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[coeing]

Very first playtest!

Alright, it's on! I gathered some feedback questions the last days, so I have a good way to compare the results of the test and work on the most important next features: http://goo.gl/forms/g0fM24tfIq

The link to the game is inside the form, the whole test should take about 30 minutes. If some of your notes you made during the test is not covered by the questions, feel free to provide additional feedback by messaging me. Thanks for testing!

Update 11.10.14: Too busy to play? Check out my little introduction video.

[coeing]

The feedback I got for the first prototype two weeks ago was really helpful and I could already implement a lot of the desired features. Here are a few screenshots to show the progress:

Task Info
More information on tasks:

• Scope of task
• Work hours already done
• Current/final quality of task
• Current work speed (depends on employees)

Zoom
Zooming out more to get the full project overview


Task Selection
Task selection possible to highlight dependencies of a task.


Evaluation fix
Duration evaluation was fixed, so you won't get 100 points for the project time all the time


If you want to participate in the next prototype test, just leave a reply or send me a message, I will let you know when it's available!

[CrateBoy]

Obligatory this game look like Game Dev Tycoon. Which is does, but more hardcore. But I've only glanced over everything so I could be wrong.
I think what Game Dev Tycoon did best was have game play that appealed to the mass audience, fun, balanced and relatively simple.
This to me looks like a hardcore sports team manager game... but with game development. Maybe cause at the moment it looks like a giant spread sheet, but it seems to have a more specific audience. Which is totally cool!
Keep it up mate!

[kikai]

Just checked out the first prototype and sent some feedback.
Good luck with the project!

[coeing]

Obligatory this game look like Game Dev Tycoon. Which is does, but more hardcore. But I've only glanced over everything so I could be wrong.
I think what Game Dev Tycoon did best was have game play that appealed to the mass audience, fun, balanced and relatively simple.
This to me looks like a hardcore sports team manager game... but with game development. Maybe cause at the moment it looks like a giant spread sheet, but it seems to have a more specific audience. Which is totally cool!
Keep it up mate!

Hi CrateBoy,

Thanks for your post I totally agree, Game Inc. will have a much narrower target group, mostly hardcore management simulation fans. I worked on some of the EA Football Manager games, so I'm kind of into that thing, just this time with my even more favorite theme game development instead of soccer

As the different project management won't make a big enough difference to Game Dev Story/Tycoon, I'm planning my game as a multiplayer first title. It should give a very interesting new dimension to battle for players for your games on a global market.

Just checked out the first prototype and sent some feedback.
Good luck with the project!

Hi skyarmor,

Thanks for testing, will check your feedback soon If you like to participate in further tests, just give me a shout and I will let you know as soon as a new version is ready to test.

Cheers
Christian

[CrateBoy]

Hi CrateBoy,

Thanks for your post I totally agree, Game Inc. will have a much narrower target group, mostly hardcore management simulation fans. I worked on some of the EA Football Manager games, so I'm kind of into that thing, just this time with my even more favorite theme game development instead of soccer

As the different project management won't make a big enough difference to Game Dev Story/Tycoon, I'm planning my game as a multiplayer first title. It should give a very interesting new dimension to battle for players for your games on a global market.

Oh man that's great, you've given me high exceptions for this game now!
Oh yeah I forgot to mention the multiplayer thing! That's a very exciting idea and I'll keep my eyes peeled! What kind of art style are you going to go for?

[coeing]

What kind of art style are you going to go for?

Funny you ask, I just talked with another Indie developer about it who's an artist. I'd like to have a nice pixel art style where you can watch your servan... ehhm, employees do their work! He works on another Indie game right now (ExoMiner, http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=200697413), but might have some time to design the office and some characters next month. I'm very excited about it, I know that the mechanics work, but without some nice graphics it's more of a project management tool than a game

[CrateBoy]

Oh awesome!  Well since game dev tycoon was made when pixel art was all the rage maybe Game Inc. can be low poly? I think that's what the cool kids are doing now anyway?   
Maybe your graphics could update with you as your games develop? That'd be cool.

