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City Builder- A Small Start

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AlduinSlayer
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This is a new table-top board game I came up with, where the player has to create a large city with a certain population, buildings, etc. This game will have both a campaign and a multi-player, and will only take a short period of time (At least it's supposed to). In the campaign, the player will be given a small town, or village, and will receive a task where they have to build a city with a certain population, or certain buildings with a certain amount of turns. For example- Mission 2-- The Player must build a city with a population of 500 and a profit of 600 coins a turn in X variable amount of turns.

In multi-player mode, two players will have to build a bigger city with a greater amount of profit per turn in a set amount of turns. Example- Players have 50 turns to build a larger, and more prosperous city than the other. In multi-player mode, players will start with a certain plot of land, and certain buildings to give them a start. As they progress further into the game, they will purchase more land for further development.

There will be, of course, different buildings (Residential/Commercial/Industrial) that do different things.

Any ideas about buildings, and their uses? Also, a tax system would be nice, as I am currently lacking one.

Any criticism, or response and welcome, and I thank you for it.

Sincerly,
AlduinSlayer-- Does Anyone else here play Skyrim?

BlueRift
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Skyrim

Well I don't have an xbox but if I did, I would play skyrim. More to the point, you're game sounds interesting. The way I see it, what you want players to experience will determine how buildings will work. It will depend on what kind of strategy you want and where you want the tension to originate from. Is it meeting conflicting demands (you need this AND this AND that but not enough money to do them all) or do you want it to be from limited opportunities (you only have access to building A, B, and C; OR you only have resources for Building A, B, and C). I hope that makes sense.

I am a Master of Public Administration student going into city government so your game excites me a bit just based on theme. Here's some insight you may find useful to proceeding with your game. I'm not an expert at city government so my info (while somewhat informed) is not comprehensive, still... here goes:

There are two main things that limit cities that they have control over. They are (1) tax base and (2) infrastructure. There are many other factors that affect the success of a city in one way or another, many of them include geographic features that are not directly controlled by the city i.e. access to large bodies of water, natural resources, centralized location, tourist attractions.

(1) Taxes base not only determines direct revenues (primarily from property tax and sales tax) but also their ability to issue debt (borrow money to build stuff). Taxes bases are interesting because usually you need a stable and high amount of citizens to warrant businesses moving into an area. Conversely, a large business can arbitrarily decide a town to locate in and growth can spur from there. This choice to locate is usually based on transportation benefits and/or other incentives. These incentives could be awesome in a competitive board game because cities often compete for who gets what by offering reduced taxes or other forms of incentives to get a business to locate there. Players could low-bid against each other for businesses that have strong peripheral impacts but this bidding reduces the direct-benefit of a business (you get less tax revenue from the business itself but more because of all the people that move in and other businesses).

(2) Infrastructure is arguably the most important thing a city does because it is what enables everything to work and no one else is going to do it (or it's not really practical to have them do it). Individuals and businesses often choose to locate somewhere because the transportation network is in place to satisfy their needs (roads, mass transit, heavy freight, etc.). Equally important are adequate utilities (power, water, gas, etc.). This could easily be incorporated into your game in that buildings can have "infrastructure requirements" where players can only build buildings that they have the utilities to support. OR, buildings would offer variable benefit based on the level of infrastructure provided.

If you could provide a little more vision of what you're going for, we might be able to give more direct mechanic suggestions.

AlduinSlayer
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Thanks

Thank you for your feedback, as it is always appreciated. This game was made to be quite simple for the audience, but still somewhat complicated, so younger players could play it without to much difficulty. Answering your first question, when I was working on the game, I was thinking that conflicting demand would be quite fundamental, but, in addition to this, some buildings would need certain met requirements to be constructed. Example- a Mega Mall would need an X variable of people in the city to be available to be built. Sometimes, it may be that a certain building, or amount of profit must be achieved before you can erect a certain structure.

I hope this answers your first question, but if not, just tell me. I'm also happy to see that you are interested in my game. Now the taxes, that is where I'm having a bit of difficulty. This is because it would be quite difficult to base the amount of businesses moving into a city due to the tax rates in that city. This would add a whole new level of competition into the game, but I'm not sure how that would exactly work. If you have any ideas on how to make that element function, it would be extremely helpful if you could let me know. I already made a base tax rate for all of the buildings, and their income per turn at this tax rate, but, as I mentioned in the previous sentence I am unsure of which formula to use to calculate the change in business. This was an unforeseen problem, and I'm thankful you brought it up. At first I was thinking of eliminating the option to change the tax rate, as it might add to much difficulty to the game.

