Post Thoughts: PC Gaming Simulator

 

A couple of weekends ago, PC Building Simulator was offered for free on the EPIC Games Store. I was intrigued enough to check it out but wasn't super interested in it other than to satisfy that curiosity. The first thing to note is that this game's name is terrible!! It only partially describes what the game is about and, at least for me, led me to the wrong conclusion.

So let's take a look at what I liked and didn't like about this title. As usual: here be spoilers!

Story:

YES! This game has a story. It's not intricate or detailed or anything to really sing about but it does exist: there is a "campaign". This is where I come to the conslusion above that the naming of this game was a huge mistake. It makes the game sound like a literal sandbox builder - and don't get me wrong, there is that mode in the game, it's just not a draw for me. So, let me lay out the story, quickly:

Your uncle Tim had/has a PC repair shop which is almost out of money because he's a actually terrible businessman, an idiot when it comes to PC building, and also (by the sounds of it) quite lazy. Somehow, despite all of this, he's gone on a long vacation to a sunny paradise and called in a favour of you to take over for him in his four month-long absence*... This has two ramifications: first, you're now responsible for all of his mistakes, and second, you (the player) have goals to achieve in the world by amassing more money, upgrading your setup, buying better tools, and garnering a better reputation for the business.

*At least according to my playthrough thus far!

These goals provide something for the player to do and put the PC building in context. Aaaand, that's pretty much it. There's an ongoing flavour story in the background where Tim is "nailing it" making business connections while on holiday, despite his deficiencies in all areas, which helps tie the game into the DLC that developer, The Irregular Corporation, has released following the game's release back in 2019 (and there are a few different ones).

There are also small mini-arc stories with recurring characters that have their own flavour, like the scientist that moves to another plane of existence using the computers you build her... or the cursed, luddite writer whose equipment keeps self-destructing. These are sort of similar to the short reappearing characters or mini-stories in RPGs like The Witcher, The Elder Scrolls, or in modern 4x games like Stellaris.

Really, that's the campaign in a nutshell.

The workspace, showing the upgradable setting...

Mechanics:

PC Building Simulator has two interfaces at a basic level: WASD and mouse movement in the 3D space, and the 2D mouse interface when using the displays in the game to navigate the various pieces of software on the operating system that the game has on each PC. 

Aside from that, when you begin working on a system, you have a "lock on" design where the movement controls are switched off and instead you gain control over the pitch and rotation of the PC sitting on the desk in order to manipulate cables and parts. Speaking of which, you don't actually have to hold and move the parts or cables, you just have to interact with the slot, screw, port or socket when un/installing them. Which is a concession to how difficult it would be to physically align items in a 3D space.

Of course, this type of concession doesn't always hold as we'll discuss next.

You have to operate on these PCs as you (sort of) would do in the real world - you must remove components that block removal of other components in order to do so. It makes sense and could act as a teaching aid for newer PC builders.

To get new work, you must check your email every day and accept or reject jobs. Reading the emails sometimes gives clues to what the issue is (or directions in the case when the client already knows the problem). This allows you to pre-purchase components to help with turnaround times. Also, once received, the contact email and the objective of the system is attached to it, allowing you to re-check the email you have for the job in question. 

Helpfully, each email also has a button at the bottom showing the current specs of the system that the client has sent to you. However, this is where the first problem regarding usability pops its head up. Keeping track of components and who owns different components (i.e. the client or you) is fine for the majority of the time. However, when a component is broken, or due for an upgrade it is no longer marked as owned by the client*. Simultaneously, the parts list in the email is updated when an item is installed or uninstalled from the system, meaning that you cannot easily check which parts were originally shipped to you.

*I have only ever interacted with a PC repair shop once in my life (well, I didn't do it, my mum took the PC I built her to it when I wasn't able to be around to fix it) and I found it strange that the shop kept the parts they swapped out. In other lines of business (such as plumbers/electricians/builders) you can choose to keep the parts they took out. In fact, this is one of the things where I feel like the repair industry is scamming the user...

