Kicktrade is a multiplayer Android game where the players buy and sell virtual stock of football teams. The teams are those participating in a actual events like the Euro Cup 2012 or a country’s league. While those competitions take place in reality, it is your decision which teams to buy (or sell) in the game. Your choices will depend on how you evaluate their chances to rank in the competition. Watch the matches, read the news, listen to the gossip. Every bit of information could be vital to make the best investment choice. Be the first to know a trend and become the best trader of them all!

The game is in a beta test phase right now and you are welcome to participate in trading during the Euro Cup 2012 for free.

During this beta, the following things may occur:

  • Server goes down for maintenance unexpectedly and for unknown period of time (you will receive information on twitter @kicktradegame)
  • Database gets changed or in worst cases reset (again, you will find the information on twitter)
  • Your client needs to be updated regularly (an update button appears on start)
  • Some bugs or exploits might appear and are not fixed for a few days
  • Game rules might be changed (for example decrease in locking time, percentage of price adjustment etc)

Installation and first steps

Minimum Requirement: Android 2.1. with touch screen (hardware keyboard not yet supported in all areas)

No need to register. Just download and install to start buying and selling stock.

Go to Settings / Security and tick the “Unknown sources” box to be able to install the APK until you get it from Google Play market place.

You can enter a nickname in the preferences menu of the app, if you like to show yourself and your skills to others by a name. Otherwise you will be displayed as “Anonymous” to other players. If the nickname does not appear to be changing on the list, just enter another one and then enter the desired nickname again, it’s a bug.

If you can’t install an upgrade (new APK file over the old installation) for any reason, just de-install the old one manually before.

Game Rules

You get 2.000.000 Credits (Cr.) when you start your game. With this money you go to the market, choose one team and buy (or later sell) their stock. You can repeat this with several teams simultaneously, as long as you have Credits or stock of that team. However, you can only buy or sell of the same team once every 4 hours. Whenever other players have also made trades of the same stock, the time is decreased.

The goal of the game is to make the most money at the end of a competition. Additionally to the money you make by trading, you will also get the money from the bank for the shares that you still own at the end of the season. The bank automatically buys them back according to their rank in the competition:

1st place: 1.800 Cr. for each share
2nd place: 1.500 Cr. for each share
3rd and 4th place: 1.200 Cr. for each share
5th to 8th place: 900 Cr. for each share
9th to 16th place: 600 Cr. for each share

(the rates might still be adjusted during the course of the game because we have to find out which is a reasonable goal)

There is no real money to be won by playing this game. Being among the best traders of them all should be motivation enough for now.

Beta Phase Bonus

The 10 players with the most money and most support (bug reports) in the end will get the app for free when it goes commercial, so make sure you go to the preferences and enter your email to be reachable after the competition ends.

We need testers, so spread the word and invite your friends (for example on facebook or twitter) to visit www.kicktrade.de and get the APK now!

Bugs, Suggestions and FAQs

Until the final website (which will include a proper bug ticket system) is online, you are encouraged to post bugs and suggestions in the comments section below. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them here as well.

News

Until kicktrade goes public on its own website, you will find all news posted on this blog with the tag ‘kicktrade’ or use this link. It is the same page you reach from inside the app when you click on ‘news’. Give www.kicktrade.de to your friends and colleagues!

Account Reset

Yes, there might be reasons why you want to start all over. This is not possible at the moment, so try not to loose all your money!

Permissions and Privacy

The server will use your phone’s IMEI as single sign on identification. This will prevent players from creating multiple accounts and no further ID or registration is necessary. If you want you can optionally provide a nickname to be displayed in the ranking for other players to see. If you want any changes made to your account, like a reset or moving to a phone with a different IMEI, you have to provide your email address in the preferences menu.

No further data will be gathered or stored. None of the data will ever be released to third parties.

The app requires 3 permissions to be granted on install. Here they are with an explanation why:

  1. INTERNET : obviously to connect to the game server to fetch game data and send your actions.
  2. WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE : to store cache data on your SD card. For example the icons of the teams in the market. All data can be wiped in the preference menu.
  3. READ_PHONE_STATE : to read the IMEI of your phone for authentication with the game server. No other information will be taken from your phone.

There will be the option to delete your account from the server completely within the app’s preference menu soon.