DiamondBlizzard — Roleplayer Guild

1989; Videogames are getting increasingly more popular and big names such as Nintendo and Sony have declared that they will not attempt to join in this industry and try to spark life into it, but you: you have plans for this industry and plan on making it grow and be successful, will you be successful in sparking your company to life and become known all over the world? Well, we have to start small first, so let's go on our journey from 1985 all the way to 2030.

Hello and welcome to GDTRP! Yes, this RP was inspired by the videogame Game Dev Tycoon, this RP is COMPLEX but VERY fun, to start, look at all the rules & mechanics below and then make a character sheet. GMs -Me/DiamondBlizzard -SimYouLater -Vacant! Rules --- 1. PLEASE! Be realistic for the time era/year of the RP, message me or ask in OOC for tips on videogame & consoles back then. 2. Do not double/multi-post unless the post is too long for your liking. 3. If you have any trouble or questions ask me via a PM or OOC 4. Read ALL the spoilers/hiders that say Need2Read and Semi-Need2Read, the rest are optional. 5. Follow all the mechanics and rules. 6. No powerplaying or adding extra bits of cash to your balance. 7. There IS no set post limit as posts can range from a few lines to a whole ESSAY! Depends on the plot of your videogames, cosmetic posts, letters, etc. 8. Have Fun! --- Mechanics --- Please read ALL the Mechanics that are labeled Need2Read and Semi-Need2Read and please follow the mechanics, if you have trouble posting, ideas for new/simplifying/updating mechanics, send me a PM or just contact me via the OOC.

STOP! BEFORE YOU READ THIS PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF TWO THINGS! 1. NO NEED TO READ THE CONTEXT (except for Russia, South Korea, and South America. 2. Europe only has TWO regions, the EU, and Russia! So no need to market for each country seperately! Markets Markets are regions of the Earth where you can sell games. As of Q1 1975, the four available markets are North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Japan. When you launch a game or console, you must pay for a marketing campaign for each region you release in. Note that you do not need the same level of marketing when making an international release: if you release in North America and Japan, you can make a large ad campaign in North America and a small ad campaign in Japan. Note: Translations are FREE, the marketing is not! North America The continent of North America contains two first world nations and one developing nation. Due to the nature of the land border between the two main markets, they are treated as one country by many of the aspects of the rules. North America is currently a very busy market with many competing companies. United States of America Abbreviated as "US" or "USA", America is one of the two most militarily powerful nations on Earth (The other being the USSR), and the richest. As such, it is a very lucrative market and the first choice for game companies. Games published specifically for the USA only require English text and speech, but gain a slight bonus from Spanish text and speech. Canada Abbreviated as "CA", Canada is a more liberal nation than the USA, but is otherwise culturally similar despite the stereotypes. Games published in the USA automatically gain Canadian publishing along with it unless otherwise stated, as the free trade and open border agreements between the two nations is such that the games will find their way north of the border one way or another. The opposite is also true, as American consumers will purchase games in Canada to take advantage of the exchange rate, ensuring saturation in the US even if intended only for Canadian audiences. French ttanslation needed. Mexico A poor developing nation, Mexico ("MX") is not a very lucrative nation and can be safely ignored by game developers and console manufacturers. Mexico requires games be published in Spanish text and speech. English is optional. South America The continent of South America contains little for the gaming industry. Due to the nature of the land border between the two main markets, they are treated as one country by many of the aspects of the rules. Chile Abbreviated as "CH", Chile is a minor markwt until Q4 1998 and can be safely ignored. Requires Spanish