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RedwoodGames

Redwood Games
Developer
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
6



Where policy, laws, officials and people are only the chess pieces how do you play your game?



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Have you ever dreamed of billions that would open up to you a world of unlimited opportunities? The world that’s subject to your will and completely in your power? Plutocracy is a business simulator with a detailed economic system that gives you a chance to become the richest person on the earth and to secretly rule the world as well as influence the decisions of politicians, lobby laws for your own benefits. Can you change the turn of history in your name?



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Plutocracy is a form of society defined as being ruled or controlled by a function of wealth. The main idea of the game is to show the interaction of economy with politics and how influential capitalists make an impact inside and outside politics using money.

In this game a player can immerse himself in the real world of capitalists with all the vicissitudes and intrigues as well as feel how the player's decisions change the economies of countries where politicians become his puppets. Every law or official decree has an end customer!

Achieve the game’s goals in many ways! Only you decide whether to compete openly or secretly. Whether to make a bet on the economic development of their companies or investment in them with the support of influential officials and politicians? To be the richest and influential person in the world and make peoples’ lives better by changing political course of continents? Every way has its consequences! Responsibility of your choices will be going up with every level of the game.



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Scalability is what we’re seeking while designing our game. In the beginning, a little depends on you because you don’t start the game as a president or a billionaire. You build everything from the scratch. Gradually the workers of your companies, their families, industries, regions and even countries and continents begin to depend on you. You will start feeling the growth of your responsibility for every decision you make.


ECONOMY SIMULATION

The game has a real dynamic mechanism of economic companies and the country. Having achieved the scale levels, you’ll be able to influence prices, GDP, unemployment and etc of the whole country and also of the whole world.

We know how excessive micromanagement is tiresome so we’ve made both manual and automatic process management inside companies. You can hire directors and they’ll take care of all the routine processes! Make the most suitable strategy for the current realities of the market and delegate management tasks to the Board of Directors.


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In the game, you can modify the production plan for workers, increase or decrease working hours and wages. It’ll lead to a reduction of administrative expenses and a wage-fund but at that same time it’ll instigate a strike and an increased level of accident in a company. All the staff will be in a rage, trade unions will take up arms against you but your profitability will go up!

A strike will influence the production volume, companies will start seeing losses. Will you meet the demands of the demonstrators or disperse the crowd of the dissatisfied people with help of corrupt cops? Will you bleed the workers dry or inspire the staff to upgrade their skills? Every way has its consequences! It’s up to you to decide! It’s entirely in your hands!


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Having issued stocks and bonds, you’ll be able to capitalize your company and conduct IPO . Make monopolies and trusts, expand the areas of influence and capture market shares as well as take over smaller companies. You have different ways of competing. Make a relationship with the companies’s owners and collude with them, merging in cartels. Together, you can drop the prices of products on the market and squeeze out competitors and then make a monopoly by which you can raise the price three folds! Organize strikes and sabotage at the companies of competitors, disrupt supplies and block logistics.

The market is a living self-organizing matter in which the functioning of the industries is interrelated. For instance, you can buy out all transport companies in the region and increase the supply price for competitors several times like Rockefeller did it in the period of the seizure of the petroleum market. No one will want to work in the minus! As a result, competitors will be forced to sell their companies to you sooner or later. Will you have enough resources for that? Or you’ll be acting through loyal politicians and destroy the competitors by laws?


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Choose any of the 14 industries and take over the market. Destroy competitors, be ruthless on the way of achieving your goals! You can develop and improve the infrastructure of your companies because new technologies increases income! Build new buildings, expand the plan and get higher dividends. The game will give you the right to choose to be able to become economically powerful!


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POLITICS
In the game, the executive branch consists of officials of the federal and local levels. The governor is in charge of the state welfare, the treasurer of finance, the prosecutor and the police of law and order, the judges make decisions.

During the game you’ll see a simulation of the real processes of passing laws at the region and the entire country level. We tried thoroughly to simulate the political system of the United States. Politicians will be sorting out significant issues of financing, taxation, management, business, education, healthcare, migration, social programs and other.


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There is an opportunity to hire of political lobbyists who will be able to find some arguments to promote your law or an unfavorable law against your competitors. On the one hand, you may sponsor the election campaigns of politicians and they’ll help you when you in need, you may collect dirt on them and use the mass media to your advantage to not leave a chance to those who refused to be your puppets.


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CORRUPTION AND LOBBYISM
Necessary laws will open up new opportunities for you to increase your wealth. Become a manipulator in political circles, increase your status and make relationships with influential officials and politicians. The party of Republicans and Democrats have different ideologies. So if you adopt the policy of clan capitalism, the government will have less influence on the regulation of market relations, therefore you will be able to get the support of the Republicans.

