I’m currently working on a new tycoon game.

I’m also apologizing for a lack of posts recently.

I was meant to announce my new game in a post, and then have development updates every so often. The issue is that I can’t get my head around “What makes this game fun?” And, “What is the core gameplay loop?” Hence, the lack of posts. The game should be announced by the end of the year, and then development blogs will commence!

I feel like I’m close to answering the first question, but question two is a mad mess. As I attempt to solve question one, I think to myself “Adding this will make it more fun!” Then question two gets further from being answered.

When I made The Great Beyond, I kept the loop nice and simple. Too simple. I think for four-five months of development time by one person, there’s a decent amount of gameplay. However, if I wish to sell a game, I need a more complex loop that allows more dynamic actions, and of course, a lot more content than The Great Beyond had.

Going back to my new game, I do worry that my gameplay loop isn’t well defined. Therefore, the goals will not be clear enough, and despite not being that big of a game, (we’re not talking Civilization here!) it may come across more complex than it actually is due to confusion.

The other issue is micromanagement. Because The Great Beyond was simple, it made sense not to have micromanagement, and so I didn’t have any. Every person was automated, and none of the buildings or defences could be tweaked. My new game, however, has a more complex game loop. Therefore, to help the player deal with such complexity, I do feel that micromanagement becomes necessary.

My goal for micromanagement is to make it so that the player can plan everything in advance. I believe that having “live” micromanagement, for example, moving staff around because they missed something or calling for a building to be repaired manually is tedious. REMEMBER HAVING TO CALL FIRE ENGINES IN SIMCITY 4 WHEN A FIRE HAPPENED A CENTIMETER OUTSIDE OF A FIRE STATION’S RADIUS AND THE ENTIRE GAME WOULD PAUSE UNTIL THE LITTLE TRUCK GOT THERE?!?!

“Non-live” or predetermined micromanagement, say setting the cost of a drug to sell in Big Pharma or setting a fixed patrol route for a guard in RCT doesn’t feel tedious because you only have to do it once. Obviously, if the user interface is clunky, or there’s no way to apply settings across many similar objects or employees, then this can become tedious.

Having a window where you can access all of a group at once and change the settings of each is an example of good design. The micromanagement also needs to be restricted to important objects and staff, and if possible, objects and staff that are in low quantity. Even macromanagement, like handling garbage in Cities: Skylines, can become tedious after placing landfill number 8.

How does one bring all of this together? How does one design a complex simulation with a simple game loop? How does one design in-depth micromanagement that isn’t tedious?

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