translation and text. Brazil Abbreviated as "BR", Brazil is a minor market until Q4 1998 and can be safely ignored. Games published specifically for Brazil require Portuguese text and speech, and can gain a sizable bonus from a built-in Spanish translation option. British Isles The British Isles contain one first world nation and one first world sovereign power. United Kingdom The United Kingdom, abbreviated as "UK" is a first world nation. Games published specifically for the UK only require English text and speech. Ireland Considered a separate nation in real life, Ireland ("IE") is merged into the UK for gameplay purposes. Europe The subcontinent of Europe contains a trade union that counts as a single nation, and one second-world nation. European Union The European Union, abbreviated to "EU", is a loose trade agreement between the Western European nations. Games published specifically for the EU require extensive translation; games must be published with a single version containing English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Serbian, and Portuguese text and speech. (FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, SERBIA, = SIX REGIONS NOT COUNTING RUSSIA) USSR The United Soviet Socialist Republic, sometimes referred to as the "Eastern Bloc" but usually abbreviated to "USSR", is a communist political union consisting of Russia, East Germany and several other nations. The USSR lasts until Q4 1991, where Germany replaces East and West Germany and becomes part of the EU, and Russia becomes its own nation in the European market. Until this disbandment in 1991, the USSR will not allow the corporate distribution of any video games within its borders. In addition, companies may not form with an HQ location in any part of what was East Germany or in Russia until the year 1991 has ended. Russia Russia replaces the USSR in Q1 1992. It requires translation into Russian but is otherwise a relatively stable market, if not a lucrative one. Asia The coninent of Asia mostly consists of third-world countries until Q1 2000 when China begins to improve standards of living and South Korea becomes a viable market. Japan Japan, sometimes known as the "Land of the Rising Sun" but abbreviated to "JP", is a developing nation with a quickly expanding economy. It is also highly technophilic, making it a lucrative market for games and consoles. South Korea South Korea is not a viable market until Q1 2000. Once that date has passed, it is a huge market for MMO games, "Zyngaville" games and MOBA games. Oceania The region of Oceania mainly consists of two first world nations. The markets are small, however. Australia The larger of the two Oceanic markets, Australia ("AU") has the catch that between Q1 2000 and Q2 2012, mature video games cannot be released in this country. Australia is currently an unexploited market ripe for the picking. New Zealand An island in the South Pacific, New Zealand ("NZ") has a very small market. New Zealand is currently an unexploited market ripe for the picking. -------------- tl;dr Here are the various markets that are considered separate for the purpose of marketing games. North America United Kingdom Europe Japan South America South Korea Oceania Note: Any HQs built in any non-listed region will be rounded to the nearest region. (For building Regional Bases see the next hider below)

Releasing a Game Takes Time To release a game, first you must announce it in a post during a given Season. Like with consoles, there are no instant releases. Once you've announced the game, wait for the next Season. Once midnight in real life has passed, you can choose to advertise it and thus pay the marketing costs. If you don't advertise that's fine, but don't expect the game to sell too well! Once this is done, wait for midnight again. On the third Season, you may publish and release the game. By doing so, you pay the $200,000 publishing fee and the money you put into development. And yes, you can cancel a game during the first two steps and not have to pay development! ;) Keep in mind this is the minimum time it takes to release a game. If you want you can complete the second or third steps 2 or more real days after you were first allowed to do so, but gameplay-wise it's not a smart move. The first few games Your first game will be released on the assumption that it