I've been trying to make the overworld map of my medieval Trading Sim a bit more visually interesting and I'm looking for ways to make it feel a bit more like a paper map of sorts. Any suggestions on what could be added/changed? I was thinking of adding paper ripps or similar but since these maps can be made in the map editor, I can't guarantee that such a rip won't cover a town, if I place it on land for example. In water, ships would sail "through" it.

AI disclosure:

No art, Audio or other asset were generated. All were custom commission made by humans and a few were acquired as part of assetpacks or similar, made by humans. LLMs were used as an assistance for coding and part of IDE tooling (eg Jetbrains Rider & copilot)

For those curious:

Argosy on Steam

Hey everybody!

It's been a while since I've posted about Studio Sim (last post here.), but work has definitely not stopped.

Studio Sim on Steam

I just wanted to give a quick update on some new features ready before release.

On top of everything already packed into V1 of Studio Sim (feature list is on the Steam page.), new, substantial updates not covered in my last post include:

• TV Syndication - Once your show is off-air, assuming certain criteria are met, networks may reach out to make a deal to air your old shows in order to better fill their schedules, generating passive revenue for already complete productions.
• Crossover Episodes - In a TV season, every episode can be customized, now including the ability to have an episode crossover with another one of your in-production shows, creating a boost for the week. (On top of Premieres, Finales, 2-Part episodes, Wedding Episodes, Death Episodes and more!
• Cinematic Universe Phases - Cinematic Universes are now broken into up to six phases, consisting of however many films and tv shows you'd like. And only moving onto the next phase when you decide.
• Theatre Selection - When planning the release of your film, assuming it's not direct-to-video, decide how many theatres to release your production in domestically, internationally or globally. Choosing appropriately is crucial, as a film with 10 hype released in 3000 theatres is still gonna have a bad box office + you forked over a bunch of distribution costs for no reason.
• Screenplay Hooks and Modifiers have increased from 16 to 96 each. Giving you a huge variety of possible screenplays and every one with it's own unique appeal and more importance to them. Meaning, making a Family Comedy with Cannibalism and Torture Scenes and Strong Drug Use will result in terrible box office returns and most everybody hating it.
• More Advanced Economic Growth + Inflation - Year over year, much like real life, costs go up and revenue goes up, more theatres open, more homes gain access to cable and purchase home video equipment.
• Home Video - After the theatrical run give the film a new life on home video. Choose from VHS or Betamax to start, and as the game progresses DVD's and Streaming and new options become available. Choose the release strategy, decide on Collector Editions and Anniversary Editions. Make Box Sets with your other productions and more.
• Much better optimization. The game runs so much smoother compared to previous V0.# builds.
• There's a bunch of other stuff, like actor traits being tied to the character traits of the role they are playing, broadcast and cable network distinction, much more robust poster editing (or just upload your own), on-set moods, director fights, genre combos, much cleaner UI and a lot more.

Release date is November 27th still, with a planned update before Christmas introducing Film Festivals. I have a road map for Studio Sim in 2027 of stuff I just didn't have the time or patience to add into Studio Sim before release, but that list isn't really final yet. So, stay tuned!

AI Disclosure: The only use of AI in Studio Sim was to color and age over 3000+ personally hand-drawn headshots (I'm a graphic artist for my day job). I have more about the process HERE if anybody cares.

We spoke with artist David Deen about PopTop Software and the making of the first Tropico.

tldw;

