Project Highrise - Skyscraper Construction & Management Sim

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:25 am

I just pre-ordered Project Highrise on Steam, 10% off. It reminds me of SimTower and Yoot Tower and I'm willing to give it a try. Here's some blurbs from the store page:

About This Game

Your job as the architect and developer is to build world-famous skyscrapers that will be the envy of the entire city, masterpieces of art and engineering. But a skyscraper is more than just steel and glass, it’s an intricate ecosystem, full of people that live and work in the building. They become a complex machine that needs your steady hand to keep it running smoothly and efficiently.

From the moment you break ground, every decision rests with you. As the architect you must coordinate the construction of everything - every wall and wire, every office and apartment. As the building owner you must keep your tenants happy - and paying rent on time. As a savvy developer you must keep an eye on the bottom line and invest in the future. Succeed and you will reap the rewards of a prestigious address where everyone will clamor to live and work. Fail and you will watch tenants leave in disgust, taking their business elsewhere and leaving your reputation in tatters.

Will you create an exclusive office highrise that attracts business leaders from around the world? Will you construct luxury apartments in the sky, penthouses for the elite and playgrounds for the famous? Perhaps greed will get the better of you and you’ll build a tenement building that trades tenant happiness for loads of cash? All these choices and more are yours. Success is entirely in your hands.

Features
Deep and complex simulation of a modern skyscraper.

Huge variety of tenants with their own unique characteristics, from restaurants, to offices, retail stores, or residential apartments.

Open sandbox play with several difficulty levels and starting conditions allowing you to build your dream skyscraper towering above the surrounding city.

Campaign mode that tests your skill at building a successful highrise in challenging scenarios.

Test your management mettle by keeping up with your buildings diverse population and their ever-increasing demands.

Hire specialized consultants to increase your building's curb appeal, operational efficiency, and pull with city hall.

The developer is SomaSim, who did 1849. This is 2D rather than 3D like 1849, but from the store page images and video you can get an idea of how this works. Also there's an in-depth Let's Play here, it's pretty good except for the narrator's voice

There's an FAQ for further info. A couple of things I like about the game so far; it will have Steam Workshop support, and it's not being released as Early Access.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:29 am

Ill take a look at it. Ive been craving a new manager / building sim. Ive reinstalled Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Theme Hospital, and Cities Skylines in the last week. But I want other stuff. Stuff like restaurant sim, arena sim, and more than anything a good arcade sim where I build and run an old 70s/80s arcade. I found ArcadeCraft but it has some stupid ass decisions the devs made in it.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:32 am

Here's a better Let's Play, actually the first of four videos. The guy's voice is less annoying.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:45 am

Daehawk wrote:Ive been craving a new manager / building sim.

Me too. I've got some older games but I'm wanting to try something new. From what I've seen on the Let's Play videos, there's a lot to do in the game, which is important. I like sims where you not only build something but you have to operate it, trying to be profitable and also efficient. My problem with City Skylines is that I feel like it's too easy to just sit back and let it run; I really want to be encouraged (forced?) to be more hands-on to keep things running smoothly.

I've imagined a number of sims I might like. One of my more interesting ones is where you have to design and build an ocean liner, then sell tickets, get vendors and passengers aboard, hire staff and then sail it from port to port. During this you have to deal with bad weather, political problems (you get held up by customs or get stopped by foreign navies) and the changing tastes of your customers. It wouldn't be a totally accurate sim regarding true life, instead focusing on the adventure of running a floating business...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Project Highrise. I'll post here when I get some impressions, but I just wanted to let folks know about that 10% off pre-order just in case they are interested.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:52 am

Lately I've become a fan of Vince's videos. He's clear, concise, goes through the learning process, and seems to get his mitts on a bunch of games ahead of everyone else (or at least gets the videos up first).

But back on topic, I'm very interested but am approaching with caution because Kalypso.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:17 am

tgb wrote:But back on topic, I'm very interested but am approaching with caution because Kalypso.

According to Steam, the publisher is Kasedo Games, developer is SomaSim.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:20 am

Thanks for the heads up! I'll be keeping an eye on impressions & reviews.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:59 am

jztemple2 wrote:
tgb wrote:But back on topic, I'm very interested but am approaching with caution because Kalypso.
According to Steam, the publisher is Kasedo Games, developer is SomaSim.

I must have mis-read it. I'm not familiar with the publisher so I'm still a bit cautious.

Victoria Raverna · Post by **Victoria Raverna** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:05 pm

jztemple2 wrote:
tgb wrote:But back on topic, I'm very interested but am approaching with caution because Kalypso.
According to Steam, the publisher is Kasedo Games, developer is SomaSim.

