Hi everyone, this is not just an announcement about discounts and so on, we have written an interesting article for our players about the mechanics of economics in the game and how it all works in our game.
We're just starting to get away from all the big festivities, but we're happy to say that we've been accepted to the Capitalism and Economy Game Festival.
[h2]💸 What is the Capitalism Festival?[/h2]
Steam is running a themed festival featuring a variety of economic simulators, from complex to simple. Most of the games are discounted, including ours. I myself am a huge fan of economic strategies since my childhood. I started with games where I had to build my own amusement parks, and Theme Hospital was one of my favorite childhood games! I still love this genre of games. And I'm really glad that Steam has somehow highlighted games like this.
[h2]💰 Interesting Galaxy Pass Station Economy Chips[/h2]
In my opinion, the game's fictional item store is both a familiar and unfamiliar mechanic. I like this chip the most, although I've seen that some players may find it annoying. But, why is it so important?
[h2]🛒The Taozone store, why?[/h2]
As a game designer, I want the gameplay to continue in your head. This is what makes a game interesting in my opinion. The process of order formation, tracking discounts and paid shipping makes you think when and at what point it's best to order items for the station. It's not just a simulation of real life, it's an interesting mechanic that invites the player to plan their actions in their head. But! In the sandbox, you can turn this store off and build everything like in classic tycoon games.
[h2]💹 Inflation, Sales and Economic Crises[/h2]
In many simple economic strategies, players often encounter situations where money becomes so plentiful that there is nowhere to put it. This is indeed a huge problem with many such games, which can cause interest to drop after 2-3 hours of play. We have partially solved this problem through a series of economic events.
Inflation - yes, on any given day all items in the store can go up by 5-30% or even more. In games like this, players often find ways to make more and more money, and inflation smooths out this effect. Money turns into wrappers, so you have to think here and now how to spend money properly, not hoard it. By the way, in life inflation also provokes consumption and spending, without it people start saving money.
Sales, Economic Growth and CrisesAnother mechanic that has a lesser impact on the game's economy, but it's more fun. A sale is always nice, even if it's a game! The main task of the Big Sale in the game is to provoke the player to unnecessary spending, to tempt players with unnecessary goods =). In general, our game is very often trying to trick the players, tempt them and deceive them, so you should always think about what you are offered.
[h2]🛂 How did we turn Papers, Please into a Tycoon game?[/h2]
It's a rather strange story. When the game was planned, we weren't even going to make a tycoon game, and we ended up making just such a game. In Papers, Please everything is divided into days, where after each day you have to spend on different things and sometimes you can buy upgrades. We also wanted to do something similar, but on a slightly larger scale. As a result, the mechanics of ID check upgrades grew into a game mode in its own right - a tycoon game.
At a certain point, when there was no way we could cross these 2 game modes, I gave up and decided that the tycoon mechanics would be the main part of the game, and document checks would be a side mode. It was enough to give the player complete freedom in how they wanted to play, who to check and what to do on the station. In the end, the station building mode was more interesting and addictive.
[h2]📉 Is it possible to go negative in the game?[/h2]
Theoretically it is possible, but very few of our players lose for this reason. Yes, it is possible to go bankrupt in the game. If you get minus for several days in a row, you will be fired. That's not a bad achievement, it's very rare. But money is not the main thing, the main thing is how you spend it in the game. We didn't want to make the game hardcore, that's the main reason why it's so hard to go negative. Yes, you can often go zero on money, but it's not fatal.
[h2]💡❕ Your ideas for the game?[/h2]
Write in the comments below this news, what interesting capitalism-related things would you like to add to the game?
Maybe the ability to take loans? Maybe bandits who blackmail you and demand daily tribute? Maybe a more hardcore mode where it's easier to go negative? Maybe something else?
