Creating Artificial Happiness for my Indie Game (Devlog)

Got a huge update for this week's devlog! I've been planning to give employees thoughts, feelings and needs since the first video, almost 2 years ago. I've actively avoided adding it though until the AI was stable enough, and the game had enough of the required backend to support it. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

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For those that wanted the extra info on the happiness system:

Employee management will be one of the main gameplay systems. Happy employees will boost your mill's output, whereas unhappy employees can hinder your mill in a number of ways.

-- Needs --

Each employee has a set of physical and mental needs. These should be kept high in order to gain the benefits of happy employees. Physical needs are fairly straightforward; you need to provide employees with the facilities they need to maintain those needs themselves. Higher quality facilities will mean employees replenish their needs more quickly. Mental needs are slightly more complex; pay satisfaction is affected by whether the employee is receiving the pay they expect, whether they are paid on time, and how long it has been since they were last given a pay rise or bonus. Morale is the average overall happiness within the crew, and Colleage Approval depends on the mix of personalities, and whether the employee clashes with any of their colleagues.

All of these needs are then reduced down to a single, overall happiness value. There are a few other needs I'm considering adding in the future if I get time!

-- Productivity --

Happy employees will have higher productivity, which means they are able to do their work more efficiently, and move around more quickly. Unhappy employees will have their productivity reduced; having the opposite effect.

-- Personalities --

Each employee has a personality type. Each personality type has expectations for pay. For example, more desirable personalities tend to cost more to employ. Each personality also has differing needs; for example an insomniac requires less sleep to be fully rested, whereas a sleepy employee will require more. Personalities also affect other members of the crew; grumpy employees tend to drag down the happiness of their colleageus, whereas cheerful employees tend to have the opposite effect. The most effective crews will minimise personality clashes to ensure all members of the crew get on well.

-- Days off --

Employees are only able to tend to their physical needs if they are given time off. This is handled in the game through a "days off" system. For each crew, you can select which days each week that crew will not be working. This allows you to coordinate timetables between crews, so that you always maintain some level of productivity in the forest. This could be particularly important for managing mechanic employees. You might assign mechanics of two different crews to maintain a single production line; with one crew taking over from the other when they go on their break.

-- Employee Levelling --

Each employee type has 5 levels. For Lumberjacks, higher levels are able to fell trees faster, and higher level mechanics are able to repair machines more efficiently. Happy employees will automatically level over time, whereas unhappy employees will not. You can train employees though, which costs amber.

-- Thoughts --

This is yet to be implemented, but I'm hoping should be in action for the next devlog. Employees are able to give you some explanation for why they feel a certain way. If an employee's colleague approval is low, for example - they might have a thought along the lines of "Hunter Pinewood is extremely irritating". This should give you a clue that, maybe, Hunter Pinewood needs moving to a different crew.

-- Other effects of happiness --

Unhappy employees are likely to threaten to quit, and then follow through with their threat if they remain unhappy for too long. You will need to respond to their needs in order to hold onto those employees.

By having employees quit, you will take a hit to your employee retention. This is vital for receiving job applications from more desirable employees. Low retention will attract less desirable applications, so it is in your interest to make sure your employees remain happy!

[BWDev]

For those wondering, in this video I used Conceptboard for mindmapping / planning, and Lucidchart for Flowcharts!

[meaterbeater]

If you haven’t already thought of this you could add a harbour at the coast that is used to transport goods to and from your island and by upgrading it you can increase the amount of things you can transport

[sneddonisaac]

I quite literally live just down the road from the arboretum!!! That’s actually crazy! Also great devlog man!

[DIYDamian]

"The only problem was sleep wasn't helping our little guy here feel any more rested."
mood

[dakodakelm]

I really love how this game is coming together, please don't lose motivation. I NEED THIS

[Goodgis]

This game is seriously starting to look amazing! Can't wait to see more!

[isto_inc]

Oooh i've never thought to change the sample frame rate to speed up my animations. you learn something new every time!

[RogerClotet]

" :) describes perfectly my mood right now.

[TwixDylan]

Just a suggestion, but it would be handy to have a tool tip show up when you hover over a need suggesting the player how they might increase this value. Also it could perhaps highlight the nearest tile where they can replenish this need (eg: the well). Regardless, awesome work dude!

[Trainhead]

Arboretum is an awesome place, I hope you had a lovely time there!

[coffee_bean__]

Love it man. One thing I would say is a slight rework on the textures, as there is not enough contrast. Screen seems very flat and could do with the colour popping a bit more to make the foreground elements stand apart from the background elements. I understand this would take a while, but just my thoughts :) have a good day

[CMister]

Develog after develog your game gets richer and bigger.
It's super impressive especially for a solo developer.
Good job man.

[Stalkie]

I actually love the way you show those nitty gritty details like time lapses of the canvas and glimpses of the scripts etc. As someone who just started learning unity, this gives me a lot of ideas on how to structure my own attempts at making games!

[ivorkusic]

This looks like it's gonna be one of those super in-depth management games that everyone loves... huge potential for this one!

[nichegames]

This video raises my happiness level. I can't believe I didn't see this video was out until 4 days later!

[GamesBySaul]

Love how the game is looking! - and how you have the personalities done seems really nice, one script to handle loads of different personalities which could just grow, I love how that works! :D

[xhold]

NEW DEVLOG! YES!!! Great video, I’m loving seeing this game come together!

[xcrinn]

Somehow I just know that when this game gets released, DangerouslyFunny is going to get his paws on it and find a way to run the most efficient factory with the worst possible work conditions

[arturkarabekov]

Want to play this game so bad now :O
I remember your first devlogs, how you created the first employees, made the option to move and place stuff. Look what an amazing game you have her now good job!

[cleo]

cant wait to get this game! i love games like this because they NEVER get boring! (to me at least) Love The Dev Logs Keep em Coming!