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Triple expansion engine where you have to use a smaller steam engine to start it like the kempton park’s (I know it’s spelled wrong may edit it later) steam engine
I think having a steam train would make for a great game. Players can directly feel how well their engine is running by seeing the train get faster, and your diffieculty could dynamically change in the form of cargo weight and inclines. There's something innately fun about going fast, that's good too.
In an industrial setting I could also imagine that pumping water or other fluids with high pressure could be an addition. Creating a closed loop for example, where you have to extract enough oil to keep the engine running or get the water for the engine that way. So you will need to switch between producing the resources for the engine and the powerproduction.
There was a game on C64 that had a cool game loop with trains. You had several looping train-tracks in a network and had to set the railway switches, so that you picked up cargo and brought it to matching cargo stations. So you were running in loops and tried to optimize the path to be efficient while your fuel burned down and got restocked when you delivered cargo. So you tried to run the train as long as possible and gain as much points from delivering cargo.
@@benjaminlee985 i know of two non steam engine based power sources (kinetic dynamos and solar panels), and one of them is just spinning something really fast like a steam engine. steam engines are just ways of spinning a kinetic dynamo
I hate that we are at a state now where sending angry messages to developers for delaying a product they are developing has been normalized. Also, I don't understand the train of thought of those people. Would they rather the developer releases an unfinished product? I'm sure that wouldn't sit right with them either...
i think for the bottom left information pannel, it would look cool if it was a piece of parchment stapled to the blueprint, maybe with a coffe mug stain on it too lol, doesnt seem to fit with it being a blueprint like the rest of it imo
@@MazeFrame 🤔 So, would it be a central boiler that feeds steam to engines? (at the risk of power loss dependant of distance from boiler) Or, where each machine has its own boiler as well, with each just tapped into a central water reservoir? (presumably a lack of power did to smaller boilers? [dunno if that tracks, as I'm not a steam enthusiast]) 😊
I have to say, I just stumbled upon this today after falling down a rabbit hole from the Drive61 video on the V10 engines featuring your Engine Simulator. It's been very informative and I am looking forward to this DLC release. It is really refreshing to find a developer that is so open and transparent with his development process. Thanks.
While this might be more "real" it doesn't actually look better (I've tried it). The visualization is also meant to be more of an indicator of whether the power is on/off and if the lights are off, it would be hard for the player to tell if there's an outage (without some other indicator). Also, I live in a city and the skyline is mostly still lit up at night, only being completely dark during outages
I have a feeling that the players will be able to use all DLCs at once. Considering this will be a long-term project with more DLCs I reckon it will be complete chaos beyond some point
The DLCs are not simply additions to the simulation, they are entirely separate game modes that need to be activated by the player. While having multiple DLCs active at once would be hilarious and certainly create chaos later, this isn't how they work unfortunately.
I am really looking forward to playing with this DLC. In my opinion you should make a special "supporters edition" which is double or tripple the price of the normal DLC, so that anyone who wants to support you a bit more in your journey, just can do it with their wallet in Steam, instead of having to deal with Patreon and so on. Then this additional funds can perhaps lay the foundation for further DLCs or they just buy you a coffee, depending on how much of the players will choose that option.
PS.: If this is against your moral, then perhaps add a small extra, that does not take to much effort to build on your side, for example that the "supporters addition" allows to select a custom background color from a color-wheel.
I am super excited. I am just upset because I only recently subscribed to your patron and most likely won’t be getting a key and if that doesn’t happen then I will probably just buy it. I am just super glad that you are making so much progress on this and other projects. I wish you the best of luck
What started as a novelty side project is now becoming a full-blown game. I love the concept, and the direction youve taken with this is great. Cant wait to give this a whirl
I just happened across the original steam game today. Seemed cool enough that I opened an account on steam just to try it. Very nice work! Great to see additional development. I will say, though - the thing that brought me in was the 'steam' part... as in running / tweaking the engine. I'm not so much a finance guy - so I'd probably lose some interest in the power generation part. But as far as the steam engine portion - a lot more could go into that to make it more of an 'adventure'. Just thinking out loud, but... different types of fuel [hard coal, soft coal, wood, biomass, etc], amount of fuel to feed, amount of air to the fuel, slide valve timing, boiler pressure/temperature limits (and enhancements for higher levels of each), boiler insulation, draft inducers, boiler water feed pumps...the list goes on. Anyway, keep up the great work!
It might be interesting to experiment with contextual enlarging/zooming when different areas of the interface are given focus by the player (or on hover etc etc). The main one I can think of is the town view. Also I know you said you might change the art direction from being a postcard… but in case you do keep the postcard style, you could allow the player to flip over the postcard to see whatever info (cumulative stats, flavor text, etc) on the back. Also the postcard theming could be intuitive to players, as a skeuomorphic design will inform players how they can interact with the interface
Ange, I would love if you could simulate the bring up procedure of a power plant, you know, getting the generator up to speed running at 50Hz and slowly varying the speed and phase until the syncroscope tells you you are in sync with the power grid and it is safe to connect the generator to the network.
I know, right? I just hope that Steam Engine Simulator doesn't become TOO popular, or else he'll probably end up mothballing Engine Simulator 2.0 (ES3D). 😭 Apparently, people prefer a steam whistle over a roaring V12, because "cute".
Super cool dude. I saw your previous video about the base game from likea couple years ago and went to get it on steam, only to find it was already installed. Lol. Cant wait to try the DLC!
From: "I started this as a joke" To: "I delayed it ... because it lacked the quality people expected" As many other things, it gained its own life and the joke is now a real job.
Yooooo this looks awesome I’ll definitely be getting this, also love the honesty and transparency too, most devs nowadays miss that, so cheers to you, take my money (soon)
This is such a cool project and can't wait to see what the future holds for this and Engine Simulator. On a side note, you could always use icons for sub menus, hiding all the clutter from the control panel. For example, using a mailbox sign for the mailbox tab, a stack of graph bars for different statistics like population growth, energy demands, quarterly profits and expenses, etc. It would look a lot cleaner and would make for some interesting statistics to be added in the future, such as fuel prices that are connected to the actual stock exchange, transitioning to alternative fuels or introducing air pollution, making you choose to use cleaner, renewable sources like wind, solar, even nuclear power. The possibilities are endless!
Dude managed to turn running a simple steam engine into a full fledged game with a story, absolutely fascinating. You're a hell of a guy, and I'm excited for engine sim.
Just wanted to let you know that awhile back you were able to bring me the greatest joy in life. I was arguing with someone online and used your project to prove my point. Wasn't a super important or complex thing, just stated that we can simulate stuff like engine sounds to a reasonable degree with normal hardware/software nowadays. Thanks for helping to bring me the joy of crushing someone else's opinion on the internet, that alone is worth the price of your games/projects to me.
I like the blue print look, I hope something like it makes it into the Engine Simulator. Because I imagine myself as an Engine designer and I like the idea of producing blueprints of what I can make. Also I think you should animate the flame 🔥 icon to complement the steam animation.
It would be really cool to see more detail in the power generation plant, like how all the plants need to be in sync and how a generator needs to be synchronised to the grid before connection. physicsduck has a few videos on powerplant operation which might be helpful
Maybe this is out of scope... but you've got an opportunity to sneak some additional mechanics in there. Specifically with the building/upgrading of buildings on the city grid. Perhaps spread out building cause greater infrastructure costs (gotta run longer lines). Or maybe something like a conway's life algo to determine which places are optimal to place buildings, or give the city its own natural growth/decay. Or even just some sort of underlying terrain for each plot which makes certain ones more expensive to build on than others. Basically, I'm just saying I think when you choose to build a building, you should, for one reason or another, have to consider where to build. Either way, I'm hyped, this looks fun!
absolutely love love the idea of these minigames based on the framework of engine simulator, even if it will slow down the release of engine simulator, this seems suuper fun
I joke about steam engine simulator being my favorite game to my friends whenever I play it, but I genuinely think this will make it one of my favorite games when the DLC releases. Very excited, the delay was worth it, I love the steamtown postcard look you showed in this video, I was apprehensive about the town you initially showed but now it looks much more fleshed out and ready to go.
It seems suited for a clicker game. Run the steam engine to make power. Sell power to buy fuel for the engine, etc, etc. Make the numbers go up and up, make the engine run faster and faster. Start by powering a small building, end up conquering the universe.
I wasn't sold on the DLC before, but now I'm surely going to buy it. Really respect your commitment to quality and an enjoyable experience. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions, but you're really making all the right ones.
I know this has been suggested but a steam locomotive sim would be amazing! And I have a decent idea on how you could incorporate it into a future dlc. Now you have people in steam town right. But what happens when the city starts to get really big and now theres a transportation demand. Well look no further than passanger services! You could make a minigame of sorts that may occur at a certain time of day that makes it do you have to control a steam locomotive for its daily run. If you succeed your city will have a better reputation and will also allow more people to enter the city. Of you crash or worse explode your locomotive your reputation goes down. Could be a fun thing to add and could add to the lore if you crash. But regardless im excited to see what you come up with and I hope this helps
Looking amazing and I can't wait to play. If I could request one thing it would be the ability to change the valve timing in the engine. Even if it's perfectly adjusted as is it would add another knob for my brain to fiddle with.
I think it might make sense to add multiple screens, one for the engine, one for the city (infrastructure, received letters, stuff like that), because I believe you wouldn't need both in one view, and it might declitter everything a bit.
One idea is to add the ability to buy batteries so you could store extra energy in case demand suddenly spikes and you can’t speed up the engine fast enough, or when you need to refill the engine with water and the power output drops for a while. The battery should be quite expensive and maybe only unlocked later in the game but I think it would be very useful, especially late game. Also, a future DLC idea is the ability to run a steam locomotive. Having to manage a steam engine that has to move and stop would be very interesting, as well as needing to manage buying water and coal at stations so you don’t get stranded on the tracks. You could transport cargo and passengers from different locations and earn money based on your efficiency and speed of service.
OK, I got the game, and I LOVED IT! and now it has a dlc?! that is fully affordable for poor people like me? that is better than most AAA game dlc's?! thanks AngeTheGreat!
Now I have to ask, is there a weather effect that changes ambient temperature and random disconnects depending on grid integrity (lower grid integrity easier for disconnects during a storm)? I would assume no, randomness is usually a poor choice for player engagement but I saw weather in the bottom left of the vid and with the new features it seems as if there might be. Love the work and that welcome to steam town font is glorious, would make a killer steam background. The simplistic yet detailed nature of the game is what makes it fun and I love the dedication to effort.
