housing though, as they are very expensive and it would be traumatic if stolen. The TreadRunner Max increases your health at a greater rate, while the Gigantic Television lets you Watch Huge TV at home.
There’s also a Mineral Detector, which adds the Search For Treasure action at the Park and Exchange. It lets you earn money while increasing Fun. Not exactly realistic, but I thought it was a cool demonstration of the possibilities of the game’s mechanics for what modders could eventually do.
Miscellaneous Changes
There are some other bits and pieces like an updated Payables/Receivables window, ability to rename employees and another mortgage exploit fix. The death spiral has also been updated to give some hints on how to bring happiness up and avoid unhappiness. It should help remind players how this mechanic works in case they haven’t played in a while.
Here is the full change list for Alpha 2.2:
Added end of game statistics display and tracking
Added Steam achievement triggers (in real life)
Added TreadRunner Max to Shopping Mall
Added Gigantic Television to Appliances Megastore
Added Mineral Detector to Shopping Mall
Extended Receivables/Payables item display to 52 weeks
Fixed Receivables/Payables window not refreshing properly when open
Added ability to rename your employees
Tweaked lose game description to be more useful
Reduced time to repay unsuccessful mortgage to one week
Moved lots of hard-coded English to data files
Moved WinState processing to the end of the end of week
This update features New York as a new playable city, an updated Sydney map and an improved events system with more tempting special events.
New York
In New York, you can start your life in the poorer neighbourhood of East Bronx, work your way into middle-class Queens and eventually live it up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The New York map itself has three traits that make it unique from other cities. Rent Control policies mean rental prices for low-cost housing are reduced by 10%. The city’s status as a Financial Hub means all finance industry occupations pay 15% more. On the negative side, high density living means Traffic Jams greatly reduce the effectiveness of vehicles.
Each city now gets a unique location, and in New York it’s the Statue Of Liberty. Here you can buy the special Liberty Display Shelf to start collecting different types of Statue Of Liberties, which are unique to this map. You might even get a chance to climb the statue head as a special event.
With the upgraded events system, 4th of July celebrations become quite the spectacle. There are fireworks and barbecues all over town for a large boost to fun and happiness. The Black Friday sales in the week after also make for some predictable and fantastic sales on electronic goods.
Sydney
The Sydney map has also received a facelift, with its own national day celebrations where you can “Throw Shrimp On Barbie”.
It also gets two map traits. Beautiful Harbour adds the free Stare At View action to certain locations along the harbour. However, the Ex-Convict Colony trait means your robbery threshold for expensive housing is lowered by 20%. I want to add one more positive or neutral map trait to Sydney, but haven’t thought of anything really good yet. Ideas are welcome!
You can go to the new Sydney Opera House location to watch a theatrical performance. Or purchase the Plush Toy Box to safely collect Australia’s unique and dangerous wildlife in toy form.
What’s Next?
Amsterdam in the Netherlands is the next city on my list, an interesting city which will make for some interesting traits. Also I will be working on adding end-game statistics, which should tie in nicely with the Steam Achievements system. There are quite a few improvements players have requested, I will try to squeeze them in as well.
Change Log
Added New York city map with locations
Upgraded events system to support city-specific location-based events
Implemented alternative naming for city-specific location-based events
Added special New York and Sydney events
Added other new special events
Rebalanced almost all special events to be more tempting
Added Statue Of Liberties and Plush Toy Animals collectibles
Added Statue Of Liberty and Sydney Opera House plus related jobs and actions
Implemented city-wide random events functionality
Lowered probability of dead uncles and lonely aunts
Added new locations to list of possible freelance job locations
Refactored map traits system
Added map traits for Sydney and New York
Implemented home-specific rental price modifier
Implemented job-specific wage price modifier
Added trading history window for each stock on Exchange
Newest possessions now appear first in Possessions screen
Fixed College Housing no theme
Fixed special events being prevented from beginning early in the game
