itch.io

Hi there. 

I'm a Kickstarter backer that only started playing the game over the weekend and after putting ~20 hours into the game, I have a lot of thoughts. Overall, I'm impressed and think you guys have a potentially great game on your hand. That said, I do have many suggestions to flesh the game out and I do know that some features are missing due to time constraints. I read through some of the above suggestions by other members and ended up with a list of other people's suggestions I agree with (with my own spin on them) as well as my own suggestions. Note that this ended up being so much longer than I anticipated that I split this into several sections, including minor QoL changes first and more general suggested gameplay features later.

General minor QoL changes I'd like to suggest

• Biggest QoL complaint/potential bug: when an idol is doing an automated task (let's say automated dancing lessons) and then you cancel the task (say, your idol is losing mental health and she needs to see a doctor asap), this cancels the automated task for the staff as a whole so you'll have to manually find the staff and then set him on automated again.
• There needs to be better QoL for looking at stamina per week, since it's a top 3 most important number to keep track of. That way, you can quickly know which members are underworked and which ones are overworked, since any idol that is overworked will almost inevitably spiral to depression + hiatus within a couple weeks and you need to know about it asap. On the other hand, I end up with many idols who aren't working at all that I need to know about so I can find them work.
  • I'd go as far as suggest making "stamina per week" on the same level as "physical stamina" and "mental stamina" honestly. Just make it appear next to them as a third number and make it easily viewable. As an example, when evaluating whether for a girl to take on an advertisement or a drama role, current stamina per week is critical and you have to hover and then right click and then manually add up how much commitment she currently has.
  • The "details" tab that gives you an overview of your group currently has something that says "Idols low on physical stamina: 19" should have the same for idols that are overworked (eg committing to 120+ stamina/week through contracts and shows and possibly the cafe combined). On a related note, it'll be nice if instead of just listing the number, it also lists the names.
  • When an idol is hosting a show and graduates, there should be a setting you can toggle for how to deal with it. I definitely had idols suddenly taking on a ton of extra work through shows and whatnot when another idol graduated and then went on mental hiatus before I even realized what was happening.
• Forgive me if I missed it, but is the information of when an idol joined the group displayed anywhere? This is definitely one of my biggest QoL requests and I think it should be fairly simple to implement. Also, I wish there's a way of viewing past election rankings to see how the group evolved over time.
• It's weird to me that any platonic, strictly business meeting is called a date and doubly so if the girl is underage. I'd prefer if you call it a "meeting" if flirtation level is below 2 and a "date" if its 2 or above.
• Staff training (you pay $$$ and they don't do work for a period of time but would come back ranked up in something) would be super useful, since I'm not sure how to max out both stats otherwise. Most staff are encouraged to specialize.
• The math for average recent earnings per week is wrong. I think you are dividing total career earnings by 4 or something? Average recent earnings ends up being sort of a nonsensical number now and instead you need to calculate "recent earnings" (presumably meaning how much earned last month). See below: 

Now onto the gameplay and feature suggestions. For me, the three biggest core issue right now are

1. Idols and especially songs don't hold much emotional weight. My long time center of 4 years graduated and it felt like a non-event. One day she was there and the next she's not. Even worse with songs. I've recorded maybe 200 singles and I can barely tell them apart, which dampens the immersion of the game. As an example, AKB48 has its signature members like Atsuko Maeda, etc that the public knows as well as general hits like Heavy Rotation and Koisuru Fortune Cookie as well as a "theme song" in Aitakatta, etc.  It would be nice after a playthrough to replicate this experience and come out remembering the key members and key songs that define the group.
2. The core gameplay loop of releasing singles and holding concerts as the main events you do over and over gets stale fast. I was releasing around 8-9 singles per year per group and around 5-6 concerts per year because the game encourages you to do that to play optimally (the cooldown is 1 month + there's the most prolific group reward). It's pretty nuts imagining a casual audience ever supporting a group with 8-9 singles per year and even a hardcore audience would be burnt out. Instead, the game should introduce albums, have a longer cooldown for singles (2 months) and an album-based promotional cycle that mixes up the gameplay loop.
3. In my opinion, trying to balance the game between being a more realistic economic sim and a dating sim ends up detracting from both. As a dating sim, it's totally arbitrary which girls are datable and I don't really get how flirting works since it's total luck. To maintain balance for a female protagonist, a ton of girls are like lesbian/bisexual or something and it ends up feeling like half the girls in my group are in a giant lesbian orgy, which just seems fetishy and unrealistic when played as a realistic, economic sim. I'd suggest splitting them into two separate modes to keep both sides happy. 

