5/1/2023:

Business Empire players can expect an update at the end of May.

News of the month is that I am working on a new game called Tomb of Doom that will be available in a beta release sometime this Spring on Itch.io!

TOD is a print and play dungeon crawl that can be played solo or competitively against your friends.

Tomb of Doom requires 6 dice, a pencil, an eraser and the printing of 4 maps plus a character sheet. The game comes with three booklets which can also be printed or read from a device.

Rules & Regulations are five pages of easy to pick up and play rules including a fun dice-based combat play-mechanic.

Maps & Legends contains 4 maps and a character sheet to be printed. TOD is a mix of adventuring and tactical board game play where you control a party containing a barbarian, a thief and a mage. Your characters can be split up to explore dungeon areas faster or grouped back together as needed if weakened or to take on more challenging foes.

Dungeon Denizens describes the thirty monsters that you will encounter in the course of playing the game.

The game will set you back the price of a coffee.

10/20/2022:

It is 10/10/2022 and I am playtesting Business Empire. I am frustrated that the game isn't as fun as it should be even though, as a design, I know that all of the parts are there.

As I play the game and try to get from here (not fun) to there (very fun game that lots of people come and play every day) here is what I want the player to be thinking about and the information that I want the game to be illuminating on a turn by turn basis.

Questions:

1. Are residential units I own rented? If not are they at least 3 star quality? FYI, units below 3 stars in quality attract tenants more slowly and are at greater risk of losing them on a month by month basis.

2. Is inventory for coffee shops, restaurants, gas stations and/or supermarkets currently cheap? If so can I, as a player, stock up if I have extra cash kicking around (answer is currently no).

3. Are there good deals on any properties that I can afford?

4. Are there more biz available of a type I already own which will increase profitability of all businesses of that type.

5. Are there synergistic businesses that I might buy (construction company, realtor, property management, media company and accounting agency) that will yield ongoing benefits to my business empire?

6. Is the economy strong? If so should I be selling off weaker properties so I am in a better cash position to buy bigger properties/fund bigger projects, going forward?

7. Should I improve quality on a business I already own to increase profitability of that business?

8. Should I upgrade or reno a residential property I own?

9. In addition the Funds: amount is confusing due to bugs and the fact that funds are different than cash (because of Line of Credit) and currently cash is required for a down payment on purchasing a new property.

Answers:

1. Add tenant icon to rented properties.

2. Drop COGS all together as a feature of the game. I never think about COGS fluctuations as I play the game.

3. Right now there are two states - hot deal (property is offered @ below market value) and cold deal (property is offered @ above market). Add below market but not hot (ie. remove flames from icon for properties < 4% below market) and above market but not cold (ie. remove ice from icon for properties < 4% above market).

4. Add star to upper left corner of biz types that I already own when they are for sale.

5. Add star to upper left corner of synergistic biz when they are for sale.

6. Probably as good as it gets - do nothing.

7. Currently a business doesn't tell me how much more profit I will get from it if I improve quality. This would be an additional table on the already crowded property screen. Think about how to accomplish this.

8. Probably as good as it gets - do nothing.

9. Fix funds to always be accurate. Remove cash stipulation for down payments by taking down payments from funds (funds are cash + LOC - funding commitments to ongoing projects).