IDEA. you could add a reverser that would allow more or less steam into the piston so that you could have max efficiency. It could also allow you to switch the direction of the steam engine. I love the game and I think that the DLC will be great. :D
i dont know if it would be to complex to add, but i think it'll be a nice addition to the game loop, that you need to do some fuel managent - rather simplistic. Like you have a Storage for x tons (upgradable) and 3-4 different suppliers with alternating prices each (other) day, and the player has to buy the fuel. They can decide how much they get and sorta can gamble to get the best value. each supplier has different quality fuel so that if you buy the cheapest you need more fuel than with the more high quality stuff. that would add a bit more variaty and allowes the player to be a bit more involved.
I’m not sure how it could be scaled up to bigger projects, but I love this monetization model. You get all the basic functionality to play with for free, but if you want it to be an actual game you’ve gotta buy it.
I just have to ask, it popped into my head when I was chilling just now. Have you thought about merging your Engine Simulator efforts with the Automation team? I knew rather quickly that that was the direction you were sort of headed with the project anyway and I figured you guys might work really well together. I'm really loving following the project. Hope it works out good for you!
I loved the white and blue city design at 2:40, will there be an option to toggle between the colored version and the blueprint version? Both designs are really nice, and I am definitely buying this day one!
It would be nice if you add in a future update a way of stocking the extra energy in some kind of batteries ( that can get old and start losing their power ). Add at the same time add energy distribution company's with each one offering different prices per KWH of energy, making the player able to choose which one to choose to distribute the energy to ( kinda like turmoil oil selling ), with a backstory about each company, making the choice affect the overall of the population. Its kinda complicated, but might be a nice addition
As a steam engine person, I'd like more detail in the engine. Double acting cylinders, multiples, and compounding would be awesome, as would reversible valve gear. Stephenson Linkage is my favorite. Also, from the engines I play with, you're missing some safety features, like relief valves and fusible plugs.
I'd like to able to adjust the water pressure and other variables, to have some fun in sandbox. Maybe it could even be a thing to upgrade things, like water pressure or max heat generation in the DLC.
I know this has never been the intended scope of this (side?) project, but having the abbility to assemble such a machine yourself you'd greatly enhance the experience. Like letting the player go wild with the indivdual components and see what they come up with(be it a working or non working machine). Also ties better into gameplay by having some parts or some sizes of parts locked til the player, for example, buys them. And at this point I am not sure if I haven't commented this already ona past video, so pleas excuse me if this is a duplicate.
Supercritical fluids, flywheels, multiphase power (three phase and beyond), and multiple fuel options would all be interesting mechanics to add. Also, the possibility of engine overheating.
While unfortunate to hear you had to deal with some mean messages, I'm glad you didn't let it get to you though. Most of the community from what I've seen are very much happy to wait as long as you feel it'll take Ange, So thank you for making this lovely experience for us all ^-^
Ah yes; more """""low effort""""" content from Ange. In all seriousness, I feel like you really underestimate yourself, this is amazing work! I always get excited when you release a new video, and I enjoy watching them!
Would be cool if you had to think of the real aspects of running a power plant like synchronizing AC with the grid and adjusting to load as solar and other generators come online.
That one mailbox has lots of potential as it can be used by the townsfolk to complaint to you before they leave the town whit things like: "The electric bill is too high for my income" "These power outages are way too common for me to work properly
its an interesting idea and a novel way to teach concepts to players. as a possible future DLC, expansion, or "sequal", using some of the tech that you develope in engine sim (when thats done) you might be able to allow the player to build their OWN steam (or other) engines. in that situation the fictional "steam town" would probably be better of being a static scoring metric, though some pseudo-lore about it could be thrown together if you wanted. on the gameplay of the current DLC, i dont think the player should be able to interact with the town directly. rather their ability to operate the engine efficiently should allow the town to grow itself. i mean, your electrical plant workers probably aren't out here doing house flipping on the side. so instead, money should be something that the player uses to feed back into the upkeep of the engine. so, for example, you start the game inheriting this old beat up engine that doesn't even have a means of power output. the player is guided through the process of cleaning the cobwebs off it (metaphorically and literally. nothing complex, just some 2D elements that disappear when clicked/moused over) and getting it started, learning the basics of operating it. once the player has had some time to get familiar with it they get a letter from the mayor of steam town, who's noticed you getting the old steam engine running and offers you the job to opwer the small town; gifting you an old (and inefficient) alternator to hook up to get started. from there your goal would be to maintain a desired output, with planned (and unplanned) events either raising or lowering the demand and requiring rebalancing it. as you get more money you can put that into upgrading and maintaining parts of the engine, like the alternator or the fuel. the town post card would show visually the broad goings on in the town and serve as the players main real time feedback of events, with statistical reports only being done once a day and shown on the back of the post card when putting the cursor over it. the game does not need to be deep nor have vast lore. just some motivation to learn and understand. and more over you need to consider what the function of the game should be. you dont write a whole pressure and fluid dynamics emulation system to play a city builder. you should focus directly on teaching the player how the engine works and about the math and physics going on (at least in the real world equivalents of the engine). the "gameplay" should serve as a tool to leverage that learning experience in an interactive and entertaining way, as the player learns about the engine they are operating as well as the little town they are providing for in doing so. i'd say thats my "2 cents" but it turned into more of a 5 dollars XD
I like the visuals of this game and how you edited this video, keep up the great work man. I don't have any money, but if I did I would definitely subscribe to your Patreon. If I could suggest a game idea. I'd suggest something like how a Minecraft mod called "Create" works, where you can build machines using rotational force to power several different modules, there are several addons for this mod made by many different mod creators, one of which, adds electricity generation using that rotational force concept that Create provides by making generators. I think this could be a good concept for a sandbox game in the style of your Steam Engine Simulator game, where you could add elements of a roguelike/rpg style game to add different gameplay mechanics and to keep things fresh.
