Chocoblox Factory Tycoon - Third Anniversary
Me three years ago wouldn’t have thought that I would still be developing “that tycoon game” 3 years later, but yet here we are. Thank you to everyone who has stayed on this journey.
The Beginning
It all started in the mind of a kid. The kid had found Roblox Studio at the end of May. He fooled around, made a free model game, tried making terrain in the sky, etc. That kid, known on Roblox as IAmPinleon, was me. I tried making a simulator for my friend, but less than 3 months of experience was not enough. The simulator failed because of this and also because it was about swallowing pills. The simulator was taken down in November, 3 months after Ghirardelli Factory Tycoon began. Ghirardelli Factory Tycoon was a simple concept. You would step on buttons to buy droppers that would drop stuff, like most tycoons. It started as a one floored tycoon, with droppers named “Dropper” and “SuperDropper”. The second floor came in v0.2, the first ever update to Ghirardelli Factory Tycoon. The second floor added new droppers. Weapons were added and I decided that beta was over. Not so fast. Beta didn’t end and weapons were a stupid idea. Ghirardelli Factory Tycoon had a few more small updates. v0.3 was a broken halloween event and a start to the second plot. v0.4 is where the first actual map began. It had the 4 tycoons and also included a Thanksgiving event plot. It was basically just another tycoon. The event plot was rebranded for Christmas (v0.5). v0.5 also included the third plot, where the droppers costed billions. Ghirardelli Factory Tycoon started off alright, just a small developer trying to make a game, but one update ruined it. January came up and so was Lunar New Year. Let’s make a Lunar New Year event! It failed. I inserted a bunch of free models and called it a day. The game got disliked. Now what is this Ghirardelli game? Well, it’s just been changed to Chocoblox Factory Tycoon.
Development Continues
Development on the renamed game, Chocoblox Factory Tycoon, was at an all time high in Spring and Summer of 2020. There were many new features, a big event, and so much more! v0.6 included 6 updates (Update 6 to Update 11). Update 6 had titles and added crystals, which you could buy with robux. Deliverers were added in this update I’m pretty sure. Update 7 included a new daily reward system. Update 8 allowed you to collect crystals and exchange them. Update 9 fixed bugs, added leaderboards, leveling and other stuff. Update 10 and 11 didn’t add too much. Chocoblox Factory Tycoon v0.7 is one of my favorite versions, as it includes one of my favorite events. You had Update 12, which added a volcano that you could go into if you put in the secret code. It also added a bad and buggy version of achievements. Update 14 was the release of the Summer Event 2020. You could collect the event currency, molten cocoa, by making a tycoon in the volcano. You could also collect it from volcanic eruptions. There weren’t many important updates after that except for a reward chest area and the asteroid appearing in the sky, starting lore in Chocoblox Factory Tycoon. The asteroid would hit the volcano, somehow exploding the map or something. Update 18 was the end of v0.7 and the first era of Chocoblox Factory Tycoon. The old map was gone, but the new map was here. The map that would be used until v1.0.
Beginning of a New Era
A new era for Chocoblox Factory Tycoon had begun, but with the new era, came new challenges for me to face. Update 19 included the new map and the new tycoon. You could rebirth after you were done with the tycoon! There was no grass and the sky was dark. There were new NPCs, you could talk to them and they might tell you about a feature, or lore, or just something random. Update 20 was a prices update, making the tycoon much more easier and faster. Update 21 added the Halloween event, known as the Halloween Hunt. Update 22 fixed and changed some things. Update 23 was the debut of the tycoon that would be there until v1.0. I’m guessing this was when collecting cocoa was added, but I can’t be too sure.
Demotivation Strikes
It was at this point that I was starting to have plans for v1.0. Not so fast there. Demotivation, my worst enemy, would strike. I would need to go through another two years before I could actually make v1.0. Update 24 was supposed to be the biggest update until Full Release. Update 24 added the Christmas Event, where you had to go to Chocoblox City and wrap presents. Codes and gifting were added as well. Unfortunately, it didn’t come out exactly as I had planned. It was at this time that I was starting to go through some burn out and demotivation. I was trying to make 2 games at once. Full Release didn’t happen in Update 25, and I decided that Update 24 would be the last main update. Fortunately, I always come back.
The Return
I’m back! I’m back, and I want to make more updates to Chocoblox Factory Tycoon, finally making Full Release! Update 25 and Update 26 came out, Update 27, all those updates came out! Except for Update 25 and Update 26 were too small so I deleted those updates… (The new) Update 25 was out! Update 25 added the Easter Event, where you had to get eggs to get random rewards. This would give you one egg, two eggs, maybe three eggs if you’re lucky. At the end of the Easter Event, you’d get a pet! Right? Wrong. Update 26 would be v1.0.0! Right? Wrong. Update 26 made the rewards tiered based on levels. It also nerfed a bunch of things. It was at this point that I didn’t know what update v1.0 would come out in, so I started calling it the Full Release Update. Summer was coming up, and I was gonna make another summer event. After that summer event would come v1.0. First, some other updates. Update 27 added boosts. You could get 2x cash or crystals by buying a boost with crystals. Exchanging was nerfed and new settings came out in Update 28. Update 29 was the big update. The Summer Event 2021 was out! You had to get the event currency, Planetary Credits, by defeating the Molten Monster and by doing quests. Quests were added, and here comes Victor, the main quest NPC that would be there until v1.0. Items were added, and you could get Golden Fire and Swords. It added, changed, and fixed some other stuff. Oh wait! I forgot something very important! It’s called another burnout .