has no marketing and that you have already announced it two Seasons before the in-game present day. Your second game can be released the following Season with the assumption that it was announced on the season before you started playing, BUT you must advertise it on your first turn or this doesn't count. To release your third game on your third Season you would have to announce it on your first Season, advertise it on your second Season and release it it on your third Season. Development Cost To make it simple, a game costs $100,000 to develop as a base cost. Publishing Cost It costs $200,000 to publish a game PER region (regions listed below); this is a rule introduced with version 1.1 and thus will not take effect until Q1 1986. Alternatively, you can have someone else publish it for you, which shifts the cost over to the publisher BUT they will want a percentage of the sales in return. Regions: North America ( US / CA / MX ) (US/CA = 1 region) South America ( BR / CH ) United Kingdom ( UK / IE ) (UK/IE = 1 region) Europe ( EU / RU ) Japan (JP) Asia ( SK) Oceania ( AU / NZ ) (AU/NZ = 1 region) Multiple Simultaneous Releases You CAN announce multiple games in the same Season, then advertise all of them simultaneously the next Season, and end it off by releasing them all at the same time the Season after that. However, you must have the money to do all this, so if you develop and publish three games in sync, you will have to pay $300,000 minimum in development costs, $600,000 in publishing fees AND market all of them separately with the costs implied for them. As such, it is generally not a good tactic to start out with multiple projects in sync. Instead, try to aim for having one game releasing every Season. If you release a console, you may release one DEMO game bundled with it which costs no money to develop and makes no profit. The demo game must only have basic gameplay and essentially just keeps the console from having no games for it. If you want to have a real game launch with your console, develop a game for that platform as you develop the console itself. Yes, you CAN announce and market a game for a platform that has been announced but not released. Example Layout [Name Here] Genre: (The Genre of the Game) Topic: (The topic of the game such as Shooter, Comedy, Ganepack, etc) Audience: (Who your game is aimed for, Pre (1-5 y/o) E (Everyone, E11+ (everyone 11+) T (13+) MT (16+) M (18+) and Adult (21+ Games have a chance of being banned) Price: (Self-explanatory, try to make it $25+ or else you won't make profit) Regions: (Regions, International Markets list them, ONLY put down an INTL market if you are releasing all over: E.G North America = Mexico & US/CA) Languages: (Cosmetic. Languages the game is available in) Platform: (On what system the game is released) Difficulty: (A scale from 1-20. 1 being super easy, 10 being normal/average difficulty, 20 being near impossible.) Features -Here you put down features on how the game works & plays, pro tip: Put down what type of graphics it has and sound or Immerse into a (something here) it makes the list of features look bigger. Also list Unique Systems here. Plot: If any, put here. Systems: If you have unique/original/creative modes put them here, if you explain the mode you'll probably get a higher score. E.G Throwing Daggers II Assassination system (basically an insta kill system) Porting Games Porting games is simple for now. Every time you release a game on multiple platforms simultaneously, it will cost you $100,000 per system you start with (minimum $200,000). Porting after the fact has a special "datedness" factor. If a game is less than a year old, it inherits the exact same marketing tactics the original game used, international markets and all, which means it only takes two turns to launch it! If however it is more than a year old, you must either advertise it (which takes a full 3 turns) or skip marketing altogether (2 turns, but bad for sales). Keep in mind that a game cannot be ported to a console more than 5 years older than the original version (the one made before porting). This also applied to multi-platform releases, so if there are 4 consoles but only two of them are newer than 5 years old, the two that don't fit the bill are right out.

I'm always looking for new suggestions for Marketing Merchandise!

