From my experience I have to disagree on the game being too difficult in the early stages: on this latest update I’ve gotten out of debt faster than I ever have, and with fewer singles (6 months and 5 singles). Started with staffed Manager office, 2 offices, dance and recording studio, spammed performances and did digital releases, had the office workers working on photoshoots and then switched one to advertisements as soon as they were available. Took out max loan from Fujimoto over 6 months to build a break room. I dipped into the red essentially every Monday with a 200k loss each week but I had a lot of high cute-stat idols and set my preferred deals to cute so I’d have have at least a couple of windfalls each week. Debt was always manageable in the 5digit range at this point. Digital singles also started making about 100k+ each release with the third single. Now I’m working on my first concert and first physical release with 1500000 in the bank, and it’s the fastest I’ve ever gotten to this point. What strategies are others using to start the game?

so I’ve gotten to the first awards show: It was extremely well done, the hosts’ conversations and jokes were very funny and I read through all of them, the speeches were also nice. The hosts have a good character dynamic, but the only issue I saw is I think the hosts’ names were occasionally swapped? (ie one host would get addressed with a Ms. prefix but then the host had a masculine given name/the character with a masculine given name had dialogue the female character would probably say “Soandso would probably enjoy this Gravure Idol” etc.) Maybe speech bubbles or portraits or a small animation would help clear up which host is which? Anyways I hope the hosts have a lot more conversations I didn’t see!

Also when my idol won an award and thanked one of the staffers, and then that staffer the next day thanked me for hiring them and talked about how their mom saw them get recognized: that was a great moment, and I hope the final game might have lots of moments like these.

In my opinion, the thing that makes it hard in early game is that there is very few and very particular starting strategies just to not fail, let alone succeed (must have x number of offices, must research this first, must work your idols to the ground without any salary increase etc) This is like chess but any play that doesn't start with the Queen's pawn moving exactly 1 step and then the King's knight to the space in front of the Rook's pawn (or something) is doomed to fail. It discourages exploration and experimentation at the very start of the game, making players hesitant to do any later on, even when they do have the money.

One starting move to not fail, all others are dead ends. That's not a game. That's a visual novel.

I suggest something like a safety net, a once-in-a-playthrough cash infusion the first time you touch negative balance. Most (every?) Kairosoft games, for example, have a sort of "oh, you're in the negative, here's some money to get you back up, but this is only once" kind of deal. Maybe the landowner decides to invest another 1M into the group. Maybe you bought a winning lottery ticket. Maybe you get some inheritance from a dead uncle.

Also I'd love to have some faster way to tell idol's relationships to you. Maybe a "Sort by influence" button or something? It's hard for me to use the socializing aspect because I don't feel like individually clicking through everyone's profile to see who I have high influence with, even though I KNOW I have high influence with some of them.

Had an single/concert/election cycle conclude at the start of July before the awards: game froze upon loading awards sequence. Loaded the autosave which was 15 minutes ago (despite setting mine to 60 seconds.). Landed after the single release but before the concert: concert never triggered after that, and therefore no election either.

Posting here to add that this is the second time this election bug has happened to me, and like I suggested last time, I really think the player should just trigger the concert+election themselves rather than trusting the game to do it so this bug is avoided entirely, it really quashes any enjoyment to play anymore when it happens since you lose progress and you're penalized in game for cancelling the election.

It would be very handy to be able to sort the idols by Friendship and Influence.

Maybe this is just me but I think it might be nice to have a few random happy events amongst all the chaotic cults, sweaty handshakes, misprinted CD's and everything else that goes down lol. 

Like "An elementary schooler recognized (idol) in the street and gave her her favorite teddy bear, (idol's) training is multiplied by 1.5 for 1 week" or something. I love the drama but a little wholesomeness might be nice too ;) 

I just bought the game and already had my first misstep, when the audition finished I didn't select any idols there should probably be a warning popup if you didn't  select anyone or closing the window shouldn't be possible until you revealed all/one of the idols.

Personally, I would like a way to lock the scrollbar at the side. Pretty much every time I move my mouse to the bottom to click one of the buttons down there, I accidentally scroll down on the building. It would be nice to have a way to lock the scrollbar so that it would just stay centered on the building where I have my rooms built instead of having to adjust it constantly.

A few suggestions and some feedback: 

- I think it would be interesting if idols came directly to you more often if they felt unhappy or bothered. Maybe they want less work, maybe they want a raise, maybe they don't feel like practicing anymore, or maybe they don't like one of the group's policies. It'd be a good way to know what your idols are thinking. I just had an idol graduate less than a year after joining the group, at the age of 18, and maybe things could've gone differently if she had told me she was unhappy about her salary.

- 'Unfair' difficulty didn't seem to do anything. I actually had an even easier time making money this time, and didn't even have to get a loan from Fujimoto. Within the 1st in-game year, I was already sitting on tons of millions of yen (thanks to photoshoots and negotiations at first, then a few successful singles). Didn't even need to build a cafe to thrive.  Other than saying "Nerf everything, make us suffer, we like pain, misery and bankruptcy", I'd suggest specifically slowing down the rate at which your staff levels up their skills (in order to force players to spend more money hiring new staff members if they wanna grow faster), or maybe even cap their skill development. For example: if the player hires a 'Beginner' manager with 2* contract skills, that manager can only develop their contract skills up to 5*. The player will, then, be forced to hire a better manager if they wanna get better contracts, and will either have to fire the 'Beginner' level manager, or keep paying her salary. And, speaking of staff salaries, they should be higher in the 'Unfair' difficulty, since they're not dynamic like the idols'. Just to make things more fun :)

The newest update sounds positively bonkers and is probably the biggest package of changes/additions you've made in an update, I'm beyond impressed just reading about it..... Huge kudos for all the work that surely went into it. Starting it rn!

Hm, after a couple of hours of play, here are some small changes I could see:

On the sister groups screen where you can allocate the formation points (cute, cool, sexy, etc.) it'd be helpful if there was a way to undo an addition: I didnt know what was happening at first and accidentally sorted one of my points, and there's no way to undo it. A "cancel" option so you can leave that screen without saving if you make a mistake would be nice.

More designation between groups would be a godsend:

1) In the production/released tabs: I was working on two groups' singles simultaneously and they look identical, perhaps you could chose a color when you make the group too, and all their associated "tabs" retain that color for distinction's sake?

2) On the girls' job sections, maybe it could take a page from Stage48 and list singles like this:

Akizaka46

Give Me Six

Sounds Great

Tartan Plaid

Sakazaka46

White Goat

instead of just having all the titles one after one another chronologically?  (As in, Give Me Six releases on July 2018, Sounds Good on Aug 2018, but the idol participated in the sister groups' White Goat on Sept 2018, and then the full group's Tartan Plaid again on October 2018. Instead of WG following Sounds Good, it's separated to indicate which group the song came from.)

3) Following that, the tooltip for formations on the released single tab already looked a little cramped with how it tried to represent positions with written names, but now that there are sister groups I think it would be helpful if it showed maybe a list, rather than a comma-separated paragraph, split by group, and then displayed the formation when you clicked on the single's "card". The different groups' singles being tabbed separately instead of all being listed chronologically would also help!

Finally this is kind of a bug, but during the single formation screen, it will wipe your formation if you switch the group tab. The main group tab also retains all your hires across all groups, not sure if that's on purpose.

Thanks for reading! Still got lots to play, lol

OK so a bigger change suggestion I have regarding sister groups is that stamina-draining marketing choices like handshakes, 2 shot etc shouldn't affect girls outside of that group when it comes to their single release. I think a potential advantage of the sister groups is that you can rotate through their releases while another group rests up but with all their marketing tied together it kind of neutralizes this positive.

Update 13 Review/Impressions

I think this is the best update and brings Idol Manager a huge step closer to feeling like a fully-fleshed/realized game! I'll talk about why I like it, where I could see the elements in it going and where I think the rest of Idol Manager could be filled in.

Scandals

I like the utility of scandal points now, as they kinda just sat there before. There's reasons to want to get rid of them before your next single, now. I got a real shock when I tried to fire a staff worth 3 points and got an event!

Sister Groups

I like so many parts: how they interact with the clique/relationship system, how you decide which group they appeal to and how the formation stats per single factor into how well they appeal, etc. Regarding  the appeal, I like how it diversifies the types of idols you have due to the fanbases supporting idols of different groups: For example, I've never had an idol with a majority casual fans until I started a sister group targeting casuals, leading to an interesting scenario where despite one idol of that sister group having the most fans of any idol in all groups, she placed 6th in the election because the single was bought mostly by hardcore fans.

I feel like it's improved the longevity of a playthrough, as when you run out of things to do with your main group, you can just start a sister group and try building them up. But it's not exactly the same playthrough as you've got to juggle twice the amount of activities, leading to more engagement.

Where Sister Groups Could Go

I like the changes done to the game to integrate them (Like sales being affected by fans of idols in the single), and even wish some of them applied to the main group (Like being able to "upgrade" your appeal based off the stats of the songs, which would give leveling up stats a bit more importance.). I think some additions/tweak could be:

1) Aesthetic Differentiation

Like I've said above, aesthetic/UI-wise, some things look too similar when you want to focus on one sister group. I think something simple like picking a color for your new sister group, and then EVERY piece of info having to do with them carrying on that aesthetic would be very helpful.  Their singles' tabs, member profiles/portraits, etc.

UI-wise, things like organizing their singles on separate pages from every other group, their singles separately from the main group's in the jobs section, the compact view still respecting sister group division, etc...

2) Tools catered to their addition

Things like being able to audition idols directly into a sister group instead of having to bring them from the main group after hiring them, being able to assign workers/coaches/stylists to auto-train within/find contracts for a specific group instead of the whole franchise...

3) Separate concerts/media

Being able to create sister group-specific shows (this mostly pertains to the "random" and full-group cast options) instead of drawing from the whole franchise, and more importantly,  separate concerts where sister groups can have their own concert with a setlist drawn from their singles.

Possible Additions/Changes for the Whole Game

What I think the sister groups do well is that they add additional "cogs" to your idol machine and keep you on your toes trying to manage them. I think features that add these types of moving parts would help increase the longevity of a playthrough. Going from small-ish/subtler ideas to big ones:

Measures of success

Just some fun stats, perhaps some screen showing the fandom growth+sales growth of each group over time, showing the fan growth of individual girls over time, etc. The latter might be especially useful for deciding which girls you want to pay attention to, especially when you might miss the fan growth of girls who are doing dramas/shows but aren't in singles if you aren't checking on them.

Bigger formations/double center recognition

Now that sister groups are a thing, I'd love to be able to bring different demographics from different groups to the main singles, but 15 is a little small for this purpose. Hoping to see this number increase in the future!

More genres/subgenees, ability to tell what's trending

Already know I mentioned this, but I think diversifying some of the appeal combos would be interesting and helpful in single creation.

