Homebrewing video game in development
 

UPDATE Feb 08:
Hey everyone, just posting again to let you all know that the game is coming along great and we launched a Kickstarter campaign for the game today. If you visit the page, you can learn a little more about me and my co-developer, and about the game. Please check it out and tell your friends if you think they'd be interested.

Fiz: The Brewery Management Game Kickstarter.

If you're unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it's a way for project creators to raise funding from fans of the project. It gives donors (known as backers) the chance to take part in creating something, usually in exchange for rewards of some type. In our case, we have t shirts, drink coasters, and special in game items. If you're feeling really spendy, you can even design recipes or marketplaces to be included in the game for all to see. The best part about Kickstarter is that if the funding goal for a project is not met within its timeline, then no funding is received, which means you don't get charged anything. This is nice because you can "pledge" funding to a project and not have to worry about throwing your money away if the project creator doesn't get the minimum amount of funds they needed to go forward.


(short version: I'm making a game about brewing beer and want to know if anyone is interested in hearing about it / offering me feedback)

Long version:

Hey all,

My name is Sean, I'm a professional video game developer (by trade) and beer lover (by hobby) and back in May I decided to leave my previous studio job in order to strike out on my own and make my own games. Since then I've been working on a game idea I've had for awhile, in which you play a homebrewer who has decided to quit his/her job and run a brewery full time (its semi auto-biographical) :)

I'm writing here because it's far enough along now that I feel comfortable showing it to others, and I'm hoping people might have some interest in previewing the game's design (and eventually the game itself) and perhaps offering me feedback. I've developed the game with homebrewers and beer lovers in mind, while at the same time trying to keep things accessible for people who might be interested in beer but not know much (or anything) about brewing itself.

So this is just a litmus test to see if anyone has interest. If you are curious about the game, I think it would be fun to be able to bounce ideas off the community in order to create a more enjoyable game for everyone. I'm happy to discuss any aspect of the game and its systems, like how you actually make recipes and get ingredients. If people are into it enough, I could even post weekly progress updates or something. And of course if no one wants to hear about this, I'll shut up about it and participate in other conversations normally :D

The game's prototype name is Fiz. Here are a few screenshots:

http://bitbybitstudios.com/misc/Capture.JPG

http://bitbybitstudios.com/misc/Capture2.JPG

http://bitbybitstudios.com/misc/Capture3.JPG

Please let me know if there are any questions! I'm happy to talk about systems design, recipe editing, more about me, favorite beer, how the game came about, etc.

Thanks!

That is really cool, and I'd love to try it out when it gets to that stage. Is your goal more or less to make as much money as you can in your brewery and the game continues indefinitely, or is there some sort of other end game?

What environment are you building the game in?

I'm sure you don't want to gear this towards the homebrewer. We can't agree on a process and would find fault in whatever options you choose. That said i would definitely offer input and play the game.

Hey shanecb, thanks!

This is one decision I haven't yet settled on. Right now, the game ends after 20 years game time, which works out to about 2 hours if you never pause the game (though you'll likely pause when building recipes, hiring employees, etc.). After the game ends, you get a score based on how much lifetime profit you've made. You then are able to pass your brewery "down a generation" and start the game over, except this time with all of your previous equipment, recipes, and employees starting with you at the beginning.

The idea is that with these improved starting prospects, you're able to progress further in the 2nd playthrough than you were in the first. You might be able to afford new items or recipes that you couldn't afford the first time, or negotiate deals with more lucrative marketplaces to sell your beer at, thus making more profit on each subsequent playthrough.

I'm considering a few other options or modifications though. One idea is that you aren't forced to end the game at 20 years, and you can simply continue on if you want, and you can also "pass down to the next generation" any time you want afterward. I could have separate leaderboards for highest profit achieved in 20 years, and highest profit achieved overall if this were the case. Then players could choose.

The other idea I have is adding some narrative to the game via an "ultimate quest", which is "The Search for the Brewprint". The Brewprint is a mythical recipe that will slay a dragon / save the princess / rescue the president, etc. You don't know what the ingredients are, but as you go along and win various brewing competitions, you gain more pieces of the puzzle. The game would then end as you completed the Brewprint and brewed the resulting beer.

What do you think of those?

I'm building in Unity, and currently plan on releasing it for iOS and Android. If there's enough interest in those I'd make a PC/Mac/Linux version as well.

Haha! Well that is part of both game development and beer brewing, I suppose. Especially from shipping previous games, I know it's not possible to please everyone. I'd still love to hear anyone's negative or positive opinions about things, and I've had some good feedback from my local homebrewing community (Eugene, OR). Thanks for your interest, I'm thinking I'll keep people posted for sure :)

If you make it, will they buy it (the beer)? Can you make bad beer, people won't buy?

Is there some kind of advertising, distribution, marketing aspect of the game? That might be a good generation thing. Start Local, then State , Then Region, national, international

It sounds like a very nice smartphone/tablet game.

I'm in

I love video games; I love beer. I feel like video games about beer is an "untapped" market (get it? lolzolzolzolzolzolz).




Feel free to use that.

Cool idea. I'd try it out.

I like the "brewprint" name, but not necesarily the idea of saving a princess or whatever.

I'd like it to be more realistic than fairy-tale, so that I can live out my real-life dreams in a video game. :rockin: More Sims-like instead of Farmville, or whatever.