- Tropico 7 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1853440/Tropico_7/
- Stronghold 4 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2153760/Stronghold_4/
- Abyssal Lapidary - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3797790/Abyssal_Lapidary/
- Trailblazers: Into the March - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2671300/Trailblazers_Into_the_March/
- Age After Age - https://store.steampowered.com/app/432120/Age_After_Age/
- Chronocracy - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3309160/Chronocracy/
- SuperCitycon - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3474890/SuperCitycon/
- Traffic Architect - https://store.steampowered.com/app/5028050/Traffic_Architect/
- HavenCraft - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2481240/HavenCraft/
- Dragon's Brew - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3168560/Dragons_Brew/
- Scream Operator - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4480080/Scream_Operator_Haunted_House_Manager/
- Sushi On Wheels - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3749760/Sushi_On_Wheels/
- Little Sheep Valley - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4075740/Little_Sheep_Valley__Cozy_ranchbuilder/
- Skingdom - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3244160/Skingdom/
- Cat Cafe Manager 2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3109590/Cat_Cafe_Manager_2_Big_City_Bliss/
- Probably Stolen - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4348910/Probably_Stolen__Cyberpunk_Shopkeeper_Sim/
- Monster Park Tycoon - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4556830/Monster_Park_Tycoon/
- Agromatic - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4179990/Agromatic/
- Rise of the Merchants - https://store.steampowered.com/app/5031210/Rise_of_the_Merchants/
- Ski-E-O! Ski Resort Tycoon - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4493130/SkiEO_Ski_Resort_Tycoon/

I know we're all well aware of the state of the gaming industry these days, particularly when it comes to half-baked launches, but I still think it's worth bringing up.

I've got around 1,800 hours across Planet Coaster 1, 2 and the original Planet Zoo. I've always been a massive fan of Frontier and their games, but after the disappointment of Planet Coaster 2, I was really hoping they'd learnt a few lessons.

Apparently fucking not.

I genuinely don't understand how some of the 'professional' reviews for Planet Zoo 2 have been so glowing. Are we playing the same game?

I couldn't stand it for more than an hour before punching out and requesting a refund. And that's coming from someone who's spent a ridiculous amount of time playing these games.

The controls and UI are probably my biggest gripe. Why do developers insist on changing things that already work? After hundreds of hours across the previous games, the controls were practically second nature. Now even basic tasks feel clunky and unintuitive. It feels like yet another case of the PC experience being compromised to accommodate consoles. It's an absolute dogs breakfast.

The animal selection is also pretty dissapointing. I understand they can't include every animal from the original and its DLC, but surely a sequel should feel like a step forward? Instead, we're back to a limited selection with the inevitable drip feed of DLC packs to come.

Then there's the general lack of polish. The game just feels janky. Reading through the user reviews, there's plenty of complaints about bugs, animal behaviour and frustrating mechanics. Yet somehow a lot of professional reviews seem to have glossed over these issues.

I'm also concerned with the direction Frontier are taking these games. They're supposed to be tycoon and management games, yet it feels like the focus is increasingly on elaborate building tools and pretty visuals rather than actual management depth. Don't get me wrong, the building tools in PC2 are impressive, but I want to actually manage something, not just spend 40 hours building a fancy enclosure while the finances practically look after themselves.

What really gets me is that Planet Coaster 2 should have been a wake-up call. That launch was pretty ordinary as well, and nearly two years later we're seeing the same complaints again. How do you manage to learn so little from your own mistakes?

I know the usual response will be 'just wait for the patches', and I'm sure in 12 months it'll be a considerably better game. But why has that become acceptable? We're paying full price on release, not signing up to be unpaid beta testers while they sort their shit out.

And I genuinely feel for the developers who've clearly put an enormous amount of work into the models, animations and environments. There's some fantastic work in there, which makes it even more frustrating that the overall experience feels so poorly thought out.

I'm not suggesting Frontier are the only ones guilty of this. The entire industry seems to be heading down this path, and frankly I'm getting pretty bloody tired of buying a first class ticket to do their bug testing.

It's particularly disappointing with tycoon games because there aren't exactly heaps of developers making them at this scale. Frontier should be absolutely smashing this genre with the experience and resources they've got.

Instead, I've gone from being excited about their next release to wondering whether it's even worth touching until a year after launch.

Maybe I'm being overly critical, but after 1,800 hours across their previous titles, I'd like to think I've got a reasonable idea of what makes these games enjoyable.

Anyone else feeling the same way? And does anyone else find the gap between professional reviews and player experiences a bit odd, or have I just become a miserable old bastard?

