The Slacker Sim
You're 20, you have no particular skills, you're working as a waitron to pay the bills. Sure, Horatio Alger would urge you to work hard to get ahead, but a person's gotta have some fun. If you're too depressed and lonely to get out of bed, how are you going to do that?
This is a game that sucks you in. Perhaps like Cute Knight, but in a different way; both games put you in the role of a young person trying to make your way in an uncertain world, but Cute Knight is very much a fantasy, anime-influenced game, while in Kudos you get a real sense of being a 21st century slacker. But in both cases, you're likely to come to the end of the trial and think, damn... I want to keep on playing. Is it worth the 20 smackers?
The answer to that question is up to you. But we pretty much guarantee it will be a question you'll think about seriously. This is a pretty cool game.
Kudos, like The Sims, is in some sense a very conventional game of resource management--albeit in both cases, the resources you are managing relate to the motivations and happiness of the character you control, rather than to, say, building the most cost effective military force. But Kudos is, in a way, a far more realistic simulation than The Sims; how do you go from being a talentless chav to building some kind of reasonable life for yourself? The Sims' answer is "purchase consumer goods and flirt with the neighbors!" which is, well, very American; Positech's answer is perhaps a lot more British (attend night school to get some skills, and, oh yes, drink heavily at the local to reduce your stress).
The Developer Says:
"It's 6.20pm on April 14th, 2006. You are 20 years old and single. Tonight is your twentieth birthday. You live alone in a small flat in Slough, a suburb of London, England. Somehow you left school without any qualifications to speak of, and you have a dead end job that doesn't have much of a future. What are you going to do with your life? And what will you have achieved by your thirtieth birthday?"
Kudos is a life-sim developed by Cliffski (Positech Games, makers of Democracy). It's a game of social relationships and choices, available on PC.
Kudos is a turn-based strategy game where you control someone's life. You decide where they work, who they hang out with, and what they do to relax. Do you want to be an alcoholic saxophone playing taxi driver? or maybe a reclusive but brilliant astrophysicist. Kudos is not about flashy graphics or high polygon counts. Kudos is about exploring areas of gameplay you haven't seen in mainstream games. Hopefully, Kudos is pretty original.
Kudos lets you learn guitar, drums, saxophone, bass or piano, buy a car, bike or motorbike write a song, skateboard to work, play chess, golf or football with friends, own a pet, watch 4 TV channels, do crosswords and sudoku, read classic novels, develop a scientific theory, start a drunken brawl, learn kung-fu, fight off muggers, treat your friends to an evening out, change your job, snub people you find boring, write a screenplay, join a gym, go bowling, join the bowling team, go skiing, have a snowball fight and lots more...
Why Slough?
Slough is used slightly because its featured in the BBC comedy series The Office and slightly because I don't live that far from Slough. Also, some friends of mine do live there, and for some reason, setting a video game in Slough amuses me. Almost all video game heroes start out in New York or Tokyo. Slough's time has come.
Is Kudos like The Sims?
Not really. Both games are 'life-sims', but the similarity really ends there. The Sims is a 'real-time' game which has a more arcadey feel to it. Kudos is much more strategic and abstract than The Sims. You don't need to worry about things like making sure you have enough food in the refrigerator or remembering to go to the bathroom. You *can* spend an evening in the bath if you want to relax though :D. Another big difference is that Kudos is a 2D game without an animated 3D 'avatar' like The Sims.
What's the aim of the game?
Aha tricky... What's the aim of life? It's up to you. The 'unofficial' score that the game keeps is 'Kudos', which is a measurement of social success, but the game won't end if your kudos nosedives. You can play the game with the aim of becoming wealthy, or highly educated, or popular, or just to see what happens. It's up to you. The game ends after 10 years and will tell you a summary of what you decided to do with your life.
Is this a dating sim?
No. You *can* fall in love in the game, go for romantic candlelit meals with your partner etc, but the game doesn't revolve around it. You can stay happily single if you like. However good your relationship is, they never move in, and you never get married or have kids. If you have a romantic partner with whom your relationship is good, your character feels happier, less lonely, and more confident, and confidence is a big deal in the game.
Does it have giant mechanical robots or machine guns in?
No.
Is this similar in any way to that amazing 'Democracy' game you made?
I'm flattered. Yes...and no. It's as similar as it can be whilst one is a game of political strategy and one if a game about someone's life. Like Democracy, Kudos has quite a complex simulation model underneath it. Each choice you make has complex effects that take place over time, and you need to get a 'feel' for it as you play. It's also turn based, and designed by the same person. I reckon if you liked Democracy you will like Kudos. It also looks much nicer :D
Reviews
"This game stands out in depth and design. There is so much to discover in the game, and much more even I haven't done yet"
- gamevortex.com
"For those that feel The Sims is too much of an arcade game, Kudos might be the life management strategy game you’ve been looking for. While I felt restricted in other games, Kudos gives you the freedom to follow pretty much any career path you’d like, although each career path is essentially the same. There are only a few minor issues with the game (browsing jobs taking all night, “good” and “bad” attributes), and the remainder of Kudos is a solid management game. Limiting the player to one action per night actually works in the game’s favor, as the fast pace of Kudos doesn’t drag along like The Sims tends to do. You won’t have to wait 15 minutes for someone to finish eating: Kudos removes a lot of the mundane activities present in other games, leaving you to consider the big picture rather than telling your character to take a shower. The sheer number of activities, random events, and juggling you must to in Kudos makes it a pretty entertaining ride, if you enjoy management games. Kudos also has some pretty good mod support where you can include your own avatars and come up with new jobs, which is more content than adding a new flower pot like the overpriced expansion packs of other games."
- Out of Eight PC Game Reviews
"The scope of Kudos is just incredible and the developers deserve top marks for actually pulling it off (assuming we give marks here, but we don't, so let's just pretend we did for a minute). It's a game with such massive replayability that you can't help but be sucked into its world."
- angry-gamer.net
Awards
Most Innovative Casual Game, Yahoo! Games: Best of 2006 Awards
Silver Award, Game Tunnel
Top 10 Games of the Year, Game Tunnel