2024 is shaping up to be a particularly exciting year for city builders, thanks to several games that break away from classic settings and offer alternatives to the genre’s traditional gameplay schemes. Among the most talked about titles is undoubtedly Manor Lords, which stood out for its medieval setting and above all for its combination of real-time strategy, management and diplomatic elements (here is the Manor Lords demo).
We also mention the return of a classic series, Industry Giant, a franchise that stood out at the turn of the millennium with chapters strongly focused on resource management and production lines. Announced without fanfare at the end of last year, we saw Industry Giant 4.0 in action in the hands of its developers, the Bavarian Don Vs Dodo. The build shown was still premature, with numerous areas to refine and balance, while the early access release is scheduled for the end of the year. However, despite being a work in progress, we were able to sense a good potential of the title, thanks to numerous elements that caught our attention during the hands-off.
Masters of planning
As per tradition for the series, we will take on the role of a young tycoon intent on building his own industrial empire. Starting from humble beginnings, our first factories will arise on an uncontaminated map, where there is only a small urban village destined to prosper alongside our production complex.
The developer-led showcase kicked off in just this way, on a fairly small map that was representative of the tutorial scenario, designed to not disorient new players from the campaign. Despite the small scale, some features immediately struck us as being able to stimulate players’ planning skills, while also providing great help to those who are less experienced.
Divided into irregular cells, the map is made up of real districts: each of them gives the possibility of building only a certain type of industry within it. In the urban sector (and in the cells immediately bordering it) we will be able to build only the points of sale of our products, while every other cell will be dedicated to a different production area. At the start of the game, the available productions will presumably be those that we have seen in action, namely agricultural and wood: the game forced the construction of these factories at a considerable distance from the city, which instead arose on the southern border of the map. The positive side of this system is the simplification of territorial planning.
Since the game establishes where we should place the various industrial sectors, we will not have to worry about deciding the best positions every time. This will allow us to immediately focus on optimizing logistics, a fundamental aspect for the success of our empire. From the very beginning we will have to think about building connecting roads, as well as warehouses and the purchase and maintenance of all our transport fleets (at the moment we have only been shown road, rail and boat vehicles) useful for supplying the points of sale for citizens. Logistics will be a key component of success, since an efficient network will increase customer satisfaction and, consequently, profits. To complete the picture of the management phase, we have thought about the panels accessible by clicking on the individual factories: this section still seemed rather immature in terms of the readability of the data that is provided to us, but effective and precise in showing which aspects we can intervene on to optimize our production. One of these is the seasonal planning of production lines which, at least as far as the agricultural sector is concerned, is of vital importance for commercial success: it will in fact be possible to decide which product to focus on during each season of the year, both on the basis of the fluctuation of citizens’ demand and on the basis of the actual production capacity due, for example, to unforeseen events.
Another crucial aspect to consider is the efficiency of the production lines: we will be able to assign a maximum of three within a single company. This will allow us to obtain various semi-finished products from the same factory, thus optimizing the use of raw materials available in the same area and transforming each factory into a multipurpose production center.
The Age of Automation
Industry Giant 4.0 will include 25 types of industrial production, for a total of about 60 between raw products, semi-finished products and finished products since launch. These are not insignificant numbers, especially considering the production synergies that we will have to make sure to maximize and the amount of economic factors that we will have to constantly take into account during our games. Fortunately, many of the aspects related to micromanagement present in previous chapters have been removed.
Let’s talk for example about the routes traveled by the individual means of transport that will be responsible for shuttling between our factories, our warehouses and the sales points in urban areas. According to the developers, requiring players to manage each vehicle (as happened in the previous chapters of the series) would have been madness, considering the amount of elements to constantly monitor.
We couldn’t agree more and we fully share the choice to opt for a “line” approach: in each warehouse we will be able to form real fleets of vehicles, for which we will establish supply stops, or commercial routes without the need to manually trace useless and annoying itineraries. Based on the demand for goods, which varies according to the number of inhabitants present in the territory and the passing of the seasons, we will also be able to decide how much goods to take from each factory to satisfy the needs of the citizens. Once these aspects are in place, the game will take care of the most effective routes for each supply line, ensuring that the products arrive on the store shelves on time.
Attentive readers will have noticed the reference to the term “Industry 4.0”: the developers confirmed to us that this recent technological evolution of the industrial sector has been represented in the game. However, during the hands-off we were not shown any automation of the production lines. The focus was more on what the title will do for us. In fact, in addition to managing the routes and paths, it will also take care of expanding the urban center present in each map. We will not have to worry about building schools or hospitals, but only about making any upgrades to the buildings built by the CPU, if and when our production meets the requirements for these improvements. Only at the end did we have the opportunity to ask the developers a few questions about it. It was confirmed to us that the game will simulate seven eras of modern industrial evolution, starting from 1950 and covering about a century, in line with the temporal progression of the other chapters of the series.
We therefore expect to see new production technologies as the years go by: for now we have only seen two eras (the 50s and the 80s of the 20th century), however, apart from some changes in the textures of the means of transport and buildings, we have not had the opportunity to appreciate any difference in the gameplay mechanics. We also know that there will not be a technology tree, at least not in the traditional sense: the player will not have to unlock new ones by spending resources, but these will be made available automatically as time passes. We are not entirely convinced by this choice, but we are certainly curious to know in more detail how this aspect of the gaming experience will be integrated into the overall progression of a game.
To move with the times
As you might expect, more than twenty years after the release of the last title in the series, the graphics of Industry Giant 4.0 have also been extensively updated compared to its distant predecessor. The map on which the presentation took place was rather small, but we were confirmed that internal tests are underway to offer much larger territories (there was talk of territories with total areas exceeding 36 km²). Even at the current stage of the project, the graphic detail seemed to us to be of a good level, certainly in step with that of direct competitors.
What convinced us the most were the fluid transitions between the seasons, marked by a significant change both in the color palette and in terms of on-screen elements: snow and ice painted the map white as winter progressed, covering an autumnal palette with much warmer tones, which colored the numerous forests present in red, yellow and brown. The seasons will not only be an aesthetic factor, but will also herald the possibility of exceptional climatic events, to which we will have to pay particular attention, especially during the winter. Ice or hail storms, they could appear to put a spoke in the wheels of agricultural production.
The growth of our industry not only changes the landscape, but also makes the expansion of the town present on the map evident, our support for the resale of the goods produced. The territory on which we will build our industrial fortunes, in fact, will always change in real time, so each of our moves will have an immediate impact on the terrain. For example, laying new infrastructures will change the face of the area, creating tunnels in the mountains and adapting the landscape to industrial needs. However, there remains a doubt about the diversity of landscapes available to the player.
Insiders have anticipated that, at the moment, the implementation of different biomes in which to develop our business is not planned. We have not been confirmed how many total maps there will be, but the developers ensure a good variety: some will not have rivers or coasts, while others will be characterized by a greater number of mountains. We will understand in the future if this choice will be successful or not and how it will affect the replayability of the title. Last positive note: a map editor will be made available, which we are waiting to know more about.
