Description

Château Academy is a free serious game aiming to getplayersinterested in the vineyard culture, wine-growing and winesellingfunctions. The targeted players are scholars between 14 and20. Thegame is in solo player mode and doesn’t require anyinternetconnection. The game At start, you buy a wine “Château” intheBordeaux area. You will have to manage your estate, buyingtoolsand machinery and hiring employees with differentqualifications inorder of making the best possible wine to sell.Every professionalfunction has a short explanation. Deeperinformation on every jobis available through an internet link tovideos and files. The gamecovers a whole year. Game time ratio is 1week every 2 minutes ofreal time, so the game can be finished inless than 1 ½ hour andstarted again to improve the score. Score isa combination ofamount of money (earned selling the production) andreputation ofthe “Château” (result of the care the player took ofthe estate).Gameplay is based on a sequence of tasks to befulfilled in alimited time. Random climatic incidents (hail andsnow) can happen.User interface Interface is tactile usual: choicesare made with aone finger touch; in and out zooming is made withtwo fingersmoving closer or spread. Initial instructions Onceyou’ve made yourinitial choice (your estate location), you arewelcomed by yourexecutive staff and receive the first elementarygame instructionsand menu descriptions. Everyday tasks As soon asthe game starts,you will have a lot of “tasks” to perform, whichare reported witha warning. When touched, the warning opens thedescription of thetask and what’s needed to fulfill it, i.e.specific employees and,most of the time, tools or an extra devicefor his tractors. Allyear long, you will have to take care of yourgrapevine and yourwine in barrels and bottles. You will also haveto manage yourteam. For instance, when hiring an employee, you haveto choose hisefficiency. The more efficient, the higher is his fee.An option isto hire less efficient people and when they are notstaffed, tosend them to professional training. When back, they are10% moreefficient but they don’t cost more. You are supposed totake careof your tools too. If not, failures will happen at thelessappropriate moment. The project Chateau Academy is supportedbypublic French “Conseil Régional d’Aquitaine”. The partners oftheproject’s consortium are EPLEFPA Bordeaux Gironde, CIVB,Inno’Vinand Shinypix.