Is the game worth it?

[Bladesmanstan]

I used to watch this game a bit on YouTube many years ago, and used to enjoy it. I understand that it has obviously changed a lot. But would like to know if the game is worth getting...

[Dienstleister31]

I guess it's really good but I just played 18 minutes and got overwhelmed by the tutorial.
I need to wait for the UI overhaul. It's a bit too much for me at the moment. But when was "too much" ever a problem?

[Personal Responsibility]

It does take some time to get into it, but the game is very rewarding once you find your own strategies. There are a lot of different ways to play it, which enhances the playability by a lot. I myself play it only for short periods, maybe twice a year, but if I do I rack up a lot of hours within a few days

As Dienstleister said, the UI can be overwhelming. It makes sense to take time to look at each window and find out what you can do where and which information you can fish out from there. Though I do not believe there will be any overhaul at all, as this seems to be pretty much fixed now since it went to beta.
The tutorial itself is a bad point unfortunately. It's not embeded in a good way. Personally I just found out what is doing what, plus got into it with the help of the community. There are also good guides on steam too!

[nosedigger]

ConflictNerds' videos got me to this game, less than a year ago. I always steer clear from the Early Acces, but since I'm a buff for this genre, I gave it a shot.
10 months later, I have written several guides, racked up on my knowledge and have more than 1100h in game.
I have never ever done anything similar for a game, so from my side, this is a top game at the moment for this genre, it is complex, it is rewarding to learn, and as the guys before me stated, downside is it takes time to really learn it.

However, you can play it as a serious company, releasing every type of product, raking billions in profit and dominating the market, or you can play it on Easy, and build away your perfect IT company.

Definitely a worth purchase if you like business simulation games, but Game Dev Tycoon, Mad Games Tycoon and similar were to simple for your taste.

Last thing, it is in Early/Access-Beta, but the game is fully playable without any game breaking bugs, there are mods, and you can find help here or on Discord channel.

[Molay]

On the face of it, I adore this game. But I still have only 45 hours total, and it's for this exact reason here: there is a brief interesting period at the start, where money is tight. Then you eek out one big project and you're rich, you buy a plot and build a big office (which I do like, the builder is quite good and fun). From there on out, it's just about inflating team sizes and keeping them busy churning out more software or even hardware; but there is no more risk, no more failure state to be had. You're now effectively too big to fail, about 30 to 60 minutes into the game. Money, the thing that drives everything, from employees to buildings, became effectively "infinite" so early into the game that it turns into a sandbox. Now it was still fun exploring once or twice, getting big teams going, get different systems up and running like making your own hardware, having an MMO, making an online shop and being a publisher and stuff like that - but it was always just that, the fun of exploring it in a sandbox setting - there was no need to do any of it, money is a non factor.

So ultimately the game fails in terms of balance. It's not engaging long term when there is no purpose to anything I do. The purpose should be to earn money so I can expand and prosper, to open up new avenues of earning money and expanding. But it's way too easy to do, way too soon, and way risk-free. The game really suffers from that.

Sadly playing it on hard doesn't make it much more challenging. It does not at all solve the issue. Money will still become a non factor within the hour. Truly unlimited funds come slightly later on hard, after you reinvest your first hour's earnings into infrastructure and personnel, at which point you're so obscenely rich that there is no risk anymore. At that point there is only microing of teams and in my opinion tedious relationship/trait compatibility stuff (socializing of workers aspect) that truly breaks the flow of the sandbox, so even the effective sandbox you end up with still has annoyances attached to it - none of which relate to your money.

I hope to see a serious balance pass at some point in this regard. This game could be truly excellent if it managed to maintain a level of challenge. As it stands, it devolves spiritually into the incremental-game genre where you just grow a number for the sake of growing a number.

Don't misunderstand. I think the game is really good and has lots of promise, but ultimately it lacks a challenge, a purpose, to keep me going. But you'll still spend quite a while exploring all the features, and for all I know, you don't care much about a challenge but will find lots of joy in building offices and creating your own software/games/hardware and just play around with that, without a challenge. If that's the case, this game is really top notch I think. Also, you won't "break" the economy on your first run most likely, at least not as fast. So there is still some pleasure in learning the mechanics and exploring them. But once you understand them, it's easy to make money a non-factor.

[Aestiri]

its 100% worth it. You will get countless hours of fun and replayability. You cannot go wrong. The dev has worked tirelessly to deliver an amazing game that i always come back to after having a long play sesh. 100% would buy a second time. <3

[City Builder]

it is to me with 100 hours played

[freelancer909]

It is a priceless master work of art. Old art with no achievements, it is plain vanilla pudding.

[freelancer909]

Do not want to brag but I have over 4000 hours. I have played the game since day one. There are certain Kool Aid drinkers or paid full timers promoters on the page. I would ignore them and just go pick your nose.

[freelancer909]

Neville has really hit the nail on the head. It is a totally easy game. But it has a very good construction twist. It has fallen behind most game of the genre. But still you either love it or leave it. The game has been in early development for 8 years. But we love the one man developer aspect, in some degree. He makes a good living selling the game, and he is a one time wonder. This may be the last game of his kind or any kind.

[nosedigger]

Originally posted by freelancer909:

Do not want to brag but I have over 4000 hours. I have played the game since day one.

And yet, you are sharing this in every single Discussion topic here.

[freelancer909]

That is just experience speaking. Some would like to know where the info is coming from. Also I do not reply to every post, but some do..

[nosedigger]

Originally posted by freelancer909:

That is just experience speaking. Some would like to know where the info is coming from. Also I do not reply to every post, but some do..

The main point is that others should believe you (or not)

Oh yeah, just a clarification for others (myself included):
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is an expression used to refer to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards. The phrase typically carries a negative connotation."