From the high-rise to the match day

The idea: MadTV in the browser

The initial idea was simple: Televism is MadTV in the browser. A little aside: in my wooden document it was still called VABSE back then (Video Audio Broadcasting Simulation Engine). Yes, that was clearly my time at the corporation :D

A TV station, time runs in real time, and then you just do a 24-hour programme instead of 7, as in the original. You buy shows, place spots, fight for the ratings.

Sounds obvious. But it isn’t — and the first big challenge came quickly.

Why the original doesn’t carry it

MadTV thrives on the frenzy. On racing through the high-rise, on getting everything done just in time. On that good feeling when, with the money from the spot that just aired, you quickly buy a new show — and slot it into the next block at the very last second.

This pulse makes up an important part of the game. But that is exactly what doesn’t work in a long-running browser game.

You don’t play a browser game in one breathless hour straight through, but over weeks and months — a few minutes a day. Who wants to be glued to the screen around the clock because otherwise a spot fizzles out? You can neither speed up time nor simply fast-forward to the next spot. How is that supposed to work in real time?

The borrowing: hattrick.org

The solution came from one of the very first browser games I ever played: hattrick.org.

In Hattrick you’re the manager of a football team. The game is clocked into match days: every Saturday there’s a match against another team from your own league. Between the Saturdays you plan your move — training, line-up, transfer market. And the beautiful thing: essentially you can make all the decisions for the week in fifteen minutes. The rest happens on its own when the match day comes.

One match day a week was too little for me. But why should a match day only take place on Saturdays? And why should only football players compete against each other — why not TV shows?

The idea transfers: on one day I plan my TV programme. On the next I can follow live how it goes down, and at the same time already prepare the following day.

Best of both worlds

For Televism that means: plan your broadcast day cleverly right up to the editorial deadline. Because once tomorrow’s TV guide has been printed, the programme for tomorrow’s match day is fixed.

With the match-day principle, a second thing came along from Hattrick right away: the league system. Players compete against each other — but in manageable groups, not everyone against everyone. That’s the only way the game stays controllable when at some point dozens, hundreds or — if things go really well — thousands of players join in.

So in the end I can connect two worlds with each other:

• MadTV supplies the theme, the feeling and the television economy of shows, spots and ratings.

• Hattrick supplies the rhythm and the structure — match day and league — that turn a hectic hour into a game that carries over months.

And then there’s that good feeling when you connect two puzzle pieces you didn’t previously think could belong together at all.