You know this is kinda funny. I have the specs for almost this exact game on my desktop. I thought there was a market gap, for a star/idol manager game, with some romance elements. So sometime before Christmas, is started working on the specs, charting out mechanics and requirements. I was even gonna make it SFW, but easily modable to be NSFW. Of course it's all moot now, as these guys are way ahead of me.
Well as I stated in many comments before on this post, I actually really like this game. Yet these guys are still far away from a perfect idol management game. Also I think you would have a bigger target group if you made a Kpop Idol manager, instead of Jpop.
So honestly...an idol management game could be so insanely good...actually a lot better than this one, so why not just go ahead and try it?
This game has 12-14yr old girls that can have random script "scandal" events. You can set them use panties, shorts or long skirts.
This is all, no other "adult content", options have "NSFW" checkbox but it does nothing.
The game is addictive but the economic part is broken. How possible that you have 4 girls group and can't even pay bills for rent?
You can make "performance" and "rent" girls for shooting but it so small amount of money you always will be bankrupted.
But even if you have -10 000 000 on account - all stays the same, nothing changes in gameplay. So it manager without real management, just an imitation of the studio with girls.
This is all, no other "adult content", options have "NSFW" checkbox but it does nothing.
The game is addictive but the economic part is broken. How possible that you have 4 girls group and can't even pay bills for rent?
You can make "performance" and "rent" girls for shooting but it so small amount of money you always will be bankrupted.
But even if you have -10 000 000 on account - all stays the same, nothing changes in gameplay. So it manager without real management, just an imitation of the studio with girls.
It doesn't take many stars before your idols will start expecting real salaries - after all, as they get more famous, they could always switch to someone who will actually, well, pay them. And until you start expanding, paying your idols is probably your biggest expense.
But if you're regularly releasing singles and hosting concerts, you should be making enough to pay them.
Also, the daily performance option starts making real money if you focus on ranking it up by fulfilling the appropriate conditions.
Er, if you stay in the negative for a month, you go bankrupt. You'll get a bailout the first time, but unless you're playing on easy, it's game over after that.
I haven't done it myself, but if nothing happened to you, that's definitely a bug.
I feel like it's kind of rude of me to say this in a thread dedicated to a different game, but I think it would be worth making if you think you can do it. Even if someone else has done it first, your implementation will no doubt be different enough to be interesting in its own right - and I think the concept of idol management is compelling enough that it can support more than one game.
And it's taken them years to get this far, so by the time you're finished, it'll probably have been a couple of years since this was released - long enough that you won't really be directly competing at that point.
That's fair enough, but it's a massive time commitment, and I'm infamous for starting massive projects, and then never going past the 25% mark. My current thing is a turn based, hex grid, tactical strategy game, in the vein of xcom and the like, but with incredibly simplistic graphics. I'm gonna have to finish this before even thinking about the KPop agency simulator.
- May 3, 2017
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I mostly agree with your points but one:
Concerts are actually a good money maker if you understand how they work. Concerts are mostly about full stamina and good mix of talk breaks and keeping that stamina up. So a simple break-down would be: Song, talk break 1 person from the back with good funny or smart, song, ... repeat that pattern
5 songs are basically all you need to reach a hype of 120% fairly early on.
You need to sozialize with them untill the "confidence" level goes to max, then , flirt with her, and when "romance" is at certain level you can date. After some dates she eventually ask you to "go home with her"
- May 3, 2017
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If you expect hardcore sex actions: no luck there. You can date girls and spend the night with them but no explicit graphics or action displayed.
You can get softcore porn SUPER late in the game with you (either gender) and your rival of either gender. There's a way to skip directly to that scene if that's what you want, but I don't remember it.
Also story isn't too bad.
- Jul 6, 2017
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I guess this is where I'm misunderstanding this game. If you release singles too quickly, you'll be penalized on the pay. If you don't have the money or the stamina, you're not going to do a concert. How do you balance the two? A good explanation of just how to get in the green at the start would be nice. Once I get to 1 star my idols demand more money than they bring in. Lowering that seems to cause them to have events which put them out of commission for months (ie: broken leg), which means they're bringing absolutely nothing in. So.. here are some questions:
- How many idols do you get at the start?
- What quality are those idols?
- How often do you release a single?
- How do you manage to release singles on an often enough basis to get money while keeping stamina high to allow for concerts? (I haven't been able to do a single concert because I've never had the money, much less the stamina).
- Do you do the once-per-day events that boost fans, stamina or money? If so, how often and is there a pattern that you use (ie: for every 2x fans or money do 1x spa)?
- Do you do photoshoots or any other side-gigs? If so, how do you manage that stamina loss?
It's been a month or so since I played, so my apologies in advance if I misremember something...
- There's little reason not to grab all the idols from your initial audition. Consider dropping one if they have a bad trait and/or low potential in the areas you care about, but overall, being too picky isn't necessary. Do, however, consider making use of a regional audition rather a local; it's pricy at the start, but starting off with a guaranteed silver is worth it.
-At the start, you should spam five digital releases. You won't get good money from them, but you weren't likely to get good money anyway, and it unlocks concerts several months earlier. Be sure to spread the center position across three different idols; this will help with concerts later, as you can spread the stamina burden further.
After this, release singles on a monthly basis; record them as soon as your staff is free, then release as soon as it stops warning you about releasing too frequently.
-Take a loan for your first concert (and any others you can't afford in the future, for that matter). You'll make more money than you'll lose in interest, especially if it's an interest-free loan from your sponsor. Going into debt is only bad if it's for your operating expenses (such as salary or rent) rather than investments (one-time expenses for important rooms, or to put on an event).
-As for stamina, it takes time to put on a concert - so while you prepare, send your idols to the spa and lay off the promotions in the week, possibly two, leading up to the concert. Be sure to use Talk Breaks to avoid straining your centers too much, and to use three idols for each break to spread out the strain on them as well. Don't be afraid of pushing to hit 200% hype at least once; that will win you the Best Concert award that will dramatically reduce stamina costs in future concerts. Also, consider putting most of the burden on an idol whose wish you've fulfilled - that avoids mental stamina loss for a fairly good time period, and a lot of idol wishes are pretty easy to fulfill.
-In the first year, I do plenty of promotions, but I put these on hold if the idols are starting to get too tired. Either way, I give them a spa day every fourth day to keep their stamina up at first; eventually I phase out the spa days when they start getting too expensive relative to the number of idols its helping, instead trusting my doctors to take care of idols that are getting too tired.
-I generally having my idols doing a cheap show to raise their Funny and Smart stats until they reach their potential, so my stamina is more limited when it comes to contracts... But in general, I favor photo shoots and advertising gigs. The money's usually more useful to me, I think. Check how much stamina they're spending per-week from their profile page; so long as it won't take them past around 20 stamina per week and you have a break room, a long-term contract won't be a problem for them. So long as they have the stamina for a photoshoot and you're not about to host a concert, that won't be a problem either; they'll recover the next time you give your idols a break.
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At the start, your biggest source of stamina drain is going to be promotions and performances - but these are also the easiest places to cut. Promotions are great for building your fans, and you should be keen to take advantage of the bonus you get to promotions at the start of the game, but they're not worth cutting into your monthly events for. I would say they're worth more than business proposals at the start, however.
That said, when you're dealing with a small number of idols, it's easy to balance things out by adding a spa day every four days or so. Between that, the break room, and how long it takes to prepare singles and concerts, you shouldn't have too many issues with stamina so long as you're not overloading them on shows and business proposals.
Does that help? If you have any other questions, I can answer those as well.
- Jul 6, 2017
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Good write up. After reading this I think my issue was that I was backwards on a few things. For example, initially I took 3 of the idols instead of all of them (and I always do regional). After a few attempts, that wasn't working so I dropped it to two thinking that I'd cut down on how much I'm paying for idols, and would be able to use that money elsewhere. That didn't work either. Seems I didn't have enough idols.. which likely also caused some of my stamina issue. I'll give it a shot, thanks!