Idol personalities

Maybe idols can have likes and dislikes? They naturally like certain genres/dance styles/lyrics and will get a boost if they're on a song within that genre, or a hit if it's a style they don't like. Maybe some like being toward the front and others get anxiety being in the spotlight. Maybe an idol doesn't like doing cute/sexy jobs and will ask you to not give her those types of deals.

Achievements

Just some completionist goals, like "Release 48 singles", "sell 1 million copies", "have 100 idols at once", "create 10 groups",  "unlock every genre", etc, and lots of them!

Deepening mechanics

Perhaps this would be something only in Normal/Unfair difficulty, but I could see certain mechanics expanded on to provide some challenge: I read up some of the earlier promotion for the game, and I thought one of the interesting concepts was that your group would have relationships with specific business that give out contracts. This could be interesting in where business might return to offer better offers to you upon completion of a successful contract, or might blacklist you/a specific idol for sometime if you break a contract/get in a scandal. Maybe the fame system, which kind of comes off as defunct since buzz is gone and also lacked a function, could be tied into this, where when idols exceed a certain tier of fame, they gain access to a new, higher-quality tier of sponsors/businesses? 

The individual handshake, while super helpful for increasing sales, is too overpowered right now imo. The more idols you have, the crazier its bonus gets (I have 3 groups and get a 1000%+ bonus now that i've upgraded it a few times, so it does result in a runaway effect the longer you play.) Maybe a way it can be balanced is by tying it to fame and having some additional depth to it? For example, right now essentially each idol adds the same flat percentage, they contribute the same amount of fan sales. Instead maybe it could be based off the handshake slot system? Each girl is assigned a number of spots, and when they're sold, more can't be bought. If they don't sell out, it's not counted as a sale. This sort of scenario:

Individual Handshake has +10% hardcore appeal per idol (in a best case scenario)

You have five idols, resulting in a best case of 50%. Each idol gets 2 slots consisting of 5%, and they're evenly split between them all by default. You go with the default, but due to a couple of your idols being new/unpopular, you only get a ~30% boost rather than a full 50% (Because realistically no one's gonna go for a handshake with someone unknown, right?) But perhaps your most popular idol has more fans/demand than 2 slots would allow: you can take slots from the girls who won't fill up all their slots and give them to her, boosting you to 50 anyways, at the cost of her stamina being drained more.  Inversely, maybe your most popular girl is working on a lot of contracts right now and you want her to conserve her stamina, so you have her sit out the handshake by distributing her slots to other girls who can take them on. The girls spend a bit more stamina, but gain more fans than they might have before, you sell the same amount of handshakes, and your original idol isn't in danger of injury. This is just an idea I had that hits on the management aspect of the game (And I've always wanted an option to allow idols to opt-out of handshakes).

Music videos+albums

Like I wrote in a previous post, I think this is a natural inclusion for the game someday down the line, where the PVs might have their own genres that benefit the song they're associated with, and where you can work on multiple songs at once and tie them together to a single/EP/album that's more effective (but more expensive) than a single song. These would also give you a way to include all your idols and have them gain fans, even if they aren't quite ready to be on an A-side. These b-sides could also be used for concerts and help fulfill those center wishes.

More special events

Kind of anti-climactic for a final idea, but I'd love to see a Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament event be included in the game! Just gimmicky and fun, maybe with you being able to watch the randomized matches in real-time. 

------

This really does feel like the strongest update so far, I'm definitely going to be playing it for a while. Thank you for taking everyone's suggestions and feedback into consideration, because you can really feel the game getting stronger with each update!

here's some ideas i have! also, i already am in love with the game.

- can we have a survival show? where instead of auditions, we can have a reality show where we look for a new trainee or trainees (new generation?) and fans can vote for their favorite trainee (and eliminate their least favorites). we can also rig the shows by purposely editing a trainee terribly or changing the winner / lineup overall. rigging is also a bit scandalous, because the company can be exposed for this.

survival shows can help the group grow in popularity. some trainees that can join the survival shows can be popular ex members of a group, actresses, models, social media inferencer, or even an average person.  

- reunion concerts. i honestly want to do more with the graduated idols. maybe we can do a once a year concert with former members.

this can make old fans who left the group after said idol graduated return to the group.

- music videos. that's it.

- siblings in the group.

- male idols / groups!

- scandals in shows

- more idols walking to you with problems. 

- employees being abusive with power storyline!

Hello

Could you add new random names from the Sakamichi series also？

And is there a tag for all the result of past elections in the game？I love data！

I'll admit, I am a complete noob when it comes to the world of j-pop and k-pop, and, while I may be a newcomer, there's a rather basic aspect of the whole talent agency culture they have that isn't fully portrayed in Idol Manager, though it'd probably be relatively easy to implement. We can name our character, group and sister groups, come up with songs and shows with unique titles, and even give our idols and employees nicknames. So much naming left and right... but how come we can't give our own agency a name? I personally feel like that would add, even if superficially, a new layer of personalization and identity creation to the game. Hell, if you let us name our company and give us some 5 preset logos to choose from, we'll loudly and proudly call that agency our own. Of course that could be expanded upon with more dialogues and events focused on agencies, in addition to the ones focused on groups and idols, but just being able to give our own company a name would already be something meaningful.

I think it'd be cool to add heights to each girl. Either just having one height a girl is during her whole time as an idol or maybe over time some girls could get taller if they were added when they were younger. 

Male idols!!!!

I tried it days ago and after hours of play, I think there's so many aspects that could be improved. I don't know if anyone already shared the same ideas, but here are mine:

- I think the relationship system has so many possibilities, not only between the producer (us) and the idol, but also between idols. For example, if Idol A has a good relationship with Idol B, when the producer does something unfair to one of them, another's relationship (or influence) with the producer will decrease, and the same thing happens if the producer does a good deed to one them. If Idol A and B has a sour relationship, the relationship (influence) will increase to one idol when the producer does something unfair to the other. Also, it's no secret that many otaku likes to see the group they like has a great chemistry with each other. It'll be great if the producer can persuade two members to appear intimate with each other and push them to please the fans, thus raising number of fans and generate more kaching.

- Merchandises. Selling CD is one of the main business of idols, but merchandises is one of the most profitable source of income for group with less members. We can buy the merchandises and sell them in concerts. I think K*irosoft's M*rch to M*llion has a good implementation of this.

- Last, but the most important thing in the industry is recording label. In reality, it's impossible to have self-produced and self-distributed CD to have one million sales. That's why recording label is important. Producer (or manager) may send proposals to recording labels in order to get time-limited contract, which can be renewed. Or if you're great enough for independent idol, proposals from recording label will arrive to you. The advantage of having a contract with recording label is they will set you a fixed budget, thus cutting some amount the expense for releasing CD. Also, it'll be awesome if label allows us to use music producer with high skills outside management and specialized in one genre for a price, resulting in a better music to cater casual audiences. Still, the advantages we get from having a contract with recording label has a high price. The way to renew the contract is by meeting certain sales and completing tasks from the label (the same way if we want to lend money from Fujimoto), and fail to do so means our contract may not be renewed. Recording label is kind of sensitive with public image too, so having too many scandal points will likely be resulted in contract termination.

Due to language barrier, my explanation isn't so detailed, I'm sorry. Hope you can put it to consideration! 

Hello.

I'm new here, but I have lots of ideas for this great game.

First one is the Singles chart.

The only reason we are interested in the data is the relationship. Maybe having the real rival teams is cool, but it means nothing just for the simulation names.
For example, how many players will glance the singles chart even when they don't produce a single in the month?
I won't, because it makes no difference to me. The rival teams are not existing. They are only series of simulation names, even the names change every month.

Instead of the original singles chart, how about focusing on the player's prodution data.
Here is the format of oricon single weekly ranking:

(Statistics Date/ Week/ Rank/ Weekly Sales/ Cumulative Sales)

For now, we released a single, and get the simplified result. How about making it more real? Not just an eventually result, but a continuity process.
Refer to the media system, we can check up the data of single sales every week, and get the profit every week.
Make a deadline for the sales, such as the fatigue of media, maybe depends on the appeal ect.

I think the continuity process always makes players excited.

Hello.

This might be difficult to change, but I think it's worth to try. :p

Experience system

Every idol gets the level cap. For example, normal idol's cap is 20, silver is 25, golden is 30, and platinum is 35. When the level is up, every attribute of idol will promote automatically. Maybe also gift some points for players to add on freely. To go a step further, we can get points to redeem the trait or cancel the negative trait.

Every idol has a random initial value, and starts with level 1. They get exp from all kinds of activities and level up with enough exp. For now, an idol can only promote their attribute by practicing in the recording studio/dance room. It's inefficiency and making no sense. For example, an idol should get better exp from the concert than the studio. All the activities should offer different exp to the idol. Photoshoot, advertisement, drama, variety show, performance, promotion ect, you know what I mean.

I've played this game over 10 rounds. Everytime I got bored with making lots of money. Yes, I can build my best group with the best idols from the nationwide auditions. Let's say, they are "platinum" idols. Do you get the point? I love my idols from the start. They don't own the great attribute, and most of them are the "normal" idol. For the currently system, it's difficult to promote their attribute to the average value. So usually the ordinary strategy is: pick the normal idols in the beginning, make enouth money, pick the platinum idols. It's like putting the cart before the horse. I think the word "produce" means you train the idols and make them better.
The experience system will make idols better, and make the "old" normal idols more useful.

Thanks for reading.

After reading through parousie's ideas, they hit on two things I'm interested in as well: Recurrency/continuous single sales. As is you release the single, and whatever it sells first week is its "total lifetime sales". I'm also interested in seeing singles continue to sell beyond their release week like actual singles in their example. It'd be an extra source of income, and could add some more decision making: Maybe an old single might sell more when its genre/dance/lyric style is trending? Maybe new genres and marketing styles could be introduced that improve longevity of single sales, or trade-off debut sales for increased sales over time. Could make copy production more involved too: You produce 300000 copies of a single, take a bit of a loss and sell 215000 singles 1st week, BUT those 85000 leftover copies can be bought over time, and you'll continue to see sales if your single had the right genre/marketing choices. On the other hand you might lowball how many copies you needed, and sell all 300000 the first week or very early on, now you can't take advantage of your song exceeding expectations and possibly selling another 50000 copies in the next few weeks, had you made that many.

Also agreed on how the game does sorta encourage you to only work with platinum idols (The new awards benefit for Best Employer pretty much ensure you'll mostly get silver/gold/plat idols), when normal ones mostly build the foundation for your company, and are the ones you attach to first and most strongly. Your highest earners and first centers are most likely normal idols, but they're objectively worse than most idols you'll draw after your first in-game year. I wish there was A) a way to disable special idols and B) following that, a way to rebalance regular idols to have strengths somewhat level to the special ones.

