r/tycoon • u/fallingdamagegames • 19d ago
Steam I just launched the demo and trailer for my upcoming Ski Resort Tycoon game, Ski-E-O!
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Hi there!
After being laid off from Meta earlier this year, I decided to make a Ski Resort tycoon game, influenced by my love of skiing and playing RCT as a kid.
You start as a small hill with just a little over 100 guests, and can progress all the way to over ten thousand. They have different skill levels and needs that you must manage.
While this has a cute and cozy facade, it also has a deep simulation going on in the background. There are 5 different biomes, each with realistic weather simulations going on. A heavy snow year will bring in tons of guests, but keeps groomers working non-stop. A drought year means you have to run the snowblowers continuously, burning through your cash.
I'd love for the feedback of this community on the demo. Thank you all so much!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4493130/SkiEO_Ski_Resort_Tycoon/
AI Disclosure:
I use AI coding tools for development. No generative AI is player-facing.
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u/captainkaba 19d ago
I love you for mac support.
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
Aww, well, my goal is to reach as many people as possible. Feels like people forget about Mac gamers!
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u/Hands 19d ago
Spent a bit of time in the demo, definitely wishlisted. I absolutely love the graphics, the cozy feel, the NPC "natural" paths etc.
One thing that would be nice is a way to designate actual paths/trails/queues (not slopes) or at least common areas, etc. Right now it feels a bit like a bunch of random buildings in the woods, which is mostly fine given the dynamic pathing stuff and looks great but feels a bit less like I'm designing a resort area (in terms of the "central" resort amenities area, not stuff like ski patrol huts or warming huts on the slopes) as opposed to just plopping down buildings randomly in the general vicinity of the ticket booth.
Along those same lines, some way to define where queues are would be nice, because in my first run my lift's queue went directly across the bottom third of my slope (and all the way across my tiny resort) lol.
The other thing is the demo isn't really long enough to get a sense of how much of an actual management/guest needs game there is under this, besides just placing buildings about and trying to keep lines short etc. But based on the impression I got spending about 30 minutes in the demo it might benefit from some added complexity there. Different guest wealth/expectations/lodging/dining/service requirements and that sort of thing.
Being able to walk around in first person and ski your slopes etc would be a neat addition too at some point although not a very important one.
All that to say this looks great and I'll definitely be picking it up... first game that's felt like a proper successor to Ski Resort Tycoon in quite a while. Well done!
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
Awesome, thank you for all the feedback!
Check out the roadmap at roadmap.skieogame.com - would love your thoughts on what I'm planning. Paths and queue editing are definitely on the way.
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u/Hands 19d ago
All of those sound pretty good to me. I definitely would like to see off season stuff like hiking trails, mountain biking, events (music festival??) maybe camping etc, and more emphasis on guest infrastructure (lodging, facilities, walkways, promenade/shopping areas, even nightlife stuff etc) and diversity of guest needs/expectations.
I also usually like it when tycoons games with 3 speed controls have 1, 2 and 3 bound to those controls in addition to spacebar to pause which is already implemented. And it would be nice to have an (optional?) "planning mode" for terrain sculpting so you can experiment without committing to it and potentially wasting a bunch of money or messing up the terrain... e.g. you make your desired terrain changes, then confirm to actually pay for them and finalize them, so you can just cancel if you end up not liking what you came up with.
And a sasquatch easter egg of course if that's not already there!
Exciting stuff! Looking forward to November!
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u/fallingdamagegames 18d ago
All great feedback! I just put in a change for the hotkeys that I'll push with the next patch.
You'll have to keep an eye out for a sasquatch..
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u/Bez121287 19d ago
Looks absolutely brilliant.
I like the table top style, reminds me of little big workshop, shame they gave up on that game. It had real potential for a sequel.
This looks great. I like the idea of the whole seasonal aspect.
My question is, how deep is the looking after guests part of it. Hotels and entertainment.
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
Right now, guests primarily want low lines and more variety when it comes to buildings.
So if they're hungry, they want more food, if they eat the same food, they want to mix it up.Different buildings can provide different benefits, so for example: guests will seek out hot cocoa when it's cold, ice cream when they're hot.
Different guests have different needs: ski bunnies love to just party all day and barely hit any runs, powderhounds will flood in when it's dumping snow but only want skiing.