Note: Even Nano marketing will help you gain a bit more profit, not marketing at all is a -75% to your unit sales Nano Free Cheap ads on printer paper are created in-house and distributed to friends and family, which then slowly get the word out throughout the neighborhood. (Q1 2005 Onward) Youtube videos are made to announce the release of your new game! (-50% sales) Mini $250,000 Ads are circulated in gaming magazines & newspapers. (Q1 2005 Onward) Youtube videos are made to announce the release of your new game! (Normal Sales) Small $750,000 Magazine/newspaper ads and demos. (Q1 2005 Onward) Youtube videos are made to announce the release of your new game! (+10% Unit sales) Medium $2,500,000 Magazines/newspaper ads, demos, exclusive reviews and interviews. (Q1 2005 Onward) Youtube videos are made to announce the release of your new game! (+25% Unit sales) Large $5,000,000 TV trailers, behind the scenes reports, billboards, interviews and exclusive reviews. (Q1 2005 Onward) Youtube videos are made to announce the release of your new game! (+50% unit sales) Mega $10,000,000 Launch parties, press conferences, event sponsorship and general marketing blitz. (Q1 2005 Onward) Youtube videos are made to announce the release of your new game! (+100% unit sales) Giga $50,000,000 All of the above, plus bribes/full page ads in magazines/newspapers that will force them to give you at least double the score they normally would. (Q1 2005 Onward) Youtube videos are made to announce the release of your new game! (+500% Unit Sales) ---------- Merchandise $Free Make copies of your soundtrack on discs or floppy discs! (Cosmetic) $25,000 Make high quality copies of your soundtrack on discs or floppy discs! OR sell game guides and handbooks! (+1,000 unit sales) $50,000 Give away fridge magnets and stickers with your game! See Blink! Wall Art, Ltd. for a good sticker and magnet manufacturer/distributor, but if your company has less than $3,000,000 to it's name, try Magnet Men first for a free counterpart to this option! (+2,500 Unit Sales) $100,000 Give away the same posters used in advertising as a cheap form of merchandise! See Blink! Wall Art, Ltd. for a good poster manufacturer/distributor. OR sell a small book of the game's artwork! (+5,000 Unit Sales) $500,000 Give away cheap toys with your game! See Bashō USA for a good toy manufacturer/distributor in North America, or their Japanese parent company Bashō Amusements for distribution in Japan. (+12.50% Money Boost) $750,000 Create a clothing line for your video game! Hoodies, t-shirts, long sleeves, you name it! (+10,000 Unit sales) $1,000,000 Create a comic book series to go with your game! See Blink! Wall Art, Ltd. for a good comic manufacturer/distributor. (+25% Money Boost) $1,500,000 Microtransactions are available from Q1 2005 onwards! Milk your game's cash cow for all it's worth! Be careful though, your next game might suffer when gamers become wary of your games. (+50% Money Boost) *MUST BE A FEATURE IN ONE OF YOUR GAMES!* $2,000,000 Pay an esteemed author to write a novel tie-in or expanded universe anthology to your game! (+12,000 Unit Sales) $2,500,000 Make a 30 minute-45 minute short film for TV for your videogame. (+25% Money boost) $5,000,000 Collectible card game! Blink! Wall Art, Ltd. will manufacture and distribute a card game based on your video game! (+15,000 Unit Sales) $7,500,000 Sell low-medium quality merchandise from the game itself. Like a replica of that cool bow the main hero has!(+25,000 Unit Sales) $10,000,000 Sell high quality toys and board games! Once again Bashō USA is your friend. (+30,000 Unit Sales & +10% Unit Sales) $12,000,000 Host a concert to showcase your video games' best soundtracks! This can be done cosmetically (free) as well but you will receive no bonus! This also includes singers! (+50% Money Boost) $15,000,000 Develop a huge line of official cosplay outfits for people to dress up as your famous characters (+45,000 Unit Sales) $17,500,000 Sell high quality merchandise from the game itself. Like a collector's edition replica of that cool looking dagger the main hero has! (+20,000 Unit Sales & +25% Unit Sales) $20,000,000 Host a huge orchestra to showcase and perform your BEST songs! People all around will come to listen to this live performance of video game music! This can be done cosmetically (free) as well but you will receive no bonus! This includes singers! (+100% Money boost & +25% Unit sales) $35,000,000 Autographed Merchandise! Autographed by the CEO, employees, and voice actors! (+50% Units Sales & 10% Money boost) $50,000,000 Game peripherals! Once again Bashō USA is your friend, though Goliath Games might be of some help if you choose their console. Otherwise, try striking a deal with the competitor whose console the game is for. (+50% Unit & Console Sales. +25% Money boost) $75,000,000 A specialised type of peripheral, the "Skyfinity" collectable figurine system is available from Q1 2005 onward! Just manufacture a sensor base and some cool high-quality figurines to