Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

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jztemple2
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Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

So I posted the below over on the Video Games Randomness thread but didn't get any replies, so I went ahead and bought the game. Impressions later on. Any questions, please post.
jztemple2 wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 3:48 pm Anyone playing Big Ambitions (Steam link)?

Blurb:
Big Ambitions is a revolutionary role-playing business sim. Go from nothing to the biggest entrepreneur in New York by opening small businesses or slowly building huge corporations any way you like.
I looked up the game after I came across this article on PC Gamer, I'm completely hooked on this open world business sandbox sim, and I'm not alone
I'm a successful businessman in the financial capital of the world, New York City. You can tell just by looking at me, because I'm wearing a suit and a tie. Also, I'm running down the middle of the street pushing a hand cart stacked with 300 frozen hamburgers the day after I spent 48 hours sleeping on a park bench. That's what successful businessmen like Mark Cuban do, right?

Which is to say my entrance to the Manhattan retail management scene has been a bit of a scramble. In business sandbox sim Big Ambitions, you arrive in New York City with little but the clothes on your back and a simple dream: to have a successful uncle give you an apartment, a used car, and a $15,000 loan to start a business empire. But even with my uncle's help, there's a lot to do in Big Ambitions. A helluva lot.

This is an extremely hands-on sim, by which I mean to make anything happen you really have to roll up your sleeves and get to work. After renting my first retail space, a gift shop I name ChrisCo Gifts, I have to go out and buy things to fill it with.
The Steam reviews rate it as Overwhelmingly Positive and while I always take those with a big grain of salt, there have been over 3,600 reviews so that sounds legit. I'd buy it and give it a two hours try but I've refunded a few games lately and I don't want to push my luck :roll:
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

This is a quick gameplay look at the game Big Ambitions, just to show off the graphics, the views and glimpse at the game mechanics. I wake up in my almost completely unfurnished apartment, then go off to work at my gift shop as its one and only employee. After work I run down to the local market to get some food. I bring the food home, put it in the fridge, had a bit to eat and then go to bed.

This is NOT what you are building up to in this game. You are trying to climb up the retail ladder, so soon you'll be taking management classes, hiring employees to run your shop and adding new inventory and furnishings to make the shop more attractive. Then it will be time to start looking for other businesses to start.

What is being show in the video is part of an extensive tutorial to teach the player the details of the game. There is a lot more that has happened before this, but I chose to limit this video to the essential gameplay before you start becoming an entrepreneur.

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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by GreenGoo »

I have a vague interest in business sims.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I look forward to more comments from you.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

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I'm about 5 hours in on the game. It's oddly addicting. The campaign is an extended tutorial although as you go along the handholding gets less and less detailed, which is fine. You start off with money from your uncle and also a bank loan. You rent an apartment, buy a frig and some food, then rent a storefront. The storefront is assigned to be a gift shop and you need a register, a display rack and some other things which you get at one store. And you need stock of course so you go to a different store to buy cheap gifts wholesale. Later on you'll set up an account at a recruitment center so you can hire staff and set up a corporate HQ so you can get imports to sell.

You do all this while walking, running or mostly driving from place to place. Graphics aren't exotic but are perfectly adequate. It's still a business sim with the usual information screens, but it is nice mixed with some isometric views of the city.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Isgrimnur »

jztemple2 wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:22 pmbuy a frig
Were you out of fracks and frells?
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:29 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:22 pmbuy a frig
Were you out of fracks and frells?
??
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

So it's day 31 of my Big Ambitions campaign. My two stores are working OK, I've started an HQ and have hired a purchasing agent. Now my Uncle Fred wants me to rent a warehouse so I can store pallets from an importer. Then my gift shop will need a storage shelf for delivered goods. Finally I'll need to sign up an importer who will work through my purchasing agent.

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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Hrothgar »

I enjoyed Monopoly Tycoon back in the day, but it was one of few business related games I enjoyed. I presume this is more hardcore than that.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Max Peck »

jztemple2 wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:41 pm
Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:29 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:22 pmbuy a frig
Were you out of fracks and frells?
??
Frig has the same figurative meaning as frack/frak (Battlestar Galactica) and frell (Farscape).
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

Man, it's tough being an entrepreneur in New York City. You illegally park one time and it costs you $125 :roll:
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I have in almost fourteen hours in the game and have gotten through what seems to be all the tutorial hand holding, at least for now. My Uncle Fred, who has been telling me I should rent this place or hire that person has now basically turned me loose. He wants to hear from me again only when I have two million in the bank. Two million? I can't seem to get my hands on two grand at a time.
Enlarge Image

But is was a long (almost fourteen hour :wink:) road getting here. I have three businesses, a gift shop, a fast food place and a law office. At my corporate HQ (which sounds impressive but it's pretty small... right now) I have an HR manager, a logistics manager and a purchasing agent. Those are all in rented locations, as is my one warehouse. I also still have a very cheap apartment.

