This month, the focus was on the game world and making it alive. We also introduced crowds into the game.
Crowds
In our last devlog, we mentioned plans to enhance the racing scene in the upcoming update. We believe that the inclusion of crowds is a fantastic addition. They bring more life to the scene, and you can truly feel the excitement when a crowd is roaring. There are now five different crowd sizes.
Example of cheering crowd.
Game World Simulation and CPU strategies
The work on CPU strategies done this month included a lot of different tweaks under the hood. Currently, the functionality is roughly implemented, but balancing is needed. This also means that the game is pretty close to reaching a level where we can start to test long-time simulations and where one could theoretically play the game.
We say "theoretically" because even if the game world is moving, the player needs to be able to interact with it better. Once the interfaces are ready, a demo/playtest could be performed. We will inform more about this in the future, but from what we have read, playtesting is crucial to iron out bugs and, more importantly, to make the game enjoyable to play. This would probably bring other things, like a communication channel, probably Discord.
A comment was also made about more philosophical strategies for each stable, like preferring to buy ready top performers or developing them from foals themselves. We are not sure yet how this would be implemented, but it could be a good addition to give the stables some more "personality."
Some CPU strategies
- If low on funds, the CPU will first try to get a loan from the bank. If this is unsuccessful, it will start selling horses and firing staff, beginning with the least valuable horse/staff. If high on cash, it will start buying horses and hiring staff.
- The manager's skills also affect how well he/she is able to make deals. A manager capable of making good deals would have a cheaper overall wage bill than a manager who is poor at making deals.
- The CPU manager will also breed horses. First, it will check if any appropriate horses are owned, and if not, then look at the market. It will try to find a suitable partner that is on the same level.
- Depending on age, ability and health of horse, the CPU will adjust training. A very high-ability horse will be splurged on, while a horse with a low capability will not.
- The CPU stable manager will register the horse to an appropriate race, depending on its grade.
World Economics
Closely tied to the simulation and the CPU strategies is the functionality of loans, ratings, and liquidation.
Loans
The functionality for taking loans is now technically set up, and the CPU tries to obtain loans from the bank. The transactions system discussed in the last devlog serves as the framework for all these financial interactions. The implementation mirrors real-life scenarios where you have credit and debit accounts—if any accountant is reading this.
Ratings
When we mention attempts to secure loans, it's important to note that stable ratings in the game now range from AAA to D, modeling a corporate rating system like those in the real world. The rating considers the stable's income to expense ratio as well as assets to liabilities. Interestingly, this also allows us to measure the global economic rating and how balanced the simulated world is.
We conducted our first extended simulation for fun (just under two years) and noticed that the current game is unbalanced as expected. We tracked the average economic rating for each day in the game; you can see a visualization of it below. There is a clear downward trend, which is somewhat expected since all stables start as AAA. The distribution of stables' ratings is very skewed, and our goal is to achieve a normal distribution. Overall, the change is quite slow, and it would be interesting to see if the situation stabilizes after, say, ten years.
Around two-year simulation of the game world, a downward trend in the avg. economic rating.
Stables divided into economic ratings after the simulation. The results are highly skewed.
A one-year simulation (hands-off) takes around 30-40 minutes. This could be further optimized by moving some of the calculations directly to the database instead of performing them in the Godot game engine (to clarify, this is not a fault of the engine itself but rather suboptimal design on our part). Keep in mind that the game is designed to simulate day-to-day activities; currently, one day takes about 2-5 seconds to simulate depending on the workload, but we are hoping to improve this.
Liquidation
What happens when a stable does not have enough funds to continue, and the bank refuses to extend more credit? The answer is liquidation. The CPU will try to stay afloat by selling horses and laying off staff. However, if these measures fail, liquidation will begin. During liquidation, all staff are fired and horses are sold. Afterwards, the old stable becomes more of a shell. We have not yet decided whether we will remove these stables from the game after some time. Once a stable is liquidated, a new one will be generated.
One aspect still not in the game is a sort of free agent situation for horses—where no one wants to buy them but you want to get rid of them. Our likely solution is to introduce a “shelter stable,” where you can offload unwanted horses and also purchase horses cheaply that other stables have offloaded.
Always be closing
In Alec Baldwin's words, let's talk about something important... put that coffee down.
The functionality to list horses for sale and buy available horses is technically in the game now, although no interface exists yet. The CPU is using this feature to purchase and sell horses. In the next devlog, we hope to introduce the trading interface and our planned auction system. Currently, we're designing three different auction houses for various levels of auctions: high-end, medium, and inexpensive.
The auction scene will also be illustrated in pixel art. Although the game is heavily UI-based, we believe that transforming the auctions into an actual "event" rather than just another menu will add fun and variety.
What’s next
Our next update will likely focus on the interfaces in general, but more specifically, it will enhance the interfaces for buying and selling horses, the auction system, and the economic page of the stable. While we continue refining the CPU strategies, we expect the next update to be quite interface-heavy.
We have also decided to pursue a grant from IDGA Finland, the Finnish chapter of International Game Developers Association, a non-profit professional society dedicated to advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers. This grant would help cover the expenses of purchasing art for the game and provide us with professional feedback and advice. Even if the grant is denied, we will create a game design document and pitch deck, which will make future endeavors like this easier and help clarify our vision for the game’s look and feel.
We are continuously working to enhance Horse Racing Manager, and your feedback is invaluable. Don't forget to add Horse Racing Manager to your Steam wishlist! Your support is crucial for us and greatly appreciated.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2740170/Horse_Racing_Manager/