I like the layered town and switch to plan view. I was thinking you could have a scroll to the layered view like scrolling through rollodex. Look that up if you are too young 😅
bro spent more time and passion on this than the entire ubisoft corporation could do for a $70 game 😭😭 (extremely well done, keep up the great work man)
New viewer here, it sounds like this is becoming less of a steam engine simulator, and more of a utility simulator operating a pre-designed engine. I don't think that's a wrong direction to take, but my expectations were that this sim would be more engineering related. You could have players grow by relying on a pre-designed heat engine up to a certain point where it's physically constrained to do any more than say 200% of its rated power and you need to come up with a new design. One upgrade could simply be to go from manually regulating the plant to implementing automation to free up your time and stop taking the role of the operator as often. The goal of the game would then be to make your job easier, play with customization, learn some thermodynamic principles to make better engines, template your designs and build out your facility rather than building housing (that doesn't make sense). Gradually the player builds their confidence, understanding, and capability. There would be risks to implementing a design that that you didn't fully simulate to test the operating conditions (pressure relief valve at xxxºC/ K), or didn't meet your expectations, and you would start having failures and losing engines, money, and customers. Players would hunt for easier to use, more efficient and optimized designs according to the elements you include in the game. Factory games are not new, but I'm not aware of a factory game that is a true simulator of a physical process. All these developers comes up with their own physics, but I am starting to get the impression after playing with your engine simulator and watching a few videos about it that you don't like fake things.
@InfinionExperiments For the price I'm asking for this DLC there is simply no way to deliver all the features you're talking about. This DLC is mostly meant to be a more interesting load for the engine to handle and was never intended to have engineering elements. My other project "Engine Simulator" will be a purely simulation-based sandbox with MAYBE some sort of career mode but I'm not 100% sure about this right now.
@@AngeTheGreat Oh for a $5 DLC on a free game? Yeah that's asking a lot. This is my impression. Maybe it won't fit in the very specific context of your game, but if we were talking about a full-fledged $20-$50 game, this is where my mind would be.
I think this can be evolved into steam train simulator, though could be much harder challenge to face. Perhaps for the sake of optimization, no need fancy ultra-high 3D graphic for visualization. Just simple 3D just good enough for eyes to see.
Well... this meme escalated quickly... Have I spent too much time on this? Probably. Will it pay off? Only time will tell.
Without sponsors, none of these shenanigans would have been possible. If you'd like to support the channel and have an interest in learning, try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/AngeTheGreat/ . The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription.
You’ve earned my purchase.
Hopefully it gets released before April. It could be a good present for myself.
Well I'm definitely buying it so is the guy above me. So it's not a waste for at least two people. I love this idea. I loved the original too.
I support these shenanigans.
power
Triple expansion engine where you have to use a smaller steam engine to start it like the kempton park’s (I know it’s spelled wrong may edit it later) steam engine
I think having a steam train would make for a great game. Players can directly feel how well their engine is running by seeing the train get faster, and your diffieculty could dynamically change in the form of cargo weight and inclines.
There's something innately fun about going fast, that's good too.
yeah, maybe as a second dlc that could be bought. That'd be great!
He could make it multiplayer and you could race against other players or NPCs 💀
and then it would be funny if we could add coal to make the fire bigger and be able to explode the boiler
In an industrial setting I could also imagine that pumping water or other fluids with high pressure could be an addition. Creating a closed loop for example, where you have to extract enough oil to keep the engine running or get the water for the engine that way. So you will need to switch between producing the resources for the engine and the powerproduction.
There was a game on C64 that had a cool game loop with trains. You had several looping train-tracks in a network and had to set the railway switches, so that you picked up cargo and brought it to matching cargo stations. So you were running in loops and tried to optimize the path to be efficient while your fuel burned down and got restocked when you delivered cargo. So you tried to run the train as long as possible and gain as much points from delivering cargo.
i can't wait to power a town with my trusty miniature hobby steam engine!
Wait until science discovers that this is the only form of energy we can really trust!
@@AngeTheGreat As a power systems engineer studying inverter-based resources, this is painfully accurate
I thunk about it, its true.@@AngeTheGreat
@@AngeTheGreatAlmost every power source, even nuclear power, is ultimately just a steam engine, we're just finding new ways to boil the water.
@@benjaminlee985 i know of two non steam engine based power sources (kinetic dynamos and solar panels), and one of them is just spinning something really fast like a steam engine. steam engines are just ways of spinning a kinetic dynamo
I love the direction this has gone. Will I receive angry letters about how often I blow the steam whistle?
They can complain all they like, my steam whistle will drown out the sound. TOOOOOOOOOOT
I hate that we are at a state now where sending angry messages to developers for delaying a product they are developing has been normalized.
Also, I don't understand the train of thought of those people. Would they rather the developer releases an unfinished product? I'm sure that wouldn't sit right with them either...
Next DLC: offering loans to the citizens of the town to pay their power bills
Engine simulator: bank dlc
@@Duck1en😂
So we're getting close to making Cities Skyline: Steam Power Edition
@@growingup15 I think almost every way of generation power is making water boil, so basically almost every city is powered by steam :D
@@Duck1en True. I forget that our world is still powered by steam.
The steamtown logo is on point! Can’t wait to play!