This causes two problems - sometimes you forget which part was originally in the computer (especially when it comes to things like CPU heatsinks which must be removed in order to get at the CPU), and sometimes you cannot tell what is an inferior part to what was previously installed (say, perhaps you immediately sold the broken part and cannot check), causing us to bump into the first big inconvenience issues that the game throws at the player.

You have a few ways to either record what was in a system or to guess at what was in there originally:

• Write it in the notes app within the game
• Keep putting parts into the computer to see if the price spent on parts changes
• Do the same but instead take note of the red text at the bottom of the PC Status section on each build's log at the right of the screen when working on it (see screenshot below)

The options for the various cases and parts are actually really nice...

These solutions are far from ideal and that logic for the prior concession to not have to manually manipulate physical parts doesn't seem to have been followed here. The notes app is on your personal PC (well, you could waste time installing it on each PC you're working on, ignoring the fact that non-functioning systems lack that option) which means you have to leave the system in question and leg over to the notes app, remember exactly what the part was called - oh, you can't? Exit from the PC, turn around and browse the stock on the shelves, remember the name now. Exit that interface and re-enter the PC notes interface and, GODDAMMIT! Was it a "GAMING 4G Plus 11 Wifi" or the "8G" model?

I never found myself using the cloud notes at all because of the clunkiness of the system. It's actually quicker to take a shot of the screen with my phone or write it down on a physical pad of paper on my real, physical, in-life desk.

There's also no way to keep track of stock digitally. You have to manually do it from the shelves... though, strangely, the developers give you this interface when working on systems meaning a usability concession has been made in this regard - you don't have to fetch parts from the shelf when wanting to install them - making the lack of owner tagging or note making when working directly on a PC all the more confusing.

At the same time, you are able to filter parts by whether they are compatible or not. I feel like it could have been trivial to extend this system to making custom filter tags instead of having this convoluted and cumbersome system. Maybe I'm crazy?!

Back to more mundane mechanics:

The menu system is simple and easy to access any time within the game...

Each client has a budget that is separated into two parts - labour and parts. However, these two pools of money do no overlap, meaning that you can't choose to use a quicker, simpler or preferred, slightly more expensive option, taking a hit on the amount of "profit" from your labour winnings in order to provide the client with a better system to achieve a better review rating (or quicker turnaround). 

This also doesn't really make sense because you always, always, charge (well, are actually given) WAY too much for labour and since there is no time limit per build or per day, your only real reason to care about labour costs is not linked to what your real-world constraints would be. You'll have people paying you $150-200 to install a second HDD or do a virus scan that you can spend 8 hours of real time to complete. This means that the economy in the game is very screwed because you can literally do 10 jobs in a single in-game "day", earning multiple quantities of hourly overlapping work. Sure, this can be achieved somewhat in real life but not to this extent.

Secondly, since the client has already established what cost they wish to pay for parts, it means that you cannot choose to swap for a different part (though does mean that you can usually infer which part they wish for you to specifically install if it wasn't already stated).

Getting back to the rating system, the game has a five star "review" site which clients always rate you on  your work (sometimes with some feedback). I think that this affects which jobs you get, what sort of payment you receive and how quickly you level up. This is a decent tool for giving the player feedback on their work, helping them to understand when they made mistakes.

Speaking of levelling up....&*"@! 

This system is nonsensical and frustrating. Given that the game campaign takes place in real time from, I think a point in 2016/2017, it would make sense for the available parts to mirror what was available at the time in the real world. However, parts are gated behind your level, meaning that if you never do well in terms of review ratings, you will never get to the top-end, current stuff when it is actually released and this has already happened to me where 8th gen Intel parts are available but only the lower-end parts because I wasn't (and still aren't) high enough of a level to "earn" them. 

If I could cut this system from the game, I would. It serves no purpose because you, the player, do not define what is asked for by your clients, nor do you affect what is released to the market in the world. Nor do you generally use the parts for yourself (though you can upgrade your work PC if you so wish).

Not only are parts locked behind the levelling system, but so too are the ability to overclock and manual water cooling. It's... I don't know what this system is designed to do other than make the player never want to restart a new game. It's not difficult to obtain money, nor is it difficult to obtain 4-5 star ratings... but you still level-up very slowly and even at (currently) level 16, I'm bumping into this progression issue where I would like to use better parts than are available.