So I just downloaded the game after eyeballing it for a while and I have to say, I've had a really fun time with it! I'm actually not usually that into business sims, but IM has been really fun so far. I'm still getting the hang of the game, and I had a thought for something I think would really improve the early game experience.

I think it would be great if you had more input in the audition system! Or at least your very first one, since those initial idols are going to carry you until you start learning the ropes. A boost to rarer idol drop rates for that initial audition could be a good idea, but I think something that would be really cool is letting you select what attributes you want to focus on for an audition. Want to make a cool-themed idol group? Audition for cool girls! Need some good dancers? Audition for girls with 'dance' as their highest attribute!

Having more agency (huehuehue) over the types of idols you get rather than just hoping and praying you get lucky would be really useful. I also think something like an optional tutorial to walk the player through the process of getting to release their first single would be great, just to make the game more friendly to newcomers.

plastic surgery-can change Idol's appearance, Idol need a certain time of hibernation after the plastic surgery. there should be a look that only can be selected by plastic surgery option, however, there is a little chance to be changed to a funny face that the user did not select.

Hello.

Could you please add another "Auto Proposals" menu for idols version?
Refer to the "Preferred Proposals" of office manager, we can click on any preferred bussiness proposals(or none) for each idol.
It helps players to manage each idol's schedule(or stamina) efficiently.
Some idols can focus on bussiness proposals, some focus on singles, some focus on training ect.

It's another reason why we can't train our idols well.
Bussiness proposals preserve our company from bankruptcy, but we really don't need all the idols to make money all day long.
We need the "disabled list" to protect some idols from random bussiness proposals.

Please, add another "Auto Proposals" menu for idols version.

Syasin/Shashin (写真)
Refer to singles, each idol can release her own album. We receive the profit and review the sales data weekly. :p

I'm not sure if this is a suggestion or a bug report, but I noticed that if you hire a graduating idol as a staff member, they do not appear in the "graduated" list for idols. I figure they should still appear there, perhaps with a note that they were hired into the company in their bio. (It would also be cool if their mini-portrait could use their idol appearance instead of the generic staffer type, but I'm not sure if that's something that can be modified easily.)

Also, it would be interesting if idols who were dating a graduating idol (who then becomes a staffer) could continue dating. It felt funny to see "X lost mental stamina for a mysterious reason" when X's (ex-)girlfriend was her new stylist.

As a side note, I feel like this is out of scope for the intended tone and gameplay of the game, but I sort of feel like the game eventually starts to limit players who choose to maintain a low number of idols, and I feel like it would be interesting to have a mode that focuses more on a smaller group size. (Smaller max building size, less emphasis on multiple projects happening at once, etc.) The new Relaxed mode is a great help for a casual player like me to play in that manner without a game over, but a lot of features are based on much bigger groups after the first year or so. That said, I feel like my ideas would be better for a mod or a different game, so I'm not holding out hope on a small-time company mode.

Not sure if it's a bug but the events could all use a look-over to see if they're working properly, for example, that contracts don't instantly end and incur damages when an event happens (I've noticed this happening recently, just now I got the funny billboard event where I did nothing and the event said all that came of it was some minor news stories, yet my contract immediately ended and I had to pay damages?)

Tbh, I don't see the point of hiring idols as staffers. By the time I have idols start graduating, a couple years into the game, there's no point for me to hire my idol to become a low-level staffer when I already have 100 million yen and all of my staffers are 10-stars. Is there something I'm missing, or something new that's been added recently? (Sorry for my ignorance if so!) 

Thanks for the great game!

Here's an idea for more of the Mod side of the game. If possible, I would like to have an option in "params.json" of the IdolPortraits to have an option like "fixed_firstname" / "fixed_lastname",  or likewise; so that, instead of fetching for the pool of first and last names for a random name, it instead uses the fixed value. It would greatly help for mods that have established names for a certain image! 

An idea I had while testing out portrait modding: a button to clear the portrait cache within the settings menu. This could be helpful for those with less knowledge of where the cache is saved in the file system and save time for modders trying to test iterations of a mod. However, as I don't know how the cache is saved, I'm not sure if that would be easy or difficult to include.

I want  idol's Bust/waist/hip measurements or bra size as flavor.

Maybe the idols' salary satisfaction could take into account the agency's age and/or average weekly income? I'm in November of my first year and it seems kind of unreasonable that my idols need a 60k weekly salary just to stay at a satisfaction level of 50%, especially considering I only made 130k on my last single.

First of all, let me tell you how much I love the game, I have spend hundred hours on it already it's incredible.

- A new staff member "secretary" to help you create lyrics and so on, because you are the only staff member impossible to duplicate, so when you have a USINE you are the one slowing down everything.
- I don't know if it's a bug, or something in implementation, but my theater appears as 0/w in my recap (when you hover your total money), I really would like it to be in account into the week revenu even if it's a day to day /month revenue because it helps to have a global vision.

- Unlock with research point (like a lot), the possibility to try to guess the next trend before the month start. (For now I don't think we have something to predict buzz ?)

- An auto mode to create single (like with the secretary maybe ? : you say what you want and they automatically create new things per week you then have to assign)

And that's all for now, because it's super good !

An idea that I think has been mentioned before: I'd like to be able to create a single without moving to a second floor of rooms. My idea for this is to have any single dragged onto the player when there are no placed staffers get a 1 value for the missing elements. (Example: If you don't have a choreographer, then the player does that task at level 1.) A potential related side feature would be to allow dragging a single with finished elements back onto a staffer with better stats to replace the stat on the single. (As things are, you can simulate this by deleting the single and starting over.) The first part would help the early game move faster (or at least have more variety than constant photoshoots), while the second part can add to the complexity of strategies.

From a modding standpoint, I'd also be interested in having some of the traits of staffers be moddable. For instance, being able to change the gender of staffers or give them a different pair of skills. The player's influence skill probably has to remain hard-coded, but maybe the others can be mixed a bit. (It would also help with the composer, who is currently hard-coded to be male. Makes idols that become composers seem a bit odd, unless they are meant to be implied as crossdressers or transgender.)

Hello! Ive been working on a mod for about a week now and have suggestions that lean more on the technical side.
Ill try to give some use cases so the non tech ppl reading have something they can read.

I am write a series of events and dialogs and have trouble controlling the 'can be trigger randomly'.
I feel some things are missing. like conditions based on time, or custom boolean flags.
I feel like being able to limit event to X number of days from the game start as a condition would be great.

I have string of events and dialogs that go like this.
Idols and staff complain about the Studio WiFi.
You can: Ignore them(Spend nothing), buy some half assed replacement(Spend next to nothing) or Upgrade it(Spend Lots Money.)
If you Ignored or didn't do much a flag is set.
Now your WiFi is hacked, and a devious hacker Attemps to extort you for money.
He tells you to give he money(A LOT OF IT) and that the cops cant help you.
You can: Give him the money, Call the cops, Ignore Him.
If you don't pay him, he start leaking Idol and Staff information online.
This generates scandal points. These events will pop up randomly.
He will eventual randomly contact you again.
You can: [didn't call cops]Pay him(A lot of money), [called cops]Pay him(Crap Tons of money), Ignore him

at first glance this seems simple.
but it actual is a lot of flags.
Flag1 (I call it 'freeWifi')
Has the event ever happened? freeWifi !=0 and !=1
if true trigger WiFi event.
You didnt spend much or anything freeWifi = 1 else =0
if freeWifi==1 randomly trigger Haker dialog, at its end freeWifi=0
Flag2 I call it 'hacked'
Flag3 I call it 'scornedHacker'
if you dont pay hacked = 1
if you call cops hacked and scornedHacker = 1

random events:
Idol personal information leaked
Idol personal photos leaked
Idol texts leaked
Staff emails leaked
And so on.
All these random events involve one random idol or staff, and the have 2 or more options.
One to do nothing(Generate Scandal points and Idol Mental Stress), Do something (Spend money, Generate few Scandal Points, no stress.)

lastly have the hacker come back as a random dialog asking for money
options and text dependent on if you called the cops
{Side note: the cops do nothing.}

Tech Talk:
Currently events and dialogs have condition based on Resources, Variable and Fan total.
I'm finding it problematic that conditional formula and variables are only numeric in nature (Or at least seem to be the Documentation was not clear for meta vars).
Would it be possible to add condition based on vars with types and flags defined by the modder?
Flags as in simple Y/N or True/False.
Vars with types like String, boolean, int, float and such.
If given its own page for set up in the Event Editor these could be pulled in to the drop-downs after being setup.
This could also allow for custom flags or vars to be add to things like idols and staff as well.
This could give more options for meta data association when setting up events.

I'm finding it complicated to work with a system that I can make pseudo flags with 1 and 0

aVariable = 0
aVariable = 1
but lack
aVariable = not set
I currently cant check for null. or if i can the docs to tell me how.
So im doing this to check if its unset-
aVariable != 1
aVariable != 0
I'm not even sure if that works as write since im not sure how the formulas are converted...
I mostly work with java but I have experience with Unity (C# & Javascript)
if 'aVariable' was never set can i even check for it with out throwing an error?
if its javascript converted will 'undefined' work?
I cant think of any C# ways to define and/or convert this...

TLDR: I mostly just want to do this (aVariable = true), (aVariable = false), or (aVariable = null)

Im going to stop with this one, request since if I start talking about another this post will be several miles (or km) long.

I wish there was some mini games for the each jobs that managers get for the idols

I've been playing this game quite a bit over the past few days. It's very addicting! So this is basically a review of my experiences. 

Early game is a fantastic challenge!! Because of the challenge, it's very satisfying once you figure it out. Loans might even be a little too forgiving.

The late game is extremely tedious. Money becomes a complete non-factor, which makes things much simpler (in a bad way). I'm sure it will be sorted out in future balancing though.

I find that contrary to real life, first gen members in the game are generally trash. In game, not only can you find better girls later on in big auditions but you can promote them extremely easily with an army of managers. In real life, successfully producing a new younger group, or promoting a new generation of members is extremely difficult. So the game kind of has it backwards in this regard. Perhaps low fame members should have much greater weaknesses, or graduations could have bigger penalties to fame and fans. Anyway, as it stands, money being effectively unlimited in the late game trivializes most of these challenges.

Also I love the scandal points system! It should be more severe in my opinion, so that the tough choices (fire staff vs. fire idol vs. accept the scandal effects) would be more impactful. Then again, effectively unlimited money distorts our view of what's impactful.

I recently bought the game, and I figured I can provide some feedback.

- I might be in the minority to want boy idols as some groups have them irl. I don't know how integration works, but I consider maybe making it an unlocked feature if one idol happens to have a boyfriend. You can probably make them a singing duet depending on if the boyfriend has any talent or not. It might be interesting how that feature plays out.

Okay, minor nitpick aside, I honestly like the variety of genres you can make in this game. My favorite genres happen to be R&B and Enka, but I like how you can do research on all of them. It's a nice touch.

Another thought I had was for Music Videos.

