Dev Log Update: Guest Intelligence and Stall Prices

This Week:

We've spent a lot of time this week refining the guest intelligence, in particular how they relate to stalls and their prices. Before, we simply had a random chance if a guest would buy an item, and that chance would increase the hungrier/ thirstier they became. Now that we've added custom stall prices to the game, guests needed to have a deeper behaviour system. Guests now take into account the current price compared to the regular price, how hungry/thirsty they are and how much of their own money they are willing to spend. This makes guests much more complex individuals, with some guests who are tight on cash and only slightly hungry skipping that burger stand while others who are starving having to have a long think about buying that £25 hotdog... 

As mentioned, the stall price system has finally been added. Players can now fine-tune their stalls to bring maximum profits or make guests happier with cheaper prices. 

We've also been working on new relics (such as the Dino egg below) so that there are some interesting things for players to find in the upcoming alpha. 

What's Next:

• Museum Rating & Prices Overview
• Guest AI

In Other News:

Pretty quiet this week just focusing on the game development!

Dev Log Update: Thieves and Auctions

This Week:

A lot of attention has been paid to the thief and security system this week! Before, the player could only hire security guards who could only catch thieves if they were in the act of stealing. Now, security guards fight thieves who are running away and the player can buy cameras to help patrol the museum.

Placeholder Fight Animations

Thieves now come into the museum disguised as a guest, so you need cameras to highlight thieves from guests. Once a thief is highlighted, it's fair game for any security guard to fight and arrest them. However, cameras only have a percentage chance of spotting the thief, and they need to be in the radius of the camera. 

In terms of the thieves themselves: before this week the player would encounter ceiling thieves and ground thieves. Ground thieves could steal donation boxes and ceiling thieves could steal relics. This has completely changed. Now, thieves come and go based on a scale which takes into account things like your museum rating, how many epics you have and how much money you have. The higher the scale, the stronger and smarter the thieves who enter your museum become. At Tier 1, thieves have a high percentage of being spotted by cameras and a low percentage of winning a fight against a guard. By Tier 3, not only do they have better chances of not being detected and winning fights but they can also call in the ceiling thieves to steal the relics for them. So now you will only get ceiling thieves if they've been called in by a thief on the ground. 

Ceiling Thief Position Will Be Fixed Soon

This not only makes the thief system more interesting but the difficulty of thieves also scales with the player. When your park isn't doing well and money is low, thieves can't completely destroy everything you've worked for, but when times are good and you have shiny epic relics littered across your museum, you're going to attract the attention of some seriously professional thieves... 

In addition to the thief system, we've also overhauled the black market. The black market is now an auction where players can bid against other AI museums for relics. This changes the black market from a simple shop that appears each month to a tense bid-off where you can grab a bargain or grossly overspend.

We've also made minor improvements to UI and telegraphing things to the player. For example, now when you hire a security guard you can already see the areas you have patrolled before you place the guard (you can also see this when you set the patrol for the guard). 

We've also been working on the relics and have a nice tar pit with moving tar:

What's Next:

• Stall Price System
• Guest Decision System

In Other News:

Check out our first dev vlog here! Should be coming every Monday!
We were mentioned in Softpedia! Check it out here!

Dev Log Update: Awe Bars and Coffee Shops

This Week:

A lot of systems have been added and modified this week ready for the next alpha test coming near the end of the month.

Firstly, information stands are gone. Their ability to multiply the awe of relics around them has now been given to fakes. Fakes now have a much more important role to play throughout a game, not just in the early stages. When your park is thriving you will now probably think twice about selling a fake that's boosting your epic relics.

We've finally added the curse system. Relics have always had mystical and cursed connotations (e.g Tutankhamun) and we wanted to reflect that in the game. Now, relics have a chance of being cursed or blessed. These curses and blessings vary wildly from making guests hungry and thirsty to turning them into money or cloning them. We wanted the curses/blessings to add another variation to gameplay: do you sell that epic relic that's turning all of your guests into litter? Or do you just keep that janitor close by? The curses/blessings won't significantly alter your game-plan, but they are nice wrinkles during a level.

A guest being cloned: visuals subject to change

The next system we've changed is how awe works. Previously, awe was spread out across all path tiles around the relic. This created some odd situations where a common relic facing one tile could appear to have a lot of awe, while an epic relic spread out over 5 path tiles looked pathetic in comparison. Now, every relic has a facing direction and all of the awe is distributed on the facing tiles. This also gives more freedom when placing relics, because players can now have relics back to back of different themes without incurring a penalty.

A relic with set facing directions

Another system we've implemented and modified is the cheque system. If guests get awed enough to donate more than 6 times, they will write a very generous cheque to the museum. The system still needs to be balanced but it's a satisfying feeling to see cheques coming in from happy guests. 