A PC running Timespy to benchmark its performance (it runs in real-time!). Okay... there's only so many different shots of a small space with similar-looking PC builds you can take!

Getting back to actually fixing PCs, there are several things you can do such as checking against the recommended requirements for a game or application, running the Timespy benchmark to try out the system stability and comparing performance stats of different parts in a list in an application. It's simplistic but it does all work.

However, there is one more caveat to everything above. Equivalency of parts. 

The game is SO STRICT and borderline fanatical on what parts you can and can't swap out. A customer's i5-7600 craps out and their budget allows the headroom to upgrade to an i7-7700? Sure, go ahead! Their Geforce GTX 1060 is broken? You better replace it with exactly the same, identical model if their budget doesn't allow for higher tier parts because a 100 MHz less clock speed is not considered an equivalent part.... give me a break! You think that's how things work in the real world?! 

This isn't even the worst of it. Clients can tell when you put a used part in their PC. How would a client know you put in a used CPU or GPU? Why would they care? They care their PC works and that if there are problems they come back to YOU to fix them. As if they are going to rip out the part that they couldn't before and send it off for the warranty coverage. I find it almost as annoying as the levelling system... Not to mention that there's no way the customers could even realise.

Finally, there are several ways to easily sink your abundant quantities of money in the game; from upgrading your single workbench to a maximum of three, along with a PC storage closet (which allows you to have more empty cases and simultaneous jobs ongoing), as well as slowly buying-out your uncle from the businsess (and also funding his new side-ventures). The last money sink are the features of the game that make it easier and lesss clunky - the fast screw tool, auto cabling tool and various applications that help you work more efficiently and easily. I feel that these are only present because the economy of the game is so unfailingly broken and there's little reason (beyond the benches and "investments") to actually want to gamify these core aspects of interacting with the game in such a manner.

The lack of these tools at the beginning of new game also discourages players from starting a new game, once more.

And that's everything that's really important to note about the campaign.

Bugs and Technical Issues:

I didn't encounter any bugs (at least not as far as I know them to be) but I do find it annoying that you are unable to move around components (say, system fans) because the invisible flags on broken parts mean that you can't put a different but equivalent fan into the original slot and then replace that sceond fan with a better/different one.... I've had quite a few "fix" jobs where I was left scratching my head as to why the job could not be completed and then subsequently discovered that this was the problem.

Another issue I also found with the UI/UX was that when you want to sell parts, you get an annoying pop-up that double checks whether you really, truly want to sell the part. Sure, okay, that can stop you from accidentally selling a very expensive piece for really cheap (even "new" used parts go for lower than half their real value... you can't set the price you are asking for despite there being an eBay clone in the game for the player to use to sell parts). 

This is contrasted with the parallel operation to give up on a job - in your email there's a button to quit the job, at which point you fail it - no matter what progress has been made. There's no "hey, are you sure you want to do this? This'll negatively affect your reputation, etc." This, luckily only happened to me once when I accidentally mis-clicked on a part of the screen but it was very frustating, especially given that I more often wish to sell broken parts than I actually want to give up on jobs. The functionality in the game engine exists and it's incomprehensible that the developers have not applied the same logic to the two systems.

The entry way into the "shop" and where the incoming and outgoing PCs and parts are placed...

Conclusion:

PC Building Simulator is a sandbox system building game with a campaign mode that is quite satisfying to play. Most similar in style to a cross between Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale and Game Dev Tycoon in terms of setup and progress, it is let down by a few baffling decisions in game logic, UI/UX and systems to essentially make it a worse overall experience that either of those titles.

And yet I've played it for quite a number of hours now...

Which is probably why I will not be playing it for much longer. PCBS (heh...) would not have attracted me if I had to pay money for it. I do not feel that the base game has enough content/is well-designed enough in terms of the campagin to justify the base price of €15 - 20. 

