
Show HN: SimAirport – Our 'pivot' from web dev - adanto6840
http://store.steampowered.com/app/598330/SimAirport/
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smacktoward
My impression was always that Maxis/EA were very aggressive legally against
anyone else publishing games with "SimX"\- style titles.

Is this not the case? Or maybe they're not as aggressive on this front as they
used to be?

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adanto6840
It's the one thing I can't talk about publicly, as much as I'd really, really
love to. All I can really say is that we're in the process of securing the
trademark right now; and we definitely obtained counsel's advice, far before
deciding on & moving forward with the name. =)

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Luc
Ouch. Get better council...

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jpatokal
That looks _obsessively_ detailed. How well does the simulation scale? Can I
simulate a Changi or a Dubai?

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adanto6840
Unfortunately we're hitting some scaling issues, we're exploring some ways
around them, but even in "clean slate" tests we're struggling to exceed ~10k
agents in motion without framerates starting to dwindle. We've also very
quickly learned that multi-threaded development is, or can be, quite difficult
& tedious. Things can go wrong in even more ways than we'd have imagined,
though it has been a fun challenge too.

Right now, players with higher-end computers are reporting that they're able
to push ~3k or so "pax" (passenger agents) before framerates start to get
choppy.

When we receive save game files with bugs to look into, and we load them up
and see 4-5k+ pax, we cringe a bit (and it's even worse w/ all our logging on,
etc). ;-)

As far as details go, the algorithm for passenger needs/desires/selection is
pretty neat -- it uses "delta need scoring", it's quite a robust approach &
also a decently-scalable system.

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neuronexmachina
If you don't mind my asking, which parts of the agent logic tend to be the
profiling hot spots when you have several thousand of them? Do you end up
running into a combinatorial explosion somewhere?

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huron
Did you guys use any particular toolset to build the game? Looks fun.

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adanto6840
Yep, we used Unity. It gets a hard time sometimes, but if you treat it just
like you would any other toolset/language/tool, it really is pretty great.
It's also pretty easy to jump into, and have something running quick (Hello
World style), though definitely takes some time to get used to the different
paradigms and the "Unity Way".

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graphememes
Just don't start wanting users to chat with emojis and you're fine.

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adanto6840
I may be (probably am) missing the reference -- but my first instinct would be
to check out TextMeshPro for something like that, especially if you want to
keep draw calls low/when performance is a supreme concern.

Apologies if it's just a reference I totally missed though! =)

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breakingcups
This looks very, _very_ similar to Prison Architect, down to the builders,
build menus, etc. Are you worried about a backlash from PA fans?

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jbob2000
I think these are free assets, Rimworld looks a lot like Prison Architect, and
I have seen other indie games with the same assets.

Why would PA fans be upset? There's a whole other game to experience now, with
a similar look and feel to their favourite...

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breakingcups
No, that's wrong. PA developed their own assets.

Tynan Sylvester (the Rimworld developer) made his own art, intended as
placeholder art, minorly inspired by Prison Architect. The games however are
extremely different when it comes to mechanics.

This game however seems to directly copy a large chunk of PA's gameplay.

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dalfonso
Can you talk about the "pivot" from web dev? Would be interested in learning
why you pivoted, how you decided to pivot into creating a game, etc.

Game looks cool though.

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humblebee
I'm curious about this as well. I feel like there is a lack of context. Who is
this? What does this have to do with web dev?. The company is LVGameDev LLC,
but I can't find anything about them beside that they made this game. Is there
a previous HN posting I should be reading as well?

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adanto6840
Me and my partner are just long-time, avid HN readers...

Will respond to the parent post shortly as well, just want to make sure I take
enough time to answer well/thoroughly. =)

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kapauldo
This is an amazing technical achievement. I hope it's also a successful
business. Congratulations on the algorithms.

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kveykva
Awesome! Played Airport Tycoon a bunch as a kid, just need to see if it has
the distorted PA sound effects too, haha

