April was an important month in the development of Championship Wrestling Promoter. For the moment I’ve stopped adding new features and work is now entirely focused on adding some polish, balance, and most importantly - new content. This means there isn’t as much to show off visually as there has been in some previous months, but the game is now much better to play than it was a month or two ago. This leads into the big announcement for this month - I’ll be releasing a new demo soon.
UPDATES
There are three big things that I’ve been working on this month. The first one is the user interface. I’ve been working on making the UI more clean and consistent across the various elements of the game, making everything easier to read and understand. Simulation games are often difficult to get into because there are so many systems and layers of menus, so one of my biggest areas of focus for Championship Wrestling Promoter has been trying to make the game as easy to understand as possible. I’ve worked on reducing the number of clicks for every action, and I’m trying to ensure the information that’s necessary is always quickly and readily available, rather than buried several layers deep in menus.
I’ve also spent a lot of April working on game balance. This was necessary because I completely reworked how the simulation runs in the background for both matches and promos, and also because game balance is an ongoing issue any time you’re adding new features. I think the balance is in a pretty good spot for people to give the booking system a try, but I’ll continue to refine it as I get closer to a final release.
Finally, I’ve added lots of content to the game. There’s a full array of special match types now available (called Stipulations in the game) such as cage matches, street fights, and so forth. There are a couple more I’d like to add eventually, but there’s a good selection available now. I’ve also been working on making the face/heel distinction between wrestlers more apparent, which means for example that heels will try to cheat during matches when the referee isn’t looking, and faces and heels also approach promos differently.
I’ve also rewritten a lot of the code for how save files are handled, although as a player you won’t see any difference.
DEMO INFO
I’m still adding a bit more content, especially to the promos, before the demo is ready. And then I’ll need to do some play-testing to make sure my work on game balance is as good as I hope it is. I expect that work will take 2-3 weeks, meaning I’m aiming for the demo to be ready for the middle of May. Here’s what the demo will include:
The booking system for putting together a show full of matches and promos is essentially complete.
Singles matches, with a wide variety of stipulations available.
One type of promo for solo wrestlers and one type of promo for two wrestlers facing off against each other.
An early version of the systems for Morale and getting wrestlers Over.
The Heat system, which allows players to build up audience interest in feuds and then spend Heat like a resource on special match types that will earn higher audience ratings.
Many options for editing individual wrestlers (excluding their graphics), as well as details about your wrestling promotion.
All the graphics are placeholder programmer art right now. This will be the last demo released with temporary graphics, as I expect to be hiring an artist in the near future.
There are many features that still need to be added to the game which are not currently available:
Matches other than 1v1 singles matches (tag team, triple threat, battle royal, etc.).
The Faction system, which will be used for creating tag teams and designating which wrestlers are allies of each other.
Traits. This is going to be a key element of how wrestlers are differentiated. If you’ve ever played Crusader Kings or Total War or that kind of strategy game, you know how much character these little details add.
More types of promos.
The entire financial management aspect of the game. In the final version of CWP, you will sign wrestlers to contracts, manage your promotion’s finances based on goals set by the company owner, compete with other federations, deal with wrestlers aging and getting injured, and more.
A more in-depth Morale system, where wrestlers will have expectations for screen time, wins, and title reigns.
The ability to edit what wrestlers look like. Wrestler appearance will be customisable once final art is in the game.
Random events. This could be anything from a wrestler getting a boost to how Over they are from appearing on a popular TV show, to a global financial crisis that requires you to cut budget, and so much more.