But isn't all work. I went out on a casino boat (sorry, I only got one crappy screenshot). They had slots, blackjack and roulette. I won (eventually) on all of them, a few thousand bucks total. However, the ticket to get me on the ship cost five grand :roll: so it was a wash. Well, maybe next time.
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I've visited one of the two on map gas stations to refuel and also to get repairs. Driving is done with WASD and I'm not very patient in traffic so it's just like a modern version of Pole Position, except I hit a lot more things.
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But I can also take the subway (lots of fun when I have a hand truck with four boxes on it :wink:) and there are also cabs. Thankfully I don't have to do as much running around to restock my stores since I have a warehouse with a delivery driver who transfers goods to the stores. I can also use my purchasing agent to order in bulks from importers but they only respond to large orders so I'm not there yet.

I have thirteen employees including two cleaners which saves me from having to mop out my stores each day. I'm still too cheap to hire cleaners for the law office and the HQ, so I still clean those myself.

Yup, two million in the bank is the goal... :think:. I'll do more posting of screenshots if folks are interested.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by baelthazar »

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 6:11 pm Man, it's tough being an entrepreneur in New York City. You illegally park one time and it costs you $125 :roll:
Now that's realism!
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

And now it's time to pay the taxes!
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Unagi »

Hrothgar wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 6:05 pm I enjoyed Monopoly Tycoon back in the day, but it was one of few business related games I enjoyed. I presume this is more hardcore than that.
Actually, from what I've read, it's been accused of being a bit of a Clicker... in that, if you just keep tending to things you can hardly fail... Still, it looks fun, I've been thinking of giving it a spin.


I would be curious to hear what JZ makes of that assessment.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

Unagi wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:10 am
Hrothgar wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 6:05 pm I enjoyed Monopoly Tycoon back in the day, but it was one of few business related games I enjoyed. I presume this is more hardcore than that.
Actually, from what I've read, it's been accused of being a bit of a Clicker... in that, if you just keep tending to things you can hardly fail... Still, it looks fun, I've been thinking of giving it a spin.


I would be curious to hear what JZ makes of that assessment.
I'm not sure what a clicker is, but if you look at the videos I posted you can get an idea of the early gameplay. I'm at day 120 now and have six businesses up and running. I no longer have to drive to buy and drop off consumables at them, I have purchasers who buy from importers who ship to my warehouse. I then have a logistics manager who sent the consumables to the actual stores; there are five of those, my other location being a law office. Now those mangers don't automatically do their thing, I have to tell them to do it and the various amounts to buy or distribute. And that's one focus of the game. I also have HR managers who automatically train employees and provide temp help if they are out sick.

The other main focus is opening new businesses. You rent or buy a new location, buy equipment and hire employees then set up the logistics chain to keep it supplied.

The campaign/tutorial defaults to "Easy" so it would be hard to lose, but that's not really the point. The main focus of the game is the experience of starting and running businesses.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Unagi »

jztemple2 wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:34 am
Unagi wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:10 am
Hrothgar wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 6:05 pm I enjoyed Monopoly Tycoon back in the day, but it was one of few business related games I enjoyed. I presume this is more hardcore than that.
Actually, from what I've read, it's been accused of being a bit of a Clicker... in that, if you just keep tending to things you can hardly fail... Still, it looks fun, I've been thinking of giving it a spin.


I would be curious to hear what JZ makes of that assessment.
I'm not sure what a clicker is,
It's basically an idle game, like Cookie Clicker - but it's used in this context to imply there isn't really a way to lose, so much as just a pace at which you improve...

there were a small number of reviews (but more than one) that had this comment, which is why I was curious about what you thought... I will say most of the gameplay I've seen doesn't seem very 'Clicker' like, to me. But I don't know if it's more the 'cannot lose' aspect people are bitching about.

sample:
This needs more work, it feels way too much like a clicker veiled as a deeper game than it really is. I don't think that's by intention or anything but the UI does make me wonder. There doesn't seem to be a way to really fail at the game unless you just don't show up to work your business or don't hire others to do so, I mean, a lot of businesses in real life fail and it isn't because people didn't show up to work. This is why it feels like a clicker. There isn't any real challenge, given enough time, you will succeed and that's actually not what I'm after.

I'll check back when this goes full release.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

Unagi wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 1:04 pm sample:
This needs more work, it feels way too much like a clicker veiled as a deeper game than it really is. I don't think that's by intention or anything but the UI does make me wonder. There doesn't seem to be a way to really fail at the game unless you just don't show up to work your business or don't hire others to do so, I mean, a lot of businesses in real life fail and it isn't because people didn't show up to work. This is why it feels like a clicker. There isn't any real challenge, given enough time, you will succeed and that's actually not what I'm after.

I'll check back when this goes full release.
It is possible to fail at this game if you don't keep your inventories up to date, keep your people happy and adjust your prices properly. As I said, the campaign is on Easy so there isn't as much of a challenge, but it is still possible to fail. I mean, if you are playing Doom on Easy it is almost impossible to fail if you really keep trying to win. In Big Ambitions I'm busy a lot of the days because I missed that we were running out of paper bags or that I set my prices too high in a store and it is hurting sales or a number of other reasons.

