Good advice WavyVirus, I didn't consider that. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll make notes on that point.

I am hoping to have some cartoony way to depict the actual staff as Imps, or even just a selection of lesser creatures of Hell. And of course the person giving you the mission briefing just has to be a lesser demon.

I actually thought over this idea and abandoned it a few days ago before I even saw this thread

Anyway, if you're interested in pursuing, here's what you have to consider: theme hospital had two things going for it: that is multiple types of diseases and multiple types of treatments. Basically the game had a way to get more complicated with time: you had to research more diseases, build new facilities etc. With the Hell Management sim I personally couldn't think of a way to gradually increase the complexity of the game. You could add researching new sins or new and more effective punishments for the sins, but that doesn't actually increase complexity that much if all you need to do to make hell operate more efficiently is introduce a few new punishment rooms. So if you're interested, concentrate on making hell administration a more complex thing then what you've described.

By the way, my idea for hell administration came from theme hospital and reading a long time ago about another game called afterlife - you might want to check it out.

eugene2k thanks for the feedback.

My intention is to focus on the cardinal sins. Whilst tradition says there are seven cardinal sins, Galatians 5 in the Bible notes the following mortal sins (what we call the seven deadly sins in modern times) as such:
- adultery
- fornication
- uncleanness
- lasciviousness
- idolatry
- sorcery
- hatred
- variance
- emulations
- wrath
- strife
- sedition
- heresies
- envy
- murder
- drunkenness
- revelings

This is a more complete list and as I see it, by increasing the number of these sins which you have to process provide a higher difficulty as time goes by. The increasing population of Earth over time is also another way to increase difficulty.

So not only do you need to adjust to more sins to administer, but there are more souls arriving to be processed.

A similar mechanic to Theme Hospital's disaster can be done through "a war on Earth" where a batch of souls arrive to be processed at the same time. Satan's Generals can also make increasing demands for payments of soul power during the level to ensure an increasing difficulty level.

Ultimately, it will be this multi-pronged approach which will provide the player a harder and harder game as they go through the levels.

PS: I used to play Afterlife too. Not a bad game at all! Of course, that leads to a sequel doesn't it, Heavenish Administrator. ;)

Seems like you have the foundation right. Hopefully the idea blossoms into a tangible product I can play