In terms of models, the basic stalls have finally had a make-over, the burger, drink, coffee and lemonade stands now have better models ready for the alpha:

We've also given the donation stand some ambient occlusion and a touch up:

Whats Next:

• Start making the Dawn of Civilisation relics
• Review the thief system and try to make it more fun
• Balance and refine the event system 
• Create hotkeys to see important environmental information 

In Other News:

• In case you haven't seen Zhatt's mention of us in Tycoon News here's the link!
• We're getting the game ready for an alpha test near the end of the month, if you want to take part, email us at mojoboxgames@gmail.com
• A really big thank you to Dudelsac for becoming a mod on our subreddit and making the whole place look and feel a lot nicer! 

Museum Tycoon FAQ

What is Museum Tycoon?

Museum Tycoon is a new tycoon game being developed by MojoBox Games. The high concept is “Theme Hospital meets Evil Genius inside a museum”. Player’s can buy fakes, bribe inspectors and slowly delve into the seedy world of the museum trade. Conversely, players can keep their hands clean by sending out explorers to desecra- I mean, ‘explore’, ancient temples and monuments to find relics. In addition to all of this, players must manage the day-to-day duties of the museum such as hiring security guards and janitors and researching new shops and stalls.

How in-depth of a tycoon game is Museum Tycoon?

Museum Tycoon will have a similar tone to games such as Theme Hospital and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Players will need to keep guests impressed and entertained so that they donate money and promote your museum. Not only that, but players will also have to deal with thieves, mobsters looking to get a cut of your profits and the various curses and blessings brought in by your exotic relics. This is very much a tongue-in-cheek game, but with deep and traditional tycoon gameplay.

Is this a sandbox game or scenario based?

Both! MT will have a main campaign that puts the player in increasingly difficult scenarios. One scenario might see the player setting up a museum in a rough part of town where thefts are common, while another might see the player forming a museum on the top of a skyscraper where room to manoeuvre and expand is tight. In addition to this, there will be a sandbox mode where the player is free to research and gather whatever relics they choose.

Are the visuals final?

A lot of the visuals are still placeholder assets (most of the relics are still only white cubes!) but as the game develops the visuals will only continue to improve. A few things that are still placeholder:

• Guests are completely placeholder and will eventually be re-modelled
• The UI is always in constant updates and improvements
• Most Relics and Fakes are still in placeholder states

Who are MojoBox Games?

MojoBox Games are a small, two-man team based in the UK. We met at university and (along with two others) released Curse of the Aztecs, a randomly generated horror game, as our gradation game. After CotA, we set up our own studio and released titles for mobile. One year later, we’re going back to our roots in desktop games and creating a game in a genre we both love.

Where and what will I be able to play this on?

Museum Tycoon will be on PC and Mac at launch. After launch, we will focus on creating a Linux version that matches the quality of PC and Mac. In terms of distribution, the goal is to get Museum Tycoon on Steam.

How can you take my money!? Do you have any Kickstarter plans?

We currently do not have any plans for Kickstarter, but we are looking at other avenues to fund the game. As the game continues to develop you will all be the first to know!

When can I play Museum Tycoon?

We are currently (roughly) planning for an August release date, but this may change. However, you can sign up to be an alpha tester for the game by emailing us at mojoboxgames@gmail.com We are planning to release regular alphas to get important feedback and suggestions from the community.

Where can I find more about the development process?

We do a weekly dev log video (first one here) that shows what we've been working on the past week.

Ticket Booth and Under the Hood

We've finally got round to modelling a ticket booth at the entrance of the museum. Not only does this mean we have a good excuse to work on the museum entrance mechanics (where players set the entry price etc) but we can also play with how a queue mechanic would work outside the museum. If a large group of guests appear outside the museum we don't want them to flood in all at once, they should have to queue and wait for their ticket!

We've also significantly changed how some of the mechanics in the game work. Information stands are out, and the fakes have inherited their ability (multiply the awe of surrounding relics). We felt that information stands were superfluous and we were rarely using them even though their ability was quite powerful. In addition, we wanted the fakes to have more value, especially in the late game when they were often sold. Now, players will have a tougher decision: do they keep the fake and get an awe multiplier on the surrounding relics, or do they sell it to keep inspectors happy? 

In terms of the format of this dev log we're going to change this to a weekly update. Some work-days don't translate well to a dev log update. Every day we miss an update we feel like we're letting you down or not being consistent. Therefore, we will now have a much meatier update once a week every Friday. The update will recap the work of the week and get much more in-depth with the nitty gritty details of the game. Let us know if you prefer this new format.

In Other News:

We've been featured on Zhatt's Tycoon News! 

We've made big changes to the awe system, making it much easier to use (full update on Friday)

We've created a system to build levels quickly in the editor

See you Friday!