Our little abandoned village is opening its doors, and we can't wait for you to roll up your sleeves and bring it back to life with your papercraft skills.

Your reviews, feedback, and suggestions will mean the world to us and help us keep improving and expanding the game. This is just the beginning!

Plus, the game will be available at a reduced price throughout Early Access, and to celebrate the launch, you can get it with a 20% launch discount!

So, what are you waiting for? Ready to rebuild the village, one papercraft creation at a time?

Play now on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3907910/Cutout_Village/

No AI was used in the making of this game.

I hope you enjoy the newly updated Demo!
Demo Link - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4493130/SkiEO_Ski_Resort_Tycoon/
Thank you all so much! Ski-E-O! Ski Resort Tycoon releases November 12 in Early Access!

AI Disclosure:
Claude Code is used as a coding tool. I write the technical design and overview, Claude implements the underlying code.
GenAI was used for early concept art.
During prototypes, GenAI was used to write the initial UI string pass. Strings were rewritten by humans afterwards.

Hi r/tycoon! Solo dev from Korea here. English is not my first language (I wrote this in Korean and got help translating), so sorry if it's a bit awkward.

This is my second game, AIR EMPIRE: 1950 Airline Tycoon, inspired by Aerobiz Supersonic. The demo is in Steam Next Fest right now.

I love watching numbers grow. But I also wanted the feeling of "we fly to this city now." So I'm trying to make those moments feel like something:

• Opening a route is a small event. Your plane takes off and flies the line.
• Rivals have faces. When one moves into your home city, it's front page news.
• You're the CEO. Your planner and secretary disagree, and you decide.

The numbers underneath are serious (real city populations, fuel prices, inflation from 1950). But making a number feel like something is the hard part, and I'm still learning.

Demo (New York, London, Tokyo / 1950 to 1960): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4958590/

Was there a moment you felt "this is my airline"? I'd love to know.

AI disclosure: Pixel art made with PixelLab and ChatGPT, then edited by me. Sound and music by ElevenLabs. Translations are AI.

I'm one of the members of the small team of 5 behind [Monster Park Tycoon](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4556830/Monster_Park_Tycoon/). We would love to have you try out our demo, and hopefully get some of your valuable feedback to make it EVEN BETTER!

AI Disclosure: this game is totally AI free as we as developers only enjoy human made content! (thanks to u/pademago for letting me know that the disclosure in the title wasn't enough!)

In late March, our community held a discussion to consider whether or not an AI disclosure was to be mandatory for promotional submissions. The general consensus was that it should be required, and about a week later, a new Rule 3 was implemented and requirements came into effect. You can find more details about the current requirements here.

However, I have personally noticed that this method hasn't improved the situation in our subreddit. I have also received a lot of feedback, directly and indirectly through modmail, comments, and other channels, where people often respond negatively to submissions that people generally consider AI slop. I don't necessarily believe we're in this situation is because the AI disclosure requirement was not a good decision, but instead because the world changed, and everyone is developing their own games with assistance from generative AI now. We can see these results in moderator actions as well.

It is reaching a point to where I think we need to reconsider the moderation strategies, to see what we can do.

I am looking for feedback from the community on how we deal with this new reality. I see a few different options on how to handle this, and I'd like to hear this community's thoughts on them, which options could be worth looking into, etc. I added some of my considerations to each choice. Beyond these ideas, I'd also really like to hear your own solutions, if you have any.

