Reseñas

• gamedeal user

  Feb 6, 2021

  I picked up Academia at the start of the early access program -- and held onto it all through it's development and up through release. Sadly, now that the game has hit a "released" 1.0 version from the developers, I simply cannot recommend this game at full-price. Academia itself is a great concept for a less-gritty Prison Architect where you run, build, and manage a school. You have to deal with staff, grades, problem-students, budgets, schedules, the list goes on... Unfortunately, the game comes across as trying to be a mile-wide but only an inch-deep. There's lots of basic things missing from the game you would expect to be commonplace, like relocating objects. There's also a it-just-gets-the-job-done UI which -- at times -- has little to no data for you to work off of. For instance, when planning meals for your cafeteria(s), there is zero feedback given to the player of if you are making enough food, have enough serving lines, cooks, food stocks, or etc. You just have to spam-place objects down until you stop having students drop-out or complain about being hungry for lack of any analytical data to go off of. The research tree can be fun to unlock more stuff for your school, but the first "school year" can be very hard; requiring you to only build the bare-minimum room sizes and objects or risk running out of money to continue. While this is just a preference thing and you can change your starting funds on a new game, it makes each play-though feel remarkably identical. There are game over scenarios here -- if you have over 50% of your students either being delinquent or sick, you get shut down. This isn't that big of a deal, except for the random events that happen throughout your gameplay. You can ignore these events and lose reputation instead, but doing so is a rough shot-in-the-foot to any progress. The events aren't always that bad and sure you could save-scum to get around them, but in my last two play attempts in 1.0, I got an earthquake event that required me to either lose $8,000 in-game which I didn't have at the time, or have something like 40+ objects break and over half the student body instantly get injured. This results in a game over at the end of the day because there's no way you can get your students back healthy before the end of the day without an infirmary level nursing station, which you won't have or afford in the first day(s) of your school. So, the TLDR here: Game at the surface is fun if you can get past a basic UI, lack of a few come-to-expect gameplay functions for this genre of game, sometimes punishing random events, and the need to watch the game in fast-forward to get more money to really do anything. The game is fun, so if you can grab it on sale I would say it's worth getting, but it still needs some more additions before I would personally say it's ready for a full-release and the full-price; especially when you can get games like Prison Architect frequently on sale at this price or less which currently has a more fleshed out and (dare I say) "finished" feel. I have nothing but respect for this dev who has always been willing to communicate, and I hope the game keeps getting worked on into the future, because if some glaring missing functions and data-reporting was there which isn't, it would be worth $25-30 easy because the concept is fun. Right now it sadly comes across as ~80% complete and not ready... yet.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 1, 2018

  Before you buy this and play, it's important for you to remember that this game is in early access. The developers seem to be hard at work and very responsive. I want to say right off the bat that I've not had any of the technical issues other people seem to have (crashing, freezing, slowing down). I'm playing on an ASUS ROG laptop that I purchased in 2013 and it's been running just fine for me. I'm a teacher and thought this game would be fun to try. I think this shows great potential and I really enjoyed experimenting with what's there so far. While it's relatively easy to complete everything the game has to offer at the moment, it's still worth playing around with. I have a few suggestions for the developers of things that might be neat to add in the future. I'm not certain what it is they're working on and what they see for the full release of the game, but these could be things to explore: - clubs - social cliques (goths, jocks, nerds, thespians, etc) - school competitions, assemblies, plays, etc ... even just an auditorium - weather and/or seasons - different classrooms for special area subjects such as P.E., art, and music - other classes, like woodshop, home ec, computers, chorus, etc - a wider selection of floors and decor - customization for furniture (color, material, etc) - some system for comfort - kind of like in The Sims where you need a certain amount of decor and windows. While the options for decor and windows are there in-game, it doesn't seem like a necessity aside from getting a small grant and some prestige - a campaign mode would be really cool - you're given a school that has some sort of problem either with truancy or academics or something and you need to solve it - more athletic options - swimming pool, wrestling room, weight room, track, basketball court, soccer field, football field, etc - staff and faculty seem really go-with-the-flow ... what if there were internal conflicts or someone suddenly decides to quit? Or maybe staff or faculty demands better working conditions or smaller class sizes or they'll go on strike or quit? - if your school starts becoming rowdy, it might be interesting to have students form gangs that you need to deal with - branching off rowdier schools, vandalism is something else to explore - enacting certain school codes, like dress codes, or even just situations like running in the hall, no smoking, food fights might be hilarious and fun to break up, students fighting in general, students arriving to school late - I would absolutely love to play the game as a primary school, too ... I teach kindergarten and I wish there was a simulator that went K-3 or even 3-6. Most decent school simulators are high school I'm sure I'll come up with more, but that was the list I made so far. I'll definitely stick around and keep an eye on what the devs do with this game!
• gamedeal user