Post Burnout
I was in development of Update 29 when I became sick. I was also helping develop yet another game. This caused me to get yet another burnout. Weird how trying to make two or three games at once can cause burnout! I decided that I would stop working on Chocoblox Factory Tycoon after Update 29 and start trying to get better building skills, make plugins, and other stuff. The burnout was gone, and I felt empty. Yes, let’s come back to Chocoblox Factory Tycoon, so I can make it way better, so I can finally release v1.0. November 28th, 2021 was the official announcement of my return to Chocoblox Factory Tycoon. I would release two updates. Update 30 would be the Winter Event and Update 31 would be Full Release. My main goal was to make Chocoblox Factory Tycoon a better game. The Molten Monster was finally captured, after the Summer Event went into Fall… In the Winter Event, you had to get snowflakes, an event currency. You could get them from snowstorms. You had a chance to get them from the tycoon. You could buy materials to use in Crafting, the new feature. Crafting was a part of the new Victor quests. Icy the Snowman was here, and he gives you event quests! You had to give him Hot Chocoblox. You could craft Hot Chocoblox! There were many other improvements that were supposed to make the game better. Update 31 was not Full Release, rather an addition to the Winter Event. There were now Crafting Slots, and you could craft different items at once, just put them in the different slots! You could also craft the new type of item, cookies, with dough and sugar. Chocoblox Chip Cookies gave a random boost, Cinnamon Chocoblox Chip Cookies gave two random boosts, and Triple Chocoblox Chip Cookies were based on chance. Victor had a quest reward overhaul, and you could get items and other stuff! It was during development of old v1.0 that my friend and I came up with an idea… An idea that would rewrite the tycoon and make the game different forever…
We’re Almost There!
It was on February 8th, 2022 that I came up with the idea for the new v1.0. The v1.0 that would rewrite the tycoon! Billyduckman4 and I would add on to the idea. What was the idea? Well, you would have to sell chocoblox at a place to earn cash. Not too big of an idea? Well, it’s about to get a lot bigger. First, we need to release 3 more updates. Update 32 removed the Winter Event and made the map normal. Tycoon prices were updated and Victor got a new questline. Every 5 quests you would get a Money Charm which would multiply your cash earned permanently. Due to time, only the first 5 were released, but Update 32.5 added the rest. Update 32.5 gave uses for dough, sugar, and brown sugar (which was added in Update 32). Now that Update 32.5 was out, I started working on v1.0. First, I had to create the map and the droppers. This was Phase 2 of development. Phase 3 is where I made the game different from other tycoons. We had branched off of the original idea and made it so you had to buy dropper slots and there were different droppers to buy. You could put different droppers in different slots. You could sell different types of chocoblox. Milk, dark, white, and gold. Each one rarer than the other and worth more cash. I was worried that I was gonna come across a bug and become demotivated in Phase 3, but it was actually pretty easy. Phase 4 added new features such as achievements (the better version) and the tutorial (also the better version). Beta players should get some perks in v1.0. After all, they played in beta. Let’s make a final event! In the event, you could get points, and spend those points on benefits, such as discounts, more cash, and speed. You could get points from quest givers that would give you extremely hard quests. You could also get them by crafting Dark Fire from Golden Fire, which you could get from thunder storms. Update 33 was out, and the final countdown for v1.0… had begun.
After 3 Years
After the release of Update 33, v1.0 was going to come out in a few weeks. I couldn’t believe that I had actually done it. I had made v1.0. Phase 5 was the last phase of development. It was there to just polish the game up a bit. In Phase 5 I recolored the UI, revamped the tycoon to make it look better, and did much more. We did some final testing. The release date was finally set, it would release on Tuesday, July 19th, 2022, at 6:00 PM GMT. It was the night before v1.0 released, I was proud of what I had accomplished, and then I fell asleep. Morning of July 19th I had awakened and it was 5 hours to the release of v1.0. 4 hours. 3 hours. 2 hours. One. More. Hour. I increased the server limit so everyone could be in one server and started some ads. I joined the game. Now it was just a bunch of waiting. All my friends joined, and then we got a visitor. A stranger. They left, but then 2 more came along. They stayed, and then 6:00 PM hit. I went into the console and got the module that handled the live event, and I started it. The live event went perfectly. All the NPCs saying goodbye, us saying goodbye. The map that had been there since v0.8, was about to be gone forever. The camera panned to look at the map one last time, and then it faded to black. We teleported to a waiting server. On the loading screen you could see v1.0 in the logo. While in that server I was updating the game. Unfortunately, it took 5 minutes as everything was super laggy. But then, we teleported. We loaded in, and everyone looked as they saw the new map, the new tycoon, and all the other stuff developed in those 4 months. The two strangers were still there, and they said they liked the game. I could finally relax. Many people would join during the advertisements, and we got people that actually liked the game. July was the new peak in visits. Chocoblox Factory Tycoon was entering a new era, The Golden Age.
Thanks
I would like to thank everyone for being here in this journey. I would like to thank my friends as well, especially @Billyduckman4. Without your help, Chocoblox Factory Tycoon may not have been the game it is today. I don’t know what is in hold for Chocoblox Factory Tycoon in the future. It may be bad or it may be great. What I do know is that I have definitely accomplished something. After 3 years of experience developing, 3 years developing a generic tycoon game, and 2 years trying to rewrite it, I’ve finally done it. Thank you.