For instance, you can make a monopoly and lobby through a law that reduces corporate taxes. But be careful, it can make a federal budget deficit and the whole country will take up arms against you. Greed is not always good! You must be able to find a balance between all the parties and society levels so that your monopoly doesn’t collapse like a house of cards.


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However, if you need bills of the democratic part such as reducing unemployment, increasing wages and other stuffs, then don’t miss the opportunity to lobby through the bill to sing and adopt it!
Use politicians and officials for your own goals! Will you improve the well-being of the population or will you only take care about your well-being? It’s up to you!


INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL AREA

Capture fields of strategically important resources in other countries and provoke military conflicts through the Senate of the US Congress or the White House. Give a loan to the parties for the military conflict, break down the economies of countries, create financial crisis and coup d'etat to buy cheap assets!

You can become the beneficiary of the most significant historical events or just create your own alternative history without wars and economic crisis. In the game, you can get used to the role of secret leaders who was creating and influencing the history. Appoint politicians and heads of states so that they unquestioningly carry out your orders.

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Do you need to increase the supply of unprocessed oil to your refineries? Help an ambitious politician to become the minister of the country you need and make a deal with him to get oil for a song. Become a financial support and an international banker for countries asking for need

AGENTS OF INFLUENCE

If you want to play hard and dirty, you should use the agents of influence who are your assistants in difficult situations. There are more than 36 unique characters, divided into 12 categories, whose hands you can fight with competitors. Make political intrigues, hidden manipulative fraud and win competitors!


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You’ve a huge set of tools: you can use force methods such as arson and accidents, bank robberies and etc as well as you can use secret and cunning methods: organize strikes and block production to competitors, industrial espionage, influence the stock market, use the services of a journalist and the mass media and so on.
But be careful, every illegal action is strictly punishable by the court of justice! Well, or make sure that the judge and the state attorney are on your side…


DIPLOMACY IS A KEY OF SUCCESS

The game has something around 15,000 characters including shareholders, officials, politicians who have their own interests, fears, ambitions and other stuff that you can use to influence them. Just imagine a game world in which all the characters interact with each other, buy shares, lobby their interests, try improving their lives.

Organize routs (banquet hall) and make meaningful relationships among influential people as well as give gifts, help people realize their ambitions which in turn will help you get access to huge resources. Every character can conceal a threat or access to game resources down the line. Therefore, it is necessary for you to consciously make friends!


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Keep in mind that every “resident” is endowed with intellect and knows how to behave and calculates what to do one step ahead. In addition, he is also connected by the threads of friendship or enmity with other characters, forming his unique network of contacts.

For example, if you improve your relationship with a businessman who has two influential friends in the congress, then your relationship with those congressmen can become much easier which will open up new opportunities later.


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On the other hand, you will have the risk of starting a financial war with some "oligarch" and his friends, if you stop getting along well with each other.


LIVE LUXURIOUSLY
Increase your social status by winning luxuries at the auction. Earn money on horse races betting on horses. The price of rare coins or paintings will go up! Don’t forget to buy houses to get an annual rent; cars, yachts and planes are measure of your luxurious life.


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Any property is a tool for making relationships: if someone collects rare coins or paintings so as you, then it will be easier to make friends with them because of common interests.


INHERITANCE AND CLANS

The game starts from 1870 and continues till date. There is an inheritance system where you can leave a bequest to your heirs to go on playing for them! If one of the heirs has analytical abilities and pragmatism, then you should give a financial monopoly to him. If you think that someone is suitable for the position of Senator of the Congress, then you should take care of his election campaign in advance.

Promote your relatives to official posts, divide spheres of influence and appoint them as managers of your companies. Build a clan network and capture all strategically important resources.

Be ready to meet the opposition of other clans. The most powerful families in the game will be fighting for world influence. Will you have enough the fortitude to win that fight?


RISKS AND CHALLENGES
We’ve been working on this game for the past one and half years! During that time we managed to make the best possible: the corporate style, the design is complete, about 60% of the functionality is completed. However, we want to add some more interesting features into the game and release a better version than what we’ve described above.

It is extremely important for us to get your feedback about our project and know what you feel about the game. There are many ideas on how to develop the game further therefore we often need a second opinion to gain ideas that might be useful for the future Plutocracy gamers though we have taken care of all the possible scenarios.

We humbly thank everyone of you who believed in us and supported our project. Get in touch, follow for through updates and write to us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Steam.




 

Zarniwoop

TESTOSTERONIC As Fuck™
Patron
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
19,229
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
SimSoros huh? Definitely an interesting and unique concept.
 

