Chrono Corp

1. Favorite aspect:
I really like the main idea of the evil company that controls time travel. It’s an interesting concept that gives the player more than 1 way to play the game and have fun. The idea of the player’s actions having consequences makes it more fun I believe.

2. Least favorite aspect:
At the moment, the game feels like it’s trying to do too many things for our time interval. Like I said after the presentation as well, there’s base building, company management, and time travel missions, and all of these three are quite big mechanics. It might be difficult to balance and polish everything within the time we have.

3. Suggested improvement:
I’d suggest focusing on one of the core systems, like either building or management, and making it really solid. For the consequences, maybe focus them on one clear aspect, such as the company’s money since they are evil, so players can easily see how their actions affect the world.

Good job!!!

+ I like the time travel missions idea. I have never seen that implemented in a building game before. I think if you combine it well with the story it can turn out really interesting.

-I don’t know if you are going to have time to achieve everything you want to do. I would focus on the core building mechanics of the game and on the time travel missions and I would only start working on the rest if you still have time left.

1 change: I think there are already many building games so I would focus on making the time travel missions parts and the story really good in order to make it more unique.

+: It's really funny that you might be evil. probably the time missions, but…

-: I don't understand what you mean with the "time travel missions" (but maybe that's a me-problem, because my train was 2h late, sry)

1 change: in combination with the time metrics there could be a "trust" metric. You'd have to balance both to stay the Nr1 corp, until you can go all in to destroy the fabric of time. But this idea adds to the scope so idk. Focus on the scope first.

I was unable to attend the presentations, so these opinions are based solely on the slides. Please excuse me if something I wrote is wrong or misunderstood:

1. I like the idea that the Corp is the only allowed entity to time travel, which opens up the possibilities for hidden agendas.

2. I don't enjoy management/building games, so I would focus the game towards the time-travel aspect. Maybe the Corp has ideas to alter the past for personal benefits, etc. 

3. I would focus on the fix/destroy spacetime fabric, as it seems like an interesting idea to execute. And can be tied with what I mention in my 1st point.

+ I love the idea of distorting time and trying to fix it, it is always an interesting concept.

- I dont like tile-based building, it limits the possible entertainment from placing buildings freely and getting the most out of it.

In class it seemed like the scope of ai agents can become too big for this game. You could reduce your enemies to a single enemy. Then focus your gameplay around a country vs country or base vs base setting, giving you more time to focus on the missions/gameplay. (I think this was your game)

Favorite Aspect

I really like the idea of playing as an evil company. There aren’t many games like this.

Least favorite aspect

I think the game includes too many mechanics, this might be exhausting for the player.

Suggested improvement

I think you could focus on one main mechanic and try to develop it further.

1. What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game?The idea of sending individual people back in time to do things, so that the current self can benefit from the developments from the past.
2. What is your least favorite aspect?Using a tile-based game does not really make sense imo...
3. Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game...rather use an abstraction layer were you do not just influence a group of people but maybe the whole world. Sending people from a certain country to another. Focus on the idea of transferring ressources between future and past, maybe just on an abstract level. That task in itself is probably difficult enough in terms of making things sensible.

+definitely keep:

 If I understood it correctly, having a world map and being able to go back and forth in time to complete tasks and solve the time ambiguities seems really fun and definitely a promising idea.  

- least favorite aspect and the suggestion combined:

I’m confused about the time travel mechanics. Do you intend to create the issues on the map that are solvable by some of your buildings? Or, to complete the tasks, you just assign employees, and you get feedback in advance about the task’s status? This type of strategy and simulation game might really consume more time than expected. I’d suggest removing the employee system or at least mitigating the work overload by integrating this into the tile-based building system. The player might control the units (the employees) on the map and assign them to specific buildings to complete tasks. Since buildings will have their own specs and attributes, adding workers to those shouldn’t be as complex as creating a different employee management system. 

I love the idea! But I must say I believe the concept is fit for a bigger studio then the three of you :D
+ I really like the tile building part. I think it has a good potential and could be really cool to play. Managing the "time resource" sounds nice.
- I would be careful about how big of the game this is. It could really help focusing on one mechanic, so that the overall impression of the game stays good.

I like the idea of combining the management of resources with time travel; not sure I've seen that before. However, I have to agree with the rest of the comments and say the scope feels kind of big for the given time we have. I believe you guys can pull through and deliver a nice experience.

I like the idea of having different time travel missions and customers with different requirements and which can have different consequences!

One way of managing the scope of this game would be to keep the mechanics and ideas, but only implement a few elements of each - i.e. only a few base building blocks, only a few types of customers, only a few time periods, etc. Alternatively, you could first implement the time travel missions aspect of this game and give the player a pre-built base, and later implement the base-building once you're sure you have enough time for both.

The thing that comes up is that you talks about doing a lot of things, but are pretty vague about most of them. I would say to focus on a few of them and expand during development if time allows. I think you really have something with the separate "time missions" you don't specify their nature, but from your talk I inferred that they would be on a separate map, which would be novel for tile/city management games, those usually focus on lasting change and surviving in the long run, but self contained separate maps with maybe different/randomized contexts/factors could allow the player to experiment the various ways that the base mechanics interact with the rest of the game.

Favorite aspect:
I really like the concept of managing a company that controls time travel. The mix of moral choices and strategy could make the gameplay really engaging if done well.

Least favorite aspect:
Right now, the game feels a bit too ambitious with all the different systems (building, management, time missions, etc.). It might be hard to make each one feel meaningful within the limited time we have.

Suggested improvement:
I’d focus on polishing the time travel missions and how they affect your main base or timeline. If players can see the impact of their choices across time, it’ll feel super satisfying even without all the extra mechanics.

Favorite aspect: I really like the genre of your game; managing an evil company with a time travel concept sounds very unique!

Least favorite aspect: I think, at the moment, there are too many game mechanics to focus on. 

Suggested improvement:  Maybe you can focus either on building or managing and add the time stability metrics to it to see how it would work out, and then add extra mechanics if time allows.