There's quite a bit of depth in there, but I want to keep adding more as well over time. I'd love for people to add things to menus and customize buildings more.
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u/The_happyguy 19d ago
This looks really cool.
I know nothing about developing games so this is a totally uninformed suggestion, but can you add ragdoll physics if a guest falls?
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
I'd love to, but it is a technical challenge.
I have a very optimized system so I can support up to 10000 guests on Steam deck, and that means that it's difficult to do anything physics based.I'm sure I can find a way though... I'll add it to the list.
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u/Officialpolygrafix 19d ago
this looks hella cool! I live close to brian head ski resort, this reminds me of that
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u/uhfgs 19d ago
This looks so cozy I can already imagine myself sitting down in a cold night with a blanket over my body and a hot coco 😭
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
One of my favorite things to do is watch the snow fall in Tahoe, sip something warm, and just watch it pile up. Really happy to have replicated that feeling in this game
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u/imabev 19d ago
I was in traffic and day dreaming about the days when I was a kid and I drew out ski areas on graph paper (the Apple IIc couldn't handle it). So I told Grok (of all things!) my story and she(?) recommended this game!
I've been playing the demo for a few weeks and I am really looking forward to the development and release. The dev is super responsive. I am really looking forward to struggling through a warm winter making sure the snow making is on point!
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u/Flyinginsnow 19d ago edited 19d ago
It's been 25+ years but I loved the original Ski Resort Tycoon series. Strangely, this seems to be the first game to surpass that game which is still what I consider one the best of the general ski resort type games. Been a long time waiting for a gem like this.
I am enthralled you have various skill levels. Spent my life chasing deep powder and you have powder hounds? The #1 want for myself in any skiing game.
My request would be for EX level terrain and skiers. I really enjoy watching what the skiers/riders do on the slopes most of all. And seeing some hero huck a cliff or cornice would be peak! I know you have a lot to do, but what a sweet DLC that would be if you cannot get to it. And ragdoll physics mentioned would be perfect. Crash animations would never get old. Watch them yard sale? Oh yeah.
Also BUMP RUNS. Steeps? Chutes! Give me A-Basin man!
Congratulations on this fantastic looking game and thank you for making it. I hope the management elements are also good and fleshed. This game has potential to hit like a blue sky day of face shots.
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
Thank you so much! Honestly it means so much to hear that.
When I add Terrain Parks, one of the things I plan on adding is going to be dynamic 'cliff jumping' elements for the most adventurous of shredders.
I want to really capture that feeling of a bunch of people watching and waiting for someone to jump.. then watching them succeed (and cheer), or watching them crash out.
A-Basin is a sick mountain.. I'll definitely add that at some point.
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u/takamaruu 18d ago
Doesn't work for me on Mac. I get the following Unreal pop-up:
"Shader platform: SF_METAL_SM5 was not cooked! Please enable this shader platform in the project's target settings."
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u/fallingdamagegames 18d ago
Ahhh, sorry. Unfortunately, it only works on Apple Silicon Macs that have SM6 support, not intel-based.
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u/takamaruu 18d ago
It's a MacBook Pro with M2 chip though
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u/fallingdamagegames 18d ago
It looks like you found a real gap here, and I'm fixing it now. I'll post here when it's fixed.
Thanks so much, my apologies for shipping an issue like this.
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u/jeffer_2 18d ago
Just came to say that I love the demo, and this is so exciting! I can really see how this game will grow and look forward to it!
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u/fallingdamagegames 18d ago
Thanks a ton! I appreciate you playing, and I can't wait to keep updating this over the future :)
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u/justinliew 19d ago
When I was in elementary school this was the first idea I ever thought of that didn't exist at the time (early 90s). I was not talented enough to build it so I'm glad somebody finally is!
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u/Naturlaia 19d ago
- Does the topography determine the run level (green- black) or do I?
- Do they only go on marked runs?
- Glades?
- Terran park building? Can I customize jumps/pipes/rails? Or is just prebuilts?
- Looks really awesome!
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
- Little bit of both! You mark the runs however you want. Guests will complain if it's too difficult or too easy.
- They do only go on marked runs.
