Digging deeper

A writer was interested in doing some work along with me on this project, those of you in the RM community might know him as CJF or Leon. Not sure how active he is in them :)

In other news - I've just gone over all the documents again and fixed it all up for rapid development. Should have the required time to get Funeral Tycoon to pre-beta stage later this month.

Anyone know any good tycoon or funeral-related games to offer as an affiliate along with this one when it's released?

Here's how it'll play:

• General Day - You'll decorate your cemetery, see people walking around visiting graves, and occasionally buying some tacky souvenirs if you decided you wanted to offer them (attractiveness penalty, more $). There are lots of different decorations to theme up the perfect cemetery for the trailer park or high-class crowds. The real point of the day is to wait for events to happen:
  
• Newspapers - Tell you about something important that just happened. This could be industry-related, and tell you to prepare for a big client.
  
• Choice Options - People approach you with offers of one type or another. There are many different types of potential business deals - I won't go into detail
  
• Phone Calls - You can call up various businesses (suppliers, mafia, bank, police, advertising, etc) and do deals with them.
  
• Clients - These are the "meat" of being the funeral director. Clients come in with expectations and a budget for how to deal with their lost beloved. You can sell them high-profit items, or try to give them excellent service with little reward for yourself. It's basically all about balancing quality bars to suit their needs. Do well, you'll attract better clients. Do badly, it'll hurt your rep... but if enough people are dying to keep you in business, who needs to care about that?
  
• Zombies! - Zombies progress out of their graves. You can knock them back in by clicking on them with your shotgun mouse. Can purchase hired help to deal with them, as well as weapon upgrades/grave nets to slow them down, or entirely skip the minigame if you want. Zombies let loose might destroy some of the cemetery or kill villagers. Dead villagers = more money for you to bury the next day!

That's about it. I'll see whatever else fits in the development schedule, but trying to keep it fairly low in features & keep them all kickass instead of spreading around.

Edging closer

Most of the UI/gameplay elements are done now. Needed a distraction from our other project, so went back to working on this a little early!

There's still a lot of simulator fun left to make, and almost all the writing, but progress is always nice :)

Silly graveyard management marketing thoughts thanks to a random generator and a few adjustments:

• Putting the "Fun" in Funeral
• How to make money from mass murderers
• Whack the zombie horde back into their graves
• Happyland Spooky Theme Parks presents...
• Make somewhere your great grandma will love
• Decorate headstones with plushy ghosts!
• Why wait for someone to die to plan a funeral?
• All the coffins you'll ever want - $19.99

Watching the hourglass

Things are still moving along, slowly, but no luck with the artists I was hoping to have onboard. They all love the idea at least!

The cemetery management simulator does a writer who might be interested in helping out on that side though. I'm a bit distracted for the next couple days with a different project I got dragged into, then it's back to working on this.

In the meantime, feel free to share any interesting graveyard ornaments (players can buy them - silly stuff) or horribly bad graveyard/funeral-related jokes :)

Sin and Punishment

The mortician simulator has a Karma bar. Sock puppets sit on your shoulder (representing an angel & devil), helping guide you through the managerial choices you'll have to make.

Prototype UI:


Being sinful during daily decisions makes you more money and attracts individuals (fashion designers, farmers, mad scientists, criminals...) with "business opportunities". Those can land you in trouble with media & the police.

High karma has no reward for itself other than being given silly community awards. Any suggestions, or is it better to have none?

* Drawing in wealthy deadies is controlled by different values: reputation & cemetery appearance

Introductions

"Dig, dig, dig... More corpses to curtain mishaps and malicious mimes. Wouldn't be surprised if criminals were involved at this rate. Must be good for YOURNAME's business... he's making a killing with what he charges."

Oh, hello!

I guess you've come for the pre-opening celebrations. Here's the speech I'm supposed to give all the visitors:

Welcome students to the latest training site for morticians by DEVNAME. We're creating fabulous new tools, in the form of a computer game, to allow all would-be undertakers to experience life as a funeral director without actually becoming one.

You'll be able to manage graveyards, plan funerals, and sell your kosher hotdogs to mourners. Will you listen to your conscience, or do business deals with crime lords, mad scientists and a very devilish character? Profit is king in what is sure to be the most realistic cemetery & funeral management simulation ever! ...because it's the only graveyard management simulator around.

Check back soon if you'd like to have some input on how the final pieces develop! Now, where was I...

The old groundskeeper goes back to digging, warning you to be on lookout for voodoo zombies.