- Version 0.47 - 9 December 2025
Hello, it's been a while! I've found some time to put together an update to Showrunner, adding the morale system into the game, the ability to give staff raises and bonses, plus a few UI and balancing tweaks.Please note that due to structural changes required in the backend, saves from older builds won't be compatible with this new version. If you want to play with older saves, you'll need to opt in to the beta branch "beta - old builds" which gives you continued access to the previous build (v0.46). Right click Showrunner in Steam, then properties, then betas, then select beta - old builds from the drop down. Set this drop down to None if you want to go to the latest version!Functionality- Morale system. Various factors affect staff morale both positively and negatively - related to wages, the studio and work. Overall morale for each member of staff affects the quality of their work.-…
- Showrunner 2025 Development Update - 12 May 2025
Hey Showrunner players! Wanted to give you an update on development for Showrunner in 2025. Development is continuing but this year updates will be slower/smaller than they were previously. The game has done okay so far in Early Access, a big thank you to everyone who has bought a copy so far. Unfortunately it hasn't sold enough copies to be self-sustaining as a full time project at the moment. As a result of this I've taken on work as a writer on another project. For the rest of the year I'll be primarily working on writing, with development on Showrunner taking place when there is additional time. I want to reassure everyone who wants to see the game succeed that I am absolutely going to continue working on the game this year and beyond, it won't leave Early Access until I feel it is genuinely solid and deserving of a 1.0 release. I believe that the game still has a good way to go to…
- Version 0.46 - 7 February 2025
This update adds one of the most requested feature to the game, the ability to fire actors to either remove the character from a show or to recast them! Please note that due to structural changes required in the backend, saves from older builds won't be compatible with this new version. If you want to play with older saves, you'll need to opt in to the beta branch "beta - old builds" which gives you continued access to the previous build (v0.45). Right click Showrunner in Steam, then properties, then betas, then select beta - old builds from the drop down. Set this drop down to None if you want to go to the latest version! Functionality - Contract Management Screen appears after a show has been signed for a new season, before production begins. It allows you to manage the contracts of all the main and support actors in your show. You can renew an actor for another season, although their…
- Version 0.45 - 22 September 2024
A fairly small update that adds difficulty selection options when creating new games (casual, standard and challenge difficulties) and three new show themes - crime, super hero and post apocalyptic! This build shouldn't cause crashes if used with saves from versions 0.44 or 0.4401, but the new show themes won't work correctly without starting a new game in this version or later (world screen will show no other shows of these types, popularity and competition will be set to 0). Functionality - Added a difficulty select option when starting a new game - casual, standard or challenge. Difficulty settings affect starting resources, platform contract fees and requirements, resources and XP earned per episode - Difficulty 0 counts as 2 (Standard) so 0.44 saves will still work in 0.45 Content - Made three new show themes available - Crime, Super Hero and Post Apocalyptic. Each theme has its ow…
- 0.4401 Hotfix Notes - 2 August 2024
- Fix for player's show not correctly being placed on the theme rankings - Fix for show theme and theme ranking being incorrectly displayed on the show overview screen - Fixed issues with interest text alignment on HUD and on show overview screen
- Version 0.44 - 1 August 2024
This update is all about making the world of Showrunner feel more alive, with scores of other shows to compete against and shifts to the popularity of themes over time! The makeup of your audience is now more complex, split into three groups - mainstream viewers, theme aficianados and hardcore fans. There are also a bunch of UI adjustments and quality of life improvements, with the finance screen now fully functional and listing out monthly costs, a list of studio upgrades achieved and screens to provide overviews on your show and the platforms you can work with. Please note that due to structural changes required in the backend, saves from older builds won't be compatible with this new version. If you want to play with older saves, you'll need to opt in to the beta branch "beta - old builds" which gives you continued access to the previous build (v0.43). Right click Showrunner in Steam…
- Steam Deckbuilders Fest - 27 March 2024
Showrunner is part of the Steam Deckbuilders Fest event! It'll be 35% off for the duration of the event, which runs until the 1st of April, so now is a great time to get it! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058200/Showrunner/
- Version 0.43 - 17 March 2024
