Cashdefense - Cashflow Simulation

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#1

My first little android game, using libGDX and games-icons.net mainly, and a few other open source libs and resources (all listed on the credits screen)…

From the description:
Choose your career, choose your hobbies, meet people, travel the world, invest your money and watch your cashflow rise and fall throughout your lifetime.
Stack your education, adjust your daily activities in realtime and watch your investments pay out or fall on their faces.

Available here: Google Play Store

Any feedback welcome, thanks!

http://cashdefense.com/themes/cashdefense/assets/images/screens/1.jpg

http://cashdefense.com/themes/cashdefense/assets/images/screens/2.jpg

http://cashdefense.com/themes/cashdefense/assets/images/screens/3.jpg

#2

Hi,
I played 4 times and enjoyed figuring out how it works.
The different goals of cash and wealth versus popularity and life goals is interesting. I wonder why you only put cash as the ‘score’ visible at the top?
There are many humourous things like the ‘physical relationship’ option with the rabbit icon and the comment that ‘Mom still likes you’ for low popularity.
There is no option to buy shares which is a common investment, perhaps that could be included in addition to property.
One thing that I thought was unusual was that borrowing to invest in real estate was at the very high rate of 2% per month, whereas the capital appreciation of the real estate asset was only 2% per year. That explains why the debt snowballs so quickly. Perhaps personal unsecured debt funding non-investment assets should attract higher interest rates while personal secured debt funding investment assets such as property or shares should have a lower interest rate, as in real life.
I found your game entertaining and liked it. It’s well thought out, even the way you die at 71 if you don’t do sport! Lol.
A score timeline of your different stats would be interesting.
Cheers,
Keith

#3

Hi CommanderKeith,

thanks for your great feedback! I am glad you liked it, but you seem to know a lot more about investments than me :slight_smile:

I “only put cash as the ‘score’ visible at the top” to make it simpler, when you tap the score you get more details, even a whole “balance sheet” with IN an OUT per month…

and the very high rate for borrowing money is there to make it a bit less easy and yes there should be a whole lot more investment options, but too much would make it less playable, so I have to find a balance…

thanks again.

#4

Hi,
Yes I see what you mean about the playability, good point.
Rather than make all debt have such punitive interest rates of 2% per month, perhaps you could ration it like the way banks do in real life using some kind of maximum debt servicing ratio or loan to valuation ratio. So you can’t borrow any more when your interest expense is more than say 35% of your annual income (the definition of mortgage stress in some countries) or when your LVR is more than 80 or 90%.
Just some ideas.
It’s a really clever game, I like it. I’m doing research into finance and economics and often think about these things. You must be a business student as well?
It’s funny how you say that having lots of cheap debt would make the game too easy, since that is what has happened in real life with zero interest rates and quantitative easing in most of the world’s biggest economies. House and share prices have ballooned significantly, arguably buoyed by cheap debt.

#5

Hi,

wow! you clearly know much, much more than me about finance and economics! ;D ;D

I kind of tried to make it as “realistic” as possible in the beginning, with all kinds of investments, realistic loan options, even real-time stock market rates (lol), but quickly realised that’s just crazy and a sure road to madness :wink:

And you would have a ton of options for each loan, investment, purchase etc. etc. and spend more time choosing than playing…

anyway, I’ll wait and see if anybody is even interested in this kind of game…

thanks again and if you wish you could give it a star or two, it looks so lonely without any rating…

#6

Make the interest rate fluctuate unpredictably. Then players in “highly leveraged” positions will get burned when the rates rise, just like in real life.

#7

Hi ags1,

thanks for your feedback!

but interest rates for loans / overdrawing do not fluctuate in real life, do they? Also, people in “highly leveraged” positions hardly ever get burned, they start foundations and stuff :wink:

#8

For example, having a mortgage on several properties and renting them out is a strategy that would be badly affected by rising interest rates.

The basic interest rate seems to affect all my accounts - interest on savings as well as overdraft and other facilities…

#9

Hi ags1,

I see what you mean and you are totally right, you should have different kinds of loans with different kinds of interest rates… but for now I just want to keep it simple, maybe with the next update :wink: