By Hernan Panessi, via El Planteo.
Dedication, time and skills: from humble beginnings to the big leagues. The wet dream of building a cannabis empire is now possible. Or so it is with Weedcraft Inc., a financial video game where you can go virtually non-stop from dirt to prodigious wealth, becoming a cannabis tycoon.
“We’re proud to say that basically all the cannabis experts and fans who played the game realized how plausible it is.” Kacper Kwiatkowski, Polish game designer and creator of Weedcraft Inc.told El Planteig.
For its creation, the development company Monarch vil, of which Kwiatkowski is a co-founder, connected with Devolver Digital, a popular American video game publisher responsible for Serious Sam, and Hotline Miami, among other gems. They wanted to create a cannabis financing game. So they set to work.
Kacper noted, “Back then we were a young company with only two small pixel art games in our portfolio, so it seemed like a great opportunity to do something more ambitious and work with a top-notch publisher.”
The business side of the industry
Immediately, the receptions of the specialized press and the players were positive. “We only had a handful of repeated and surely justified objections,” Kacper said. “Some of them were later addressed in updates (including Sandbox mode). Others, unfortunately, were deeply embedded in the vision of the game. For example, not everyone enjoyed manual labor at the beginning of the game. “
Aside from the more demanding players, the cannabis community gave him a warm welcome, praising him, among other things, for the realism of the cannabis business environment. “Like the state of U.S. law,” he says. “We were especially excited to have the opportunity to do so capture the business side of the industry. “
High fidelity
In the meantime, Weedcraft Inc. will likely be the first video game dedicated to Tycoon-type farming. Tyc what? … Tycoon is a subgenre of management games where you run or run some kind of organization or company, where the goal is to become a business tycoon.
“There were smaller mobile games and some PC games strictly focused on agriculture,” he explains.
Thus, one of the great virtues of the game is the documentation, the quality of the terrain, the varieties of cannabis, and other issues related to the plant.
Vile Monarch had the support of advisers and specialists who preferred to remain anonymous.
“We had advice from amateur growers, cannabis entrepreneurs (both legal and illegal), celebrities famous for their weed-related image, and even a law firm specializing in marijuana-related cases,” he reveals. Kwiatkowski.
First and last: No more cannabis games
Among the regular audience of Weedcraft Inc. they tend to find players who are fond of strategy and management, and, according to its creator, “only a part is enthusiastic about ‘the grass'”. In fact, what Kacper enjoys most is the financial aspect: “I love watching the numbers go up!”
“What has that got to do with cannabis?”
—We always deliberately avoid this question, so the game is not seen as a “smoking for smokers” initiative. or a piece of propaganda. Our goal was to set aside our personal views on the plant and do the best job possible to capture the reality around it, both the good sides (especially the doctors) and the bad ones (crime, corruption, shady business practices). .
Weedcraft Inc, Vile Monarch’s first pot-themed video game, is likely to be the last.
Because? “Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding the plant makes it difficult to promote the game, so for now we prefer to stay away from such polarizing topics,” Kacper explained.
A management game
Previously, Vile Monarch made a name for himself Oh … Lord!a ridiculous video game based on insults, and recently released Growing upa life simulator where you start as a child and grow your character into adulthood.
“What would you say to someone who hasn’t played Weedcraft Inc yet?”
—Exclude any assumptions you may have about the subject and enjoy it as a management game that does everything to show you different aspects of an existing business. You may learn something along the way, but even if you don’t, you’ll be left with a fun game, an engaging story, and a lot of satirical humor.
—Who is the main character inspired by? Some say that Scooby-Doo’s Shaggy …
[Laughs] No, the resemblance to Shaggy is purely casual. The first character we invented was deliberately a “everyone’s man,” someone generic in some way, but we also had two other scenarios that dealt with more complex personalities: an ex-convicted African-American and a businesswoman of Mexican descent.
Vile Monarch is currently developing two new games that still remain top secret.
“Each of them will be different from each other, but also very different from our previous titles. Both will be set in the broad genre of management. We will soon be able to make more specific announcements, ”concluded the Polish game designer.
Photo courtesy of Kacper Kwiatkowski.
