RT2 is one of the coolest "business simulations" of all time - the goal was to make profits. The simplification was the "business" was achieved by setting the game near the dawn of the industrial age - when there was more of a relation between work vs output. The goal was to connect cities/companies so economic activity could take place. The big obstacles were set at random (i.e. train breakdowns) that added the element of fun. The game took the player through "macro" settings like recession and booms.
My deep appreciation of the game also comes from the fact that the settings were largely historically accurate. The big industrial centers (Albany, Denver (for lumber)) were accurately depicted. An extremely engaging way to learn a lot of early U.S. history, regarding how cities came into existence (answer: based on commodities trade). Also fascinating to learn about tech evolution (engines!)
Customary hyperbole: One of the best "business simulations" ever made! :)
RT3 did the series one better IMHO, since its economic model was more comprehensive and calculated the costs of everything based on alternative transport methods - building a line through the mountains could reap big rewards, and buying up the businesses you were going to expand towards even more so.
I liked both of them. The 3D modelling was so much better in RT3 and alot of the economics was more "real-world". I do feel like RT2 had more of the history and charm however than RT3. Also a bit less pressure compared to some of the later maps in RT3 which were more scenario based and less open ended.
Same here, RT2 was one of my favorite games as a kid. I would love to see a modern remaster or, better yet, a new Railroad Tycoon game that preserves the simulation aspects of its predecessor.
I played RT2 as a teenager and spent hours playing every scenario. They had a few futuristic ones like colonizing Antarctica. US historical were the best.
Somewhat of a competitor, but any Sim Tower fans here? I was obsessed with everything Sim* but especially loved Sim Tower. Maxis was an amazing gaming company and actually my first entry into Macs. My friends dad had a Macintosh II, then classic, then LC, and I would spend hours playing games on them.
Interestingly, SimTower was published by Maxis but developed by OpenBook (later Vivarium), the Japanese developer that would later make Seaman for the Dreamcast.
Unfortunately I wasn't there to see it, but I saw him talk earlier about Seaman at GDC 2000, and it was fascinating to learn how he was able to pull off such an unprecedented original design, even supporting speech recognition on the Dreamcast!
Announcement: Yoot Saito is coming to GDC 2017 to present a Classic Game Postmortem of Seaman! [2]
"Yutaka "Yoot" Saito, the talented game designer known for his idiosyncratic approach to game development, will be delivering a Classic Game Postmortem on his remarkable Dreamcast game 'Seaman' at GDC 2017! Saito's game development career took off in the early '90s when he created the game that was published by Maxis as 'SimTower', but it was after he founded his own studio Vivarium that he really came into his own. Under the Vivarium banner, Saito developed the groundbreaking virtual pet game 'Seaman' (lending his own face to the titular Seaman), its striking sequel 'Seaman 2', the pinball strategy game 'Odama', and the airport baggage management puzzle game 'Aero Porter'. Now, Saito is coming to GDC 2017 to speak at length about his work creating 'Seaman', a game that left an indelible mark on the fabric of both the game industry and pop culture at large. Don't miss it!"
I just found the video of his GDC 2017 talk: Classic Game Postmortem: 'Seaman'! [3]
It was surprisingly fun! One of the best games where you try to build stuff for little virtual people, figure out how to make them happy, how to push their buttons, etc. (Also: the Sims, Theme Park / Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, etc :) )
/me raises hand :) Maxis games were classic. And quite complementary to Meier's work - the former being very open simulation sandboxes, and the latter more strategic and goal-oriented but with a lot of flex and slack in the rules for the player to experiment with.
But they definitely shared a similar spirit: giving the player a box full of building blocks and see what they do with it! :)
Check out Software, Inc. [0] for a actively-developed interpretation of a similar sim. It includes building and infrastructure elements in addition to markets and resources.
I liked SimTower, but it was very hard to lose. You could have unhappy people, but there was little impact to it. I recall it being described once as the most computationally-intensive screen saver available at the time.
I was even briefly involved with one of the efforts to make a modern clone of it (in particular, I've partially reversed some of the file format in a text document... somewhere).
Railroad Tycoon and SimCity had a huge influence on Factorio, the vast scope of which I can't begin to describe, but its trailer does it justice. [1]
About the game:
Factorio is a game in which you build and maintain factories.
You will be mining resources, researching technologies, building infrastructure, automating production and fighting enemies. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, apply management skills to keep it working and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.
It was crazy to see a Factorio tournament at PAX. I never would have expected that that game would lend itself to a tournament setting, but they did it!
From what I understood, everyone was loaded into identically seeded areas. No combat, basic research already completed, first to a certain late game tech (rocket?) won.
I kept getting a "410 Gone" nginx error when trying to download the latest build's Linux demo. Had to keep refreshing to get the download to initialize - got it now but FYI, maybe it's something you need to check out.
