Home Tycoon: Not Forgotten
by BONZO, HSM Editor
Here’s the problem with games as they make their way into Home. Often – too often – they end up forgotten once launched, until they end up retired or abandoned. I can understand why that happens; if the community doesn’t show it’s support, then what reason does a developer have to update it? It holds true for public spaces as well, and thus we pay attention when a game or space sees an update.
Suppose you are at this point in Home Tycoon: you’ve bought all the expansions, all the upgrades, and built up your city to the max. You have no more space to build on, is there anything left to do in Home Tycoon?
Yes, plenty.
You can destroy and rebuild, and change things around. Now suppose you were one of the users who enjoyed the game but couldn’t or just didn’t see the value in spending real money in expansions – or anything else in Home – and you have reached the maximum level of developing on the city as well. You can reorient and change things around in your city to achieve that 100% employment/growth rate on your city’s status. You achieve that, and… then what?
That question is what plagues the end of any game, particularly in Home.
Some Home games have seen expansions, and if Home is truly reaching a status of being more a gaming platform than a social platform, the one thing which is necessary to maintain that is continuous updates.
Aurora saw updates, Uproar has surprisingly seen updates (and sooner than expected). Sodium 2 has also been updated, though it has been a while since the last one. Midway, Novus Prime, Great Edo, and Southern Island have seen game updates as well.
The fact that these games aren’t forgotten and updated periodically ensures user traffic. And Home Tycoon has seen an update again, and this time it’s not just for the premium users.
This is the biggest update Home Tycoon has seen since it launched. You may have noticed a new expansion available, and available for free. No gold coins are required, and this is a tremendous gift from Hellfire Games to the loyal Home Tycoon users. This expansion is available to everyone and includes free missions, new rewards, a new building to unlock through the missions.
Overall, there are a number of new changes to Home Tycoon. The Rising Revenues update includes several new features like moving buildings for free, without having to tear them down and rebuild them somewhere else or use a worker, a much needed update. There are new cash rewards for completing activities, special custom car paint jobs, new driving animations for the stunt pack and new population cars with animals behind the wheel. Building stats have been improved, and some special upgrades to the Home Tycoon train station itself in new stores for Premium content, and a Speed Wings boutique – essentially turning the train station as a Hub for Home Tycoon and a showcase space for Hellfire Games.
If you own the VIP pack, which included the golden buildings, you will get a permanent upgrade of fifteen workers, extending your cap to 45. New VIP pack purchases include the exclusive animated Gold Mayor’s Suit for both genders, and the Gold El Valiente car.
The seasonal change sees an update in a new set of buildings, with the Winter Wonderland building pack. Four new buildings which include falling snow, animated lights, and holiday appropriate sounds. This type of seasonal content is valuable for the enthusiasts of the corresponding holidays. I confess I am not one to decorate my home in real life for the holidays; I haven’t been for a long time. But the spirit of the season hasn’t left me, either. I often use a theme or wallpaper on my digital devices to commemorate the specific holiday they apply to.
Home qualifies, and frankly, even a quasi-Scrooge like me would have been disappointed if there had been no holiday update. After all, ’tis the season. My experience with snow has made me hate real snow a little, but I still love seeing it represented in a passive environment. As long as I don’t feel the cold I love it, and I rather love seeing the snow covered roofs, the snow men, and the flashing lights. It warms the heart of this Grinch.
The commercial building options saw an earlier update from TransUtopia which didn’t require gold coins. Now, the housing building options see an update with a new residential building, which boosts your population a great deal with the Hometown Towers. But for those who have been clamoring for it, there are two new commercial ventures with Sports Stadiums as well.
Another very useful update is that if you are in your city or a friend’s, and you want to meet up, you really have to coordinate where to meet in such a large expansive space. Now a green arrow points you to the location of your friend so you can find them easier. That update alone improves the social aspect of this game.
Soak it in, because this is a huge update, and it is refreshing to see that Hellfire Games is continuing to support Home Tycoon. What I find most impressive is that they have updated without restricting the expansion to being a paid for options. This shows a very generous attitude, because remember, it takes time and resources to create this content. That is money Hellfire Games invests into Home for a marginal return for the minority that spends any real money.
Personally, when I see this type of generosity from developers, it makes me like that developer more, and makes me less hesitant to spend money. In fact, I often look for content from specific developers to see what I will buy more for the sake of supporting the developers than for the sake of the purchase itself. FUBAR, Sodium 2, Mercia, and Home Tycoon are perfect examples of that, because these are games you can play for free, but a few purchases expands and increases the experience you have with them. But making it readily available to everyone, without a monetary restriction, serves to expose your content to a wider market that may decide to spend if they enjoy it enough.
Very good marketing as well, because a whole bunch of users that craved top spot on the leader board have built cities of the gold coin bought apartment towers. Now if they want the new rewards they will have to buy a new city plot or risk leader board spot. Ive always gone for a more well rounded city but to complete most tasks on tycoon, population amounts is the key is the key. Im a EU user ive got every piece available to put in a tycoon city in my city so if anyone is thinking about buying gold coins etc and wants a peek feel free to add me and you can go to my city via train station
With regard to games, you said “…if the community doesn’t show it’s support, then what reason does a developer have to update it?” Sorry, but I think you have that backward. We’re the consumers, choosing where to spend our money. If a developer doesn’t update, what reason do we have to support it? Of course, there are developers who update and I hope it’s profitable for them. But a good update has to offer incentives of some sort… position on a leaderboard, rewards, a lot more fun… something that people want. I think that Hellfire knows what a lot of people want, by the way.
I totally agree. One good example is Mercia. I bought an armor when it came out, even if I had already reached max level in beta. Because it had all the sings of a ready to update game…. Still waiting…
True also that Hellfire knows how to give incentive in updates. Give a shot at new players at the board while trying (trying is the key word
) not to upset veterans too much. Can’t wait for the next Novus-Prime update, the rumor is from a reliable source….
Mercia lockwood havent bothered to fix the issue with the portals not working on the re run of the last mission to kill the queen beetle. That issue has been there since beta. bit of a spoiler on home tycoon all those that have paid money for loads of high rise apartments. this new update brings the 80 gold coin 9999 people globalsyn tower block out as well. What a way to make money, to be top of the leader board you would of had to purchase the vip pack at least 3 times now to make sure you stay top you are going to have to buy it at least 3 times again making home tycoon a very expensive hobby
making top rank on a world wide leaderboard an expansive hobby… Tycoon is still free to play.
While I enjoyed pretty much every “tweak up” of this update, I have some issue with the new “free” expansion pack. If I had known before what would be ask for. I would probably had bought a 3rd city just for it. ( The 2nd one being mostly a race track without much possibility as an “efficient” city).
I might never finish it, or I would have to destroy a good part of a well balance, nice looking city. Just to build rows of skyscrapers.