[coeing]

Maybe your graphics could update with you as your games develop? That'd be cool.

Yeah, that would be totally awesome, but probably too much work for the artists The equipment of the office could change during the years, of course. One idea is to have a fixed time frame (e.g. 1980 till 2020) where platforms appear and disappear and the popularity of different genres changes.

[Innomin]

hey, sorry I kind of lost track of this thread, I think I'm too busy right now to be a reliable playtester. I watched the video and had one idea - maybe you could color-code the lines connecting dependencies? So all the "Game Design" dependencies have a light blue line, and you don't have to scroll back to see which box is which line as much.

I'd use random colors with a high-sat preference, so something like this pseudocode:

Code:

colors[] = [(128,0,0),(128,64,0),(128,128,0),(0,128,0),(0,128,128),(0,0,128),(128,0,128)];
box.color = colors[random(colors.length)];
box.color.red += random(128); box.color.green += random(128); box.color.blue += random(128);

Other than that it's looking good! I think it's different than the idea I had a while ago, but makes a lot more sense and feels more about managing resources and quality vs. time. It looks cool, can't wait to see how this updates.

[coeing]

hey, sorry I kind of lost track of this thread, I think I'm too busy right now to be a reliable playtester. I watched the video and had one idea - maybe you could color-code the lines connecting dependencies? So all the "Game Design" dependencies have a light blue line, and you don't have to scroll back to see which box is which line as much.

Hey Innomin!

No problem, thanks for checking back Making the dependencies clearer is indeed an issue. Color-coding may be too confusing as the dependencies are not limited.

For the second prototype I added the possibility to select a task, so its dependencies are highlighted. This makes it possible to check the dependencies of a single task and works quite nice for me. We'll see if it works out for other people, too, in the next play test I'll try to upload a version and a new questionnaire on Sunday. Maybe you can join this time

Cheers
Christian

[Innomin]

Is this built in Unity? I'll give one playtest a go, but I can't guarantee I'll be around for others, sorry. I'll PM you my email address. =)

Highlighting works too, but I was talking about the other way around. i.e. the player question "How many tasks need the Game Design task to be completed?". If you saw three lines that were the same color, you could easily count this for all visible tasks, whereas highlighting would require you to select a task first. Random colors definitely aren't perfect, but I have found in practice that the above code generates very different colors in a wide range, since it has 128x128x128x7 possible combinations. Anyway, I'll try out the prototype and see if it handles that question a better way. =)

[Gnaff]

Do you know Gamebiz? I prefer this game instead Game Dev Tycoon. Graphic is rudest than Game Dev Tycoon but is more managerial. Gamebiz 2 is for free but also take a look to Gb 3

http://www.veloci.dk/gamebiz

[coeing]

Is this built in Unity? I'll give one playtest a go, but I can't guarantee I'll be around for others, sorry. I'll PM you my email address. =)

Highlighting works too, but I was talking about the other way around. i.e. the player question "How many tasks need the Game Design task to be completed?". If you saw three lines that were the same color, you could easily count this for all visible tasks, whereas highlighting would require you to select a task first. Random colors definitely aren't perfect, but I have found in practice that the above code generates very different colors in a wide range, since it has 128x128x128x7 possible combinations. Anyway, I'll try out the prototype and see if it handles that question a better way. =)

Yes, it's Unity. Thanks for your mail address, I'll add you to the list of testers

If you select a task, not only it's dependency lines will be highlighted, but its successor lines as well. I'll add a question about this issue to the testing form to see how many testers still have problems with the current solution.

Do you know Gamebiz? I prefer this game instead Game Dev Tycoon. Graphic is rudest than Game Dev Tycoon but is more managerial. Gamebiz 2 is for free but also take a look to Gb 3

http://www.veloci.dk/gamebiz

Hi Gnaff!

Thanks a lot for the link, I'll check it out. I think I saw it already some years ago, but didn't remember From the first look at the screenshots it really isn't the prettiest game in town But maybe I can learn some things from the mechanics it provides.

