Progression

[Marco Meza]

I was wondering a few things. Will Project Highrise have tech progression (with the passing years), (star/prestige) level progression, or locale/city/surroundings progression (depending on which city was chosen to build your tower, the city might change in population, land value, pollution, tourist activity, supply, demand, and price for various resources and utilities with time and these changes in the city could have profound effects on your tower)?

When brainstorming for OpenTower with my friends, we thought how fun it would be to have all three types of progressions going on. 

With Tech Progression, the player would start in a certain year and unlock new things for the tower as the years go on (which means a quickly-built tower would not have much opportunity for renovation), with old rooms and transportation having the option of being renovated to the newer versions or kept the same. Construction of old units vs new units would remain a choice but building old-fashioned units slowly becomes less profitable as time passes.

With Star-Level Progression, new units unlock with growing star level and VIPs may visit more often (giving economic boosts if new VIP reviews are not needed for further star progression).

With City Progression, the player chooses a city to build in. The earliest impact is the initial property value (the higher the property value, the lower your initial funds because the price of the land is deducted from your account) and amount of visitors. However, certain types of cities might have restrictions (such as height) that might ease up as time goes on and their economies might change drastically for the better or worse.

[Matthew Viglione]

Good questions!

First off, yes - there will be a progression in Project Highrise based on stars and prestige levels as your tower grows up. There will also be civic-based rules for scenarios. There could be height caps and/or limits on air rights (the amount of square feet/meters you can build on a given lot). The lot size could be limited. There might be a requirement for setbacks to limit shade/wind.

We're planning for a scenario progression that presents players with different constraints based on those things. Not sure if we're doing explicit setting in various cities yet. We have to figure out more of the scenario progression/fiction, but that's TBD right now. We're also thinking that a few of them will feature challenges to re-purpose existing structures - like turn an old office building into apartments. 

There will also be larger, global market conditions that will come into play. If the market is hot (and you have a prestigious tower that is a desirable location), then tenants will be clamoring to get in and rents will go up. Visitors to trendy restaurants and stores will go up. Everyone will be happy. But if the market takes a downturn, tenants that signed up for high rents during the boom will start to get cranky about the rent. Visitors to restaurants and stores will drop off. 

Our tech progression is also going to progress and unlock things like public art or a lobbyist that can negotiate for city rules to be relaxed or a union rep that help with construction and maintenance efficiency.

[Jon Savells]

Sounds like this game will have much, much more substance to it than SimTower in terms of gameplay, not just to build it. Really looking forward to this. :)