The main goals of IndustryPlayer are to gain the highest market share and wealth possible. You can purchase up to 5 licences in which to accomplish this goal. Each licence represents a company that you own within your holding company. Each licence can upsize its capacity to increase its production output and sales. This allows you to extract the highest possible profits and market share by the end of each level.

There are 10 levels: Level 1 (The Tutorial Level) has 24 turns while Levels 2-10 have 120 turns each. Every level, except The Tutorial Level, costs 5 Credit Points (CP’s for short) to play. Bonus Credit Points can be earned at the end of each level by accomplishing either of IP’s two main goals: high wealth and/or large MS (market share).

1. Registration

Please make sure that you have downloaded and installed Industryplayer on your computer before registering! When starting Industryplayer for the first time, you will be asked to register a Holding name (such as ‘CEO’ or ‘Cyber Electronics Inc.’) and to also provide a valid email address. These will be checked against names which are currently in use by other players. Profane names maybe deleted or edited with or without consent. Once you have clicked the Register Button, your password will be sent to you.

2. Login

To begin your game, you must enter your registered holding name and password. If you forget your password, click on the "recover" link. This will generate an email which will be sent to your registered IP email address containing your password. Subsequent logins will auto enter the login information for you, if you use the same computer to login to IP.

3. Building a New Holding

After you login, a starting capital of $10,000,000 is provided for you. The first thing you will need to do is "Start New Company". There are 225 product licenses to choose from. Level 2 starts with $20,000,000 and 120 turns. The shop and the skip option are accessible via the pogram settings icon at the top of the console.

4. Investing and Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR)

By selecting a licence from this menu, you can see its purchase price, its initial production capacity, the number of competitors in the same market and the actual market demand for the product. Each licence is given a rating, which reflects the current market price for products sold in that market. Ratings range from 0.5 to 2.0 (or higher) and represent the minimum and maximum selling prices for goods. It is best to choose a licence with a rating greater than 1.3. Higher ratings mean better selling prices and greater profit opportunities.

Each licence also has a CSR rating. Business and society are interdependent. The wellbeing of one depends on the wellbeing on the other. Companies engaged in Corporate Social Responsibiility are reporting benefits to their reputation and their bottom line. Hence each holding has its CSR calculated based on the individual companies' CSR ratings, wages and quality settings. A good CSR rating can reduce your income tax payments by up to 50%. You can view your holding's CSR rating by hovering over the multicoloured strip in your console.

To create a company, select a licence that you are interested in and click on the Buy Button. You will be prompted to enter a company name. Your new company will appear on the right hand side of your screen. You may only have one licence for each product listed.

A web page provides additional information about the company and its competitors. You can open this page by clicking on the plus icon in the top right hand corner of the company's window. You can use the integrated Licence Analyser which provides detailed information on the profitability and market attractiveness of each licence.

5. The Finance Menu

It is possible to buy a licence at a price greater than your current available cash. Credit is automatically offered if required for an investment. However, credit is not available if you have a credit rating of less than B- except to meet current operating expenses. The credit limit is 65% of your total asset value. Interest is paid to your creditors at a dynamic interest rate relative to your company's current credit rating. In general, the higher your debt load %, the higher your interest rate will be. Having many licences in the same sector (synergy), upsizing, having a high profit to debt ratio, can all work to lower your interest rate even at a comparable debt load.

An automatic credit repayment of 2% of your outstanding debt is deducted every time a turn is played. This is called an automatic credit remedy which can also be found in your log file. Additional repayments may be made if, after buying supplies, you have sufficient funds to do so. These early repays are penalised at the one time fee of 4%. You may obtain credit manually, up to the maximum limit permitted by the bank, by simply clicking on the Financebutton. At this time, cash reserves earn no interest.

6. Levels & Turns

There are 10 levels: Level 1 is The Tutorial Level and has 24 turns and Levels 2-10 are the regular levels with 120 turns each. One turn, i.e. one production cycle, simulates 1 month of real time so 12 turns equals one year of real time. At the end of each year an annual financial report is shown. At the completion of each level, your holding is automatically advanced to the next level. The starting capital for each level increases in increments of $10,000,000 per level (Level 2 = $20,000,000, Level 3 = $30,000,000, etc.). Each level costs 5 Credit Points. Level scores are added together to give you an overall player score. After completing Level 10, your holding is automatically set back to Level 3 so you can try to beat your earlier scores or those of your competitors.

