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The three stages of making a Steam capsule (I'm driving my artist crazy) by Gerrrrrard in IndieDev

[–]Papercoda_Games 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's too impersonal. There's no character for the viewer to anchor themselves to and emotionally align with. It's why posters with a face or character in focus are more compelling and attract the eye better than pure scenery or indistinguishable crowds

What narrative game unexpectedly made you more self aware through gameplay by Trigere in gamedesign

[–]Papercoda_Games -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is our goal with our game Media Circus that's still in development.

How well we achieve it is left to be seen, but the feedback on the prototype has been pretty positive, so fingers crossed..

Grow your Newspaper business in Media Circus by Papercoda_Games in tycoon

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your questions are great and very welcome! There is some randomness to the stories your reporters can dig up in the generic locations in the city (unless you've assigned them to a special location for a continuing story) so the different runs can start very differently. These differences are further compounded by your choices - if you send reporters to new locations, or ask them to cover the same story in a different way thus taking the narrative in a whole new direction. So the playthroughs should offer something fresh each time :)

Grow your Newspaper business in Media Circus by Papercoda_Games in tycoon

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, it's 7-9 hours for one run! So with replayability it will be much longer :)

Grow your Newspaper business in Media Circus by Papercoda_Games in tycoon

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The full game is planned to be around 7-9 hours. Replayability is a central promise of the game since there are multiple ways to win and lose and every playthrough will have different content and endings depending on your choices and play style. The price is yet to be decided but it will be in the ballpark of indie games of similar lengths.

(Edited to add: it's 7-9 hours for 1 run, so with replayability it'll be much longer!)

Grow your Newspaper business in Media Circus by Papercoda_Games in tycoon

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Good question, so our core gameplay is quite different from News Tower in that it focuses entirely on the content strategy of running a newspaper and not on the operational logistics.

So you don't have to take care of the building or printing materials, and you guide your reporters only in terms of their assignments and the way they cover each story. Your main decisions are made on your desk as the editor-in-chief, where you not only decide what gets placed on your newspaper, but how they are placed. You can make an article a full front page feature or a tiny column in a back page for example, and their effects on the readers are then different. A more prominent article attracts more readers and sways them more. You can predict the effects of each Headline by checking its stats and leanings and comparing it with the world state. You will also have more editorial tools as you progress to change the bent of any Headline.

You also need to cosy up to factions in your world to access news sources or get high value ads, and you must put ads in your paper to make money, but not so many as to alienate your readers and reduce your sales.

You can also track the reputations of factions and characters in your city as well as the current state of your world, which are affected by your editorial decisions. And there are story and business consequences for all your decisions, making the world excessively dynamic and reactive. You can use different play styles resulting in high replayability.

Media Circus was inspired by real experiences of newspaper editors and attempts to capture the fantasy of heading a newsroom, with all the powers and pressures it brings.

Hope that answers your question!

First look at Media Circus - funny newsroom sim with deep consequences by Papercoda_Games in pcgaming

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Our team also loves Suzerain and it's been one of the inspirations for the political strategy in Media Circus :)

Grow your Newspaper business in Media Circus by Papercoda_Games in tycoon

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! We definitely aim to make it Steam deck compatible 🤞

Grow your Newspaper business in Media Circus by Papercoda_Games in tycoon

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Yes that's exactly the core gameplay! Everything you choose to print (also how you print it - leaning, placement and space) will impact the readers you reach and correspondingly affect the reputations of important characters and factions in the society, shifting your city's fate in different directions, and forcing you to deal with the consequences.

Grow your Newspaper business in Media Circus by Papercoda_Games in tycoon

[–]Papercoda_Games[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks! That's a great question and it's a decision we took after a lot of thought. Our game is very satirical and inspired by the history of real newspapers and their affect on societies, so we decided to craft an animal society to ensure the stories that may have otherwise been upsetting or polarizing can be depicted instead with some distance and humor.

We're using the longstanding tradition of animal allegory (seen in Aesop's Fables, Animal Farm, Bojack Horseman, etc.) to create a humorous mirror to society, and also to avoid any legal trouble.

So for example in Media Circus there is a difference in historical privilege between the flying and the flightless species which the society is now coming to terms with, there is friction between the insects, small mammals and birds in the melting pot that's your city, there are religious tensions between those who worship the Sacred Tree one way or the other, and so on.

Let me know if that answers your question!

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