How we roll
Sim Companies is never finished, it's an ever-evolving game where new features are added all the time. Do you have a great idea you would like to see implemented? Here's how we roll!
Every limited resource in any situation needs to be carefully managed. In this case, the limited resource is engineering time. This article describes how ideas are presented and what steps to do to make sure your idea is picked among ideas from other fellow players.
Quality of life (QoL)
There are simple features that do not really impact the game mechanics. For example. If would be cool if this button was in that menu, so I can quickly jump from screen A to screen B. These require little discussion and in most cases are very easy to add. You can write these to me, Patrik, directly.
The decision process is as follow. If the benefit is clear and it's super easy to implement, it actually takes less time to implement, than to ticket, I do it right away.
In case it's more work, or it's touching screens I plan to rewrite later, I ticket the requests and they are addressed together in bulk on a later date.
Game mechanics changes
These are really difficult, each time we touch the game mechanics, the game is changed for every player. So these suggestions go through a rigorous process.
In order to have your suggestion seriously considered by other players, it's best if you present it in the following format:
The goal - what is the goal of this feature? In other words, what problem you are trying to solve, who are you trying to help. A good example can be: "Increase the number of bond offers on the bond market", or "Promote more trading between companies".
Impact - will it impact late-game players, mid-game, beginners. In what way?
Mechanics - if the above is clear, let's describe the proposed mechanics.
We experimented with different ways of suggestions, and this one came on top. It's much easier to read and understand the proposed mechanics when it is clear what goal you had in mind upfront. Based on the above we can evaluate the suggestion on 2 levels: A) Is this a good goal, is this a problem worth solving; B) Does the proposed mechanics really deliver.
Sadly, there is also a C) criteria: Will this make dup account cheating easier? Can it be prevented?
You can present this in a shared google doc and gain support from other players. I read the supporter chatroom and MODs chatroom regularly, I also read the game chatroom often, but not everything. It's best if you get one of the MODs or supporters on your side.
Lastly, I would like to also say that a game mechanics suggestion in the form of: "Abundance sucks, do something about it or I walk" is not something I can directly work with.
Development cycle
It's hard to include everyone in the master pipeline decision making since not everyone has access to the business-related data. I know this is a game first, but it also has to have black numbers so servers are paid for :). I, Patrik, make the decisions on whether we spend time focusing on on-boarding, mid-game, late-game, or QOL improvements. We tend to switch between areas every 1-2 months.
Once we know, we want to spend 2 months on improving the late game I look at the best ideas presented in that area. Also, once it is clear what exactly I want to work on next, I invite further comments, suggestions, improvements on that particular feature from the supporters and MODs. I try not to discuss and document features that I know we cannot work on in the next 3 months. Things tend to change in that time horizon and the documented feature would quickly become outdated. The details are worked out right before the actual development.
Thank you very much for reading this piece :) I am sure we can improve Sim Companies together. While ideas are cheap and plenty, well thought through ideas are rare. I am sure, if you put in the thinking time, yours will happen.
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由Silverman AG翻译
我们如何运作
Sim Companies永远不会算是“完整”的，它是一个不断发展的游戏，新的功能一直在增加。你是否有一个伟大的想法，你想看到它的实施？
在任何情况下，每一种有限的资源都需要被仔细管理。在这种情况下，有限的资源就是软件工程时间。本文章将描述如何提出想法，以及要做哪些步骤来确保你的想法在其他玩家的想法中被选中。
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生活质量（QoL）
有一些很简单的功能，影响不大。比如，如果某个按钮在那个菜单里就很酷，这样我就可以快速地从屏幕A转到屏幕B。这些不需要什么讨论，而且在大多数情况下很容易添加。你可以把这些东西直接写给我，Patrik。
决策过程如下。如果好处是明确的，而且很容易实现，也就是说，实现的时间比写IT票的时间要短，我就马上去做。
如果它需要更多的工作，或者它影响到我以后计划重新设计的屏幕，我就给这些请求写IT票，以后再把它们集中起来处理。
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游戏机制改变
这些要困难得多，因为每次我们改变游戏机制，游戏对每个玩家来说都会改变。所以这些建议要经过一个严格的过程。
为了让其他玩家和我认真考虑你的建议，你最好以下列格式提出建议：
目标 -- 这个功能的目标是什么？换句话说，你想解决什么问题，或者你想帮助谁。一个好的例子可以是：“增加债券市场上的债券发售数量”，或者“促进公司之间更多的交易”。
影响 --它是否会影响到游戏后期的玩家、游戏中期的玩家、新人，以及以何种方式？
机制 -- 如果前两件事都很清楚，就描述一些机制。
我们试验了不同的建议方式，其中一种方式居于首位。当你清楚地知道自己的目标是什么，阅读和理解建议的机制就会容易得多。基于上述情况，我们可以从2个方面来评估这个建议：A）这是一个好的目标，或者这是一个值得解决的问题；B）提议的机制是否真的能提供提议的解决方案
可悲的是，还有 C）这是否会使使用多账号作弊更容易？能否防止它？
你可以在一个共享的谷歌文档（或另一种文档）中提出，并获得其他玩家的支持。我经常阅读支持者聊天室和MOD聊天室，我也经常阅读游戏聊天室，但并不是全部。如果你能让某个协管或支持者站在你这边，那是最好的。
最后，我还想说，如果一个游戏机制建议的形式是：“丰度机制太糟糕了，做点什么，否则我就退游”，这不是我可以接受的。
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发展周期
由于不是每个人都能接触到与业务有关的信息，所以很难让每个人都参与决策。我知道这首先是一款游戏，但它也必须实现盈利，以便支付服务器成本^_^。我，Patrik，决定我们是否花时间关注新玩家，游戏中期，游戏后期，或者生活质量（QoL）改进。我们倾向于每1-2个月在不同的领域之间切换。
一旦我知道我想花2个月的时间来改进游戏后期，我就会看看在这个领域提出的最好的想法和建议。另外，一旦明确了我接下来到底要做什么，我就会邀请支持者和协管对该特定功能提出进一步的意见、建议和改进。我尽量不讨论和记录那些我知道我们在未来3个月内无法完成的功能。在这个时间段内，事情往往会发生变化，建议很快就会过时。细节是在实际开发之前制定的。
非常感谢你阅读这篇文章。我相信我们可以一起改进Sim Companies。虽然想法很多，但经过深思熟虑的想法却比较少。我相信，如果你投入思考的时间，你的想法会得到实现。
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你可以在这论坛板块里发布你的建议或看法。