- May 3, 2017
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@05841035411 already gave one version but i'd like to extend that a bit:
- How many idols do you get at the start?
This heavily depends on your overall strategy. No more than 3 idols will actually do as well as any number above that. This is mainly a business simulation which means every additional idol in the beginning also means extra costs that could be used in other ways. All fame etc is based on 'center' of a formation. So even in a backline someone more centered gets more fame than the sides. This goes on and things get more complex the more idols you have.
IMHO one of the most important parts of a good strategy combines 2 things: financially stable and ability to gain fans.
This is why i personally would answer your question with: go for only 3 idols but be picky about them. Why only 3? Because the steps to level up promotion and performance only require 3 idols. One of your early goals should be to open up promotion as quickly as possible as that enables you to earn proper money with releases. Ignore performances for a bit as it usually opens up naturally when you follow a promotion strategy.
Local auditions cost only 100k but you have a chance to get silver idols for each of those 5. It is chance based according to your influence which levels by going to auditions- you see where this is going, right?
- What quality are those idols?
With your characters 'influence' the ability to get higher level idols on lower level auditions raises. At the start you wont have any but you already have the ability to 'get lucky' and get 'silver' idols in a local audition. Higher level idols simply means they both start with higher base stats and usually also have higher 'potential'. Here it is important to have a clear strategy for your releases ready. One step of the performance level ups is to reach level 5 for one genre - so you want to stick to one genre for quite some time to level up naturally in it.
So the main point here is not what level the idols are but to think about your facilities and the idols stats.
Example: I decide to cater mainly to hardcore fans that are male and mostly adult (hardcore because they will by more than 1 copy later on etc).
So i combine this way:
Knowing that i only need to hire a dance instructor to open up the 'policies' tab i look for idols with high stats in vocal and high potential in sexy. This means i dont need to train any of them in singing but can enhance their looks and dancing.
Why exactly those? The first level of the building is completely rent free. Pointing back to the first question: financially stable. You need facilities to make your group better but you dont want to overextend too early.
The first level allows me to place my own office, one office worker, 1 make-up artist and a dance studio without costing any ongoing rent. That gets you a long way if you think and hire strategically.
My example is only an example - if you want a different audience simply choose idols with the proper stats that cater to those.
- How often do you release a single?
Max 1 per month. Releasing more not only hurts your income but also lowers the trend for that specific genre which reduces sales figures even more.
- How do you manage to release singles on an often enough basis to get money while keeping stamina high to allow for concerts? (I haven't been able to do a single concert because I've never had the money, much less the stamina).
In the beginning you cant queue actions which means you have to keep an eye on everything. To have a 'good' start you want to have as many fans as possible for each and every release to make a profit as quick as possible. Dont let your office worker look for business proposals but just let them research until you have opened up 'digital release', 'photoshoot', 'advertisement'.
Keep doing promotions and everytime you get a 'restore 10points' spa ability use it. All other actions continue to be promotions. Your overall main goal is to reach level 4 promotions as fast as possible as that yields a decent number of fans per promotion.
- Do you do the once-per-day events that boost fans, stamina or money? If so, how often and is there a pattern that you use (ie: for every 2x fans or money do 1x spa)?
See above
- Do you do photoshoots or any other side-gigs? If so, how do you manage that stamina loss?
Only after the first concert. After the first concert i usually immediately invest in both a doctor and a rest room. Those 2 combined with the strategy of the promotion and spa combo i described above means, you will usually never have any idols totally exhausted if you assign photoshoots and ad jobs properly according to idols energy levels.
I don't want to disagree too strenuously, as there are many ways of playing the game, but I really don't see any advantages in trying to skimp on idols early.- How many idols do you get at the start?
This heavily depends on your overall strategy. No more than 3 idols will actually do as well as any number above that. This is mainly a business simulation which means every additional idol in the beginning also means extra costs that could be used in other ways. All fame etc is based on 'center' of a formation. So even in a backline someone more centered gets more fame than the sides. This goes on and things get more complex the more idols you have.
IMHO one of the most important parts of a good strategy combines 2 things: financially stable and ability to gain fans.