  Oct 2, 2020

  Amazing game, could use School sports tho.. (School vs. School)
• gamedeal user

  Jun 26, 2018

  August 28th 2020 update: This game is very much playable, and I would recommend it for general simulation that vaguely resembles a school management. However, I personally do not find that it has enough personality to give it a thumbs up at this time. Most of the points I raised below still stands though with some improvements on teacher hiring, student behaviors (including added speech bubbles), and prestige effect for admission. It's definitely sad to me that I can build a school that is much more profitable as a utilities company selling water, electricity, and trash due to absolutely no true alternative revenue streams (or even a way to even tweak my tuition) that in any way relates to academia. As I said before, I truly like the concept but it has a ways to go before I can recommend it. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Original Review I have been waiting for a school simulator for a while. After playing for a few hours, I can honestly say that this game (in the early access stage) isn't it. I truly wish that there is a button for "Wait" instead of just Yes/No. Alas, I digress. I’ll update the review once they’ve had more time to release more content. First, I must point out that, as far as early access games go, this one has a lot of potential, and is more polished than most at this stage. It isn't loaded with high end graphics, so not much can go wrong there. It also has games like Prison Architect and Rimworld that came before to set the standards for what we would expect in a management game of this style. I will also say, with full disclaimer, that I have played both of those titles thoroughly and enjoy them massively, but it just doesn't quite scratch the itch of a non-murderous-prisoners/aliens/slaves/nomads/pirates/you-name-it simulation. I was looking forward to some frivolous high-school drama, and an easy-going simulation to pleasantly pass an hour or two where I can build my nice academic empire, and maybe pull a senior prank or two. It isn't quite there yet. What it does have going for it: 1. Standard learning curve 2. Customization of school seal and motto 3. School-themed 4. A really responsive dev team What it lacks: 1. There is an awesome feature where you can tweak your class schedule, but only by moving a recess and a lunch slot. You are forced to have 6 class periods, 1-hour recess, and 1-hour lunch. Also, the schedule is locked for each grade year (e.g. if you want to set the lunch break to 12, you must do it for ALL seniors, instead of for specific class). The classes are also set: no electives. Or rather, students do electives during their recess periods, which involves library, art, computer lab, or just hanging out. 2. The game-play is structured more like an elementary school than a high school, where teachers come to you, not the other way around. What this translate to, then, is you have one classroom for each grade year, then you just have 6 teachers go around to teach those 6 classes. There is no penalty to the class sizes, BUT, there is a penalty to the number of teachers. 3. Teachers... You can hire teachers by their education level. Bachelor's level teachers are dumb as a brick, and PhD teachers are brilliant. PhD teachers cost a fortune to maintain but are highly efficient. Now, I am not a teacher, but I can tell you that this is already flawed. There were college courses that I took in my younger years that I wished were taught by some of my high school teachers who had bachelor's degrees. This is not a college simulator, having only PhD teachers be the only worthwhile option just doesn't make any sense (can someone point out why you would ever keep non-PhD teachers in this game?). 4. Lack of class variety. Since the teachers come to the student, not the other way around, all classes are plain. It discourages you from spending the time to design a nice science lab. Gym? No gym. Just another boring classroom with a P.E. teacher at the chalkboard. Really? I’m sorry theater fan, I’m not even going to mention you. 5. Money? Income is solely through subsidies. This doesn’t make sense to me. Schools don’t pay vendors to bring in vending machines; vendors pay schools to bring them in. I’m also pretty sure I had to pay for school lunches (Yes, I understand there are subsidies for low income households, allowances for unpaid lunch accounts, etc.), but this game, no charging lunch. Instead, you must hire cooks and pay for the ingredients to feed your entire student body AND staff. Really? 6. Transfer students. You adjust a little slider, and you get the specified number of students (in the specified grade level) in a day or two. This is just plain lazy, in my opinion, especially when the game already tracks prestige. 7. All those great school events that anyone might remember from their childhood? Non-existent. No science fairs with the volcanoes. No awkward proms/formals. No random school pride days and pep rallies. Graduation? No such thing. Field trips? Forget it! What do you have? Exam day, that happens overnight after Day 9 each year. At least there is still that planned varsity sports thing we can look forward to? Here are some things I think are missing: 1. Private vs Public school mechanics. • In the public-school scenario, you get a yearly budget to educate an X number of student. The budget may increase/decrease each year by scripted external events (e.g. city provided XYZ company with massive subsidy caused school budget shortfall), but the number of student just keeps growing. • In the Private school scenario, students pay tuition. You get student based on your prestige. Good teacher-student ratio adds prestige. State of the art facility adds prestige. High matriculation and college enrollment adds prestige. More prestige = more student and ability to charge higher tuition. Lower prestige = less tuition (if you want anyone to come to your school). 2. True economy. • Add bistro area, in addition to plain cafeterias with outside vendors • Add student jobs, especially since some vocational program paid students (e.g. the cooking class pays the student servers for the student run dining option, the school bank pays their workers, the auto-shop pays their students for side jobs, etc) • Add ability to earn side revenue from food/events/ticket sales that can then be used to reinvest in bigger and better facility, events, vendors, food options, etc 3. Student housing for boarding school/hybrid. There is so much possibilities down this venue, I’m not even going to list. 4. As previously mentioned, add some of the school events that are prime-drama producer. Make it an event, add some modifiers to those boring students like science fair winner, varsity cheer leader, class president, D&D club, etc. Make me care about those little figures running about. I’d like to see a graduation ceremony where a little kid that frequented the principal office Freshman year gets recognized as most improved. 5. What about drama? There are the bullies, the truants, and the rowdy. But, I don’t see food fights, or students being chased outside the school, or kids running around the hallway screaming. I mean, put in a word bubble or something to denote them shouting in class or horse playing. 6. Reward having more fun and unique classes. Don’t reward users for building 4 massive classes with hundreds of seats, with the standard mandatory 6 teachers. It defeats the purpose of having departments. I know this is probably harsh for an early access game, but I have to wonder out loud: What is the value being added to this game that a mod for Prison Architect or Rimworld can’t presently accomplish?
• gamedeal user

