WIND TYCOON

1. Overview / Executive Summary

A hybrid 2D/3D management sim for PC where players grow a wind-turbine company from a cramped garage into a global manufacturing and service powerhouse, balancing research & testing, production, supply chain strategy, and long-term maintenance to deliver increasingly ambitious projects to a systems-loving audience.

2. Core Vision & Goals

Player Experience

Feel like an entrepreneurial engineer building a renewable-energy empire from scratch—starting hands-on, then delegating across global operations while wrestling with risk and reward.

Creative Pillars

• Progression: From manual craftsmanship to automated, data-driven orchestration.
• Interlocking Systems: Research, finance, staffing, and logistics feed each other.
• Risk Management: Player-driven choices through world volatility presets, contract choices, and hedging tools.

Distinctiveness

• Full lifecycle focus on wind-turbine manufacturing plus service contracts, rather than generic factory simulation.
• Deep supply-chain gameplay (lead times, storage, price volatility) fused with predictive maintenance and safety compliance.
• Static isometric presentation with rich dashboards that keep scope tractable for a solo developer while still portraying “living factories.”

MVP Scope

• Initial investment loan and savings after redundancy; loan repayment mechanics.
• Component procurement: lead times, costs, quantities, storage limits, bulk discounts.
• Testing & Knowledge: Breaking things to learn; balancing cost vs. knowledge gain.
• Day/Night cycle: Fatigue mechanics.
• First Customer: Basic requirements, manual assembly of supplier components.
• Garage Upgrades: Storage, 3D printer, workstation, laser cutter, welding machine.
• Vertical Integration: Manufacturing own towers vs. buying components (time vs. money).
• Inventory Management: Balancing stock vs. lead times.
• Research & Unlocks: Selling turbines to fund research for bigger turbines.
• Space Management: Optimizing limited garage space vs. expansion.
• Contract Variety: Strict deadlines, upfront payments, loan requirements.
• Crisis Management: Component shortages, price markups vs. delays.
• IoT & Retrofitting: Researching sensors, fixing underperforming turbines for profit.
• Blade Testing: Testing new designs on customer projects (risk vs. reward).
• Expansion: Marketing, website, tools, eventually moving out of the garage.

3. Game Concept

Player Role

Founder-CEO who initially performs every workshop task, then scales into a strategic director allocating production, research & testing, financing, staffing, logistics, and service commitments to dominate the wind power market.

4. Gameplay Scope

Core Gameplay Loop

Meta Systems

• Research Tree: Turbine capabilities, factory evolution, services intelligence, stretch ventures.
• Finance: Loans, dashboards, hedging, insurance.
• Staff: Hiring, training, certification, automation delegation.
• Supply Chain: Planning, bulk discounts, lead times, storage, volatility.
• Service Contracts: Recurring revenue, warranty periods, global maintenance dashboards.

Game Progression

Garage Startup (manual builds) → Growing Manufacturer (staff, layout) → Industrial Powerhouse (automation, analytics) → Offshore/Service Era (global logistics, mega-contracts).

Simulation Depth

Deterministic tick-based simulation handling factory throughput, logistics routing, financial modeling, weather impacts, and incident escalation. Cross-system dependencies and volatility presets (Relaxed, Realistic, Hectic).

Boundaries

No multiplayer. No combat. No direct wind-farm operation. No narrative cutscenes or voice acting.

5. Content Scope

Playable Areas

Garage workshop evolving into modular factory bays. Installation scenarios (rural to offshore). Global overview screens.

Objects / Units

Turbine components (towers, blades, nacelles, tiers 0–4). Factory equipment (laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC, robotics). Staff archetypes. Logistics assets (cranes, vessels).

UI/UX

Contract board, procurement dashboards, tech tree, finance panels, staff management. Sims-style task queue transitioning to dashboard toggles.

Art & Audio

Static isometric perspective, hybrid 2D/3D assets, clean industrial palette. Ambient industrial soundscapes, minimalist data-driven synth music.

6. Research Scope & Flow

Research advances through deliberate testing campaigns. Garage and factory trials consume resources to generate data points. High-risk customer pilots allow deploying prototypes on live contracts.

Factory & Services

Evolution from early tooling (jigs, laser cutters) to automation (robotics, AGVs) and global logistics. Service models evolve from manual inspections to AI failure models and drone intervention.

7. Technical Scope

• Engine: Unity 2022 LTS (TBC). ScriptableObjects + JSON/CSV data.
• Platform: PC (Steam). Steam Deck consideration.
• Performance: 60 FPS target on mid-tier PCs. Deterministic simulation.
• Save System: JSON serialization with versioning.
• Localization: English UI initially.