AdvertCity

I picked up AdvertCity on a lark, being on both a cyberpunk and management kick at the time. I knew going in that the learning curve would be steep, and after a few false starts I got the hang of making money and expanding my operation. As I moved my offices into a towering highrise and set my sights on rival corporations under the harsh glow of my neon billboards and blimps, I started to feel like I had divined all the secrets of the game and would soon grow bored. But this was soon followed by a realization the likes of which I have rarely had from a game, one that elevates this title to true brilliance. AdvertCity sets you up as the CEO and sole employee of Adsplay, a startup advertising company in a procedurally generated metropolis. Every building and resident belongs to one of a dozen or so megacorporations that run the city, and you get to make your bones by advertising for them. Starting out with stacks of fliers and a limited range of influence, you can earn new technologies like posters and billboards from friendly corps, buy new offices to expand your reach, hire employees to improve your ads, and so on. There's also an internet view where you can post all manner of cat pictures and spam ads as well. Each kind of ad has strengths and weaknesses depending on where in the city it is placed, in what kind of building, and for what corporation. This then becomes your chief concern, puzzling out which ads go where to earn you the most money and rep. And it's quite a puzzle, because there's no guide or tutorial to making a million bucks. The scant tutorial teaches you how the interface works and gets you set up with a loan and running the most basic ads for pocket change. You have to delve into the procedural descriptions of buildings, corporations, and even ad technology to understand how to ply your trade. Making your fortune as a shameless advertising mogul is only half the game, however. Once your company becomes a major player in the city, you can set your sights on seizing control of the other corporations. This is how the game is won, by eventually absorbing all of your rivals and taking over the entire city. At first glance, this may seem like an impossible task, since you'll be looking for something to do with your first million dollars and the smallest megacorp might cost thirty million to claim. You'll also run into a confounding ceiling on how much money you can make from your ads, as the resources to produce them (employees) start to catch up to the profits you make. That's where I was when I started to cool on the game, with my sprawling company humming along and a few easy conquests down, but the remaining megacorps far out of my reach. By that point the game had started to feel like a more interactive clicker game, with me just spamming my most expensive ads over and over for the biggest returns, still not enough to topple my foes. I was beginning to think there was no real strategy to the game, just a long grind up to enormous cash totals again and again. And it turns out I was very, very wrong. In my quest for the fattest bank account, I started running nothing but colossal blimp ads as quickly as I could for one particular megacorp. I was earning plenty of rep with them and money, but not nearly enough to buy them out. I started to notice that the campaigns themselves were going poorly and the megacorp disliked them, even though they were paying me for them. I stopped the campaigns once my income peaked, and on a lark I took a look at the megacorp's info. What had once been a company valued in the tens of millions was now worth a measly half a mil and falling. That's when it hit me: I was running an ad agency. I could help grow companies with good ads, or I could run them into the ground with bad ones. All that effort I made in the early game to learn what worked and what didn't could now be turned around to destroy the very companies that had helped me grow. The economy in AdvertCity was far, far more detailed and complex than I gave it credit for, and provided a wealth of strategies for hostile takeovers. I could tank a company's profits with poor ads, boost their competitors with good ones, buy out their buildings to starve them of employees, or drain their bank accounts by running an endless stream of extravagant ads for them. It's a brilliant strategy game hidden beneath a rough, if stylish, exterior. The graphics are simple polygons and wireframe menus but fit the cyberpunk feel to a T, and the heavy, oppressive soundtrack is the icing on the dystopian cake. The interface can sadly be a pain to deal with, sometimes letting you double-click through to the wrong options or stack up notifications to obscure important info. Performance can also suffer once your operation gets enormous, and I had one audio mishap that forced a restart the first time I went bankrupt. These are all minor issues around a far more major one, the learning curve. If you want to reach the genius buried in this game, you have to work for it. You have to take the time to read, experiment, fail, and try again until it clicks, and you have to do that at every stage of the game. It won't be for everyone, but those who do delve deep into AdvertCity will discover one of the most clever and rewarding strategy games I've ever played. Did you enjoy this review? I certainly hope so, and I certainly hope you'll check out more of them at https://goldplatedgames.com/ or on my [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/audish#curation]curation page[/url]!