  Jan 13, 2018

  I really like this game, but at this point I feel like I've already seen everything the game has to offer after just under 2h of gameplay. It needs a lot more content but I feel like it has a lot of potential. I would love to have events like standardized testing, bake sales, talent shows, ect. I wish the game had a gym put in so the kids would have PE classes. I would also like to be able to put in a yard for them. It need some kind of unlock tree and more micromanagement of schedules, so the kids would maybe have lunch at different times so the caffeteria wouldn't be so full at lunch, have classes in the computer lab or library. Great game with lots of potential. Just not a lot of content yet.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 10, 2017

  As of now, the game doesn't really offer much for the price. It should be cheaper until more things are added to the game. That being said, I really enjoy the game even if it crashes a lot. I look forward to the updates!
• gamedeal user

  Jan 7, 2022

  So, I'm on my second school and I like the game, but I don't love it. It uses Prison Architect-like Grants and is very similar in feel, but did not have PA's stickiness. At about the forth year (senior year for my original freshmen) I started to feel like there wasn't enough to do. Granted, I still spent 40 hours playing, and I really like the school concept, but I so wanted more. This game could have benefitted from more varied classrooms, more choice in things like PE events, after school clubs, sports, yearbook, student council etc. I'd still recommend it since the first 20-30 hours is quite enjoyable and I could see replaying it at some point in the future.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 16, 2018

  This is very much the same concept as Prison Architect. However, Prison Architect has a certian edge which keeps you on your toes. This on the other hand is dull.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 20, 2018

  For a game that seems to be largely based on Prison Architect, I have to wonder how much time this developer spent playing prison architect? It has none of the addictiveness of Prison Architect. Once you have build every room (took about an hour and a half of careful planning) that is the game, the rest of the time you spend fixing things that break down, a useless component to keep a player engaged, in fact I would argue this should be automated with a repair man so to not be a useless detraction. There is nothing to build on the yard outside, so why have it? No Basketball court? Nothing? This game is far too basic to recommend currently. Maybe if it had some engaging activates like training staff or interacting with students, not mundane things like fixing urinals. This is my review and my opinion on the games current state, any fanboy comments will be removed.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 9, 2017

  Academia is a nice game about running your own school. It's nothing too special though. I feel it could do so much more, like relationships between students, being able to address students and teachers personally, being able to adjust more exact stuff like curriculum, times, classes, etc. What I'm trying to say is it could use a LOT more micromanagement. The macromanagement is solid. Its nice to build a school and cater to your student's needs for a while. I feel like there isn't much more to do once you've built yourself a complete school, though. Nothing special happens on any given day (except the time 178 of my 194 students were sick) and any normal schoolday just basically runs itself. The game could use a lot more in-depth content and interaction, but the basics are solid. I don't recommend it at this time given the price tag, but its in early access and the devs ask you what parts you'd like to see implemented in the game next, so I'm sure it will get more content along the way. Then it'll be worth the investment.