At the bottom of the store page for the game in smaller font:

Kasedo Games is a division of Kalypso Media Group. Kasedo Games copyright © 2016 Kalypso Media Group
All rights reserved. All other logos, copyrights and trademarks are property of their respective owner.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:28 pm

Whatsamatta with Kalypso? I thought their games were generally well received, even if I only have enjoyed a few of them.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 1:27 pm

LordMortis wrote:Whatsamatta with Kalypso? I thought their games were generally well received, even if I only have enjoyed a few of them.

Their games generally fall into the "mediocre-to-OK" range. Sometimes they release the same game over and over (Tropico 3-5, Patrician series), sometimes they have good ideas that never rise above the mundane (Omerta, Grand Ages:Medieval). Sometimes they'll put out any old piece of shit (Disciples III).

They don't necessarily sink to the "Danger, Will Robinson" level of a publisher like Focus, but they haven't released a first-class title either, and they have a big catalogue.

I'm just saying that based on their track record, wait-and-see is the best approach to take with Kalypso releases.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 2:40 pm

tgb wrote:I'm just saying that based on their track record, wait-and-see is the best approach to take with Kalypso releases.

Challenge accepted!

I should be posting my first impressions next Thursday.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:37 pm

It sounds like this game needs a J.G. Ballard mode!

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 11:56 pm

Just a bit of news before the game is released tomorrow. The developer has posted information on how to mod in Project Highrise. Basically they point you to this page which includes tutorials, assets, templates and reference charts. Mods for the game will be available through Steam Workshop.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:04 am

Lazy Game reviews has put his take of it up. generally positive. He is a huge fan of Maxis games.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:11 am

Over at the OpenCritic page for the game, right now there are four reviews, two with scores. Gaming Trend gives it a 90/100 and says "For the curious and the creative, brimming with replay value, and fairly priced, Project Highrise is the game that SimTower should’ve been". Meantime, GameWatcher gives it a 6.5/10, noting "Project Highrise takes obvious inspiration from a cult classic, but struggles to build compelling mechanics around a proven concept. Constructing a tower still offers its own simple pleasure, but there’s not enough depth here to keep you building a skyline’s worth of high-rises". Or in other words, one man's treasure is another man's trash.

Impressions coming in about 15 hours....

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:33 am

Oops, just noticed this. If you are a Green Man Gaming VIP (in other words, you have an account there), you can get Project Highrise for 19% off, rather than the 10% off that Steam is offering till 1pm EDT on Friday. I could have saved myself an extra $1.70 USD

. As usual for GMG, there is no indication how long this sale will last, probably till they run out of keys. Again, I haven't looked at the game myself, so it's still a pig in a poke right now. But you can get it a bit cheaper at GMG rather than Steam should you desire to.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 2:07 am

I've been watching this as I said I would, and I'm a bit more optimistic. Still on the fence though, and I think I'd rather have the option of a refund available than saving a couple of bucks

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 2:26 am

tgb wrote:I've been watching this as I said I would, and I'm a bit more optimistic. Still on the fence though, and I think I'd rather have the option of a refund available than saving a couple of bucks

That's a good point. I think this game is a bit of a Rorschach test from the reviews I've seen; some people think it doesn't have enough complexity, others have said it is too difficult, still others think it has enough complexity without being too difficult. At least it would seem that within two hours of gameplay you'll be able to have a good idea of whether you'll like it or not.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 6:30 am

I haven't watched the video yet, but James Allen over at outofeight seems to like it a lot, and I agree with him more than I disagree. Resolve fading fast.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 9:20 am

That GMG discount puts it into impulse buy territory as well as 'I won't shed any tears if I only get 5-6 hours out of it' territory so I'll be biting on it. I'll try and post some impressions later today.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 11:39 am

My early impression is pretty good. So far my only two complaints are that there doesn't appear to be an undo button if I misplace something (other than bulldozing it?) and that the construction workers look like they're going to a back wall to masturbate when I have the game on high speed and they're building something.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:07 pm

wonderpug wrote: the construction workers look like they're going to a back wall to masturbate when I have the game on high speed and they're building something.

Sold.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:32 pm

tgb wrote:
wonderpug wrote: the construction workers look like they're going to a back wall to masturbate when I have the game on high speed and they're building something.
Sold.

Found hepcat's alt.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:43 pm

Got the game and installed it. I noticed that I didn't get the pre-order bonus of the different menu background, the developers are aware of this issue (apparently no one got the bonus) and they are working on it. The game is a bit over 300 MB, which is nice. The graphics are nice and pleasing and looks very retro; I think the developers said they were going for a 1950-60s feel, hence no internet hook-ups or cell phones.