The game provides a lot of friction to access its better features and, bafflingly, unlocks a "hard mode" several hours into the game which, in theory provides less money but from an hour of playing appears to do no such thing except for how much you start off with. It's also the implementation of all these features to provide that friction that would stop players from wanting to start again. Having to sit through mind-numbingly slowly screwing in components or wiring them when there's no penalty to spending longer on a job because there's no time limit per day (as seen in games such as the Pikmin series) means that there's no "puzzle" to solve against or reason for the player to optimise their play. 

You don't have to choose which build to start on first on any given day and you're only beholden to keeping track of the "due by" date (if there is one) on any build. There is no reason for the developers to have designed the game like this and makes me think that they do not understand progression systems, self-set goals or enjoyable ways to interact with their game systems for their players.

In that lens, it's possible to understand that the name of the game is probably accurate for what the original premise of the project was - a PC building simulator - and in that respect, the developers have done a grand job and an even better job getting well-known AIBs and manufacturers on-board to have their trademarked components to show up in the game.

From the other side of the room, though, things are not so rosy. I don't think that just building PCs is that fun for many players, at least without a target in mind or an objective to achieve. In this lens, it appears that the campaign mode and subsequent add-ons to doing IT and esport gaming support are an afterthought when it was realised that the majority of players just wouldn't stick with the title or recommend it.

As I've said further up: I've enjoyed my time with the game, however, I can't recommend it to other people - at least not unless it's free or almost free. The gameplay systems that are implemented here are just too clunky and/or broken to be enjoyable in the longterm and you're unlikely to want to restart your career if you wanted to try out the hard mode once it becomes available or if you lose the save file (e.g. after reinstalling windows or moving to a new PC).

The room from the other angle, showing the parts storage shelf, notice board (only for new build orders)...

Back Seat Designing:

Despite the game being an overall disappointment, it's really a disappointment to me because it comes SO close to actually being good. All the elements are in place and, in some cases, already implemented elsewhere in the game mechanics for this game to be fixed and made more enjoyable but, looking at their expansions, it doesn't appear to me that the developers are aware of or care about these systems in the game.

Of course, as I was reviewing the game, the IT expansion was released a day or two ago as a free upgrade to the base game and addresses some of the issues I've noted above and will "correct" below, but not all... and they are not addressed in the base content, only in the new IT content which, as a setting, I find less interesting overall.

UI/UX

I find it mind-boggling that there was no phone or tablet in the base game to be able to manage stock, emails, and notes. (This is addressed in the IT expansion but remains as it was in the base game). I'd add in one of the two in order to help with streamlining the user experience.

I'd add in a part tagging system so that you would be able to more easily find parts from client systems when, for whatever reason, they were difficult to find. e.g. Instead of only being "filter by compatible parts", you'd also have "find parts associated with this job". Parts that were broken or traditionally not stuck with a sticky note would always remain with a tag associated to the job until the job was completed and paid for, at which point they would become property of the shop and the client tag would be dropped if the part was no longer needed by the client.

Get rid of the mouse holding time wasting mechanics to screw/place/cable. They are annoying and provide a lot of friction, even with the time limit suggestion. The player would start the game with the upgraded speeds as applied when the tools are bought in the current version of the game. Instead, there'd be a tool for a one-button cabling tool upgrade which would automatically couple or uncouple every cable in a given system when pressed - this would be quite an expensive upgrade.

Also, we'll add a confirmation of rejecting a job when the button is pressed... just in case!

Levelling and Parts Availability

No more levelling. It's a stupid mechanic that doesn't belong in this game with the current linked mechanics. Make parts available as and when they were released (since we're using real-world dates), phase out old parts based on their EOL. The player's ability to buy and use parts should rest on how well they do as a player, not based on a rating system - if they are making enough money to buy a part, they should be able to do so.

If you do want to retain some sort of gatekeeping on parts, have them be available through two means:

• Distributor relationship
• Used market

First off, bring back the levelling system. Yeah, you heard me! However, do not have it linked to client reviews. Why would client reviews affect your ability to buy stock? Your relationship with the suppliers dictate that. What do suppliers want? Big orders of the same part and consistent business.

