Suggesting features

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.

Make suggestions via the forum under: Player Ideas.