Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab Forum

Apologies, if I come across noobish, for I am new to Capitalism II.

I am currently studying investmant/finances and I love games.
After scouring the internet for 3 days or so - searching for a true investmant/finance sim, I finally come across this gem. Capitalism II should had been the "first" proprogated result on Google. Unfortunately, it was not. A shame, that when searching for "investment/finance sims" lots of other BS games come up - making this one hard to find. I had to dig deep into google before I ran into Capitalism II.

This Sim is beyond amazing, going off the youtube video playthroughs I have watched.

What amazes me more...

Namco/Bandai releases Soul Calibur (the dreamcast version - improved via graphics and frame rates for iOS) sold wonderfully.

The Logic Factory revive Ascendancy 4x game from 90's PC era, spruces it up slightly, now it's a iOS classic, sold very well alongside high recognition by apple themselves on the editor choice page (brining the app developers even more revenue and recognition).

Countless classics from different genres get refreshed, ported and do very well on iOS. I can see Capitalism II receiving even more accolades, attention from journalists because of what this sim stands for - don't just play games, but learn while you play.

Now here we are, 2015, and this genius of a Dev: Trevor Chan, sits on a actual land-mine "Capitalism II" and he's not letting it explode outside of the PC platform? Nil!


It boggles my mind why Trevor Chan hasn't released this classic for current smart devices? (Leaving the game tethered to Laptop/PC only) Why? Why would you do that to yourself? and to this gem?

Dear Trevor Chan,
Do you not want to introduce this series to a new generation? Do you not want to allow it to flourish past PC/Laptop realm? Because, we would appreciate you with our wallets. I own only Tablet/Smart phone (because I can handle all my needs with them) I will not purchase a laptop/PC just for a game.

All that said, this is my sole reason for registering to this forum, a plea, to Trevor Chan to release this gift for iOS as a universal app with playability on both iPhone/iPad also for my Android brethren and their devices.

I hope this reaches you. Thanks for reading.

I know it can be run via virtual machine inside iOS, but keyboard mapping is something you need to figure out.

Android version, probably need to have a touch-screen friendly UI first, (I can run it on a Win 8 tablet though).

Also, it'll slow down pretty hard and consume your battery quickly.

Many different AI all figuring out how to exploit each other is not CPU-friendly.

I was looking for an Android game similar to Capitalism with no luck, and I've ended up here. Most business/management games for android are cr*p, nothing like the good old Capitalism.

So I've tried to run the original Capitalism Plus with Dosbox Turbo on Android. It's a weird thing, it only runs once after installation, and then I get a black screen. It's a little slow on my dual-core phone (newer quad or octa core SOCs should do it better). But it's obvious that such a small screen is not optimal to play the game, because of the size of the text and the cursor. Of course, a native version would be ideal. Also I think the 4X from Capitalism Plus would be better than the isometric perspective from the sequel, for touch interfaces. So, a direct port from that game should be very cost-effective.

I think the gameplay mechanism of having to set up business units on a format of 3x3 slots may be too complicated for a mobile game. Added to the fact that the Capitalism series was designed from the ground up to be a hard core business sim, it would be extremely difficult to gain sufficient sale momentum to propel itself onto the top selling chart, which is where visibility is being generated. Without visibility, it is really tough to run a sustainable business on the mobile game market.

So for the mobile market, it will actually require a new design and a new development effort as opposite to just porting Capitalism Plus / Capitalism 2 to mobile.

That's the main reason I totally HATE the "mobile market". By that rationale, turning Cap+ or Cap2 into a mobile game essentialy means to convert it to a mediocre game. Because I want to enjoy the same "hard core business sim" on my phone, instead of playing yet another mobile game like the sh**ty ones that plague the android store.

This article offers some insights of the current state of the mobile game market:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... -the-dream

At the end of the article, the developer concluded:

"I will definitely gear the next [game] around the PC or Mac," Dierckx says. "When you look at developers who have been successful in the last couple of years - and we're talking smaller, 5 to 25 headcount companies - at least in the Netherlands everyone who's actually earning decent money is making PC or console games. But definitely not a mobile game. And that's a shame, because it's such a nice gaming device. Everything about it feels right. Games play brilliantly on mobile. It makes so much sense to develop for it. Until you start looking at the numbers.

Maybe we need a simplified version, like a demo for mobile phone, which only has 1 class of retail product, a small size map with just one city, and only a few "AI competitors" (probably just 3 or 4). I think its doable.

Hi! I'm a long-lasting Capitalism II fan. I think this is a really important educational game. It would be wonderful, if people could play it in Android.

There is a proven good, XXI. century solution for your problems:

Kickstarter!

1. You can collect the starting fund. (Or even the whole cost of the Android porting project…)
2. You can start a working marketing campaign without actually develop even a prototype.
3. You will see (!) the actual demand, and the effectiveness of your actual marketing efforts.

Your worries about "going to the top seller list for visibility" in your case is a misconception: it's the worry of the beginners or the investors of new titles.

The porting of Capitalism for Android could be crowdfounded, any more selling is in the positive side...

Capitalism/II is already a Big Title among the serious gamers. It's "playing field" is not the Google Play top selling list. Even the primary target gamers are not those casual gamers who hang on the Top selling list!

The target market is not covering the tons of people who play Candy Crush Saga, but there is a vast amount of people who want play more serious games. Lots of people (e.g. young businessmen) have mobile phone who don’t find a proper game for themselves. This is a real niche market.

Sadly, hard to find serious games, because of the concerns of the developers: “we need invest lots of money to a sophisticated game engine, but we don’t know if it would be return…“

Capitalism is a proven good game. It even taught on Economics Universities… You should only care about the porting.

There is no such thing as “too complicated for a mobile game”. This is a fairly complicated simulation of the vastly complicated Life. This is the essence, the main value of this game. No more simplification needed. Don’t think “mobile games are only for kids or dumb/bored people”. Those are the same people who sitting in front of PCs. It was good in PC, it’s only the question of size and touch screen management what is differ. (After all, you can create an easier gaming mode for younger players too, if you like.)

Remember, Android has almost no cracking, "abandonware download" issues, it’s a clean platform, and spreading good games as easy as sending a link.

And this news would spread as bushfire...


What is I’m talking about is making this Unique Great Game available to the XXI. century world.


Man, you are sitting on a gold mine.


Kind Regards,
Gabor Madacs
IT Consultant

Here is the list of top paid mobile games:
https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/top-paid-games/

As you would see, paid mobile games generate far less revenue than freemium games.
Top grossing ones: https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/

It is an illusion that in general mobile games reach millions of potential customers and thus have much more sale potential than PC games. Sadly, this is only true for freemium games.

Having said that, it is still viable from the business point of view to create a paid mobile game with a low cost which will have a low breakeven point.

Would anybody be interested in seeing Enlight developing such mobile games (greatly simplified gameplay, low development cost, business sim genre, as a paid app for mobile market.) ?