EDIT:
The original post here is quite long. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here a little summary:
I’m making a game called: The Business Challenge.
It’s a game where you manage one or more businesses in a simulated city.
However, the city is completely dynamic. The AI will negotiate agressively or friendly depending on your relationship.
All businesses either sell or buy services/products from another which means the whole economy of the game is based on dynamically changing businesses within the city.
The game features 38 different types of businesses (for now) which are all playable.
The goal of the game is to own one or more certain types of businesses within a time limit.
AI managed businesses will also develop during the game. They might become more succesful or go bankrupt.
If you really want to read up on the whole idea, here’s the original post.
Original post:
Hey everyone!
I’m a hobbyist programmer and I wanted to get some feedback for a next project I’m considering.
I’ve always liked business games where you need to anticipate or respond to certain developments, outside of your business. Business games where skill is a BIG issue and luck is practically non-existent.
I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed simcity for it’s conveyance of how a city can grow.
The only problem I had with these games, is that once you’ve really reached the top, and money doesn’t matter anymore, you lose interest and the game stops being fun.
The thing is, it’s always about money. And once you have enough, you buy your way out of every problem.
Some city graphics I found a long time ago, inspired me to create a new type of business game. I’ve thought about it a lot, and I really want to create this, simply because I know I would play the hell out of this!
New Game
You see a randomly generated city in front of you. There are some empty lots for sale, a few empty buildings for sale, but also a lot of thriving businesses.
Lots of these businesses have some sort of connection with eachother. The supermarket buys it’s products from the local farm, and the local farm imports it’s seeds via the local harbour for example.
We’ve got a nice little budget. Let’s see what the possibilities are.
Now you are presented with a choice. You want to start a business, but which one? And where?
There are a range of options: Restaurant, Bar, Hotel, Contractor, Airline, Cargo Transport, Technical School, etc.
You could start a hotel, but then you would have to compete with the other 2 hotels already present in the city.
No, let’s look further.
A technical school, perhaps! However, the technical companies aren’t thriving that well, maybe students would be sparse.
An Airline then! The airport can definitly use the customers! Maybe the airport will even increase my budget in exchange for an collaboration!
OK, so we’ve chosen the business that we are starting, now we need to buy a lot for out headquarters.
In case of an airline, near the airport is fine, location isn’t a big deal. But in case of a restaurant the location would be essential for the future of the business. When starting a real estate agency, a location could be cheap, since the agency could reside in an office complex.
The Challenge
Now that we’ve chosen our business and location, the challenge begins.
The game suddenly presents you with the following challenge:
Own a Music Label company within 2 months.
That’s right! This game is about business hopping.
Not only do you have to create and maintain your newly started airline, you have to find out how to start new businesses (or take over existing ones) to eventually get to the target business.
However, you can only start a new business in a field that your current business is linked to.
For example:
Your airline could start a travel agency.
Your travel agency could take over a hotel.
Your hotel could start a restaurant.
Your restaurant could start a farm for fresh ingedients.
Your farm could start a distillery.
Your distillery could start a bar.
Your bar could start a nightclub.
Your nightclub could start an artist booking company.
And finally your artist booking company could start a Music Label.
This is ofcourse an example of an extremely difficult challenge, but you get the point.
In all of this business hopping, the player is rewarded with all kinds of tokens. At the beginning of new games, the player can activate up to 2 or 3 tokens which will add certain perks, like having a discount on any import products, or being able to transform up to 2 companies into a linked one, instead of having to start a new one.
Computer controlled businesses
I want this game to constantly put you to the test by having computer controlled businesses that also evolve while you play.
This would result in constantly having to compete with same branch businesses, or losing collaborating businesses because they went bankrupt.
Multiplayer
I would also love to integrate a multiplayer option, in which players would face the same challenge in the same cities, competing to be the first winning the challenge.
Platform
Since I only have experience creating Android games, that will be my target platform. However, if this game becomes popular enough, I would definitly bring it over to other platforms as well, maybe even make this a steam game.
I’m really passionate about this, and I know I can make this. I just want to check if this is something other people would like too.
Suggestions are very welcome!
Thanks for your time!
The player can gain feeling (good or bad) by seeing the differences of characters represented by the art, by more than just changing skin color, hair color clothing design. The images above - though nice and simple deliver very little for the player to react to.
