[accesscomp] FW: ParkBoss, a new free windows game, Dan's tip for Friday September 26 2014
- From: "Robert Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tektalk discussion" <tektalkdiscussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 15:34:26 -0700
Robert Acosta, President
Helping Hands for the Blind
(818) 998-0044
www.helpinghands4theblind.org
From: dan Thompson [mailto:dthompson5@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 9:07 AM
To: dan Thompson
Subject: ParkBoss, a new free windows game, Dan's tip for Friday September
26 2014
I am getting to extremely dislike Mediacom. We were out of TV, Phone and
Internet most of the day yesterday. I called and asked for a credit which
probably will be coming. But it is quite aggravating!!
ParkBoss
http://www.ndadamson.com
*I. Introduction:
Have you ever been to an amusement park and
thought that it would be easy to run or you could do a better job?
Do you want to play an audio only game that doesn't depend on quick
reactions but uses your brain to work things out?
Have you ever wanted to hit a sock stuffed with paper with a wooden stick
after it's fallen through a tube?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions then Park Boss is for you.
Park Boss, the latest free release from N A Soft, is an amusement park
simulator for Windows where you're the boss. Every choice you make has an
impact on how successful your park is. You can choose from over 70
attractions, choose how your park is laid out and what sort of food you
sell. Make the wrong choices, don't employ enough staff or don't pay them
enough, charge to much for food or tickets and visitors won't come. Manage
marketing campaigns, react to events at the park and even play and ride some
of the attractions.
Park Boss is played using a simple set of menus which give you access to
nearly limitless combinations of choices. Once you've opened your park walk
around it in an immersive audio experience and talk to your visitors to see
what they think of your park. Listen to what they say; there feedback can
help you improve the park.
Park Boss should work on any version of Microsoft Windows. Its been tested
on versions from XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
All you need is a windows PC with a sound card. The game is played using a
combination of recorded speech and SAPI speech.
Supporting N A Soft
Park Boss is free to download for personal use but it costs to develop a
game like this.
If youve enjoyed playing Park Boss then please consider using the get
intouch link. send me your email address and how much you'd like to send me
and I'll send you a paypal request. Sorry this is a bit clunky. I'm trying
to work out a better way.
*II. ParkBoss Instructions:
This document gives some instructions on how to play Park Boss from N A
Soft.
The game has been designed to be intuitive so that this manual and the
amount of learning time for the game can be kept small.
Introduction to Park Boss
The purpose of Park Boss is to build an amusement park from the ground up.
As the boss everything regarding your park is under your control. The rides
you add, the staff you employ and how much you pay them, the types of meals
you serve, how much to charge for them, the advertising, dealing with
situations which arise and balancing the need to keep your visitors happy
with making money. Remember that unless you make money you cant build new
attractions. There is no end to the game. You can keep playing and building
as long as you like. There are over 70 attractions you can build along with
15 different zones you can setup. Every so often youll get an offer to by
the park. This is equivalent to selling up and taking the money. When you do
sell then you invest all the money in to purchasing new land and you start
all over again.
Availability
Park Boss is free to download and distribute however if you would like to
see it further developed, including maybe porting it to apple devices, then
you can support the development of this, and possible future games by
donating at www.ndadamson.com.
Credits and thanks
There are a number of people who should be thanked. My test team; Reinhard,
Carlos, Marcus, Brad, Kamochek, Mohammad, Nicholas, Moritz, Ryan, Jondalar,
Philip, Claire and Paul. This game is far better because of their input than
it was before we started the testing process, Thank you so much.
Those who provided voices for me; Sean, Dave, Shaun, Derry, Rick, Paul and
Jack. Andre Louis for some of the music in the game and all the contributors
at freesound.org for creating a fantastic database of sounds.
Finally I want to thank My wife and Kids for putting up with me during the
many hours of development that went in to this game.
Playing the game
The game play is pretty simple. Nearly everything in Park Boss is a menu.
Use the arrow keys to adjust values or select menu options, enter to
activate and escape to save you're setting and go back.