[Gnaff]

Yes I linked this game to let you learn some "managerial trick" (about knowledge, wage, employee management, building upgrade, console, piracy, focus and detail when build a new engine and game etc), not for graphic
Very beautiful in GameBiz3 is the VAT. But is limited because I have only to pay this virus. I haven't the possibility to move my invoices into some "paradise". And it would freaking awesome if I can hire the CSO and the CFO and why not, eve the Board of Directors. Ok, I stop to dream

For me, one of the bigger limits of these 2 games is the income from each game. I really want to see the BILLIONS in my financials accounts. I'm tired of some million here and some million there because is limited. I can't reach the tip of the pyramid because the game is castrated at the base.

Yes in both games I can have some millions fans but this don't touch me, there aren't any feeling with this.

As you understand would be a very big step ahead if there is more emotion and less numbers on a screen.

Good luck
Ps: sorry if I have wrong something, I'm not english.

[coeing]

Yes in both games I can have some millions fans but this don't touch me, there aren't any feeling with this.

As you understand would be a very big step ahead if there is more emotion and less numbers on a screen.

Hi Gnaff,

Thanks a lot for your feedback. You are not the first one who mentions the emotion thing, I got it some times before now. So I will focus on giving the employees in the game a real personality to make the players care about their employees. This starts with a game view where you can see your minions doing their work in the office. You will have the possibility to train the skills of an employee and have to take care about their motivation.

Let's say you hired a young talent right from the university. You can't expect great results from him in the first projects, but over time you can train him to become a real game dev super star. But take care to keep him motivated, otherwise he might decide to work for another company when his contract runs out!

I think this whole system will be the next thing to be prototyped, now that the project planning is getting quite well (see 2nd prototype below)

Cheers
Christian

[coeing]

The next prototype is ready to be playtested!

Here are some new features which were mainly introduced based on the feedback on the first prototype:

• Task quality
• Task scope and work done
• Fulfillment of the task requirements
• Current work speed on a task
• Current critical path of the project
• Task selection to show dependencies and successors
• Improved calculation of task quality

As you can see, many visualizations were added which should make it much easier to understand and control the project progress. Just compare the old task visualization versus the new one:

Version 1.0:


Version 2.0:


I would be very happy if some of you could give the new prototype a try and provide some feedback. It worked out really great last time, so I hope to get more valuable feedback this time, too.

It really has a big influence on the progress of the development and makes sure that the game will be as much fun as it can be

TEST THE PROTOTYPE

[coeing]

Explanation video for 2nd prototype

For all interested people who are too busy to play on their own, I recorded a little explanation video again:





If something catches your eye (good or bad), give me some feedback for the next version!

But better play it on your own http://goo.gl/forms/q2R45ccRFD

[Playaction]

Done! After filling the form, I thought of a couple of things i would have written.
At first try, i thought the game was broken, because i had divided people to all the tasks, and second column of tasks wasn't unlocked. It was because the requirement bars filled up gradually, i thougth they were progressbars and were done. The time x1 meant that the actual progress bar wasn't visibly moving.
I also wasn't sure what the numbers i the progress bar meant. I guessed required manhours.
The graphic finish in the task boxes and progress bars are very nice!
 

[coeing]

At first try, i thought the game was broken, because i had divided people to all the tasks, and second column of tasks wasn't unlocked. It was because the requirement bars filled up gradually, i thougth they were progressbars and were done. The time x1 meant that the actual progress bar wasn't visibly moving.
I also wasn't sure what the numbers i the progress bar meant. I guessed required manhours.

Hi Playaction,

Thanks for your help! I'll check the answers to the form at the weekend and will see where I need some more refinement. Now that there are more elements on the screen it gets a bit more difficult to make sure everything is understandable. But hey, that's what I do the playtests for I just noted that the numbers on the progress bar should look a bit more like a timer, e.g. with a "h" or "hours" or having the minutes count, too (2:34 / 3:45). Let's see what the other testers say.

If you have any more ideas for improvements, just let me know!