7. Licence Categories & Industrial Sectors

There are 3 categories of licences: raws, intermediates and consumers.

Raw commodities require no materials for production and are sold to other players or to The National Industry (if no player buyer) every 2 ticks (every 4 minutes).
Intermediate commodities require materials for production and are sold to other players or The National Industry (if no player buyer) every 2 ticks (every 4 minutes).
Consumer goods require materials for production and are sold to The Virtual Reality Consumer (VRC). The VRC is a virtual consumer that is sensitive to current production levels and it purchases consumer products from all players with stock every tick (every 2 minutes).

Licences are categorised into 16 Industry Sectors:
AEROSPACE, AGRICULTURE, APPLIANCES, AUTOMOTIVE, BEVERAGES, CHEMICALS & ENERGY, COSMETICS & HYGIENE, ELECTRONICS, FOOD I, FOOD II, MACHINERY, MEDICINAL, METAL, RECREATION, TEXTILES WOOD & PAPER,

If you operate licences within the same sector, your holding has synergy effects that can result in up to 10% lower staff costs. Trusts provide additional sector synergy which is discussed later.

8. Supply

To purchase materials for your current production run, click on the Supply menu. A list of required materials can be viewed from here. Click on Get Offers to see the current list of suppliers for the material you wish to purchase.

When a material is not available from other players, then The National Industry will supply your required material. You can use the Supply Agent, which automates the buying process for your convenience. If you own a raw or intermediate license in the same sector as the material you are purchasing, then you can benefit from reduced Get Offers fees. On materials you produce internally in your holding, you pay a 0% Get Offers fee. This is one of the reasons why it may be to your advantage to produce at least some of your own materials. Doing this also allows you better control over the materials costs within your holding.

9. Production

Clicking on this button produces a new menu. From here you can "Run Production" (make a turn) and view various information windows. Each company will produce a quantity of products in accordance with its individual capacity. If the stock of any product exceeds its capacity by a factor greater than 4, further production in that licence will be halted until the overstock is sold. Toggle tick boxes in each licence to control which companies will produce during each cycle. If your holding produces, but an individual company within it does not (because it is unticked), each company that does so will incur 60% staffing costs with no production or sales. Use this option only in extreme circumstances such as if you have one company that is losing money very quickly. It may even be better to liquidate this company rather than running with no production.

During a turn, expenses are deducted from your cash, your holding's warehouses are filled and the Supply buying menu is emptied. Your products are then ready to be sold. Raw and intermediate commodities are automatically offered for sale by the game in the Get Offers menu of other players. The Virtual Reality Consumer will buy all stocks of consumer goods at the current market price. The National Industry will buy all remaining stocks of intermediates and raws not sold to other players at the current market price.

Two automated features are now available, Auto Pricing and Auto Production. If you check "Auto Pricing" in the "Sales" window, it will automatically set prices for you at 95% of the current marketprice. There is a fee to your holding for activating or deactivating this feature. You will not experience any discounts for overpricing while using Auto Pricing and it is especially useful for beginners or while using the second feature called Auto Produce. Auto produce can be set for 1 turn or as many turns as you wish. It will buy materials for your holding and will produce the turn. In order to avoid possible discounts it is a good idea to use the Auto Pricing in conjunction with Auto Production. There is no fee to your holding for using Auto Production.

10. The Ticker and Competitor Log

The News Ticker and Competitor Log are available via the Produce button. The News Ticker shows the latest relevant news from your direct competitors. You can monitor your competitor's moves like upsizing, price adjustments or changes in credit rating. You will also be notified of global events such as when any company upsizes to 32x capacity. You will also see how all holdings are doing in profitability. The News Ticker is an invaluable tool in the hands of a skilled player.

There are three Expenses options: Wages, Insurance and Quality. Expense options allow players to vary their holding's risk exposure. Eliminating all risk can be very expensive or even unprofitable to do. The sliders may be adjusted prior to each production run. An experienced player will need to learn how to balance these costs to achieve maximum profit and/or market share and to effectively manage risk exposure.