This build adds the full staff chemistry system to the game! Please note that due to structural changes required in the backend, saves from older builds won't be compatible with this new version. If you want to play with older saves, you'll need to opt in to the beta branch "beta - old builds" which gives you continued access to the previous build (v0.42). Right click Showrunner in Steam, then properties, then betas, then select beta - old builds from the drop down. Set this drop down to None if you want to go to the latest version! Staff Chemistry Chemistry represents staff getting on and working well together, and that mutual understanding increasing over time. Each member of your studio has a chemistry score with every other person they work with closely. When staff work together on a stage of production they gain chemistry. The amount of chemistry gained will vary somewhat each time…
- Version 0.42 - 26 January 2024
This update adds an editing system which allows you to select an editing focus to apply a percentage increase to one or two episode stats at the start of the editing phase, in exchange for a percentage reduction in one or two other stats. This system is a useful way to steer the episode stat scores towards favouring particularly important stats for the genre of your show (e.g. drama for drama show, plot for a procedural), which is a key factor in the review scores that episodes receive. There are 24 editing focuses, you start with 8 available and unlock an additional 8 when levelling the Editing Suite room to both levels 2 and 3. Bug Fixes - Crashes caused by having script points going beyond 60 should no longer occur. - Character relationships reciprocated correctly, including in shows after the first one your studio makes. Previously defaulted to the first character from the first sho…
- Version 0.4101 - 11 January 2024
A hotfix to try to sort out a couple of crashes. - Code to catch instances where staff stats are over 1000 when working on tasks, to avoid crashes - they perform as if stats are at the highest level. Also added clamping to staff stats after training, working in much the same way as after staff levelling, which should help prevent stats going over 1000. - Changed how players can access the Character Look screen, pressing the LOOK button will now close the character sidebar. Previously changing the character selected in the sidebar while adjusting the look of the character on the Character Look screen could cause a crash related to face items. Players will now be able to scroll through characters on the Character Look screen however, bringing the way this all functions in line with the Character Details screen. A few other code tweaks which may also catch issues that were leading to the f…
- Steam Capitalism and Economy Fest - 10 January 2024
We're delighted to be part of the Steam Capitalism and Economy Fest event, which celebrates tycoon and business management games in all their forms! Showrunner is 30% off for the duration of the event, which runs until the 15th of January, so now is a great time to get it! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058200/Showrunner/
- Showrunner Roadmap - 10 January 2024
We have lots planned to add to Showrunner in the coming year and beyond and we wanted to let you know some of the things you can expect! Thank you to everyone who has supported the game up to now. Feedback, bug reports and ideas are always very welcome and if you're enjoying the game so far, positive reviews here on Steam are a massive help. Please note that plans are fairly fluid so some features will probably end up being added that aren't mentioned here, while some elements listed below may end up changing or being dropped after more design work is done. Features in the Designed section are much more fixed than those in the Concept section. Designed These additions are largely fleshed out, the artwork for them complete. They need implementation in code and some balancing work. Editing System Episode Types Episode Casting System Staff Chemistry System Staff Morale System Shared Dressi…
- Version 0.41 - The Character Update - 2 December 2023
This update is centred around the characters in your shows, it overhauls and vastly expands several existing systems while adding some brand new ones! The main improvements are: Overhauled character popularity system Character decks Character affinities Character relationships Way more character traits System for unlocking character traits Create groups for characters to belong to There are some smaller tweaks and additions as well. Some rebalancing to make the game a little less difficult, character levelling sped up with the max level increased from 10 to 20, three new episode types to select on the production screen, multiclassing for characters and improved character name generation based on the show theme. Please not that due to structural changes required in the backend, saves from older builds won't be compatible with this new version. If you want to play with older saves, you'll…
- Version 0.4 - 17 August 2023
Writers can now brainstorm to earn Script Points! Animated sequence for researching scene cards along with some other UI tweaks and additions. Functionality - Brainstorming added. Brainstorming is a work type that writers can do which directly earns Script Points. It requires the Writer's Room to be upgraded to level 2 and for no writing to be currently underway. Once initiated it lasts for a set amount of time (5 days) before ending, or it can be ended earlier whenever the player likes. Brainstorming reduces staff energy, at the same rate as writing a script. The amount of Script Points a writer brainstorming will earn is based on the average grade of their three main stats, the writer’s room script bonus and the writer's energy levels. Brainstorming reduces energy over time at the same rate as writing. Completing brainstorming will earn XP as long as it wasn't ended early. UI - Added…