Businesses fail in real life for a variety of reasons, some of which aren't modeled in the game (yet) (roadmap). You can fail for a variety of reasons right now in the game, if you don't pay attention. I think that person's comment is a bit nonsensical. Do they want a game where, even if you are showing up for business and doing your utmost, you can still randomly lose? Can you imagine the nasty Steam reviews for that kind of game? As I said, his comment doesn't make sense.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

My Steam review:
I'll join the chorus of people who like this game. At first it would seem to not be that much fun, it's basically a business sim, right? But by involving the player using role-playing it makes it rather addicting. I feel involved because I can actually go to these places, buy furniture and stock for the shelves and put them where I want in the stores. I'm up at the crack of dawn because I'm running low on paper bags and I need to restock them. I'm looking at resumes so I can hire a lawyer to work for me who doesn't need an executive desk. I'm looking at the work schedule at my coffee shop so I can keep the part time folks from working too much and the full time folks from having too few hours. I have to drive my work van to a garage because the last time I was rushing to reach the appliance store before it closed I rammed a couple of trucks.

Wait, what? Is this fun? Surprisingly, it is for me and I'm sure for a lot of folks. The gameplay isn't terribly deep right now, although the devs have a detailed roadmap, but it is engaging enough that I've put in over thirty hours and am not bored of it at all.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Unagi »

I appreciate your feedback and reply. I try not to listen to "the noise", but occasionally someone's complaint/bad review gives me pause.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

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Unagi wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:14 pm I appreciate your feedback and reply. I try not to listen to "the noise", but occasionally someone's complaint/bad review gives me pause.
I appreciate your reply too. It just makes me wonder when someone says this is just a "clicker" and I'm sitting at my computer with a half-dozen sheets of scratch paper covered with prices, inventory used per 7 day averages, shopping lists, lists of resume high-points for comparison, reminders to buy a new fryer for my coffee shop and a fridge for the lawyer's office, et cetera. This game can be a lot of work, but it's fun work, at least for me.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Unagi »

jztemple2 wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:22 pm
Unagi wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:14 pm I appreciate your feedback and reply. I try not to listen to "the noise", but occasionally someone's complaint/bad review gives me pause.
I appreciate your reply too. It just makes me wonder when someone says this is just a "clicker" and I'm sitting at my computer with a half-dozen sheets of scratch paper covered with prices, inventory used per 7 day averages, shopping lists, lists of resume high-points for comparison, reminders to buy a new fryer for my coffee shop and a fridge for the lawyer's office, et cetera. This game can be a lot of work, but it's fun work, at least for me.
Honestly, I think some people just write completely shit reviews and sometimes only grazed the game. The two reviews I'm seeing that mention the 'clicker' thing - both played for under 2 hours. And I checked one of the reviewers previous reviews of games (many were fine), he did Thumbs-Down a few good EA games for one feature that (to me) reveal he didn't understand what he was saying really (had a time-compression issue with UBOAT, which he seems to have missed the game actually has two ways of dealing with time-compression, and one of them is basically what he wishes they had done instead of what he thinks is all they did...)
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

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Unagi wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:26 pm Honestly, I think some people just write completely shit reviews and sometimes only grazed the game. The two reviews I'm seeing that mention the 'clicker' thing - both played for under 2 hours. And I checked one of the reviewers previous reviews of games (many were fine), he did Thumbs-Down a few good EA games for one feature that (to me) reveal he didn't understand what he was saying really (had a time-compression issue with UBOAT, which he seems to have missed the game actually has two ways of dealing with time-compression, and one of them is basically what he wishes they had done instead of what he thinks is all they did...)
Two hours in the game? By then I had only one store running and hadn't even set up a corporate HQ. They hadn't even seen the majority of the content of the game. Sheesh, by then a player wouldn't have even set up the logistics managers, purchasing agents and HR managers. They are key to allowing the player to play the "big picture" and not worry about the little details.

I set my Steam review parameters to show reviews of any game to be at least a minimum of ten hours played. For most games, until you've reached ten hours you probably haven't seen a decent amount of the content. There are some exceptions, but for most games I discount those who don't bother to really get to grips with the game system. I tend to gravitate towards the reviewers with dozens of hours if the game has depth to it.

And now, a short video where I start off in my apartment and take a tour of my six businesses, both corporate HQs and the warehouse. I was going to edit out the running and the taxi rides, but I thought it would be more enlightening to see the city.

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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Unagi »

Looks like the much anticipated 0.20 update is going to drop in a couple of hours.

I will likely finally dive into the game when it does (well... when I wake up, that is).
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by Carpet_pissr »

This looks interesting.

My favorite part of the tycoon type games was always the business part, and never the ‘rollercoaster’ part if you get me.

And while clickers are sometimes ok (much preferable on an iPad though IMO) as timewasters, I think what Unagi (and me) is looking for is a bit of meat if you will :D

Looking at the roadmap, pretty sure the ‘Market Simulation’ additions (Increase impact of demands, etc) is what we’re looking for.

Definitely going to try this, I’m intrigued.

Edit: or not, no demo yet.
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Re: Big Ambitions - Roleplaying Business Sim

Post by jztemple2 »

It's been a few months since I last posted. The devs had put out one update a while ago and now have another big one to announce which is coming out today:

My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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