Der Damenhändler

[DDH]

The Story:

Der Damenhändler (in English "The women trader" or "The lady trader") is a fun economic simulation game that parodies German games like The Patrician, The Ocean Trader or 1869. The game takes please in the late Middle Ages.

Features:
- more than 20 different ports
- more than 30 different ship types
- all cliches about women you can think of
- lots of random events that effect game play (plague, crusades, burning of witches, etc.)






Progress: The game is already playable, but still needs a lot of fine tuning and some additional graphics.

PS.: If you know some funny stereotypes about women of your country (europe only) â€" PM us! They will be an important part of the game play (for example: don't ship English women to Spain without enough beer on board!)
http://one.fsphost.com/damenhaendler/

[CodeJunkie]

This looks fantastic!  Very nice graphics and perhaps the first of it's genre for AGS.  Those stars..are they ratings of the women?  Haha  .

[DDH]

Those stars..are they ratings of the women?  Haha  .

Yes, but it's a little bit more complex than that. The women screen is still in a very early stage. The finished one will show stars for things like charisma, looks and intelligence. The stars you see now are just the sum of them. A Swedish woman for example gets three stars for looks, three for charisma and two for intelligence = 8 stars. Within the game you are some kind of early marriage broker with a ship. Your job is to find rich husbands for marriage-minded women across Europe. The game play is based on the idea that a charismatic, intelligent beauty demands more comfort than an ugly dumb-ass. So you can't transport a two stars women on a one star ship. You have to improve it at first by adding extras that raise the comfort for the passengers. But the space for extras is limited on small ships. To be able to transport an eight or nine stars woman you will have to build a large ship with lots of extras. Furthermore you have to keep many other things in mind. You'll have to buy special supplies for each type of women (vodka for Russians, tzatziki for Greek etc...) and keep an eye on the relations between the ethnic groups (don't try to transport a Greek and a Turk at the same time!). There are also many other ideas we don't want to reveal right now. We just try to make fun of all these stereotypes and give them a place in the game. A rich merchant in Odessa wants a redhead? Let's go to Dublin! A sheik in Tunis wants more women for his harem? Go to London and buy some veil!

[Candall]

You say you're making fun of those stereotypes, but unless you find some way to make it a really overt mockery, you're only going to end up incorporating them.

I won't be offended myself, but if you're really looking to subvert stereotypes, you might want to play your hand carefully.

[Jon]

This looks great, can't wait for release!

[Akatosh]

Yaaay, stereotypes! 

Although this probably means I'd better get El Presidente on if I still want to win the Best Non-Adventure AGS game award this year >.>

[Anym]

Intriguing! Is it going to be in English as well as German?

[m0ds]

LOL looks pretty fun! strange but intriguing concept!

how much for the blonde?

[Oliwerko]

Looks cool, looking forward to playing, keep it up 


Are all the graphics drawn by you ?

[DDH]

You say you're making fun of those stereotypes, but unless you find some way to make it a really overt mockery, you're only going to end up incorporating them.

Just watch the first Indiana Jones movie. It was full of stereotypes. All German soldiers were straight Nazis and every Arab carries are knife. No one complains about these stereotypes because they fit so well to the story. It's fun and that's the way most stereotypes are made. They are hidden and most people don't really recognize them at once. A parody like ours shows them directly. That's more honest, imho.

Intriguing! Is it going to be in English as well as German?

We had an English woman for a translation but she quit after showing her our screenshots. Strange.

Yaaay, stereotypes! Although this probably means I'd better get El Presidente on if I still want to win the Best Non-Adventure AGS game award this year.

No problem. Then we'll release it next year if no one planes to release a Non-Adventure AGS game there, too.

Are all the graphics drawn by you ?

No, our graphic artist ripped all of them from Counterstrike! 

[Candall]

Heh, I was just bringing something up that I thought you might want to consider if you hadn't already, but it seems that you've already put some thought into your execution in terms of the issue.

I'll say this about Indiana Jones, though... part of the reason that those aspects of the movie are so easily accepted is that when they were made, the world wasn't nearly as conscious of stereotype as it is now.  Since they've gone on to become classics, they're not really questioned by mainstream society.  I'm sure they'd get a much different reaction if they were made in today's PC world.

Like I said, though.  You have a handle on what you want to convey, and I applaud you.

[Darth Mandarb]

Cool.  Glad we resolved that.  Now let's talk about the game in production