Development Blog: Sat May 11th

I have a huge huge HUGE update on the game. I mentioned I was working on the Events Screen (I got the UI done for that in the last update)... well after a lot of work, I feel like we've reached a huge milestone in the game which you will see in the update below.

Since the last update, I've added:

• Change to the game loop so it detects upcoming events. From the user perspective, the game clock stops on an upcoming event and the UI now allows you to attend/simulate the event. If it's your own show, you have the ability to book the event (which is currently disabled since we haven't got there yet!). So yeah, now you'll be able to attend WrestleMania and see it play out or just scout your local indie if you wish.
• I've added the ability to "skip" certain events you're not interested in to avoid repeatedly getting asked to decide.
• Connected up the event calendar so it now displays all the TV Show tapings, large shows like PPVs and have a house show circuit generated for you every month. You can tweak events, add new ones, cancel existing ones or move them around and so forth.
• More importantly you can set the ticket price for an event and dynamically change it. Ticket sales happen in real time, so if sales are low, bring the price down to try and stimulate demand. There's more to "what factors" affect ticket sales which I will elaborate on in a second but in combination with the ability to book venues, you can get an idea for how much revenue you might bring in. Minus your production, transportation and worker costs and you've got the basis for the business model of a wrestling promotion. You've got to run a successful house show touring business, especially at a lower level with the player having to strategically book venues (maybe not too far in advance to keep cash flow running) and balancing worker condition and costs.
• For TV shows and PPVs, it dynamically works out the ratings and buys when the events are simulated. Right now we don't have the ability to book shows so it's just randomly working out the event quality. You'll notice in the video that the Promotion's cash balance changes as venues are booked, gate money comes in, PPV revenue is finalized etc.

The reason why this update is such a huge milestone is - this is the core of the game. I also have everything stored now to get the Television screen done (which I'll work on next).

• I mentioned that there's a dynamic formula for ticket sales. I actually baked in a simplified economical model into the game. I'm using a few basic variables (unemployment, inflation, growth) and using interest rates as a lever to influence growth which in turn influences the other variables. Just like in real life, this means the global economy and each country's own economy will fluctuate and have cycles of booms and bust as the governments of the virtual game try to keep their economy stable and prevent stagnation or overheating.
• For the end player, what this means is that the various regions in the game will have changing affluence which along with the roster you have and how "hot" your promotion is will influence your ticket sales. It's hard to keep your roster intact when ticket sales are depressed so there's even the possibility of mimicking real life scenarios like the current weak Japanese economy leading to an exodus of Japanese talent.

The formulas in the game aren't exactly perfect! That partially because of my database values (the game generates fictional venues for you) and it will take a lot of tweaking to get the game balanced so that the tickets sold, gates, ratings and revenue seem realistic and provide a challenging but fun game for you to play.

I don't care about the exact formulas right now or balancing the game. I'm just getting the functionality in there and then once the game is done, I might even get a professional in to help me tweak the logic behind all these things.

• I've also added a few "cute" touches like Wrestlenomics giving you a recap of the TV show with the ratings. Dave Meltzer from WON will chip in with updates on house shows. You'll get WrestleTix updates on the latest ticket sales etc.
  
• Finally I've added a brand new developer screen which I'm sure the mod makers will really enjoy using because it lets you simulate the game automatically or jump around between dates. You can just imagine how much use I've got from that!