A) Wages & Strikes

Setting bonus wages to 100% will minimize production losses due to low employee morale and it will maximize market share gain, however, it is not good for the bottom line and your profitability will suffer. Your wages level also affects your strike risk (click on ? in the wages window to see the risk) and your CSR rating. Generally, if your profitability is strong, you will want to increase bonuses to your workers and reduce it when profitability is weak. This feature also summarizes the overall synergy savings your holding is now enjoying. Trust membership can increase these savings.

Token Strikes
A company that experiences a token strike can lose anywhere from 20% to 50% of production during the turn in which it occurs. Staff costs will remain at 100% during the token strike.

Major Strikes
A company that experiences a major strike will have its production put on hold and no materials will be expended. Staff costs will drop to 60% of normal. This is the same as if you uncheck a company, putting that company’s production on hold for a turn. Both types of strikes will hurt your profitability and your market share gains.

B) Insurance & Disasters

Insurance may be purchased to protect against property loss due to disasters and it is necessary before credit can be obtained. You must purchase sufficient coverage to protect your creditors. If you have no creditors, your insurance requirement is 0%. As your debt % increases, so does your minimum insurance level. Damage settlements are first paid to your creditors and the remainder will be paid to you, if any. Basic insurance (Policy C) does not cover stock losses. Fires are the most common disaster, but do the least amount of damage to stocks. Tornados do a medium level of damage and earthquakes do the most damage. Luckily, fires are far more common than earthquakes. Two premium plans are available to cover stock losses. Policy B will cover stock losses at the 100% price level and Policy A will cover losses at your current sales price. Policy A has the highest premium of course. Carrying the maximum level of insurance at all times is the safest bet, but it is the least cost effective. It is recommended that new players always carry a high level of insurance. Trust membership can benefit you in reducing insurance premiums through a group membership plan which is automatic.

C) Quality & Production Losses

Here you can control how much of your budget you want to devote to quality loss protection due to manufacturing methods. A setting of 100% will reduce your production losses but is extremely expensive. A setting of 0% is cheap, but your profitability will suffer, in most cases, and your market share gain will be poor compared to your competitors. Quality settings also affect your holding's CSR rating. A good rule of thumb is that when the profitability of your companies is high, you will want to increase the quality of your products for increased market share gains and vice versa if your profitability is low. Trust members also give each other a boost in effective quality control methods.

12. Sales and Discounts

Your product's sale price may be set within a limited range from 50% to 200%. Usually you will want to set your sales price at the current market price denoted by the vertical blue bar. You can only sell above this price if you are the current market leader for that licence. ML’s (market leaders) can sell stock for a premium of up to 20% depending on the number of competitors in a licence. Attempting to set a price that is too high will turn your pricing line from green to red. This indicates that the NI and VRC will continue to purchase your stock, but at severe penalties. Be careful when setting your price close to the maximum as sudden downturns in the market can incur heavy sales penalties for your company. Also, commodities will not be offered to other players when the pricing line is red.

The other coloured circles represent the current sales prices of your other companies so that you can make easy comparison across your holding.

Adjustments to your price incur a cost of 1% of sales, so frequently changing your price is not cost effective. When you have the price you want, lock it in with the Set Price button.

If your price is set to more than 20% below the current market price, then you will see a warning about dumping and your stock will not be offered to other players, but will instead be sold to the NI at the price you have set. This mainly applies to suppliers of raws and intermediate commodities as dumping consumer goods has no current affect on the market other than making you lose profitability.

13. Ranking and Take Over

Rankings for the top 200 holdings in your level may be viewed in the Ranking Menu. For level scores on other levels and overall player scores, you will need to visit the main website at www.industryplayer.com .

To see company rankings you need to visit the Take Over menu. This shows your companies’ sales in each of your licenses. By clicking on any holding name or company name in either window, it will open a web page with more detailed information about that holding or company.

This is also the menu where you will attempt takeover bids on other companies, which is explained further on. To initiate a takeover bid, you will need to click on the credit rating of one of your competitors. Don’t worry about trying it, as you can cancel the action in the resulting popup window. This popup will explain to you the reasons that you can not perform the takeover, if any.

