Build-a-lot is a 2007 casual video game for Microsoft Windows. The object of the game is to construct, upgrade and sell houses for profits. They can flip houses for quick cash or collect rent to make funds go up. Players help mayors from eight different areas and through 35 different levels to complete the game. Build-a-lot was created by HipSoft. It has also been ported to Mac OS X by Red Marble Games.[1] In 2009 it was ported to mobile phones, iOS systems and BlackBerry's by Glu Mobile.[2][3][4] It was ported to the Nintendo eShop and DSI shop on August 18, 2011[citation needed]. In July 2013, Build-a-lot 3[5] and Build-a-lot 4: Power Source[6] was ported to Android by Glu Mobile again[5][6]
Build-a-lot World Game
There are two game modes in Build-a-lot: career mode and casual mode. In career mode, the object is to complete levels in which the player is assigned a set of tasks. In casual mode, the object is to meet a cash balance goal in the shortest time possible.
In career mode, the player's object is to complete a set of tasks in an individual game scenario, or "level". After doing so, they can advance to the next scenario. Once a level is completed, that level is available for play to that player on a continuing basis. Career mode has a total of thirty-five different levels, which are grouped together in eight different "neighborhoods" of between three and five levels. Each "neighborhood" has a different map character, number of lots, and different mayor. The neighborhoods advance in terms of game complexity. New structures become available at higher levels, and goals become more difficult.
Meadow Dale is the tutorial neighborhood, in which the player is given the most basic tasks and is provided on-screen instructions for the game. Levels 1, 2 and 3 are played in this neighborhood. The "new" Mayor of Meadow Dale is Jennifer Russell.
Pleasant Valley is the first regular game neighborhood. Levels 4, 5 and 6 are played in this neighborhood. The Mayor of Pleasant Valley is Beatrice Hudson, who in the game is revealed to be a native of New England.
Summit Ridge - The goal of Summit Ridge in casual mode is $25,000,000. The player begins with $250,000 in cash, eight workers, and 1,000 materials. There are eighteen total lots in the Summit Ridge neighborhood in casual mode. At the start of a casual mode game, one lot is occupied by an unowned Colonial, two lots are occupied by unowned Tudors, two lots are occupied by unowned Estates, one lot is occupied by an unowned Castle, and twelve lots are empty lots owned by the player. One of the premium lots is occupied by the unowned Castle, and the other is occupied one of the unowned Estates.
Having multiple banks increases the amount of money generated for the player. However, the amount of interest earned does not increase on a linear basis, i.e., each Bank will not generate 10% interest on the player's money. Instead, the game acts to distribute the player's money evenly in each Bank, allowing a greater total rate of interest in the Banks, so there is an overall compound interest effect. As an example, if the player has a total cash balance of $1,000,000 and two Banks, $500,000 will be deposited in each Bank. The first Bank would generate 6% ($60,000) in interest, raising the total cash amount to $1,060,000. The second Bank would generate 6% interest ($63,600) on half that amount ($530,000) to raise the total amount in the player's account to $1,102,500. If the player has three Banks rather than two, each bank generates 4% interest on the player's money. Accordingly, while the difference between one Bank and two Banks is substantial in that two Banks will produce more than 20% more interest than one Bank on its own, the addition of a third Bank does not appreciably add to the interest generated and takes up funds that could otherwise be used for house construction.
Build-a-lot was the #1 Action/Arcade game of 2007 on Big Fish Games.[7] Build-a-lot was Casual-Game-of-the-Week at killerbetties.com, who highlighted the simple but smooth and pleasing animation, sound effects and surprisingly fun micromanagement.[8] It was rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by Yahoo! Games users.[9]
A sequel to Build-a-lot was released in April 2008. It is called Build-a-lot: Town of the Year.[11][12] According to reviews, it allows players to build parks and stores. It requires more micro-managing as players will not only build stores, but manage their inventories and appearance. It removes several elements of Build-a-lot gameplay and replaces them with new elements. For example, premier properties are gone and a "curb appeal" feature is added where houses can be painted and landscaped to increase desirability and property value.
