Game Overview

							     Pet Tycoon
Game Design Document
           - by -
      Myint Kyaw Thu
Game Overview
The game is all about opening a Pet shop, breeding Pets and selling them to make a profit and
compete with the other Pet shops. The game will emphasize on two aspect of the pet selling
business: breeding and taking care of pets, and managing, marketing and competing with other
pet shops in this pet business.

The game targeted audience is casual/family type so the game must be easy and fun to play
without the need for complex and detailed management and must seamlessly combined the
aforementioned 2 aspects of pet breeding business into a single game.

The game will run in real-time and the player must manage his business while taking care of pets
in his pet shop at the same time. At the start of the game, the player can specify how many AI
competitors will be in the game and what kind of marketing condition etc.

The game can be played through 3 different settings, Easy, Normal and Hard, each with
varying difficulty and different market share (see Game Mechanic section). In Easy mode, the
player obtains 50% of market share and hardly competes with other competitors so the gameplay
mostly about taking care of pets to make it suitable for children. In Normal mode, player and
competitors has same market share and suitable for normal play. In Hard mode, player has very
little market share and has to out-run the competitors at the end of the game.


Game Mechanic
The game's goal is to take care of pets in the pet shop so that they are well feed and treated.
When the pets are grown up, player can put a "Sell" label and customers will come into the pet
shop. When a customer wants a pet, he will buy and the player will make money. With enough
money, player can buy more pets, buy new upgrades and equipment for the shop, hire better
employee, and market Ads to promote his shop as well as compete with other pet dealers.

Player can open up Fish shop, Puppy shop and Bird shop. When the player starts the game, he
will own a fish shop. After the player accumulates enough money, he can upgrade to Bird shop
and then to Puppy & Kitten shop. This also applies to AI competitors. If the player is the first to
upgrade to a new level, he will get bonus customer boost (since his is the only pet shop in town
that sells birds or puppies). If competitor can upgrade to new level, then player will lost that
bonus (and in Hard mode, competitor will gain this bonus customer boost and become harder to
compete with that competitor).


Main Interface (Pet Shop)
At the start of the game, player will be put into Shop UI. In this UI, customers will come into the
shop through the pet shop's main entry door, look around the shop and if they find pets that they
like, they will buy and leave the shop (see below).

This is also main interface that will allow the player to easily access various part of the game.
The Shop UI will show the interior of the pet shop the player owns. This will include a deck and
a sale person for selling pets that customers want, a service person who will take care of the pets,
a stack of fish tanks/pet cages and breeding tanks/cages.

Most of the object in the Shop UI can be interacted by double-clicking on them. This will take
the player to other UIs to manage the pet business. When something needs player attention in the
Pet Shop UI, it will show an exclamation mark and player need to click on it to manage it before
things get out of order (for example, when a fish is sick and need to send it to vet, an exclamation
mark will shown on Fish Tank)

Detail UI information:
    When click on an Employee, this will take the player to Employee UI where the player
       can manage individual employee (increase, salary, fire him etc) as well as view current
       status and level.
    When click on Fish Tanks/Pet Cages, this will take the player to Pet Cage UI where the
       player can take care of individual pet. Player can also buy more fish tanks to put more
       fish into.
    When click on Customers, a balloon tip will show what the customer is currently
       thinking. This will enable the player to do market research and find out what customers
       want (need more fish varieties, need more decoration, high price/cheap price, bad
       customer relationship etc).
    When click on a Door (customers will come through the shop's main door), this will take
       the player to Map UI, where the player can see other AI's pet shops or visit one of them
       to see detail how things is doing.
    When click on TV or Radio, this will open Ads UI where the player can listen to other
       Ads as well as air his own Ads.
    When click on Breeding Cage/Tank, this will open Breeding UI where the player can put
       his pets for breeding. This UI is also accessible through Pet Cage UI.
Pets UI
This UI will allow the player to manage individual pets that he owns in his pet shop. This is
enlarged versions of the pet cages in the Shop UI.




When the player owns a Puppy shop, this UI will display puppy cages. When the player own
Fish shop, it will show fish tanks and bird cages for Bird shop.

This UI shows how many pets player own each in their cages/tanks. Player can click on each pet
to get detail information. These can be Pet Status (healthy, hungry, sick etc), Pet's current Age
(player cannot sell baby pets), current pricing and 'Sell' label (player may not want to sell certain
pets).

Player can drag a pet and drop it into another cage to rearrange. Player can also drop 2 or more
pets into same cage to save cage space (this will be the case for Fish since a fish tank can contain
many fish).

If 2 incompatible pets are put into same cage (a sparrow and a hawk, for example), the pet can
get sick or be eaten. If the cage/tank is also too crowed, the pets can also get sick and grow more
slowly.

When a pet get sick, the player can send it to vet. It will cost player some money but the pet will
become healthy again. A sick pet will not grow or can be sold until it is treated. The player can
also drag pets into Breeding icon. This will put the pets into Breeding UI. Only of same species
can be breed. When the pets like each other, a heart icon will float around and after some time,
the female pet will produce a baby/egg.

The pets will grow when they are treated well. Player can only sell pets that reach certain "adult"
age. To sell a pet, player need to put "Sell" label on the pet. Player can also set pricing for each
pet type. Default is acceptable price. But player can also lower price to sell more quickly or set
higher price when certain pet become demanding on the market or when it is not in competitor's
shop.