14. Upsize

Production output can be increased by upsizing companies. Upsizing a company reduces your staff costs per unit of production. You can see the current level of savings by hovering your mouse pointer over the picture for each capacity size. As you can see, the bigger your company becomes, the fewer savings you will receive per unit of production. Every twelve turns your base wages will increase due to wage inflation which can be viewed here as well. Upsizing is also necessary for capital growth. You can have many very profitable licences, but if your holding fails to grow in asset value, you will eventually fall behind your competitors. Clicking on The Upsize Button will bring up a popup for upsize confirmation.

Liquidation is used for two reasons: to allow for additional capital growth and to sell off a company that has a weak relative profitability to other investment opportunities. Liquidating a licence will decrease your wealth, so consider carefully before doing so. It is a good idea to have a strong credit position before conducting a company liquidation.

In Level 2, you will be paid 90% of the value of any licence that you liquidate. This declines to 85% in Level 3, 80% in Level 4 and on down to 50% for Level 10. Your credit limit and available budget will also be reduced. Liquidation is not permitted without the required available budget or when you have stock remaining to sell in that licence. Your creditors are always paid first from the sale of a holding asset so your debt will decline, but your cash will remain unchanged unless the value of the asset is greater than your current debt.

15. The Economy

Population & Demand

The demand for commodities and goods will increase with population growth. For consumer goods, The VRC (Virtual Reality Consumer) will buy based on population size which grows or shrinks with current production capacities. Currently, this is a fixed amount, as the wants of the virtual population are constant, so only units of population are considered, not the want per unit of population. This can best be described as a supply side model that determines the demand side.

The National Industry

The National Industry (NI) also buys but under a different methodology. Every licence has a formula for how much it needs of all other commodities. This average demand is then projected to the whole market which is much more flexible than the old model which required exact amounts of every input. Players also buy from players and so they compete with the NI for materials in a sense. The NI’s sole purpose is market fluidity, to keep stocks moving through the supply chain in a desirable fashion. The NI only buys and sells commodities.

Taxes & Interest Rates

From time to time the base tax and interest rates will be adjusted by the System. Demand for certain licences and sectors may also be adjusted to maintain a balanced economy. Changes are shown in the ticker and the chat window. The base interest rate is shown in the mini ticker. This is the rate payable at an AAA rating and affects all other interest rates. The global tax rate is also shown in the mini ticker. You can view the amount of tax you pay and the rebate you recive due to CSR in your logfile.

16. Inactivity / 12 days to finish Level

As soon as you buy your first licence your level begins and you have 12 days to complete it. If you do not complete your level by the end of 12 days your level will be reset. This will cost one of your free resets if you have any remaining or 5CPs. If you have played more than 12 turns your score will also be taken and added to scoreboards. Your level does not restart until you buy a licence. Level 1 has shorter time restrictions as it is a much shorter level. After turn 100 you will only have 24 hours to complete your level. Therefore you should not take turn 100 until you are sure you are in a position to finish your level quickly.

17. Earn up to 20 Credit Points with the Tell-A-Friend Function

You can earn up to 20 credit points by inviting your friends and colleagues to join IndustryPlayer today! For each successful referral, you earn 2 credit points. When a referral fails to create a new holding or the referred player plays on the same computer as you, then no credit points will be earned. Simply click on the Tell-A-Friend button in the Program Settings Menu and follow the instructions in the dialogue box. Up to ten successful referrals can be earned for a total of 20 bonus credits.

18. Scoring at the Completion of a Level

On completing turn 120 (or turn 24 in Level 1 in which high scores are not kept), your score is calculated and the result is added to your level's high score table. There is a separate score table for each level. At the end of each level, your holding is advanced to the next level with an increased amount of starting capital. At the end of Level 10, the holding is set back to Level 3 so you can try to beat your (or other’s) previous high scores. All companies are deleted at the end of each level.

Bonus Credit Points are awarded to you based on the total market share of all of your companies added together and by your holdings' ranking in the high score table for your level. In no case, can your total bonus credit points exceed 5 per level. You can see the amount of your current bonus points during a level by looking at the gold coins in the main window which can be from 0 to 5. It is unusual for players not to be able to earn at least 1 CP as >50% MS is easy to obtain. No bonus credit points are awarded in level 1.

