UNDER-------

-DEVELOPMENT
www.MDickie.com
Mat@MDickie.com

The "Concept Kid" has literally made gaming history this time - with a game about
the games industry itself! Spanning over 30 years from 1981 to 2011 and beyond,
"Under Development" puts the controller in your hands at gaming's most pivotal
moments. Walk the halls of 9 different companies and assemble a team of specialists
in 6 key areas - from design and programming to graphics and sound. Then let them
loose on over 30 pieces of increasingly sophisticated hardware - all lovingly
brought to life in photo-realistic 3D. And every step of the way, you'll be using
games to make games - via dozens of charming sub-games that reflect your efforts.
But if you thought game development was about bringing dreams to life, prepare to
contend with the nightmares of office politics, fickle fans, scathing reviews, and
economic woes! Whether you aspire to make games or play them, Under Development is
an affectionate tribute to the ultimate art form...

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- This game requires an operating system compatible with DirectX 7.0 graphics or
higher. Vista/W7 users should right-click the executable and set it for
compatibility with XP.
- A strong processor of at least 1.6gHz is recommended to run the game properly.
Please consult the "Options" menus to configure the game for optimum performance.

------------------------ CONTROLS ------------------------------

MENU NAVIGATION
As a strategy game, Under Development is designed to be controlled by MOUSE for the
most part. The menus can be navigated by simply LEFT CLICKING on the appropriate
options. Where necessary, values can be altered by using LEFT CLICK to browse
forwards and RIGHT CLICK to browse backwards. ESCAPE can always be used to exit a
screen, and where applicable BACKSPACE and SPACE can be used to reset or randomize
values respectively. When dealing with lists of information, you should also find
that RIGHT CLICK or TAB changes the display. Look out for additional commands
throughout the game.

GAME CONTROLS
The game development process features many classic sub-games. The nature of these
should be quite familiar, but brief explanations are always given. Some are
controlled by MOUSE whereas others can be controlled by KEYS or GAMEPAD. The
available methods of control will be displayed at the start. Where keyboard input
is used, the CURSORS will be for direction and any other major keys such as SHIFT
or CONTROL will serve as the "Fire" button. The game has a special "Arcade" testing
ground where you can familiarize yourself with these controls with no pressure.

EDITING
The game contains a sophisticated editing facility for creating your star character
and customizing others. Here you have a limited amount of points with which to
create your starting profile, before specifying the costumes and character traits
that make your character unique. Remember that the character model needs to be
reloaded after being assigned a different "Build", and you must press ENTER over
the option to trigger that process. When browsing the many clothing options, you
may also like to consider that it's possible to skip closer to what you're looking
for by pressing the SPACE BAR to randomize the current option or BACKSPACE to reset
it. Making these changes will cost money once the game starts - so take care to
perfect your starting character!

Upon selecting to edit a character's "Relationships", you will be whisked off to a

whole other screen where you can click on every other character in the world and
adjust the relationship between them. Each click browses between "Enemy" status
(red), "Friend" status (green), or nothing at all. These changes are automatically
mirrored in the target's profile, so there's no need to go through it twice. If
you'd rather not go through it at all, you can randomize a character's
relationships with a simple hit of the SPACE BAR or clear their social network
completely with BACKSPACE.

OTHER CONTROLS
At some junctures, you may be able to admire a game you've made or a machine you've
bought. If you wish to do so, simply use the MOUSE to pan left or right and LEFT
CLICK to zoom in or out. RIGHT CLICKING or hitting ESC will end the viewing
session. If you'd like a souvenir of any achievement, you can save a screenshot to
the "Photo Album" folder by simply hitting F12.

---------------------- CAREER GUIDE -----------------------------

The game is driven by 6 main attributes that are largely consistent across
projects, hardware, and characters:
- DESIGN translates into gameplay and refers to how fun a game is to play, which
ensures popularity in the short-term at least.
- PROGRAMMING dictates how sophisticated a game is and translates into replay
value. Games of this calibre are more likely to be played long-term.
- 2D GRAPHICS is how impressive the 2D visuals are. Note that this is also required
for modern 3D games, where it serves as presentation and texturing.
- 3D GRAPHICS is how impressive the 3D visuals are. Although this takes a long time
to become the common feature that it is today, there can still be the "suggestion"
of 3D in 2D games that use isometric displays, etc. It is the one quality that is
optional, however, as purely 2D games can succeed.
- SOUND and MUSIC are self-explanatory and refer to how impressive these aspects of
a game are. They are not to be overlooked because their absence can ruin the
overall experience.

Exactly which one of these qualities is considered to be most important by the

public can change over time, so be sure to keep an eye on the news!

HARDWARE
Projects, hardware, and characters are rated out of 100 in each category. It is
impossible to exceed the limitations of your chosen hardware, so constantly
migrating to the latest platform is key to success. However, it is also a gamble
because "software development kits" cost a lot of money - and it may transpire that
your chosen platform is not as popular as it could be! The number of "active users"
a machine has grows from its launch and then declines in the years that follow. A
user base of around 1'000'000 is considered to be a success. Games released on
machines with significantly fewer users are likely to see poor sales. As a general
rule, it is difficult to reach more than 10% of a machine's audience at any one
time.