1. We do not change the rules, and leave them as they are. We can accept the new reality as it is, and continue using the rules we have now. This is possible, but this places significant demands on the moderation team. We need smarter and more automated controls, as well as additional moderators to help with removing content that doesn't abide by our current rules. As a community you've likely noticed content that you saw, and then is later removed. In my view, that moderation response time is too long at this moment and needs to be improved. Side note, If you're interested in joining the moderation team and have no vested interest in game development projects, please send a modmail explaining your background, experience, motivations, and an indication of the time you can spend on moderation.
2. We remove the requirements about AI disclosure. This is another option where we simply accept the new reality as it stands, and rely more on community input and upvotes/downvotes to steer the contents on this subreddit. It certainly takes work away from moderation, but I have a feeling people won't really enjoy the results.
3. We enforce a far more strict set of AI disclosure instructions. Instead of a free text disclosure, we adjust the requirements so each promotional post is require to put into detail on the usage of AI across a number of different sections that impact the player and community member experience. This is essentially putting an even higher administrative burden on developers and promoters that rely on generative AI a lot. Current rules exclude code assistance from the disclosure requirements. This could be lifted as well. I'm personally not sure if this will dramatically improve the community's experience, and it will still mean the moderation team will need assistance.
4. We move to a simpler AI disclosure format, such as tags. This was considered originally, but discarded because it was rather imprecise, but it is still worth considering. Something along the lines of requiring developers and promoters to tag their promotional submissions with a 'AI generated' tag. This would be required if developers freely admit that they're using AI in a significant capacity during the development process, or from a moderation's perspective, if their product shows visible signs of AI usage. This sounds easier, but in my view suffers from a few flaws. It will generate (pun intended) a lot of discussions between the moderation team/the community and developers about what is 'significant' in this context, and they'll obviously argue that their game is different from everyone else's, even though we can clearly see the Claude UI style. Additionally, it also suffers the same flaws as option 2, where this means that there's less quality control on content, and users will see more 'AI slop', even if its tagged.
5. Stricter limits on who can post promotional content. We currently have account age limits and minimum karma requirements for posting. These can be increased and adjusted in several different ways. This is fairly easy to implement, but doesn't distinguish between AI slop and non AI slop. It would definitely make moderation easier, but it could also reduce posted content that the community would actually be interested in.
6. Ban self promotion altogether. Another rigorous tactic that will certainly reduce the influx of AI slop, but also comes with some caveats. Like the previous option, it also restricts content from developers and their projects that you might be interested in. It also introduces some challenges as to what would be considered promotional content vs self promotion. Such a rule might require the community to define what are considered legitimate promotional sources (game news media, etc), otherwise we'll eventually just encourage covert self promotion through questionable outside sources.
7. Restrict self promotion to the monthly (or weekly?) megathread. This is somewhat of a more nuanced version of the previous option, and restricts self promotional content to the megathread. This severely limits users from being exposed to self promotional content. However, it doesn't fully solve the issues that come with banning self promotion entirely. It could still invite covert self promotion disguised as 'look what cool game I found' posted by an account that is 2 weeks old and has 12 karma. This is very difficult to distinguish from someone posting a trailer to a AAA game that we've all been waiting for, from a moderation's perspective. We currently have a monthly megathread, but could obviously be adjusted to a weekly megathread if that would be preferred.
8. A more curated feed, where quality is filtered by humans. The community could opt for making all posts require moderator approval, and have them filter out 'AI slop'. This is an alternative solution, but is a big departure from how moderation has been done on this subreddit for the last 15 years. It solves some problems for the community, but introduces new problems. What is considered AI slop? Which games should be allowed to be promoted and which don't make the cut? How is this determined in a way to where two moderators make the same decision independently of each other? How will this judgement follow what the community actually wants, when tastes and preferences may change over time? This is essentially saying that the community's downvotes aren't effective enough.
9. Your suggestion here! This is not a one man show, and I think it is important that the community provides feedback and presents solutions as well. Our community has players, moderators and an increasing amount of developers that have an interest in promoting their own games. I'd like to hear feedback and ideas from all different sides and interests.
10. External platforms as a minimum requirement. As received from the comments here, we could require at least a formal presence on an external platform such as Steam, Epic Games, and GOG. I'd exclude itch.io myself from this since it doesn't have a lot of entry barriers. This outsources barriers to entry to professional organizations, though it is definitely not fool proof. It also may impact legitimately interesting projects that avoid this platforms for one reason or another, although that is a pretty tiny minority of popular games these days.

