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[negativeview]

So, I've temporarily abandoned my other project. It will eventually live on in spirit, though possibly/probably not in code form.

I got too wrapped up in the graphics of the other project, and I refuse to make the same mistake twice so... NO GRAPHICS!

This project is a software company sim. When I first started talking about it two different people suggested Game Dev Story to me. They do cover a lot of similar ground, but here are the major differences:

* Game Dev Story seems to take about 5 numbers into account. While my number count isn't finalized, I want this game to be much deeper.
* GDS is extremely easy once you figure out a few concepts. You can start easily making millions in profit on every single game with little to no risk. I want this game to stay challenging.
* GDS treats their employees very generically. While they have names, they don't seem to have anything that even approaches a personality. Most of my simulation numbers are actually related to your employees skills and needs.
* GDS only lets your people level up via an explicit levelling up action. No skills ever go down. In my game people learn by working with people near or above their skill levels. Unused skills atrophy.
* GDS mentions other companies at some points, but you never really interact with those other companies at all. In my game, other companies are directly competing for you in market share (there are limited markets), employees, and reputations.

Graphics
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This version has no graphics. It does use ncurses to provide a very rudimentary UI, however. I have a very vague plan for the future. The two key things to understand about this plan though is that every step is a chance for me to pull the plug if this project doesn't seem worth it at that point, and the steps aren't in a hard set order.

* Finish the non-graphical version. Make it fun for those of us who don't need graphics in our sims. This will be open source for various reasons.
* Make a desktop PC version with a UI. This will not be open source and the profit will go to me. The sim numbers should be identical to the open source version.
* Translate the math into a fast real-time version. This is a change to the meaty core and may or may not be open source.
* Use the real-time version for another edition of the game.
* Translate the math into a slow real time version.
* Use the slow real-time version as the backend to an ad-supported website version. This will be the first of multiplayer.
* Eventually use the slow real-time version for mobile, desktop, etc. versions.

Source Code
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The first stage, and possibly the only stage if I fail to make it fun, is open source. I build on Linux and use the most rudimentary Makefile known to man. I haven't tried building on any other platform, and there's one bit that complains if you're on 32-bit Linux (but seems to cause no harm, haven't bothered fixing it). But it mostly works.

https://github.com/negativeview/Software-Business-Sim/

Current State
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You can interview and hire people. People have some traits, but not the final list of them. You cannot create new projects in order to earn money. I'm currently planning on the list of traits to make that happen. I will make another post VERY shortly to detail that thought process. This post is just about the current state and what the project IS.

[negativeview]

Traits play a very important role. They are 90% of the numbers that matter to the simulation.

A person has four or five different kinds of traits overall, but this post will be about the very general idea.

A trait has a name, a thing (not JUST people, can be projects, companies, etc.) that it applies to and two numbers: the actual value, and the perceived value. The idea is that a person might think that they are VERY good at very quickly learning a new skill, but actually be only slightly above average. During the interview process you can mostly only learn about their believed value. This value is usually at least kinda based on reality, but isn't necessarily accurate. After you hire them and put them on some projects, you slowly learn their real values.

The exact mechanics of this are still being decided, but right now everything starts off as "Unknown." When you interview that person it has a chance of bumping a trait up one level of knowledge. There are currently four levels. Here are some examples of what each level looks like:

0: Unknown
1: High
2: 60s
3: 65

I will probably spread that out to more levels. I may or may not ever show the exact number. I haven't figured out how to balance this with actually changing skill levels.

The skills that exist in the source code version (these will probably make it through in some form) are:

Ambition
Greed
Initiative
Creativity

These were thrown in because they sounded good. They have little/no effect on the game in the actually coded version.

The skills that I have in my notebook for the next round of revisions (these all have planned affects) are:

Learning Curve
Teacher
Imagination
Completer
In Tune
Outgoing
Introvert
Cocky
Climber

I'll probably post about the individual traits as I finalize how they work and implement them. That's all for today.

[negativeview]

So today I worked on project attributes.

A project is currently composed of a platform (Browser), a target market (Old People), and a language (C++). Eventually there will be at least two more categories. I'm not sure yet what to call them and this is enough to test the basic premise. Just FYI though eventually there will be things like games vs business software.

The way it currently works is that each category of project can have things that it provides and things that it requires. For instance a "browser" project provides mobility because it can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection. Browser will also provide some cross-platformness.

The provides and requires are summed (requires are negative). Employee skills (when I get there) will also interact with these requirements in order to make it harder to blindly min/max. Anything that remains negative will hurts its performance in the market. Positives will provide boosts.

Consumers will also be modelled and will have their own set of requirements. Some people will only use things that are cross platform, some will use a web-based version if one is possible. Some absolutely refuse to use anything web-based.

My current focus is getting the absolute bare minimum of this system working, which means just project attributes.

[negativeview]

I have a very basic proof of concept working for handling multiple attributes. Now I'm working on the list of employee attributes. Feel free to suggest some!: https://github.com/negativeview/Software-Business-Sim/wiki/Employee-Attributes