Market Share Bonus
Cumulative MS > 450% -> 5 CP
Cumulative MS > 350% -> 4 CP
Cumulative MS > 250% -> 3 CP
Cumulative MS > 150% -> 2 CP
Cumulative MS > 50% -> 1 CP

Ranking Bonus
Rank 1 -> 5 CP
Rank 2 -> 4 CP
Rank 3 -> 3 CP
Rank 4 -> 2 CP
Rank 5 -> 1 CP

19. Industryplayer Forum

Access to the IP forum community is via the people icon at the top of the game console. To login, use your existing user ID (holding name) and password. These may be changed in the control panel, together with other settings, which can be viewed from here. In the forums, you can ask questions about the game, report problems, ask for a mentor or even have a chat in The Bloggers’ Bar. A wealth of game related information can be found here!

21. Holding Resets

Holdings can be reset back to the beginning of the current level at anytime by using the Reset button at the top of the game console. Each holding has a limit of 3 free resets which can be used at any time and in any level after level 1. Further resets will cost you 3 credit points each.

21. Special Features

The Licence Analyser provides details on profitability, historical sales, current license ratings, license maturity, ROE (Return on Equity) and other stats. Various filters and sorters also provide easy access to key information making it possible to plan for your holding with a higher degree of success and with greater ease. Once you’ve used the analyser, you will wonder how you ever played without it!

Business Graphs, which progressively chart your holding's Sales, Costs, EBIT, Cash Flow, Equity, Debt Ratio, Profit Margin, Ranking and more. Being able to trend cash flow and credit repayments is very useful to a skilled player. The Business Graphs allow you to monitor and control all of your business activities from a professional perspective. These graphs show you your overall holdings’ performance as well as charts and graphs for each individual company within your holding!

The Supply Agent fully automates the buying process for your holding and selects the best offers for you. It buys all necessary materials in a few seconds. The SA is very useful if you have many materials to buy every turn.

The Game Chat window allows you to talk to your colleagues and opponents during the game! Trust members have the option of private chat for trust members only so they can plan their moves in secrecy. Many players use chat to discuss strategies, the game, or any topic that comes to mind. We do ask that public chat discussions be kept for a general audience (G-rated) and that adult topics be discussed in private using the instant messaging function or via MSN, YIM, IRC, etc. You can send an instant message by clicking on names in the ticker window or by clicking on green lights by names in the other game windows (trust, ranking etc). You can also type /msg holdingname msg in the chat window. Players can block messages from specific players and can also call up a list of available moderators using the icons at the bottom of the chat window. IndustryPlayer appeals to players of all ages and backgrounds so we try to respect that and hope you do as well! We have players from virtually every corner of the globe, so what might not seem offensive in your culture, may be in someone else’s. Thanks.

22. Trusts

A Trust is a collection of individual holdings. IndustryPlayer offers groups of players (such as coworkers, friends, classmates, clubs and even random strangers) the opportunity to join forces in a Trust (in many games this is called a Clan). Holdings in trusts can sector specialize to reduce production costs (wages, insurance and quality) and to obtain material supply discounts (up to 20% which is optional) from each other. Seting trust discounts below 20% will reduce the amount of trust synergy you receive. Also, trust members give each other preferential buying when it comes to materials purchasing. Strategic planning between trust members provides considerable advantages to seasoned and novice players alike.

Joining a Trust

To join a Trust requires the holding to be Level 2 or higher.

• Joining a trust costs 1 CP and membership ends when you finish or reset your level)
• Click on the Trust Options button (handshake) on the lower part of your game console and see the list of the available trusts
• Select one and click Join Trust to apply for a membership
• The Trust Administrator will respond advising acceptance or rejection of your application to join. Please be patient when waiting for approval. If, in a day or two, you don’t get a response or get rejected, try applying to another trust. Your 1 CP will be refunded automatically to apply to your next trust application.

Founding a Trust

At Level 5, players have the option to create their own trust. Creating a trust costs 15 CP’s and the trust is valid for 3 months. For a trust to continue after the first 3 months, it must be re-established every month thereafter, which costs 5 CP’s.