Railroad Tycoon was amazing because as a kid I had access to higher quality, more timely metrics of my simulated company than many real life companies do.
That's only true if user [meta] data is a key asset or if one had one too many SAP-koolaids. In reality, most real life companies can be wholly contained in any $20 printer's memory.
We recently release SimAirport via Steam's Early Access program. The game was initially riddled with bugs, probably released about 2+ weeks or so too early, but after >= daily patching over the last 2 weeks it's finally yielding pretty solid gameplay.
If you enjoyed the old Bullfrog games, the Roller Coaster Tycoon series, or Prison Architect in modern times (huge inspiration), then you'd probably SimAirport too.
We're in Early Access, so go easy on us! You'll still hit bugs for sure, but we [hopefully] don't have any major game stoppers at this point. There's no tutorial, some so experience with similar games is helpful, but we've got a lot of players with 20, 30, and way upwards of 40 hours in just the short <2 weeks since we initially released.
To be honest, we haven't considered it yet. We probably will eventually, but for right now -- releasing patches almost daily, and planning to release content/feature continuously for the next year or two -- staying on one ecosystem is just a lot easier.
It may change in the future (probably not) but we don't have any/special DRM right now -- we just deploy our vanilla EXE/.App game executable.
Just curious, but did you run the name past a lawyer before using it? Sim<Noun> strikes me as perhaps a little too close to the Maxis series.
Looks neat either way though. I've put it on my list of games to [p]review once I get back to writing stuff up (been on an extended break due to illness).
We've been advising those who have expressed a similar sentiment that, if you're unsure, then just wait a bit.
If you think you'll be unhappy with it in it's current state, then you probably will be; unless you're really into tycoon games or aviation. If you're hesitant then yes, we'd suggest it best to wait a few weeks or months. Even if it means paying a slightly higher price later, you'll probably be happier with a more complete & bug free game for the slightly higher price at that point in time.
Interesting story - love reading more of the stories behind some of the games I loved growing up, especially the people behind them.
Railroad Tycoon II is still one of my favorite games - the economic simulation side of it was a lot of fun, and you could sort of decide how much of it you wanted to bite off. I haven't really found anything quite like it since.
In some ways, it is kind of a shame - tablets/phones would make great platforms for economic sim games, but every single one I've tried has been disappointing for the same reason - the mechanism they use to funnel you into buying things makes the game really un-fun and repetitive very quickly. I wouldn't mind paying $10-$20 for a good economic sim that didn't act like this, but I guess not enough other people would.
Transport Tycoon (that this was based on) was also published by MicroPose. I don't know if Meier had any influence on the game though. Pretty interesting how much graphics improved in 3 years.
Soren Johnson's Designer Notes podcast[1] mentioned in the article is excellent and I've learned quite a lot from the long interviews, especially Bruce Shelley's, Louis Castle's and Amy Hennig's. Currently he's releasing his interview with Sid Meier, which looks like it'll end up being 5-6 hours in length and is great so far. I really enjoy when in-depth discussions of niche topics give me ideas about other things and that's happened many times while listening to this show.
Those interested in the market/economic simulations in Railroad Tycoon might enjoy playing Soren's game, Offworld Trading Company[2]. I'll just mention that entire games rarely take more than 30 minutes, they are almost always interesting ones, and it is fun without triggering compulsive play (for me.)
My favourite Sid's game of all time is still the original Colonization. So much depth, replayability, and overall fun. To me it's always been superior to Civ because it's a clear road to independence.
Credit where it's due: while the original Colonization (which I agree was brilliant) was sold under the "Sid Meier's" label, its lead designer was actually a colleague of Meier who would go on to become a celebrated designer in his own right, Brian Reynolds (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Reynolds_(game_designe...).
Brian Reynolds doesn't seem to quite get the credit for the impact he had on the PC gaming scene. He was the lead designer of Civ 2 (in my opinion, the best one), created Alpha Centauri, and later made Rise of Nations. I wish he stuck to deep, strategic computer games instead of working for Zynga after he left Big Huge Games (Mark Pincus was such a big fan of Rise of Nations he hired Reynolds as Chief Game Designer).
Readit News
My deep appreciation of the game also comes from the fact that the settings were largely historically accurate. The big industrial centers (Albany, Denver (for lumber)) were accurately depicted. An extremely engaging way to learn a lot of early U.S. history, regarding how cities came into existence (answer: based on commodities trade). Also fascinating to learn about tech evolution (engines!)
Customary hyperbole: One of the best "business simulations" ever made! :)
[1] http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/classic-game-postmortem-s...
Unfortunately I wasn't there to see it, but I saw him talk earlier about Seaman at GDC 2000, and it was fascinating to learn how he was able to pull off such an unprecedented original design, even supporting speech recognition on the Dreamcast!