It took me 22 minutes to get through the five tutorials. The UI seems pretty logical and you can mouse-over items for more info. I'm going to try a scenario or two right now.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 1:42 pm

Fifty-four minutes into the game, which means I'm 32 minutes into my first scenario. Here are the objectives:

And here's the building (click image to enlarge):

The building is losing money, $2,345 a day, and I've only got $15,000 cash. Using the various overlays available, I'm finding that the four food locations are losing money because they are grimy and they think they are playing too much rent. I agree, so I focus my maintenance staff on them and also lower their rents 25%. You can alter rents globally by store/office/apartment type or by each individual unit.

I now have enough prestige, due to my 40 tenants and the artwork mural in the lobby, to open a medium restaurant. Problem is, that size restaurant needs a water feed and a trash bin on the same floor. Since I don't have a water system in the building yet, I have to add an additional bit of structure on the back of the building to provide room for water piping and meters:

The new restaurant is a hit and it is generating Buzz. Buzz is a currency in the game which when spent gives you a boost in things like visitor attendance to shops or restaurants or maybe getting a vendor to put up signs for free that will generate you some income.

The scenario is rated easy, but it's no pushover. It will take some thoughtful planning to improve things without going negative on cash flow.

Overall so far I'm pretty pleased with the game. It's early days but so far there are no red flags with performance or game design. More impressions to come.

Oh, and we are having a bit of a situation in one of the elevator cars:

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 2:56 pm

Boughtened.

Incidentally, I was still able to get it at GMG for $16.29. Don't know how long that price will be up.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 3:34 pm

Admittedly I haven't played the tutorial yet, but I took a quick look at the sandbox and have a couple of questions and might possibly have found a bug.

1) Given two companies with the same requirements that do the same thing, is there any reason not to select the one willing to pay the most rent?

2) Is there a way to change the direction of the stairs? I had to add a sublevel to make room for a copy center, and after placing the stairs, the worker was facing the wrong way and was stuck (I kept getting the message "I can't get where I'm going".

The bug is that the other worker on another floor stopped working and gave me the same message.

I have to admit, other than that I like what I see so far.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 3:38 pm

I've been watching the YouTube videos of how to play. I bought it based on that. The guy narrating was a little too hyper tho.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 4:05 pm

tgb wrote:Admittedly I haven't played the tutorial yet, but I took a quick look at the sandbox and have a couple of questions and might possibly have found a bug.

1) Given two companies with the same requirements that do the same thing, is there any reason not to select the one willing to pay the most rent?

2) Is there a way to change the direction of the stairs? I had to add a sublevel to make room for a copy center, and after placing the stairs, the worker was facing the wrong way and was stuck (I kept getting the message "I can't get where I'm going".

The bug is that the other worker on another floor stopped working and gave me the same message.

I have to admit, other than that I like what I see so far.

For 1), there isn't any reason not to select the one that pays more rent.

For 2), that sounds like a bug. There's already a bug subforum, you should report it there.

I'm a couple of hours in and still working on that first scenario. I can see how one review said the game was too difficult. To achieve the revenue and population goals I have to get more tenants, but I can't simply add more simple offices and stores, since from what I'm seeing, too many of the same thing tends to cut down on the business income to those places, with the result that they become unhappy. So I have been adding medium offices, but they start needing things like janitorial, water bottle and other services. Also the dentist I added to the fifth floor needs piped in water, which means I had to add water closets (not the WCs the Brits think of) to each floor going to that office, so I can lay pipes.

This game reminds me a lot of Prison Architect. Poor planning on early layout will cost you later on. So far, about an hour and a half on my scenario, I've avoided a loan, but I'm to the point of needing to build some apartments and it's going to take some cash.

The game definitely is fun if you like these building and management sims. It does require planning and money management, but it doesn't seem like it will be tedious, since everything like offices, stores and restaurants have increasing needs the larger they get and it's getting those services to them without breaking the bank that's the challenge.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:14 pm

It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong, and I'm nothing if not big

.

So far this has it's hooks in me in a major way. For some reason I never played Sim Tower, so this is all new to me. The little goals you can set by taking government "contracts" are a nice touch and keep you on track. I've only barely begun a sandbox game, but so far profitability isn't an issue.

Speaking of which, it's not enough that you turn a profit, you have to make sure your commercial tenants like restaurants are also, or they will move out.

My one complaint is sometimes the animation just stops, and the clock keeps moving but everything else seems frozen. I have a feeling the fault isn't with the game but with the fact that my processor is below the minimum spec.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:55 pm

I like that Archer elevator

I wonder if someone could mod the people in the buildings to look like Archer folk and Sealab? Loved Sealab.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 12:30 am

tgb wrote:
wonderpug wrote: the construction workers look like they're going to a back wall to masturbate when I have the game on high speed and they're building something.
Sold.

