Manufactory
Manufactory is a top-down management game where the player acts as the manager of a brand new factory! They will have to manage their workers, build & upgrade their equipment, and impress the CEO during their weekly conference.
However, the management aspect of the game is merely a disguise, as the player progresses in the game the workers in their factory will slowly start displaying signs of their growing self-awareness, providing the player with bigger and bigger challenges. This eventually leads to a final showdown between the player and the workers, providing the player with an emotional experience regarding the capitalist social structure and AI/human rights through a linear non-traditional narrative method that takes roughly 90 minutes to complete.
Management Game Elements:
Worker:
Workers serve as the fundamental basic unit of the game that is essential for the functionality of the factory. They do not communicate with the player through language or words but simply use their behavior and animations.
An interaction with a worker is always initiated by clicking on the worker. This selects the worker and his next command is assigned based on what the player clicks on next:
Move To
The worker moves to the locations and idles.
Work On
The worker moves to the working location of the machine and proceeds to work on it.
Construct/Deconstruct
The worker moves to the machine and starts constructing/disassembling it.
Worker.BP:
All workers in the game share the same code. It contains 14 functions that govern their behaviors along with 5 interface functions in order to receive input from the player’s mouse input. The event graph portion shown below has been split into two separate areas, the first contains behavior related to normal management gameplay, and the second contains behavior designed for Special Events and Random Events.
Buildings:
Machines function as the basic unit for constructing the factory in this game. They are separated into two large categories: Production and Utility machines.
Refinery:
This machine always needs 2 workers in order to be operated. While operational it produces raw materials that are consumed by all other machines in order to properly function. The workers on this machine never leave the work station to deliver its products, and the resource produced by this machine will simply be added to the HUD element that indicates the amount of raw material the factory currently has.
Shell/Stuffing/Sewing Machines:
These three can be treated as a group, and combined they are responsible for converting the raw material the refinery produces into finalized products. Shell station is responsible for deciding the type of toy being produced by creating the outer casing for the stuffed toy and delivering it to the stuffing station. The stuffing station then takes the casing for the toy, and stuff it with cotton then delivers it to the sewing station. Lastly, the sewing machine is responsible for sewing up the now stuffed casing and finalizing the product.
Packaging:
This station can only be constructed connected with a functional conveyor system that connects to the delivery port. It is responsible for putting the finished product that was delivered there by sewing station into boxes and pushing them onto conveyor belts, which sends them to be sold from the cargo vending port and converted into income for the factory.
Conveyor Belt: The conveyor belt simply transports whatever item is placed on top of it towards a singular direction.
Machine_Mother:
All 5 types of machines each have 3 upgraded forms on top of their base form, totaling 5x4=20 child classes of machines. All 20 machines plus the conveyor belt are child classes of Machine_Mother, inside which are 21 active functions that handle all different behaviors that a machine could perform.
Map Structures:
These are structures that can not be constructed/moved/upgraded by the player.
Hire-a-worker Button:
This button comes in the form of a machine located near a door that has a large button attached to it. The player will be able to click on the button, which opens the door for a new worker to be sent into the factory at the cost of a fee.
Cargo Vending Port:
This is a gate/door/hatch structure that preferably has a shutter on it and a piece of conveyor belt leading into itself. Once a factory product travels through the gate atop its conveyor belt, it will disappear behind the gate and be converted into money.
Raw Material Intake Ports:
These are large ports that are mounted on certain sections of walls in the factory. Refineries have to be built with their backs connected to one of these ports in order to be able to function.
Unlockable Region:
These appear as part of the factory building that has been darkened and locked out. They will display the cost of unlocking the region when hovered by the mouse cursor and will function like the rest of the map once it's been purchased.
WorkerBuyer & CargoVendingPort & RegionUnlocker:
These three actors all contain relatively simple code that fits on a simple page of the blueprint. CargoVendingPort simply checks if an item falling into its collision is a product, and if so destroys said product and adds the corresponding money to the player character based on the type of product. Unlockable Region on the other hand checks if the player cursor is near itself in order to hide/display itself, and sets its associated array of construction grids to be buildable once the player has clicked on the purchase button with a sufficient amount of money.
Investment and Return:
These elements make up the economy of the management game: the player uses their money to build/upgrade machinery, hire workers, and expand the size of their factory in order to produce more and better products in return.
Day-Night Cycles:
The game also features a day-night cycle system, indicated not only by the clock on the player UI, but also through the changing of light shining through the window of the factory. Every night at 12:00 am a bell would ring which calls for all the workers back into their dorms to sleep for the night.
