Devlog - (WIP) The Business Challenge

Coding the first controllable business means making a lot of general choices for all the other businesses as well. I need to find a design that will work for controlling all types of businesses. Though I'm pretty pleased with the overall overview (easy on the eyes with all essential information right there), I still have doubts about the size of the Resources Managing screen. I'm trying to find a good midway between not overloading the player with information, but still hinting that there are much more advanced choices the player can make. This is a large part of the 'easy-to-play, hard-to-master' style I'm going for. The player should be able to make a small profit with only a few clicks, but be able to further expand this profit by configuring advanced options.

For example:

Still so much to do! I've come to the point that alot of the base components of the game are generated and can be saved and loaded as a whole.I can save and load complete cities with all generated businesses and their owners. Finally having all these components, I can finally start programming gameplay! For now it's pretty cool seeing what the game generates. Some business names are actually very well put together, and I'm proud of how everything looks. Because pictures speak a thousand words, I'll spare you the long story of what has all been programmed since the last update, and just show it.

A Business List of all businesses in the city

Owners are generated and can own multiple businesses

Each house in house blocks has actual inhabitants

For the ones interested in how the generator works.

The algorithm works as follows:

Horizontal Roads

First horzizontal roads are generated with a random spacing of 1-4 spaces.

Vertical Roads

Vertical roads are generated with a random spacing of 2-6 spaces.

Houses

Each complete block (spaces capsuled by roads), will have a 60% chance of becoming a house block, which means it will be completely filled with houses.

Businesses

The remaining spaces will all be filled with businesses. Each business type has it's own chance of spawning. This means some business types will probably be spawned much more often than others. There is also a little check where the generator makes sure waterside businesses only spawn next to water (Harbors, Fishing Companies, etc.)

Empty lots

Each generated lot has a 25% chance of being an empty one.

Standard Harbor and Airport

Since some businesses cannot function without importing goods, an airport and harbor will be neccesary at the beginning, even though technically they could go bankrupt at some point.

A small update. The city generator is working. It generates house blocks, free lots and businesses. Each business has a generated name fitting to its type.

Some of the possible AI faces

I've been working slowly on describing each business on paper. I've got 24 of the 38 businesses described (roughly).

These will be all businesses that the player or AI can run in the first version of the game. The arrows indicate all links to and from each business.

I've started to write a document describing all the companies one by one. Even though I've only written out a few of them, I can already see every company having a different playstyle, which exites me!

An Airline would be focussed on filling its planes with passengers or cargo as efficiently as possible, since flight costs are the same no matter the occupation of the plane.

An Airport would be focussed on having as much flights as possible and filling its room with restaurants and such. It has to rely on many small sums of money from flights, restaurants and contracts with taxi companies, to counter the costs of air traffic control, plane fuel and plane maintenance.

The general idea would be that each company has a certain playstyle which is easy or difficult depending on the surrounding city circumstances. An airport could have trouble keeping afloat if there are very few airlines in the city, or an airline could have trouble keeping afloat if it owns multiple cargo planes, and the cargo transport clients went bankrupt.

The challenge in developing this game is probably making sure some companies don't become cluttered with options and information. Each company should be easy to oversee and have a simple, clear overview. Something like a small summary of costs and income.

I want the player to be able to delve deep into the control of a company, focussing on many angles of income, being able to change prices, promote its services, make or sign contracts, etc. As soon as the company is on its feet, the player should be able to leave it alone, and it would continue making profit, unless something big changes (like losing a lot of clients or contracts ending).

In case of something big changing, the player would get a certain notification.

WIP: The Business Challenge - A business simulation game in an economically living and complex city.

Hey everyone! I'm a hobbyist programmer and I started making a game I’ve envisioned for years. 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. Here’s how my game will be different: 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. AI controlled businesses I want this game to constantly put you to the test by having AI 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.