GearCity Open Beta 1.09

[Eric.B]

I think this is the longest period without a new release... Sorry

Info Here: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=855

[Corwin86]

Good, well done

If I may ask, how much (in percentage) of the game is "done", in your opinion?
I think much is been done.

[Eric.B]

If I had to guess, I would say 90% programming, 70% scripting, 60% artwork.

The main bottleneck right now is art related *stares at mrx_ua*
We're missing key stuff for late gameplay, plus some static artwork.

There is also a lot of work to do on my end with getting the late game artwork into the game. I haven't done it yet because you guys are playing up until 1930. I try not to work on stuff you guys can't see yet.

Scripting for late game events and stats are still needed. But that is easy work, although a little tedious. I also need to do a lot more balancing for long term games and a bunch of other balancing. Again, easy work but tedious and time consuming.

On the programming front I have about 45 tickets remaining. I knock out a ticket once every 2 days give or take.
About half of those tickets are the things in the suggestion forums which I'm currently working on.


The main question you probably have is when will the game be released. IF, and that's the key word, IF things go the way they're planned, we MIGHT (another key word) have a full game beta available in January-ish for a discounted price.


I'm still unsure of a full retail release. It won't be this year, but we're not that far away. As for the game being completely "done". It won't be until I have multiplayer, a way to drive the cars, and a few other things. Of course I can't waste another 1-2 years working on these things if the game is a complete flop! They'll have to come as an expansion if I can move enough units to cover my expenses...

[Corwin86]

Thanks for the long and detailed answer, and don't worry, I'm also a programmer and I didn't want to ask and know the release date, this is "at your discretion"

Openly, I'm a bit surprise about your concerns on the "marketability" of your (good, I think) product... maybe, and I hope, this can be a good selling game and meet your sales expectations... but no one can be sure, of course.

Certainly, success factors are always partially unforeseeable... but I'm not pessimistic: if you manage (and I think this can be done) to sell it on Steam, or create ad and a community via other systems, I don't see other (except Automation, but I think it's a different type of game) game such this on sale, expecially, not so polished and with this graphic and deep.

[Giacomo]

Since Beta 1.09 has come to a close and I'm going to start a new game from scratch with 1.10, I'd like to offer my sincerest praise for the fantastic game you've done so far.

I only found out about Gearcity about three weeks ago and I've played it pretty consistently since then (as you can probably guess from the number of posts I bombarded the forum with!) I enjoy almost all facets to this game and I've read that 1.10 will address some of the parts I found tedious, such as allocating marketing budgets.

Personally, this game hits a sweet spot. I really love the mix of a business strategy game set in the automotive industry. I did get into Detroit for a period of time, but after a week of play the limitations and repetitiveness dulled my interest. In Gearcity, there's a high enough level of complexity to keep me awake at night thinking about what new car model I should develop or where my next factory or branch should be. Yet despite the complexity, the user interface is simple to use and makes accessing different permutations of a car design a real pleasure.

I hope as the game continues to be refined, extra layers of detail will be added. I have the opinion that marketing and business to business interaction (such as takeovers, share purchases, contracting and the whole stock market in general), is still there to be exploited. If these other facets of the game can be brought up to the same level of depth and entertainment as the rest, then Gearcity will tick all the boxes.

Great work!

[Eric.B]

Thanks for the long and detailed answer, and don't worry, I'm also a programmer and I didn't want to ask and know the release date, this is "at your discretion"

Openly, I'm a bit surprise about your concerns on the "marketability" of your (good, I think) product... maybe, and I hope, this can be a good selling game and meet your sales expectations... but no one can be sure, of course.

Certainly, success factors are always partially unforeseeable... but I'm not pessimistic: if you manage (and I think this can be done) to sell it on Steam, or create ad and a community via other systems, I don't see other (except Automation, but I think it's a different type of game) game such this on sale, expecially, not so polished and with this graphic and deep.

Sorry for the late reply,
I hope the game does well, but I am always a full blown pessimist. In the end I made GC mainly for myself. Even if it flops I have a really damn good modern version of Detroit/Old Timer to play.

My main issue is doing PR. I really hate doing it. I'm dysgraphic (if you haven't noticed from the poorly written stuff in game!), so writing proper press releases is a pain in the rear. I'm trying to push it off as long as possible and thus I avoid doing it... They say marketing is 90% of sales. This is what leads me to thinking GC won't be a smash hit.

Luckly digital distro rights are signed with KISS ltd, which should help out quite a bit when it comes to the retail release. If anything will save my wallet, their connections will!

Since Beta 1.09 has come to a close and I'm going to start a new game from scratch with 1.10, I'd like to offer my sincerest praise for the fantastic game you've done so far.

I only found out about Gearcity about three weeks ago and I've played it pretty consistently since then (as you can probably guess from the number of posts I bombarded the forum with!) I enjoy almost all facets to this game and I've read that 1.10 will address some of the parts I found tedious, such as allocating marketing budgets.

Personally, this game hits a sweet spot. I really love the mix of a business strategy game set in the automotive industry. I did get into Detroit for a period of time, but after a week of play the limitations and repetitiveness dulled my interest. In Gearcity, there's a high enough level of complexity to keep me awake at night thinking about what new car model I should develop or where my next factory or branch should be. Yet despite the complexity, the user interface is simple to use and makes accessing different permutations of a car design a real pleasure.

I hope as the game continues to be refined, extra layers of detail will be added. I have the opinion that marketing and business to business interaction (such as takeovers, share purchases, contracting and the whole stock market in general), is still there to be exploited. If these other facets of the game can be brought up to the same level of depth and entertainment as the rest, then Gearcity will tick all the boxes.

Great work!

A lot of little things still need to be done (Marketing budget tediousness is still there) but I'm glad you're enjoying it. Thank you for all the kind words and don't worry about all the thread posts. They make the game better in the long run!