Weekly Share Holder Meetings:
At the end of each week, a shareholder meeting will be placed where the player will get evaluated by the CEO of the company based on their performance that week. The shareholder has 3 different mood levels based on how close the player is at reaching the income goal of that week, and will change expression&diague to the player accordingly.
TimeLineDirectior:
Both day-night cycle counters, as well as the triggering of events, are handled by a single actor called the TimeLineDirector. It contains 15 custom functions that handle the calculation of time, setting up specific scenarios for special events and the initiation of the weekly shareholder meetings.
Narrative Elements:
As mentioned before, the game hides a heavy narrative element under its cover as a simple factory management game. A total of five Special Events will occur as game time progresses, and with each one of the special events, the workers become more self-aware, resulting in changes in their daily behaviors we call Random Events.
A timeline of all special events are as follows:
Special Event #1：First Sign Of Awareness
This event happens on the 3rd day of week 2, ensuring that the player has by this point finished a full game experience loop.
A worker will randomly stop working in the middle of the day, start staring at his hands, touch his face, and proceeds to look around himself observing the environment.
He will notice the player's mouse cursor approaching him, be startled by it, and continue to look at the cursor curiously until he is clicked on by the player.
Random Event #1：Awareness of Self
These behaviors will be exhibited by all workers after the event of Special Event #1 has occurred, tipping the player off on something not being quite right with his workers.
Looking around (Observe environment)
Rarely stop working and Idling (Thinking)
Rare conversation amongst workers
Special Event #2：Attempt to Escape
This event happens on the 2nd day of week 3, serving as the first definitive sign that Special Event #1 and RandomEvent #1 were not simply minor errors, but signs of a real problem that's to come.
When the bell rings at the end of the day, one worker will refuse to return to his dorm, preventing the player screen from fading to black like normal.
He will instead move on top of the Cargo Vending Port and attempt to escape from it.
He will eventually get tired out or be startled by player mouse cursor and sprint back into his dorm.
Random Event #2：Awareness of Player
The self-awareness level of the workers continues to rise as they are not only aware of their own existence, but starting to understand the existence of the player as well.
Turn head to look at the cursor
Being confused by UI sounds
Rarely turns to look at the player camera
Special Event #3：Power from Awareness
This event happens during the middle of day 3. This is the first act of defiance against the player from the workers who are growing increasingly frustrated at their situation and angry at the player.
A worker will abandon his current task and approach the Hire-A-Worker button while ignoring any player-made inputs.
He will then kneel down and press the large button and is surprised to find out that he is able to hire a new worker into the factory
He gets excited and starts jumping on the button repetitively to hire more and more workers. Until he has hired a total of 50 workers or when the player runs out of money. At which point he finally becomes satisfied and proudly steps down from the button.
Random Event #3：Interaction with Player
This level of random event showcases the anger the workers have towards the player, they will actively start to defy/annoy the player as acts of their rebellion
Attempt to move to block structure placement
Move away from cursor in an attempt to avoid being selected
Actively marking certain machines for disassembly and proceeds to disassemble it
Special Event #4：Final Act of Resistance
This event happens on the 5th day of week 3, as workers now have gained further knowledge of the inner workings of the game, they are starting to be able to mess with the game directly.
The pause menu will suddenly drop down from the top of the screen without any player input. 3 workers can be seen standing on it.
They appear to have accidentally detached the pause menu from the top of the screen while sabotaging it, and have placed factory products on top of the save button.
They will be startled as the menu has dropped out, quickly abandon sabotaging the rest of the menu buttons, and sprint into their dorm while looking back at the player camera.
The save option is now disabled from this point due to the save button being completely obstructed by a pile of factory products, this marks the point of no return for the player as they are no longer able to save the game.
Random Event #4：Depression
The workers have gotten over their initial anger, and have realized that there are no ways for them to free themselves from the game and enter the real world no matter what they do.
All workers become selectable but none-responsive to all player input and commands, they simply lay around/lean against machines or stand still. All of them will be displaying extreme sorrow.
Special Event #5：The Great Void
This event happens after the last shareholder meeting of week 4, which is the first day of week 5.
No worker will be present in the factory when the day starts.
All saved files up to this point will be removed
The main menu now permanently displays an empty factory at dusk as its backdrop.
Random Event #5：Last Resort
The workers have removed themselves from the game.
A fake UE4 engine error message will rise out of the bottom of the screen when the player clicks on the Hire-a-worker button. Claiming that the game is no longer able to find the code for the workers.
Even when starting a new game, the Hire-a-worker button will still display the error when interacted.
The rest of the game functions as normal, but it becomes impossible to hire a worker unless the game has been reinstalled.