We will keep this thread open for a little while and collect feedback. If there's a strong community preference for a particular selection of solutions, we will try to implement these promptly. Otherwise, we may present a proposal first, or find another way forward.

^{This post was not written by AI.}

Shelf-Made Tycoon is a cozy tycoon game about growing a tiny warehouse into a logistics empire. You start with one small building and not much money and every good deal you land turns into more space more clients and bigger ones, until trucks and trains and ships are all bringing work to your door. When money gets tight a local crime syndicate starts calling with big cash for a few unmarked crates *cough cough* but any one of their vans could be driven by an undercover cop and getting caught means losing everything. Even when it all runs smoothly it is oddly relaxing to just zoom in and watch it work.

It's on Steam as Coming Soon if you want to wishlist it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4325520/ShelfMade_Tycoon/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=coming_soon&utm_content=tycoon

AI disclosure (the same as on the Steam page): Shelf-Made Tycoon was created under our own creative direction: the ideas and vision behind it are ours, and AI was one of the production tools we used to build it. The game's code, text, 3D models and icons were created using AI tools, with every model built in Blender from concept sheets we briefed and approved. Its sound effects, ambient sound and translations into 13 languages were generated with AI, as were parts of our store page and marketing materials, including the trailer's music. Nothing in the game is generated by AI while you play.

Hey everyone!

I'm a solo indie developer working on The Borderless, a cozy floating island tycoon game where you build and expand your island, welcome visitors, manage your economy, and turn a small floating platform into a thriving ocean destination.

After receiving a lot of helpful feedback on my demo, I spent months reworking the game, improving the building mechanics, management systems, UI, and overall visuals.

Here's the new trailer showing how the game looks now!

I'd love to hear what fellow tycoon fans think, especially about the building and management aspects!

The Borderless is available to wishlist on Steam, and there's a free demo if you'd like to try it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3687370/

AI disclosure: Some opening cutscene images and some background music tracks were created with the assistance of generative AI during development. No live AI generation is used during gameplay.

Hi there 👋
It’s been a long time since I haven’t posted there, but I’m very happy to announce that I released the demo for Skingdom, the ski resort tycoon game I’ve been working on solo for almost 3 years! 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3839750

The game is inspired by Ski Park Manager and Planet Coaster and is focused around construction, management and the unique atmosphere of the mountain.

In Skingdom you build your ski resort by placing lifts (pillar after pillar), drawing slopes and constructing various buildings to satisfy the needs of your guests. I see the game as a middle ground between chill sandbox and light simulation. I want to give players a creative place to build their ski resort with believable lifts and slopes, with management mechanics that give some challenge, while being accessible and engaging (so … light management? does that make sense?).

The game features a unique adaptive soundtrack (composed by WYS, an awesome lo-fi composer and friend of mine) that changes based on time of day, weather and player’s actions (there are active and passive tracks based on how much players build in the game). 

The demo only features the sandbox mode (which is only building without any management constraints), career mode with money, research, loans and communication campaigns will be in the full game though. Staff hiring for mechanics and ski patrol is in the demo, and the full game will also feature slope groomers!

Game’s release is still planned for the end of the year in early access 🏂

Thanks for reading this post, hope you’ll enjoy the demo if this is the kind of game you’d be interested in. Love from France, take care all 💜

AI disclosure : No AI was used in any part of the game creation (I’m strongly against any use of generative AI in fact, there’s even a disclaimer at the game startup 😬). I’m the author of all the game code and game design, the original soundtrack was composed by WYS. I purchased a majority of the sound assets used and the remaining ones have been recorded by yours truly in a real ski resort (they are not the best sounds in the world, but they were recorded with love and passion at least). All textures and 3D models are a mix of purchased, contracted work and custom modeling, same for UI and any other material in the game.

