The Official 'Big Pharma' Game Thread

Big Pharma has been in beta for a while now and releases on Steam today. Great game for fans of puzzle games, intricate production chains, and maybe a hint of Theme Hospital. Give it a look.

Neat, I'm interested. Weirdly, it's on sale for $19.99 on Steam, or for $16 from the developers' site, which includes a Steam key. So I'll probably go the cheaper route.

You could go across the border and buy it for like $5.00.

I'm personally interested in this because I work with a big pharma company (who helps fund my research), but I also think it'd probably drive me up a wall for similar reasons. It looks fun though. Spacechem didn't grab me, so I'm not sure I'd enjoy the industrial portion of the game as much.

I just played Big Pharma for three hours more, and I've reached the point where "I get it", at least to a large degree. Understanding the drug progression takes a bit to grok, but eventually makes sense and then it's about your margins to determine if production costs make the drug prohibitively expensive to produce. There are other factors such as net demand, market saturation, and world events which affect price and cost as well.

Overall, really enjoying it so far.

Only 24 hours left to get the 20% release discount, if you're interested.

EDIT: Per the developer,

In case anybody is wondering, there won't be a better discount than the current 20% on Big Pharma until *at earliest* summer sale 2016.

I've been trying to decide if I'm going to buy it on this discount, request a copy to review for my site, or just wait for a bigger sale. It seems like something I may like. Some of the negative Steam reviews have me slightly concerned - mostly that it gets repetitive and once you kind of figure out the systems it becomes easy.

I have to say I like the game quite a bit! On a limited level, it feels related to SpaceChem (another good game) - but doesn't want to make you pull your hair out quite as much! The game revolves around combining drug ingredients to develop cures. The ingredients have to be sent through a production line of your design, with different equipment processing them and sending them to the next step. More complicated cures can really get your production line management fix satisfied and there are tense moments with the AI companies who aren't afraid to patent their products.

Research unlocks more advanced equipment, which gives more options to engineer your products. It's very satisfying trying to get the desired traits in your cure and making the production line fit in the available space. You can pause the game at will, so it's never hectic. I definitely recommend this one to fans of this type of game.

Let me know if you have any questions about the game.

I'm really enjoying it too. I have about 20 hours with the released version and I continue to love the processes the game employs. It's also, at times, pleasantly frustrating (Multi-mixer, I'm looking at you).

I'm kind of surprised none of my 100+ goodjer friends are playing this yet. I imagine many are waiting for a sale, but I have no problem recommending this at full price. Though I think the launch price of $20 was a sweet spot.

I finally played a game where I unlocked the Centrifuge. You get to swap any number of effects between two ingredients that lie in the same position. More powerful than using the shaker and multi-mixer since you get to choose which ones swap.

So as someone who works in the pharmaceutical industry, I've played it and it is disturbingly accurate on a whole bunch of points. I actually reviewed the game for work here. By the way, it's a lot of fun once you get passed the learning curve, which is actually not that bad.

Budo wrote:

So as someone who works in the pharmaceutical industry, I've played it and it is disturbingly accurate on a whole bunch of points. I actually reviewed the game for work here. By the way, it's a lot of fun once you get passed the learning curve, which is actually not that bad.

Do you have another link to that review? That one isn't going through.

Looking at my friends list...
makes me sad that so many people don't have many hours played in this game.

This is one of the few games that after putting it down after playing 30+ hours at release I fired up again and played some more scenarios.

It's a pretty cool game building the assembly lines, manipulating the ingredients to get the drug you want. I have the expansion but haven't played with it enabled yet because I just want to concentrate on the assembly line.

It seems like this would appeal to people who like Opus Magnum, but this is much more forgiving I'm sure - and doesn't score your efficiency. As long as you meet the objectives in the scenario you're good, but at least there are 3 levels of them to meet.

It's been on my wishlist but always seemed a bit expensive for the type of game it is, and never seems to have massive discounts in the sale (admittedly I may have missed one). Definitely interested, just waiting for the right price for me.

I work in the Pharma industry, and I even reviewed the game for my previous company's blog. I made some recommendations that the game needs to include clinical trials and marketing roles. The developer contacted me and thanked me for the positive feedback.

About a year later, an expansion pack came out focusing on marketing. I'm just going to say it's coincidence.

Big Pharma is a great game, but I can't play it too much because I feel like I'm back at work.

After playing my last mission I am reminded why this isn’t a game I’d want to play every day. I was chasing the master win conditions and it required me pausing the game and reshuffling my production chains. Moving the equipment and conveyor belts is a tedious process that can require much fiddling.

I still think this is a very good game, just one that I can’t play for more than a couple days at a time.