In this UI, player can buy additional cages/tanks as the game progress and player owns more
pets. Player can also buy decoration item to decorate each tank. A tank that is decorated will
attract more customer's attention and more likely to sell.


Breeding UI
This UI is almost the same as Pets UI, but pets put into this UI will breed. At the start up, player
will only own 1 breeding panel (2 for Fish shop?) which the player can buy additional panels. If
2 pet of same species are put into this panel, after some time, "heart" icons will float around the
pets and the female pet will become pregnant. After some time, baby pets will appear and player
can drag baby pets back to Pets Cage UI to let them grow. Then player can start another
breeding process.

Employee UI
This UI will allow the player to interact with the employee. The employee skill is determined by
their level in expertise (shown with "Stars"). There is 2 employees that player need to employ.
Player can hire additional employee as the game progress. Player can also fire existing employee
to replace with new one.

Two types of employees are for selling and for taking care of the pets. When at lower level, their
performances will not be satisfactory (pets does not feed well or get sick, customers leaving etc).
As the player's income increase, he can hire better employees by spending more money on
employee's salary.

There are limited good employees available so sometime player needs to hire employee from
another competitor. Competitor can also hire player's employees when they are currently
unhappy in player's pet shop.

Employee can get unhappy/happy depending on many factors. They can get unhappy when their
salary is average or low. They can also get unhappy when there are too many pets or too little
pets to take care of, or the shop is not selling very well. This is display by smiley face in the
Employee UI.

Design an Ad UI
This UI shows various Ads by player and other competitors.
If an Ad is a negative Ad toward the player, player can sue the competitor. Player needs to spend
some money on Lawyer. If the competitor loses in the law suite, he will lose 20% of his money.
That does not give that money to the player but negative Ad effect would be canceled. Win/lost
condition is determined randomly but depend on the Lawyer Level that the player hired (Higher
lawyer level, more chance of success but cost more money to hire).

The player can design 3 types of Ads:
   - Ad that promote adopting pets idea generally. This will increase the total market shares
       (total customers or pet lovers but that does not mean player's market share will increase)
   - Ad that promote player's pet shop. This will increase the player's market share but does
       not increase total market.
   - Ad that attack specific competitor's pet shop. This will decrease that competitor's market
       share. This Ad can be sued in court.

There are 3 Ad types with different cost: Newspaper Ad, Radio Ad and TV Ad. Each differs in
cost and market reach. TV Ad will have broader reach to the customer than radio Ad.


Financial Report Card
When the player click on Total Money icon in main Shop UI, detailed financial report card UI
will be shown which show detailed income/expense for last month. In this UI, player can also
take Bank Loan.

Detail financial information will include:
                  Income Panel                                   Expense Panel
Pet Sales                                         Shop rent cost
Hot-selling pet                                   Employee salary
Pet that does not sell very well                  Maintenance/upgrade cost
                                                  Ads cost
                                                  Lawyer cost
                                                  Bank interest

Player can take out Bank Loan from the bank. There are 2 reasons that player is likely to take
loan: to expand the current business or to pay the bills (when the player's money is low). If the
player take loan, then bank will charge specific interest amount (depend on Loan Type). Player
will need to pay back the loan within specific time. If the player can't pay the loan, then the
player can never take another loan from the bank during this game session.

Upgrade UI
This UI shows various upgrades that the player can buy to upgrade his shop. Upgrades can be
decoration upgrades that attract customers, growth upgrade that make pets grow more quickly or
health upgrades that make pets healthier.
Map UI
When the player exits main Shop UI, this will take to Map UI. The map UI will show part of the
view of the city where player's and other competitors' pet shops are located. Each pet shop is
clickable and on each pet shows a name and current Market Share that pet shop has.




When click on player's own pet shop, this will take back to main Shop UI. When click on
competitor's pet shop, this will take to shop UI similar player's shop. In this UI, player can
review how a certain competitor is doing and what pets they are selling, and even hire off their
employees!

Consumer Market Share
Total consumers is the total customers (or pet lovers) currently in the market. They will buy pets
from various pet shops. Player's market share is the percentage of total customers that buy at the
player's pet shop. So the one who has the most market share makes the most profit. Market
shares are always changing depend on various actions from the player and other competitors
such as Ads, bad/good employee, varieties of pets or achieve bonus customer boost. Player can
increase total consumers in the market by marketing Ads that promote general pet adopting idea.
Playing the Game
Overview
The game is all about the pet shop simulation. Most of the game interface will allow the player to
breed, feed and take care of various pets (fish, puppy, cats and birds) in his pet shop. Then the
player needs to take care of business side of the game. The business side is optional (this is more
true in Easy mode) since some people just want to just play pet shop simulation game. For more
strategic player, they can emphasize on business aspect of the game as well.

Current game session can be saved and reloaded from the previous saved game.

Winning Condition
Since this is a simulation game, there are multiple winning conditions in this game:
   - The player will win the game when he achieve 90% of the total market share and drive all
        the competitors out of business.
   - The player can also buy Gold Medal (cost $1,000,000) in Upgrade UI to win the game.
        Competitors will never buy Gold Medal except in Hard mode.

When the game wins, a detailed statistics screen will show how the player how the player and
competitors is doing during the entire game course.

Lost Condition
The player will lose the game when he has no money to balance his financial report card i.e. do
not have enough money to pay employee's money, rent due or bank interest etc. In Hard mode,
the player will lose if the competitor bought Gold Medal so the player need to keep track of
competitor's income as well.