A few more suggestions

[Guest Elle]

Hello there, people.

 

First of all, I wish to tip my hat off to the developer. Truly outstanding work you've done, it's rare to find a freeware videogame that could easily be sold on Steam. I've been playing The Road 2 Success for most of my weekend, which is a sort of a huge compliment coming from me personally, as I'm rarely home when free days swing around. Not even triple A games have that kind of power on me, my statement should fully explain how addictive this game can be.

 

With that being said, I wish to offer my feedback to Mark. The main problem I have with the current version of the game is that it becomes very tedious very fast, unfortunately. Specifically, I'm referring to the mechanics behind the CD stocks after a single or an album is released. Making sure that you don't run out of stocks is a very time-consuming process and it made me give up after some time - but only to start a new game and try again with fewer artists.

 

I believe this could be easily rectified by implementing a quick button in the home menu that takes the player to a screen in which you can easily check remaining stocks. I'd envision a box on the left side of the screen listing artists signed to the player's label who are currently on the market. On the right, I would have a list of remaining stocks in each region and quick input fields that you can use to order more CDs from the manufacturers. The process doesn't need to be automated, I'm far as I concerned. It just needs to be quick and easy. I'd consider releasing a patch with such a change ASAP, even before 1.2 is released. I believe that the game would improve dramatically at that point.

 

Something else that could be improved, in my opinion, is how the promotion shows are listed. I'm from the US and sadly I'm unfamiliar with shows in the UK, Europe or Asia. I reckon that US shows are listed in order of popularity, from top to bottom. I assumed that it was the case for UK, European and Asian shows as well, but when I checked out the game editor, I noticed that it isn't always true. Displaying the ratings for each show would fix this minor problem, I do believe.

 

Another minor problem I have with the game is the nationality of the randomly generated artists and what they perform. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a nifty feature of the game, but at the end of the day, the overall goal is to have artists you've signed reaching the top of the charts, thus bringing in loads of cash for your label. I'm not sure if a Scottish rapper could ever accomplish that, no matter how good he is. A Scottish rock band, on the other hand, well... that's more realistic. I do believe that the music industry is simply dominated by a few countries and I think the game would stand to improve without randomly generated artists cluttering the game. I would implement a way to dramatically reduce the number of artists from nations that aren't well-known for producing quality performers on a regular basis, or at least assign a preferred genre for each country.

 

For example, it's well-known that 99% of hip hop artists are from the US and it is equally well-known that the UK produces quality rock bands or that Europe has a variety of quality DJs/Electronic performers. To me, a Swedish rapper - as an example - makes little sense. They might have success in their own country, singing in their own language, but International success would be elusive. In the game, you're competing against internationally acclaimed labels, and as a player I'm looking to grow my label's reputation and hopefully sign a few superstars in the future, and it only makes sense to me that such popular artists would come from countries that are known for dominating the industry.

 

Last thing. In my opinion, the growth of an artist's reputation might be a touch too slow. I'm playing with the real life database and I signed Ariana Grande for my label. I had her release a couple of Five Stars singles and a couple of Five Stars albums, plus I sent her on tour twice, but despite her star potential, she is still under 20% in reputation and even less in Asia. Of course, I don't expect to have an artist jump in popularity overnight, however I do believe that quality performers should be reward accordingly. Nowadays, if an artist is good enough the whole world is going to learn about them quickly, thanks to the power of modern media - say, YouTube. I think the game should reflect that. Maybe an average artist would have difficulties gaining popularity, but a potential superstar should become a musical sensation sooner than that.

 

I realize this is a long post and I apologize, but hopefully my feedback has been constructive enough. Again, I think this game is outstanding and it could become a real gem with a few improvements.

 

Best of luck and keep up the good work!

[Mark]

Hey nice post. Im on my way home from work ill have a good read of this tomorrow as im tired but from some of it i can say a fair bit of this covered in 1.2 but ill reply better tomorrow when ive had some sleep.

[Guest Elle]

Hey there, Mark.

 

Thank you, you're too gracious. And no rush on the reply. Actually, you don't have to reply at all. I just wanted to leave my feedback here anyway. Once again, the game is great and I'm truly impressed. Since I'm replying, let me bring up something else that I wanted to mention and that I've forgotten.

 

I know the plan is to have more stats in the game, but I'd personally go in the opposite direction. I'd just just two parameters: Ability and Star Power. The first one would imply the overall musical skills of the artists, such as songwriting, singing, live performance and so on and so forth. The second parameter would give you an idea of how far they can truly go. There's no doubt that some artists can't reach stardom, despite their high level of talent. Maybe they perform a genre that isn't very popular, or maybe they lack that "it" factor that would make all the difference. I believe that such a simple approach would be a good balance. It's a case of "less is more", I guess.