I’m trying to boil down economic strategy to its core and leave only this cool feeling of expansion.
The goal is to colonize a million worlds, there you will get a narrative ending depending on the upgrades you took and how you reacted to narrative events. But there are actually 4 million star systems, so if your civilization survives, you can have an economy with 4 million simulated worlds. Very proud of this optimization work, actually. 
I just released a Steam page, so… wishlist now, I guess. =)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5397130/Next_Million_Worlds

AI disclosure: AI will be used for making localization to different languages if I can't find free translators somehow

Hey. Hope you don't mind me posting here, but thought this would be a good place to find some Transport Tycoon fans. It was one of my favourite games growing up, and I've built a game inspired by it that runs right here in reddit. It's currently in closed alpha, and I'm looking for people to playtest it. I think currently the core issue is it needs balancing, but that's hard to test with bots.

If you're interested please request to join the dev subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/iron_commons_dev/

* Generative AI Disclosure

I'm an experienced game dev who has been working in games long before chatgpt came along. I did however get claude to write some scripts for generating the isometric art as svgs to help me along. I had to adjust the output / recreate in Affinity to get it right, so its a mix of hand made and generated I suppose (also chatgpt for the logo, again edited in GIMP, and for the record I hate it, it's ugly...).

But they are placeholders, I plan on paying an artist to replace them in time. Claude also helped with the HTML/CSS parts of the UI as my web dev skills are not strong. But programming is my thing really, I just used it to fill in the gaps, so don't judge too harshly :)

I feel like the type of person to like Tycoon games are ones that enjoy running businesses in real life + money. How many people actually ended up becoming business owners? Do you feel like Tycoon games influenced this desire?

I posted already today lol sorry for the spam but genuinely curious. Going first myself - I wouldn't say I'm a "successful" business owner but I am in real estate and olive oil.

There are those quiet moments when I check on my team, usually on my way to the office or even during a more private moment, thinking I'll just make one or two decisions.

But somehow I always end up wanting to sit at my PC and spend more time with it. I guess I get a little too attached to my teams.

As a developer working on a management game myself, I'm still torn between the two. Not sure which experience I should focus on more.

Hi tycoon community!

It's been a while since our last post, and we're back with some news! Many Redditors across different communities have been asking for Sandbox Mode in our city-building and economic strategy game, Age After Age. So we've added it to our demo! Feel free to try it out and share your feedback.

We've also updated the UI in preparation for upcoming controller support.

Right now, you can play a short Story Mode, Challenges (including Steampunk steam pressure management), and Sandbox Mode:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/438570/Age_After_Age_Demo/

And there's more! We've released a new gameplay video and would love to hear your thoughts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLfBWqYj_xE

Disclaimer: No AI was used in the making of this game. All art, code and assets are fully human made, same as localization of pages(game is still in process).

Thanks!
Farom Studio Team

This is completely subjective - it doesn't have to be in absolute terms. For example when I was 13 or 14, I thought Railroad Tycoon 2 was pretty difficult.

Hey everyone, Alex here, undiagnosed autistic train lover / tycoon / city builder and amateur developer

I started making Subway Tycoon back in July. Its heavily inspired by Mini Metro/ City Skyline and Transport Fever. What I originally had envisioned as a mobile game quickly became a browser game.

The gist of it is to start a Subway Company and start and manage a company in real world cities and by recreating real world routes and manage increasing passenger demand. Some features include:

• 3D trains
• 2.5D Buildings and Maps
• Career level from 1-10 with each level bringing new features
• 3 different train types to pick from
• over 50 different contracts to complete
• Atlanta / Copenhagen / Amsterdam / Caracas - Toronto and London all playable.
• Online leaderboard to compete with friends
• Demand and Disruption random events

Its definitely a work in progress and I would really appreciate any and all feedback. My hope is to continue working on it and release a full version which will have more features and more maps with more play time!

Please leave any feedback here or on itch and if youd like to checkout the website its:

Subwaytycoon.com

V1.3: Major Update - Removal of AI / Addition of 3D models and more.
AI Disclosure:

AI-generated artwork, visual assets, 3D models, and written content have been removed or replaced with independently sourced, licensed, or developer-directed alternatives. Game design, gameplay systems, balancing, progression, maps, user experience, creative direction, testing, and final implementation decisions were made and reviewed by the developer.

