How to play guide for Above the Fold

This page will serve as a basic how to play guide for Above the Fold. We urge you to check back often, as new information is being added all the time! Feel free to edit this guide with any tips, tricks, and suggestions.

Basic gameplay

Starting a New Game

File:Newgame.PNG

When you first start the game, you are able to make a choice about which configuration you would like to start with in the game.

By clicking on "Generate Now", you can choose a new configuration to start the game, which will change the Newspaper name, the amount of cash, number of subscribers, and the political spread of the subscribers.

Once you have found a starting configuration that you would like to proceed with, click on "Begin Game". This will start the game and bring you to "The Office".

The game saves at the beginning of each new day, so if you’ve already played some, you will also have the option to continue that game.

NOTE: You can only have ONE active game at a time, so if you click New Game, any previous saved data will be overwritten.

NOTE: If the game starts in Windowed mode, use the keyboard shortcut F9 twice to switch to full screen.

The Office

You begin in the Office. Here you have an overview of the current status of your newspaper.

File:The-office-first-time.png

The Office

When a new game begins, you are given some cash and subscribers, but you will not yet have reporters or advertisers.

You do have some income from classifieds and what little subscribers you start with, but also overhead from producing the actual newspaper.

There are several blue information buttons on the right hand side of the page (above "Start a New Day" - don't click this one just yet). If you click an information button, it will open a window that you can position on your Office "desktop". If you leave the window open, the position and location of the window will be remembered the next time you come to the game, even if you start a new game!

• Subscriber Data gives you the demographics of your subscribers. Subscribers are happiest when your newspaper matches their demographics.
• Check your Finances by clicking on the blue "Finances" button. This shows you the income you receive from classifieds and subscribers, and also lets you know your overhead.
• While you won't have any Advertisers yet, this shows what you can see on the Advertisers window.
• Ads Ending Soon - you won't have any of these when you start the game.
• Recent Issues - once you have produced at least 6 issues, you will be able to see results of those issues here.
• Credibility - the reputation of your newspaper
• Awards - you have the ability to win Awards based on your content.

The name of your newspaper, as well as the age and political spread of its initial subscribers, are all randomly generated at the start of the game.

Familiarize yourself with your starting point, and begin your first day as editor by clicking on "Start Your Day", when you are ready…

The Map

Goodbury is a small town with lots of activity! Scroll around the map to find Reporters for hire, Stories to write, and Advertisements to pick up. You can use + and – on the number pad to speed up/slow down the game speed (starts at slowest).

How to Scroll around the Map

• There are three ways to navigating the map:
  • Using the WASD keys
  • Using the arrow keys
  • Hold down the right mouse button and drag

Hiring Reporters

• Before you are able to assign stories, you must hire at least one reporter.
• Mouse over Reporters for hire and a preview card of information about the reporter will be displayed to help you decide if you wish to hire that reporter.
• Click on a Reporter for Hire, and a confirmation prompts will ask, if you want to hire this reporter. Click Yes to confirm, or No to cancel.
• If a Reporter for Hire is about to disappear from the map, a red blinking dot will appear on the avatar.
• Once you have hired at least 1 Reporter, an Avatar will appear on the left that shows your currently selected, or Active Reporter.
• When you have more than 1 Reporter, you can scroll through the reporters by using the Q and Z keys on the keyboard, or by using the Arrow buttons next to the Active Reporter.
• A small smiley-icon next to the avatar, indicates the Mood of the Active Reporter.

Assigning Stories

• Mouse over Stories, and a preview card of information is displayed about that item.
• When a story is about to expire, a red blinking dot will appear on the story icon.
• Click on a Story to assign it to the Active Reporter.
  • A prompt will ask you to confirm; click Yes to assign the clicked-on Story to the Active Reporter.
  • If the Active Reporter already has a Story assigned, the prompt will ask if you wish to replace the currently assigned story. (You can click No to cancel.)
• Once a story has been assigned to the Active Reporter, a small check mark will appear next to its avatar.
  • If the assigned story was a match to that reporter’s Interests, a star icon will appear next to the check mark.
  • If the assigned story is a Disinterest of the Active Reporter, a red exclamation mark will be displayed.

