Profit Motive: A Business RPG (Version 4.0 Is out now!)

Kulimar · 2012-12-09T02:27:20

"A Business Adventure." Game Demo: Note that if you have AVG security it might think the game.exe is an untrusted program, but it is not [color=#0000FF]Profit Motive Demo Version 4.0 (187MB) Official Website http://profitmotivegame.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [color=#FF0000]SPECIAL NEWS AND EVENTS - August 16th, 2012 The second Profit Motive Fan Art Contest has been announced on the RMVX boards!: PROFIT MOTIVE FAN ART CONTEST #2 Good luck to all entrants. See the winners from the previous fan art contest here: [spoiler]RySpirit: Promise Maker: CookieFiend: [/spoiler] BTW, some people entering the competition have asked for links to the concept art for reference, so here they are: http://profitmotiveg...onceptart1.html http://profitmotiveg...onceptart2.html http://profitmotiveg...onceptart3.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Game Summary Profit Motive is a modern day, corporate themed RPG. Players assume the role of Myron Meckler, a one-time executive of a major corporation who has been betrayed by his former supervisor and expelled from the company in dishonor. The game follows Myron as he strives to regain his power and position in the business world. Players will start out as a small business owner surviving the wiles of unruly and unethical competition and grow into a mega conglomerate vying for power against rival companies in intense corporate warfare. Key Game Features Over the top battles featuring a unique Turn-Based Combat System. The ability to hire key staff and gain the support of NPCs in the world who can be "Summoned"to your aid in battle. 4 Stages of Business Development including: Lv.1) Small Business, Lv.2) Franchise, Lv.3) International Corporation, Lv.4) Mega Conglomeration. Each level introduces new gameplay mechanics and player abilities that add depth and strategy to the battles. Corporate themed story world with lots of interesting character side stories and open-world missions that explore multiple aspects of running a business. High quality background and sprite art. Screen Shots:(Some tiles and sprites shown below are early WIP and will be replaced eventually) see more Screen Shots in the spoiler below: [spoiler] [/spoiler] Playtest Questionnaire: If you have a few free moments to fill out the following questionnaire after plaything the game, we'd really appreciate it. We're looking to do whatever we have to in order to improve the quality of the design and the overall gameplay experience: Profit Motive: Game Experience Questionnaire Special Thanks to everyone who has sent in feedback so far! All your thoughtful comments and suggestions for improving the game are being taken to heart and acted upon --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [color=#8B0000]Project Status and Updates Version 4.0 Updates (August 14th, 2012) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's what's new in this latest version: All player suit graphics are in and now show up in battles. Key Staff also now have different outfits that get unlocked based on leveling them up. All placeholder character and NPC sprites have been replaced The Profit Meter, Capital, and PP HUD visuals have been added (Yay! No more number boxes!) A first pass has been done on all the tileart for Market Town's exterior (still not many interiors done yet...) The dialogue for the first 3 missions of the game has been revised and edited so there are a lot less spelling errors now and better writing A first pass of most sound effects are in. Massive amount of Bug Fixes both graphical and technical. And finally, a new side-quest and Key Staff character and abilities has been added. Introducing the accountant Esper!: There are still issues with the passage settings and some areas, but nothing that should block game progression (save often!). The next big update will come in December. We should have the location map and new interface for the battle HUD working as well as the revised intro and endings. Bugs Please report any bugs you find in the demo and I'll work on getting them fixed. That's it really. The more feedback we can get at this stage the better. Known Issues There are quite a few bugs and polish issues that I'm aware of and will be addressing in the next few iterations of the demo. They are: Passage settings are not set for a few swapped tilesets (i.e. Abandoned Market Town). Some of the text in battles is placeholder and the AI is always showing you what they are thinking (which is just in there so that the battles are easier to debug during the development phase, they will eventually be removed). Incoming Features The Metagame All NPCs will have Item Gifting or metagame interaction features. Proper menu and interface will be developed so that players can track their progress across various aspects of their business. The Openworld More and interesting openworld events will be hooked up. Current side missions will be completed and polished up. The NPC Metagame will be expanded and finalized so almost every NPC has varied and interesting interactions. Gameplay Random and Infinite Battles will be added soon The map will be fixed so that it works properly throughout the whole game. All Battles will be gaining context and all of the placeholder "Attack #1", etc. will be removed. The AI will also no longer show you what they are thinking as you play, this is simply in there for debug purposes. All of your choices in the dialogue branch will start to matter more and change the outcome of the story. You will also have better choices to make than what's currently been put in the demo. 2-Player vs mode will be added to the final version of the demo. The Visuals More background tiles for Market Town and all the interiors will be coming soon More 2D character art, sprites, and animations are on the way The whole interface will be visual and all the debug boxes will be removed. Additional Story, Character, and World Info [spoiler] Story Development Players start as a small business owner seeking to survive in a sea of rival business and grow to the most successful corporation in the world. They must overcome a myriad of business challenges including things like hiring staff, selling to customers, dealing with externalities, and toppling rival corporations in order to reach their revenue targets. In the end, the player will succeed at becoming the #1 mega conglomerate corporation, but at what cost? The story is broken up into 4 major chapters, each corresponding to one of the four business levels. The Game World There are 3 thematic spheres across which the player will encounter different types of challenges. The 3 spheres are: Economic, Social, and Political. Political = Scenarios involving the larger world, governments, and political cost of Big Business. Social = Scenarios involving people, protesters, human rights organizations, environmentalist, and the social costs of Big Business. Economic = Scenarios concerned mainly with being the top dog on Wall Street and corp vs corp espionage, buyouts, take-overs, and mergers. These scenarios focus on the insane war for power and higher profit to ensure a glamorous lifestyle for the few. Character Info --Coming Soon-- [/spoiler] Credits [spoiler] I will be adding the list of people currently working on the project here along with any scripts or sprite characters used in the demo. I just need to gather all of that info together. Story and Design Kasan Wright Bryce Diamond 2D Art Awagiku (Character Portraits) Kora (Battle Background Paintings) Animation Aubry Mendoza Writing and Dialogue Mariana Sabino Kasan Wright Maia Rixis Greyblock Background Kasan Wright Bryce Scripting and Eventing Kasan Wright Rixis Scripts Some_Person (various script fixes and custom scripts) Modern Algebra's ATS2.0, Book Reader, and Quest Journal Soja Bird's HUD Var Sprites and Tiles Jose Antonio Jan Halfer Mack and [Chiaki] NZ Nathan Jalen Zachy qtpi0121 Zanyzora (tilesets) Dinnerman Sprites Kaz (a few sprite edits) http://www.court-records.net PrimeOp Antifarea TSR Shiaoran gabrielusa911 Music and Sound Wayne Dineley More credits on the way...[/spoiler] Support Bar Copy and paste code in the spoiler: [spoiler] [/spoiler]