This is sick. Can't wait for the DLC to be released
i think for the bottom left information pannel, it would look cool if it was a piece of parchment stapled to the blueprint, maybe with a coffe mug stain on it too lol, doesnt seem to fit with it being a blueprint like the rest of it imo
Imagine if we got Steam Workshop support. People making steam-powered things, little minigames, or quality of life mods. It would be amazing
Imagine a steam work shop! Drills, and lathes, all powered by steam!
Yeah. Steam-powered anime thot with big ass and big boobs
@@MazeFrame 🤔 So, would it be a central boiler that feeds steam to engines? (at the risk of power loss dependant of distance from boiler)
Or, where each machine has its own boiler as well, with each just tapped into a central water reservoir? (presumably a lack of power did to smaller boilers? [dunno if that tracks, as I'm not a steam enthusiast])
😊
Sweet! Will definitely grab the DLC once it's released. Good job man, looking good! :D
Thanks, I appreciate the support 🙏
Ange : I want to keep it simple
also Ange : By the way I STUDIED the performance of my game to make it P E R F E C T!
Can't wait for the DLC!
I have to say, I just stumbled upon this today after falling down a rabbit hole from the Drive61 video on the V10 engines featuring your Engine Simulator. It's been very informative and I am looking forward to this DLC release.
It is really refreshing to find a developer that is so open and transparent with his development process. Thanks.
Suggestion: The light in the buildings' windows should be turned off at night when the residents are sleeping.
While this might be more "real" it doesn't actually look better (I've tried it). The visualization is also meant to be more of an indicator of whether the power is on/off and if the lights are off, it would be hard for the player to tell if there's an outage (without some other indicator). Also, I live in a city and the skyline is mostly still lit up at night, only being completely dark during outages
postcard aesthetic you should make that stamp have thicker wavy white borders and enlarge and rotate the stamp a bit
I have a feeling that the players will be able to use all DLCs at once. Considering this will be a long-term project with more DLCs I reckon it will be complete chaos beyond some point
The DLCs are not simply additions to the simulation, they are entirely separate game modes that need to be activated by the player. While having multiple DLCs active at once would be hilarious and certainly create chaos later, this isn't how they work unfortunately.
@@AngeTheGreat sad. I wanted to manage both a city and a train with the same engine :(
It's rare to see someone this technical but also knows how to make stuff look good! Awesome stuff
I am really looking forward to playing with this DLC. In my opinion you should make a special "supporters edition" which is double or tripple the price of the normal DLC, so that anyone who wants to support you a bit more in your journey, just can do it with their wallet in Steam, instead of having to deal with Patreon and so on. Then this additional funds can perhaps lay the foundation for further DLCs or they just buy you a coffee, depending on how much of the players will choose that option.
PS.: If this is against your moral, then perhaps add a small extra, that does not take to much effort to build on your side, for example that the "supporters addition" allows to select a custom background color from a color-wheel.
I'm not sure it's convenient as Steam takes a big part of the price you pay
@@XMarkxyz Yeah, I know they do, but I think it would reach more willing users, just my personal feeling.
I am super excited. I am just upset because I only recently subscribed to your patron and most likely won’t be getting a key and if that doesn’t happen then I will probably just buy it. I am just super glad that you are making so much progress on this and other projects. I wish you the best of luck
You'll still get a key, don't worry! Thanks for watching and your support 🙏
What started as a novelty side project is now becoming a full-blown game. I love the concept, and the direction youve taken with this is great. Cant wait to give this a whirl
I’m very excited about the DLC and will definitely buy it when release. Best of luck to you and your developers, and take your time. We can wait.
I just happened across the original steam game today. Seemed cool enough that I opened an account on steam just to try it. Very nice work! Great to see additional development. I will say, though - the thing that brought me in was the 'steam' part... as in running / tweaking the engine. I'm not so much a finance guy - so I'd probably lose some interest in the power generation part. But as far as the steam engine portion - a lot more could go into that to make it more of an 'adventure'. Just thinking out loud, but... different types of fuel [hard coal, soft coal, wood, biomass, etc], amount of fuel to feed, amount of air to the fuel, slide valve timing, boiler pressure/temperature limits (and enhancements for higher levels of each), boiler insulation, draft inducers, boiler water feed pumps...the list goes on. Anyway, keep up the great work!
im so gonna buy everything you upload for this game with no restraint
Looking forward to this release! Your concise-but-detailed updates are nice touches to see how things are coming long. Keep it up!
It might be interesting to experiment with contextual enlarging/zooming when different areas of the interface are given focus by the player (or on hover etc etc).
The main one I can think of is the town view. Also I know you said you might change the art direction from being a postcard… but in case you do keep the postcard style, you could allow the player to flip over the postcard to see whatever info (cumulative stats, flavor text, etc) on the back.
Also the postcard theming could be intuitive to players, as a skeuomorphic design will inform players how they can interact with the interface
Ange, I would love if you could simulate the bring up procedure of a power plant, you know, getting the generator up to speed running at 50Hz and slowly varying the speed and phase until the syncroscope tells you you are in sync with the power grid and it is safe to connect the generator to the network.
The issue with that is that your generator is the only one on grid, so nothing to sync with.
Maybe you could buy a second steam engine when the town gets big enough?
Ange: intends to invent super advanced 3d engine simulator
Also Ange: accidently gets famous for basic ass 2d steam engine
I know, right? I just hope that Steam Engine Simulator doesn't become TOO popular, or else he'll probably end up mothballing Engine Simulator 2.0 (ES3D). 😭 Apparently, people prefer a steam whistle over a roaring V12, because "cute".
Super cool dude. I saw your previous video about the base game from likea couple years ago and went to get it on steam, only to find it was already installed. Lol. Cant wait to try the DLC!
