This Grand Life 2 Next Fest Stream 2
Watch the developer set up a life with a small loan of a million dollars in this prerecorded stream
This Grand Life 2 News
This Grand Life 2 Next Fest Stream
Watch the developer set up a life with a small loan of a million dollars in a prerecorded stream
Story Time - Mr. Jamali And His Bar
I've been doing a long-term playtest and recently came across an interesting dilemma which shows the experience I'm trying to create for players.
This is Churrs! It's a bar in London run by Ahmadreza Jamali with occasional help from his friends Pei and Hertha.
Established in April 2032, Mr. Jamali was able to become profitable within 10 months thanks to his previous experience as a bartender and his love of alcohol keeping his spirits up.
Churrs! was doing so well that Mr. Jamali decided to move to a bigger premises and expand his operations in October 2033. He spent quite a bit of money on capital investments, which took a large chunk out of the household's savings...
...and hired more staff to help with the increased workload...
...until eventually the business was profitable again.
Unfortunately for Mr. Jamali, the economy was slowing down and within a few months had nose dived.
The revenue from bars are strongly affected by the food service and entertainment industries, and both were falling along with economic growth.
At the same time, expenses such as beer and cooking ingredients were rising due to increasing agricultural inflation!
Faced with this predicament, Mr. Jamali has a few options:
What should Mr. Jamali do? Will the economy continue diving into a recession? Will the food service and entertainment industries recover before the household runs out of money? I don't know but I'm excited to find out!
This is Churrs! It's a bar in London run by Ahmadreza Jamali with occasional help from his friends Pei and Hertha.
Established in April 2032, Mr. Jamali was able to become profitable within 10 months thanks to his previous experience as a bartender and his love of alcohol keeping his spirits up.
Churrs! was doing so well that Mr. Jamali decided to move to a bigger premises and expand his operations in October 2033. He spent quite a bit of money on capital investments, which took a large chunk out of the household's savings...
...and hired more staff to help with the increased workload...
...until eventually the business was profitable again.
Unfortunately for Mr. Jamali, the economy was slowing down and within a few months had nose dived.
The revenue from bars are strongly affected by the food service and entertainment industries, and both were falling along with economic growth.
At the same time, expenses such as beer and cooking ingredients were rising due to increasing agricultural inflation!
Faced with this predicament, Mr. Jamali has a few options:
- Scale back operations, fire staff, stop advertising and hope the food service and entertainment industries recover soon. Maybe get a personal loan from the bank or sell the household's stock market shares to cover expenses in the meantime.
- Sell the business while it still has decent value before things get worse. Maybe leverage his experience gained as a bar manager in people management and customer service to find a job in a different (and growing) industry.
- Pretend everything is fine and don't change anything.
What should Mr. Jamali do? Will the economy continue diving into a recession? Will the food service and entertainment industries recover before the household runs out of money? I don't know but I'm excited to find out!
Design Talk - Deciding City Policies
Previously I talked about setting up the economic policies that govern each city. Today I'd like to expand on how I've fleshed it out since then.
When setting up these policies I try to be as objective as possible while also making sure there's some variety and no two cities are too similar.
First off, we know people like to complain about the traffic in their local city. The question arises, how bad is it really compared to the rest of the world? This is where indices like the TomTom Traffic Index come into play.
From the above screenshot, I look at the average speed in rush hour to determine the offset from a baseline of 35km/h (the approximate average for all cities).
The results can be surprising! For example the average speed in New York is 40km/h while in London it's 26km/h. I would have thought they'd be similar but the data shows a clear difference between traffic speeds in US and UK cities.
Much like the traffic example above, I go through every policy currently in the game, look at the real world data and decide on an offset.
Some are harder to work out than others. Healthcare and education subsidies can be vastly different in each country in how they're administered which can obscure the true cost.
Some cities like San Jose in Silicon Valley are so completely lopsided that taking their true values would greatly distort the game mechanics. In these situations I remind myself that economies go through booms and busts. Instead of looking at things in their current state, we should decide on policy settings based on longer historical trends.
San Jose has been a tech and manufacturing powerhouse for a long time, but the city's current tech boom likely won't last the next hundred years, just as the oil/gold/railway rushes of the past didn't. In any case, TGL2's industry inflation mechanics will cause randomly generated booms and busts as you play the game.