This is why i personally would answer your question with: go for only 3 idols but be picky about them. Why only 3? Because the steps to level up promotion and performance only require 3 idols. One of your early goals should be to open up promotion as quickly as possible as that enables you to earn proper money with releases. Ignore performances for a bit as it usually opens up naturally when you follow a promotion strategy.
Local auditions cost only 100k but you have a chance to get silver idols for each of those 5. It is chance based according to your influence which levels by going to auditions
Picking them all up at the same times means they'll join the same clique, so you don't have to deal with bullying; it gives them more opportunities to polish their talents and reach their potential so they don't drag down their singles; it gives them more time to build their fame, which will allow them to earn more; it lets you build your influence more easily by giving you more idols to talk to; and it means you can go longer before having to host another audition. In short, it solves a whole host of issues, at the expense of having to pay slightly more in salaries to begin with. But it's not like you're going to go bankrupt before you build enough fame to have a real credit limit.
Plus, if you only get three idols to begin with, you're definitely going to need to host more auditions before you can hold a proper concert; that's going to cost you more than you saved, and the new idols won't have had any time to polish their talents. That seems penny-wise and pound-foolish to me.
Besides, what's the point in being that selective at the start? If someone's not performing well, you can always use a scandal to get away with firing them. Or, if you manage a squeaky-clean operation somehow, you can always underpay and abuse them enough that they decide to graduate of their own accord, though I assume that has drawbacks...
I can understand going light on idols later - there's no need to have a full formation or sister groups, really, except for the fun of it. But you at least need enough idols to consistently hit 200% hype in your concerts without exhausting everyone, or you really are leaving money on the table at that point; for that, you need to fill... About three lines in your formation, I think?
- May 3, 2017
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As you state yourself - there are many ways and i gave one of them. Diversity is king.
But to answer your questions why:
Selectively choosing idols is a guarantee for high performance, high abilities and hitting those goals in awards early and consistently. Same goes for progression in policies. Earnings for contracts is directly connected to stats of your idols (aside from sexy where earnings also rises for idols if they havnt done any of those for a long time). I have been using your approach in early games and quickly found out that financially a picky approach paid off better and quicker.
I personally always avoid any bad character idols - they are simply not worth the trouble. Being selective means i always have high stat 'extras' in case of injuries, talk spots at concerts, fixed cast for shows and so on. I have no problems with bullies ever and since my strategy incorporates a doc early mental health is not a concern at all.
Concerts are your main money maker and staying in a smaller venue with high stat idols but raising entry prizes to the absolute max is financially more viable than trying to go for bigger venues. A concert in a club will never cost you more than a million but you can take up to 100k entry fee
Hype is all good and fine but not a main concern in the beginning. All awards give rewards for just being nominated and not winning it. So for the first year its not about winning but at least being nominated.
What many overlook is the direct correlation of idol stats to target audience. If you dont have a real target audience you are missing out on income - that is where you use sister groups. If your audience is too far spread out among different groups appeasing them with your singles becomes harder than with a targetted audience.
P.S. I forgot to mention that i never take any loans - ever. Loan payments are a fixed cost and i dont get anything for it.
But we're talking the very first audition here, and in only taking the best three. I'm not advocating taking someone who only has 20 potential in a stat you care about, but at that point, you're turning down someone with 50 potential because they're not a 70 - and I just don't see why you'd hamper your early game like that rather than fire them later, or let them graduate naturally. Especially since it's extremely unlikely that your first idols are going to be perfect; an idol who is Sexy (catering to Hardcore Male fans) can still fail at being Funny (important to Male fans) and Cool (catering to Hardcore fans), leaving their appeal imperfect - while an idol who isn't Sexy can still be both Funny and Cool, reaching your target demo in a different way.As you state yourself - there are many ways and i gave one of them. Diversity is king.
But to answer your questions why:
Selectively choosing idols is a guarantee for high performance, high abilities and hitting those goals in awards early and consistently. Same goes for progression in policies. Earnings for contracts is directly connected to stats of your idols (aside from sexy where earnings also rises for idols if they havnt done any of those for a long time). I have been using your approach in early games and quickly found out that financially a picky approach paid off better and quicker.
