Broadcast Empire
A tycoon game about building a radio and TV company from 1970 onward. It runs in a browser and as a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux. This is Alpha 0.10.0, a build for playtesting.
| File | What it is |
|---|
| CHANGELOG.md | What is in each version |
| REQUESTS.md | What is still wanted, by priority, and where playtest notes go |
| Decisions.md | How the game is put together, and why, where that goes beyond the brief |
| prompt.md | The design brief, and the roadmap of Phases 0 to 14 the game was built by |
Installing the alpha
The installers are in release/ after npm run dist:mac, dist:win or dist:linux. None of them is signed, so each system asks before it runs the game.
| System | File | To open it |
|---|
| Mac (Apple silicon and Intel) | Broadcast Empire-0.10.0-universal.dmg | Open the .dmg and drag the game to Applications. If macOS says the app is damaged or from an unidentified developer, run xattr -cr "/Applications/Broadcast Empire.app" in Terminal once, then open it. |
| Windows (64-bit) | Broadcast Empire Setup 0.10.0.exe | Run it. When SmartScreen warns, choose "More info" and then "Run anyway". |
| Linux, Debian and Ubuntu (64-bit) | broadcast-empire_0.10.0_amd64.deb | Open it with the software installer, or run sudo apt install ./broadcast-empire_0.10.0_amd64.deb. The game is then in the applications menu. Build it on Linux: on a Mac, electron-builder may fail to make a .deb, and the release workflow builds it anyway. |
| Linux (64-bit) | Broadcast Empire-0.10.0.AppImage | Make it executable (chmod +x) and run it. Some systems need libfuse2 for an AppImage, or the flag --no-sandbox. |
The build is named on the home screen and at the bottom of Settings. Quote it with a playtest note.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|
npm run dev | Start the game at http://localhost:5173 |
npm test | Run the simulation unit tests |
npm run coverage | Run the tests with a coverage report (open coverage/index.html for line-by-line detail) |
npm run typecheck | Type-check everything |
npm run simulate -- --bot growth --years 10 --yearly | A bot plays N years headless and prints results, including market position (balance check). Bots: sensible (one channel in the Capital), capital (the same channel run well: sponsors, a production manager, a researcher), neglectful, growth (expands, sponsors, second channel), nosupport (like growth, but never hires cleaners, technicians or maintenance staff), tv (grows radio, then launches a TV channel and bids on TV licenses), research (like growth, but researches every tech as early as it can). Add --seed N to vary the game and `--difficulty easy |
npm run build | Production build into dist/ |
npm run desktop | Build the game and open it as a desktop app (Electron) |
npm run desktop:dev | Open the desktop app on the running npm run dev server, for working on it |
npm run dist:mac · dist:win · dist:linux | Build the game and make an installer in release/: a .dmg, a setup .exe, or on Linux a .deb and an AppImage. Unsigned; see "Installing the alpha" above |
npm run website | Build the game's website into website/dist; see "The website" below |
Controls: Space pauses and resumes; 1, 2 and 3 pick normal, fast and fastest speed. In the office, dragging or W, A, S and D move the view (two fingers move and zoom it on a touch screen; while a room is being drawn, drag with the right or middle button), Q and E turn it, + and − (or the mouse wheel) zoom, 0 puts it back, and R turns a piece of furniture. Escape closes the window in front. Ctrl+Alt+C opens the cheat console for testing (money 50000, year 2000, help for the rest). Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac) saves.
Saves. The game opens on a home screen: continue the newest save, load or delete any save, start a new game (first your character and your name, then the headquarters: a region picked from a live preview of each, the company's name and the difficulty), or change the settings. Saves have names; the autosave is kept apart and is written at the start of every month, and in the desktop app also when you quit. In a browser, saves live in that browser (IndexedDB). In the desktop app each save is a JSON file in the system's folder for the game:
| System | Save files |
|---|
| Mac | ~/Library/Application Support/Broadcast Empire/saves |
| Windows | %APPDATA%\Broadcast Empire\saves |
| Linux | ~/.config/Broadcast Empire/saves |
Settings on the home screen shows the folder and opens it.
Releasing a version
The pipeline does this for a bundle of issues (see PIPELINE.md); by hand it goes:
- Move the requests that are done from REQUESTS.md to a new section at the top of CHANGELOG.md.
