Capitalism Lab on Steam and Steam Workshop Support

[vault101]

hi, I'm a huge fan of capitalism series, loved c2, and now I'm getting very excited about Capitalism Lab is going to launch pretty soon

I was just wondering if folks at Enlight can bring this game to Steam, which is the best game platform where people can purchase the game easily, share their ideas/discussion and Steam Workshop which allows people to upload their own contents/mods which will be the best tool for Capitalism Lab. (being able to add custom products, rules, cities, and more buildings)

On top of that, Steam Overlay (in-game chat, screenshot, and potentially play online multiplayer mode) can also be very useful, and I really hope this game can make it to Steam

What are your thoughts?

[David]

hi, I'm a huge fan of capitalism series, loved c2, and now I'm getting very excited about Capitalism Lab is going to launch pretty soon

I was just wondering if folks at Enlight can bring this game to Steam, which is the best game platform where people can purchase the game easily, share their ideas/discussion and Steam Workshop which allows people to upload their own contents/mods which will be the best tool for Capitalism Lab. (being able to add custom products, rules, cities, and more buildings)

On top of that, Steam Overlay (in-game chat, screenshot, and potentially play online multiplayer mode) can also be very useful, and I really hope this game can make it to Steam

What are your thoughts?

We also think that Steam will be a good platform for launching the release version of the game.

I am aware that Steam has an achievement system. Does anybody have any suggestions on this?

[mwyeoh]

Hi David

Although Steam is a good idea, you would not be able to use your current purchase model (payment covers the current version with future versions needing a repurchase) unless new versions were either a DLC or a new game altogether

Yes, steam has achievements. I dont know what sort of code you would need to add into caplab to get it to work though. Some investigation on your part would be needed.

To really get lots of players, the current challenge system would also need to be expanded so that players can create scenarios for each other. I will post my thoughts about this later

[City Builder]

I am not a big fan of achievements in PC games, for the majority of games that I own on steam (184 games according to steam) those that have achievements either feel tacked on to try to take the place of a lack of content or are just plain cheesy to me as an older player. Personally, I'd much rather you spend your dev time on creating a system that allows the players to create scenarios that can be downloaded from a central repository server that either you or Steam workshop hosts rather than tack on a bunch of achievements.

However, I recognize that many players feel the need to achieve every single achievement in a game and if they don't then they don't feel like they've really finished the game. With that in mind there is obviously tons of things that you could add as achievements if you really felt the need for it, hell just starting from the goals panel you could take most of those goals and turn them into achievements. You could also add achievements for dominating a certain product line, such as DVD King or Shoe salesperson of the century etc.

I don't know what your current plans are for your sales model so I don't know if steam could even be used, but surely it would get you a tremendous amount of sales if Cap Labs was generally accepted by the players, now don't take this wrong but here I go again...

I truly believe that while Cap 2 and Cap Labs are very enjoyable games, I think the main populace of gamers would really require an overhaul of the visual aspect of the game, higher resolutions most certainly (I am stuck at 1024x768 because you don't support 1600x900 which I will say outright SUCKS), and while you don't need to go Full ON 3D, the overall look of the game in my opinion would need an overhaul to make it more appealing to the mass player on Steam.

[David]

We did take a look at your 1600x900 suggestion and we found that in window mode, it doesn't differ much from 1024x768, because the window icons at the bottom of the screen uses some vertical space already. So the difference between 1600x900 and 1024x768 in window mode will be about 50 pixels of vertical space only, which isn't sufficient for displaying one more record on a list vertically (e.g. the Corporations list)

And the horizontal space increase will only allow for more part of the city to be displayed on the screen at the same time, but it doesn't affect any other interface display.

In other words, 1024x768 window mode is already showing close to the maximum amount of info allowed on a 1600x900 monitor.

[City Builder]

I don't play in window mode, only in full screen which I believe stretches everything out. I only play window mode in games that I'm forced to play in window mode because they don't have a full screen mode and those games that I find out before hand that don't have a full screen mode I simply don't buy.

I'd love to show you the difference in screen shots but unfortunately Fraps captures the full screen as if it's playing in a window so it's absolutely identical to playing in a tiny 1024x768 window screen when looking at screen shots but I assure you that the actual game screen in full screen is stretched terribly and quite honestly... The game in window mode *i.e., unstretched* looks 1000 times better than it does all stretched out in full screen mode since you don't support a now standard screen resolution (16:9 I believe).

[David]

You may create a topic with a poll about 1600x900 support.

With enough users requesting this feature, I will be in a better position to ask the developers to consider implementing it.