I personally always avoid any bad character idols - they are simply not worth the trouble. Being selective means i always have high stat 'extras' in case of injuries, talk spots at concerts, fixed cast for shows and so on. I have no problems with bullies ever and since my strategy incorporates a doc early mental health is not a concern at all.
Concerts are your main money maker and staying in a smaller venue with high stat idols but raising entry prizes to the absolute max is financially more viable than trying to go for bigger venues. A concert in a club will never cost you more than a million but you can take up to 100k entry fee
Hype is all good and fine but not a main concern in the beginning. All awards give rewards for just being nominated and not winning it. So for the first year its not about winning but at least being nominated.
What many overlook is the direct correlation of idol stats to target audience. If you dont have a real target audience you are missing out on income - that is where you use sister groups. If your audience is too far spread out among different groups appeasing them with your singles becomes harder than with a targetted audience.
P.S. I forgot to mention that i never take any loans - ever. Loan payments are a fixed cost and i dont get anything for it.
I agree that concerts are your main money maker, but I don't see how that relates to how many idols you start off with, which is our point of disagreement - you're still going to want enough idols that you don't have to put too much strain on a given idol, whether you're in a club or Toyko Stadium. Either way, you're going to want enough for two talk breaks and six separate songs, if memory serves me correctly. That's going to be around 8 idols, if you plan carefully.
And with regards to Best Concert, there is a significant difference between winning and being nominated - being able to center songs at a concert for only 10 stamina makes every concert going forward trivial to plan, regardless of the condition your idols are in. This means you don't need to worry about draining their stamina in the week going up to the concert, or have to worry too much about having a given idol center your singles too often. With 20 stamina for only being nominated, you can still put an idol at risk if you put her in too many times.
As for your last point, businesses in the real world take out loans all the time in order to expand, and this is a business simulation. Choosing not to take one is just declining to use a tool at your disposal; like declining to use potions in an RPG. If you're choosing delay building a Break Room or passing up a month's worth of concert income because you choose to raise the money upfront, all that's doing is leaving money on the table - and if the money you miss out on is worth more than the 10% interest (assuming you even choose to go through the bank, rather than your sponsor), then that ultimately hurts your bottom line more than the interest did. You're paying for the opportunity to make more money, is all a loan is. Now, I'm not saying that that's what you've done; but I am saying that players, especially new players, shouldn't be afraid of loans in this game. They're something for individuals to avoid, not businesses.
- May 3, 2017
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I never use more than 5 songs. Hype has a base value related to the overall fame of your group. So with a high value group you start with a base hype far above zero. Each song that caters to your actual audience has a chance to fill roughly 20-30 hype. The only target you need to reach to get the bonus from awards in the beginning is finishing a concert with 120% Hype.
See above. It is only 120% required for the first year.
As i stated in the same post - diversity is king. There is no one approach that is right - you continue to argue that way.
I extended your posting with additional information how it can be done as well. Which is why i regard Idol Manager an excellent game as it actually allows for diverse play and different approaches thus allowing a lot of re-playability.
Loans are the part that caused issues for many new players - follow the beta community on itch.io to see for yourself. It can quickly lead to a spiral for a new player if something unexpected happens. Even the lowest amount of a million means 80k repayment per week (that is at 0% interest) - that equals paying a professional worker in any of the facilities. Where they actually increase the value of the idols by making them better or getting them extra jobs while the repayment itself is dead money not gaining you anything in return.
Idol manager has no time goals in terms of game over - so there is no need to rush anything. The only time related goals are the awards and we covered that already. Achieving both the promotion and the concert goals each year is very simple and all other goals require some extra management without giving you any particular overall strong advantages. Releasing a single each month means the award for the prolific group is almost a given every year. Going for mostly 'promotion' paired with a bit of spa will always give you the bonus to promotion thus it continuously becomes stronger to do promotions.
Going for any of the idol specific awards will only help a single idol but not the overall group - i consider this a midgame goal to polish out a specific idol.