You want to be further up on the invisible list that all suppliers have for their business sales? You need to get bigger as a business and have bigger number of orders. This means that there are two systems to be implemented here:

1. Business rating (tied to your available funds and past ordering activity for types of product)
2. Different suppliers

Have different manufacturers' parts be available from a few different suppliers, let's say three or four,  at the maximum. You want to order Asus? Supplier 1 has them. Want MSI? They are obtainable from Supplier 3. The more you order from a specific supplier, the better your rating is with them, the less you order (or the longer between orders), your rating will slowly decrease over time. This gives the player the opportunity to focus on different types of manufacturers as they (probably) can't afford to be buying from all the manufacturers at the same time.

Coupled with this is whether you bought a specific type of product. Let's say you're mostly buying MSI graphics cards but Gigabyte motherboards, the rating for each type would be different per manufacturer.

I can see some people shaking their head right now but here's the best bit - this only applies to the first few months of hardware release, when supplies are tight and there's competition from businesses to purchase the stock. Later on, all parts become available to buy from each supplier regardless of your standing with that supplier.

Secondly, all parts can be available from the semi-randomly generated eBay clone, meaning that the player could luck-out and get a brand new part for a slight mark-up on the second hand market near launch, even if they weren't able to from the primary supplier.

We could also implement a system whereby bulk purchases cost less per individual item, saving money for the savvy (or strategic) player.

These changes allow players to strategise on what to focus upon, not only for their first time through the game but also on subsequent replays. This also grants player agency, a small amount of luck, and gives a controlled variability to the game world, IMO vital to make it interesting.

Of course the devs would release an update to counter my back seat designing!

Difficulty and Time

Difficulty modes should be available when choosing a new game, not locked behing the levelling system. Normal mode would have slightly more money given for each job and the player would have unlimited time per day. Coupled with this, the limitations on supplier rating would not apply for this difficulty and the Timespy benchmark would complete in a very short time - no longer punishing the player for wanting a number.

Hard mode would have a bit more realistic amounts of money allocated per job but, most importantly, there would be a time limit per day to be able to complete tasks (actual real world limit TBD, you'd need to test that thoroughly! :) ), plus the supplier rating system outlined above would be implemented. Finally, Timespy would, once again, run in "real time".

Time itself would be able to be monitored from a wrist watch (or the tablet/phone, if included as per above), each logged in computer and also a wall clock - which would be one of the interchangeable peripherals for players to customise. Game time runs from the stereotypical 09:00 to 17:00. Plus, there'd be an alarm at 16:00 to alert players to the imminent closing of the day (it worked so well in Pikmin!).

One additonal benefit to implementing a time system is that now the lengthy runs of Timespy actually mean something - the player cannot just play around ad infinitum to get that perfect score or whatever, they actually have to gain knowledge and have a feel for how parts will perform and for WHICH parts will affect the Timespy score in any given system to achieve the desired result.

These changes give a modicum of pressure to the player, forcing them to make choices and optimise their day in order to achieve the goals that the game gives them (especially time sensitive goals) or that they set themselves. PLUS, they also encourage mastery and knowledge of the upgrade and overclocking system by being better at them in order to better optimise their time spent on jobs that require that knowledge. This system would also be coupled with the new money system, outlined below.

Barter and Money

The way the game currently plays is very annoying. Why can't the player choose to lose $10 of their "earnings" to use a part they have in stock instead of spending money on a new part and also delivery for that part?

With the new barter system, the client would present their problem or desire in an email and the player would have 1 in-game day to reply to the email with an offer before the request expires. Each "client" will have a weighting system linked to their request and their "personality" - similar to that seen in Recettear. This means that the player will have to gauge how much the parts will cost (this can actually be outlined in the email itself, as the parts are already listed in the build section) and then make an educated guess as to how much time it will take to complete the job. From this they will make an offer for their services and, if it's within that weighted range, the client will accept. Too expensive, the client will refuse, too cheap and... well, the player loses money.

Yes, that's right!

Although, as with Recettear, there will be a buffer zone above the ideal price which will be the barter zone, the client may come back with a counter offer if the player is not outrageously expensive.

There will be a defined amount of "money" that the player is charged per hour of wage for themselves, thus they will know how much they need to account for by trying to work out how much time each build will cost them.

