The planner
| The planner | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Holger Beisheim | ||
| Publisher | Greenwood Entertainment | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1994 | ||
| platform | MS-DOS | ||
| genre | Economic simulation | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| Age rating |
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The planner is a real-time business simulation, developed under the direction of Holger Beisheim (née Holger Dickmann) and published by Greenwood Entertainment in 1994. The game was implemented for MS-DOS and was a surprise success. The game is now offered as freeware .
Action and gameplay
The player takes over the management of a shipping company in the game. This carries out transports in a region of Germany. His job in this forwarding company is to renovate them in accordance with the specifications communicated at the beginning. In a realistic manner, he takes care of various areas, such as the vehicle fleet.
In addition to purchasing the trucks, vans and trailers, he also takes care of the maintenance of them. In the area of order procurement, he has the opportunity to call various companies to inquire about transport requirements and, if necessary, to conclude transport contracts or to place advertisements in specialist magazines. When it comes to order scheduling, it is possible to deliver the goods with your own vehicles. If he has previously concluded a transport contract with a shipping company or airline, transport by ship or plane may also be possible. If this is not the case, transport by train is an option. Personnel is another important area. In addition to the player, other employees work in the shipping company. It can be a manager who takes on some tasks for a lot of money, or the accountant, without whom there are no correct balance sheets, the operator who passes on important information, the lawyer who is particularly helpful in contract negotiations, the truck mechanic, the repairs and maintains the vehicles, the cleaning women who clean the shipping building and of course the truck drivers. Public relations are also part of the player's job. There is a press conference after important events or accidents. In the multiple-choice procedure, he can choose the correct answer from several possible answers. Depending on his choice, this has a positive or negative effect on the company's reputation.
In the style of Mad TV , a large part of the game takes place in a 2D office building, the different rooms of which each accommodate different areas of responsibility. Some tasks can or must be done outside of the office building. The player can drive to the truck dealer, train station, airport or port. He can also drive to other cities to visit truck dealerships there.
In addition to the economic component within his shipping company, the player also has to take care of his private life. Its focus is on his wife and son, who express various concerns before and after work. Often these have a direct impact on the player's working hours or private assets, i. H. the player has to choose between several possible answers in the multiple-choice procedure and bear the corresponding consequences.
The aim of the game is to get better and better employment contracts through successful business in the shipping company and to buy so many luxury items with the earned wages and premiums that the player's private name recognition increases to 100%.
Sequels and adaptations
Under the titles Der Pler: Extra and Der Pler: Gold , two games, marginally modified from the functionality of the original, were released, each of which started a few years later.
Der Pler: Extra appeared in May 1994 and continues to play in a region of Germany. Arranged chronologically according to the actions of Der Planner, the player now has his own company. This specializes in helping shipping companies in distress.
The Planner: Gold was released in May 1998 and is set in an American state. Furthermore, the player is the renovator and not the owner of the shipping company. The other changes are essentially limited to new functions of the manager, new additional software for the laptop and a tutorial.
In 1996, Greenwood Entertainment released The Planner 2 . After Greenwood was absorbed by Phenomedia AG, Phenomedia published the game The Planner 3 in 2003 . After the insolvency of Phenomedia, the series took over Rondomedia, which contributed its first game to the series in March 2010 with Der Planer 4 and continued this in September 2012 with Der Planer 5 .
With Der Planer: Städtebau , Rondomedia brought out the first offshoot of the series in November 2012, which deviates from the basic principle of the series. A city is to be built in urban planning.
With Der Planer: Landwirtschaft , Rondomedia brought out a second offshoot of the series in November 2013, which is not based on its predecessors, this time the game is set in agriculture.
The series is now distributed by Astragon , which Rondomedia changed its name to in 2015.