Thanks alot, it's all I see now

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 12:33 am

I finished the scenario "Neighborhood Revitalization" in just about seven hours. And it was a lot of fun

. Here are the medals:

The game design is such that to build the high end apartment type you need to not only have built examples of the lesser types, but you also need to have built a variety of stores, restaurants and services. And the game doesn't spell out some of the items you need, it just says you need "a greater variety" of, for instance, stores that sell food and groceries or ones that sell housewares and appliances. And you'll also need a greater variety of cakes

. So it's more than just connect the dots, which is fine. I did post a suggestion on the Steam forum that there ought to be a way to highlight the different sizes and types of stores/offices/restaurants or at least put that information on the ADA/360 report (which, btw, is sortable).

The game does hit a Goldilocks spot for me; it's not too easy or repetitive in the build process that you become bored, or too hard and brittle so that if you make an early mistake your scenario is doomed. I ran into an issue where I had built services such that I had a negative cash flow and couldn't take out any more loans; I assumed I was cooked. But by fiddling with rents and adding some tenants I got over the hump and went back to a positive cash flow. It speaks well of the game that it wasn't till the sixth of the seven hours it took me to play it to completion that I had so much money rolling in that I could quit having to carefully monitor my expenses every day.

I'm looking forward to starting another scenario. Post any questions you may have.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:43 am

Retail stores demand a storeroom with an empty bay. I must be blind, but I can't find storerooms anywhere in the support menu for either businesses or apartments. I see a menu item that says "file storage", but that can't be what they mean, can it?

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:51 am

tgb wrote:Retail stores demand a storeroom with an empty bay. I must be blind, but I can't find storerooms anywhere in the support menu for either businesses or apartments. I see a menu item that says "file storage", but that can't be what they mean, can it?

It's under the Construction button. The default tab is for building new floors, but further to the right there's a tab for the retail storeroom. Took me a bit to figure out trash services were hiding there, too. That also seems more like a support service than a 'construction'.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:51 am

Thanks.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 11:15 am

Picked this up last night and mostly enjoying it so far.

Only real complaints I have so far are mostly UI related... trash being under infrastructure, as mentioned, is a little odd, and among other little issues I can't find a way to see what the different room sub types (i.e. deluxe studio, lawyer's office) require without building the initial placeholder room. It's also not really clear until you build something what makes them happy/unhappy. For instance I built a number of deluxe studio apartments, but seemingly had no way of knowing until they started complaining that they were too close to some food shops and apparently it's too noisy where they live, although I can't seem to find the source of the noise.

I also noticed lots of the housing units desire being on the upper floors of the building. How do people handle that as your tower grows? Just ignore that requirement? Wait until you've built a taller tower to start adding housing? Periodically relocate housing higher in the building?

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 11:25 am

Sepiche wrote:Only real complaints I have so far are mostly UI related... trash being under infrastructure, as mentioned, is a little odd, and among other little issues I can't find a way to see what the different room sub types (i.e. deluxe studio, lawyer's office) require without building the initial placeholder room. It's also not really clear until you build something what makes them happy/unhappy. For instance I built a number of deluxe studio apartments, but seemingly had no way of knowing until they started complaining that they were too close to some food shops and apparently it's too noisy where they live, although I can't seem to find the source of the noise.

Have you held your mouse over the room type before clicking it to buy? When I do that I get a pop-up that shows likes and dislikes, things like they don't like smells and prefer living higher up.

Sepiche wrote:I also noticed lots of the housing units desire being on the upper floors of the building. How do people handle that as your tower grows? Just ignore that requirement? Wait until you've built a taller tower to start adding housing? Periodically relocate housing higher in the building?

I've only done one scenario but in there I held off building apartments till I'd gotten it about ten stories high and filled those stories with restaurants, offices and stores. Those tenants prefer being lower down so it worked out OK. Also a dislike is not an absolute, the tenant will be unhappy but that doesn't mean they will move out; you can always compensate by lowering the rent.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 4:37 pm

A few more items...

I've started another Easy scenario, The Merchandise Mart. This one seeks to recreate the concept of Chicago's Merchandise Mart, a not very tall but very wide building with a focus on stores and offices. I've noted that the contracts for this scenario are different than the ones for the first scenario I played, Neighborhood Diversification. That's pretty cool, since it helps focus the player on what to do earlier in the scenario when you might be sure of what to build next. For this reason I would suggest that new players do a couple of scenarios first, rather than jumping into the sandbox mode.

Also the first community guide has been posted with lots of info on the sizes of tenants and other rooms in the game. If you are the type who hates to waste a single space packing in the tenants, the guide should be of help.

Also some Steam Workshop items have shown up. Remember if you do subscribe to a mod, you must also activate it in the Mod menu, found under the main menu of the game. Here is Van Gogh's Starry Night in my lobby... it does look a bit large, but it's free!