AnimeBiz Magnate -  v0.6 : Patch Notes and Release

Hey folks,

Version 0.6.0 is a massive foundational update that transforms the game. Our focus has been on building a more dynamic and transparent economy, completely overhauling the user interface, refining core gameplay systems, and implementing significant stability improvements. This update lays the critical groundwork for all future features. Happy to share V0.6 Releases now.

⚠️ Important: Save Game Incompatibility

Due to the extensive underlying changes to the game's architecture and data structures, saves from previous versions (v0.5.x) are NOT compatible with v0.6.0. You will need to start a fresh game to experience this update.

⭐ Major New Features & Overhauls

• Complete UI Redesign: The entire game interface has been rebuilt from the ground up with a sleek, modern aesthetic and an updated color palette for improved readability and a better user experience.
• New Intuitive Toolbar: The old navigation sidebar has been replaced with a streamlined, icon-based toolbar at the bottom of the screen for quick access to all core game systems.
• Dynamic Economy & Platform Deals: Platform deals are no longer static. Offers (Advance, Per-Episode Payment) now scale dynamically based on your project's calculated value, which considers episode runtime, quality, and the manga's popularity. Ambitious projects will now receive significantly better offers.

Dynamic Manga Universe

• Live Market: The manga licensing market now refreshes periodically, introducing new titles and removing older ones to create a more dynamic world and new chapters get released weekly and they follow a realistic manga lifecycle.
• Fluctuating Ratings: Manga now have dynamic ratings that can change weekly.
• Sequels: Finished manga can now spawn sequels, which are dynamically added to the game's database for you to discover and adapt.
• Concurrent Production System: The studio's weekly Art and Writing TP are now treated as resource pools. Multiple projects will draw from these pools concurrently, requiring more strategic management of your studio's overall production capacity.
• Expanded Audio Production: The audio configuration screen is now split into three distinct categories: Voice Acting, Opening & Ending Themes, and Background Soundtrack. Each has its own quality selection and cost, allowing for more granular budget control.
• Multi-Slot Save System: The game now supports 5 distinct save slots, allowing you to manage multiple playthroughs.

📈 Gameplay & Balancing

• Complete Economic Re-balance: The primary cost of an anime project is now the total sum of staff salaries paid during production plus the upfront audio costs, creating a more realistic business simulation.
• Increased Starting Capital: The default starting money has been increased to $2,000,000 to better accommodate the new, higher-cost environment and provide a smoother early-game experience.
• Increased Audio Costs: The base costs for all audio categories have been significantly increased to make audio production a more meaningful financial decision.
• Staff Firing Overhaul: Staff stats have been rebalanced. Firing a staff member now incurs an immediate severance cost equal to 100% of their monthly salary.

🎨 UI & Quality of Life (QoL)

• New Date Format: All dates now use a clearer Year / Month / Week format (e.g., "1Y 3M 2W").
• Improved Modals: Modals now feature a blurred backdrop and refined styling for a more immersive feel.
• Helpful Tooltips: Hovering over header stats and toolbar buttons now displays helpful tooltips explaining their function.

Project Planning Screen

• The project name field is now automatically filled with the selected manga's title.
• The UI now accurately displays the number of manga chapters currently available for adaptation.

Manga Information Screen

• Trending manga (rating multiplier > 1.0) now display a "🔥 Trending" sticker.
• The "Ratings Chart" now refreshes with the latest data every time you open it.
• All numerical displays (ratings, etc.) are now cleanly rounded.

Staff Management Screen

• A Director's quality bonus is now correctly displayed as a percentage (e.g., "Bonus: +5%").
• Salaries are now clearly listed as /month.
• The roster view now displays your studio's total weekly Art and Writing TP.
• Live Project Tracking: The active project window now shows the current "Weeks in Production" and "Cost So Far," giving you a live look at your investment.
• Escape Key Functionality: Pressing the Esc key will now close the topmost modal or, if none are open, open the confirmation prompt to return to the main menu.
• Project Detail Screen: Completed anime now have a dedicated screen showing final stats and an option to immediately start a sequel (future update before 0.7).

🛠️ Bug Fixes

• Critical Production Fix: Resolved a crucial bug where changing the pacing (chapters per episode) would incorrectly affect TP costs. Production TP costs are now correctly determined only by base values, quality, and runtime.
• UI & Display Fixes:
• Fixed non-functional "Continue" and "Back" buttons on various new project modals.
• The project progress window now correctly displays the airing deadline and shows "All Written" / "All Animated" status.
• Corrected an issue where a net upfront profit was displayed with a confusing negative sign.
• The "Staff Details" button now functions as a reliable toggle.
• Save Game Stability: Implemented a robust "hydration" system for loading games. This improves forward compatibility and prevents saves from being corrupted by future updates.
• Performance: Capped the "Advance Weeks" input to a maximum of 104 weeks (2 years) to prevent the game from freezing on large time jumps.

⚙️ Technical Improvements

• Complete Architectural Overhaul: The entire codebase has been refactored into modern, modular ES Modules. This dramatically improves stability, maintainability, and scalability for future development.
• External Game Data: All core game data (manga, staff, platforms, etc.) is now loaded from external files, allowing for easier balancing and content updates.

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We wanted to share that the core systems in this v0.6.0 update were already in the works before the initial MVP was even released. It took a monumental effort to finalize and release these features so quickly—just four days after the first public version.

A massive thank you to everyone who has played the game and provided feedback. Your response has been incredible, and your suggestions have directly shaped many of the changes and improvements you see in this patch.

For a complete look at what's next, including future updates and features, please join our community and check out the full roadmap on our Discord: https://discord.gg/FnyJM8yyFs

Thank you for your continued support, and have a nice one!

Magnate Games