Do not get me wrong, for what it does RockRobin is an absolutely amazing and addicting band simulation game. But it has some serious flaws when it comes to how it handles the band management and sponsorships.

Most people reading this probably think I am going to complain about how much the labels take as a cut. And to an extent I see that huge cut as being insane. Yet I am not complaining about them since that is very real to life. 75% to a penny ante company like Piccolo or 95% to a front runner like the story mode company however is still a very painful cut for what 'seems' on the surface of the game to not really be much benefit.

The thing that makes going with a label in RockRobin insane and stupid however is that the game does not adequately put / show the limitations that are in place for indie bands. The limits for indie bands in real life is gig placements, marketing, limits of how popular / speed of popularity gains, along with the expenses inherent to maintaining a band on the road. It can take a real indie band decades to gain enough fame to make enough cd sales to balance out the lost income to their label's cut. Also there are usually real limits to the types of gigs an indie band can play at, whereas in RR it is entirely dependent upon popularity which seems to rise without any blocks or limits for an indie band. And there are never any times where you are unable to get a gig anywhere or have to make do with a place that is dangerous or demeaning to play at.

I do not even really like how Beau's cut in RR story mode was handled at the start. He gives you $500 and in exchange you lose thousands even in the first month and later on lose hundreds of thousands without on the surface seeming to be any benefits. It makes more sense if you think the only reason you're able to play at all those gigs is him behind the scenes working his magic, but that $500 a month budget seems absolutely ludicrous and useless since you can make more than that from one gig very early on. From the way it was worded I honestly wished I could fire him as a sponsor on day one. By the time I had 5 songs for a demo tape I was already 'somehow' making lots of money from my two gigs a weekend and some more from my 50% take of two singles cd sales. The moment the band was signed by the story mode label company I went from making enough cash from cd sales to pay for new instruments, to instantly making basically pennies to the dollar.

So when I played the open mode I deliberately stayed as an indie. As an indie by the time September came along I was making millions from cd sales each month end. Comparatively, as a label band in story mode the only real way I made money was through gigs alone really.

Now I am not saying that the label cuts are too high, because honestly it seems somewhat realistic. But there needs to be harder limitations in place on indie bands to make the jump onto labels something worth aspiring to. Total gigs and total cd sales need to be rarer as an indie. Expenses such as travel, lodging, equipment wear and tear / replacement, and reparations to businesses need to be harsher and more in your face. The only time I even ever really noticed such a bill was once during open mode in which Sebastian got the band a gig at a wealthy person's party. Robin was so happy "at all those zeros" in the original contract. Then after the fact had to pay an $18k penalty for damages yet somehow still slightly made even.

But that is the only time I can even really recall a penalty in the game. Well other than the random after gig-event that caused income loss due to rainstorms or drug raids and that was more a matter of not making as much as expected rather than having an unexpected expense. There were no broken down rides, no busted amps or instruments, no bills from motels, no gas bills, no fines from the police for causing a riot as an instigator, no lawsuits from crazed rival bands who think you using the same one word in your song is an infringement on their song, no paternity suits to band members, no long lost cousins or friends wanting freebies or handouts. It feels so very lacking in that sense. Saner, but lacking all the same. xD

I understand that as an independent game you just really do not have the time and effort which is needed to truly make the game more true to reality. However, without all those numerous checks and balances that label companies manage for their signed performers it ends up making the cuts just too huge / useless. It basically becomes a situation of "do I want to roleplay like a real band, or do I want to just get ahead and make money". It kind of hurts that you have to take such a huge cut just to immerse yourself in the role though.

The game started as a passion project in 2008 in my dorm room because I liked sim games and I thought musicians were sexy. This is honestly just a fun thing I am sharing.  Record labels were done over one weekend very late in development. :p

What's coming next - what I am literally working on right now - are "quests" that the labels give you every now and then. The purpose to getting a label will actually be very meta:  "Do you want more gameplay? Story? Well, then join a label!" That is always what I wanted to do, but never really got to it. Which is something you'll probably hear me say a lot. I will take heed and do more to make staying indie more miserable. Perhaps increasing Popularity decay, limiting venues, or raising costs even higher (Open Mode only). I plan on doing random, short events that require a choice from the player. These will compliment the new Band Tags feature, but they will of course have other penalties in terms of cash, popularity, etc. 

I consider the game incomplete and not in my ideal vision. I really wanted there to be a "go on tour" feature, to have a "find a gig" feature, to have better mini-games ... But it's been ten years! If I get to it, I'll be happy. :)

If I might make a possible solution suggestion that on the surface "seems like" an easy-ish fix? I used quotes around that since it may be easier said than done.

Have you considered gating the maximum available popularity to hard timed multiple tiered events, with a bypass for label-signed bands? In this manner you could both slow down overly fast progress, make the struggle to make it as an indie band seem more real / gritty, and make there be some real visible benefits for signing up with a big name label.

Also, to prevent the huge "in your face" loss of profits from signing up with a label after being independent, it might make sense to stall the ability to "Release Single" in story mode until after the Launch signing and in open mode until after X years have passed or actual label signup.

In its place you could maybe open up a new part of the band site that allows people to purchase special release cd's of the band from the site using songs that have been recorded but not cut to a single or album yet.  By doing this you wouldn't have to adjust the cd sales mechanics and could make a more realistic / slow buildup of sales revenues for early game indie bands.

Simultaneously might I suggest two extra after-gig random "reward" or "event" that increases the cash gains slightly or the popularity slightly depending on which of the two was triggered. The two new add-ons would be either selling a few recorded "demo" / "special release" cd's the band carried with them on hand to the event for extra funds, or gifting them out for extra popularity. 

You could even use that hand-out cd event as your gate event for popularity levels. Maybe one of the people who received a handout "just happened" to have a friend or relative who will the following week let the band play in the lowest tier stage currently locked out by the popularity block. This would be a tentative offer though. Any failure to appear or a bad show result would keep the lock on, but a good showing would permanently unlock that tier and raise the max popularity limit.

That was all my "easy" suggestions for fixing this issue. Now comes the more complicated ones. But I think their potential game values would really make a huge difference in both game replay ability and realism.

Have you considered making the available gigs to play at each weekend on a semi RNG luck / popularity / band quality system? Where the factors for determining whether a particular gig is available that day is the gig quality (ie far more likely for a club gig to be available than an arena stage), partly on the popularity of the band, partly on the average of the 4 band member's total fame (ignoring writing values or music values since those have less draw power for getting people to want the band to come play - even music values only make the actual gig a success or a failure but have a small bearing for drawing in crowds if not famous yet). By making it so a band can't reliably twice a week play at their top value stage week after week I believe it would add more realism, help slowdown out of control fund gains, and add replay ability.

Basically this extra gig rarity code would make it so early game bands would even find the starting gig to be a welcome gig rather than a sure thing - just like that next new bar gig is for any up and coming hopeful band. However, a mid to end game band would almost have it as a sure thing available if they didn't have any better choices that particular day - assuming they wouldn't want to just skip such a low tier stage. On days when the band had no gigs to play they could still using the recording studios or hang out or relax together or just train like weekdays so I do not feel this code would cause any harm to a band merely slow down the out of control popularity and money gains.