Similar to point 5. Renting Production Space in my last post, you'd need to hire a director, have them work with a choreographer (either one on your staff, or one hired based on reputation from other talent agencies), screenwriter if you want a storyline, special effects team, and post-production team to handle the video editing, and then book a Movie Studio set. This could then require us to select the theme, which would then affect costuming, special effects, choreography, etc. to match it (think BTS Mic Drop, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, etc.) 
You can decide is it just a straightforward music video of one of the singles that could release simultaneously, or is it where it's nearly a movie in its own right, just with a few of the groups songs carrying it through. Some of the idols could want to have lead roles, or have ideas on the script (a la point 1. Band Members With Production Skills).

Additionally, this could result in reaction videos of the music video, which would provide bonuses or penalties to popularity for the band and individual idols. Look at KDA Popstar, everyone was talking about Soyeon's rapping, Jaira Burn's free styling, etc. In a situation like that, could also lead to companies similar to Riot reaching out and asking to book the idol for a time to record in their own video.

Can you add the ability to launch albums and pv? It will be more realistic.

I think also having the possibility to make sub-groups or teams and choose a leader in your group.

For Idol Manager I think it would be cool if we could have a survival show for rookies (and also for the ones that are not rookies). So it would boost their popularity and they would get some new skills.

Maybe if they are good enough they could also be promoting in a temporary group and with their own group (temporary groups like I.O.I and IZ*ONE)

For every episode they last we could also get a little bit of money? For example when your idol is against some other idol and you win you move to the next round, get new fans, gain a little bit of skill and you get paid some money.

Edit: also it would be cool if we could have contracts with idols like 7 years or something I don't like that idols are telling me when they want to graduate. Because then I can be prepared to train new idols better. When they say they're leaving in like idk 3 months I feel like I don't have enough time to train idols who are below average.

That's why it would also be cool if we had a category "rookies" who only train and wait for the debut.

Well these are just my ideas. I hope some of them are good enough to be added in the game one day.

Hi, this is my suggestion and ideas for Idol manager

So, I really like group with large numbers of people.My main group is over 30 members, I hope I can hold an audition for specific group I'm really lazy to scroll down to the bottom every time to send them to sister group. I also hope that there will be more than 10 places in the general election and more than 15 places in single.

I hope that idol can have concurrent position in two groups. [I don't know why I want it lol]

Double center ? Or triple, quadruple center  xD

[Sorry for bad English and grammar]

So I've played the game a 100h since I bought it and I adore it! Really a great game keep going! But the only things that bothers me is a lack of diversification in the gameplay. I've started  with 3 different group. One with 5 girls, the other one with 10 and the third with 20. 

The group with 5 girls did so bad. It was hard to keep floating financially without tiring them to death and eventually it failed.

10 girls: Was easier to maintain but the physical Stam. of the idols never went higher than 30. and all the money I made by releasing singles was already gone by the time I release the next one. So I was playing but didn't feel like I was progressing so I essentially give up...(maybe I play wrong and there's a way to manage it really well, tell me if there's smth that could help me )

20 girls: It was the most easy play because while some members where working the other were resting so it was an endless cycle making progression very easily. I wasnt struggling with the group at all. I created asister group with even more idols.  And frankly it became a piece of cake because none of the idol were tired and I could keep this cycle and gaining fame and money quickly . 

So my point is maybe tweak the game to make the possibility  for player to enjoy  smaller group . ( and again maybe I'm missing something crucial and the game let you produce something else than a nuclear-AKB48-like group)

I've been loving this game so far, and I've seen pretty much everything I want to see implemented suggested already, so I just wanted to point out something I noticed that may or may not have been intentional!  On one of my save files, two of my idols started dating, only problem is one was 21 while the other was 14, which seems......... questionable, at best. Not sure if the ages of idols/age gaps are programmed to be considered when it comes to them dating one another, so I figured I'd at least make note of it!

Am pretty bad at coming up with names so it would be great with a randomize button.

I just have one main, one medium, and one small idea. 

1) More in-depth audition process. 

Instead of clicking on our character to start an audition and then only having three options, I'd personally like a more interactive menu/choice. Maybe in the same menu where there's the option to do tours and elections, there can be a tab for auditions as well. Then, we can select what kind of audition (Local, Regional, National) and also how many girls we get to choose from (5, 10, 15). The more girls and the larger the scale of the audition, the more expensive. 

The only problem I'd see, is how the game determines when we can hold each type of audition. My idea for that is to have us gain "audition points" or some other generic name. We could gain the points every week or every day; Similar to how we have to wait a certain amount of time to hold another regional or national audition, it could take that long (and that many audition points) to do a 5 member audition of that scale. So, if you don't do auditions that often, you can save up your points and do one big audition once a year (which is what I prefer to do). For the beginning of the game, maybe the player will have infinite points, so they can freely get their beginning group going. Another thought would be maybe we'd have to research the larger auditions. 

2) Medium idea - Seeing the election results before they're announced

I can't tell if the election results are completely based on total fan count for each girl or if it matters what type of fans (hardcore vs casual), but I just think it'd be nice to see who's going to be announced before hand so when I put in a girl I'm trying to push up, I'll know if I even have to. 

3) Small idea - skippable concerts

I just want to have the option of skipping the whole random chance bottom right circle thing. 

Hello,

 I recently played the game and I realy enjoyed! (Sorry my english is not that good).

Here the suggestions :

- For the Theater, when suscribtion is enabled, I tried to put the minimal cost, few days after that I had 30 000 suscriptions. After I tried to put the amount at  1 000 000 or 100 000 Y. The problem is : I didn't lose all my suscribers at once and after a week I had more than 13 billions w (in normal mode) ! Even satisfaction didn't decrease a lot (from ~85-80 to ~65-60.) So maybe you can place or limit the cost of the suscription and make the fans a little bit more dissapointed.

- The same goes for the concert, with hardcore fan you won more (~x2~x3) money if you put ticket at max (it's 100k Y I think) with 5% attendance than 100% attendance, satisfaction don't decrease that much in normal mode. What prevent players for doing that ? Then maybe "nerf" a little bit the cost of the tickets and "the declining satisfaction" or perhaps it's just me and I should play in difficult mode...

- Recruitment : It's realy hard to get platinium Idol (each 90 days it's realy long). That's why I think maybe you can "up" a little bit the drop rates for the Idols depend of level(Production/influence) of your producer. There are no differences between Producer lv 0 and producer lv 4.  For exemple : Producer LV 0, nationwide recruitement Platinium Idol rates = 1% / Producer lv 4 (2 influence, 2 production) : Platinium rates 1,25/1,5 % and it's stop at 5% when your producer is Lv 20.  The same goes for regional with gold and local with silver. In my opinion, it's more realistic, if you start to be famous as producer more idols want to join you.

- Add Rival groupe event, once a year one/two/three idol groups can challenge you in "concert contender". Refuse : fans will be disapointed (in hard/normal mode) but if you win you will win more fans. They are like, five songs, each song will demand a certain stat (cute, sexy, smart etc.), You choose your idol and you have an accident rate like concert or something else. Maybe you can implement older cards and new cards. For instance : Accident rates for other group idol + 5% etc.

That's all, thanks for your hard work patience and care!

2 ideas :

Being able to disable all pop-ups

Being able to release full albums instead of just a single

After playing for a while I also thought it would be cool if once game is finished we could see updated sales, for example fans can also buy album later, not just on the month when it's released. Like we can see popular groups can still sell their debut albums years after the debut.

And this makes me think if we for example don't release just a digital single but an album and we print like 40k albums, after a while fans could demand us to print more albums because albums are out of stock. I think it would make the game interesting, we could also lose fans if we decide that we won't print the album again because maybe we are broke.

Also it would be cool if we didn't get accused about singing about political songs when we actually didn't even release such song. For example it happened to me - I only did photoshoots, I didn't even release any singles yet and I got accused that my group was singing political lyrics, it would make sense that this only happens when we actually release such song.

And for example when we release a physical single we could create album cover or pick an album cover. Maybe if album was cheaply made fans could be mad at us.

And maybe it would be cool idea if we could somehow give news to the fans that we need help (like makestar project where fans donate money for a comeback) otherwise the group will disband because we are broke.

Maybe we could even decide how many seconds of lines some girl gets and fans could praise us when the most popular girl gets the most lines but others could be mad because we treat some unfairly. And because of that I also got another idea, we could also just have the rapper of the group, a vocalist a sub vocalist (so we'd give girls positions) and if fans complained we could tell them "this member got less lines because they are the visual/rapper." 

I'd also like if we wouldn't have to bring the girls to our office every time when we want to interact but sometimes they could also visit us by themselves when they are bullied for example or when a snitch wants to tell us something. 

Also maybe we could have fan meetings and girls mess up and they tell something they shouldn't and we must make situation better with our reply to the public. And for paying the girls idk about Japanese idols much but some Korean ones for example don't get paid from the start because they must pay off the debt, this would be really helpful at the start for us as a ceo.

And also 5 to 7 year old contract and idol can not leave, if they do we can sue them (I sound like an evil ceo) but I really hate it when someone says I will graduate before I turn 23 because that doesn't tell me much, they can graduate when they turn 20 because that's before 23rd b.day. I'd really like to control how many time the girls will stay in the group so I can prepare new idols to join. That's why I think it would be cool if we had a "rookie" category and for example they can be rookies for 2 years before they join a group so we can train them well... because some idols that want to join are so untalented lol)

Anyway I hope that some ideas are good enough to end up in the finished game. 

Two of my idols began dating so I decided I'd have them do a duet, though stats were crippled with no defined center and the song flopped. I would like to see them able to do a duet together without a defined center and perhaps a shared stamina drop for concerts almost like the talk breaks.

Hello guys! 

The game is hugely imbalanced in the revenue (income VS expenditure) part. The expenses are automatic, but the revenue are action based and often requires a lot of time and action before being just available, i'm not even talking about the lucrative part yet lol...and really it's not lucrative at all compared to the expenses that you quickly pile up lol

I would suggest at least a way to set up your secretaries to automatically chose and negociate or not negociate the contracts and doing so based on the higher/ lower revenue and/or by fame level of each idol. Sometimes I want to promote the ones that don't have lots of requests or fame, and sometimes I just want more money haha!

also a way to repay the loan as we see fit, not in a lump some once. for exemple I want to give back more this week but not completely pay back the loan. And maybee a good backlash if I fail to give back money lol might be funny...game over, death by yakuza haha

also a way to negociate loans through a dialogue with a banker or the investor. if you fail the dialogue, you get the normal loans, if you win, you get more money or no interests. something like that. So we can at least start the game with enough to stay afloat.

Also, at first I thought that the investor was ultra sleazy and would ask me stuff like using my idols for human traffic so i never agreed to his loans especially as they have no interest....then i tried once and realize there were just nice interest free loans haha! 