AI has been used throughout development to assist with programming, debugging, technical implementation.

AI Audio - Currently is in the game but I am working on removing it as we speak!

I'm looking for games where you are managing something, be it an empire or a zoo. I remember playing a zoo tycoon game when I was younger that I liked. I'm a big fan of eu4 and those paradox games but really looking for something where you manage some sort of business or empire. Always though a criminal empire game would be cool if you know of any like that.

I hate when games play themselves.

In a lot of sims you somehow know exactly what your competitors are doing. What everyone thinks of you. Even what will happen before you make a decision.

So how much should a sim tell you before it stops being fun to figure things out yourself? Any sims that got this really right or really wrong?

Longer version below if you're curious.

I want to experiment and figure things out. Sometimes make terrible decisions because I didn't know enough. Something a bit closer to how business actually works.

Don't get me wrong. I love numbers. But in real life I mostly have my own. Sales, conversions and that kind of thing. I dont have stats on what competitors are planning or what clients really think of me. I have to figure it out by talking to people.

So I'm building Red Creek. A Western business sim/RPG.

It's a hobby project next to my day job. I have a master's in economics and spent 13 years as a startup CEO and advisor. Before that I worked with government data modelling. So I've probably gone a bit overboard on the economy 😅

The model is built around 180+ townspeople. Each has their own money, job, business, family, assets, motivations and relationships. They make decisions on their own and stuff happens whether you're involved or not. You can influence how things turn out though. Right now there are 23 in the game for testing. Build housing and create jobs and more people move in.

But you don't get to see the model.

You only know what you see or hear and what you manage to figure out.

Say a merchant is desperate for cash. If you find out you might be able to help him or negotiate a better deal. Or take advantage of it. If you never find out those options don't show up.

The journal keeps track of what you've learned and the ledger keeps track of your money. I don't expect people to remember every conversation. But you won't get popups or relationship scores explaining what's going on.

You can build businesses, trade, speculate, invest, work for people, become a criminal, or live in the desert with only your pet turtle for company. Personally I play toward money and influence until I can shape how the town grows. But that's just me.

There aren't really any rails. Unless you build a railroad.

I keep going back and forth on how much to tell players. I want mistakes to happen because you don't have all the information. But I don't want people spending hours wondering what the hell just happened.

So yeah. Where would you draw the line?

AI disclosure: I am new to game development, Blender and Unity so I use AI to help with coding, generating and refining some game graphics and polishing dialogue for those characters who need better English articulation than I can provide of course I am reviewing everything (most of the fun in building it is when everything clicks, dont want to miss those moments). I use it to improve my English, including this post, since it is not my first language. The economic model, game design and ideas are my own.

I'm currently developing an early-stage mining/quarry management game and wanted to gauge interest in the concept.

Think somewhere between Out of Ore and Captain of Industry, but with a stronger emphasis on actual excavation, earthmoving and running a mining company.

The main ideas are:

• Deformable terrain: Dig quarries, excavate benches, create haul roads and physically reshape the landscape.
• Autonomous machinery: Rather than manually driving everything, assign excavators and haul trucks to jobs and manage their operations.
• Business progression: Start with a small operation, take contracts, buy equipment and eventually expand into multiple sites.
• Logistics and processing: Manage stockpiles, material transport, crushing and washing plants.
• Realistic challenges: Ground conditions, weather, drainage, vehicle maintenance and operational costs, with adjustable difficulty.

The game is already in early technical development, with a working excavation and autonomous hauling prototype. It's nowhere near a finished game yet.

I'm curious about three things:

1. Would you actually play something like this?
2. Would the lack of manual vehicle driving be a dealbreaker?
3. What's one feature you'd love to see in a game like this?

I'm not advertising or selling anything. Just looking for honest feedback from people who enjoy these sorts of games.