Matching Reporters with Stories

Hire as many as 5 reporters (NOTE: The game is under development and this value may change before release). You stable will grow, as you progress to the next Game Stage. Progression is measured in how many subscribers your paper has. To get more subscribers, do your best to match stories with reporter Interest. This makes them happy, which makes them produce better stories, which raises the overall quality of your newspaper – all of which attracts more subscribers.

Unhappy reporters do not produce stories at a quality that lives up to their potential. Eventually, unhappy reporters may quit your newspaper, or get scooped up by a competitor.

Advertisements

When you have as many Reporters as you want, and they all have Stories assigned to them, you will want to spend the remaining time looking for Advertisements. They will appear as little stacks of paper money.

As with Reporters and Stories, clicking on an Advertisement will open a prompt. Here you can see the name of the company buying the ad, how many inches it is, and for how many days it will run. The player has the option to turn down the Advertisement, if it doesn’t fit with their strategy.

Time's up!

Once the deadline has been reached, you will be automatically advanced to the Editor's Desk. If you wish, you can also click the “Skip to Deadline”-button to leave the Map early.

The Editor’s Desk

Once the day’s stories are done (note: some stories take longer than a day to write), they appear on the editor’s desk for placement on the front page. The most important stories appear as icons and titles on the left of the blank front page. On the right, you can see an overview of the current issue, based on how the stories are currently arranged. If there are more than 5 stories, the additional stories will count towards your Issue Importance score, but you will not see them in the list of stories to be placed.

• To place a story, left-click on an icon and drag it to the spot on the Front Page, where you want it to be. The stats on the right will immediately update.
• To remove a story from its current place, right-click on its place on the Front Page and it will be restored on the left.
• Experiment with different configurations to get the most out of your stories, or to appeal more to certain age or political groups.
• Eventually, the final deadline will force the current issue to go to print. If you’ve found a configuration of stories you like before time runs out, just click the Print Now-button to advance the game.

Once the issue goes to print, the day is over, and you are returned to the Office.

Day 2 and Onward

As a new day dawns, your game is automatically saved.

The left-most panel now holds a summary of your last issue. See its “importance score”, how many new subscribers it attracted (and how their age and politics spread), as well as number of complaining letters. The number of angry letters you get, is determined by the difference between the political spread of the content, compared to the spread of your existing subscriber base.

Events may occur! These are decision points, where your choice will influence the outcome of the game.

Below the Issue Summary is your Career Summary, which shows your current progress, your overall score, Awards won and the total number of angry letters received.

The Office has two new buttons leading to the sub-menus:

• Manage Reporters
• Upgrades

Manage Reporters

Under Manage Reporters, you can get an overview of your current staff. Select a reporter by clicking their name. You can Fire reporters you are dissatisfied with, or offer a raise to one or more reporters. These actions have consequences, of course.

• When you Fire a reporter, there is a chance the remaining reporters lose some of their Happiness from seeing a coworker go.
• When you give a reporter a raise, their monthly salary goes up by 5%, thus raising your total overhead.

Reporters with an checkbox next to their name are working on a story that will take more than one day to complete.

When no reporter is selected on this screen, you have the option to buy all your reporters lunch. The cost depends on the size of your staff. If click it, there is a chance for each reporter to get a small happiness boost. This can be repeated as many times as you can afford.

When a reporter is selected, use the Up and Down Arrow Keys to cycle through them all.

Reporter Stats

• Skill – this is their base writing/storytelling skill. It remains unchanged.
• Experience – refers to how many years the Reporter has been working. It counts equally to the Skill, but the score goes up by 1 point once per year. This is called an Anniversary. Experience level up is also granted to the reporter who wrote the top story of an award winning issue.
• Happiness – this percentage score affects the quality of the stories a reporter writes.
• Political Bias – this influences the bias of the stories they write, and ultimately overall political bias of the issue and the paper as a whole.

Read more about Reporters .

Upgrades

More information Coming soon.

When your newspaper has earned sufficient funds, you can purchase Upgrades that can provide various benefits to different factors of the game. Be careful to not select too many Upgrades too early, though, as you will go bankrupt!

Chapters

When you reach a pre-determined number of subscribers, you will "level up" to a New Chapter with an increased range of circulation. You will have the ability to hire more reporters, include more words in your newspaper, and obtain more ads... but you will also have increased office costs.