Announcement: Yoot Saito is coming to GDC 2017 to present a Classic Game Postmortem of Seaman! [2]
[2] http://www.gdconf.com/news/yoot-saito-coming-gdc-2017-presen...
"Yutaka "Yoot" Saito, the talented game designer known for his idiosyncratic approach to game development, will be delivering a Classic Game Postmortem on his remarkable Dreamcast game 'Seaman' at GDC 2017! Saito's game development career took off in the early '90s when he created the game that was published by Maxis as 'SimTower', but it was after he founded his own studio Vivarium that he really came into his own. Under the Vivarium banner, Saito developed the groundbreaking virtual pet game 'Seaman' (lending his own face to the titular Seaman), its striking sequel 'Seaman 2', the pinball strategy game 'Odama', and the airport baggage management puzzle game 'Aero Porter'. Now, Saito is coming to GDC 2017 to speak at length about his work creating 'Seaman', a game that left an indelible mark on the fabric of both the game industry and pop culture at large. Don't miss it!"
I just found the video of his GDC 2017 talk: Classic Game Postmortem: 'Seaman'! [3]
[3] http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024327/Classic-Game-Postmortem...
And here's a review and summary of his talk. [4]
[4] http://www.seganerds.com/2017/03/02/yoot-saito-gives-gdc-pre...
(Also, tip for those starting a new game: 2x3 grid of fast food in the basement at the start of the game. You're welcome.)
Yikes, here comes the VIP!
Deleted Comment
But they definitely shared a similar spirit: giving the player a box full of building blocks and see what they do with it! :)
[0] http://store.steampowered.com/app/362620/
I loved the first industry giant as well, best logistic and production game ever made.
Simairport is quite nice as well but beware, bugs.
You should also give Project Highrise a shot, very similar to Sim Tower and I have found it to be enjoyable.
Now might be a good time to pick up a few on the cheap for preservation proposes.
I was even briefly involved with one of the efforts to make a modern clone of it (in particular, I've partially reversed some of the file format in a text document... somewhere).
About the game: Factorio is a game in which you build and maintain factories.
You will be mining resources, researching technologies, building infrastructure, automating production and fighting enemies. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, apply management skills to keep it working and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.
[1] https://www.factorio.com/
"This game is like crack for programmers." -kentonv [2]
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11266471
From what I understood, everyone was loaded into identically seeded areas. No combat, basic research already completed, first to a certain late game tech (rocket?) won.
Is there a good* technological civilization bootstrapping handbook? (For a real person stranded on some random Earth-like planet.)
*intentionally ambiguous
We recently release SimAirport via Steam's Early Access program. The game was initially riddled with bugs, probably released about 2+ weeks or so too early, but after >= daily patching over the last 2 weeks it's finally yielding pretty solid gameplay.
If you enjoyed the old Bullfrog games, the Roller Coaster Tycoon series, or Prison Architect in modern times (huge inspiration), then you'd probably SimAirport too.
We're in Early Access, so go easy on us! You'll still hit bugs for sure, but we [hopefully] don't have any major game stoppers at this point. There's no tutorial, some so experience with similar games is helpful, but we've got a lot of players with 20, 30, and way upwards of 40 hours in just the short <2 weeks since we initially released.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/598330
It may change in the future (probably not) but we don't have any/special DRM right now -- we just deploy our vanilla EXE/.App game executable.
Looks neat either way though. I've put it on my list of games to [p]review once I get back to writing stuff up (been on an extended break due to illness).
If you think you'll be unhappy with it in it's current state, then you probably will be; unless you're really into tycoon games or aviation. If you're hesitant then yes, we'd suggest it best to wait a few weeks or months. Even if it means paying a slightly higher price later, you'll probably be happier with a more complete & bug free game for the slightly higher price at that point in time.
Railroad Tycoon II is still one of my favorite games - the economic simulation side of it was a lot of fun, and you could sort of decide how much of it you wanted to bite off. I haven't really found anything quite like it since.
In some ways, it is kind of a shame - tablets/phones would make great platforms for economic sim games, but every single one I've tried has been disappointing for the same reason - the mechanism they use to funnel you into buying things makes the game really un-fun and repetitive very quickly. I wouldn't mind paying $10-$20 for a good economic sim that didn't act like this, but I guess not enough other people would.
https://www.openttd.org/
The OpenTTD Coop Wiki[1] is also very very good when it comes to advanced designs, signalling etc.
[1]: https://wiki.openttdcoop.org/Main_Page
Thanks for telling me about it.
Those interested in the market/economic simulations in Railroad Tycoon might enjoy playing Soren's game, Offworld Trading Company[2]. I'll just mention that entire games rarely take more than 30 minutes, they are almost always interesting ones, and it is fun without triggering compulsive play (for me.)
[1] https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes
[2] http://www.offworldgame.com