A second sequel, Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe was released in 2008. In it, players travel to several European nations and build a variety of improvements, including landmarks and European-style houses. It retains most of the elements of the previous two games, but adds some new options, such as restoring run-down buildings. It reinstates the premier lots from the first version, but these are much less often relevant to play. Like the previous two games, it is available via several casual game distributors, as well as HipSoft's own website.[13][14]
Build-a-lot: Monopoly edition was released on the 2nd September 2009 and is based on Build-a-lot but does include facilities such as hotels and train stations. Also, instead of having fictitious neighborhoods or cities like the original Build-a-lot and Build-a-lot 2, the game uses the properties on the standard Monopoly game board. Also, instead of dollars being used, all values are measured in Monos.
Build-a-lot: The Elizabethan Era was released in 2010. Set in Elizabethan England, the player manages farms and livestock in addition to real estate and deals with problems like vermin infestation. A Premium Edition was made available that included additional levels and property, as well as a strategy guide and behind-the-scenes material. The "host" of the game is of course, none other than Queen Elizabeth herself.
Culturalisation is mostly known as the process of tailoring your game for a specific culture, beyond language translation. But it can do much more, as former IGDA director and Geogrify founder Kate Edwards highlighted in her Plan B Project talk last week, 'Building better worlds through game culturalisation'.
A lot of her presentation was dedicated to the reasons why culturalisation matters as much as localisation, and how to navigate sensitive themes so your game can reach a wider audience. However, it also contained useful advice on improving your approach to building game worlds.
"A lot of the worlds that we make as game developers are very complex," Edwards said. "Take something like Skyrim, which is very detailed, very realistic and yet it takes place in a completely fictional universe. Or things like Halo, which actually takes place in our universe but in the far future. It involves a lot of science fiction elements and imagining things the way they might be at the time. Even something like Super Smash Bros still has a world, still has an environment, still has a narrative.
"[There are also] games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and this is the kind of world that I would call hyperreal. So it's almost Los Angeles but it's not quite Los Angeles. It's Los Santos, but they did such a remarkable job of recreating the vibe of LA as the basis for their world building."
"We've got the real world and we've got fictional worlds, and then of course we have this broad zone of overlap in between," Edwards said. "It is never black and white. You often have games that are purely fictional because the narrative demands it, and you've got others that are completely in the real world, but they might be in a different time or somewhere in the middle.
"This is important because it does matter in terms of culturalisation decisions. If you're setting your game in the real world and using real geography with real culture and history, you have a different set of rules you have to follow."
"Realism is a design decision -- how realistic they want [the game] to look. Realisation is the combination of the narrative goals of your game and its experience goals. So what's the story behind the game and what is the player actually doing in your game? That's the most basic level to define; what your realisation goals are. The realisation goals basically set out how much of the world you actually need to make, and that's really important."
From there, there are structural tools you can use for realising your world and making your game's setting believable, by making it feel like it belongs to a larger universe, even when that larger world is never seen.
There are thematic layers that you can use when creating a world that will make it feel more complete. Edwards pointed out that this list could include many more levels of details, depending on the type of universe you're building.
"A game like Breath of the Wild, the climate system is directly impacting the gameplay," Edwards said. "You're running around in the mountains, you get zapped with lightning, you freeze. When they decided to put a weather system in the game, it actually made sense because it all has a direct impact on the narrative and on the experience. Now, I've seen other games where they built a weather system, but it really doesn't do anything. It's just there for atmospheric purposes.
"Now, that's okay, but my warning to you, and the reason I bring up the layer approach, is to think very carefully about what layers you need to realise the game. I would recommend you start with that. Most games are going to need some kind of actual geography like landforms, but maybe not [yours].
"So you have to think very hard about what exactly [is] the most minimal version of the world to serve the experience and narrative goals [of your game]. And then, if you at least get that far, then you can make decisions [about] whether or not you want to add additional layers that might enhance the visuals, that might enhance the environmental appeal, but I would not go there until you've actually at least satisfied the most basic realisation needs." 2ff7e9595c
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