Most of the work is done in the office. From here you can access all the
various options available to you. Its also important to walk around the
park. Not only does it give you a sense of what youve created, it also
gives you the opportunity to enjoy some of the attractions but more
importantly speak to your guests.
Global hot keys
The following hot keys can be used at any time during game play.
The control key stops speech.
o The f1 key tells you the week number and what day it is. Weeks start on
a Monday. Park state is assessed at the beginning of the week so expect
emails and your customers view of the park to change at the beginning of the
week.
o F2 reports your current bank balance.
o F3 brings up your email window, you can also get to this from the
office. Use the delete key to remove emails youve dealt with, hit escape to
leave your inbox.
o F4 pauses the game. Hitting f4 again or escape un-pauses. By pausing
the game you stop time but cannot interact with the game.
Walking the park
The option to walk the park can be found in the main menu. When you choose
to walk the park the park loads, this can take a couple of seconds depending
on how many attractions youve built.
If youre at the beginning of the game the park may be closed, you will be
told if this is the case and how to open it.
While you're walking the park the following keys can be used. Dont forget
the global hot keys listed above.
The arrow keys move between squares. Initially the park is in a grid, 10 by
10 squares. More land can be bought if you run out of space. An attraction
can take up to 6 squares, when you build the attraction youre told how big
the attraction is.
The space bar can be used to say what is on the current square. Listen out
for the prompt that tells you that you can have a go at an attraction,
thats when enter can be used.
The enter key can be used to interact with some attractions. In the case of
Whack a Rat and the darts game you can play the games. Instructions will be
given. In the case of the large rollercoaster, small rollercoaster or rapids
you can ride the rides. In the case of the monorail when the train is in the
station you can get on, ride the monorail to a different station and get
off. To get off hit enter again.
The t key can be used to talk to your visitors. Hit this key while in the
park and theyll tell you what they think of your park. Listen to this
information very carefully as it gives you ideas on how to improve your
visitors satisfaction level. The satisfaction level of your visitors
directly impacts on how many visitors you get a week. If they arent happy
then less of them will come which means less income.
The escape key leaves the park and returns you back to the main menu.
The Office
Your virtual office is where you get access to most of the settings in Park
Boss. When youre in the office you are sitting in front of the computer
that controls the Park. Everything on the computer is a menu. Use the arrow
keys to adjust items or change selections. Enter to select and escape to
save your settings and go back. The following sections give details of the
options available to you however Park Boss has been designed to help you as
you go, youre prompted on how to achieve tasks while you play. Remember
that control can be used to stop any speech and move on to the menu options,
this can be useful as your experience grows.
In the below sections Ive been careful not to give to many details about
how to make a successful park, working this out is what makes the game fun.
Park Status
The park status screen is pretty important. It tells you the week to week
running of the park, how many visitors you're getting per week, how happy
they are, how much they are spending, which attractions are open or closed,
how much money youve got in your bank account, how much money youve got
coming in, how much going out and so on. The numbers and information on this
screen is read only, you cannot adjust anything in this screen and its
updated once a week on a Monday.
Email
The email screen accessible from the office menu or by hitting f3 at any
time gives you special information such as messages from your staff, events
that have happened and so on. You get notified by a sound when a new email
is received. Use the arrow keys to move up and down your email list, youll
be told if you've seen this message or not and when it was received. Use the
control key to stop the speech and the delete key to delete a message. You
dont need to reply to messages.
Attraction Management
The attraction management screen gives you the ability to build or remove
attractions, bye more land, open your park and if applicable rebuild rides
that cant be repaired. There are instructions as you go with this screen
but just as an idea to build an attraction do the following.
Select the type of attraction, as your park becomes more successful more
categories will become available to you.
Select the attraction from the category, youre told quite a lot of
information about the attraction before you add it, the key bits are how
much it costs to build, how much it costs to run it, how big it is and how
much maintenance itll need.
Once youve selected your attraction youre then presented with the grid
where you can place the attraction. Each square can have only 1 attraction
on it and the ride size includes any queue management systems and paths
needed, you dont need to leave space between attractions. Also the monorail
can go over the top of attractions so you dont need to leave space for its
track.