RedwoodGames

Redwood Games
Developer
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
6
A mix between Democracy and KODP ? Could be cool.
In our game, we’d like to give the economy and politics a “human face” as well as show that behind all economic indicators and political events and laws are people with their interests desires and ambitions. Among other things, we’re pay particular attention to visual design realizing that’s essential for the game.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
Can we get elected President and try to Make America Great Again?
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,184
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
I remember a similar game done years ago~ Not very famous, but I did try it a bit.

Anyway, good concept. Will be curious enough to try.

For Risks and Challenges, a current-gen 2nd Great Depression sounds about right. Or Lost Decades.
 

RedwoodGames

Redwood Games
Developer
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
6
I remember a similar game done years ago~ Not very famous, but I did try it a bit.

Anyway, good concept. Will be curious enough to try.

For Risks and Challenges, a current-gen 2nd Great Depression sounds about right. Or Lost Decades.

Thank you for your interest in our game!:) To the best of my knowledge, economic and politics games are unpopular among plenty of players where that’s pretty hard to simulate all the mechanisms so that ones are playable and make a player happy. Therefore, there are so few games that are hits:( There are games with detailed economic and politic models but with a poor interface and visual content. In our game, we’d like to combine all the best and make the simulator with a more or less good visual.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
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Thank you for your interest in our game!:) To the best of my knowledge, economic and politics games are unpopular among plenty of players where that’s pretty hard to simulate all the mechanisms so that ones are playable and make a player happy. Therefore, there are so few games that are hits:( There are games with detailed economic and politic models but with a poor interface and visual content. In our game, we’d like to combine all the best and make the simulator with a more or less good visual.

It's a question of gameplay, which much too often plain sucks.

There were many economic games that had new ideas but most of them are not satisfying if not downright harebrained. Examples would be the recently released Nantucket or the (older) East India Company, both ambitious projects that promised to revolutionize the historic/trading sim. Both looked really promising before they were released but sucked big time.

P.S. I give you great creadit for the choice of the period and the graphic style. Pessimistic about the gameplay, because I'm a 25+ year gamer who seen a lot of new games come and go, A LOT ;)
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
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I can state that more precisely, actually.

If you make an economic game, it is important that people have room to improve, and there is no optimal strategy. You can compare this with Chess which you can play on all kinds of levels, and you never reach the optimum.

But if the gameplay is just to go to A,B,C,D and nothing afterwards, you must accept that players get very angry because you wasted their time.

And for that it's important to have a realistic simulation aspect. For example I spent over 500 hours already in a game that allows me to design combustion engines, whereas eg Nantucket bored me to death after the second day.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,184
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
This would be outside of Plutocracy's genre but a pretty similar example of Burning Bridge above

Patrician III, and later on Port Royal 2.

It simulate a world economy, with cities' economies. There's 3 ways to make riches: 1 playing merchants buying from one city and selling for the next, gathering riches until you have enough to control several cities economy to monopoly then make big riches. 2. gathering enough rich to start control one city, building big to get economy of scale and start control/monopolize one industry and make money from margin (make cheap, sell a lot). 3 playing pirates.

And each way has optimal strategies depend on where you start, where you choose to operate.

It has near-optimal strategies, but to get 100% optimal you need autistic level of dedication.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
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Messages
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Something else that I would like to mention are nice lateral strategies that you miss in the first season of playing.

My example would be again a car engine game. There is a thread on Steam where people compete for the fastest laptimes. They proudly their times which are basically minmaxinf the horsepower. the very best times use 11,000cc liter turbochargeged V12 engines with 3500 horsepower.

Now what I personally found much more interesting is that the game allows me to achieve similar results with a much smaller engine. With a 4 cylinder 2,000cc engine I got within 10 seconds of the fastest times of the 11L V12s. Even if I can never match the best times, but making use of lightness and power to weight ratio I can actually achieve something that is more effcient. With such design I would not even be shy to compete and come out last, because I know I can always crank up the displacement.

What I want to explain here is that people like us love game where the formulas allow a second, third, fourth season with more and more advanced strategies. Not just minmaxing that you decode in one month, and from then on it's uninstall time.

Also another tip I have for you, maybe for your next game is that successful manager games always have a good game within the game. Look at games like Motorsport Manager or the old NHL hockey games, the long time fascination comes from a active game that is fun and challenging, and tghe manager part feeds the resources (like better players and cars). In a whalehunting game this would be the part where you hunt whales, in Jagged Alliance it's the combat and in a game about politics this would be the part where you deal with people.

If this part is missing or bad, the game can not be successful. (Not trying to scare you here because you are aiming for a first game, it won't be the best game in the genre right away anyway. An encouraging Indie game with great future would do for your first game.)

Btw, found Plutocracy in a preview video, there are quite a few other interesting games here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI9MG4HIRfM

I escpecially like the Gunsmith game
 
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