Profit Motive: A Business Adventure (PD), Version 4.0 of the game is out! Options

[Kulimar]

"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

Profit Motive Demo Version 4.0 (187MB)


Official Website

http://profitmotivegame.com/

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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:

[Show/Hide] Fan Art Contest #1 Winners

RySpirit:



Promise Maker:



CookieFiend:

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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)

[Show/Hide] See More Screen Shots

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

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Project Status and Updates


Version 4.0 Updates (August 14th, 2012)
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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

[Show/Hide] Story Info

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--

Credits

[Show/Hide] Credits

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

Kaz
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
More credits on the way...

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...

Support Bar

Copy and paste code in the spoiler:

[Show/Hide] Support Bar

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This post has been edited by Kulimar: Aug 16 2012, 02:44 PM

[Kunno]

I've been playing it for an hour now, it's a fun game. I find it rather refreshing, I have not ran into any real problems yet. Thanks for the work guys!

[Kulimar]

I've been playing it for an hour now, it's a fun game. I find it rather refreshing, I have not ran into any real problems yet. Thanks for the work guys!

Thanks for giving it a playthrough. Do be sure to fill out the questionnaire when you're done so we can improve it wherever possible.

Cheers,

-Sage

[supercow]

very interesting gameplay and i liked it
map looks good and decent.
few things though:
1. its kindda laggy.
2. the window your using looks like ice cube.
3.a few mistake like pillar on mail, tomb in store.
overall it looks really good, just hoping it doesnt lag

[Kulimar]

very interesting gameplay and i liked it
map looks good and decent.
few things though:
1. its kindda laggy.
2. the window your using looks like ice cube.
3.a few mistake like pillar on mail, tomb in store.
overall it looks really good, just hoping it doesnt lag

Thanks for the comments. We are definitely working on the lag issue and a lot of the tiles still need to be replaced. Hopefully the next few versions will address your issues.

Be sure to fill out the survey for the game here:

Game Survey

Thanks!

-Sage

[Kulimar]

Some recent concept art for the player's suits:

[Show/Hide] White-Blue Suit

[Show/Hide] Red Suit

Any preferences?

-Sage

[Titanhex]

I've gotta admit this game looks amazing. It also is such a unique style it should be enjoyable as well as refreshing. It reminds me of the many games made outside of the RPG genre that do well. Infact I remember Sim Idol, which was also an interesting and fun game.

What kind of preference are you looking for btw? Picking one of the suits out of all the suits? Personally for red I like the first, last, and second to last. I like the pinstripe on the white too.

[Kulimar]

I've gotta admit this game looks amazing. It also is such a unique style it should be enjoyable as well as refreshing. It reminds me of the many games made outside of the RPG genre that do well. Infact I remember Sim Idol, which was also an interesting and fun game.

What kind of preference are you looking for btw? Picking one of the suits out of all the suits? Personally for red I like the first, last, and second to last. I like the pinstripe on the white too.

Thanks for the comments Titanhex!

What kind of preference are you looking for btw? Picking one of the suits out of all the suits? Personally for red I like the first, last, and second to last. I like the pinstripe on the white too.

The player has the option to buy and wear different color suits in the game that give them certain bonuses so we're just looking for one suit in each color that people like.

I'll post more later.

Cheers,

-Sage

This post has been edited by Kulimar: Mar 8 2012, 08:12 PM

[catlover7]

Hi there
I have to say that I am absolutely loving this game!! However, I have found a bug on the battle with Mayor Goldspeak and haven't got past the battle yet... The problem is that the game sticks on the opponent's turn and repeats the text for their attack and doesn't continue. I have had to force quit and go back into it to continue... Any help would be appreciated

catlover7

[Kulimar]

Hi there
I have to say that I am absolutely loving this game!! However, I have found a bug on the battle with Mayor Goldspeak and haven't got past the battle yet... The problem is that the game sticks on the opponent's turn and repeats the text for their attack and doesn't continue. I have had to force quit and go back into it to continue... Any help would be appreciated

catlover7

Hi Catlover7,

Thanks for the info, we are looking into that bug now. I'll let you know when it's resolved and a new build is posted with fixes (your save files should still work after we fix the problem.

Cheers,

-Sage

[Kulimar]

Some new art of the suits that players can get in the game:

[MEands]

This is probably one of the most impressive games I've seen on this site, I'll keep this one in mind when I need something to play.

[Kulimar]

This is probably one of the most impressive games I've seen on this site, I'll keep this one in mind when I need something to play.

Thanks MEands! Be sure to let us know what you think if you give the demo a try.

-Sage

[Magical_RuNE_Kni...]

i remember playing the original version of this and loving it lol. : D i'll definitely try the new one.

Wowow, it really looks great though! i love the modern style and your artists are great. i especially like the hands, colouring, and backgrounds.
i can't wait to try this! ^^ super-kool.

[Kulimar]

i remember playing the original version of this and loving it lol. : D i'll definitely try the new one.

Wowow, it really looks great though! i love the modern style and your artists are great. i especially like the hands, colouring, and backgrounds.
i can't wait to try this! ^^ super-kool.

Thanks! Look forward to version 3.5 coming within the next month or so. That will have A LOT more new art and most of the placeholder stuff will be gone

Cheers,

-Sage

[Kulimar]

Version 4.0 of Profit Motive is finally out!

-Sage

[Jens of Zanicuud]

I think this is one of the most original projects I've seen by now. Maybe I'll give it a try...
Anyway... I'm just curious about battles. How does the system work? I've found no hints/information in your topic.

What kind of BS are you using? And - moreover - how have you implemented battles in a businnes-aimed-RPG?
It's a sort of confrontation between enterprises and/or brokers, simulated by RMXP battle engine (that is: use of skills or anything else), FF-Tactics-or-advance-wars-like, or anything else?

I'm totally clueless...

Jens

[Kulimar]

I think this is one of the most original projects I've seen by now. Maybe I'll give it a try...
Anyway... I'm just curious about battles. How does the system work? I've found no hints/information in your topic.

What kind of BS are you using? And - moreover - how have you implemented battles in a businnes-aimed-RPG?
It's a sort of confrontation between enterprises and/or brokers, simulated by RMXP battle engine (that is: use of skills or anything else), FF-Tactics-or-advance-wars-like, or anything else?

I'm totally clueless...

Jens

Hi Jens,

Thanks for the comments!

The battle system is actually custom. Each battle has an objective you are trying to reach, represented by a "Goal Bar". Players must use Business Offences, Tactics, Defences to advance their goals vs. their opponent's goals and whoever's goals are further at the end of the battle, wins. So the system is not your traditional RPG style combat. It's more of a strategic tug of war, where every attack / defence choice you make will present risk/reward trade-offs that either put you ahead or behind your opponent in battle.

If you give the demo a try, the tutorial will take you through everything in the first few minutes and it becomes clear how the combat basically works.

Cheers,

-Sage

[Kulimar]

A new fan art contest has been posted!

[Kulimar]

One minor note is that we found and fixed a few big bugs today, so the build has been updated with the fixes (if you've already started playing you can simply copy your save files over and everything should work fine).

-Sage