Your Announcements Community

Started by Kulimar August 31, 2012 06:33 AM

17 comments, last by Kulimar 11 years, 4 months ago

Kulimar

138

Author

September 25, 2012 07:11 PM

For anyone interested in still entering, just a reminder that there are just 3 more days before submissions close. You can see all of the current entries on our twitter stream here:

https://twitter.com/Profit_Motive

-Sage

Dennis Schouwenburg

104

September 25, 2012 10:15 PM

First things first...

-Excellent informative post
-Great looking graphics
-Very nice looking website
-Pretty fast download

You got me excited to try the game before it was even done downloading, you've already impressed me without having played a second of your game.

As for the game;

I enjoyed it untill the first customer. The intro was good, all the sprites look great (reminds me of when I used to sprite years ago), the music and sound effects match everything well, but at the first customer after losing 5 times I lost interest. Might also be because I've got a 13 hour workday behind me but yeah...didn't see any other customers with a star above their head to engage, so I closed the game.

Some ideas/suggestions/etc:
-Before it started the window was black for a moment. You may want to put a "loading" message there.
-No other suggestions at the moment really. Looking forward to seeing how this game progresses and turns out.

Thoughtzone • Contact: dennis [at] thoughtzone [dot] nl
For a list of services visit our website.
Temporary special for Gamedev members;
Free beta testing & thinktank service. We will test your game/software and come up with new features and improvements, All we want in return is a mention in the credits / on your website. Contact us at the above email if you'd like us to get to work for you.

Kulimar

138

Author

September 26, 2012 05:26 PM

Thanks for the feedback Thoughtzone!

Just one question, do you know why you were losing to the customer exactly? Was it difficulty understanding the mechanics? Or did something else happen?

Any information you can provide there will help us improve that battle to make sure no one else gets stuck that early on.

Thanks!

-Sage

Kulimar

138

Author

September 28, 2012 04:49 PM

24 hours left to go before the Profit Motive Fan Art contest ends. You can see all of the current entries on our twitter stream here:

https://twitter.com/Profit_Motive

-~-

Dennis Schouwenburg

104

October 03, 2012 01:04 PM

Hey Sage,

Pretty sure it was just a lack of sleep. No worries, the game is solid so far. Makes me want to go back to doing pixelart again haha.

Best wishes,

Dennis

Kulimar

138

Author

October 19, 2012 01:35 AM

Hey Sage,

Pretty sure it was just a lack of sleep. No worries, the game is solid so far. Makes me want to go back to doing pixelart again haha.

Best wishes,

Dennis

No worries. Thanks for the follow up!

-Sage

Kulimar

138

Author

October 19, 2012 01:35 AM

The Profit Motive 4.0.8 demo is up on Steam's Greenlight "Concept" page! You can help by voting it up here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=103392059&searchtext
-~-