go with your game, advertise like hell, and watch the money roll in from the wallets of parents whose kids want to play the game! (+100% Unit & console Sales. +50% Money Boost for both) $100,000,000 Host a convention! Your conventions will have games, events, contests, concerts, orchestras, merchandise shops, and guest stars! (+200% Unit and Money Boost. +25% Console sales) $45,000,000 An animated series! Just be careful, this can make or break a company. Still working on who would make the show... Stay tuned for that one. (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) $65,000,000 A live-action series! Can you pull off this strange combination of game and TV? (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) $100,000,000 An animated movie! Be warned, this rarely works unless you get your artistic employees in on the creative process of the movie. There's nothing fans hate more than a game movie that doesn't actually have anything to do with the game! (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) $180,000,000 A live-action movie! Be warned, this rarely works unless you get your artistic employees in on the creative process of the movie. There's nothing fans hate more than a game movie that doesn't actually have anything to do with the game! (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) $500,000,000 The ultimate merchandise... An Alternate Reality Game! Don't just make the game, integrate it with reality by hosting competitive events all over the world! Only available from Q1 2010 onward. (+300% Money & Unit Sales boost [First Unit, then money])

When launching a console, first you announce the console ahead of time. You cannot release a console out of nowhere. Even Goliath Entertainment/David Gaming will not do this, with the exception of the GameTron which was the first post in the In-Character topic. Then, you market the console. This requires an in-depth post about the nature of the advertisements, and of course you will need cash to pay for the ads, and this must be done in the Season following the announcement. Finally, you release the console. Once again, this must be done in the next Season after the marketing post at minimum. Once a console is released, it must have a sales price (only Goliath is an exception, as money isn't supposed to apply to them) and a licensing fee (ditto, although you COULD make it free) and there will be a $50,000,000 development cost which must be paid once the console is launched. And yes, you can cancel a console during the first two steps and not have to pay development ;) Note that this is the MINIMUM time you CAN complete the steps in, NOT the maximum time you must complete it in. If you can't make a post one a day for three days, feel free to take as long as you need, but remember that time waits for no man and eventually your console will be too outdated. Technology When developing the console, look at the technology of a real console made at around the same time (1 year ahead or behind at most) and use that as the basis of your specs. For every year that you advance one feature by, $10 will be subtracted from the sale price of every unit (console) you sell. So if you sell a console for $250 and you upgraded the RAM by 5 years, your console will only earn you $200 for every unit sold. In addition, any publisher who makes a game for such a system will have $1 subtracted from the sale of each unit (game tape/cart/disc/digital download). So for the console listed above if Game Y is produced by Company Y for Company Y's console and Game X is also produced by Company X for Company Y's console, Company X will lose $5 on the sale of each Game X unit which is bad enough on its own, but Company Y will lose $5 on the sale of each Game Y unit despite the fact that they weren't the ones who decided to upgrade the RAM by 5 years. This discourages boosting consoles to unreasonable levels of technology for the era. I prefer if you don't go too willy-nilly I don't wanna do to much Maths :P Launch Titles If you release a console, you may release one DEMO game bundled with it which costs no money to develop and makes no profit. The demo game must only have basic gameplay and essentially just keeps the console from having no games for it. If you want to have a real game launch with your console, develop a game for that platform as you develop the console itself. Yes, you CAN begin developing a game for a platform that has been announced but not released. Devkits In order for someone to make a game for your console, they must have a Devkit. This is the purpose of the "licensing fee": When you pay a "licensing fee" to a console maker, what you're actually paying for is to buy a Devkit from them. You only need to buy the Devkit once, so the licensing fee is a one-time thing. To buy a Devkit, "write a letter" in a forum post to the maker of the console. Devkits arrive as soon as the console maker writes back, so it could happen within the same Season and when it does you can announce your game immediately!