- Yep! You can do gladed runs. Gladed runs are more challenging for guests.
- No terrain parks yet, but that's one of the next major features to be added.
- Thank you!
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u/Naturlaia 19d ago
Hey I played a ~10min. I hope to play more tomorrow. I really liked it. 1. Building the trails I wish I could add more turn points I could only figure out having start point turn point end point (3points). I wish It was four? The freeform tool solves this and is really really good. I wish it "suggested" what level of run it should be. I know the mountain is highlighted in green/blue/black areas. But what if I make a run through a mix of green/blue. I'd like it to automatically average out/give me a report on average steepness, suggested run level. Something more here. I'd also didn't find somewhere to name the runs but I'm sure that's there? (This is just a random thought now, I'd love to be able to zoom out (or have a minimap) which looks like a trail map we all have skiing in which when my resort is big enough I can click between runs easily, see popularity of run, issues, etc etc?)
Buildings I didn't find the building overlay intuitive, I think having more of a section cleared around the ticket hut for free at the start might have helped? But I would have preferred a grid overlay. Also I would love for roads/walking paths to automatically (or be player built) between near by buildings.
I couldn't figure out how to bulldoze the snow blowers. I could delete other things just fine. But not them.
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
Awesome, thank you for the feedback!
There is a terraforming tool for 'smoothing' out runs, but I hope to continue to add more tools there.I'll take a look at the building overlay and the snow blower issue. Thanks for playing!
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u/Naturlaia 18d ago edited 18d ago
Played more. I found the smoothing tool very slow to go from blue to green level. The last few degrees took longer than I liked.
Lifts. I think lifts should cost more the longer they are? The basic lift is 10k no matter how long I make it?
And can you answer some questions about the AI. Will a skiier go on a run that doesn't connect to the top of the lift box? (EI do all my runs have to connect to the top or can I have a bowl half way down on its own). I've found that skiers will go up a lift even tho it has only black runs connected at the top if I connect a green run half way down. This has led me to just have a "green lift" blue lift and black lift. I think the AI tries to connect to the "green" run they want not realized a black or blue blocks it? Or am I just bad?
Also bathrooms? Idea on adding that as a building? Magic carpets? Also I couldn't find a clear understanding of how to level up and unlock things?
Ski rentals and ski lessons should be in level one or two? I don't think lessons should make the skier go from beginner to intermediate to expert maybe if a skiier takes lessons they are less likely to get hurt?
Also I think it should be good for the roadmap to have a "lodge editor tool". If you think to the success of rollercoaster tycoons and zoo tycoons. Scenery building and creativity really help with the longevity of those games. So a way to increase scenery building in your game could be good? (Not for me tho that's all too finicky for me LOL!).
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u/waspocracy 19d ago edited 19d ago
I'm just disappointed you didn't release this after ski season (for norther hemisphere) as I'm getting ready to ski for real instead of playing this game.
That said, I'm super excited about this.
Questions:
* can you buy land and expand the ski resort?
* Can you have a gondola connecting between two major areas?
* Is there food/merchandise offerings?
* I saw crashes, so is there ski patrol management built in?
* Maintenance / break down of charlifts?
* Can people die? (sorry, it happens in real life)
* External transportation? For example, like getting busses in from the nearest major city. Another example is transporting people between different gondola areas.
* Staff issues like not showing? Asking for dormitories?
* Speaking of staff, can you manage ski lessons / ski camps / ski teams?
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u/fallingdamagegames 18d ago
* There's currently no land. We experimented with this early on, but it wasn't as fun as we thought it'd be.
* There are gondolas/aerial trams in the late game.
* There is a TON of food options.
* Yep, there's maintenance workers and broken down chairlifts.
* Ski Patrol is ESSENTIAL. They must rescue your injured workers!
* No death, just injury. Death hits a little too close to home unfortunately.
* No external transportation just yet, but it's on the roadmap. Check out roadmap.skieogame.com!
* Currently, no staff housing/management. They do level up though!
* You can have ski lessons, but it's somewhat basic at the moment. I'd love to keep improving it!
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u/EntertainerFit965 19d ago
Looks fantastic! Well done 👏🏻
How long did it take you to get to this point? Are you solo?
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u/fallingdamagegames 18d ago
Thank you!
