socalfunplaces Chapter 183: So Similar to Prison Tycoon?
Chapter 183: So Similar to Prison Tycoon?
Chapter 183: Chapter 183: So Similar to Prison Tycoon?Upon entering the game, what struck my eyes was a rather rudimentary style of graphics.
How should I describe it?
4399?
The visuals were undoubtedly 2D, and from a top-down perspective.
All the buildings lacked roofs, displaying the interior structure directly; simple lines delineated walls, classrooms, and playgrounds. Even items such as desks and podiums were essentially composed of three or four basic lines.
As for the characters within, they even more fully embraced a simplistic doodle style, predominantly featuring exaggerated chibi representations with only a handful of basic actions.
It was blatantly obvious that the students and teachers all followed fixed templates, with hair, facial shapes, and body types combined at random - crude beyond belief.
To exaggerate a bit, the style was so basic that many enthusiasts could recreate it with their computer’s built-in drawing tool.
However, the game’s color scheme was quite comfortable, and the proportions of the chibi characters to the various buildings had been adjusted. After getting used to this style, it wasn’t bad and it didn’t directly discourage players.
As for the gameplay, it featured traditional simulation management mechanics.
The player assumes the role of the principal of Henggang Middle School, mainly responsible for the school’s enrollment, construction, daily management, and teacher training, covering all aspects of administration.
But unlike those simulation games where you start from scratch, "Henggang Middle School Simulation" gives you a basic frame for the school, including predefined locations for facilities such as playgrounds, classrooms, and canteens.
Space has been left around every key building for expansion, and there are additional plots of land outside the school for further development.
Gu Fan spent an hour playing the game for a basic experience.
After that, he fell into deep thought.
Lilith was quite nervous, unconsciously rubbing her hands together, "How is it, Gu Fan? Have you thought of any good solutions?"
Gu Fan seriously said, "I have to admit, Azazel really came prepared this time. This task is a real challenge for me.
"Although this game uses a typical template for simulation management games, Azazel has done a lot of subtraction.
"He only directly copied over aspects of the simulation management genre that could be applied directly, such as having students in detention, cutting hair, or running laps on the playground - which seems obviously lifted from prison simulation games. But for features that couldn’t be directly transferred, he simply blocked them.
"This led to significant content cuts in the game. The operations available to the player are actually very limited, and the game has very poor replayability.
"Basically, this game has potential in terms of art, gameplay, and depth of thought...
"Other than the topic being quite buzzworthy, there’s hardly anything left.
"The most important point is... this game feels strangely familiar to me."
Lilith looked surprised, "Hmm? A sense of déjà vu? It’s normal for a game that uses templates to feel familiar, right?"
After thinking for a while, Gu Fan
"Eh, that was fast?
"It must be a small game.
"A small game then, as long as the gameplay is interesting, that’s what matters."
Soon, Wang Dawei entered the game.
It must be said that the game was quite crudely made; it started without any CGs and went directly to an aerial view of a school, bringing up a dialogue box with an illustration of an old man.
This old man was the previous principal of the school, now retired. Before retiring, he earnestly instructed the new principal, who is the player, with a few heartfelt words.
Such as the importance of enhancing teacher quality, focusing on campus management, and implementing directives from higher authorities, among others.
However, these were merely to set the mood and didn’t provide much guidance for gameplay; Wang Dawei would soon realize this.
After the conversation ended, the game presented a very simple difficulty selection screen.
There were Simple Difficulty, Normal Difficulty, Hard Difficulty, and Ultimate Difficulty.
Each of these different difficulty options corresponded with a different picture.
Simple Difficulty: The classroom looks spacious and bright, with plenty of room for students, and various high-tech teaching equipment. The students are wearing neat uniforms, have tidy hairstyles, and all are studying diligently.
Normal Difficulty: The school’s environment is slightly worse, with less teaching hardware, cramped student seating, and desks piled with books. Many students aren’t wearing uniforms and have dyed and styled hair in odd ways; glimpses of students fighting and playing with their phones can be seen at the back of the classroom.
Hard Difficulty: The school’s environment is similar to that of the Normal Difficulty, but the number of underperforming students has visibly increased, and their behavior has become even more outrageous.
Ultimate Difficulty: The classroom is extremely crowded, the atmosphere is very oppressive, and there are more students wearing flashy clothes and sporting dyed and styled hair. At a glance, there are hardly a few normal people in the entire classroom.
Wang Dawei pondered for a moment: "Hmm... It seems that the difficulty of this game mainly focuses on two aspects, right?
One is the school’s funding and environment—the higher the difficulty, the worse the school’s condition and surely the less funding available.
And the other is the quality of the students—the higher the difficulty, the worse the student pool.
"Alright, let’s do this in one go and tackle the Ultimate Difficulty!"
After choosing the difficulty, the game officially started.
If this were any other simulation, like a prison or hospital theme, you could probably name your establishment, but in this game, the school was already named Henggang Middle School, so naturally, there was no option to name it.
Upon entering the game, the next thing he saw was the plain game interface and the primary goals for this phase of the game.