[NSFW] Design and Realisation - Early Inspiration Part 3, Shop/Managerial Simulator
This is the last stop of sub genre for my inspiration, there being a few golden games that I want to mention that I thoroughly enjoyed and will most likely draw inspiration from.
Up first, HunieCam Studio. Yes, seriously. This game is somewhat controversial but I trust that people reading this blog are mature enough to be able to handle cartoon cleavage and naughty words.
Ignore the fan service as best you can. Somewhat unlike the previous game they created, this game had unexpectedly devolved into a clicking game. Personally, I found nothing wrong with that at all. The aim here is to make as much money as you possibly can at the end of the month without going bankrupt on a daily payroll system. So as with previously mentioned games, the objective is short term but requires proper management to get the best score you can without failing. And at the end once the objective is complete if you really want you can continue with that save or start a new one and try out different strategies.
Alright, we're going to be talking about some of the games mechanics now, the following may be considered NSFW. Readers discretion is advised.
What does any cam studio require first? Girls. There are 18 to choose from, and all with various stats and dependency on nicotine and alcohol. These stats are "Talent," and "Style." The higher the girls talent level, the more money she can earn from performing cam shows. The higher the girls Style, the more fans she will earn when doing a photo shoot. But the higher these stats are, the more you will have to pay the model. So, for example, someone with 1 talent and 1 style will only require $1/hr that they work, but someone with 5 talent and 5 style will demand $64/hr. The increased skill does come at a price! You only have a one day grace period of being in the red, so hiring the expensive girls when you can't afford them will lead to a game over.
Another stat that requires managing is the smoking/drinking dependency. A girl who never drinks or smokes will have no use for alcohol or cigarettes at all, so any activities they do will have a 1x stress multiplier. (P.S, when a girl reaches 100 stress she refuses to work, any job that would take her above 100 stress also counts. So you will be down a member of staff until they have relaxed.) Girls who sometimes drink get a 0.8x stress multiplier, someone who sometimes smokes gets a 0.8x multiplier too. (Sadly I don't know the exact figures for this game so we will just use this as an example.) This will however consume Cigarettes and Alcohol at a rate of 1 per 6 in game hours. The more dependant on these that a girl is, the more she will consume them but the less she will be stressed doing various tasks. Should you run out of Cigarettes or Alcohol, then they gain additional stress instead of losing it. So you had best keep a very close eye on that!
The final score isn't just a case of how much money you have. It is actually determined by the amount of fans your business has once 21 in game days have passed. So money isn't as important as it would first appear. Of course you have to make sure you don't go bankrupt, but it's very quick to turn a decent profit that you can then spend on hiring or training your girls, buying them accessories that will gain them more fans, and advertisement as well as upgrades to the company (Which affect how many staff you can have, set up auto clicks, clicks pass time faster/pick up currency more frequently.)
All in all mechanically this is a very standard management sim but it earns a spot on my inspiration list for being just that. It's not too hard to get into but there is still a slight learning curve to get the highest possible scores. In addition, linking back to my Industry blogs, this ties in very well with wanting to be a HUD/UI programmer. This game is literally all ui. There isn't even any movement. It's all just buttons and algorithms that dictate how much you earn, how many fans you earn, and how much you need to pay staff. The art style again is very cartoony and it is all 2D. If it wasn't for the fact that I am required to work with 3D modelling to pass my course, then this sort of art style would work very well for what I am trying to achieve.
Recettear takes place in a fantasy story where a poor young girl's father has gone missing and he has left her with untold debts that a fairy has come to collect from her. Unfortunately, she has no money because she is just a little girl. So, Tear (The fairy. And Recette, the young girl. Their powers combined, Recettear! Now you know where the title comes from.) decides it would be a bad idea to kick a young girl out of her house and instead teach her about what her father used to do in his shop so that she may run it and gradually pay back the debt dumped on her from her missing father.