-Movies: Movies are available from the start of the RP. Movies take three turns to release: Announcing and Releasing! Movies MUST be made off of one of YOUR videogames (Co-developed videogames count as well) Here are the costs: $100,000,000 An animated movie! Be warned, this rarely works unless you get your artistic employees in on the creative process of the movie. There's nothing fans hate more than a game movie that doesn't actually have anything to do with the game! (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) $180,000,000 A live-action movie! Be warned, this rarely works unless you get your artistic employees in on the creative process of the movie. There's nothing fans hate more than a game movie that doesn't actually have anything to do with the game! (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) --------- Reviewing from 1 to 10 is needed for judging a TV show or Movie and will be in theaters for 1-4 quarter years! (1-4 = 1 | 4.25 - 6.5 2 | 6.75 - 8.5 = 3 | 8.75 - 10 = 4 ) The difference? You have to "sell" the movie to movie theaters which you may sell to for $10,000 to $100,000. Afterwards depending on how many people attend the movie (Box Office/Unit Sales) and Movie Cost (50% of Unit Sales) Formula = (Unit Sales × Unit Price ÷ 2) ---------------------- -TV Shows/Mini Series: Available from the start of the RP. First off, here are the costs: (Also TV Shows MUST be made off YOUR video games [Co-developed games are allowed] ) $45,000,000 An animated series! Just be careful, this can make or break a company. Still working on who would make the show... Stay tuned for that one. (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) $65,000,000 A live-action series! Can you pull off this strange combination of game and TV? (Makes money on it's own, reviewing needed) -------- A TV Show works like so: "Selling" the show to TV stations makes no money, the revenue from the commercials DOES! Reviews will tell you if it is worth making another season or spin-off series (Or even a movie!) For at least TWO quarter years you must make a plot and a list of episodes that are released in that quarter year (Note: You don't have to give a plot per episode but it may raise your reviews, just given a general plot.) It takes two steps to release a TV show: Announcing & Releasing! Depending on the reviews depends on how much

Sorry for all the mechanics, if you have a way to keep the RP fun, balanced, and realistic but simplifying the rules please send me a PM or post in the OOC! Character Sheet CEO Name: Company Name: Company Logo: (Image here or description, it's optional) Main/Starting HQ: (Can be anywhere in the listed regions, if you don't start in Japan, when you acquire $200m you automatically get a free HQ in Japan) History how it was founded: (Doesn't have to be too long) I am looking for a co-GM who knows the rules and whom can do well in calculating and reviewing, I need one ASAP as to review my games! Have Fun! And remember, the more original a game, the more money it makes! --- Other I will be doing Random Events, Trends, Game of the Year (Remind me if I forget), and Greatest Hits, and if I feel like it I may do a WRITTEN review instead of a quick review, to clarify reviews this is how it works: (Quick Review) Game name [CONSOLE HERE, PC IS BLANK] - Score (1-11) (Written Review) Game Name [CONSOLE HERE, PC IS BLANK!] - Score (1-11) -written review, explaining how good/bad game is, blah blah- -or Score Here (1-11) --- Game Combos "The combos of The Sims/Grand Theft Auto and Spore/Star Citizen are a new rule I've suggested. I get claim to the particular combo, but not it's components. So someone can make a game based on The Sims or Grand Theft Auto but not BOTH simultaneously. They also have to avoid overlap with features of my "combo" game series. Making a combo means you have to be more careful, as you are essentially taking two ideas and cherry-picking the best features, which may only work in theory; if the features don't mesh in your description (and you HAVE to describe combo-based games in detail) then the game will be considered a flop. Note that the first game in a franchise is critical. You fail with it, the franchise becomes a dud and you have to rely on your remaining franchises. You run out of franchises, and you're stuck making one-off titles or a franchise based on a totally unique game concept not seen in reality." -SimYouLater NOTE! No one will know the reviewing or game calculation methods except I and my assistant GM, to get this out of the way, I do calculate my OWN games due to the calculation mechanics I made, the Co-GM REVIEWS the games for me. That is all. Also note, you can suggest new mechanics but so far things like videogame tournaments and what-not are cosmetic and free (pay if you wish) --- tinychat.com/gdtrp for the RP chat room!

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