We have lots planned to add to Showrunner in the coming year and beyond and we wanted to let you know some of the things you can expect! Thank you to everyone who has supported the game up to now. Feedback, bug reports and ideas are always very welcome and if you're enjoying the game so far, positive reviews here on Steam are a massive help.
Please note that plans are fairly fluid so some features will probably end up being added that aren't mentioned here, while some elements listed below may end up changing or being dropped after more design work is done. Features in the Designed section are much more fixed than those in the Concept section.
Designed
These additions are largely fleshed out, the artwork for them complete. They need implementation in code and some balancing work.
- Editing System
- Episode Types
- Episode Casting System
- Staff Chemistry System
- Staff Morale System
- Shared Dressing Rooms
- Hair & Makeup Room
- Rehearsal Mechanic
Editing System
This will allow you to pick a specific editing approach at the start of each episode’s edit phase. These different approaches will increase some episode stat types while decreasing others, allowing you to shift the episode stat points - perhaps to better match the show’s genre, to focus on the episode’s strengths or ameliorate its weaknesses.
Episode Types
Episode types can be selected from the Production Screen when a new episode is created. There are only two placeholder options currently but more episode types will be added to select from and unlock. Episode types affect the production cost, the number of lead and supporting actors available in an episode and the number of character cards drawn when the episode is complete. In future they will also affect the number of guest stars and guest actors in an episode and the number of stages that can be used, while each episode type will also offer a specific bonus as well.
Episode Casting System
Episode Casting involves creating and casting the guest roles (guest actors and guest stars) for an episode. These small but vital additional parts will only appear in a limited number of scenes and episodes but can offer significant benefits if they are skilfully written and well cast. Popular guest stars can be signed to further contracts and brought back to the show many times.
Staff Chemistry System
Over time spent working together staff will develop chemistry with each other. The overall chemistry of a group working on a specific task (e.g. writers working on script) will determine the chances of staff achieving a “Critical Success” on their work, hugely boosting their output. Chemistry will develop over time and be influenced by staff personality types.
Staff Morale System
Staff morale is the key measure of how content your staff are with their jobs and an important part of staff management. It will be influenced by a number of key factors - wages, the studio environment, events and work. Staff morale will have a major impact on how well staff perform and how likely they are to stay with your studio.
Shared Dressing Rooms
This room type functions similarly to the lead dressing rooms but allows for a number of lead and support actors to be assigned at once (whilst providing a lesser boost). The bonuses are factored in on top of the ones all actors receive from the Green Room. It also allows assigned actors to rehearse.
Hair & Makeup Room
This room will generate more Persona Points at the cost of actors having to sit there for a long time, losing energy and morale.
Rehearsal Mechanic
Allows you to set actors to Rehearse, an action which will earn the character they play extra Character XP but cost the actor energy over time. Actors can only rehearse a certain amount per appearance they've made in the show.
Concepts
These systems and mechanics are planned but with more design work needed, artwork still to be done and so forth. They are likely to appear further out (including next year).
- More Scene Cards
- Competition
- Awards
- Staff Skills
- Story Arcs
- Actor Contracts
- Events
- Show Locations & World
- Tier 2 Studio
More Scene Cards
The number of scene cards available to play when creating episodes went from 40 at launch to 130 right now. It’s a decent amount for the time being but rest assured that more scene cards will be added over time, giving even more options when putting together story outlines!
Competition
One of the biggest weaknesses of the game at the moment is a sense of your studio existing in a vacuum rather than as part of a larger televisual world filled with other studios, shows and staff! A major addition will be adding more of a sense of a dynamic environment, with other shows and studios beginning and ending, becoming more and less popular and competing for contracts, staff, actors and audiences!
Awards
End of year awards for the best shows, staff and actors will add to the sense of competition with rival studios and shows and reward you for really successful series.
Staff Skills
There’s been a place reserved in the game’s UI for these from the beginning, but we’ve been waiting to develop enough of the other systems to offer a meaningful array of things that skills can affect. A fair amount of design work has already been done on this although more is required before the first batch of staff skills appear in the game.
Story Arcs
This has also been in the UI from early in development but hasn’t been implemented yet. It’s intended to be one of the most important systems in the game so we want to make sure we get it right. The overall idea is that story arcs span multiple episodes, they are overarching plot threads which can run throughout a season or even continue across several. An example would be an investigation or mystery which is pursued across a season, where progress is often made in small increments in each episode. These story elements are often what hooks audiences and compels them to keep watching serialised shows, so story arcs will be very important in the game too!
Actor Contracts
Actors will have contracts for specified numbers of episodes or seasons, requiring you to plan ahead how long you might want them to appear in the show. This will also relate to the ability to fire actors from existing shows, which is understandably a popular request among players. The interaction between these two (e.g. what happens if you fire an actor who was still under contract?) is part of the delay in implementing firing actors, as well as the consideration of how that affects show interest depending on how popular the character was and also how well you lead up to them leaving in the show’s story.
Events
Random events will occur to present you with difficult decisions, for example the platform that your show is made for asks you to focus on specific episode stat types or to include the Love season theme in the current season of your show. Changes in the world, such as certain genres gaining prominence, may also happen over time. Actors that become particularly famous in your show may be tempted away to work on movies. Equipment may unexpectedly explode!
Show Locations & World
The key locations within the world of your show will appear many times and start to develop significance in themselves. Think of the iconic apartments, bars and coffee houses from great sitcoms or the ship bridges of science fiction classics. You’ll be able to define these locations and gain increasing benefits from them over time as they become almost like additional characters in themselves.
Tier 2 Studio
The art for a bunch of other room types is already done but unfortunately adding new rooms and layouts to the studio has proven to be one of the most labour intensive tasks in developing the game. There also isn’t much point adding more rooms without them having specific mechanics attached to them so those also need to be coded. Suffice it to say though that a larger studio and more room types are definitely planned…
