Software Star

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Software Star
Developer(s)	Kevin Toms
Platform(s)	C64, ZX Spectrum
Release date	1985
Media	Cassette
Input methods	Keyboard

Software Star is a 1985 game released by Kevin Toms for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.

1 Gameplay
- 1.1 Objective
2 Trivia
3 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Essentially a text-based management game. Your task is to manage a software house, create new games, manage your publicity and make £10,000 profit. Meanwhile you must achieve the status of "Software Star" for ten successive months.

Having a large portfolio of games has it advantages by increasing your monthly sales. However money must be spent on promoting aging titles. Each game has its own quality rating, where the quality increases with the amount of time spent on development. Managing the productivity of your staff is also key to the game, giving you a snapshot of the last six months you could decide to either discipline offer incentives or take no action. There are four sales regions where your products are sold. These regions are ordered from one to four, depending on how much importance you give to them by consulting the sales from the previous month. Public relations also needs tweaking by choosing Honesty or Hype. Each descion has an effect on your company image. Finally you have to evaluate your potential market depending on the time of year and decide how many advertising pages to buy. Markets are larger around Christmas and New Year. It is then time to sit back and look at the sales figures as your game enters the Top 20. You are given a sales break even figure and each game climbs the chart if it sells well to the Number One spot.

At the end of the month you view your monthly statement to check your progress and Stardom rating ranging from Nobody to Software Star. At the year end the directors will check your progress and either fire you raise the bar or give you another chance.