Currently, there are 5 Chapters:

Chapter	Circulation	Required Subscribers	Max ad inches	Max Reporters	Max Wordcount	Office Expense
Chapter 1	Neighborhood News	0	400	5	25,000	$8,500
Chapter 2	Citywide Coverage	5,000	520	7	30,000	$11,200
Chapter 3	Statewide Distribution	20,000	640	9	35,000	$14,750
Chapter 4	Nationwide	80,000	760	11	40,000	$21,400
Chapter 5	???	320,000	???	???	???	???

Starting a New Day

When you are ready, click the “Start New Day”-button to begin a new day. When you do, there is also a small chance, each of your reporters will lose some Happiness. This stat degrades over time, unless you manage your staff well.

Winning (or Losing) the Game

To win the game:

• Attract 1,000,000 subscribers by the end of 4 game years
• Win 100 or more Awards in the game.

To Lose the game:

• Receive more than the allowed number of complaints (1000 to start)
• Lose all of your reporters
• Run out of cash

Ending a Gaming Session

The game is saved when you return to the Office. From the office, press the escape key. You will be asked if you would like to "Exit to Desktop". You can click "No" to return to the game, or "Yes" to end your gaming session.

Controls

Key	Function	Where used
F1	Help (Quick Tips)	All
F9*	Toggle between full-screen and windowed mode	All
F12	Take a screenshot	All
Esc	Open "Quit" prompt	All
Q	Move forward through Reporters	Map
Z	Move backward through Reporters	Map
WASD	Move around the map	Map
Arrows	Move around the map	Map
Numpad +	Increase game speed	Map
Numpad -	Decrease game speed	Map
Enter	Go to the Map	Office
Backspace	Go back to the Office	Upgrades Reporter Management
Up Arrow	Select reporter above current selection	Reporter Management
Down Arrow	Select reporter below current selection	Reporter Management

*Prior to Alpha 2, the standard Windows shortcut was used (ALT+Enter).

Tips and tricks

Navigating the Map

• There are three ways to navigating the map:
  • Using the WASD keys
  • Using the arrow keys
  • Right clicking and dragging
• There are two ways to cycle through the current reporter:
  • Clicking on the up and down arrow keys
  • Using the Q and Z keys to move back and forth through the reporters
• Pro Tip: If you get used to using your left hand to move around the map using the WASD keys and the Q and Z keys to cycle the reporters, your right hand will never have to leave the mouse! This is useful for snagging stories, ads, and reporters that are about to expire from the map.

Strategies in Hiring Reporters

• Try to hire reporters who like a wide variety of types of stories.
• Try to match the balance of Conservative and Liberal employees to the political bend of the subscribers.
• Reporters can have 1, 2, or 3 different topics they like; generally, it is easier to be able to assign stories to reporters if they like multiple topics.
• You cannot fire a reporter in the map; you can only fire a reporter from the Reporter button in the Office before a new day is begun.

Strategies in Assigning Stories

• Match the stories to the types of stories a Reporter likes.
• You can only assign a story to the currently selected reporter. Do not click on the story until you have the correct reporter selected.
  • Pro tip: use the Q and Z keys to rapidly cycle through your reporters to match to stories.
• When a story is about to expire and disappear from the map, you will see a red blinking circle.
  • Pro tip: Clicking on a story to assign it will halt the clock; however, if you cancel the assignment, the story will disappear.
• If no stories currently are on the map, be sure to move around!
• If you have assigned all reporters stories, keep looking for stories that have more stars; these will score more points.

Becoming Profitable

• When you start the game, you will rely on working capital and advertisements to pay your monthly bills.
  • Keep an eye on where you are in the month - you will want to have enough funds to pay your bills at the end of the month.
  • Work on gaining enough savings to pay operations costs and keep a cash reserve before you purchase too many upgrades.
• If you make good decisions, you will become profitable.
  • Profitability can happen as early as Chapter 2 or Chapter 3.
  • Once you are profitable:
    • At the end of the month, you will be paid money, instead of working from your savings!
    • You will still want to keep a cash reserve, as events may come up that drain your bank account.

See also

• Software Development Pages
  • Release date
  • System requirements
• Additional Information
  • Advertisers
  • Awards
  • Reporters
  • Stories