"Shut up and take my money!"
-Phillip J. Fry, 2010
From: "I started this as a joke"
To: "I delayed it ... because it lacked the quality people expected"
As many other things, it gained its own life and the joke is now a real job.
Yooooo this looks awesome
I’ll definitely be getting this, also love the honesty and transparency too, most devs nowadays miss that, so cheers to you, take my money (soon)
i love the postcard design of the city map thingamabob, good stuff
This is such a cool project and can't wait to see what the future holds for this and Engine Simulator.
On a side note, you could always use icons for sub menus, hiding all the clutter from the control panel. For example, using a mailbox sign for the mailbox tab, a stack of graph bars for different statistics like population growth, energy demands, quarterly profits and expenses, etc. It would look a lot cleaner and would make for some interesting statistics to be added in the future, such as fuel prices that are connected to the actual stock exchange, transitioning to alternative fuels or introducing air pollution, making you choose to use cleaner, renewable sources like wind, solar, even nuclear power. The possibilities are endless!
Dude managed to turn running a simple steam engine into a full fledged game with a story, absolutely fascinating. You're a hell of a guy, and I'm excited for engine sim.
I'm consistently awed at your prowess in blending great design with great code. Very much looking forward to this!
Just wanted to let you know that awhile back you were able to bring me the greatest joy in life. I was arguing with someone online and used your project to prove my point. Wasn't a super important or complex thing, just stated that we can simulate stuff like engine sounds to a reasonable degree with normal hardware/software nowadays. Thanks for helping to bring me the joy of crushing someone else's opinion on the internet, that alone is worth the price of your games/projects to me.
I like the blue print look, I hope something like it makes it into the Engine Simulator. Because I imagine myself as an Engine designer and I like the idea of producing blueprints of what I can make. Also I think you should animate the flame 🔥 icon to complement the steam animation.
It would be really cool to see more detail in the power generation plant, like how all the plants need to be in sync and how a generator needs to be synchronised to the grid before connection. physicsduck has a few videos on powerplant operation which might be helpful
I think you really hit the nail on the head with the gameplay mechanics. It sounds like a legitimately fun game! I'll be sure to grab it
Maybe this is out of scope... but you've got an opportunity to sneak some additional mechanics in there. Specifically with the building/upgrading of buildings on the city grid. Perhaps spread out building cause greater infrastructure costs (gotta run longer lines). Or maybe something like a conway's life algo to determine which places are optimal to place buildings, or give the city its own natural growth/decay. Or even just some sort of underlying terrain for each plot which makes certain ones more expensive to build on than others. Basically, I'm just saying I think when you choose to build a building, you should, for one reason or another, have to consider where to build.
Either way, I'm hyped, this looks fun!
Doesn't Conway's game of life inherently encourage everything to move? Sounds counterproductive for a city sim...
absolutely love love the idea of these minigames based on the framework of engine simulator, even if it will slow down the release of engine simulator, this seems suuper fun
I joke about steam engine simulator being my favorite game to my friends whenever I play it, but I genuinely think this will make it one of my favorite games when the DLC releases. Very excited, the delay was worth it, I love the steamtown postcard look you showed in this video, I was apprehensive about the town you initially showed but now it looks much more fleshed out and ready to go.
Ange, I thought you were supposed to be great! 3200RPM isn't 60Hz, it's 53.333Hz!!! It's 3600RPM that's 60 rotations per second. Silly goose :D
I misspoke lol, you're right I should have said 3600 rpm
🪿
It seems suited for a clicker game. Run the steam engine to make power. Sell power to buy fuel for the engine, etc, etc. Make the numbers go up and up, make the engine run faster and faster. Start by powering a small building, end up conquering the universe.
I really like the postcard look!
Good job man! Can't wait to see the progress you will make with Engine simulator after the release of DLC!
As someone who grew up in actual Steamtown (Scranton, pa), I love seeing steam engine related projects!
Nice work!
I wasn't sold on the DLC before, but now I'm surely going to buy it. Really respect your commitment to quality and an enjoyable experience. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions, but you're really making all the right ones.
I know this has been suggested but a steam locomotive sim would be amazing! And I have a decent idea on how you could incorporate it into a future dlc. Now you have people in steam town right. But what happens when the city starts to get really big and now theres a transportation demand. Well look no further than passanger services! You could make a minigame of sorts that may occur at a certain time of day that makes it do you have to control a steam locomotive for its daily run. If you succeed your city will have a better reputation and will also allow more people to enter the city. Of you crash or worse explode your locomotive your reputation goes down. Could be a fun thing to add and could add to the lore if you crash. But regardless im excited to see what you come up with and I hope this helps
Looking amazing and I can't wait to play.
If I could request one thing it would be the ability to change the valve timing in the engine.
Even if it's perfectly adjusted as is it would add another knob for my brain to fiddle with.
undying game is being born.
This is awesome. Love the blend of a fun narrative, art and engineering. Serious sim city vibes
I think it might make sense to add multiple screens, one for the engine, one for the city (infrastructure, received letters, stuff like that), because I believe you wouldn't need both in one view, and it might declitter everything a bit.
This is sick, and a video like this is a great way to get people interested. I hope and I expect you to make a bunch of money out of it.
One idea is to add the ability to buy batteries so you could store extra energy in case demand suddenly spikes and you can’t speed up the engine fast enough, or when you need to refill the engine with water and the power output drops for a while. The battery should be quite expensive and maybe only unlocked later in the game but I think it would be very useful, especially late game.
