Entrepreneur walkthrough
- Entrepreneur
- walkthrough
Entrepreneur Introductory Walkthrough
Starting the game
Once you've started the program and the introduction and fake ad have finished,
push the button that says "New Company".
The main decision that needs to be made prior to starting the game is
what type of specialty you will be: manufacturing, marketing, or
researching. Each specialty is twice as efficient at its job than the
players of another specialty. Depending on your strategies for playing the
game, you may decide that one specialty better suits your style of gameplay.
While you're at this screen you can also change the name of your company and
CEO, by clicking in the fields where those names are listed and typing over what's
already there. Note: Your company name will come up much more in game play.
You can also choose your color by hi-lighting one of the eight color choices.
Now that you've decided what you want to be we'll choose the options for your
game. Since this is a walkthrough, we'll pick beginner for the difficulty.
Also click on the area where it says "Startup Funds" and ad a 0 onto the end,
so you will start with 40 million instead of the usual four.
Now hit ready and start the game.
Getting oriented
Take a quick look at the "popup" help items on the main screen. These will
only appear by default on the easiest level, but then can be recalled any
time by hitting F2. Similar screens will also appear in your marketing,
site, research, and production windows(more about those later).
Use the +/- adjust the speed of the game. Initially, Fast or Faster are
probably the best choices, though you'll quickly find that multi-player
games become a lot more challenging when playing on Fastest or higher. Press
the Pause key(upper right of your keyboard) at any time to pause the game.
Press it again to resume play.
Let's Play
Click on a region adjacent to your initial starting region and press
Investigate Region in the right-hand panel.
Click on the Site button on the right-hand side(not the one toward the
bottom) to enter the Site screen.
Site Screen
Click on your garage. This is where you initially manufacture your product.
Use the slider to hire some workers (20 should be good to start).
Click on the empty "plot" in the upper-right of the site map. This is where
your research buildings are built. Note in the top display that it will cost
$8 million for the next upgrade. Upgrade the building(which actually builds
it in this case).
Double-click on the garage to enter the Production Screen.
Note: once a building is constructed, you can double-click on it to enter
the corresponding screen for the building(if available).
Production Screen
The production screen is where, in many ways, whether you win or lose the
game is decided. Set your prices too high and demand will fall off. Sell an
inferior product, when compared with your competition, and watch the toads
conquer the world as your corporation goes bankrupt.
Since all products are about equal in the beginning of the game, you can
overcharge a great deal. Set the price to $6500(be sure to hit Enter to make
the change official). In only a short time(In terms of game years), you will
have to return to this screen and adjust your price to be more competitive.
But, for the initial stages of the game, he who has the most money comes out
ahead.
Note the demand on the bottom of this screen and the corresponding figure
for how many units you are producing each period. Overproducing is not a big
factor initially, but you'll want to keep an eye out so that the amount you
are supplying is relatively close to demand. Note: the demand is updated each
game week, if you've made a change and don't see any results, wait until
the date in the lower left hand corner changes and look again.
To get back to the Site screen to adjust your production(if desired), click
on the little "button" in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Back on the Site Screen
By now, your Engineering Lab should have been constructed. However, we need
to check some things out before hiring any workers(why waste the money on
their salaries when they are not doing anything?).
Click on the lower-left "plot" and start building your first Marketing Office.
At this time, you may want to hire an additional 5-10 factory workers, on the
expectation that demand has increased while you have been working with other
things.
Return to the Main Map by clicking on Done or on the mini-map near where
your site is highlighted.
Back on the Main Map
By now, you've investigated two regions(your initial region and the one you
started investigating before going to the Site Map). Click on another region
adjacent to your first and investigate it as well.
If this is your first time playing, now might be a good time to pause the
game while you learn what the inhabitants of these regions want.
Click on any of the regions that you've currently researched.
Click the Region button on the bottom toolbar. The window pane in the
lower-right of the screen contains the Regional Desires for that region
(Reliability, Performance, etc.). By researching these traits, you can
improve your product and make it more attractive to different regions. The
longer the bar in this window, the more the regions desire that attribute
(w/green bars being the most desirable).
Check the other regions you've investigated as well. Their desires are
relatively unimportant during the first year or two of the game(since your
products have not been enhanced yet), but you will quickly find that they
will buy a lot more of products that they like(vs. your competitors).
By now, you should have investigated your third region(if you did not pause
the game-if you did, unpause now). Start investigating a fourth region.
Go to the Production Screen by clicking the Produce button.