My suggested features for how to deal with these core gameplay issues (especially 1 and 2):

• Promotional cycle.  Right now, the game's optimally designed to be played by spamming singles and concerts (there's a cooldown of a month), which is unrealistic and devalues the worth of each single. Then after a single is released, it's immediately forgotten, since it seemingly only sells copies on launch date and there's no incentive to promote it. My suggestions for an alternative system:
  • Introduce the concept of albums, which at its simplest can be a collection of singles (maybe 4+ singles) and could also include non-singles songs. It's important to strategically choose each song that makes up an album and they can get specific themes that tie the whole album together.
  • Revamp the system by increasing the cooldown between singles to at least 2 months.
    • One possibility is releasing double sided singles with an A-side and B-side, which is how most singles are traditionally released.
  • It's 2021, so I think it's worth making streaming revenue a more integral part of sales.
  • How well a single sells and streams depend on how much promotion it receives and how well an album sells depends on how much promotion the  main singles collectively get.
• You can promote a single/album through the following means:
  • Hosting fan events. 
    • Promoting them at concerts. You should be encouraged to play your latest single at concerts.
    • Promoting them at cafe/shows/theatre. If there's an option to set what songs gets played, you should be promoting there at any of your venues.
    • Handshake events. Each single/album contains tickets to a later handshake event. Already in the game, but could be fleshed out as a separate event where you can choose which members participate (popular members will be more in demand, but you might want to conserve their stamina).
    • Meet-and-greet. Similar to handshake events. Event where you buy a single/album directly from the band.
  • Promoting them at invited events and gigs. Like a mini-concert, except you are invited to perform 2 songs at someone else's venue for a fixed fee, with each venue would differ by genre and demographic preference and some are in foreign countries. You'd be encouraged to think strategically on what you want to play and you don't have to play new singles. Some examples:
    • Variety shows. Bread and butter of song promotion in Japan. Each would have a different target demographic (teen, young-adult, adult).
      
    • Music shows. Similar to variety shows. Each would have a different target demographic (teen, young-adult, adult).
    • Music festivals. Each music festival has a different genre (metal, pop, R&B, rock, etc).
    • Nerd conventions. Hardcore song appeal. 
    • Natural disaster relief concerts. Doesn't pay, but you can gain higher opinion among the public along with lots of fans and erase scandal points.
    • Idol Award Show. If you win or are nominated at the end of the year idol award show, it only makes sense that they would invite your group to perform.
    • Kohaku Uta Gassen. Annual NHK event that is the most prestigious concert show in Japan and draws the highest rating across all TV for the entire year. Being invited to perform there is a sign that an artist has "made it". The show pits the biggest male acts against the biggest female acts and there's a "winner" at the very end, which makes it perfect for Idol Manager. 
  • Theme songs. This is sort of like your office manager finding work in the wider industry for your idols, but instead of idols, you look to promote your singles. For example, a new TV drama or an anime is looking for an opening theme and might use your single if it matches the demographics they targeting. If a drama or anime blows up, your single could potentially blow up with it. Eg look at Gurenge by LiSA, which is one of the biggest songs in Japan right now thanks to Demon Slayer becoming the biggest thing ever.
    • A moe anime would want a more hardcore-oriented song.
    • A prime time TV drama would want a more casual-oriented appeal.
  • PVs. I think a PV should be its own thing, since it's so critical to a single's success. Heavy Rotation's PV was infamous and drew a ton of controversy and media attention, which led the songs making headlines. 
    • Film studios. A suggestion for a new building with an acting coach that can be used to do 2 things:
      • Teaching acting, like how singing and dancing coaches teaches those skills respectively
      • Used to film PVs for your singles. The PVs will have a bunch of styles like lewd, horror, etc that are currently tied to marketing and it's reception can depend on how good the acting abilities of the girls are. If it's too cheesy and weird, it could harm reception.
    • Acting would be its own skill for shooting PVs and also affects the following:
      • How much they are paid and gain fans on variety shows and TV dramas
      • How well they do in theatre or TV shows you launch
      • How much hype they build during talk breaks during concerts.
• Cultural, lasting impact of your songs/albums. The opposite of a promotional period of playing new singles is playing the old fan favorites that your fanbase and the general public wishes to hear you perform over and over. These are the songs considered "iconic" like AKB48's Heavy Rotation for example. Sales (especially initial sales) are a bad metric of popularity thanks to handshake events and other gimmicks. Heavy Rotation is outsold by Teacher Teacher, but it's obvious which one is AKB48's more iconic and popular song. Some suggestions:
  • Streaming charts (or alternatively, radio/karaoke charts). A chart of your most streamed songs would be super useful and give you a sense of what your group's signature songs are. I notice that streaming's apparently already in the game in the form of royalty revenue, so it would be nice to see how much each song contributes to streaming. 
    • The long term streaming appeal depends a lot on how much it was originally promoted, the long term popularity of the original center, as well as the current trends in taste.
    • In the same way that songs with hardcore appeal are more likely to sell handshake tickets, songs with casual appeal are more likely to do better in streaming/radio/karaoke.
  • Song/album of the year. Just like the idol awards, it'll be cool to have your songs and albums win awards, which can give it a boost in sales, streaming and lasting value.
    