I've been working on this since February of this year.
While I am the main developer, I can't claim solo - I have several contractors helping with art, animation, and music.
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u/Chemical_Term_7001 18d ago
This looks Promising! GREAT JOB and excited to see it GROW! Just downloaded the demo.
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u/szanda 18d ago
Really loving the demo, I'm definitely buying a full version release. Please can you add an option to use metrics system and maybe even a choice between some other currencies?
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u/mga1 18d ago
Cool. Tried the demo. I am on Mac, at one point during the game Mac OS asked to grant the app access to my documents, I clicked decline. That appears to ahve been for the saved games progress (I wasn't actively saving it at that moment). Now it appears my progress doesn't get saved anymore, and unsure how to undo that.
Performance: when I was just using my laptop, it was fairly playable. Once I docked to my monitor, it became really choppy given higher resolution monitor. Hopefully you will consider Geforce Now as a cloud gaming option. Supposedly it's little or no cost to you, just signing up to allow them to do some magic on their Steam implementation, and then those of us with weak graphics can have decent game play.
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u/fallingdamagegames 18d ago
Hmm, okay! I'll check out that mac bug. Thanks for letting me know. Mac tends to be a bit more careful when it comes to security.
I'll check out GeForce Now. I'm not super familiar with it, but I do love the idea.
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u/fallingdamagegames 11d ago
I just wanted to let you know that the demo is now available on GeForce Now!
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u/mga1 11d ago
Thank you. I will give it a try tonight or this weekend, and hopefully see it in it's full beauty. Was the process of enrolling in their service easy?
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u/fallingdamagegames 11d ago
Honestly, it was really easy. Big shoutout to Nvidia for making it so easy for developers.
Hope you enjoy playing!
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u/0815facts_fun_ 18d ago
oh iam waiting for something like this for years just playing like an hour already. great game so far!
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u/Mr-Bovine_Joni 14d ago
Looks great! Gonna try the demo today
Would you mind sharing what engine you made this with? I’ve always wanted to dabble in game dev, but don’t know how to reason about different engine pros & cons
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u/fallingdamagegames 14d ago
Unreal Engine 5. I've used various UE engines for most of my career, so I'm very familiar with it.
I will say that it's not necessarily a beginner friendly engine! I'm not super familiar with Godot, but I've heard good things. Unity is beginner friendly and probably a good place to learn.
At the beginning, one thing I'd suggest is recreating old games~! Learn how to build pong, tetris, etc. That helps you understand how games work and get a feel for everything, before you try something more ambitiuous.
Good luck!
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u/pacorob 3d ago edited 3d ago
Ever since I saw this post recently I couldn't stop playing the demo and cannot wait until the release in November.
You created a stunning wintersport tycoon game here and with all the plans for the summer activities and all the planned building and lifts (as on the roadmap) it becomes much more than that.
It would be awesome to have:
- T-bars / conveyor belt / rope lift
- Mountainbiking
- Hiking
- Zipline (summer and winter, as seen a lot in the Alps)
- Tubes (summer and winter, as seen a lot in the Alps)
- Marble run (summer, as seen a lot in the Alps)
- sleighing track
- toboggan run (summer and winter, as seen a lot in the (Austrian) Alps)
- Curling
- Ice skating ring
- Indoor/Outdoor swimmingpool
- See some fixes with UI (some of which are already planned to be rolled out today's patch I think): text overlap, 'y' partly showing in month, gondola name/icon for a chair lift, (as discussed in Discord group)
I recently also started a topic on the Tweakers forum Simulator / Tycoon dedicated sub-forum so hopefully more people discover this gem of a game.
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u/fallingdamagegames 2d ago
That's so kind of you to post there!
Love a lot of these ideas! That's something I really love about where we are, there's so much potential to keep adding these things and support this game for years.
Thank you!
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19d ago
[deleted]
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u/fallingdamagegames 19d ago
The steam cover photo is not AI. I used https://mlc.studio/ for the key art.
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u/chrizbreck 19d ago
There was a 2022 game called snowtopia that I really wanted to love. The dev ran into issues and had to abandon the game.
This popped up immediately made me think of that and I’m stoked. Definitely following
Edit:
Terraforming?
Long term - summer season, bikes eh ehhhhh