Hello, 👋

As I sit to write this episode about the game’s Events system, the words of Dale Carnegie come to mind. 🤔

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”

From the beginning, we knew that because of the nature of Business Heroes, the game ran the risk of being an overly serious management game.

And we certainly didn’t want that. 😒

So, we introduced the Events system to enhance your excitement and entertainment while playing the game.

You can think of it like the news media in real life. Except that the news it delivers is improbable to happen in real life.

As you grow your food truck business, you will have to adapt and make quick decisions in response to these very unrealistic events. 😆

Design & Implementation

We divided the events into two categories, Good and Bad. Each day, the system generates a random number 🔢 that determines the chances of an event occurring the following day. 🌄

Depending on the number, the outcome can be a good event, no event, or a bad event.

In general, the system leans towards good events. We did that because the goal of the system is enjoyment, not frustration.

The news section pops up whenever there’s a new event, and you can select your preferred news channel from three choices.

Your selection determines the category of event you get.

Each event spans from a minimum of 1 day to a maximum of 10 days. For example, the event below is a 50% sale on all Upgrades that will last for 1 day.

Both event categories have 5 levels each. These levels determine the effect and frequency of the event. A level 2 good event has less positive effects on your business compared to a level 5 event, and is likely to happen more frequently than a level 5 event.

The same is true for bad events.

We also designed the system in such a way that the probability of getting a Level 1 or 2 event is higher than that of levels 3, 4, and 5.

The image below shows that the probability of occurrence of a Level 1 good event is 26/40 as against 2/40 for a Level 4 good event.

The events cause a percentage increase or decrease in a wide range of statistics, all of which are listed below:

For displayed stats, you can always see the event effect and duration in their tooltips.

Events can range from a massive discount on upgrades to the Nation discovering a cure for cancer.

Here are a few examples:

If you have crazy ideas about other events we can add to the Events system, we’d love to read about them. 🕺

You can send in your ideas by responding to this email with them.

The events system is an exaggerated, gamified version of business reality designed to boost fun and enjoyment. We hope it adds to your overall experience of the game.

And that’s a wrap for today, Cheers 🥂

Don’t forget to Wishlist the game if you haven’t: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1429080/Business_Heroes_Food_Truck_Simulation/

Live Long and Prosper 👋,
Kunal & the team

Hello, 👋

I am strolling back home, lost in game-balancing calculations, when the delicious aroma of fresh doughnuts draws me out of my daydream.

Well, there’s no harm in checking out the source of the scent, I think to myself as I begin to look around. I see the aroma’s source, a solitary kiosk tucked away at the street’s corner, and walk up to it.

But the displayed price instantly stops me in my tracks.

I am familiar with the cost of doughnuts, but this seemed much higher. I wondered if the vendor, being the only doughnut seller in the area, was trying to exploit the limited supply.

And my thoughts immediately jump to how pricing works in Business Heroes.

Some customers are more sensitive to the price of burgers than others. Students, Parents, and Staffs, for instance, have lower disposable incomes compared to the other segments. For them, affordability/price is a big part of the buying decision.

Other factors that influence buying decisions in the game are:

– Time of day
– How appealing the Stand looks
– The food and service quality of the Stand
– Brand popularity of the business

These customers will shy away from your stand if they consider your burger to be too expensive.

How do they decide what’s expensive and what’s not?

They compare the cost of your burger to the cost of alternatives, such as a homemade burger, and decide based on which option offers the best value for their money.

If the cost of buying all the ingredients plus the time and effort to make the burger themselves is significantly less than the burger price, they will likely consider it expensive.

But as the difference between the burger’s price and the cost of the homemade option reduces, it will seem more affordable to them, and their likelihood of buying the burger will be higher.

To show you how it works, let’s take a closer look at how pricing affects the buying behaviour of the Students segment.

The formula we used:

This results in a graph that shows how the probability of Students buying a burger drops as the percentage difference between the burger price and homemade cost increases:

You can see that Students are very price sensitive as their purchase probability begins to drop at a very low percentage price difference between buying the burger or making it at home.

The graph is different for each customer segment. Some customers like Fit-ones and Managers have a high purchase probability even at a price difference above 200%!

This is because their buying decision is based more on stand appeal, food and service quality, brand name recognition, etc., than on price.

It’s essential to consider your target market’s price sensitivity when setting your menu price to ensure you are maximizing sales.

As I turn away from the Kiosk, it occurs to me that people who do not consider themselves price-sensitive (such as myself) could exhibit price-sensitive behaviour when they suspect monopolistic behaviour.

Hmm. That could be an excellent mechanic to add to the game.

Then again, it might make the game WAY too complex.

But we’d only be able to tell once we try it.

And that’s a wrap for today, Cheers 🥂

Don’t forget to Wishlist the game if you haven’t: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1429080/Business_Heroes_Food_Truck_Simulation/

Live Long and Prosper 👋,
Kunal & the team