The amount of time worked on a job will not be tracked by the game. However, there will still be the same time limits on certain jobs that exist within the game currently. The way the player will know if they're making good decisions or not will be based on how much profit they are making once wages are deducted at the end of the month.

I'd also love for the complexity of the jobs to influence the expected amount of money the client wishes to pay. Do a virus sweep? They don't expect to pay $200 for the service.

With the way the money is provided in the game as it is currently designed, there are essentially zero failure states other than user error (e.g. clicking on the wrong button) and the progress in the game essentially becomes a slow ramp to infinity without any danger or choice to be made from the player's side.

These changes provide that choice and risk and, if the player is playing a particular strategy, they could even mitigate losses through low-balling estimated time to complete by being smart in their acquisition of parts (which we will now get onto).

... they added a tablet! Now you can make notes, buy parts and read the email when working on a PC!

Used Parts

Clients no longer can tell when the player has put used or second-hand parts in a system. They will, however, still request new parts as they currently do in the game.... and sometimes, they will (based on a bit of random number generation) accuse the player of putting used parts in the system, resulting in a slightly lower score on the user rating system based on their suspicions.

Now that money is decoupled from the client request to a large extent, it doesn't make sense to have them so sensitive to used parts. (IMO, it never did but that's a different discussion). This also allows players to have more agency in the game, hanging onto components and using them in fix jobs instead of only being able to make money off of them via the used market.

This also incentivises the use of the used market and bulk purchasing from suppliers and also doesn't cross a line in the uncanny valley, resulting in the player experiencing cognitive whiplash when they're punished for something that is not reflective of real-world experience.

Dynamic Failure

The other side of things is that failure is absolute in the game with one exception - CPU thermal paste! This is a great little bit of storytelling that lets players learn from their mistakes. Let's make that happen more!

Currently, the game doesn't let you ship an incomplete case to a client. It won't let the job complete if you didn't tie-down the PCIe lock, for example. Let that happen but make it so that the PC gets returned to the shop a couple of days later (with an accompanying irate email, of course) and the player has to fix their mistake for free - they're not allowed to charge for it. 

I feel like this is WAY more interesting than the current system.

Client rating/happiness doesn't really have much of an impact with the way it's currently designed... and payment is WAY too high for the complexity of jobs.

Long-Term Goals

Finally, we need more defined long-term goals in the game. In Recettear, we were struggling against crippling debt. In Game Dev Tycoon, we were struggling to understand the mechanics of the game in order to make break-out hits and move to bigger studios, get more staff and make bigger games.

In PCBS there's.... nothing? I mean, really... what is the end-game of the campaign? You just go to work every day, make a little money and then come in the following day (with weekends off).

You can't move to bigger offices, you can't expand beyond the two extra workbenches.... the game effectively stops advancing after you get those. Do I really want to just sink increasing amounts of money into uncle Tim's vanity projects?

I think we need to add some long-term goals here. These are the ones I'd target:

• New, bigger studio
• More employees
• More stores
• Corporate benefits

Now, that last one is a doozy. It would transform the game into a meta strategy whereby you're no longer running an individual shop but multiple shops. That's probably beyond the scope of the game. However, the option to move to bigger studios would make sense - especially given the inclusion of the sprint button (which currently serves no purpose). These could also be paid DLC, where the players can choose to purchase and move to variously designed or themed studios.

A second employee (or more) would also be a great addition, allowing you to farm off jobs to them. In fact, in the IT expansion, they've essentially done something similar with the nightshift staff. You wouldn't need to animate them so they'd be "invisible" but maybe they could be in those other "stores" that you've bought.

These would also place additional drains on your finances, new wages and rent/utility payments, etc.

If you really wanted you could implement corporate goals such as company cars, delivery vehicles for shipping items between stores, etc. etc. It's a wide world out there... but the player has to have something to aim for and I really feel like that's lacking in the base game.

....aaaand, that's about it from my suggested changes to the game. 

Some are easier to implement than others, and some will require a bunch of playtesting. However, I really believe that implementing some or all of them would result in a better, more interesting game.

Maybe in PCBS 2?