 

But maybe it would seem overly basic for some players, and this is why I'd suggest to look into a trait system for future versions of the game. I guess you're familiar with RPG games, and what I'm proposing isn't different. There could be a variety of traits to differentiate artists, such as "Prima Donna", "Professional" or "Volatile". Possibilities are endless. Each trait would impact the artist's career both negatively and positively, depending on the traits possessed. Maybe some artists wouldn't be able to reach their full potential because of a few negative traits. And maybe these traits are hidden, maybe a label would have to truly research artists and make sure that they aren't a waste of time before signing them to a contract - this is where the scouting system could have a serious impact on your label's fortune. I think such a system would give a bit more life to the artists you interact and make the game even more interesting.

 

In any case, that's all I got for you right now. Once more, keep up the good work!

[Mark]

Hello there, people.

 

First of all, I wish to tip my hat off to the developer. Truly outstanding work you've done, it's rare to find a freeware videogame that could easily be sold on Steam. I've been playing The Road 2 Success for most of my weekend, which is a sort of a huge compliment coming from me personally, as I'm rarely home when free days swing around. Not even triple A games have that kind of power on me, my statement should fully explain how addictive this game can be.

 

With that being said, I wish to offer my feedback to Mark. The main problem I have with the current version of the game is that it becomes very tedious very fast, unfortunately. Specifically, I'm referring to the mechanics behind the CD stocks after a single or an album is released. Making sure that you don't run out of stocks is a very time-consuming process and it made me give up after some time - but only to start a new game and try again with fewer artists.

 

I believe this could be easily rectified by implementing a quick button in the home menu that takes the player to a screen in which you can easily check remaining stocks. I'd envision a box on the left side of the screen listing artists signed to the player's label who are currently on the market. On the right, I would have a list of remaining stocks in each region and quick input fields that you can use to order more CDs from the manufacturers. The process doesn't need to be automated, I'm far as I concerned. It just needs to be quick and easy. I'd consider releasing a patch with such a change ASAP, even before 1.2 is released. I believe that the game would improve dramatically at that point.

 

Something else that could be improved, in my opinion, is how the promotion shows are listed. I'm from the US and sadly I'm unfamiliar with shows in the UK, Europe or Asia. I reckon that US shows are listed in order of popularity, from top to bottom. I assumed that it was the case for UK, European and Asian shows as well, but when I checked out the game editor, I noticed that it isn't always true. Displaying the ratings for each show would fix this minor problem, I do believe.

 

Another minor problem I have with the game is the nationality of the randomly generated artists and what they perform. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a nifty feature of the game, but at the end of the day, the overall goal is to have artists you've signed reaching the top of the charts, thus bringing in loads of cash for your label. I'm not sure if a Scottish rapper could ever accomplish that, no matter how good he is. A Scottish rock band, on the other hand, well... that's more realistic. I do believe that the music industry is simply dominated by a few countries and I think the game would stand to improve without randomly generated artists cluttering the game. I would implement a way to dramatically reduce the number of artists from nations that aren't well-known for producing quality performers on a regular basis, or at least assign a preferred genre for each country.

 

For example, it's well-known that 99% of hip hop artists are from the US and it is equally well-known that the UK produces quality rock bands or that Europe has a variety of quality DJs/Electronic performers. To me, a Swedish rapper - as an example - makes little sense. They might have success in their own country, singing in their own language, but International success would be elusive. In the game, you're competing against internationally acclaimed labels, and as a player I'm looking to grow my label's reputation and hopefully sign a few superstars in the future, and it only makes sense to me that such popular artists would come from countries that are known for dominating the industry.

 

Last thing. In my opinion, the growth of an artist's reputation might be a touch too slow. I'm playing with the real life database and I signed Ariana Grande for my label. I had her release a couple of Five Stars singles and a couple of Five Stars albums, plus I sent her on tour twice, but despite her star potential, she is still under 20% in reputation and even less in Asia. Of course, I don't expect to have an artist jump in popularity overnight, however I do believe that quality performers should be reward accordingly. Nowadays, if an artist is good enough the whole world is going to learn about them quickly, thanks to the power of modern media - say, YouTube. I think the game should reflect that. Maybe an average artist would have difficulties gaining popularity, but a potential superstar should become a musical sensation sooner than that.

 

I realize this is a long post and I apologize, but hopefully my feedback has been constructive enough. Again, I think this game is outstanding and it could become a real gem with a few improvements.

 

Best of luck and keep up the good work!

 

I am looking in a test build what I can figure out to do about the reordering of stock, ill come back to you on this.

 

As for randomly generated artists, this is a tricky part but has a lot of complexity already attached to it. Its being modified in 1.2 and I cannot see me changing this in 1.1 really due to the work involved and 1.2 is all new code.