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RECOMMEND ME LIFE SIMULATOR/TIME MANAGEMENT GAMES
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calunio
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CloseI want PC game recommendations as inspiration for an upcoming project of mine.
I want games that are life sumulator/time managers. Ones that are divided in days, and in each day you need to choose how you're going to spend your time, and the results of your choices affect your stats, relationships, story outcomes, etc.
Games that come to mind are Jones in the fast lane, Cart Life and True Love (which are very different among themselves, but fit the description). I don't want games that are too open-ended like The Sims. Preferrably something I can play on my computer for free or small bucks.
I want games that are life sumulator/time managers. Ones that are divided in days, and in each day you need to choose how you're going to spend your time, and the results of your choices affect your stats, relationships, story outcomes, etc.
Games that come to mind are Jones in the fast lane, Cart Life and True Love (which are very different among themselves, but fit the description). I don't want games that are too open-ended like The Sims. Preferrably something I can play on my computer for free or small bucks.
Shinan
4314
I think Cultist Simulator is a nice take on the genre, it being somewhat real time in nature where you have to juggle a lot of tasks that all are timed (fortunately it is pausable).
author=kory_toombs
Persona 3, originally for the PS 2.
(Actually I believe the whole Persona series is similar.)
3 + onwards introduced time-management and social mechanics. The first two are more standard jrpgs (except in a non-fantasy setting).
They are great examples, but not on PC and not available for cheap, sadly.
I'd recommend Atelier Annie or Devil Survivor (!) too but those are out for the same reaosons lol.
Various visual novels use them very often, but that's a lot of text and flavor to go through, and the more sophisticated ones tend to not be too obvious when it comes to what triggers which (Angels with Scaly Wings come to mind).
A lot of dating sims do more stat-juggling and clearer rule stuff but I can't recommend any and play few.
Edit:
A simple one that fits the bill is The Shrouded Isle. It's available for cheap (I got it on a sale once for 3 bucks), relatively short, very focused on only the management, and offers a variety of management options. It gets a bit too simplistic gameplay-wise after a while but should offer some great inspiration.
There's a pre-month and in-month management (3 times + 1 extra) selection.
Pre-month management options include:
- set number of interrogations (if wanted) to uncover people use boni/negative boni
- picking peeps as representative in the following month (3-4 day-ish phases)
- imprisoning and/or "purifying" up to 3 people for varying effects
- reading notes and responding to them for varying effects (some with follow-up notes later)
In-month management options include:
- interrogating the chosen representatives
- choosing 1-3 representatives to use for point juggling
-> keeping them meters happy
- choosing a representative to kill permanently
Depending on how you choose/what happens you get different endings. Most of which only come into play once the general time limit the game sets reaches its end.
This Kudos game is very close to the game I'm making in a lot of ways.
I was actually looking for mechanic ideas to make the game more exciting, because I was afraid it might get a bit repetitive and dull.
But I guess these games are always a bit repetitive and dull, so it's fine.
I was actually looking for mechanic ideas to make the game more exciting, because I was afraid it might get a bit repetitive and dull.
But I guess these games are always a bit repetitive and dull, so it's fine.
Shinan
4314
I mean they are repetitive and dull. But they also tap into the "just one more turn" as you have long term goals that finish at different times, meaning there's always the "Okay, so I just need to get this done and then..."
So I guess you could also look at Civilization for inspiration...
So I guess you could also look at Civilization for inspiration...
author=Kylaila
They are great examples, but not on PC and not available for cheap, sadly.
I think you have a huge misconception about what a PC can and cannot do.
(And technically legal provided you own the actual game.)
author=kory_toombsauthor=Kylaila
They are great examples, but not on PC and not available for cheap, sadly.
I think you have a huge misconception about what a PC can and cannot do.
(And technically legal provided you own the actual game.)
P3 onwards will be harder to get that way, and aren't cheap to get on the respective consoles if you want to rip 'em. What's your point?
I don't commend pirating or emulating available licensed games you don't own, and clearly calunio is open to buying some cheap games.
And it's a derail-train now. Sheesh, though.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Maybe some of these are too obvious of suggestions, and others aren't perfect fits for what you're asking, but:
Princess Maker (duh)
Fantasy Football (lol, but seriously, think about it)
HunieCam Studio
Recettear
Harvest Moon
Game Dev Tycoon
I think there's a whole tiny genre of games that are based on Princess Maker. Here's a short list of a few of them.
I've probably played a dozen or so terrible dating sims that had mechanics like what you're talking about, but none of them were actually any fun. They all just had super-dumbed-down versions of the gameplay from Princess Maker, basically. I can't even think of any of their names. The only noteworthy thing I can think of to mention about them is that most of them were web-based games where one day was literally one day, and you had to come back and play each day to get another time unit to spend.
Even though I can't name a single game that does this, I would suggest looking at the base building mechanics from real-time strategy games like Starcraft as a possible source of inspiration. I legitimately think that the base-building model of RTS games would be a really good model for parts of the gameplay in a life sim. You have several different types of resources that you can spend time gathering, and then you have a bunch of buildings, rooms, or skillsets that you can create and upgrade using those resources, and the upgrades affect different things. The newer X-Com games imported this mechanic into an RPG, and so did Darkest Dungeon. I really think you could import it into a dating sim just as easily. You would need enough other aspects to your gameplay to have a good variety of things to upgrade, though. Otherwise it just turns into AdVenture Capitalist where every upgrade gives you the same benefit and the only difference is how the math works.
Princess Maker (duh)
Fantasy Football (lol, but seriously, think about it)
HunieCam Studio
Recettear
Harvest Moon
Game Dev Tycoon
I think there's a whole tiny genre of games that are based on Princess Maker. Here's a short list of a few of them.
I've probably played a dozen or so terrible dating sims that had mechanics like what you're talking about, but none of them were actually any fun. They all just had super-dumbed-down versions of the gameplay from Princess Maker, basically. I can't even think of any of their names. The only noteworthy thing I can think of to mention about them is that most of them were web-based games where one day was literally one day, and you had to come back and play each day to get another time unit to spend.
Even though I can't name a single game that does this, I would suggest looking at the base building mechanics from real-time strategy games like Starcraft as a possible source of inspiration. I legitimately think that the base-building model of RTS games would be a really good model for parts of the gameplay in a life sim. You have several different types of resources that you can spend time gathering, and then you have a bunch of buildings, rooms, or skillsets that you can create and upgrade using those resources, and the upgrades affect different things. The newer X-Com games imported this mechanic into an RPG, and so did Darkest Dungeon. I really think you could import it into a dating sim just as easily. You would need enough other aspects to your gameplay to have a good variety of things to upgrade, though. Otherwise it just turns into AdVenture Capitalist where every upgrade gives you the same benefit and the only difference is how the math works.
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