This game is a little more intricate on how it works. Instead of making a flat amount of money determined by an algorithm, Recettear works on a capitalist economy... determined by an algorithm. But it's different, trust me. Buy low, sell high!
Each item has its own class, be it sword, food, shield, staff or clothes. And these classes, at certain points in the game, can have their stock prices increase or decrease. For the early game, you will most likely be peddling food to the local towns people and very low quality items for a small profit margin. But the game eventually demands over $100,000 from you, and you won't be making those kinds of profits selling chocolate bars, so here's where mechanics come in.
You can put certain items on pedestals by the windows to attract window shoppers, and if these are items that are currently very sought after and expensive then you're on your way to becoming rich. Developed further from the HunieCam system, you have a small town you can walk around in and explore, go buy swords from the local blacksmith when their price crashes, or pick up every day food items from the merchants guild to replenish your stock.
There are several reasons why I have chosen to mention this game as inspiration. Firstly, the ability to hire adventurers that will fight and bring back treasures for you to sell on or give to the adventurer to make them stronger and clear further into dungeons etc etc. Combat isn't traditionally along side management sims, but attracts a much bigger audience. A disproportionate amount of video games feature combat of some sort, be it fist fighting, shooting, swords, magic, or even punching trees. So being able to add a combat system that hopefully doesn't break the pace of the game too much would make it appeal a lot more to a wider audience.
Secondly, the isometric style. At the time of writing, all I know is that to pass the course we have to use 3D models. The beauty of the isometric style is that you can use 3D models to give it some depth, as the player is able to move along the X and Y axis, but the camera never rotates. This would ease the burden on my lack of modelling skills, although I have a feeling this is a loophole I won't get away with. Only time will tell.
Lastly, the idea of market prices and capitalism. On top of a next level crafting system, I want my game to function similarly to Recettear and Holy Potatoes. To be based around certain money checkpoints at set intervals through the game that requires the player to manage buying (Or earning materials from adventuring!) either regular or high quality materials that they can craft to create varying quality items to sell for different prices in order to beat these checks.
Unfortunately, the game can be auto piloted by buying at 70% of RRP and selling for 130% of RRP with very little variance, which really sucks, and has to be something I must be very careful of in order to keep the game interesting.
HunieCam Studio (Huniepot, PC, 2016)
Up first, HunieCam Studio. Yes, seriously. This game is somewhat controversial but I trust that people reading this blog are mature enough to be able to handle cartoon cleavage and naughty words.
 |
| Let's get the sexy out of the way now so we can talk mechanics. HunieCam Studio, 2016 |
Ignore the fan service as best you can. Somewhat unlike the previous game they created, this game had unexpectedly devolved into a clicking game. Personally, I found nothing wrong with that at all. The aim here is to make as much money as you possibly can at the end of the month without going bankrupt on a daily payroll system. So as with previously mentioned games, the objective is short term but requires proper management to get the best score you can without failing. And at the end once the objective is complete if you really want you can continue with that save or start a new one and try out different strategies.
Alright, we're going to be talking about some of the games mechanics now, the following may be considered NSFW. Readers discretion is advised.
What does any cam studio require first? Girls. There are 18 to choose from, and all with various stats and dependency on nicotine and alcohol. These stats are "Talent," and "Style." The higher the girls talent level, the more money she can earn from performing cam shows. The higher the girls Style, the more fans she will earn when doing a photo shoot. But the higher these stats are, the more you will have to pay the model. So, for example, someone with 1 talent and 1 style will only require $1/hr that they work, but someone with 5 talent and 5 style will demand $64/hr. The increased skill does come at a price! You only have a one day grace period of being in the red, so hiring the expensive girls when you can't afford them will lead to a game over.