FORMATS
Each piece of hardware could rely on any one of 5 different "formats" to release
its games. This is significant because some are more expensive than others (i.e.
cartridges) and will affect your profit margins. Conversely, the cheaper formats
are easier to pirate - which may affect your sales if your chosen platform is
targeted! The manufacturing costs and retail prices will fluctuate regularly so be
sure to keep an eye on this balance.

WORKSTATIONS
Although it's possible to make a game single-handedly, it can be futile unless your
character is multi-talented. You will soon reach a point where you want to expand
your office and invite others in. You must pay rent on each workstation you
maintain, but you may then recruit another developer to occupy it (see below). Once
empty, the workstation can then be closed again to save money. Occasionally, your
equipment will become faulty - at which point you must pay to fix it and lose a day
of productivity!

CHARACTERS
The people you meet are the least predictable thing about the game development
process. They each have their own personality, which can either be an asset or a
hindrance to the working environment. Further to the 6 main statistics, they also
have their own unique attribute of "Reputation" (indicated by the heart running up
the side). This is arguably the most important of them all because it governs how
popular their work is - and how many sales they are likely to bring you. Note that
this is not always a measure of their true worth. It is perfectly possible to be a
talented developer who is not famous or a talentless one who is! Either way, this
public perception will influence how much they can expect to earn. It goes up with
each positive achievement and down with each disappointing performance.

COMPANIES
You start life as an independent developer, which can be both a gift and a curse.
You have more control over your own career and earn a generous 50% cut of
everything you sell. The downside is that it may be 50% of nothing due to a lack of
promotion! Bigger sales and more exciting opportunities await at one of the 8
mainstream companies. There, you also have access to the other professionals on the
staff - whom you can recruit far more easily than anybody else. Where you work also
affects your prospects because each company has its own "policy" which may change
over time. This could be how they prefer to pay you, how much freedom they give
you, or what access they have to the latest consoles.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
Whether you're contemplating joining a company or recruiting an employee, the
contract negotiation process is largely the same. It involves negotiating how many
weeks or months the agreement will last for and how much money is going to change
hands. This is a complex battle of wills in itself that changes from person to
person. Some negotiations are easy and profitable, whereas others are difficult and
costly.

PROJECTS
The culmination of all of this is of course the game development process itself.
Every week, each of your 6 employees has a chance to contribute to the latest
project. This takes the form of a charming little sub-game where you attempt to
clock up as many points as possible in your chosen category! Exactly which
character you choose is hugely significant because it directly affects how
difficult the game is. More importantly, it also affects how much of their score
they can translate into progress. A talentless person who miraculously scores full
marks may still only increase the rating by a few percent. It is essential to hire
talented people to make state of the art games. However, there is something to be
said for giving less talented people a chance because their skill in that category
will improve with each good performance (and vice versa).

CREDIT
Whoever makes the biggest contribution to each aspect of the game will be given
"credit" for it. This then means that THEIR reputation will be taken into account
when promoting the game (see below). It is often worth going through the charade of
involving a talentless famous person at the expense of a genius that nobody has
heard of! However, there is such a thing as "perfectionism" so you cannot beaver
away at the same project forever. Once an aspect of the game is approaching
perfection, your scores will no longer be accumulative and will simply determine
how much of the final chunk you get to keep. At this juncture, it is actually
possible for the score to go DOWN after a bad performance! Only a strong
performance from a talented person can steer a project home.

RELEASES
Once a game has taken shape and appears on your screen, you can choose to focus on
it by "identifying" it. If you can identify what the game is in real life, that
will become its official identity and you will be one step closer to releasing it
when you're ready. Once you release a game, it will be scrutinized in each category
by the gaming press. The overall score they give it affects how popular it will be
- along with the reputations of those involved. It is only possible to promote one
release at a time, so deploy them carefully.

PORTS
As in real life, existing games can be re-released when different platforms become
available. These "ports" only require half of the work of an original concept, so
it can be an efficient way to milk past glories. The public are less interested in
games they've seen before though! To port an existing release, simply select it and
then head to the "Hardware" section. Upon choosing a different piece of hardware, a
new half-baked version of the project will be created for that system.

INSPIRATION VS ASPIRATION
Most projects are "inspirational" in the sense that they are an original idea with
no definite goal in mind. However, it is also possible to work on "aspirational"
projects where you know exactly what you want to achieve from the start. This is a
whole other challenge whereby the game will not take shape until you meet its
requirements in each category. Projects of this kind are normally suggested by your
boss or members of your team.

The game assumes that you will not make more than 99 projects in your lifetime. In
the unlikely event that you exceed this number, you can delete old projects at any
time by pressing DELETE or BACKSPACE over them.

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For more information about this game and others like it,
please visit: www.MDickie.com
or contact: Mat@MDickie.com

If you encounter any problems or bugs, or simply have a request, don't hesitate to
report those too...