Micro Business Sim Game Coding Challenge

[Chris]

I think it's time for another mini coding challenge (old ones: http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,2705.0.html ), this time let's try all make a game of the same genre which would be (as some people who read the subject line might already guess) business simulation!

The game should include some shop that sell things (obligatory), it might also contain production (optional), the game has to be closed ended (obligatory). The game has to end after some predetermined number of turns (I suggest less than 100, because later we all will be playing these games so it shouldn't be too time consuming) and money (or other assets) will determine the success of the player. Any theme allowed (can be selling healing potions to heroes, pickaxes to dearves, magic dust to fairies, warp generators to space pilots, etc).



The goal is to make a mini game (single player, no database) like one of these http://worldoflords.com/misc/games/

Rules:
- you have 24 hours (you can use clock) to code it, you can spread these 24 hours within next 2 weeks as you wish (you are expected to make it in less than 24h, it is just to sped up perfectionists)
- if you have some gfx you are allowed additional 24 hours to make all pictures/css/etc
- you can spend as much time planning/designing as you want (but only within next 2 weeks)
- the source code has to be no bigger than 16kb (excluding gfx, css, standard JS libraries like mootools), as an optional challenge you might try to fit it in 8kb.
- the genre has to be as described above, any theme allowed.
- everything not covered in rules should be interpreted to your favour


Once everyone is ready we create a pool and everyone on the forum votes (you can not vote on your game, you have to vote if you participate).

If you want to participate post below.

[Topazan]

I don't know if I'll have time in the next couple of weeks, but if I do I may make an attempt.

[Chris]

I would be probably making car manufacturer game (like simplified Detroit or OldTimer), if I can not research the mechanics I would make some fantasy shop selling magic swords and healing potions to heroes


Does anyone have any experience in making business games? Maybe share some tips? It would be first one for me, but I was thinking about it for a while
http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,1578.0.html (market share).

The amount you can sell (and the max price you can ask for, since it is almost the same) depends on:
- distribution (number of shops/size of shop)
- promotion (advertising/brand)
- price (obvious)
- product (quality)
All these 4 factors would be combined into one value and then compared with similar value of scripted computer opponent (in 8-16kb can't really attempt to make any real or even minimalistic AI ). Then how much you can sell will depend on the relation of your value to computer opponent's value.

The first task would be to figure out the formula for the thing above.

Next I would add production. Why? Because business games often tent to turn into feast of microoptimization of the price which is not fun (to me, not sure about maniacs of the genre). But if we add production capacity then setting perfect price won't be so important since you can usually correct it next turn (by reducing price for unsold stuff from previous turn).

[Zeggy]

Sounds awesome, I'll give it a try

Edit: Hello again everybody

[Zeggy]

Woo, I'm done!

Took about 6 hours including planning. It's really simple though, I'm not sure this is the kind of game you had in mind for this.

It's written in javascript and comes down to about 6kb when the code is compressed

Demo:
http://www.thiswebgame.com/zeggy/

Uncompressed source code:
http://www.thiswebgame.com/zeggy/full.html

What do you guys think?
I didn't really do any balancing with the numbers and prices, they are pretty random.

[Chris]

Demo:
http://www.thiswebgame.com/zeggy/

Nice one The issue is that production and sales are equal, which is kind of boring to me. You could make separate "shop upgrade" and an option to set price. This way you would be forced to balance production capabilities and sales capabilities. Also, what employees do? A bit better help/manual would do.

It's written in javascript and comes down to about 6kb when the code is compressed

Please give us your uncompressed stats, only these counts

[Zeggy]

Hehe, uncompressed is 11kb.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see what I can do

[lolninja]

When you say uncompressed stats, does that include a ban on minification, because minification is a valid technique to reduce bandwidth usage. Asking largely because I see banning minification as a kind of handicap, which also promotes bad habits as your having to use variable names that are not self documenting, which is no fun come debug'o'clock.

[Chris]

When you say uncompressed stats, does that include a ban on minification, because minification is a valid technique to reduce bandwidth usage. Asking largely because I see banning minification as a kind of handicap, which also promotes bad habits as your having to use variable names that are not self documenting, which is no fun come debug'o'clock.

I mean, you should not make a bloated code then compress it, reduce names of variables to two chars, remove all spaces and comments and claim it to be "small" The challenge is to write a game of 8-16KB without any technical "tricks". You don't have to stick to the letter of the rules as long as you stick to the spirit of the rules. You you "feel" you raw code, the one you would write in notepad, is within 16kb you are allowed to code it whatever way you want.

[CygnusX]

I am in as well.  I think I have a good idea for this.

[CygnusX]

My Entry:

http://www.lordsofmidnight.com/pawnshop.php

Took roughly 4 hours once I got the idea.  I hope you enjoy Chris  


Edit:  My high score: 3,682 GP
         High Score Chris's Game:  $460,892
         High Score Zeggy's Game:  302

[Chris]

Geeez, I have to hurry up or I will be the last

http://worldoflords.com/misc/games/shop.php  4kb and around 1 hour
I'm not happy with the sales formula, also the decisions seem a bit too trivial...

[Chris]

Entry updated. Rebalanced, interface beautification, added advertising, added monthly costs.  5.9KB, +2 hours (mostly because I needed to refresh my HTML knowledge since I got stuck on the lame basic forms ). Still 2KB available within hardcore option, what should I add, hmmm...

My Entry:

http://www.lordsofmidnight.com/pawnshop.php

Nice mood, reminds me of FuneralQuest
I would change Trades to Customers, also instead of numbers some tiny icons of the client faces withing in the queue. Need more decisions, like "once per game you can get the item for half the price", "haggle (50% chance that the client will leave and transaction will be auto declined but you get no bonus from it being negative)". Add investments like "comfortable sofa, client willingness to lower price increased by 10%"?

[Chris]

Spent a lot of time (+ bugging numerous people on IRC) to invent one stupid price formula (one line of code), I wonder if anyone will notice the difference (it is supposed to give much less trivial choice of price selection). 5.7KB (yep, -0.2KB), +2 hours.


Anyone who wants to join the challenge, on Monday we are closing (we can extened it by 3 days for late starters if required, but please post now if you want it)!

[Chris]

Extended by one week. Closing and start of voting on 20th (Monday).

[CygnusX]

Voting starts today, yes?

[Chris]

Voting starts today, yes?

Couldn't make it yesterday, sorry.

Voting topic: http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,3201.0.html