v0.3.0 weekly update: jobs

Hello cadets!

We continue to make good progress on the next version. Thus far we have completed 43 tasks, which is already more than v0.2.5 and v0.2.6 combined.

As stated last week, today we would like to talk about jobs and how we want to implement them into the game.

Ways to earn currency are always something sensitive to implement in a game. You don't want your economy to be too easy or too difficult, and you don't want the gameplay to be too easy, too difficult or boring. It's all about finding the right balance.

Gameplay

There are a few things you will be able to do when signing up for a job, but the most important is of course earn currency.

Our long term objective is for jobs to be somewhat dynamic in nature. We want to achieve this by designing a specific minigame to play for each of them.

The concept for these jobs is to have a multiplier applied on the base pay based on your performance playing the minigame. Regardless of your performance, you will never get less than the base pay. These are meant to be fun little things to do and not a punishment.

We also understand minigames are a matter of taste and some players do not like them. This is why you will have the ability to disable them in game settings and instead get one of a few random scenes. However, you will always earn the base pay.

Corporate Jobs

Corporate jobs are the the easiest to find and are all located at the City Plaza.

First we have the default three. A political aide position, a paper-pusher and an assistant lab technician. All three of these bank off the same unifying factor. Your characters father is an important and powerful man, and by employing you, the company can make it look like they're supported by your family, regardless of the truth of the statement. To that end, you're not required to meet a quota of hours, or even show up every day. Naturally, you only get paid when you work, but you don't need to work daily to keep your job, the company is getting their value from being able to mention your surname.

Secondly we have the minigames associated with each job. Our goal is that we don't want these to be tedious or difficult even, but a fun distraction from everything else that's going on. A simple spot the difference game is planned for the paper-pusher, a rock paper scissors contest for the political aide, and a variant of the classic bartender drinks mixer for the lab tech. Aside from the minigames, we also are including hidden events to trigger at work, ranging from creating and testing a new temporary mod, to gaining blackmail material on a political rival, to an office fling.

Thirdly, we wanted to reward exploration and curiosity. The jobs listed above are open to every one, and even if you don't go looking for them, talking with characters from the main cast will reveal them to you. Aside from these, there are hidden jobs that are meant to represent the more underground and darker sides of the city and society. For some of these, you'll find them fairly easily, for others you'll want to stray from the beaten track a bit. Remember, with larger reward comes larger risks.

Final word

Designing good minigames take time and we know it would significantly delay the new version if we were to add them all in one go.

This is why we chose not to add them in the upcoming v0.3.0, but instead start adding them individually at a regular pace in the next versions in order not to delay content updates too much. Until a minigame is implemented for a job, it will cycle between a few random scenes.

We hope you like our ideas for the jobs as we hope to make them as not boring as possible.

Have fun out there!