[h3]Sources
[/h3]TomTom Traffic Index https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/ranking/
Out-of-pocket expenditure per capita on healthcare https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/out-of-pocket-expenditure-per-capita-on-healthcare
When setting up these policies I try to be as objective as possible while also making sure there's some variety and no two cities are too similar.
First off, we know people like to complain about the traffic in their local city. The question arises, how bad is it really compared to the rest of the world? This is where indices like the TomTom Traffic Index come into play.
From the above screenshot, I look at the average speed in rush hour to determine the offset from a baseline of 35km/h (the approximate average for all cities).
The results can be surprising! For example the average speed in New York is 40km/h while in London it's 26km/h. I would have thought they'd be similar but the data shows a clear difference between traffic speeds in US and UK cities.
Much like the traffic example above, I go through every policy currently in the game, look at the real world data and decide on an offset.
Some are harder to work out than others. Healthcare and education subsidies can be vastly different in each country in how they're administered which can obscure the true cost.
Some cities like San Jose in Silicon Valley are so completely lopsided that taking their true values would greatly distort the game mechanics. In these situations I remind myself that economies go through booms and busts. Instead of looking at things in their current state, we should decide on policy settings based on longer historical trends.
San Jose has been a tech and manufacturing powerhouse for a long time, but the city's current tech boom likely won't last the next hundred years, just as the oil/gold/railway rushes of the past didn't. In any case, TGL2's industry inflation mechanics will cause randomly generated booms and busts as you play the game.
[h3]Sources
[/h3]TomTom Traffic Index https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/ranking/
Out-of-pocket expenditure per capita on healthcare https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/out-of-pocket-expenditure-per-capita-on-healthcare
Managing Household Relations And Incompatible Personalities
There are a few more challenges to consider once you start adding multiple characters to a household.
When two people are at the same location they have a chance to interact. They'll decide on a semi-random topic and depending on their preferences will improve or reduce their opinion of each other. Some examples would be:
"Dull" characters will tend to get along fine, but once you start putting "Unhinged" characters with opposing views together then the chance of getting a dysfunctional household increases.
You can tell two people to avoid each other, but this comes with the side effect of increasing potential anxiety over time.
To counteract the anxiety, your characters can then attend mental therapy sessions at the hospital.
The opposite is also true. A household with members that get along will increase the chances of a stable household which will improve everyone's happiness.
[h3]Other Household Effects[/h3]
As your net worth increases, your characters won't be satisfied living in a shared apartment forever. They will start demanding more floorspace at home.
A person who loves prestige will demand more space, while someone who hates prestige will be fine with less. Larger households will demand more living space sooner. Ignoring their demands will increase the chance of gaining the Wistful status, which lowers happiness.
To end on a positive note, more people in a household means more earnings before needing to pay tax!
When two people are at the same location they have a chance to interact. They'll decide on a semi-random topic and depending on their preferences will improve or reduce their opinion of each other. Some examples would be:
- Person A dislikes and Person B is allergic to hygiene -> Good conversation, they're both averse to hygiene
- Person A likes and Person B dislikes the outdoors -> Minor bad conversation, they have opposing feelings
- Person A is addicted and Person B is allergic to authority -> Terrible conversation, they are complete opposites
"Dull" characters will tend to get along fine, but once you start putting "Unhinged" characters with opposing views together then the chance of getting a dysfunctional household increases.
You can tell two people to avoid each other, but this comes with the side effect of increasing potential anxiety over time.
To counteract the anxiety, your characters can then attend mental therapy sessions at the hospital.
The opposite is also true. A household with members that get along will increase the chances of a stable household which will improve everyone's happiness.
[h3]Other Household Effects[/h3]
As your net worth increases, your characters won't be satisfied living in a shared apartment forever. They will start demanding more floorspace at home.
A person who loves prestige will demand more space, while someone who hates prestige will be fine with less. Larger households will demand more living space sooner. Ignoring their demands will increase the chance of gaining the Wistful status, which lowers happiness.
To end on a positive note, more people in a household means more earnings before needing to pay tax!