The part where you can reclaim the idols after they graduate and make them work for you as staff is genius. But I feel it lacks something...like either a more substensial bonus or a more fulfilling status for the idols. They are supposed to go for a better deal and you get them back for a worse one lol...either they need to really help boost your overall business, because so far, everything is trying to put you down to the ground lol (great perks as staff or really fast level up or income stream) or they need to come with a hefty price (have to match the other deal they had or surpass it in order to get them with their super perks). 

take your time if you like these ideas. i'm okay having to wait a V2 or a second game. please, just give me a lower price though haha!

I have a simple suggestion. For some reason, music in games ruin my immersion, so I usually play with the music off and the general sounds with the Max volume possible. 

I noticed that the current build has the staff's typing sounds together with the background music. It would be nice if you guys could separate the sounds!

Sooo, I already did a post like this, just moved it here. I don't know  if these ideas are floating around already, but I couldn't get myself to read all of the suggestions, which I think are awesome as far as I read them. Here are my two cents.

1. Stats for staff - former idol

    I would love to still be able to see the stats they graduated with, their earned money, accomplishments etc. 

    I think it adds a lot of depth to the staff. 

2. Dating staff - former idol

    Still being able to interact with the former idols, like going on a date would be great too, so you don't disconnect from your favourite idols.

    Having additional lines as staff maybe?

3.  Coaching / Styling skills - former idol

    Having their coaching skills depend on the associated skill they had as an idol, so they can pass their knowledge on instead of starting from scratch, because they feel kinda useless in the long run.

    I haven't encountered a former idol as a stylist so I don't know if that's even a thing, but if not, I would love to see it implemented.

    I think separating the styles would be nice. Regular staff you can hire could simply have two of them at the same level, so it wouldn't change that aspect.

4. Motivation score

    Maybe idols could start with high motivation, as new idols and lower it over time until 50% or something, because they become accustomed to their new lifestyle.

    This could be accompanied with new traits, which impact motivation gain and loss.

   Could actually impact if a graduating idol wants to stay with the group.

5. Punishment for minimum wage

    I guess that's a beta thing, because I haven't seen any impact for them being unsatisfied.

    Let idols provoke scandals, because they're underpaid.

    Or even quit for good if the payment is far too low or over an extended period.

    Maybe combine with my previous point and lower their motivation, or increase it to a certain degree with high payment.

6. Filter Songs in Concert Setup

    Having the option to filter for fan satisfaction, stars etc. would be nice, because the song list becomes quite extensive after a while.

7.  Sister Groups as opening acts

    Maybe add the option of having a sister group as the opening act with a seperate setup to promote them.

8. Calendar

    A calendar would be great to properly schedule tasks, concerts etc ahead of time.

9. Special event preparations

    I think being able to prepare multiple special events in advance should be a feature, so they can launch after cooldown has reset.

This game is already great and has so much potential to grow.  I look forward to the next update and will keep playing until then^^ 

* Structured and added some points.

You can add "Push a unit" as a function, just like pushing single idols.

When some idols are pushed as a duo or trio, if they stand close in a single, or if they host a show together, they can attract more fans.  Also, their relationship can grow or worsen depending on their fame gap.

I really hope we will be able to disband a group in the full game or a future update.

Personally I think a slight element of randomness would be nice when it comes to singles, rather than everything being very formulaic all the time. It feels like there's some kind of strict numerical formula determining how many singles we sell, aside from the "trending" genres/lyrics. Maybe there's a 1/100 chance your debut single will go viral and rocket your group to fame, or maybe a single will "flop" once in a while and actually make fans leave the group - it certainly happens with real groups. 

Ok so I just wanted to say a few more things:

AUDITIONS:

I think it would be cool of we could pick what age can audition. Foe example you want age range from 14-18. Idols who are over 18 can't audition. Sometimes I feel like age gap is too big with my idols I pick. Like I pick talented 14 year old. All others on audition suck and then it's talented 22 year old.

I also wish we could ask them things like a few questions when they audition. 

PAYMENT FOR STAFF:

I think that once staff has more stars they can get paid more but the payment should be raised two or three  times max - when we are just starting with our company. Because when I started accepting idols that sucked at everything  (they can sing only 2 out of 60 for example) and I train them to 60. The more I train the more stars my staff gets, the more I pay them, I almost go bankrupt for that or go bankrupt.  So sometimes I have no choice but to cheat and press y to get money.

Usually I don't pick idols that can sing just to 10 or 15 because that's horrible. So I pick the ones that are more talented and I can train them the most.

MORE REALISTIC WHEN IT COMES TO SINGING ABILITIES:

I feel like people should also attack us online of idols don't approve. Or random people on Internet be mean and say we should disband.

I always want to train my idols because that's more realistic than not training idols and picking untalented ones.

REALISTIC WHEN IT COMES TO LOOK:

For example girls can be pretty but they would get bashed online like in real life. Maybe the company could get them a plastic surgery. And there could actually be a possibility to ruin their looks if you get plastic surgery too often on the same girl. Maybe the girl could get addicted to plastic surgery if she goes under plastic surgery more than twice.

If people complained, not just fans game would be more interesting because sometimes I stop playing for a long time because everytime it feel like it's the some thing and same situations happen with the girls. I wish there was more in the finished game later on. More scenarios and not just repeated scenarios over and over. For a beta the game is pretty cool, just for the finished version I really wish for more scenarios.

AND THE VERY LAST THING:

I wish we could name our company. There could also be scenarios where we have to fire someone because for example manager scammed the idol or something like that.

Add a "Rap" stat, add the ability to make a Rap song, add Albums (perhaps you'd have to hire an artist to do the album cover?) add a Music Video needed to make a single/album perhaps?, make it so that in your first group, ONLY the idols from your first group pop up (or add the ability to do that) (as in, rather than all your idols popping up when making a single for Group N1, make it so only the girls from that group pop up), add a, perhaps, bullying past/currently bullying member as a giant scandal (4 sp), add a mini-game like the Concert mini-game for the World Tour, and maybe add scenarios where your idols are being attacked for being a "bad vocalist" "bad visual" "bad dancer", or a "bad rapper", and maybe add a "training" period before you debut? and that's all I can think of!

I really enjoy this game and I haven't stopped playing since i bought it, but I think these would make it more interesting:

Sometimes when members are being bullied, they should expose the member on sns - but also sometimes bullies should falsely accuse their victim. It should then be up to you to decide how to handle the situation and possibly receive scandal points depending on your choice. 

To be able to rename groups and disband them.

B-side songs, graduation singles, graduation concerts & albums.

A bootcamp feature where you can send an idol for different periods of time and they receive boosts in their skills depending on how long they're sent for - however their stamina is greatly reduced during this time.

Sub-units, duos & solo's.

Higher capacity of members for songs.

Feedback from fans (or anti's) on sns about various things - such as cute/pretty/cool/sexy skill, vocal skill, dance skill, intelligence, funniness, charisma, backlash from male fans who attend a handshake event and interact with an idol with misandry, an idol not being included/always in back row/always being center/etc.

Ballad as a song type, graduation song as a marketing point & graduation lyrics.

Idols rejoining after graduation sometimes.

More variety in scandals.

Scandal points for putting members under 18 in bikini singles or songs with sexy choreo.

Idols themselves choosing to go onto hiatus for reasons like school/mental health/exhaustion.

Criticism if lots of your idols have low skills. 

Having a kenkyuusei system similar to AKB48's.

TV show, photoshoots, variety show & advertisement deals sometimes being for multiple members.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to say international members and possibly international auditions.

Would it be possible to add in a way to name save files?

So I have a few ideas... 

1) A cool function maybe could be a system for trying to break into international an audience (ex. The USA), and a system for trying to build relationships with “foreign” record companies/labels to offer distribution deal or even have the staffers try to negotiate  deals for international distribution.

2) Different formations for the idol, So ways for pushing solo acts or duo. Continuing with that idea, there could be a way to push idols as solo acts or subunits while continuing to be in groups (ex. Jennie’s “Solo” or Red Velvet- IRENE & SEULGI).

3) A way to  collaborate  with other in-game groups/artists. My idea is to have the office worker be able to research opportunities for music collaborations (ex. Kiss and Makeup - Dua Lipa Feat. Blackpink) or have even have collaborations within the player’s sister groups.
 

4) Lastly I’m suggesting little things that  I’d hate myself for not suggesting when I had the chance, but there should be the ability to produce albums, music videos, clothing line deals, and sponsorships. Maybe ways for idols to be canceled (#______isoverparty)and on the opposite side, ways for idols to save face from scandals like having them being able to participate in charity benefits or something along that line and them possibly being rejected for having poor reputation.

I second the idea of having some way to save face and burn off scandal points.  They're pretty hard to get rid of, and an accumulation of even a small number can hurt badly.

So, I've played Idol Manager for 10 months now and I feel the lack of some things:

1. Photobooks: I guess this sounds a little weird or non-important but I'd love the option to release photobooks for my most popular idols or even for the entire group! I imagine it as a system where you could choose the theme (a sexy, fashion/pretty, cute or a cool PB) and the quality of the construction, the quality of the photographer and all that combined with fans would make the sales number. Would be nice to have a re-print situation, just like Shiraishi Mai's PB got reprinted NUMEROUS times XDDDD

2. Separate charts: I guess would be really cool to see a Digital Chart, where the numbers and the position would be based more on what's trending right now and on younger fans, but also a Physical Chart, this one being more based on how many fans you have/how many copies they were willing to buy, and, of course, a single having two types of sales, the physical and the digital.

3. Sales not being restricted only to the time of the release: well, the ~title~ kind of explains it all, I really think sales should keep going through the years/months, maybe some singles could re-enter the charts based on what's trending at the moment.

4. More depth on single making: the system right now is good but it could use some detailing, what I have in mind is music video costs and options, the option to create more than one type/version of the same single, the possibility to create b-sides as well as the idols that will be singing those songs, maybe the possibility to choose the materials the single will be made of (for example: cheap plastic would make fans unhappy, good plastic would make fans happy/buy more copies), that cover thing back maybe with options of customization, the possibility of having a double center situation...

5. Generations and Auditions: would be nice to see a generations distinction between the idols, for an example: girls that got in the group on the same year would belong to the same generation (2018 - 1st gen, 2019 - 2nd gen...) and this would be shown on her "card/profile". About auditions. I really think auditions should be larger, or at least have the option to make them bigger, something like 15 or 20 girls (of course, costing more money).

6. Music Shows: being invited to perform at music shows like Music Station or Kouhaku Uta Gassen would be really fun, choosing the idols, the setlist in case it's a year-end thing, etc...

7. Financial Reports: would be really cool to have graphics and comparisons available to see the growth or the fall of the company, maybe a monthly or yearly report!

8. Customization: well, that would need a lot more work from the artist that makes the illustrations for the game but ANYWAAAYS, would be really cool to get to set a particular uniform that all of the company's or group's idols would wear.