- Set the version in
package.json (and the two lines at the top of package-lock.json). The game reads it from there.
npm test, then npm run dist:mac, npm run dist:win and npm run dist:linux.- Commit on
main.
- Push
main and put the installers on GitHub as the release of the version (see "The website" below); the release makes the tag.
The website
The site people download the game from, at https://broadcastempire.online: a home page, Download, Media, Changelog and feature requests, and Thank you. npm run website writes it to website/dist as plain HTML, with a sitemap.xml and a robots.txt. To look at it first: npx vite preview --outDir website/dist.
It is hosted on GitHub Pages from the public repository https://github.com/mikmeu/broadcast-empire: the workflow .github/workflows/website.yml builds and publishes it on every push to main. The installers are not in the repository but attached to the GitHub release of their version (v0.10.0 and so on), and the Download page links to them there, with the sizes GitHub gives. Publishing a version, after step 4 above:
git push
gh release create v0.11.0 --target main --title "Alpha 0.11.0" --notes "See https://broadcastempire.online/changelog/" \
"release/Broadcast Empire-0.11.0-universal.dmg" "release/Broadcast Empire Setup 0.11.0.exe" "release/Broadcast Empire-0.11.0.AppImage" "release/broadcast-empire_0.11.0_amd64.deb"
git fetch --tags
gh workflow run website.yml
The last line builds the site again once the installers are up, so the Download page has their links and sizes. Until a version has its release, its download buttons lead nowhere: npm run website warns about it.
The public repository starts at version 0.10.0 with one commit. The history before it (the phase-* and release-* branches, the website branch, and the old tags under refs/history/tags/) is only on this Mac and stays private: git push here sends main and nothing else, so never push those branches by name or with --all.
| File | What it is |
|---|
website/site.json | The site's address, where the installers are (downloads: the GitHub release of the version, or a folder of the site), and for every page its address, title and description |
website/layout.html | The frame around every page: the head with its tags for search engines, the menu, the foot |
website/pages/ | The text of each page. {{version}}, {{mac.url}} and the like are filled in when the site is built |
website/assets/site.css | The look, with the game's own colors and typefaces |
website/media/ | The screenshots and, later, videos (.mp4 or .webm) of the Media page. Every file in the folder is shown; media.json gives the order, a title and a caption, and a file it does not name comes after the others under its file name |
The version number and the names of the installers come from package.json, the changelog from CHANGELOG.md (without the request numbers) and the art in the sky from the game's home screen (src/ui/TitleArt.tsx).
Layout
| Folder | Contents |
|---|
src/config/ | All balance numbers and game data (events.ts holds the calendar of sports events and recessions and the rules for elections; map.ts the outlines of Etheria's regions; guide.ts every line of the tutorial) |
src/sim/ | Pure, deterministic simulation: tick advances one day, actions.ts lists every player command (they live by theme in commands/), broadcast.ts the ratings model, auctions.ts the license auctions and renewal rounds, ownEvents.ts the events the player stages, content.ts the TV content market and library, tech.ts research and equipment tiers, upkeep.ts the living office (cleanliness, equipment condition, building faults, morale, support staff), events.ts sports events, elections, recessions and the news ticker, politics.ts the presidents and snap elections, poaching.ts host poaching, milestones.ts the milestones, bots.ts the test players |
src/office/ | The office view: Office3D.tsx (isometric 3D, with zoom, quarter turns and WASD; its parts are in scene/: floor, rooms, people, town, street life, cables and previews), assets.ts (the asset registry: which model and colors each thing uses), layout.ts (where everyone is) and city.ts (the town around the office) |
src/assets/ | Icons (SVG), sponsor logos and staff portraits (drawn from the 3D characters by scripts/avatars.html) |
public/models/ | 3D models: Kenney's Furniture Kit, Mini Characters, City Kit (Commercial) and Train Kit (CC0, kenney.nl) |
design/voice-over.md | The script for the tutorial's voice-over: every line Uncle Tabby and Penny Cash say. Written by npm run voice-over |
public/models/story/ | Uncle Tabby and Penny Cash in 3D: Quaternius's Animated Man and Animated Woman (CC0, quaternius.com) |
public/sounds/ | Sound clips: the ones the game uses from Kenney's UI Audio, Impact Sounds and Music Jingles (CC0, kenney.nl) |
|