To found a new trust, click on Found Trust in The Trust Menu. Enter a name for your trust and a signature statement or motto for your trust. You can also upload a picture or logo for your Trust (*.gif or *.jpg, max dimensions are 80x80 pixels, max size is 25KB). Trust creators, also known as Trust admins, may accept or reject holding applications for membership to their Trust. Admins can now auto accept new members while they are away!

Advantages of Trust Membership

• Trust members have a private chat option, where the chat can be viewed by members of that trust only
• A direct instant message feature is available between fellow trust members
• A fast switch option allows trust members to move quickly between their holdings and to open and close each one in one click, without entering login details every time
• All trust members' holdings will, by default, be given first priority to purchase available materials from fellow trust members' stocks and receive a discount, if one is offered
• Trust member holdings stocking raw or intermediate materials can adjust their discount granted to other members of the same trust from 0% and 20%. Offering less than 20% trust discount reduces your Trust Synergy.
• Trust members also receive discounted insurance and quality costs based on trust synergy.
• Each holding gains the benefit of trust synergy savings when any other holding(s) in their trust has licences in the same sector. Collaborative Trust synergising of products can provide extra staff discounts of up to 10%, in addition to any other synergy savings a holding has created for itself.

Have a look at the actual Trusts Highscore List

23. Takeovers

Company takeovers offer significant opportunity to increase market share and for capital growth without depressing sales prices. This menu will show you all of the competitor companies in the same licence as you. When a competitor company is available for a takeover bid, its credit rating will be highlighted in red. Before a takeover bid is permitted, the following prerequisites apply:

• Your company can only take over a rival company whose credit rating is worse than A- such as BBB, B- or CC. Also your credit rating must be equal to or higher than the target's credit rating
• Your company cannot make a takeover bid if your holding has a credit rating of less than B- or if you are in Level 1
• A takeover bid is only possible when both companies are in the same licence and the same size such as both are 4x water. The company must be larger than 1x and smaller than 32x. The target holding must have 2 or more companies in it. The target has to be in Levels 2-10. Finally, you must have the required market share (MS). This requirement shrinks with the number of competitors in a licence.
• When a company is eligible for takeover its rating will be highlighted in red. Click on the rating to initiate a takeover bid.
• If a takeover bid is successful, the raiding company's licence will be upsized and paid as normal plus the takeover fee whether successful or not. The victim will have his company liquidated and will receive the same amount they would have if they had liquidated it themselves. The victim's market share will also be transferred to the raiding company. The victim will enter the 10 turn takeover protection mode and their rating will be highlighted in blue.
• The cost of a takeover can vary widely. Conditions that make takeovers cheaper are a large number of competitors in a license, a licence that has a low rating (low market price), and a target holding with a large number of companies within it. To get an estimate, click on the target's credit rating in TheTake Over Menu. If you decide it is too expensive, you can click on the Cancel button.
• You can see current takeover attempts when the ticker is on. Targets will also receive email warnings that someone is targeting a company within their holding.
• The probability of success of any takeover bid depends on the difference in credit ratings between attacker and victim.
• After an unsuccessful takeover bid holdings enter 1 turn of protected mode.
• After turn 100 all holdings are eligible for takeovers, even at A ratings. The MS required for taking over a holding after turn 100 is halved. No protection is offered after an unsuccessful bid, and only 2 turns protection after a successful bid.
• Takeover probabilities are shown below:

When you register with IndustryPlayer for the first time, you will receive bonus Credit Points, which enable you to play Level 1 at no cost. Various actions, like signing up for higher levels and holding resets require credit points. Up to 5 bonus credit points can be won at the end of each level. To buy credit points via secure PayPal or Plimus payments simply click the Buy Credit Points button in the Options Menu.

Industryplayer Fees

When buying credit points for any holding, the PayPal or Plimus email address must be the same email address that you used for that holding when it was registered. If you use a different email address, you need to state your holding name in the notes field of the PayPal or Plimus form. If you do not do this, it can create delays in receiving your CP's. It is very important to keep the original verification email you received from IndustryPlayer when you registered each Holding, so that you know which email address was submitted for each Holding.

Additional Resources