Resort Tycoon Thread

Hello folks!

There is an idea floating in my mind for about 2-3 months now.. It's about being a business man and building your own resort. There will be two modes, the first mode is the story mode where you have to reach a specific goal like having an average happiness of 90% until year XXXX. The second mode is just free-building where you can decide everything by your own. Basically you have to build up a hotel or houses where your guests can live and create a whole resort, if you play the story modus it's up to the level-description what kind of resort is the goal (examples: party, adventure, relaxing, family). For a party resort you have to make sure that your guests have a lot of fun, creating special events like pubcrawls (yeah you can build clubs too) and make sure that your hotel is going to survive the visits from the guests. You have to hire employees like lobbyist, security guards, cooks, cleaners, entertainers etc. and handle your whole resort (also on the economic base)

I'd like to use the art style from Prison Architect or Rimworld because it would fit perfectly in my opinion.

Now i want to hear from you if this would be a good idea for a game, if this wouldn't bee too boring and receing critics eventhought the given information is pretty small.

If you have any questions or suggestions just message me or post it under the thread.

Regards, BolterVi

If you have only one art spark then creating maps in a similar style to Prison Architect or Rimworld makes good sense. Remember once you get the game up and running you can always overhaul the look and feel.

A) One thing to be watchful of however is that both of these games use dark themes and one uses very bland rooms. Your game idea centers around a resort - think bright, cheerful - we are either here to party(casino) or to enjoy ourselves basking in sunshine and eating the buffet.

B) A resort game has a danger of being un-engaging. Management games often require moving things to watch in order to keep the player engaged. For instance, when the hotel business picks up cars could start arriving. A lobby bell could ring to indicate this. The busier it gets the more cars, at higher speed and the bell buzzing like mad - buzz, buzz, buzz.

C) Comedy - a daft waiter like faulty towers, a rude chef, an attendant who crashes patrons cars when he starts.

As to your question about whether this is a good theme or not - games from this genre and even this theme have succeeded in the past - yet the real answer lies in your own head - design a game that you feel good about and think of ways to keep the player interested.

And remember, whether this game succeeds or fails, every game you attempt make you a better Indie Game Developer.

Thank you for your response!

To A) Indeed! I want to create a relaxing/beautiful atmosphere to make the game also really enjoyable for the eyes, creating smooth lightning and other effects which are pleasant for the eyes. To give the game more colour and possibilities i thought about Themes for the furniture/environment such as: Western, Country, Asian, Space, Ice, Modern, Retro and many more. Those are such basic ideas to give the game more varieties, i wouldn't put all styles directly into the game. Maybe i would create DLCs (for free) after releasing the game and i also want to give the community the chance to develope something for the game so they would be able to create custom styles and share them. This would also affect the levels, as example: "Design a Caribbean-Styled Spa and [Insert goal here]", so your furniture and other decorative articles would be in the style of the Caribbean.

To B) That's what i thought too, since a lot of the employees would do the work for the player. To solve this problem i would start to write down tasks the player would have to do, but it also have to be balanced since the player has to be free enought to build/expand the resort but not too free so he would get bored because nothing happens.

To C) Those are good ideas! I want to implement also an alcohol system, which means if the guest is drinking too much alcohol he gets drunk which creates effects on his behaviour such as: beeing embarrassing, vandalism (destroying something, attacking other guests, etc.), feeling sick and so on. I would also work on a personality system for the employees and guests so that each person in the game is kind of unique.

Yeah i saw that such games are pretty successful, it was just the thought if it would be interesting to handle a whole resort by your own (after a party-vacation to Bulgaria i came to this idea because it was kind of fascinating to imagine handling such a big resort).

And yes you're right, even if it's going to be a fail i will learn a lot about developing and what i have to improve.

Kind Regards, BolterVi