Youll be told if you cant afford an attraction or if there isnt space to
build the attraction where youve selected.
Employee Management
The employee management screen gives you the options to employ and fire 3
different categories of staff.
Attraction Operators actually run your attractions, they are the cooks in
your kitchens, the people who run your roller coasters and the staff in your
shops. Typically each attraction needs 2 operators.
Entertainers arent assigned to a particular attraction but walk around the
park making your visitors happy, they are the people in the marching band or
in costume. At lease 9 entertainers make up a marching band, which you can
here if you go to the park.
Maintenance staff are your cleaners and repair people. They keep your park
running. Each attraction has an associated maintenance cost in the number of
hours per week needed to keep the attraction running.
Remember that you need to allow enough staff to cover holidays, sickness and
so on.
For each type of staff you can increase or decrease the number of staff you
employ and set they're hourly wage, each type of staff have different
expectations for a good wage and its based on how many visitors you have.
Each employee works 40 hours a week.
Zone Management
You can optionally split your park in to different zones. There are 15 to
choose from. You can use as many or as view as you like. Zoning your park
doesnt change anything about the options regarding attractions or impact
your customer satisfaction level, it just gives you the ability to identify
particular sections of the park. A zone affects the attraction decoration
and entertainers costumes. Each zone has associated theme music which you
can here as you walk the park. Youre also told when you change zones.
Cost Management
The cost management screen enables the setting of the cost of entering the
park the average snack price and the average meal price. Depending on how
much you charge for a snack or meal will impact on how many of your
visitors bye that item. Setting it to low means that you wont make as much
money as you could, setting it to high means that less people will spend
money.
The ticket price is how much each visitor pays to get in to the park. Once
in visitors dont have to pay to ride rides, but do have to pay to play
games or buy something at a snack stand, restaurant or shop. The ticket
price can grow as you build more attractions. Talking to your visitors as
you walk the park will give you a good hint as to weather you're charging
too much, too little or a fair amount. If you charge to much your
satisfaction level will drop and less people will come to the park. It's a
careful balancing act to get the cost level right.
Marketing Campaigns
You can run 3 types of marketing campaign, news paper, radio or TV. Each
time you run a particular campaign the cost rises to run the same type of
cam pane next time. The campaign runs for a week and its success level is
variable. Youll get an email at the end of the week telling you how
successful the campaign was.
If your bank account balance is low you can run a news paper campaign on
credit, Youre given the option to add this to any existing loan. This is
only for news paper campaigns, it cannot be used for radio or TV.
Park Report
The park report cost £10000, which is added to your loan amount. This can be
used to audit your park and give you a report. It advices you on how much
you should be paying your staff, what attractions you need, what your parks
draw factor is, what a suggested ticket price is and so on. Its been
designed to help those struggling to balance the books, be aware that over
using this option can make the game less interesting to play.
When you run the report you get an email with the result but its also added
to your computers clipboard. This means that it could be pasted in to an
application like word or notepad for detailed studying. Please be aware that
the content of this report is only assessed for a given week, generating a
report twice in the same week, even if you've changed options, will generate
the same information. This is not a bug, rather its to emulate the changes
taking effect on the attitude of your visitors.
Visit The Bank
By visiting the bank you can get a loan or pay back an existing loan. You
can borrow up to £50000 each week. Youll get charged interest on your loan.
When you start a new park visiting the bank and setting costs is probably
one of the first things youll need to do.
Leave The Office
This option returns you to the main menu.
Tips and Tricks for creating a successful park
Before reading this section it's highly suggested that you try playing the
game. It should only be read if you're continuing to struggle to create a
success of your park as it includes a number of spoilers and explains how
the park is assessed, knowing this can help make a success of your park but
can also reduce the interest factor as some of the challenge of playing can
be lost.