Production Screen
How is your demand relative to supply? If you are under or overproducing and
click the button at the top of the screen to jump to the Site Map.
Site Map
Adjust your production as needed based on the info you just got off the
Production screen.
If you have more than $5 million, now might be the time to upgrade your
Garage to increase your manufacturing capacity. If you do not do this now,
keep in mind the fact that you will need to upgrade at some point. When is
now up to you, but the sooner the better if your demand is higher than you
can supply.
Another choice that can be made now(or later) is whether to invest $2
million in a Sales Building(center-top "plot"). This building functions
much like your salespersons on the main screen(more about them in a minute).
By building Sales buildings, you can sell to the regions surrounding your
site without needing a sales executive in the area.
Click on the Engineering Lab and hire some workers. Then, double-click on
the Lab to enter the Research Screen.
Research Screen
The Research Screen is where your engineers work on upgrading components of
your product. For the default computer market, there are seven components
(plus the case) that have attributes that can be improved via research.
Some components have a larger effect than others on specific attributes. For
example, improving the performance of your CPU(the "chip" to the left of the
case) will boost performance the most. Similarly, increasing the ease of use
of the operating system(the OS 4 box on the right) will help lift the overall
ease of use of the product.
Researching product upgrades is not an exact process. Since different regions
in the game desire different things(remember the Regional Desires indicator
on the main map?), improving one aspect of your product at the expense of
another could cost you later in the game. Juggling all aspects of the
product, while simultaneously competing marketing the product, investigating
new regions, upgrading your sites, _and_ competing against other players may
seem daunting at first, but you'll quickly get the hang of things.
For now, recall the Regional Desires of the regions around you. If, for
example, they really liked a product's Aesthetics, increase the Aesthetics
of a component and hit the Research button to start your engineers working.
Initially, since you have few researchers, you can only increase the
attributes by a small amount without requiring enormous amounts of time.
While you are learning, you may want to limit individual research projects
to somewhere between 15 and 30 weeks duration. Later, as you upgrade your
engineering labs, you'll be able to research things more quickly.
If you start researching something and change your mind while it is still
in the Research Queue(the listing to the lower-right), select it and hit
the X to prevent that particular project from ever being started. Note that
you cannot cancel the current research project, so be sure not to start one
that will take many years.
Return to the Main Map by clicking Done.
Main Map
By now, the sales executive in your home region should have a little number
next to him. This represents the number of sales executives that are in a
particular region. As your corporation increases in revenue earned, you will
gain additional sales executives.
Click on your sales executive. Notice how the display on the right changes
to display him and the attributes of the product he is currently selling. If
there is more than one sales executive in a region, you can select them
simply by clicking on them(notice how the graphic becomes highlighted). Any
selected sales executives or marketing units(more on them in a minute) will
move to any region that you have researched when you click the right mouse
button(RMB) in that region. Try moving him to another region now. Your sales
executives will sell to the region they are currently in as well as
surrounding regions, though at a decreasing level of effectiveness the more
distant those regions are.
Now might be a good time to click the Share button on the right. This will
show you who is selling products in the current region, the number of
products sold, and the number of each product demanded by the population.
If the number sold is less than the number demanded, you may need to increase
production. This might also be a good time to consider dropping your selling
price as you research cheaper and cheaper components.
Start investigating some additional regions. Notice that they become more
expensive to research the further they are from your site.
Now we come to the most misunderstood, but most powerful, units in the
game--marketers.
Return to the Site Map, hire some marketers, end enter the Marketing screen
(remember how to get to screens from the Site Map)?
Marketing Screen
Here is where you will develop the marketing campaigns to assure your utter
domination of the world. As you upgrade your marketing buildings, additional
types of marketing campaigns(positive and negative) will become available.
For now, think about the Regional Desire of the areas around your initial
site and develop a radio campaign based on the desired attributes. Click on
the attribute on the left and Create Campaign on the right. Go back to the
Main Map and continue investigating regions, adjusting production, and
researching new components until your first marketing unit appears(it will
look like a small card in your home region).
Click on this marketing unit and move it to a neighboring region by using the
RMB on the target region(just like your sales units).
Conclusion
By now, you've gotten a firm start on the basics of Entrepreneur. Practice
makes perfect. As you continue playing, you will quickly get the hang of
manipulating all the various facets of the game.
Other Resources
Visit http://www.stardock.com to find links to sites dedicated to the strategy
of Entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur is a game that is very easy to play but very hard to master.