9. Being able to have separate groups under the same company: some sort of sister groups but not really, I don't know if that makes any sense at all XD, something like having the option to invest money on a completely new project with completely new idols, but them having a push because of the company's and the previous groups' fame.  In addition to that some sort of paying for marketing so the new group can start with fans already would be cool.

10. Disbandment: I'll be honest, sometimes I just get tired of my groups and want to end them and start something fresh, but with the company's money to invest.

11. Bigger elections: having up to 15 (a full single team) elected idols would be cool, and possibly some sort of Undergirls, Next girls... just like on AKB.

12. Sub-units and solo releases: I've seen many people suggest it but I'll do it anyways, having sub-units and solo projects (like Tomomi Itano's "Dear J", or no3b, not yet, French Kiss [all from AKB]) while they're still inside the group would be amazing! (If someone wants to do it ~unofficially~ you can create a sister group called "solo" or something like that and place only one idol there XD).

13. Possibility of buying lyrics, instrumentals, etc: sometimes my producer is just way too busy with special events so having the option of buying lyrics would be really helpful.

14. More cooldown time between singles: I guess 1 single per month is a little bit too much, at least in real life fans would be pissed/overwhelmed, so bigger cooldown would be great, specially if the system of the sales going throughout the year is implemented!

15. "Random" elections: It would be cool to see something like the AKB48's Janken Tournment, an event randomly deciding the girls that will be participating on the next single, maybe randomly deciding who's the next solo project, or the next unit project, photobook etc...

16. Full albums: well, simply the option of releasing full albums XD but with much longer cooldown than a single would have

Guess that was it, I didn't expect to write this much but I hope this is helpful to improve the game! 

Could it be possible to designate individual sister groups on an international tour?  

Right now, everyone is required to go on tour, and it's really punishing stamina wise.

I'd like there to be an option to choose which groups to go on tour.  Otherwise, it punishes maintaining a large stable of idols.  

48g wouldn't send their entire roster of girls on an international tour, and I'd like there to be an option for us as well.

Stylists now level excruciatingly slow - working only  on her primary skill, it's taken one stylist most of a year to advance from two stars to four.  Given the extremely painful slowness of advancing through the higher star levels, that does not bode well for the future.  Seems to me that they need a slight boost in that department.

And I still don't understand why the two different types have such radically different starting levels.

It's been mentioned before, but I'd really like to be able to produce albums! It's confusing to me that we can only create singles when it's albums that seem to generate the most hype/sales in the real world. I saw an idea of making them a once-yearly thing and I think that putting them on a 6 or 12 month time limit would be perfect. They could even have restrictions - Fujimoto made you release an Enka single? Well that won't fit on your Rock/Pop themed album! And maybe once a single has been released on an album it's banned from other albums so you can't just re-release the same songs over and over.

Another thing I'd really like, though it might be just me, is another ambient song or two on the building screen and the concert screen - I've been playing this game a lot since my friend showed it to me, but I'm really getting sick of hearing the in-game music over and over and over again (and yes, I know I can mute it, but...). If there were another couple of songs so that there was variation in the loops I think it could be really cool - they could even reflect the kind of music that your idols are most proficient/prolific with! (though that could get tricky with multiple groups etc). It just feels like in a game about creating music that there could be a little more actual musical option? Even if the same basic loop is just tinged with slightly different options to represent the musical styles in game? Sorry, I'm not a musician, but like, taking the loop that exists now and just playing it in a electric guitar for a metal theme, or making it a bit 'bouncier' for a pop theme... etc, etc.

Anyway I've been really loving this game and I can't wait for the full release ♥

in the game its kinda annoying when you have a group with perfect stats and you want to start another group and when you get new people the stats of your existing group go down it would be nice if you made it so when you start a new group and get new people the statsof the other group arent effected so like each group has their own dance stats and stuff like that

Some stuff I was thinking and criticism when I was playing, Sorry if it has already been said or are you working on it.

1-Add something to make more clear when a Idol is training a stat above her max potential, for example a little symbol next to the stat in the menu, change the color to another like Yellow, or a little bottom text when you take someone in a room.

2-You can Socialize when someone is doing something a room but you have to do it before they enter the room and it is a bit annoying specially when a room is autoing.

3-It is bit stupid to have Idols say the same thing you already know (even if it make sense, how they would know too) but I pretty certain I saw repeat about boyfriends and friend in the group.

4-Wishes are useless when they hit the max influence, I still didn't try to use something that requires it but I think it is a cost then "you need that level". I don't have a lot of ideas about what extra you could get, point to friendship and relationships, I think more on the last one which make sense.

5-I saw "Digital Only Release" was leveling when I released a Single but you can't manually, I think it just a bug, you could just fix it or adding a 50yen extra per level to sale (Already it is pretty powerful on it own so maybe not).

6-About "Unfair" Difficulty, what is about it, would be nice to see a bit more explained, but I think on the most part is more bad ads, bad events and bigger hits on Idols or group when a event end badly...

Said that I think the game is fantatic as is and I can't wait for more relationships within the Company and more event stories. Thanks for this game devs.

I started playing a bit today again and I thought we could also get money by posting videos like yt. It can be named differently like idoltube or whatever the point is to be like yt where you get likes, dislikes and you have to get the amount of subscribers (idk like 20k) to start earning money from videos.

You could post MV's, or just videos like dance covers of other famous groups or singing covers. Or you could just post vlogs. It would nice to see dislikes for example if people dislike some girl. Or even hate comments for the company if you haven't released any new music for a while.

For MV you could post a professional MV that costs a lot but also very low budget and then people could complain and dislike it. Also if they do a sexy cover/concept people can hate and complain. Or they can actually like it and it goes viral.

Maybe if you could post a statement on social media like "if we don't do well next comeback we have to disband or let go some members" just to make people pity buy the single/album or if people would pity stream our videos (and we could earn more from MV views) also we should get money from MV's weekly not just once. Once you get more views you still get money. So it's not a one time payment like singles where you only get the amount on release day.

And singles should probably be bought later like when group gets more fans new fans could buy older singles.

Just a thought. That would be more interesting than just clicking on "promotion" because we'd actually see feedback (views, likes, dislikes, comments)

When creating a "sister group", there's a randomizer that'll provide different names for the group. Could we have that when starting the game? I always struggle to think of a cute name for my groups!

As well, if possible, could we get a one room break room? Even if it only recuperates one (or two?) idols per week, it would help out early game players (and late game, where I have empty spaces and I don't want another office or designer ...)

I have some suggestions for the game, I hope they are not annoying:

1. Change the images of the jobs depending on what type. Style that if a magazine cover is cute, the image is of the idol making a gesture of that type.

2. That it be possible to choose which group the elections are made to. Like at one point doing it for the main group, then the brothers and then the full agency.

3. That on some dates there is a special modification for some type of songs. Style that around Valentine's Day love songs do better.

I hope they are not annoying and that they understand each other, since I speak Spanish.

I would love it if there were keyboard shortcuts for different commands in game.

After looking at the recent update I remembered a suggestion I had! Can we have two different ways to sort the girls by age in the idol sidebar? Right now, it has the youngest at the top and the eldest at the bottom and I'd really appreciate it the other way around too. No big deal of course but it'd be nice. 

Ok so... my game does not start after the lattest update. It just shows the cover art forever after I choose the MC's and group's name.

but other than that, here goes some suggestions I have after playing the game for months now:

ALBUMS and Music Videos (c'mon, everyone wants this simply because it can't be a music industry sim game without it, so I'm just going to lay down some must-have features for this)

The MC should be able to write all or just some of the songs for the album or hire a team of producers to do it partially or completely. The MC must be able to choose from unknown writers/producers to worldwide famous teams which would determine both the quality and budget of the project. 

The MC should be able to decide how long the album takes to be finished and that will also affect its quality. 
During the album production period, many random events should take place and they can also affect the album quality or even increase the amount of time the project takes to be finished resulting in the delay of the release.
Like, 'idol-A' fights with 'idol-B' over line distribution or 'idol showing late for recording' or 'idol is sick and can't record' or even songs leaking online. 

Also, albums should have a cooldown period and the possibility to release Repackaged (re-release) albums with a new title track and a couple of new songs. 

Fans should demand albums to be released if they feel like it has been too long since the groups latest comeback and if that happens, you would have to work a project with a deadline, suffering the loss of fans or sales impact if the album gets postponed by random events.

MC should be able to decide whether the project is a full-length album (10-15 tracks), a mini-album (4-6 tracks), a Remix album (10-15 tracks), or a Greatest Hits album (up to 25 tracks). 

It should also be possible to use unreleased songs and singles that weren't on past albums on an album currently in development (that would help if you're short on money for the production or simply want to save some).

Once the album is ready, it should be possible to send it back to production if you don't like the end result (quality) at the cost of idols mental and physical stamina. This is also a cool feature because if the quality is low because of fights between the idols or idols being irresponsible during the production period, that could even generate more drama between the members and if it gets really bad, the quality may even be lower than the first time urging the player to solve the situation as fast as they can. 

The player should be able to release up to 3 singles from each album and all 3 can have their own music video. 

During album production, the MC should be able to buy songs from other artists/companies to complete the album faster. 
The MC can also be approached by famous or washed up music producers claiming they have the next #1 smash hit and they want to sell it to the company on the condition that the song is released as one of the singles from the groups next album. Those would be contract singles that can randomly do well or not so much in the charts, they could generate random events both negative or positive such as plagiarism claims or subliminal messages in the lyrics or be deemed Genius Lyrics or Song of The Year. Nonetheless, the player can't proceed to another album or single production before releasing the contracted single as the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd single from the current album. These songs would also be sold for really cheap prices in comparison with the ones the player can buy ready but would have a much higher royalty % for the original producer. 

Music Video production can be easy, you just have to pick the theme, the budget, director and production company and location for the shoot which can be in any country affecting the budget for the video. Random events should also be connected to the MVs production.

Companies and Brands should offer sponsor deals related to music videos so they can pay for half of the production budget in exchange for having their products promoted on the MV.

ABOUT RANDOM EVENTS: 

Then again, not all random events in this should be negative. We can have some things like, 'idol-A' really improved her vocal skills and that showed in the latest recording session. Album gets x.x% bonus quality points.' or for MVs 'idol-B showed up for shooting with a very nice energy that affected all members and the crew. MV gets x.x% bonus quality points' or even 'idol-C showcased her dancing skills during the shooting resulting in amazing takes from the dance scene. x.x% bonus quality points'.
Even though that, more serious negative events not related to idols relationships could also take place like 'during the shoot of a stunt scene, idol-c injured her leg, shooting had to be postphoned. -x% quality for MV.