 |
| The UI is rather simple, the art style is very cutesy, and the themes of the game aside this is a good introduction to management sims. HunieCam Studio, 2016 |
Another stat that requires managing is the smoking/drinking dependency. A girl who never drinks or smokes will have no use for alcohol or cigarettes at all, so any activities they do will have a 1x stress multiplier. (P.S, when a girl reaches 100 stress she refuses to work, any job that would take her above 100 stress also counts. So you will be down a member of staff until they have relaxed.) Girls who sometimes drink get a 0.8x stress multiplier, someone who sometimes smokes gets a 0.8x multiplier too. (Sadly I don't know the exact figures for this game so we will just use this as an example.) This will however consume Cigarettes and Alcohol at a rate of 1 per 6 in game hours. The more dependant on these that a girl is, the more she will consume them but the less she will be stressed doing various tasks. Should you run out of Cigarettes or Alcohol, then they gain additional stress instead of losing it. So you had best keep a very close eye on that!
The final score isn't just a case of how much money you have. It is actually determined by the amount of fans your business has once 21 in game days have passed. So money isn't as important as it would first appear. Of course you have to make sure you don't go bankrupt, but it's very quick to turn a decent profit that you can then spend on hiring or training your girls, buying them accessories that will gain them more fans, and advertisement as well as upgrades to the company (Which affect how many staff you can have, set up auto clicks, clicks pass time faster/pick up currency more frequently.)
All in all mechanically this is a very standard management sim but it earns a spot on my inspiration list for being just that. It's not too hard to get into but there is still a slight learning curve to get the highest possible scores. In addition, linking back to my Industry blogs, this ties in very well with wanting to be a HUD/UI programmer. This game is literally all ui. There isn't even any movement. It's all just buttons and algorithms that dictate how much you earn, how many fans you earn, and how much you need to pay staff. The art style again is very cartoony and it is all 2D. If it wasn't for the fact that I am required to work with 3D modelling to pass my course, then this sort of art style would work very well for what I am trying to achieve.
Recettear (EasyGameStation, PC, 2007)
The last game I want to touch on for this week is another game that puts you in a managerial position, but instead of being a webcam service, it's a shop! Fans of this genre will probably have played Recettear. A very popular shop sim. |
| Couldn't have put it better myself, Recette. Recettear, 2007 |
This game is a little more intricate on how it works. Instead of making a flat amount of money determined by an algorithm, Recettear works on a capitalist economy... determined by an algorithm. But it's different, trust me. Buy low, sell high!
Each item has its own class, be it sword, food, shield, staff or clothes. And these classes, at certain points in the game, can have their stock prices increase or decrease. For the early game, you will most likely be peddling food to the local towns people and very low quality items for a small profit margin. But the game eventually demands over $100,000 from you, and you won't be making those kinds of profits selling chocolate bars, so here's where mechanics come in.
 |
| Recettear, 2007. |
There are several reasons why I have chosen to mention this game as inspiration. Firstly, the ability to hire adventurers that will fight and bring back treasures for you to sell on or give to the adventurer to make them stronger and clear further into dungeons etc etc. Combat isn't traditionally along side management sims, but attracts a much bigger audience. A disproportionate amount of video games feature combat of some sort, be it fist fighting, shooting, swords, magic, or even punching trees. So being able to add a combat system that hopefully doesn't break the pace of the game too much would make it appeal a lot more to a wider audience.
Secondly, the isometric style. At the time of writing, all I know is that to pass the course we have to use 3D models. The beauty of the isometric style is that you can use 3D models to give it some depth, as the player is able to move along the X and Y axis, but the camera never rotates. This would ease the burden on my lack of modelling skills, although I have a feeling this is a loophole I won't get away with. Only time will tell.
Lastly, the idea of market prices and capitalism. On top of a next level crafting system, I want my game to function similarly to Recettear and Holy Potatoes. To be based around certain money checkpoints at set intervals through the game that requires the player to manage buying (Or earning materials from adventuring!) either regular or high quality materials that they can craft to create varying quality items to sell for different prices in order to beat these checks.
Unfortunately, the game can be auto piloted by buying at 70% of RRP and selling for 130% of RRP with very little variance, which really sucks, and has to be something I must be very careful of in order to keep the game interesting.
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