- Version 0.39 - 28 July 2023
This update allows you to upgrade season themes, improving their bonuses further! It also adds the production screen, which includes placeholder elements for future functionality but also allows you to increase production time of episodes. Functionality - Season Themes now have three levels (Minor, Major and Central). When activated initially a theme will be minor, from episode 4 onwards players can upgrade minor themes to major and from episode 7 onwards players can upgrade major to central. The bonus available from a season theme will improve as it is upgraded to higher levels, but so will the cost of doing so. - The Production Screen has been added. Many elements are placeholder for now as other functionality needs to be added (episode types, different sets) but the screen allows you to do one very important thing - increase the production time of an episode! This lets you play more…
- Version 0.38 - 9 June 2023
This update is all about adding content for the Script Create system. There are 40 new Scene Cards and 8 new Season Themes, with various new card and theme effects and synergies! Content Added 40 new Scene Cards. The new card sets these belong to are: Visual Comedy Group Dynamics Farce Team Action Dramatic Events Adventure Chain of Command Extreme Conditions Added 8 new Season Themes that can be unlocked by completing research on the new card sets. These are: Sacrifice - Every card played adds one extra DRAMA point. Betrayal - After each episode is completed you have a 50% chance to earn one Conflict token for free. Discovery - Every card played adds one extra VISUALS point. Found Family - All cooldowns of cards played in episodes are reduced by 1 (does not stack). Corruption - 50% chance to increase show popularity by 1 if DRAMA is the highest script score. Leadership - Every card play…
- Version 0.37 - 27 May 2023
This update gives you the ability to train your staff! In addition, it adds a Staff Details screen which provides a little more detail on each member of your studio. There are also a number of bug fixes and quality of life improvements. Functionality - Staff Training added. Different training types will provide differing boosts to specific staff stats on top of a random element depending on how well the training went. Training costs funds and reduces staff energy. More training types are unlocked through increasing studio level. Each staff member can receive training once per month, this amount can also be increased at higher studio levels. UI - Added Staff Details screen. Screen includes full details on current staff stat point scores and progress to next stat level, as well as procedurally generated staff description. Placeholders for staff skills and awards. Opening the Staff Details…
- Version 0.36 - 12 April 2023
We're very happy to bring you version 0.36 of Showrunner! It adds 50 new scene cards, more than doubling the total available. Most of the new cards also have special effects which offer powerful synergies with other cards and with season themes! The previous scene cards have also been rebalanced. The starting amount of Script Points has been upped from 100 to 1500 just for this build to help you quickly start unlocking the new cards to play around with! Saves from the previous build of the game should still function with this version, but to get most of the new functionality and the new cards you'll need to start a new game in this version. We've also added the Character Title system, which allows you to unlock and assign titles to characters which help to define their place in the world of your show. Titles selected with automatically generate a simple character description, but you ca…
- Version 0.35 - 19 February 2023
This update primarily allows studios to end existing shows and start new ones! In addition it also adds to the show contract system to make it more reactive. Please not that due to structural changes required in the backend, saves from older builds won't be compatible with this new version. If you want to play with older saves, you'll need to opt in to the beta branch "beta - old builds" which gives you continued access to the previous build (v0.3405). Right click Showrunner in Steam, then properties, then betas, then select beta - old builds from the drop down. Set this drop down to None if you want to go to the latest version! End a Show, Start a New One At the end of a season you can now end your existing show. This will allow you to create a new show, and will also fire all current actors. You'll see be able to see the stats for the previous show's characters and episodes on relevan…
- A Look Ahead - 20 January 2023
Firstly I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has purchased Showrunner! I also really appreciate all the helpful and constructive feedback and ideas that have been sent my way since it came out. Extra special thank you to everyone who's taken the time to give the game a positive review, it makes a massive difference here on Steam. There's a long list of updates, new content and improvements planned and I just wanted to outline some of them to give you an idea of what to expect from the game in the coming months. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just the concepts and designs which are most solidly established at the moment and least likely to change (although please note that is still possible!) More Scene Cards I'm planning to add a bunch more scene cards to offer more options for script creation. Some will be more specialised and situationally useful. The new card sets…
