Heavy Rotation
Four egos, one van, and a chart that forgets by Tuesday.
What it is
A band-management satire in the lineage of Rock Star Ate My Hamster. You are the manager, not the band: hire four people who can barely stand each other, get them written, recorded, promoted and on the road, and decide every week whether this week's money is worth what it costs them to earn it. Pick a decade to start in and live forward through every format the industry inflicted on itself — vinyl, cassette, CD, MP3, download, stream — each of which pays differently and rewards a different band.
- Start in the 80s, 90s or 00s and play forward — the formats turn over underneath you
- Vinyl, cassette, CD, MiniDisc, MP3, download, ringtone and stream, each with its own economics
- Four members with talent, ego and a vice you are not told about at hire
- Recoupment: go gold, owe the label money, and read the ledger that explains why
- Publicity stunts with a backfire chance — and a scandal half-life that gets longer every decade
- A simulated chart of rival acts, so release week is a real decision
- A weekly deck of decisions with no free answer: the advert money, the solo deal, the leak, the reality show
- Sign, get recouped into a hole, buy yourself out, and end the run owning your own masters
Status
Playable now, in the browser, with achievements and a league table.
Taking after
Genre
Management / Satire
Game ID
heavy-rotation
Control Helper
What this game answers to, so you know before you press play.
Mouse
Point and click through the week's decisions, the deal desk and the charts.
Keyboard
Tab between fields and use the number boxes on the deal desk.
Inspired by
The original.
- The manager's chair: you never play a note, you book the weeks
- A line-up hired on a budget, where the cheap option is a decision and not a compromise
- Publicity as the engine — a stunt that lands sells more than a better record does
- The tabloid voice, and headlines generated out of what actually happened
The original was one industry frozen in 1988. Heavy Rotation runs a career forward through thirty years of it: the format under your feet keeps changing, recorded income gives way to touring and licensing, and the scandal that was chip paper in 1984 is in the search results forever by 2009.
Nothing to play yet
No achievements and no league table until the build lands. The brief above is the design target.