EXTRA FEATURE: (since I know this is based on the Japanese Idol Industry, I'm not sure if this one really applies but, anyway I just think it would be a nice feature)

Idols may develop artistic traits and work on original music, the player then would decide if they are using it or not. Maybe idols with artistic traits could have WISHES of having one or more self-composed songs on albums. The Idol's original songs could have their quality based on their abilities so if you think the songs isn't good enough, you can politely tell the idol she should work harder and that can have a negative or positive turn out in your relationship with the idol depending on the idol's personality traits. 
If the idol's song is good but doesn't fit the concept you're going for or you just don't want to share royalties with them you can refuse to use the songs also at a risk of impacting the relationship with the idol or only inciting them to want to end their contracts earlier because of lack of creative freedom.

Wouldn't be great if we had random questions like moral dilemma like: "if you use sexy concept there is 20% of chance for your song to become viral (and sell 1M copies even if you're a nugu) but there is 80% of chance to lose 50% of your fanbase if the song doesn't go viral, what would you like to do?"

Ofc after the song goes viral or if it goes viral, our next single can still have nugu sales because people were only interested in a viral hit and not our other song.

That would be pretty cool. It would be more risk and more consequence. There should be a lot of such questions during the game so we wouldn't get the same scenarios like now over and over again.

I have a suggestion for the graduation system.

 1. I would really love to be able to keep my Idols longer. All of the idols graduate usually at a young age like 18 or 20 years old. It would be amazing for them to still be an idol all the way up to age 30-35. I don't really like how I have to keep finding other idols by doing auditions just so I can replace my graduated idol.

2. Instead of having a set graduation date (they should always graduate/retire if they reach 30-35 years), it should be the idol's choice to graduate or not until they reach the max age. Idols could graduate if they decide to stop being an idol (could depend on mental stamina if it gets too low or they are involved in a lot of scandals, being bullied for too long, etc.). They could also leave because of a personal reason (maybe their family member died, if they are young and still in school; they can leave to continue studying, etc.). 

3. If the above suggestions are suggested, it could also be added that idols can return (if accepted or declined by the player) back into the group if they graduated early before the max age.  For example, a idol could've graduated to continue studying but decided to continue being an idol instead.

4. Would also like to add the idea of trainees. Trainees can be trained until the player decides to debut them. It would add a more realistic feel to the game. I think it would be awesome if we could list 12-16 year old idols as trainees and be able to debut them at 18 or so with their updated attributes.

Hope you take these suggestions into consideration. Most of all, I really hope you can adjust the graduation ages to be higher instead of the normal 19 or 20 age.

I have some suggestions related to user experience.

1. Automation for sociable and activities. 
Sociable. When I intend to improve influence I have to drag and drop each times. It is a little bit irritating. So I prefer to choose persons whom I intend to do sociable, and automatically assign them to sociable tasks.
Activities. I suppose there is no need to select activities each days, I prefer to select at once. And repeat same activities every day automatically.
2. Pause functioning
When I unpausing the game by space-key game speed returns to normal. I suppose it might be better to return to speed previously selected.
For example, 
current double-＞pause-＞unpause-＞normal
suggestion double-＞pause-＞unpause-＞double

It would be great if when you hover over the number of fans, you can see which sister groups have how many fans.

I'm not sure if this thread is still being checked but in the future could the devs consider adding the ability to buyout other companies/labels? Like if you keep outselling/sabotaging a rival group, the stock prices of their company should decrease overtime and if the player has enough money (or if they've bought small amounts of stocks overtime) they could buyout their stocks and merge the company gaining all of their idols, staff and remaining fans or just have the company as a sub-label that generates income if the player maintains it. There could be a menu where the player could decide which idols or staff member to transfer between the sub-label and main label. Also there could be random events like natural events or economic crashes that could also affect other companies' stock prices. 

Another idea i have is the ability to open your own training academy. I find it annoying to have my popular and well trained idols graduate and then i have to replace them with idols that aren't as skilled. So there could be an option to open an "idol school" that basically would "farm" future idols. For example the player could hire specific vocal and dance coaches (or graduated idols) to train young idols for 2-3 years. The player could make money by setting the training price for young girls to enter and after they graduate from the academy the player could have the option to let them join their group or accept a large sum of money from them. It would be cool to see the rejected girls appear in rival groups or have events of them harrassing the player's pre-exsisting idols out of jealousy. The player could even accept contracts from larger rival companies to train their idols at their academy for a hefty price (if the player graduates a specific amount of idols or something). 

Thank you for working on the game devs, it's a really fun game and i look forward to seeing how the final product turns out! <3

I also suggest what we should get gold idols when we do local auditions because let's be real after talented trainees leave from very good companies they also end up in small shitty companies or talented idols were rejected from big companies for whatever reason for example we could get gold idol with great vocals and dancing skills but they would not be cool or pretty because for example this is why they ended up here, others didn't want them because they were ugly by idol standards. It can be very small % to get them like maybe 0.2% but it would be nice if we could get some talented gold idols in local auditions.

So first of all, I want to say that I've been enjoying the game immensely, even though I've only been playing for a few days so far. I don't know how deep the existing content goes, so I apologize if some of these are already implemented or planned.

The first one is something that I'd consider to be a rather big QoL improvement; the other two are just things I think would be nice to have.

1. Show the relationship meters in the Socialization screen. Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to actually check your relationship stats while you're actually in conversation. It would be great if, for instance, you could see an idol's Influence value before you try to blackmail her into doing something for you. I generally try to double-check their profiles before I enter a conversation, but every now and again I forget to, or else I need a refresher.
2. Right now it doesn't seem like there's much point to keeping on an idol as a staffer after she graduates, as there's nothing really differentiating her from Generic Office Temp #4021 other than the unique portrait. It would be nice to have something like a unique stat bonus, or else some minor post-graduation events that pop up occasionally based on the relationship you developed with her while she was still active.
3. Personalities that evolve as an idol ages. Not necessarily asking for something like a full-blown Crusader Kings-style trait system, but it would be fun if each idol had a small random chance of gaining a second trait on her birthday in addition to the one she starts with.
   

I've been playing the game since may, and I must admit that I love it.

But as I was playing, I was thinking that I could be very amazing to not be imposed groups of ten. As I know it could disbalance the game to have smaller groups, I was thinking that the amount of smaller groups could be restrain to a certain amounts, per fame of you company maybe ? I don't know yet, but I think it would ba awesome to have the ability to create duos or trios without having like 30 idols in your main group in order to do so.

I also was thinking that saving the formation you did would really help, cuz when you start building up a big company it is easy to get lost in your idols.

And also, I know you can see idols according to your sister groups, but it would be really nice if we could (when you do a single with your main group) have an option to only see your main group (or at least have them all put together and not having to scroll your idols for them (who would be in between the members of two differents sister groups)

Since the upcoming update can   influence  idols to stay with the group longer. I hope I can convince famous graduated member to join anniversary or special single.

and I also hope there is b-side or coupling song that can choose member to participate too. [ Just like main single but you can choose member for coupling song too ]

Another one to add to the list:  It would be quite helpful if we had some sort of ledger / account book where all of the financial info is gathered into one place for easy review, broken down by month. Right now it seems as though I have to hunt around between several different screens to find it, and I don't think revenue for singles and concerts is logged anywhere beyond the individual results screens for each one.

A few things I want to add.

*Since there's characters with age number in the game, how about prohibit/ not allowed girls under the age of 18 from partaking any sexy activities or business proposal as this shouldn't be happening realistically. 

If this happen, this can result in an instant scandal that could potentially ruined the company such as reduction in sale by 50% or popularity.
This can only occur a certain amount of time like scandals act as warning, after three strike the game is over (such as government official shuts the idol group down due to multiple violation of the law).

That way, the game would be more harder and we have to pay attention to the girls age before assigning them to business proposal that they shouldn't do.

*Having an option whether to be causal in the workplace in business policies, (such as the employees doesn't need to be formal such as no need to say Mr. x
and can just say the player name instead casually) This boost mental points or morale. Or a formal workplace which boost quality.

*Notification sound for completion of task or activities being assigned such and setting to customized which notification we would like to have in the game. Same with business proposal being successful and available to accept

*Add the option to release a single as a standalone CD without anything included (A single album with no photocard, no handshake event no promotion included etc but the downside is risk of lower sale due to lack of marketing).

*Add a rare business proposal where the idol group get to perform at special events such as award ceremony or sports event as special guest. This result in huge rewards but bigger risk.

*New game in sandbox mode which allow players to skip the entire storyline and play casually without the main story just like the current beta state. (But requires the main game to be completed first).

 Optional but too time consuming

*Add some dialogue for the manager to make the conversation a little more smooth, for example after the player choose this option:

Idol: Hi, you wanted to see me?
Manager: Yes, it's about what you said to x.
Idol: Oh, it's regarding the conversion I had with x.
Manager: Yep. I just wanted to let you know that this is all a big misunderstanding and I just want to clarify that we were just discussing about her future at x.

*Increase Starting funds by $2,000,000 on normal difficulty to make it a bit more easier for newer players.

I was thinking, maybe a room, appart from the theater, that can help to rise the smart and funny of your Idol might be something quite interesting. Like classrooms with teachers in humour or smart things, I don't know at all, but since they're calculated on the percentage of success of the new promotions, it would be quite nice to do do something with it

If possible at this point, some Nogizaka references would be nice. Seems like everything I see is AKB/Keyakizaka.

I was thinking it would be interesting to have a feature where you could buy other idol production companies and absorb them into your group. Maybe have policies set where the idols you get from "buying out" the company either become a sister group or they are managed autonomously and you get a cut of the revenue instead of all of it by taking direct control of the group.

Also, it would be nice if you could set policies for all groups or have different policies for differ sister groups.

Have you debated adding the ability to compile albums in any length? I feel like it could be an advantage to either wrap old singles together into an album, or spend more time and resource to create an album instead of a single.

By wrapping the previous sigles into an album, it may also create a convenient way to select a song if you wanted a specific lead for a concert!

Shouldn't the mods be bound with the save not the whole game?

Would it be better if the mods can be activated per start (when start a new game), while keeping the mod tab in the main menu screen for master activation?

because I would like to have different game saves for different mods, for example, save A for vanilla game, and save for K-Pop mod.

Could we have an option to divorce? I know this is not a decent thing to do, but y'know, gameplay wise it kinda makes sense.

Also, R18 contents seemed too generic and non-interactive right now. The idol in R18 CGs could have layered facial features, hairstyles and clothing just like the standing pictures. And we could have more choices, routes and varieties in terms of R18 scenes and gameplay. I know it's not a dating sim, but it's always nice to have everything as detailed and developed as possible if decided to be implemented in the first place. The variety of aspects, possibilities and gameplay functionalities is one of the biggest strong points of this game IMO and I rate this game above all other similar titles simply because of this. I'd love to be surprised even more.

Edit: Some new thoughts. It doesn't make sense that the songs can't be produced simultaneously by the producer, manager, coach, etc. This is not realistic. Also, the collection of idols can be further expanded. After a while it gets pretty repetitive at current state.

Love the new stories and dating system tho. Keep up the great work.

