Empire Business 2: Bank

Today I'm going to discuss another feature of Empire Business 2, one that existed in the predecessor but has been fairly expanded on in all sorts of ways. The Bank, like before, allows money to build up in an account over time (although with EB1, this account is a bit...imaginative), with the player having the ability to withdraw the cash at any time. In EB1, the Bank was incredibly bare-bones; the only expandable features were the rate of "interest" (again, use your imagination) and the limit of cash you can earn. Suffice to say, it definitely could have settled for more than a few improvements.

Like everything else, the Bank in EB2 has been completely redesigned from the ground up. The interest rate actually operates correctly, with a percentage and everything - not the most groundbreaking feature, I admit, but at least it feels more legitimate. Additionally, you have the ability to withdraw/deposit any amount of cash that you like. Eventually, the bank can even withdraw and deposit on its own, allowing you to rake in the dough without having to lift a finger! As far as the cash limit is concerned, you will initially start out with a fixed value, but eventually your bank can undergo a type of "construction" that allows your limit to raise every few minutes - the larger your limit is, the longer it takes to raise it again. This construction system will run forever, so there is practically no limit to how much money your Bank can make!

Before I talk about what is perhaps the Bank's biggest feature, there's something else I need to discuss first. The economy in this game is a bit more varied than its predecessor; there are actually 3 types of currency now. There is, of course, the cash currency that we're all extremely familiar with by now. There is also a gem currency, which is considerably more rare than cash and can be used to be more valuable upgrades. Finally, we have the Empire Gem, which is significantly more rare than even regular gems! Make no mistake, you'll be using the latter currency for some incredibly powerful upgrades.

With that said, the Bank actually has a method of earning gems and Empire Gems very easily. If you've bought the right upgrades, then your Bank will actually start awarding you gems and E-Gems after you've made enough interest! (For example, if you make $300 from interest, you might earn, say, 1 gem.) Considering the incredible value of gems and E-Gems, I find this to be my personal favorite feature of the Bank; the best part is this feature keeps the Bank relevant in the end-game, considering how much less valuable your cash becomes.

That was a lot of information for something as simple as a bank, but make no mistake, you have a powerful tool at your disposal this time around. And I hope you enjoy using it.

Thanks for reading!
~Bryan Pearson

Empire Business 2: Ozymandias

I think I may start using this blog to update my progress on the ever-beloved Empire Business 2, a game which, as some of you may know, is the upcoming sequel to my older game Empire Business. For those who are wondering, EB is a game that tasks you to make as much money as possible. The original game holds its fair share of flaws, but I still consider it to be a success (having racked up over 50,000 views on Newgrounds alone). In fact, I was so pleased from the responses people gave that it prompted me to begin work on a sequel. And now, five months later, here we are: the game will soon be entering the final stages of development and is shaping up to be one hell of a project.

Back to the point. I would like to use this blog as a method of communicating certain aspects of the game over to you guys. It's a quite large game, and there's a lot of information to discuss. Today I'd like to start with one of the more recent features I've been working on.

You've seen the title already, so let's get down to it. Ozymandias, named after the old Shelley poem, is one of eight upgrades you can buy in the Evolution Shop. These upgrades have a few characteristics that set them apart from the rest of the crowd; all you need to know for now is that they get stronger over time. I will probably talk about the whole Evolution system later on, but for now, I'd like to focus on this one particular upgrade. Ozymandias gives you the advantage of earning money automatically, but also poses a dangerous side effect. Occasionally, the upgrade will corrupt, and you will lose money. Now, at first, the chances of this happening would be minimal, but as the upgrade itself becomes stronger over time, its chances of corrupting increase, so much so that you may even go bankrupt a few times! Eventually you may find yourself losing way more money than you gain, and that can be quite a dilemma.

And how sad would it be if your only method of ending the chaos would be to reset the game? Well, worry not! There's actually an in-game timer that runs once you purchase the upgrade, and when it hits a certain value, the game will remove the effects of the upgrade (both positive and negative) and it will reward you $10,000,000 for your troubles. If that is incentive enough for you to buy the upgrade, have at it. Though towards the end game, $10M may not be much compared to the amount of money you will likely lose. But the choice is yours.

Well, that about wraps it up for this post. Ozymandias is a dangerous upgrade, and I'd advise you to stay away from it. Of course, even if you haven't read this blog post, you should still take the namesake for what its worth; Ozymandias symbolizes the fall of kings and empires, and in a game titled Empire Business, that can't mean anything good.

Thanks for reading!
~Bryan Pearson