Also, a future DLC idea is the ability to run a steam locomotive. Having to manage a steam engine that has to move and stop would be very interesting, as well as needing to manage buying water and coal at stations so you don’t get stranded on the tracks. You could transport cargo and passengers from different locations and earn money based on your efficiency and speed of service.
OK, I got the game, and I LOVED IT! and now it has a dlc?! that is fully affordable for poor people like me? that is better than most AAA game dlc's?! thanks AngeTheGreat!
This is pretty cool ngl. Wish you good luck with engine simulator and dlc!
Aw that is wicked, I used to have a discord server called Steamtown, so this pulls me in.
Now I have to ask, is there a weather effect that changes ambient temperature and random disconnects depending on grid integrity (lower grid integrity easier for disconnects during a storm)? I would assume no, randomness is usually a poor choice for player engagement but I saw weather in the bottom left of the vid and with the new features it seems as if there might be.
Love the work and that welcome to steam town font is glorious, would make a killer steam background. The simplistic yet detailed nature of the game is what makes it fun and I love the dedication to effort.
IDEA. you could add a reverser that would allow more or less steam into the piston so that you could have max efficiency. It could also allow you to switch the direction of the steam engine.
I love the game and I think that the DLC will be great.
:D
i dont know if it would be to complex to add, but i think it'll be a nice addition to the game loop, that you need to do some fuel managent - rather simplistic. Like you have a Storage for x tons (upgradable) and 3-4 different suppliers with alternating prices each (other) day, and the player has to buy the fuel. They can decide how much they get and sorta can gamble to get the best value. each supplier has different quality fuel so that if you buy the cheapest you need more fuel than with the more high quality stuff. that would add a bit more variaty and allowes the player to be a bit more involved.
looking good so far
I’m not sure how it could be scaled up to bigger projects, but I love this monetization model.
You get all the basic functionality to play with for free, but if you want it to be an actual game you’ve gotta buy it.
I just have to ask, it popped into my head when I was chilling just now. Have you thought about merging your Engine Simulator efforts with the Automation team? I knew rather quickly that that was the direction you were sort of headed with the project anyway and I figured you guys might work really well together.
I'm really loving following the project. Hope it works out good for you!
I'm honestly looking forward to the DLC, it looks very well made so far, and also interesting.
Fantastic work 👌
I loved the white and blue city design at 2:40, will there be an option to toggle between the colored version and the blueprint version? Both designs are really nice, and I am definitely buying this day one!
It would be nice if you add in a future update a way of stocking the extra energy in some kind of batteries ( that can get old and start losing their power ). Add at the same time add energy distribution company's with each one offering different prices per KWH of energy, making the player able to choose which one to choose to distribute the energy to ( kinda like turmoil oil selling ), with a backstory about each company, making the choice affect the overall of the population. Its kinda complicated, but might be a nice addition
Really looking forward to this release :)
As a steam engine person, I'd like more detail in the engine. Double acting cylinders, multiples, and compounding would be awesome, as would reversible valve gear. Stephenson Linkage is my favorite. Also, from the engines I play with, you're missing some safety features, like relief valves and fusible plugs.
I'm excited for the future of this game. It has so much potential!
This is looking nice. Take your time with it !
I'd like to able to adjust the water pressure and other variables, to have some fun in sandbox. Maybe it could even be a thing to upgrade things, like water pressure or max heat generation in the DLC.
I know this has never been the intended scope of this (side?) project, but having the abbility to assemble such a machine yourself you'd greatly enhance the experience. Like letting the player go wild with the indivdual components and see what they come up with(be it a working or non working machine).
Also ties better into gameplay by having some parts or some sizes of parts locked til the player, for example, buys them.
And at this point I am not sure if I haven't commented this already ona past video, so pleas excuse me if this is a duplicate.
or you build a machine with too much pressure and it turns into a bomb
or you build a machine with too much pressure and it turns into a bomb
Supercritical fluids, flywheels, multiphase power (three phase and beyond), and multiple fuel options would all be interesting mechanics to add.
Also, the possibility of engine overheating.
Looking forward to a full on AAAA game when I'm 80 years old, I'll get to say "I was here when this was a 2D game and had 5 buttons".
Awesome work and presentation, Ange! I love this ❤
Dude, this game has so much potential. With more of such mechanics introduced, this could be a contender for indy sim of the year.❤
While unfortunate to hear you had to deal with some mean messages, I'm glad you didn't let it get to you though.
Most of the community from what I've seen are very much happy to wait as long as you feel it'll take Ange, So thank you for making this lovely experience for us all ^-^
I think you should have a saw mill or threshing machine as you next dlc but I think if you do that you should have a steam tractor powering them
don't give up, I really like your simulation game's
could be cool if you have to compete with other power companies, and having to balance your cost, upgrades etc. Turmoil-esque
You should make a sabotaging event where a worker can sabotage and cause an outage. Maybe a way to satisfy staff would decrease this chance.
I can't get over that BeamNG devs fund this {channel} that's just so amazing
The legend is back!
Ah yes; more """""low effort""""" content from Ange. In all seriousness, I feel like you really underestimate yourself, this is amazing work! I always get excited when you release a new video, and I enjoy watching them!
Would be cool if you had to think of the real aspects of running a power plant like synchronizing AC with the grid and adjusting to load as solar and other generators come online.
next DLC idea : you can put the engines you made in ES into this game
That one mailbox has lots of potential as it can be used by the townsfolk to complaint to you before they leave the town whit things like: "The electric bill is too high for my income" "These power outages are way too common for me to work properly
The steam engine expanded universe is on the way, can't wait for Matpat to make a Theory about it 😂
Oh, you don't know do you...
