Geniu$: The Tech Tycoon Game

Genius physics is a company created by Cornelsen Verlag learning game and the first part of the three -part series Genius. The game, which came on the market in 2004, is about the rise of a small bicycle repair shop into a worldwide corporation. During the game, physical facts are learned and applied.

Gameplay

Generally

At the beginning of the game you are looking at a region. The choices are: The Ruhr, Detroit, Berlin, London and Melbourne. These regions have an ascending difficulty. Decisive factors are the available construction area and the available natural resources.

The objective of the game is to carry out a space mission. For this purpose, an economically strong city have built and specific tasks to be solved.

Over time, come to a total of six characters that give the player advice, but also give physical issues and development contracts.

Planning and Economic

You start out in each region in 1850 with a bicycle repair shop and with a certain sum of start-up capital. So it is, so to build a big company. Money is earned by export. Sell-through of commodity money is earned. At the same time you have to build housing estates for the workers. Through the construction of administrative buildings and infrastructure, the productivity of individual plants can be increased.

Over time, new branches of production and buildings will be unlocked. The game is geared to the real technical progress. It often happens that some branches of production are unprofitable, while others rise considerably in value. Here, too, the game is based on real, historical trends in the markets.

Research

Throughout the game, make the characters a different physical tasks of the sub- fields of mechanics, electricity, astronomy, thermodynamics and optics. To achieve the objects references are obtained in correspondence with leading scientists of the time, as well as a physical magazine. Have been several attempts to solve a problem. With proper solution is obtained economic benefits such as money or an increase in production. If the wrong solution can lead to declining productivity, strike or money deduction. The tasks are designed according to the game. So for example requires a task at the beginning to find suitable insulation materials for the toilets of the workers. Subsequent tasks are concerned with the development of aircraft and missiles. The tasks are very versatile: it must fill in the blank filled, labeled sketches, assigned to objects created calculations or experiments to be performed.

Characters

The characters are mainly the transfer of knowledge within the game. Furthermore, they provide motivation and link the game sections. Each character has its own department to which he very often makes tasks.

• Master Hoffmann: founder of the bicycle repair shop, which forms the basis of one's own group. He appears primarily in the early stages of a game with questions about the mechanics
• Assistant Maria Roloff: Emancipated, modern, young lady. Your orders usually relate to the development of new machines.
• Assistant Henning Wagner: High Intelligent, research associate. Happy to provide very complex tasks related to electrical engineering and astronomy.
• , Accountant responsible for marketing: Ms. Frederick. They are rarely jobs, mostly it involves general computing tasks.
• Georg: apprentice in the workshop, is required at the help for his upcoming trade test and provides to basic questions.
• Production manager Majowski: Chairman of the Works Council, a loyal, indispensable employee. He, too, are most computing tasks.

Reception

The reviews for Genius companies physics fell from mixed to positive. At Metacritic, the game received 63/100 points.

In the GameSpy game received three out of five stars. Praise the idea was criticized, however, were the partially very high level of difficulty of the tasks with too little assistance and the implementation of economic simulation.