  • Signature songs. 
    • Any song that became wildly popular when it was new. Eg Heavy Rotation by AKB48.
    • Any songs attached to a popular TV drama/anime. Eg Too many examples. Gurenge by LiSA (Demon Slayer) as I mentioned earlier.
    • Any songs attached to a specific idol that's gotten popular. Eg Koisuru Fortune Cookie for Rino Sashihara.
    • Your idol group's "theme" song that you play for the group's TV shows. Eg Aitakatta is a very good AKB48 example.
    • Graduation song. A song tied to graduation concerts like Sakura no Hanabiratachi by AKB48.
  • Songs with deeper and more meaningful lyrics. Generally songs that have deeper and more meaningful lyrics have a better chance of remembered long-term than some party songs. These songs might not sell as well as party songs initially, but they can pick up awards and have longer memorability. Eg 365 Nichi no Kamihikouki by AKB48.
• Specializing concerts. Right now, each concert is fairly similar and you can get away with programming almost every concert with the same music and still make a lot of money. I think by specializing concerts, you can make them more unique with more effort to design each concert.
  • Graduation concerts. When a key member (like voted top 5 in the election) and especially a center graduates, it should be a major event and the game should give you the option of holding a graduation concert. Gameplay-wise, the graduation concert should be more expensive to produce but have increased ticket sales determined by the members popularity. You should be encouraged to select songs that were centered by the graduated member as well as those that hold emotional value (her first song with the group, her first center, etc) and the concert ends with her and/or her closest friends giving a short speech of their time in the group as well as a montage of her evolution/history/stat changes with the group.
  • Anniversary concerts. Every 5 years or so, you can stage an anniversary concert. It'll be a like a normal concert but with an emphasis on older, classic songs and the option of inviting graduated members back.
  • Charity concerts. Concert for charity, where you don't make much money. Instead, gain good public PR and reduce your scandal points, gain fans and increase public opinion towards your group and the idols.
  • Seasonal concerts. For example, a Christmas concert or a summer beach concert, with music to capture the theme.
  • Request hour. Elections for songs. Fans can submit what songs they want to hear.
    
  • Encore. It'll be cool to designate a song as the "encore" that provides 2x hype.  Usually some sort of classic recognizable theme.
• Better QoL with idol's history and graduated idols. I feel like this is more an extended QoL update I mentioned but could add so more life to these girls. I wish:
  • Like I said earlier, would greatly appreciate if we can see the date when a girl joins the group and maybe their initial stats (to see how far she's come). 
  • Each girl having a "favorite song" that they like to perform (most likely one where they are a center or holds an important position).
  • "Snapshots" of what the group looks like at the start of every year to see how the members evolve.  Sometimes I get nostalgic and want to remember what the group looked like when they started off.
  • Graduated idols retain their profile and their picture (I don't get why these are removed). I have trouble with the names and I often forget just who these girls are. 
  • It'll also be really cool if we can invite graduated girls back for special anniversary related events (Lots of idol groups do this). 
• Solo and sub-units. Similar to sister groups, but solo debuts and sub-units within an idol group.
• Other ideas for big events
  • "Battle of the bands". Some kind of competition between various idol groups could be cool, where you have to do specific tasks or release specific songs or give specific performances to win. 
  • Audition competition shows. This is like auditions combined with the spectacle of TV.  This would cost money and effort to stage, but it will also draw in fans and the winners will be a guaranteed "gold idols" that starts of with multiple stars of fame and a built in fanbase.
  • Janken tournament. Similar to AKB48's famous rock-paper-scissors tournament.
• Assistant producer/dedicated lyricist. I know you are trying to channel Akimoto, but it's kind of weird for the producer to be spending most of his time writing lyrics. Either having an assistant producer that can do everything the producer can do outside of socializing with the girls or having a dedicated lyricist that's hired entirely to write lyrics.
• Merchandise. You should be able to launch specific merchandise related to your idol group for an additional revenue stream
  • Dating sims. AKB48 actually launched several of these for hardcore fans and the girls had to go to the studio to film specific scenes so they were fairly serious projects.
  • Manga/anime. I think AKB48 had a couple mangas like AKB49 that were serialized in popular magazines as well as the AKB0048 anime that featured the full cast.
  • Mobile games and apps. Again, for hardcore fans.
  • Clothing (t-shirts, caps, etc). Pretty general appeal overall.

Ok, this list went on way too long, but those are some ideas I can think of to flesh out the game. Keep up the good work!