Having said all of that some players may need to know the following:
o Careful use of the park reports can be used to explain how your park is
assessed. It gives you suggestions on how much your employees should be
paid, how much you should be charging for tickets and what extra attractions
should be added to make your visitors happy.
o Each attraction has an associated draw factor. Rides and kids rides
have the biggest draw factors, followed by games, restaurants and then snack
stands. The draw factor is the key part to getting visitors in. The higher
the draw factor the more people you get in, the more you can charge them and
so on. Facilities dont tend to have a draw factor but they are needed to
help your visitors.
o At minimum you should have a customer services, at least 1 toilet and a
picnic area.
o A shop is a great way to make a lot of money, having multiple shops is
a way of increasing the amount visitors spend.
o Snack stands and restaurants are good at making money however if you
fill your park with lots of shops, snack stands and restaurants but not many
rides then you wont get many visitors.
o When you leave the attraction management menu in the office youre told
the minimum staff that you need to run your park. Always try to give an
extra 10% on top of this to allow for staff sickness and holidays.
o Entertainers are useful as they entertain your visitors while they are
waiting for attractions, If your customers say the kids are board while
waiting in the queues when you speak to them in the park employ more
entertainers.
Use the park stats screen to tell you whats happening and give you an
overview of the park status.
o Remember to check your emails.
o In terms of attraction numbers you need 1 customer services per 2500
visitors to the park and 1 toilet per 500 visitors. Customer satisfaction
can drop if you dont meet these minimum requirements.
o Remember that quite often you have to spend money to make it but dont
go over the top. If youve loaned more than £150000 then youve probably got
the wrong idea.
Getting Support
The best way to get Park boss support is via twitter, just tweet @n_a_soft
alternatively use the contact us form at www.ndadamson.com to send me a
message. Please be aware that I am fitting Park boss development and support
around a day job and young family so it may take a couple of days or so for
me to get back to you. You could also try asking your questions on the
audiogames.net forum.
Have fun playing.
·
To find out more and download this audio game visit the N A Soft
website at
*III. Download Link
Below is a link to the page where a download link for Parkboss can be found.
If using a screenreader
1. Move to the next line and arrow to the right a few times. Then press
enter. You should be taken to the "Adamson Family Home page." Visit the
link below.
http://www.ndadamson.com
2. Press control plus the home key.
3. Press the letter u two times. The cursor is placed on, "N A Soft
Software."
Tap enter on this link.
4. Press control plus home.
5. Press the letter h five times. The cursor is place on a heading entitled
"Park Boss."
6. Arrow down twice to "ddownload parkboss" and tap enter.
7. Use the find feature:
(JAWS, System Access and Windows-eyes, control plus f
NVDA, control plus NVDA key plus f)
8. Type in the word click and hit enter.
The cursor is placed on "click here to download installer."
9. Press the application key.
10. Arrow down to "save target as" and hit enter.
11. Navigate to where you wish to save this file.
12. Tap enter and the download will start.
You should hear a ding if enabled in sounds when the download is finished.
It only takes a few seconds.
13. Locate the file and hit enter to start the installation process.
Mouse users:
1. Click on "N A Soft Software"
2. Click on "Download Park BossDownload Park Boss"
3. Place the mouse pointer on "Click here to download the installer."
4. Press the right mouse button.
5. Click on "save target as."
6. Navigate to where you wish to save the file and click okay.
7. When the download is finished, locate the installer and click on it.
Follow the on screen prompts.
*IV. If your anti-virus will not let you save the installer file:
1. ScreenReader Users;
a. When on the link entitled as "Click here to download the installer."
Press enter.
B Press alt plus the letter r for run.
c. You may be asked to allow if you have the "user control" turned on." So
tab to yes and hit enter.
d. Anti-virus software will go through a brief security scan which is a
good thing.
2. Mouse users:
a. click the link entitled, "Click here to download the installer."
B Click on run.
c. You may be asked to allow if you have the "user control" turned on." So
click on allow or yes.
d. Anti-virus software will go through a brief security scan which is a
good thing.
Once the game is installed, locate it's icon and hit enter. I found it easy
to play.
"Without the Way there is no going; without the Truth there is no knowing;
without the Life there is no living."
-Thomas A Kempis
To subscribe to Dan's tips or dedaily devotions, send an email to
dthompson5@xxxxxxxxx with either "subscribe dan's tips" or "subscribe daily
devotion" in the subject.
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