I had an idea a while ago about managing a game company. It would be kinda like theme hospital where you set up office, perhaps starting in some backroom with one programmer and one designer, and you have to build a game. You would have to employ programmers, designers, artists etc to work on your game, as well as checking certain genre markets and so on to check profitability. Then, you work out things like the game''s specialities, like "realism" or "network orientated". It could also include things like getting a publisher, who may back out or make unrealistic deadlines based on the market of the game and other various things. This would lead to crunch times and employing your workers to work overtime and other such things. then when it comes to selling the game it could be a flop, or you could make millions, then use that money to pay back any loans and stuff and get bigger offices and make bigger budget games. I don''t know how good an idea this game is, but i just decided to throw it out and see how it is accepted. I havent thought it through yet, so it would be cool to see any other suggestions.

The problem would be to make this actually interesting.. In Theme Hospital, a lot of things were happening, different patients with different problems and so on. So there''d have to be enough interesting decisions besides who to hire and who to fire to make it interesting.
I''m pretty sure this should be possible, and yes, I do think there are enough people who''d play it. Sure, probably it wouldn''t be a game that you could sell for a lot of money, but then, I guess it doesn''t have to be.

Oh, and that quote is from "Death of a salesman" by Arthur Miller, isn''t it? Loved that drama...

I actually thought up an idea like this, but decided to scrap it because i didnt forsee it being very fun. If you will notice in theme hospital and theme park there are disasters and things that change as you grow further into a game. You have to cure certain diseases, and some technology will only be available in certain parts of the world.

But what can we do with a sim GameDesigner? We can have virus attacks, in which you have to debug, or servers crashing, in which you have to get your network technician, but thats not all that fun. Likewise once you beat it there is no where to go. "Lets try a RPG game this time" , or "Hmm lets make an action game". The steps to make those games on the outside atleast is basically the same.

You really cant upgrade anything, sure you can buy more computers and more software, but i dont think that would be much fun.

Most games that become a sucess is because they allow the player to build something, get results, and then build more. This just dosnt happen in the game industry, because most of the companies arnt in the market the buisiness section, they make the games and then the publisher markets it, and gives a percentage to the company.

It might be a bit more reasonable to make a publishing company sim, but i honestly dont know many people that want to sit at their computer to Simulate a publishing firm.

come visit me at www.worldofwc.org!

sounds like a great idea,

(Make it so that marsians can attack and turn your computers into wind-powerplants like in SimCity 2000):D

quote:Original post by BB-Pest
and theme-XXX games arent THAT well liked at the moment... "

I think there should be more "sim-XXX" and "theme-XXX" games personally. Sim porn star, Theme Bordello, etc. (XXX means pornographic, sim-x, or theme-x, or maybe XXXX or something would probably have been better.)