I hope I will not have to resort to such measures, as I agree that this would make the game more competitive and much more fun for both players. Now, in the game, players will be able to interact with each other by loaning money with a certain agreed interest rate, or selling resources. I will add some special resources into the game that will give access to certain buildings that might boost a city's economy in a new light. These resources might just be added in an expansion though. I need to think a bit further on what I'm to add into this game.

I find your second last paragraph, very interesting, and I especially like the last sentence. It's a great idea that a certain business would give the government, the player, a larger profit, due to the utilities given. I never though of that idea. At first I was going to just make everything somewhat step by step. Example- To build this you need to have built a certain number of this. I might make both play a role in the game, but again I need to think over all of these fantastic new ideas.

So, again, thank you for the ideas. They really mean a lot to me.

Sincerely,
AlduinSlayer

BlueRift
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Taxes

How you could have taxes work is by multiple levels of tax revenue generated by each building. Players can choose a particular tax level that they are locked into for a certain amount of time (maybe randomly determined). The higher the tax level, the higher the revenue generated BUT buildings are either more costly to place or cannot be placed unless their taxes are below a certain point. Things can only get more complicated from here. This makes players want to keep taxes low to get new buildings but they forego additional income of higher taxes.

You may also want to add a system to punish players for high taxes by way of having businesses close down/leave.

I don't love this idea but it's a start and might help you think of something.

Avianfoo
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SimCity: The board game

A game like this can get quite complex really quickly which is something to watch out for.

SimCity also included disasters... which could be annoying or fun depending on your target audience :)

How about using tokens to represent power (electricity) and water. Each power station/pumping station provides X power/water tokens. Assuming the costs of laying piping and wiring is included in buying the land, then each building placed on the land could have these power/water tokens placed on them. Some buildings could get more productive (and therefore produce more taxes) if they have more power or water. Then you can sell some power tokens or water tokens to other players which means making a large nuclear power station is profitable for you. Though when you can withdraw this power/water from other players might have to be put down in a contract :p

Edit: Skyrim on the PC is great :)

AlduinSlayer
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Great Ideas

Great ideas from both of you. I'll get to work on them, and try to devise a way to incorporate both of your ideas into my game.

Further ideas are welcomed!

PeerGynt
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Tax System

Just an idea for a tradeoff with a progressive tax system and balance for the game:

Real cities have a choice in zoning as to whether they want to build out or build up and face advantages or disadvantages of each. To represent this with a tax and building system you could have a cost tradeoff.

For example, each new plot of land to be developed has a low cost of something like $10 just to make the land available- this is the initial sunk cost to make the land produce. This would only produce a small amount of taxes, though, say $1 a turn. So people building out need to buy a lot of land to make it work.

For people building up, they spend more to upgrade a current plot of land, like $100 to upgrade, but then they get more taxes since it is more valuable land now- say $10 a turn. So people building up have a higher sunk cost, but gain more over time.

Then you can introduce some forms of tension, such as random cards or events where the player needs to have a certain level of land or a certain amount of land to accomodate a developer or they lose out. An example of this might be a home builder is willing to sign a deal for $1,000, but only if the player already has 5 level 1 (Undeveloped) land available. Or another might be a high end clothing store wants to open shop, which will generate $50 of tax a turn, but only if the player already has a level 5 (high-end) land space available.

This would lead to decisions and limited resources- do the players think they will have a sprawling suburban city or a high rise urban city? If they guess wrong their city may never develop.

AlduinSlayer
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City Builder

Alright, now that I've collected some great ideas from my fellow board game designers, I think I have a much better picture of how I want my game to turn out. So, buildings and such will be placed on square tiles (I'm not sure the exact length and width of the tiles), and the roads, or highways will be placed on rectangular tiles that surround the square tiles. People may only buy 9 tiles at a time, which is considered a sector (This needs a more appropriate name. Ideas are welcomed.).

I'll add to this list soon. I just have to leave right now.

AlduinSlayer

AlduinSlayer
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Some Building Names

Alright, I've brainstormed a bit, and have quite a few names for the buildings going to be used in the game. Here will be the residential building names:

1. Small Homes
1. Large Homes
2. Apartment
2. Condo
3. Mansion
5. Super Complex

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