Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab Forum

Is Trevor Chan still at enlight and is he working on this particular project?

Yes, Trevor Chan is still the sole designer of the entire Capitalism series, including the latest Capitalism Lab.

He focuses on the design and other tasks of running the company. (As a side note, my role is to handle the marketing, PR, web sites, and user communities of all Enlight products and communicate with the development teams to get the latest product info and details.)

I have also a question.

How many are you ? Just the two of you ? And of what are you living ? I don't know, but enlight games don't seem to me very widespread, so perhaps you are doing all this only part time, or is it more profitable than it seems ?

We also have a team working on an original online business sim game for the Facebook platform and potentially for the BigPoint platform. We have been working on this online game for more than one year and we plan to announce it later this year.

Capitalism Lab is an ongoing project and is experimental in nature, as stated before. Trevor Chan has some new game concepts in mind which he may experiment with in Capitalism Lab in the near future. Some of which might widen the game's appeal and user base.

If any of you have any suggestions for widening the game's user base, you may also post here, as Trevor does read this forum on a regular basis.

Great to hear that trevor is still onboard too.

As for widening the user base for capitalism lab, I can think of two possible pathways.
1) If its to reach the general public, I would have to suggest promotion in a gateway such as Steam (despite my resistance to it) or Gamersgate. However your pricing model will affect how you will be able to use these services. Since Steam provides free updates to its members, as opposed to a subscription based model that you are pursuing, a DLC option would be the only way to go, however that would not be the best way to update/patch a game. So further investigation may be required on your part.

2) The second suggestion is to promote the game to educational institutions. However for this to work, they will need one of two components. Either a multiplayer component (Which you have voiced that you are not currently looking at), or much more control over the random elements of the game (Triggered events, etc) which would need some sort of scenario editor to be viable. A scenario editor would also allow members to make and post their own scenarios, prolonging the life of a game such as this.

I'm so glad that Trevor is still there, the guys a genius. The Cap series has really shown off programming and also deep financial / capitalist knowledge but also made a game thats fun and educational. Thats almost impossible to do.

I think that games like this are fairly niche and only suit certain peoples. Mwyeoh suggestions are spot on. I would add to those comments that maybe advertising within Finance magazines and getting a financial magazine with global coverage to review it as a simulator may help. But if you work all day in the financial markets would you then want to play a game about the same thing?

Perhaps making a cutdown version so small businesses could use it again as a simulator maybe a way forward. But this game maybe a victim of it's own success. Cap is so vast and covers so many industrys it maybe too light within the subject that it covers ( my comment dosen't include the financial aspect of the game, Just the industry element ). For example theres a game been made by some guys in AUS (automationgame.com) there making a car company simulator and it's very, very detailed in that one particular industry. Whilst cap covers engines and cars ect Automation covers the design of the car all the way down to the components in the engine. I'm in no way critising my favortite business game, i'm just making a point that those that like the car industry are more likely to swing to that rather than wanting to use CAP 2 / CAP Lab for the same thing.

I think the junior education side of things would be the best market personally, but selling to there parents first. Basically saying "look let your kids play my game they'll have great fun but learn lots too and it's a totally safe enviroment for them to challenge themselves" Whilst selling to the kids as a game where parents let them play and have fun, and also play against your parents / friends to show off your business acumin to them. My son and daughter will be playing this game thats for certain, as I look forward to beating them untill they beat me, then the real world will have to watch out.

Everywhere i've read so far it's generally accepted that Cap 2 is accepted as the best business sim on the market and no one has come close, and I don't think they will.
Would this game have more popularity on facebook, iphone, ipad unclear. I think facebook will broaden the game and make people aware of it and even play it but it's a game that requires hours of commitment so I wonder if it would be more succesfull.

There are online games that are no where near as good as CAP 2 but there already in the market now and offer war aswell which increase's appeal. Perhaps if you could use CAP LAB in conjunction with other games it would certainly broaden the user base. ie When working on the car side of this, it launches the game I mentioned above ect and then you do all of the car bits and bobs then come back in to CAPLAB to sell it as normal. That could work but it's lots of time and money and paternerships ect.

I personally wouldn't always view games on the amount that they sell, games like civilization which is another favorite of mine is brilliant but it really lacks in content across the board. Yes it has economics, war, creation ect but it's so light in content that I still have to play a real war game and a real business sim ect to get real satisfaction.

For me ,There's 3 types of gamers. ones that like the full involvement of a game ie CAP2, those that like just playing a a game ie Call of duty and those that want to kill minutes ie angry birds. And Angry birds makes more money from merchandise its game. I've never even played the game but i've seen the t-shirts in my local super market.

I'm very intrested in your findings as I want to create my own game on the iphone/ipad platform and have considered the exact same questions that you pose.

Most importantly from my point of view. Don't rush Cap lab, listern to your exisiting users but don't get to bullied by them, make the game solid and crash free, allow for future updates via the net, use the time demos as you have before and have ways of feedback from the game. As not everyone uses forums, facebook, emails ect.

Word of mouth may in the end be the best marketing / advertising tool that you have and need. Facebook ect could well be your greatest tool, but one that could also end the project if the game isn't complete and not tested 100%. As news on social media can spiral from hundreds to millions in minutes.

A final note I remember that there was a viral thing for Rick Ashley that made a killing, Have you thought of a Viral that could lead to your game? I haven't a clue about virals and stuff, so i've no idea if it's used for games or wether it's just for videos and music.

Hope i've managed to help in some way, and again apologies for my spelling.
P.s. Thanks for answering my post aswell.

One more question. Reading on the capitalism 2 website you have acknowledgements from Harvard ect which is fantastic, Are you able to expand on this to other instituitions in other countrys. If you could get Camberidge and Oxford here in the UK on board it would be another acknowledge that you deserve. If you were interested in the UK institutions, I certainly would love to help in anyway that I can, and would look at the Universitys in the UK to find the ones that offer the grad courses that the FTSE industies go after and the ones that are recognised across my country.

Another thought on that is, that in the UK we have a freshers week, normally used by students to get drunk when they first join there university but they do have packs ect for students. If you could perhaps have a cd / memory pen with a demo on or at least a pamphlet of your game from the information that you have on the internet stating the educational use of the game. It may help spread the word and would be a cheap marketing oppertunity. Its' just a thought like I said. Get back to me if you want help in the UK on anything, i'm glad to help in anyway and where I can.

One more question. Reading on the capitalism 2 website you have acknowledgements from Harvard ect which is fantastic, Are you able to expand on this to other instituitions in other countrys. If you could get Camberidge and Oxford here in the UK on board it would be another acknowledge that you deserve. If you were interested in the UK institutions, I certainly would love to help in anyway that I can, and would look at the Universitys in the UK to find the ones that offer the grad courses that the FTSE industies go after and the ones that are recognised across my country.

Another thought on that is, that in the UK we have a freshers week, normally used by students to get drunk when they first join there university but they do have packs ect for students. If you could perhaps have a cd / memory pen with a demo on or at least a pamphlet of your game from the information that you have on the internet stating the educational use of the game. It may help spread the word and would be a cheap marketing oppertunity. Its' just a thought like I said. Get back to me if you want help in the UK on anything, i'm glad to help in anyway and where I can.