Have you ever thought to yourself how hard it is to be the management of a group of idols? Have you ever laughed at how depressing the manager is to see their group of idols have become talented shitposters that streams instead of upholding the ideal idol image?
We’re not sure about the latter, but for the former, there’s a game just for you.
Idol Manager tasks you to run your own talent agency, recruiting potential young girls and train them to be the next generation of pop stars known around the world. Train them, plan concerts and do marketing to make them more popular (and make you more money). The agency can be upgraded and staffers can be hired to make your operation better.
But like in real life, it’s not all shining stars and fun. You will need to manage the personal lives of the girls and many other crises that can happen. Emotional meltdown and PR nightmares can happen. Gossip, overly obsessed fans, scandals and the threat of rival groups from a competing agency are just some of the things you will encounter.
That’s outside threats. There’s also the need to oversee the relationships among the idols in the group (bullying can happen).
The other interesting thing in Idol Manager is substories. There’s a visual novel aspect of the game where you get to know the girls, and based on your decisions, will have different consequences.
Idol Manager has been in development since 2014 and originally started out from a Kickstarter campaign. It has been in an opt-in paid beta on itch.io for quite some time. The game got a spotlight on the recent New Game+ Expo livestream.
Idol Manager will be out on PC, Mac and Linux in 2020.