Build-a-lot

Microsoft Windows

Annie Stanton, the mayor of Granite Springs, explains the goals for a level.

Build-a-lot is another casual game based on the new fad of house and real estate flipping. In Build-a-lot, you assume the role of a real-estate developer. There are two playable modes: Career and Casual, though the "Casual" mode has to be unlocked by playing through the first several Career missions (essentially, tutorials).

In Career Mode, you play through several missions, set in various cities. You start out in an average town and move up to more prestigous towns, coached by the town's mayors. As you move up in prestige, the more types of structures you can build. There is normally a time limit associated with each mission, and, of course, missions get harder and harder as you progress. Also, the mayors like to drop new requirements on you as you near the deadline (just like video game development).

Usually the biggest challenge in each mission is coming up with the necessary capital to meet a goal. Raising cash can be accomplished in three ways. The first one is to use what cash you have and build a house and then immediately sell it. The other is to buy an existing house, add some upgrades, and then sell it for a profit. The first brings in more money, but the second is faster and takes fewer materials. The third way is to buy an existing house and tear it down and build a bigger house in its place. It works—I did it often.

As a real estate developer, the player has to manage the construction of new buildings, the sale of current structures, maintenance and other activities.

As a real estate developer, you have to juggle a number of parameters. You have to keep on top of rent and repairs on rental properties, know when to buy and sell properties, and keep track of workers: make sure you have enough and decide when to train more. And you have to keep on top of having enough materials and decide whether you should build special buildings (workshops, sawmills, etc.). You also have to decide whether it is worth it to build banks, and if so, whether to take their dividends or donate them to charity in order to avoid paying taxes on your properties (a huge hassle). It may sound boring from my description, but I found it really engaging.

This game did a good job keeping my interest. I wanted to keep progressing in order to be able to build bigger and better buildings. I enjoyed fixing up places and selling them for a profit. The graphics were 2D (but probably used 3D acceleration), which was fine for this title. Using 3D might've distracted from the gameplay. And the graphics were polished and attractive, not all sucky like with some other casual games (e.g. Diner Dash). HipSoft did a good job of managing the game's complexity. Most tasks are taken care of with the GUI strip at the bottom of the screen. And instead of having to order paint, lumber, wallboard and the hundreds of other things needed build or upgrade a structure, they just lumped it all together as "Materials". This was a prudent move: having to manage the minutia of the different types of materials needed would quickly become a drag. The rewards at the end of each mission are satisfying and the sound is appropriate. And saving and resuming games is a breeze. As is restarting levels (which I had to do several times because I didn't acheive the goals). Switching between this game and another Windows application is a snap. But it isn't perfect.

The Career Mode of the game is engaging and takes quite a while to complete. After the first several training missions, I could only finish about one mission a night. That's a Good Thing^TM—nothing is worse than a game that's too easy to beat. And there are many, many missions to work through. But the "Casual" mode is kind of boring. Normally each mission in the Career Mode has a time limit, so you feel motivated to finish quickly. And you get a bonus if you finish early. But in the Casual mode, you have as much time as you like to accomplish any given goal. There is no hurry, no rush, no push. It's too casual. You are playing for time, but against thousands of other players all over the world. Any chance of beating them? And if you do, so what? You have your initials on some obscure leader board? I would've preferred a more innovative Casual Mode with more engaging goals, but this flaw isn't enough to put me off the game. I just played the Career Mode over again, getting better scores because I was a better player the second time around. But the Casual mode is there in case you tire of the Career Mode.

Beefy eyebrows

Build-a-lot has three female mayors. I have no gripe about that. But two really need to tweeze their eyebrows. I mean, really. Don't they have virtual mirrors?

I think HipSoft knocked this one out of the ballpark. I think a real estate flipping game is just what the marketplace needed. And the fact that it's a cheap (~$20.00) casual game is even better. This game gave me over two hours of enjoyment for each dollar I paid for it. I'm definately going to keep an eye out for future HipSoft releases.

External links

• Page at PlayFirst