Tycoon games always have a special place in my heart. Nothing like running a business, growing big, and smashing all the other competitors, and AdvertCity doesn't disappoint. Playing as an ad agency in a cyberpunk world, you must plaster name brands on every surface possible. First, I want to point out what the game does really well. You can create a new city through the random number seed, and you basically have a completely different city every time, which is nice. The business aspect of the whole game is mixed with meatspace and netspace, which you must control both to get the best out of your advertising. Meatspace entails sending out fliers to setting up billboards while netspace deals with text ads and such. There's always the goal of expanding and stretching out your ad agency's empire, and it's a great feeling when you plaster the whole city with your own ads and rolling in the credits. The atmosphere is great, and it's coupled with a fantastic soundtrack that makes you feel like you really are in a cyberpunk world. Even the little things like switching between real world and the internet also tweaks the music a bit to grant more immersion. The game runs great with no hiccups whatsoever, and I hear it's optimized for multiple operating systems (I only have windows, so I don't know how it runs on other OSes). The graphics work well for the game, and does a good job of creating a cyberpunk atmosphere. Unfortunately, the game does come with its share of problems. First of all, the GUI in the game could definitely use some work. It's hard to tell what buildings are and how many people are in them until you click them, so you'll be clicking through A LOT of buildings to better target ads, which is time consuming. It would be nice to know what building is the HQ of a corp, especially when you're looking for the bank to get a loan. The visuals definitely give a great cyberpunk feel, but at certain angles, it's hard to see some buildings that blend into the background. The game also seems to like hiding some of its features. It's hard to tell what effect your ads are having on people, how it affects other corporations or even how it affects the building you're targeting since each building is owned by a different corporation. More management screens or something that's telling what's happening could definitely improve the game. On a personal note, I would also love to see more corporate warfare. Maybe hire hackers or thugs to sabotage other corporations or something like that, but that's the cyberpunk fan in me wanting a little more. Overall, the game is definitely worth checking out especially if you like the cyberpunk theme. At it's current price point of $20, it's a hard investment to put into a game. Maybe catch it on sale or wait until the price goes down.

I'm a writer by trade, so in a sense playing AdvertCity was treading familiar ground. Self-promotion and advertisements are an essential part of getting eyes on your work, after all. Those eyes on your work are ultimately what puts food on your table. Out there, floating through my procedurally-generated city, I had a real sense of sudden connectivity with what I do in the real world. Picking my targets and watching, in real-time, how the campaign unfolded gave me a quiet thrill. If anything, I wanted more information on the outcome of each campaign: not just the amount of views, but the reaction of the viewers, their demographics... information I could use to more carefully craft future advertising programs. It was then that I realised that AdvertCity had me. For all its flaws, I was revelling in it, pursuing more information, seeking approval, weighing up my finances -- more, more, more! AdvertCity is a tycoon game with a cyberpunk flavour. As the owner of AdSplay -- a futuristic analogue of Google Adsense -- your goal is to advance the reach and sales of a suite of Megacorps through your advertising. Back them, gain their trust, and then buy them: the ultimate objective is a complete city takeover. Advertising is done both in meatspace and cyberspace by navigating to buildings or websites and selecting your method and company. As your funds and influence build, you'll unlock new methods and technologies to keep pace with your crushing loan with the Happy Banking Corp -- who, incidentally, are ripe for a little hostile takeover. Unfortunately, AdvertCity is held back by its relentless conformity to an older style of game. Much in the same vein as Dwarf Fortress, the UI is a mess -- opacity between text windows means that it can be difficult to pick out pieces of information. The uniform grey, slab-like cyberpunk city is thematically appropriate but it makes locating individual or specific buildings next to impossible. Constantly scaling debt and a lack of a method to pause the game means that, at least initially, spraying and praying becomes your best advertising policy. Controls are another beast. Keyboard navigation is aptly floaty, which can take a little getting used to. The problematic part is mouse control. With no way to adjust sensitivity in-game, I found myself spinning wildly through meatspace and cyberspace alike. The game promises partial controller support, but it isn't clear what or how this is achieved. Feedback on your actions is minimal. A lack of sound cues does not help. In a sense, though, that's an understandable decision: AdvertCity's soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. The bleak, acidic jazz perfectly matches the tone of the game. The hour-long soundtrack is sold separately and is well worth considering. Overall, subtle touches combined and a strongly principled approach from its developers left me with a positive impression of AdvertCity. If Steam used a star rating system, I'd go with 3/5 stars. The game's flaws aren't always easy to overlook, but the immersive atmosphere, fantastic soundtrack, and engaging gameplay are worth the struggle.

seemed like a cool idea, waited around for a long time until it was on sale and grabbed it cheap. tried to figure out how to play, struggled to read the text, never had anything meaningful click with me, did not enjoy any portion of the game, refunded.

AdvertCity is a dystopian tycoon game in which your goal is to make money by advertising, expand your operations, and eventually buy out every megacorp in the city. I have played many tycoon games in the past such as zoo tycoon, school tycoon, mall tycoon, but nothing like this. It's a very unique spin on the usual genre. Pros: Gives a great sense of atmosphere Procedurally generated city (can pick seed number) Great soundtrack Cons: Can be overwhelming at first Tutorial could be better At first this game may overwhelm you with lots of information The numbers seem big (this game uses a cryptocurrency) and the tutorial does not explain everything, so you will have to do some learning on your own. After putting some time into the game, it becomes enjoyable as you begin to buy new buildings, hiring more workers, or firing them if your running out of money. Your actions feel impactful and if done correctly could bring you one step closer to buying out the competition.

Mixed. At first I really had no idea how to make money as I did as many profitable ads for “allied” companies as I could – in meatspace and cyberspace. Eventually, I stumbled upon a way to make enough money and climbed up to over a million. At this point I had helped every other company make so much money they were too valuable to take over. I did take over 1 company, but I do not have it in me to grind out a billion more in ad revenue. If there was any strategy guidance (or useful guide / wiki), I might have a clue on an appropriate strategy. In the end, the runaway value I can only presume I helped enable lead me to a dead end, albeit a rich finish. [h1]Additional Details[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]Operating System[/td] [td]Ubuntu Linux 18.04 x64[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]CPU[/td] [td]Ryzen 5 1500x[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]GPU[/td] [td]GTX 1050, nvidia-410.78[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Game Saves[/td] [td]Automatically[/td] [/tr] [/table]

You will be dropped into a generated city simulation. No matter how prepered you might be, it will be a shock to your gaming senses. The tutorial will tell you to find your HQ, and it will take you several minutes to find the tiny shelter hidden behind several skyscrapers, on the far side of town. The game mechanics will feel bewildering, but does it mirror the culture shock of newly arriving at a futuristic metropolis? If this description makes you curious, if you have an interest in techno-futurism, if you are a fan of eighties cyberpunk, then maybe you will enjoy figuring out your way through AvertCity. The game has the pulse of the novels of Gibson and Stevenson, with biting, anti-establishment humor. I recommend it, especially because the developers are so forward thinking with their support for gnu-linux operating systems. This game has some serious short-comingings. The interface is a bit obtuse, and the player is largely left to figure out the game-mechanics, like when an advert action fails. I even tried helping by writing a steam player guide. The game depth is not even super-deep, and the later-part has only some minor twists in the gameplay. There are so few actual story-elements, even while the descriptions hint at what might be happening below the skyline. This game requires a bit of computer resources, with the default settings, despite the store page sysreq info. My 2GHz 2GB desktop cannot run this fast enough to be playable, which is strange because the install size is very, very small. Changing the options improves it, to be accessible by a low-end CPU.. Anyway, I wish there was a demo for you, considering the full-price is a bit more than typical, but I think this is worth a chance if you are into this kind of thing. I played this game on an ubuntu linux computer, with 8GB of memory and a quadcore cpu. This game uses the keyboard and mouse for navigation. My graphics card is a RX550 with radeon mesa graphic drivers. Bottom line is that this game is recommended only for gaming-afficianatos looking for something very odd and interesting, who are willing to polishing this gem. I don't think the twenty-dollar price gets discounted any more, so it will be a hard purchase for most other gamers.

The game designer has had a clever idea, but has completely failed to consider the player experience. The connection between cause and effect is completely hidden and nonsensical. (Why do so many ad campaigns fail? Why do companies get angry with me when I've risked my own money to promote them, and gained them customers?) For masochists and desperate simulation-seekers only.

Sketchy tycoon-type game. You've in control of some advertisement agency, and your goal is to raise funds, as high as possible, by spamming the population in your zone of control with your ads. If you play your cards well, you'll get that much money, that you'll buy the corporations you've worked with, buy all the buildings in the city you're operating... The key word - sketchy. The visuals, the controls, the fundamental economical mechanics - are all too vague and outline, to get a feeling of the proper tycoon game. In the basic functionality, AdvertCity plays more like a clicker game. Very user-unfriendly clicker game, I might add. As a result, I really don't know if 1 gamer out of several millions, will play it for any length of time, keeping the interest in restarting this game with new cities to explore. My mark is 4.4/10, and I can't recommend it.

При запуске этой игры в Linux вы получаете достижение "Free Software Supporter" со значком Тукса, а если запустить под виндой -то "MS Slave". Ха! Ради этого уже стоит купить игру любому линуксоиду! По жанру это экономическая игра с уклоном под киберпанк. Вы летаете над электронным образом города и нажатием мышки на здании можете купить рекламное пространство на нём. Цель игры - заработать репутацию (и деньги) продвинуть свою компанию и стать медиа магнатом. Из минусов - отсутствие русского и ошибки. К примеру, если начать игру, то она падает при первом щелчке на здании. Решение ошибки здесь - https://steamcommunity.com/app/365800/discussions/0/1694920442941415757/ [h1]Bug description[/h1] game crashes when I'm clicking on a building. [h1]Logs[/h1] Exception: Invalid UTF-8 [h1]Workaround[/h1] set "[u]LC_ALL=C %command%[/u]" in game command line parameters CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4765T RAM: 16G SSD: KINGSTON SUV300S37A120G Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4G (nvidia-current) OS: MagOS Linux 2016.64