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This
program comes from the same author as the enormously
successful Football Manager and therefore promised
much as a strategy game. Sadly, the premise hasn't been
fulfilled.
You
are placed in the role of a budding Kevin Toms, Tony
Crowther, or Jeff Minter, who wants to get to number
one in the charts and be famous. You start with one
game appropriately called Software Star, which you have
to sell in order to get to number one to attain stardom
and profit.
Each game costs £10,000 to launch, at which time you
can start development of another program. The quality
of the software improves as monthly development continues
until it is ready for launch and the critical gaze of
the reviewers.
Marketing the game is your next task, where you have
to try and improve productivity, sales, public image
and advertising, to make your brainchild a bestseller.
The
game development screen. 'Penn Invaders' has
only been under development two months -- release
it now and poor reviews are likely.
Productivity
can be boosted or harmed by incentives, discipline or
inaction, while your sales force can spread its attentions
between four areas of the country. Your image can also
be improved or damaged by being honest or hyping.
Now all you can do is sit back and watch your games
climb up the charts. If sales are high enough, you'll
match your overheads and make a profit. If you fail
to make your profit target two years in a row, you'll
be sacked.
Your other aim is to achieve ten months of stardom,
which is done by keeping your games in the top three.
Once you reach ten, you are set a target of 20 months,
then 30 and so on. As with Football Manager,
there is a save game option allowing you to play some
very long games.
BW
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