I hope in the final version, we will have some kind of Achievements page that tells us which endings we've gotten/need to get still, and give us a completion percent for other things like conversations between idols (assuming those are random every game.) Even better might be some kind of plot branch flowchart that shows which choices we haven't made at each chapter?

 Anyways, the game and writing is great so far! Very excited to get more endings! 

I've been following Idol Manager since the Kickstarter campaign in March 2018 and finally played it around 3-4 months ago, and I love it. The new story update (although broken for me as I keep crashing whenever talking to my rival in chapter 4) adds a lot of content and replay value to the game. The direction the game is heading is great and I can't wait for its official release, but I think I want to add my feedback and suggestions to the mix:

- Staff should have their own personal traits like what the idols have. For example, a Dance Coach that has faster training time with idols over the age of 21, etc. It would also be nice to be able to choose an individual trait for my character.

- I think Staff should have their own satisfaction bar or ask for raises as your company gets more buzz. In my opinion it would be crazy for staff to be willing to work for a multi-million dollar company while earning way below the minimum wage.

- a PR manager would be a cool addition as a new type of staff that you can use to try to generate buzz, passively reduce the chances for scandals, or even create scandals to earn scandal points.

- A dedicated button in the bottom right to see list or graphs showing the growth of the company, income, fans, etc. and see the sales of songs or see songs that went gold, platinum, etc. 

- This might be out of the scope of the game, but I feel like streaming should have more depth to it than just being a simple policy. It would be cool that I have an idol become a dedicated streamer that promotes music, etc. Or even have the chance to make one of my idols become a virtual idol in the same vein as Hololive or Kizuna Ai.

Can 'Reality' be a Genre for Media? Like a reality show? It can attract Hardcore, Female, Young Adult or Hardcore, Female , Teen? 

I want to recommend an option to release something like a mini album or a full album because that would be really interesting. But also, it could shoot you through the rankings! :)

Found some time to play through the story mode: It was fun, actually! I played the: (spoiler)

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Olympics ending through Fujimoto's route and Aya's genre challenge. Not the most exciting route/end I'm sure, but I know I missed the obvious Phantom Facade route (Btw it was a great little moment when the UI and music changed upon their debut, made me perk up at 2AM.) There was some great artwork and genuinely interesting talks along the way. If I could suggest some changes for the story web, it'd be either A) A visible tree where we can see the number of endings, the branches, and where we are now/where we've been B) Choice flags you can always return to C) A new game plus that lets you continue after your end with the same resources you have, just reset to an earlier point in the story so you can see the different routes without having to start from scratch

General suggestions are the same as others have noted:

• Ability to create albums/EPs with multiple songs
• PVs as a separate system
• Bigger formation size
• More Election slots to go along with this
• WCenter capability
• Ability to designate workers to only work with assigned sister groups, sister group concerts, etc
• Ability to do more than one type of marketing with a single
• Plus I always like the idea of subgenres from earlier in the beta, would keep things fresh if you could put research into them, too

I also like the format of preparing for the Olympic bid: I'd love to see more "missions" like that.

Enhanced sorting capabilities
The current sorting is done based on one stats of the idols. However, this doesn't seem to be very useful in actual play. It would be useful to be able to sort by the overall value of a few selected stats, or by a number, such as the "overall rating" of an audition.

Staff Training
For example, coaches and producers hired early in the game often become useless as the group then expands rapidly. In the current version of the game, it is reasonable to fire such personnel and hire experts. However, staff events make it psychologically difficult to fire them. So why not allow players to invest research points to build facilities and programs that improve the skills of their staff?

Automated Decision Making
Business proposals are important to the specifics of the game, but as the game progresses and the number of idols increases, so does the volume and complexity. Is it possible to set up an automated policy to handle this in a secure way?

Here is some ideas I have!

- A leader system, where you can pick a member to be the leader. That member will be extremely careful around scandals, and if any of the other members get into a scandal it will hurt the leader’s mental stamina. The leader will be most likely to report any bullying and concerns (like dating, etc) to the player. Also the leader will have a big role within the media. If the group gets into a lot of scandals, the leader’s reputation will be bad. If the group has a lot of good singles, the leader’s reputation will be good. 

- A center system. Where you pick the main center of the group. The center will be seen as the face of the  group. If the center is doing well in a single, the song will be extremely popular. If the center isn’t in the single or isn’t (at least) in the top three rows, the single will flop. 

- A subunit system. I understand we already have sister groups, but subunits are mini groups that we can have for a temporary amount of time. The units can promote outside of the country and receive attention.

- Concerts. In concerts whenever we have a “talk break” we should have the option of what the talk break will be about. Like if it’s a comedy based break, a short talent break, or anything really! 

- Foreign members. These members will bring in a lot of attention internationally, but will cause slight tension within the home-country about the foreigners. If there is too much foreign members, you will have a possibility of losing hardcore fans.

- Graduation concerts. Every time one of my members leave, I always want to host a concert surrounding them! 

- A “parody” genre / lyrics. These type of songs will gain a lot of hardcore fans. However, depending on your center’s feeling about the song can either make or break the song.

- Music videos! Someone here had an amazing idea for music videos.

- A generation system. (however you can decide whether or not you wish to have said system) Similar towards Morning Musume. Whereas every year or two, members will graduate and you eventually have to search for new members. Each time a member graduates you will lose hardcore fans. You can release a goodbye single, have a graduation concert, and release merchandise surrounding the member. 

- Mini albums, full albums.

- Trainee competition  show, where you can search for new members of the group.  You can also have the option of having viewers vote on their favorite trainee or you can swap trainees and pick your favorite one. The trainee competition show can bring attention to your group and also internationally.

- Updates on the shows! When you have a show, you can have comments on the episodes per week. Also you can decide how many episodes the show receives and can renew it for more seasons. 

- Dorms, we can have a dormitory system. If there’s concern for a idol’s privacy, we can have a dorm for the idols. This can help increase friendships and decrease bullying. 

That’s it, thank you!

It's been suggested once before in this thread, but I'd like to comment in support of keyboard shortcuts.

Recovering from carpal tunnel syndrome myself, the amount of precision clicking is quite straining during long periods of play.

Even if it's just limited to a few hotkeys for the different main menus, it would be a huge quality of life improvement.

I'm sure people have mentioned this before, but I think it'd be cool to be able to romance the other main characters (Fujimoto, Aya, and the rival)

can you make it so that the game pauses time when the hit records and scandals pop up.

Quick suggestion: how about a click-and-hold, instead of a simple click, for buying research points (kinda like clicking and holding for spending research points)? Especially because the button for purchasing research points is located right next to the staffers' icons, it can be easy to misclick and accidentally end up buying research points (I totally didn't just do that, by the way), and once you do that, the prices are permanently increased, which can be somewhat dangerous.

On the topic of tasks: it would be nifty to have an 'X' button to dismiss any secondary tasks we don't intend on fulfilling, instead of just leaving them there taking space for no good reason.

Hi there. loving the game so far.

Checkbox option for the detail screen to repeat the currently queued activities in that exact order. When clicking on one of the 3 activities at the top it will be slotted in as next in line, but should not be added to the saved repeat queue. Slot increase to 8, so we could do a clean Promo x3 , Spa x1, Perf x3, Spa x1 rotation.

Increase (mouse wheel) scroll speed for the tasks if there are that many open.

"Stat tracking" for Idols, to see how much they improved, or got worse over the last year in each stat. Maybe a popup event at the end of the year for review as well.

If it's not a thing already: If coaching is maxed out, increase in training speed for idols.

Possibility to send staff on courses/trainings to get better in one of their two stats. Staff will not be available during that time.

Additional auto policy: If physical stamina is below x%, don't partake in any "unnecessary" work -> Theater, Cafe, Media, Training, maybe not get selected for jobs/proposals as well.

Queueing for producers office: If Idols finish their current task, they will immediately head over for a date, or wait until the producers current task is done. 

If I cancel an Idols current task, auto tasks shouldn't be disabled.

Detailed log in Idols profile to see, when and where they spent/gained stamina. Plus a weekly tally.

There's no Media Genre that boosts young adults.

Additional option for Idol salaries to keep them at 100% satisfaction. If on manual -> get a message from your office to tell you someone isn't >= 100% satisfied.

Better visual queues for completed tasks on singles/media/events. Maybe instead of the green dot, highlight the complete button in green and keep it that way, until the task has been handed to the next staffer to work on, or has been released.

Option to release singles/media/events at a specific date.

Option to manually set the media show times. Daily/Weekly/Monthly, on which Day(s), maybe timeslot -> Morning, Midday, Afternoon, Evening, Night 

Paradox Interactive style options for tasks/events. E.g.: If a task for a single is finished it can automatically stop time, switch to the menu, etc.

Loading from within a game sometimes doesn't work.

Keep up the good work and cheers.

I've thought about it a lot and I've come to only one conclusion

add virtual idols... or atleast virtual programs Xd

I would like to make a few suggestions!

First of all, i think its a must to put albums in the game

second, i think you should be able to choose what to call your fans

i think it would also be cool to be able to schedule events for the idols, like a meet and greet or autograph signing, performing in festivals and small stuff like that

It would also be nice to have some more outfit choices lol

and the last suggestion i have is the ability to assign the idols roles like leader, main vocalist, main rapper, etc

Loving the game so far but there is some difficulty that I am having with the game. 

One of my more basic problems is pausing and playing. I would like it if the game remembers the speed I have when I pause. So when I unpause it would put me back to 2x speed again. 

On top of that, I think the game should pause every time I enter the sidebar menu. 

I would also like a button on the detail page that just queue up a do-nothing day. It for when I don't want to spend money on a spa day but also don't want to work my idol. So I think a rest day queue would be great. It really awkward to have to stop your queue and remember to queue again just to take a 1-day break. 

I also think that having color icons would be more beneficial or just a larger icon, in general, would be better. Not only is the icon small but they all share the same color that blends in too much. 

Singles, shows, and events that are still in production that still needs to be work on should up in the empty space of detail for easy dragging. I think that the empty should be utilized for making the gameplay experience less tedious. While it is very simple to click on singles and drag it in, having all the information available on the detail screen makes for faster gameplay. 

It'd be pretty awesome if we got to have male idols along with the female idols since we have the option to choose between a male and female manager (unless someone already made or is currently making a mod for this already?).

I'm not sure if anyone has talked about this before, so apologies if I'm repeating any ideas.

But I think the awards show is a little hard to follow which groups got which awards. I think a TV screen or something that displays each category and slowly reveals the winners would be really exciting and also easier to understand the winners for each category! 

EDIT: I think it would be nice if the rarity of the girls (silver,gold,etc) was listed somewhere in their profiles for future reference.

Please let us flirt with our rival I know they're supposed to be annoying or rude but I just want to cherish them  (´͈  ᵕ `͈ ）

(also this game is easily the best 25 bucks I've ever spent you're amazing ily ahahaha)