MatPat is no longer making videos for the Game Theory channel.
Wooo! I can’t wait 😄
its an interesting idea and a novel way to teach concepts to players. as a possible future DLC, expansion, or "sequal", using some of the tech that you develope in engine sim (when thats done) you might be able to allow the player to build their OWN steam (or other) engines. in that situation the fictional "steam town" would probably be better of being a static scoring metric, though some pseudo-lore about it could be thrown together if you wanted.
on the gameplay of the current DLC, i dont think the player should be able to interact with the town directly. rather their ability to operate the engine efficiently should allow the town to grow itself. i mean, your electrical plant workers probably aren't out here doing house flipping on the side. so instead, money should be something that the player uses to feed back into the upkeep of the engine.
so, for example, you start the game inheriting this old beat up engine that doesn't even have a means of power output. the player is guided through the process of cleaning the cobwebs off it (metaphorically and literally. nothing complex, just some 2D elements that disappear when clicked/moused over) and getting it started, learning the basics of operating it. once the player has had some time to get familiar with it they get a letter from the mayor of steam town, who's noticed you getting the old steam engine running and offers you the job to opwer the small town; gifting you an old (and inefficient) alternator to hook up to get started. from there your goal would be to maintain a desired output, with planned (and unplanned) events either raising or lowering the demand and requiring rebalancing it. as you get more money you can put that into upgrading and maintaining parts of the engine, like the alternator or the fuel. the town post card would show visually the broad goings on in the town and serve as the players main real time feedback of events, with statistical reports only being done once a day and shown on the back of the post card when putting the cursor over it. the game does not need to be deep nor have vast lore. just some motivation to learn and understand. and more over you need to consider what the function of the game should be. you dont write a whole pressure and fluid dynamics emulation system to play a city builder. you should focus directly on teaching the player how the engine works and about the math and physics going on (at least in the real world equivalents of the engine). the "gameplay" should serve as a tool to leverage that learning experience in an interactive and entertaining way, as the player learns about the engine they are operating as well as the little town they are providing for in doing so.
i'd say thats my "2 cents" but it turned into more of a 5 dollars XD
wow, that's all i can say. this artstyle is especially beautiful. i can't wait to spend my money on something i'd consider worthwhile
I like the visuals of this game and how you edited this video, keep up the great work man.
I don't have any money, but if I did I would definitely subscribe to your Patreon.
If I could suggest a game idea.
I'd suggest something like how a Minecraft mod called "Create" works, where you can build machines using rotational force to power several different modules, there are several addons for this mod made by many different mod creators, one of which, adds electricity generation using that rotational force concept that Create provides by making generators.
I think this could be a good concept for a sandbox game in the style of your Steam Engine Simulator game, where you could add elements of a roguelike/rpg style game to add different gameplay mechanics and to keep things fresh.
The fun with Steam Engine Simulator is - at least for me - making it go faster. And with the whole *ahem* demon mode, you can do that pretty well
I really can't wait. When steam showed me this game, I had to download it. Loved it, simple yet awesome.
I love that we live in a world where Ange can make this for us
I like the layered town and switch to plan view. I was thinking you could have a scroll to the layered view like scrolling through rollodex. Look that up if you are too young 😅
bro spent more time and passion on this than the entire ubisoft corporation could do for a $70 game 😭😭
(extremely well done, keep up the great work man)
New viewer here, it sounds like this is becoming less of a steam engine simulator, and more of a utility simulator operating a pre-designed engine. I don't think that's a wrong direction to take, but my expectations were that this sim would be more engineering related. You could have players grow by relying on a pre-designed heat engine up to a certain point where it's physically constrained to do any more than say 200% of its rated power and you need to come up with a new design. One upgrade could simply be to go from manually regulating the plant to implementing automation to free up your time and stop taking the role of the operator as often.
The goal of the game would then be to make your job easier, play with customization, learn some thermodynamic principles to make better engines, template your designs and build out your facility rather than building housing (that doesn't make sense). Gradually the player builds their confidence, understanding, and capability. There would be risks to implementing a design that that you didn't fully simulate to test the operating conditions (pressure relief valve at xxxºC/ K), or didn't meet your expectations, and you would start having failures and losing engines, money, and customers. Players would hunt for easier to use, more efficient and optimized designs according to the elements you include in the game. Factory games are not new, but I'm not aware of a factory game that is a true simulator of a physical process. All these developers comes up with their own physics, but I am starting to get the impression after playing with your engine simulator and watching a few videos about it that you don't like fake things.
@InfinionExperiments For the price I'm asking for this DLC there is simply no way to deliver all the features you're talking about. This DLC is mostly meant to be a more interesting load for the engine to handle and was never intended to have engineering elements. My other project "Engine Simulator" will be a purely simulation-based sandbox with MAYBE some sort of career mode but I'm not 100% sure about this right now.
@@AngeTheGreat Oh for a $5 DLC on a free game? Yeah that's asking a lot. This is my impression. Maybe it won't fit in the very specific context of your game, but if we were talking about a full-fledged $20-$50 game, this is where my mind would be.
I think this can be evolved into steam train simulator, though could be much harder challenge to face.
Perhaps for the sake of optimization, no need fancy ultra-high 3D graphic for visualization. Just simple 3D just good enough for eyes to see.
Remember that old java powder game? by danball or something like that, you are building the glowup version of that, thank you for it